Reporter: VP Harris was seen at a bakery in Chicago, is she still working on immigration?
Psaki: ‘The VP was visiting Chicago to talk about COVID … while she was there, like many Americans, she got a snack. I think she’s allowed to do that.’ pic.twitter.com/x0WD6WPFVf
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 8, 2021
In lesser, local news… FYWP decided to lock me out, just as I was finishing the overnight COVID-19 update. WaterGirl was kind enough to post it for me, but that’s why it didn’t show up when you expected it.
Hopefully, it’ll be good for a while now!
NPR host to Marty Walsh just now: “It’s not obvious why a Labor Secretary would be pitching an infrastructure bill.”
I swear that really just happened.
— phillip anderson (@phillipanderson) April 7, 2021
It's wild to watch people who just spent like a year complaining that they can't go to work because they need to watch their kids and schools aren't open decide that taking care of kids is now not vital economic infrastructure. https://t.co/i7nWesdcUM
— Leonid Baezhnev ?? (@rev_avocado) April 7, 2021
I feel like that child and elderly care benefits poll in the 70s, so having very savvy pundits debate it is good messaging actually. https://t.co/xuW93TGQQj
— Alex Hazanov. (@alexhazanov) April 7, 2021
NEW: $5 billion in stimulus funds tabbed for reducing homelessness. President Biden wants to get 130,000 people off the street over the next 12 to 18 months. https://t.co/9ffJlGbqfg
— Tracy Jan (@TracyJan) April 8, 2021
“‘This is just not the reality of how the overwhelming majority of Ohioans get around,’ Rep. Troy Balderson R-Zanesville told The Dispatch.”
No, it’s not, because WE DON’T HAVE THE OPTION. https://t.co/LFS0Mx5tAY
— Bear Braumoeller (@Prof_BearB) April 9, 2021
Kathleen
Good Morning. So Snackgate is now a thing.
Kathleen
Good Morning
So Snackgate is now a thing.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Immanentize
@Kathleen:
You obviously like to double down on snacks!
Spanky
“Reporter”
“NPR host”
OK, tweeters and bloggers, NAME NAMES. I wouldn’t mind if Ms. Psaki called the reporters BY NAME every time, or better yet had them introduce themselves for each question, so they’re attributed in every video of their stupidity.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: right there with you, brother!
Two of the burners on my gas range top quit. I’ve fixed it before, but this is some friggin electric brain problem. Money will be burnt to replace it….
Ken
In Illinois, there’s discussion of the homelessness issue. The pandemic has demonstrated what many homeless advocates have been saying for years — it is actually cheaper to put people up in hotel rooms than to have them living on the street. The problem is that the costs for the latter aren’t a single line item in a state budget; they’re in the form of more 911 calls for police or ambulance, hospital emergency room visits, and so on.
Barbara
Because infrastructure builds itself with no labor involved, except the architect. Just like in Minecraft.
BruceFromOhio
Mid-state neanderthal. These regrettably outnumber everything else, so he’s not wrong.
Reliable passenger rail transit running from Cincinnati to Columbus to Cleveland? Passenger service from Cleveland to Chicago that doesn’t require a 3:30am embark? I can think of a whole lot of localvores, breweries and wineries that might really dig this. Make room for a bicycle car and the tourism would be even more fun. The Europeans have shown how it works.
NotMax
History mystery.
Did she or didn’t she? Someone who was present at the time related the incident differently than the accepted wisdom.
Nicole
As someone said earlier, SNL is really missing an opportunity for a recurring sketch of Psaki fielding dumb questions from lazy reporters. Much funnier than “Biden is senile!”
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Yep. I made a whole career of watching walls assemble and then stand themselves up, roadways pour themselves, etc etc etc..
leeleeFL
I am beginning to think Many Very Important People are dumber than dog poop!
Also, too, I am working hard at lowering my Blood Pressure. This kind of thing is counter-productive!
Seriously, dumber than dog poop!
Immanentize
@BruceFromOhio: In Texas, there have been long held plans for a “triangle” fast train service — Austin to Houston to Dallas to Austin and vice versa.
You know who kills that plan? Yes, gas producers (although Texas gas is low) and the local airlines. First Conquest (now defunct) and Southwest (going strong).
I always will take the train to NYC from Boston rather than a plane if it can be avoided. Although planes get there faster, add in the airport travel to and from plus the security laden wait and the train is quicker. And, more room!
Immanentize
@Barbara: At least Mahty pointed out that it is a “jobs” bill, not just an infrastructure bill. “It’s called the American Jobs Act.”
Republican spinmeisters win another round.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
The old invisible hand of the marketplace!
germy
The Brown Sisters Morph: 40 years in 4 minutes
Kathleen
@Immanentize: I’m def all about doubling down on snacks but duplicate posts had more to do with Geezer posting on my phone. My daughter and I have matching t shirts that say “Snacks” which we are wearing on my Twitter avi.
MattF
The state of Tennessee has legislators who don’t think the First Amendment means what it says. And (via Wonkette) they are aimin’ to remedy that situation.
NotMax
@Kathleen
Not to be unrefined about it but depending on the placement of the word that message could be seen by some as, um, titillating.
;)
germy
Alex
Can’t imagine why Ohioans might not choose Amtrak currently… When I lived in Ohio about 20 years ago, I would take the train to Chicago to get to and from college. The station in our town was a limestone Romanesque building, but the roof had collapsed decades ago so the train would just pick you up or drop you off at the side of the tracks. They had a little stepstool to help. The train was usually 4-6 hours late because of having to share track with freight trains. At the other end in Chicago, there was a nice station, but it closed at midnight. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the trains ever arrived on time, but in practice it meant you were arriving in the middle of the night to stand on the street with your luggage and try to hail a cab, no amenities, no place to wait for a pickup. But people still took the train– and lots more would if you fixed the stations and rail traffic prioritization!
Cameron
“Yes, she stopped in at the bakery to sample the children they had cooking in the basement. And she would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you press morons and that pesky dog!!”
Cameron
@MattF: Down here in Florida, Gov. DeCovid is hot to crack down on that commie freedom-of-assembly thing.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken:
It reminds me… I was just reading a National Geographic article about how air pollution is probably almost as big a killer as COVID-19, even this year–but we don’t see it because it’s scattered across a dozen or more different causes of death: cancer, heart disease, pulmonary diseases like COPD, even Parkinson’s and maybe Alzheimer’s; it exacerbates COVID-19 too so it’s probably part of the death toll there. If the lead-crime hypothesis is true it’s probably even a large contributor to homicide. And the damage is very much greater to the poor and to minorities. (Imagine how much worse it was back in the 70s and 80s when air pollution in the US was far worse than today. Imagine the toll today in places like China and India.)
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly:
And yet IKEA furniture still can’t assemble its damn self!
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: It’s one stunt after another with that clown. I think yesterday he announced he’s suing the CDC over shutting cruises down because of the pandemic.
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato: IKEA uses underpaid gnomes in their factories and nasty little buggers they are too.
germy
“American Exceptionalism”
bbleh
@BruceFromOhio: No no, it’s actually really smart, see, cuz, first, when there’s no train service there, it can’t be taken away from you, and second, it saves money! So you’re safe and we can cut taxes! (Okay, for corporations, but it’s sorta the same, because jobs and stuff.)
Kathleen
@Immanentize: I would so take train if it were convenient. I hope we get good train service. Trains are in my DNA (grandfather and grandmother worked for railroad in Wyoming and my grandpa sas assigned to railroad in Europe in WW II.)
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
The 40s, 50s and 60s were no great shakes either. 35 vintage photos reveal what Los Angeles looked like before the US regulated pollution.
While on the subject, Los Angeles began 2020 with a clean-air streak but ended with its worst smog in decades.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Spanky:
“OK, that really stupid question about trivialities came from reporter X from news outlet Y. I will now answer the question, but will not call on reporter X for the next 60 days because this is a waste of time for everyone in the room. Please take note of this action. Now, the answer to the stupid question is…..”
Kathleen
@NotMax: Why Mr. Notmax you do go on with your gutter self (fans self, clutches pearls etc)
Feathers
@Immanentize: Plus the carbon cost of rail averages around 80% less than flying. There needs to be more messaging that we no longer have the luxury of prioritizing consumer choice over carbon realities.
@Matt McIrvin: The accounting/budgeting problems are real. Saw complaints on Twitter about Pence’s huge book advance in the face of severely underpaid junior employees in publishing. The issue is that those salaries are overhead, which must be cut to the bone, while advances are not, so hookers and blow for everyone! (Note: I am glad to see the sex workers making their coin, it’s just that the editors need a fair salary, taking into account the cost of city living.)
germy
TaMara (HFG)
How Psaki refrains from hitting those idiots with a dead, wet fish, I’ll never understand.
SFAW
@Cameron:
DeCovid? I thought it was DeathSantis.
SFAW
@NotMax:
How would we discern that from your usual persona? [I almost writ “normal persona,” but didn’t, for obvious reasons.]
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: IIRC, he’s the same guy who wouldn’t let cruise ships with ‘foreigners’ dock in Florida.
SFAW
@TaMara (HFG):
I wonder if she daydreams of having Keegan-Michael Key show up with a baseball bat.
Barbara
@germy: All those multiple acre parking lots in various sunbelt states are just begging to get harnessed for solar. In some states, many big box retailers have installed solar panels on their roof.
NotMax
@SFAW
DeSantis
DeJoy
DeVos
.
I’m sensing a pattern.
//
rp
Why would we build these so-called high-ways? Only a handful of people in the state of Ohio own cars, so that’s not the reality of how people in this state get around.
NotMax
@SFAW
Flattery will get you … everywhere.
:)
mrmoshpotato
@TaMara (HFG): The fish must be rotten too. These assclowns don’t deserve to be slapped with fresh fish.
NotMax
@rp
Shoes for Industry!
:)
Benw
I remember when these assholes lost their shit when Michelle Obama got a burger and shake.
I wonder what Michelle and Kamala have in common that makes certain people want to police what they eat…
NotMax
@Barbara
Costco here has installed freestanding solar panel canopies over about 50% of their humongous parking lot. Added bonus: protection from rain when unloading one’s cart.
Ken
@NotMax: Maybe they’re D. Santis, etc. with the “D” for Darth?
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: IKEA also, unfortunately, is known for purchasing illegally harvested timber in Ukraine and Romania, contributing to ecological ruin in some areas of the Carpathians.
Low Key Swagger
@Benw: Three vowels in their names? Must be it.
Ken
@rp: And there is no consideration for the many manure-shovelers, harness-makers, and blacksmiths who will be put out of work.
J R in WV
@Barbara:
In Southern AZ even WallyWorld has shade for customers to park in, under the Solar Array…
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
DeVil (from 101 Dalmations)
NotMax
BTW, dropped it in the COVID thread but it’s possibly a harbinger of Big News to come.
NotMax
@Ken
For just $499 (plus shipping and handling, E-Z payment plan available), you’ll learn the secret of getting in early on buggy whip futures,
//
Benw
@Low Key Swagger: nailed it!
Leto
Palate cleanser: Two good boys figure out the real purpose of an office chair.
NotMax
@Leto
And here I thought the real purpose of an office chair is to segregate hair in the casters.
//
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: That’s an admirable scientific achievement, but I sure hope we don’t end up having to do universal boosters or, dog forbid, annual COVID vaccinations. We’ve had enough trouble getting people to comply when the shots are FREE and as convenient as possible and when the disruptions, illness and deaths associated with a pandemic are fresh in everyone’s mind.
I shudder to think of how low the compliance rate would be for a booster shot — or worse, an annual shot — you have to pay for and receive at a doctor’s office / medical facility.
leeleeFL
@Betty Cracker: Oh, Betty, you are so cynical! Why didn’t I think of that?!
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: With just a click of the mouse!
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Okay, okay, perhaps the The Jetsons skimmed over a few minor details.
//
geg6
@Kathleen:
When I was a kid, there used to be train service from my western suburb of Pittsburgh into the city. My mom used to take me and my little sister into the city every late November/early December for Christmas shopping, to see the window displays in the big department stores, have a nice lunch and sit on Santa’s lap at Kaufmann’s (a now defunct but used-to-be fantastic-until-Macy’s-bought-them-out local department store — it is the Kaufmanns that contracted Frank Lloyd Wright to build his masterpiece, Fallingwater, in a county a bit south of here). I would go into the city a LOT more if we still had that train service.
Villago Delenda Est
The White House Press Corpse needs to be shot into the Sun, and replaced with actual reporters. Teens who write high school newspapers could do better.
geg6
@NotMax:
Ever seen photos of Pittsburgh before clean air activism changed it? You literally couldn’t see a block away and street lights sometimes were on all day.
https://www.treehugger.com/think-air-quality-doesnt-matter-look-at-pittsburgh-in-the-s-4862509
NotMax
@geg6
Mom used to drag me into Manhattan every friggin’ year to gawk at the Xmas windows along Fifth Avenue. Found the entire exercise an incredible bore.
Cameron
Pandemic is still running wild here in Florida, so imagine how thrilled I was when a friend put this up on FB: “Highest Monthly Passenger Numbers Recorded in the History of the Airport
For the month of March, passenger traffic at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) soared to 277,590 passengers, breaking the all-time record of 255,247 passengers for a single month at the airport.
Passenger numbers increased 74% over the previous month of February. Compared to March 2020, passenger traffic was 81% higher than the 2020 level of 153,246.
With the recent addition of Southwest Airlines, and expanded service on our nine other carriers, travelers now have a multitude of choices when making their travel plans.
In March 2018, SRQ had 6 airlines serving 12 nonstop destinations. For March 2021, SRQ had 10 airlines serving 45 nonstop destinations. This rapid growth has required the airport to expand the screening checkpoint, add additional parking, and install additional jet fuel storage.”
Elizabelle
Wow.
President Biden will create a commission to study whether to expand the Supreme Court, a goal of progressive Democrats.
Friday, April 9, 2021 11:08 AM EST
President Biden on Friday will order a 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign-year promise to establish a bipartisan commission to examine the potentially explosive subjects of expanding the court or setting term limits for justices, White House officials said.
Kathleen
@geg6: Cincy/Hamilton County had light rail service on the ballot at least twice but concerns about “those people” riding it nixed it. I live in the city but would enjoy taking train to Dayton or Columbus.
Kathleen
@geg6: I’d love to visit Pittsburgh. It sounds really cool.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
I’m not sure about it being such a problem. Most of the people I know get annual flu shots, which are often free from employers, fully covered by insurance or very low cost at pharmacies. What would make a COVID shot every year more of a problem than a flu shot?
NotMax
@geg6
The title of the movie escapes me right now, but the memory of a scene of a visitor to the palatial home of a steel magnate in Pittsburgh, marveling at the whiteness of the lacy curtains, remains. Paraphrased:
“I always heard the air was dirty. How do you keep the curtains so pristine?’
(House servant, stage whisper): “She has us change them three times a week.”
gvg
@Cameron: Well on the good news front, the University of Florida has landed enough vaccine to try to do 20,000 people a week at the football stadium for the next several weeks. they say they are trying to get as many students vaccinated as possible before they go home for the summer. They set up the spring semester with no spring break this year to reduce spread. I think most of the other state colleges did the same. It’s spring breakers from other places that are the problem. Vaccination is for everyone in the county, not just affiliated with the school. Signup has been good too.
rikyrah
So happy to see you, AL.
I was mad at the idiocy of the question.
Here is a small business, owned by a Black woman, that was still operating and thriving during the pandemic. This should be celebrated. It’s in the heart of a Black neighborhood, and has been serving the community for at least 15 years.
I love the place.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kathleen: I’ve visited Pittsburgh, and I can’t imagine how people can navigate it in a snowstorm. It’s all hills!
Another Scott
We’re supposed to have patchy fog between 1-3 PM today here in NoVA.
Afternoon fog??! That’s nuts. The weather is continuing to be strange.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
RSA
@Spanky:
Reporter: Steven Nelson, New York Post
NRP host: Ari Shapiro
NotMax
@gvg
And when does the FL legislature set up the House UnFloridian Activities Committee?
/half snark
Another Scott
@NotMax: Next you’ll tell me that George Washington didn’t chop down a cherry tree!!1
Heh. :-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
Now, now…the downtown area is not hilly. Just everything surrounding and leading into it is. ;-)
catclub
@Immanentize:
I learned that getting gas stoves to replace electric ones was a big advertising success back in the day.
Now gas ranges are noted for the harmful combustion byproducts that end up in the home.
There is no utility gas available on my street. I think this is a byproduct of the battle between electric utilities and gas utilities.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Relatedly, I remember the black streak down the center of interstate lanes when I was a kid. From oil “draft tubes” on cars and trucks before PCV valves were invented and mandated.
(Engine piston rings leak slightly, pressurizing the crankcase. In olden days, they relieved that pressure by sticking a tube in the engine that was vented under the car, spewing oil droplets and other stuff all over the road, the bottom of the car, air near the roads, etc.)
It was the first automobile pollution control device and made an obvious difference.
Cheers,
Scott.
HinTN
@MattF:
Nice write-up. Of course the Senatorial sponsor is our very own (self proclaimed) pistol packing mama, Janice Bowling. It’s my understanding that she belongs to the “Jesus rode a dinosaur” system of belief, but I could be misinformed.
NotMax
@Immanentize
One of those no pilot light jobbies? No guarantees but removing the burner rings, letting them soak overnight in white vinegar and then rinsing and drying, plus lightly swabbing around the igniter with a vinegar-infused Q-tip, brought Mom’s back to life.
(Get the impression the reason she’s so insistent on me visiting is to complete the to-do lists.) ;)
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: He campaigned on this.
Reuters (from October):
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: I know.
But the Fuck the Fucking NY Times portraying it as the progressives’ goal might lead some to think “Democrats in Disarray” and how senile old Joe is getting forced to something, yet again. Fuck them.
(Albeit, they put up some good stuff. As long as it’s not US politics.)
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: Yeah, your excerpt says he campaigned on it. I too was annoyed by the headline, but it’s typical from FTFNYT and why I didn’t click over to read it. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@Villago Delenda Est: I live in Cincy which is also famous for its Hills. I live on top of a hill which offers no great alternatives for navigating in bad weather so I can relate!
Villago Delenda Est
@Kathleen: It is said that San Francisco could not exist in a climate with frequent snowstorms. Which isn’t true, as Seattle somehow manages to amuse us to death with idiots attempting to negotiate Queen Anne Hill in snowstorms.
LongHairedWeirdo
I saw a video on YouTube once, where a cab driver tells the comedian that they should – I don’t remember, kill all gay men, or something. The comedian asks why and the driver seems to be puzzled – no one had reacted *this* way to the conversational gambit before, and finally comes up with “well, it’s immoral isn’t it?”
And the comedian recalls a quite lovely explanation of how so much of our society has some roots in ancient Greece, and back then, the best, most noble, most ‘moral’ if you will, loving (or sexual) relationship was between two men[1] – so senses of what’s moral changes.
I loved the comedian for this: he swore the driver said this, which hit me like “honestly, I would never lie about a fellow human being in such a ghastly manner!”. The response?
“Well, you can prove *anything* with facts, can’t you?”
[1] That sounds true, though I can’t verify it from personal knowledge. Still, it tickled me, it seemed like a good thing, for them to suss this out, because (I assume) there were a lot of power imbalances, and I bet that only two independent men could truly consent to loving (or having sex with) one another, because no other pairing could be appropriately consensual. And, of course, they weren’t going to celebrate woman-on-woman action, or any pairing between two peers, though probably only because the internet and porn videos hadn’t been invented yet.