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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Step Along the Road to Serfdom

Another Step Along the Road to Serfdom

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: 

I’m “fully vaccinated” today so I went into the oppressor’s app (a.k.a. the New York Excelsior Pass Wallet) and downloaded my ball and chain. Here it is. It had nothing to do with my paper vaccine record — Big Brother knows when I was vaccinated, so he simply asked my name and address, when I got my last shot, in which county, and what brand it was. If I click on the pass, a QR code is displayed that can be scanned by any jackbooted thug who requests my papers.

There was some complaining in the last post that I made on this topic, centering around the need for a cell phone. Well, you can get it and print it out at home on the computer that you’re presumably using to read this blog. You could even go to a library and I’ll bet the librarian would help you print it out. For the events for which this pass will be used (football games, big concerts, etc.), attendees will already have a cell phone since most of those places sell only electronic tickets.

The important thing, as far as I’m concerned, is that a spiteful anti-vaxxing MAGA hat who wants to see a Bills game can’t fake this.

I interact with people from different parts of the world as part of my job (this week: Australia, Guatemala, Mexico, India). As much as I’m happy to be vaccinated, I’m just god damned embarrassed at the situation here. We’re begging people to get vaccinated, while those countries’ vaccination efforts are just getting started. In their eyes, I’m sure we look like the cliché ugly, spoiled babies that many of us are.

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  5. 5.

    Benw

    I call the jackbooted thug who scans my ticket when I take the train into the city “the conductor.”

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    I imagine this will be like everything else… 50 states will come up with a hundred different ways to handle this, but some will be seen as more useful than others, and eventually we will end up with a de facto standard.  Which, if history is any guide, will likely not be the best one.  :-)

  11. 11.

    Mike E

    At my last doctor’s appointment they took my vaccination info from a picture I took of the card I received at my county injection site, easy peasy. Being on multiple lists got me the shot sooner than waiting on the office to notify me that they were finally ready… I even was signed up in the next county over, a couple of days later than my eventual 1st dose. It all worked out as they say but I do wonder about the record keeping and ultimate coordination of the health statistics with such a mad scramble at the start of this endeavor.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    Republicans are AGIN IT and a California vaccine passport remains just an idea. I hope we get one but there are more important things, like recalling governors and such.

    Trust me when I say if we do get them, I’ll be asking unvaccinated acquaintances if they’d like to go to events that require one. “I have an extra ticket. No? Oh man, that’s too bad it’s going to be a great game. Maybe next time.”

  13. 13.

    Mike in NC

    Per the Wednesday issue of USA Today, Republicans and anti-vaxxers have introduced bills in 40 states forbidding employers to require vaccination against COVID-19. Because above everything else they treasure FREEDUMB!

  14. 14.

    Cameron

    The person who gave me my second Pfizer shot told me that the CDC is keeping an electronic record of who’s been vaccinated – the information on the little card you get is sent back to them (they know who’s been naughty or nice).  Whoever is issuing these passes presumably has access to that record.

  15. 15.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    mistermix @ Top:

    As much as I’m happy to be vaccinated, I’m just god damned embarrassed at the situation here. We’re begging people to get vaccinated, while those countries’ vaccination efforts are just getting started. In their eyes, I’m sure we look like the cliché ugly, spoiled babies that many of us are.

    And you just know that the minute the Biden administration starts sending vaccine out to help other countries, the same cliché ugly, spoiled babies that currently refuse to get vaccinated will start screaming about Biden being: an un-American traitor who’s giving away our precious vaccines to other countries before Americans are fully vaccinated!!!

  16. 16.

    Major Major Major Major

    I’m glad NY is going this route since so many people are apparently faking the cards. The digital divide issue is real, though, much more so than most would guess. Heard a story over the weekend about Colorado’s new unemployment verification contractor—you have to have a smartphone to prove your identity! https://www.cpr.org/2021/04/26/a-new-digital-divide-people-without-smartphones-struggle-to-get-colorado-unemployment-benefits/

    Libraries are exactly where people go for things like this, though I fear many don’t know about all the services they provide.

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    @Old School:

    I suppose they’ll monitor the long-term effectiveness and then decide whether that six-month period shows gradual reduction in effectiveness and/or whether a booster might be required.

    It must be complicated, given there are three vaccines in use and possibly more to join them. But with India, Brazil et al having raging infection rates we will continue to have flareups for a long while.

  22. 22.

    EthylEster

    Suppose you have no cellphone but get the thingy printed out. Then you make some copies and give them away.

    How are those copies detected as fakes? Do you have to show an ID along with the printed thingy? If so, won’t that really slow down entering a football stadium?

    Obligatory: asking for a friend….

  23. 23.

    Catherine D.

    I was two weeks out from my last shot as of Tuesday, but the Excelsior Pass isn’t picking it up yet. So either the pharmacy hasn’t uploaded the data; there’s a typo in the information uploaded; or there’s a glitch switching me from PCR tests to vaccinated.

  28. 28.

    Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix

    @Catherine D.: Hmm, I went to a pharmacy, too (Wegmans).

    Of course, this is all fun and games because no activity that I know of is using the Excelsior Pass yet.

  29. 29.

    Anonymous At Work

    Why would anyone want to go to a Bills game, regardless of vaccine passport?  Aren’t they sick enough for being Bills fans?

  33. 33.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I interact with people from different parts of the world as part of my job (this week: Australia, Guatemala, Mexico, India). As much as I’m happy to be vaccinated, I’m just god damned embarrassed at the situation here.

    While I can see the Australopithecuses being smug since they beat the virus without a vaccine, Mexico and India are hardly ones to talk, we Americans at lest tossed our Virus denier leader out of office.

  35. 35.

    Jon Marcus

    Just being a trouble maker: I’m fully vaccinated, but I live outside NY. What if I came into town and wanted to go to a Bills game (or somewhere else I’d need a pass)? Am I out of luck?

    Okay, I’m not very likely to visit NY from Illinois. But what if someone from Jersey wants to go to a big event in NYC?

    The “Excelsior” site says I can just show a paper card. So I could show my CDC card…or some MAGAhead could show off the one they bought on ebay?

     

    Also, keeps you from giving (or selling) me your pass? Or selling yours to said MAGAhead. Okay, I get that you wouldn’t do that. But keeps someone with weaker morals and/or greater need from doing so? Does the pass have a name on it? Do they require a matching ID?

  37. 37.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Emerald: I got a digital vax card on my way home from my jab here in LA.  Which is a good thing, since I dropped the paper card in the parking lot waiting for my 15 minutes to pass getting my phone out of my pocket to check traffic.

  38. 38.

    JMG

    My daughter in France called to say she got her first shot today! She was on the standby list at a French military hospital and was called in for the shot this afternoon. Second shot at end of May. I’m so happy.

  43. 43.

    Madeleine

    My Excelsior pass expired yesterday. I just renewed it and it expires now on 24 Aug. My second shot was on 25 Feb, so the new date is 6 months after that. Dunno why I had the Apr expiration.

  45. 45.

    randy khan

    @Mike in NC:

     

    Per the Wednesday issue of USA Today, Republicans and anti-vaxxers have introduced bills in 40 states forbidding employers to require vaccination against COVID-19. Because above everything else they treasure FREEDUMB!

    Oh, I bet the employers are thrilled about that.  Thanks to the Dems standing tough on liability issues before the December bill, they’re not going to be immune from liability if their employees get it and the employer doesn’t engage in safe practices.  They want to be able to mandate vaccination.

  46. 46.

    John S.

    Never underestimate the sheer stupidity of Floriduh and our wannabe TFG governor Ron Deathsantis:

    The Florida House on Wednesday approved a measure that would limit local emergency orders and make permanent Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order barring COVID-19 vaccine “passports.”

    “We have vaccines, through some miracle of science, that work. We also must recognize that COVID-19 vaccines don’t have the same proven history as the same vaccines we require our schoolchildren to get.”

    “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” DeSantis said before signing the order. “If you want to go to the movie theater, should you have to show that? No. If you want to go to a game, no. If you want to go to a theme park, no. … I think it’s something that people have certain freedoms and individual liberties to make decisions for themselves.”

    Let FREEDUMB ring.

  48. 48.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: In work at will states it won’t mean a damn thing.

    “No, I didn’t fire him because he wasn’t vaccinated. I fired him for cause. And thanks to the laws you’ve been passing for the last two decades, I don’t have to tell him or you the cause.”

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @Emerald: The state says it has no plans to produce one, but I think they’re encouraging Apple/Google to bake it into the OS. They’re encouraging businesses to ask for them.

  50. 50.

    John S.

    @Cameron: It’s not enough that Deathsantis issued his executive order. These asshole Republicans that run the state legislature are going to make it a fucking LAW.

  54. 54.

    smith

    Florida and other states valiantly  standing up for their FREEDOMS are just giving businesses more reasons not to move there, and their employees more reasons to resist making such a move. Even to visit: my sister and I were joking the other day that from now on before visiting a red state we’ll have to check that our shots are up to date, just like when preparing to travel to a developing nation.

  59. 59.

    JMG

    @John S.: Disney and the other Orlando theme parks will require vaccine passports and DeSantis will roll over immediately. Or else he’ll be sued by deep pocketed entities that are bound to win. If businesses can ban the barefooted, they can do this, too.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    @John S.:

    Do NOT let that bastard off the hook for his continual mismanagement of Covid–he’s getting people sick and dead, today.

    California 7-day positive test rate: 0.85%. New cases: 12k.

    Florida 7-day positive test rate: 8.76% New cases 37k.

    You are one order of magnitude more likely to catch Covid in Florida than in California. Clearly, DeSantis is a governing god and Newsom is a devil of a failure.

  61. 61.

    Jon Marcus

    @Jon Marcus: Duh, took a while to enter my question and missed that part of it (selling my pass) was asked and answered above. Still wondering about alternatives for out-of-state folks, and if those (if they exist) aren’t weaknesses?

  62. 62.

    Martin

    I’ll add a lot of what people want in a passport app might already be in your phone. Both Apple and Google have health apps that integrate with care providers/insurers. If you hook your Apple Health app to your provider, it should automatically pull in your vaccination records and with 2 taps you can pull them to the front.

    It’d be nice if they surfaced that information on the emergency card, but it’s probably sufficient for what most people need.

  63. 63.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @randy khan: They’re going to find that employer and customers want those employees to be vaccinated. In my building, almost all the residents are vaccinated but only about 40% of the staff. At a meeting this week, residents expressed annoyance that some staff refused to be vaccinated, which meant that we all had to keep wearing masks in some situations.

  65. 65.

    BruceFromOhio

    If I click on the pass, a QR code is displayed that can be scanned by any jackbooted thug who requests my papers.

    […]

    As much as I’m happy to be vaccinated, I’m just god damned embarrassed at the situation here. We’re begging people to get vaccinated, while those countries’ vaccination efforts are just getting started. In their eyes, I’m sure we look like the cliché ugly, spoiled babies that many of us are.

    You’d be welcome at our table, you sound just like me & the Mrs.

    These vax-ports have a limited lifespan of being useful, a year from now no one will care. And that MAGAt Bills fan is just as likely to be a life-time season ticket holder in the Jim Kelly Club who can bellow, bullshit and threaten his way to his loge, for no other reason than people just want him to shut the fuck up already.

  66. 66.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Paging Cole for some WV f*ckery:

    @SRuhle
    asks WV Gov. Justice about signing a bill restricting transgender athletes.

    Ruhle: “Can you give me one example of a transgender child trying to get an unfair advantage? Just one in your state, you signed a bill about it.”

    Justice: “No, I can’t really tell you one.”

  67. 67.

    HeleninEire

    I’m going to get my pass next week when I am at my fully vaccinated date. Hoping the EU will accept it for entry.

  69. 69.

    Ohio Mom

    Like Debbie, I wish we had a phone app vaccine pass here in Ohio.

    I do carry a xerox of my card in my wallet, and I did use it for a free Kristy Kreme. But I will remain jealous of New Yorkers.

  73. 73.

    Sam

    @Old School: it’s six months from when you download the pass. When they first launched, it was only 30 days.

    I think it’s a combination of the whole thing still being in pilot mode, and the potential eventual need for a booster.

  74. 74.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I found this in the text of the bill. To this layman it sounds like it’s self-negating under Section 230(c), which is pretty funny. In other words, companies will have to publish the dumbass disclosures, and will be immune from the “no ‘censorship'” parts.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    The Government here has said it will issue to the vaccinated a badge/nametag thingy, presumably with security features like those on the identity cards that all Malaysians and foreign residents carry.

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @VOR:

    I’m pretty sure the vaccination doesn’t make up for the donuts.

    For example the Pfizer didn’t put me into a sugar coma, either shot.

  78. 78.

    karen marie

    At the time of the initial reports of American diplomatic personnel in Cuba suffering neurologic symptoms from a ray gun attack, I dismissed them because That Fucking Guy. But it seems something is going on.

    If the incidents were connected to directed energy weapons, the question remained: Who was deploying them against U.S. personnel? Russia certainly had the technology, but several other countries had also developed or purchased these capabilities. A Ukrainian researcher had reportedly sold the technology to the Saudi government. The Chinese and possibly the Iranian governments are also said to possess these capabilities. The Cuban government adamantly denied hitting American diplomats, but their security services were notoriously close to Moscow’s. Surely, the Russians could have shared the technology with their old anti-American allies?

    My question is, if so many countries have it, how do we not even know what it is?

    Also, Julia Ioffe is a very good writer.

  80. 80.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Major Major Major Major: I’ll do a post about this law as soon as I read some decent legal analyses, but it sounds like a total dumpster fire, no surprise there.

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Cameron: Yes but in Work at Will states a person can be fired for no reason at all. So if my employer insists on my getting vaccinated and I refuse, I can be fired for being an idiotic asshole.

  84. 84.

    VeniceRiley

    Now I’m wondering if my healthcare Jan/Feb shots will expire for privileges and it wasn’t such an advantage after all? Other than helping avoid Covid, that is!
    Soon to be Mrs. Riley is telling reluctant prisoners it’s no skin off her nose, but good luck being approved for visits or getting to do anything once you’re out. They seem to have not considered these factors in their decisionmaking.

  85. 85.

    J R in WV

    @Major Major Major Major:

    We have vaccines, through some miracle of science, that work.

    DeSantis is putting Science at exactly the same level as faith healing at the front of the mega church, where the pastor smacks a worshiper on the forehead, shouts “HEAL!!” and the worshipper falls over into the hands of the pastor’s assistants.

    Or maybe shouts “Out!! You foul Demon of Satan!”

    Or shouts “Out! You foul Democrat, from this faithful Republican Christain!!”

    But no clue how science works, how the disease theory of bacteria and virii works, none of that. Nor education. Nor geology, nor physics, nor orbital math…

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I set my Google to give me all the search results superimposed on each other in the first spot.  It’s hard to find the right link to click sometimes, but at least I’m protected against bias.

  89. 89.

    planetjanet

    @Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I took a good friend to a sports event this weekend.  They require digital-only tickets.  I handled the ticket for him and he would not have been able to navigate how to set it up.  I am in technology and it took me two hours to download the appropriate apps, set up accounts and then haggle with my credit card company because the app was not accepting my card.  My friend would never been able to do this.  Technology can hinder and the digital divide is vast.

  94. 94.

    Ken

    @Major Major Major Major: I’m imagining Google’s (and Facebook’s, and Twitter’s, and…) landing pages all turning to “We’re sorry, Google is unavailable in Florida due to a law passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis.”

    Though if they really want to get people angry, they should get the porn sites involved.  They have — I mean, I’ve heard they have ranking algorithms too.

  96. 96.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Ken: I would definitely advocate for a capital strike followed by ignoring the self-negating parts of the law. But then I’m a money grubbing corporate whore or something, judging by a few of the comments on my posts about such things ;)

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    The digital divide issue is real, though, much more so than most would guess.

    This. This this this this this.

    Libraries are exactly where people go for things like this

    Provided one can make time available during the operational hours and has the means to travel there and back. Also, some libraries’ computers aren’t available on a walk-in basis. How are appointments made? Either via cell phone or in person.

  102. 102.

    bluefoot

    @Major Major Major Major: ​
      And a lot of libraries are still closed because of the pandemic. Where I live, they have scheduled pick up and return hours (you can reserve books online) but can’t actually go in and use the library.

    I know plenty of people, mostly elderly, without cell phones. Not to mention smart phones.

    So yes, the digital divide is real. And I don’t know how to get around it, unless we provide something on the same level as a state ID/driver’s license.

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    @planetjanet:

    December 2020 NAS Report:

    In examining plausible causes of these illnesses, the committee that conducted the study and wrote the report considered the possibilities of directed, pulsed radio frequency energy, chemical exposures, infectious diseases such as Zika, and psychological issues. An Assessment of Illness in U.S. Government Employees and Their Families at Overseas Embassies says that among the mechanisms the committee considered, directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases, especially in individuals with the distinct early symptoms. Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) — a functional (not psychiatric) vestibular disorder that may be triggered by vestibular, neurologic, or other medical and psychological conditions — is a secondary reinforcing mechanism, as well as the possible additive effects of psychological conditions.

    The committee could not rule out other possible mechanisms and found it is likely that a multiplicity of factors explains some cases and the differences between others. In particular, it could not be certain that the individuals with only the chronic set of signs and symptoms suffered from the same causes and mechanisms as those who reported the initial, sudden onset set of signs and symptoms. The committee noted that it faced several challenges in its assessment, related to the extreme variability in the clinical cases as well as lack of access to specific health or personal information on the affected individuals.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Mike in NC: While at the same time insisting that employers be immune from liability for COVID infections or deaths even if grossly negligent.

  106. 106.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    SEIU now has the knives out for HCA and the Frist family. (Video)
    I’m not sure there’s enough popcorn available in Tennessee AND Kentucky. One entertaining detail in the teaser I saw (auto-ad on a phone game, what change from fast fashion and health supplement ads!) referred to wages of $12/hour as “poverty wages”—so SEIU is doing its bit to push the $15/hour minimum alongside this takedown.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @John Revolta:

    I’ve got a cell phone (not a smart phone) and a computer, but I don’t have a printer. And it’s silly just to assume everybody does. And yes, I can go to the library and get sorted out,

    So, you can go to the library, so no problem here.

    but a lot of people can’t.

    A lot? A few? Who knows. But nothing that can’t be worked out. What’s the alternative?

  110. 110.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Brachiator: I couldn’t go to the library, myself, and I live in a city of eight million people. They’re all pick up/drop off only, have been for a while. Lots of libraries are closed right now throughout the country. Needing to visit a closed public service to get your pandemic relief UI or your vaccine passport is an insane requirement to put on people.

    What’s the alternative? Having open libraries or a UI office you can walk into. But for many people those are just not options right now. There should at least be a mail in service.

    ETA basically I think of this as something that should be akin to an ADA requirement.

  115. 115.

    Matt McIrvin

    @BruceFromOhio:

    These vax-ports have a limited lifespan of being useful, a year from now no one will care.

    I thought that for a while, but as politicized opposition hardens I really doubt it. I think we’re not going to crack 75% vaccination and some form of COVID will be simmering in the general population basically forever.

  116. 116.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Brachiator: ​
      The libraries in my neck of the woods have been closed to walk-ins for over a year. You can still obtain some services, but no there is no access to communal PC’s around here.

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    What’s the alternative? Having open libraries or a UI office you can walk into. But for many people those are just not options right now. There should at least be a mail in service.

    And where I live in Southern California, I think that libraries and the UI offices and DMV offices are still closed. But this is not the case everywhere.

    Still, we can come up with alternatives. A mail in service might be one option. There are many others, and we are not talking about a lot of people who need accommodating.

    And even though they gave me a CDC card when I got my shot, I recently received a letter in the mail noting that my insurance had been billed $0 for my Covid shots.

  119. 119.

    geg6

    Although it would be great to have a nice card like that to fit inside my wallet with the drivers license and credit cards, I just ordered some nice plastic holders that seal to put my paper card in to protect it. It comes 5 to a package for $2.95. One for me, one for my John and the rest I’ll give away to family.

  123. 123.

    NotMax

    @BruceFromOhio

    Libraries in Mom’s town not only pick-up and drop off only, they’re still quarantining returned items for three weeks before making them available for circulation again.

    Libraries here open to walk-ins but operating at reduced hours and are continuing to limit occupancy.

  124. 124.

    geg6

    @trollhattan: ​
     

    I’ll be asking unvaccinated acquaintances if they’d like to go to events that require one. “I have an extra ticket. No? Oh man, that’s too bad it’s going to be a great game. Maybe next time.”

    I, too, am anxiously awaiting an opportunity to do this very thing.

  125. 125.

    WaterGirl

    @BruceFromOhio:  The should be a think tank or some special group that is dedicated to figuring out all the possible ways to use all these bullshit laws so they backfire on the people who passed them.

  126. 126.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    Wow. Quarantines at the libraries here are only 96 hours. I’m not sure I’ll be taking books out anymore, unless I can get them when they’re first published.

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: I discovered years ago that if I took books out from the library in the winter months that I inevitably got sick.  When I stopped doing that, no surprise, I did not get sick over the winters.

    It sounds terrible to say, but I doubt that I will ever take a book out of a library again.

  129. 129.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    I can’t imagine that.  I love libraries and I love books.  I like the smell, I like the feel, I like the look.  You can wipe down the books if you’re worried about germs.  I can’t stand digital books.  I tried to read one once and had to quit reading it and get the hardback.  Worst and longest-lived headache and dry eyes I’ve ever had.  I torture my eyes with enough screens.  Never again.

  130. 130.

    trollhattan

    This fuckin’ guy.

    Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told reporters that he does not support the bill to make D.C. the nation’s 51st state, the Washington Post reports.

    “Manchin, a key swing vote in the closely divided Senate, said he believed a constitutional amendment, rather than legislation, would be required to admit D.C. as a state. His stance deals a major blow to statehood advocates who were hoping for his support after the bill passed the House last week.”

    Hey, Joe (where you goin’…oops, wrong song):

    On March 12, 1959, Congress approved Hawaii for admission to the union as the 50th state, marking the last time statehood was subject to votes in the House and Senate.

    President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admissions Act a week later on March 18, 1959, and Hawaii officially became the 50th state on August 21, 1959, after Hawaiians voted to become a state in June 1959 under terms specified in the Admissions Act.

    The Constitution grants general state-creation powers to Congress in Article IV, Section 3, under the Admissions Clause, which reads: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

  131. 131.

    Martin

    @smith: Well, the US and NATO were ‘first world’. The USSR and soviet bloc nations were ‘second world’. And everything else was third world.

    I think there’s an argument that Florida is actually deserving of second world status, TBH.

  132. 132.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: Jesus. That’s just bad faith there. DC statehood doesn’t turn everything in DC into a state, just the parts where people live. There would still be a federal district, just a smaller one. No constitutional issue whatsoever. The constitution does given an upper bound on the size of the district, but no lower bound. The proposed district would consist of a region that includes the WH, Congress, and USSC and all connecting land.  You could still build a fence around the federal bits.

  133. 133.

    mayim

    @NotMax: plus, most libraries are really stretched right now. [OK, many were already doing much more with a good bit less before the pandemic and associated issues, but it’s even worse now.] Many were hit hard by budget cuts over the last year. A fair number still are only doing curbside or short appointments.

    There’s help on the horizon [many thanks to the changes in D.C.!] with some additional federal money in sight but it will likely the fall before those funds work their way through the system.

    My soap box bit: library funding is some of the best use of local tax dollars there is. Remember to check local candidates’ stand on library funding before voting.

  136. 136.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: I loved the smell of the library growing up – it was right around the corner from my house.  Then they moved to the “new” location, when I was maybe 10 or so?  It did not smell like the library!  :-

    Then they did the same thing here in Champaign, built a “new” library that is modern and unappealing, and not run all that well.  Bastards!

  137. 137.

    marklar

    I’m still confused about these vaccine passports.

    Can’t we just use detectors that pick up the frequencies emitted by the microchips contained within the vaccines?

    Problem solved. No phone, ID, or trip to the library needed!

  138. 138.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I read about this somewhere.

    Oh yeah.

    Revelation 13:17, KJV: “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

  139. 139.

    Bill Arnold

    @karen marie:
    Pretty sure the phenomena are real, but the National Academy of Sciences report was heavy on guesswork, the strongest evidence of an exotic microwave weapon being some published Russian research in the general area over the last several decades. Cheryl Rofer has looked into it and was dubious. I looked at the all the literature I could find on the microwaves theory and was less dubious but it’s still pretty ambiguous and there might be (are :-) other exotic methods for remotely affecting nervous systems.
    The apparent directionality of the symptoms reported by the Arlington, VA dog walker “a tingling on the side of her face” was interesting for sure. (That the dog was affected suggests it was not just the dog walker.)
    The report of tech transfer from Ukraine to KSA was unclear; could have been misreported EMP-style weapon designs, hard to tell and I didn’t dig. (e.g. EMP is easy to do at small scale with explosives and wire coil.)

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