Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Bark louder, little dog.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Pandemic Recovery Open Thread: Florida Band

Pandemic Recovery Open Thread: Florida Band

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Per the Washington Post:

This spring, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an executive order forbidding businesses from making their patrons prove that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. He also signed into law a bill to give the ban more teeth, threatening violators with fines in the thousands of dollars.

One Florida concert promoter thinks he has a workaround: offer $18 tickets to anyone who is vaccinated and charge $999.99 for everyone else.

“I’m not denying entry to anyone,” said Paul Williams. “I’m just offering a discount.”…

Williams said he figured his tactics were safe — the executive order carries limited penalties, and the new law does not go into effect until shortly after his small punk rock event planned for June 26 in St. Petersburg. But he said he was unprepared for the vitriol that followed: The anti-vaccination Facebook messages, the sudden spam calls, the misspelled email that warned the band their next show could be their “last” and said: “You’re fans are going to kill you.”…

The backlash around a modest event for a couple hundred people underscores the deep divisions over what the United States’ return to normal should look like amid lingering resistance to vaccination. As the rate of shots slow, public health officials have warned that the country may not reach the oft-repeated goal of “herd immunity” against a virus that has killed nearly 600,000 people in the United States and slowed the economy. But some states including Florida have sought to limit businesses’ ability to check vaccinations after a year of coronavirus restrictions becoming politicized…

Miguel Chen, the bassist for Teenage Bottlerocket, said in an interview that his group was eager to get back out after canceling international tour plans during the pandemic — a devastating time for many in the music scene. Chen said the band’s most recent show was in March 2020….

“When we first heard it, we thought it was a joke,” Chen said. But band members had gotten their shots as soon as possible, he said, eager to protect their families and resume playing. They agreed that if Williams thought this was “the best way to safely throw a party in his town, then we back him and we support it,” Chen recalled.

Hailing from Texas — another Republican-led state where covid-19 restrictions have drawn pushback — Chen said he’s familiar with the divisions over vaccination and wants to respect people’s views.

But “I never in my life thought I’d be in a place where I’m getting threatened for trying to play music and spread joy,” he said…

Like, what are the chances DeSantis or any of his butthurt cohort would attend a ‘small punk rock event’, even if the promoters were paying *them*?

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    The cruise industry should do the same thing. List price for a cruise leaving from Florida: One Meeellion Dollars! Discount coupons (aka CDC cards) may apply.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    The executive order says business in Florida may not require “any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business,”similar language to the new law.It says violators are ineligible for state-funded grants or contracts, and it directs state agencies to enforce compliance.

    So, that band had better not even think about applying for any sort of grant from the State of Florida!

  5. 5.

    No name

    The tweet is from a gentleman in Canada but the picture is of the State Theater in Portland Maine!  We have some good things too, not just SuzieQ!

  6. 6.

    artem1s

    Floridah entertainment venue calendars are going to start looking like the lineup for TFG’s inauguration parties. nothing but desperate D listers.  what band or promotor in their right mind would want their acts to risk it?  much easier and friendlier places to book into.

  7. 7.

    Cermet

    Any where else in much of the second and all the third world, getting the vaccination is equivalent to winning the lottery; here we have to give people a free lottery ‘ticket’ for a million dollars just to get them to go out and get their “FREE” vaccination as a walk in and whenever they want! Insane.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    @MattF: Yeah I know. Seeing as DeSantis had a special Disney carve-out in that bill about social media companies (Companies that ‘own theme parks’ are exempt for some reason…), I’m betting on the cruise ship companies on this one. Watch him cave just as soon as Carnival or whoever starts rerouting their ships out of New Orleans instead.

  9. 9.

    RSA

    There are some comments from lawyers about how the band’s actions violate the spirit of the law, and I was surprised, because we often read news stories about courts coming to some odd conclusions based on the letter of the law. I mean, how many millions of dollars were spent on legal challenges to the ACA, ignoring the spirit of the law?

  10. 10.

    pamelabrown53

     
    @MattF: ​​
    ​
    ​
     Interesting. I’ve been sent email questionnaires from cruiselines asking if I’d cruise on a ship with unvaccinated folks. Said no of course.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    @dmsilev: Ding, Ding, Ding!

    Forbes:

    […]

    Now DeSantis and the CDC are locked in a legal standoff that most experts do not expect to end well for the governor. The state of Florida’s lawsuit against the CDC asked the court to declare the agency’s “conditional sail order” — the framework for restarting cruising — to be unlawful on the grounds it is unfair to the cruise industry. “The CDC arbitrarily singled out the cruise industry, and their requirements are unlawful,” said Christina Pushaw, the governor’s press secretary, via email.

    That analysis is “political buffoonery,” says Jim Walker, a maritime attorney whose Cruise Law News blog has accrued nearly 250,000 Facebook followers. Traditionally, it’s the federal government — not the state government — that has any interaction with cruise ships. “The CDC ultimately has the power to shut down a cruise ship,” he said. “To suggest that it doesn’t have jurisdiction to regulate cruise lines is just utterly preposterous to me.”

    […]

    But away from reporters’ microphones and cameras, the DeSantis team has been working with the cruise lines to find a solution that would allow the governor to have his political cake and eat it, too.

    On a call with travel agents last Thursday, Dondra Ritzenthaler, senior VP of sales, trade support and service at Celebrity Cruises, discussed “the elephant in the room,” according a scoop in the unofficial Royal Caribbean Blog, which is not affiliated with the cruise line. The blog’s founder, Matt Hochberg, was not on the call but obtained an audio recording, which he shared with Forbes.

    In the clip, the Celebrity Cruises executive is heard outlining how DeSantis is working with the largest cruise lines — Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line — to find a workaround. When the governor came out with his prohibition against vaccine verifications, “he was talking about restaurants, bars, hotels, Disney, places that weren’t cruise ships — because at the time, cruise ships weren’t open yet,” explained Ritzenthaler. “And we’re ironing out a statement that will articulate how cruising will be different than [being] in the state.”

    […]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    The backlash around a modest event for a couple hundred people underscores the deep divisions over what the United States’ return to normal should look like amid lingering resistance to vaccination.

    I wonder if it would be reported as “deep divisions” if it were liberals who were unhinged.

  13. 13.

    patrick II

    If you can’t use your second amendment rights to threaten those who disagree with you, what good are they?

  15. 15.

    Miss Bianca

    o/t: Should I be wondering why my town’s grocery store had hamburger and hot dog buns on sale this weekend for 88 cents? Not 99 cents, 88 cents. Am I just being paranoid?

    A possibly sinister significance to that number didn’t strike me till I had bought some and was heading home with them. Then I found myself freaking out about Nazi hamburger buns. Somebody tell me to get a grip. (please)

  16. 16.

    lowtechcyclist

    I know it wouldn’t be diplomatic, but dammit, they ought to give people until the end of June to get their first shot. After that, keep enough vaccine so that everyone who got #1 can get their second shot, and send the rest to Africa, India, South America, wherever it’s needed.

    Then watch all the vaccine-haters suddenly start whining about the unfairness of it all. And send them to some drought-stricken land so that their bullshit tears can substitute for rain.

  17. 17.

    pamelabrown53

    @dmsilev: ​
     

    The cruise ship industry is huge in Florida. The number of cruises leaving Ft. Lauderdale and Miami is staggering. Lot’s from Tampa with Central America/ Panama Canal routes too. The cruise industry is not helpless. As the post said: Capitalism will find a way.
    P.S. Having trouble posting unless in visual mode. Normally, I use text?

  18. 18.

    Steve in the ATL

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: no kidding.  A company that can ruin college football certainly has the power to take down that clown.

    (confidential to Omnes: not an actual clown. It’s cool.)

  19. 19.

    JoyceH

    Stories like this are why these days when I read an article about how a virulent anti-Vaxxer died from COVID, I feel nothing but grim satisfaction and am no longer compelled to feel guilty about it.

  21. 21.

    Ken

     “And we’re ironing out a statement that will articulate how cruising will be different than [being] in the state.”

    I realize that a lot of lawyers are billing vigorously, but may I suggest there’s a pretty obvious answer? (Barring a few unusual cruises on Lake Okeechobee or the intracoastal waterway.)

    I’m also hoping, after the RW spent all that time and money getting a carve-out saying that businesses could refuse service to anyone on religious grounds, that some business will use that.  “You see, I’m a Sanitarian, and as the name says our religious principles are sanity and sanitation. And it’s insane to let unvaccinated people spread a deadly virus in my business.”

  22. 22.

    Cameron

    I really want him to have to walk this shit back in public – he’s exactly like his hero in that he can’t take responsibility for anything.  Norwegian very  publicly told him to shove it.

  23. 23.

    pat

    2 dead, more than 20 injured in shooting at Miami-area concert, police say Well I sure hope this is not that concert.

    Saw this in the WaPo and I’m sorry I don’t know  how to do a proper link. I also can not figure out how to edit it to show what is my comment and what is the quote.

    Arrgghh..

  24. 24.

    Ninerdave

    True story, years ago (early 2000s) my punk band was playing the stork club (a hole in the wall in Oakland, CA). Jerry Brown was mayor and lived in that area. He was out walking his dog the door guy saw him and invited him in. He and his dog watched a few songs of our set.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: “I don’t think the Governor understands how disappointed the Corporation is, Mr. G.”

    “Okay, Miss B!  Hyuck-hyuck-hyuck!” (Wet meaty thuds)

  27. 27.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ken:

    “You see, I’m a Sanitarian, and as the name says our religious principles are sanity and sanitation. And it’s insane to let unvaccinated people spread a deadly virus in my business.”

    I like the way you think…

  28. 28.

    Feathers

    @Miss Bianca: One of the problems with the whole 88=AH thing is that in Chines culture, 8 is a lucky number, especially for wealth and getting money. So prices ending in .88 is common. So is giving money gifts or selling buying things where the amount is rounded to maximize the 8s, i.e., $1,888,888.88 instead of $2M. I worked at a place where the Chinese owner had us doing this. I know I have a lot of old passwords and logins around with 88 on the end. Nope, not Nazi, just time around superstitious Chinese people. Sigh.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    @Miss Bianca: I haven’t been in Walmart in ages, but IIRC, their sales placards often have x.88 prices.  Maybe they’re competing with a Walmart flyer?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    @pat: When you’re in a “blockquote” box in the editor and you’re done, keep hitting “Enter” (2x?) and it will let you out.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    @pat:  Another Scott is correct.  Hit ENTER two times and it will pop you out of the block quote, where you can start typing.

    I fixed your comment for you.

  33. 33.

    Miss Bianca

    @Feathers:

    @Another Scott:

    Believe me when I tell you that I’m relieved to hear some sane alternatives to my conspiracy theorizing. I think I’m just still jumpy from our RWNJs being a little nuttier than usual in the run-up to Memorial Day…

  35. 35.

    pat

    Thanks, I’ll try to remember that.

    I’m assuming that the concert where several people were shot by goons with automatic rifles etc. was not the one that is requiring a vaccination passport.  But who knows, and who knows why the goons were targeting that concert.

    Keep me out of Florida.  And Texas.  And by the way, South Carolina, and,,,and……

  36. 36.

    Barbara

    @dmsilev: Regarding the cruise industry, I think that they will find a workaround.  Nobody gets up and decides to go on a cruise that day.  You make arrangements well in advance, usually via email or phone, and I don’t see why the cruise lines can’t simply refuse to finalize the reservation without evidence of a vaccine.  None of that has to take place in Florida, they are not Florida businesses even if a few of their ships depart from Florida ports.  They aren’t even American.

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    Sometimes the headline is all you really need: A Nashville hat shop is apologizing after advertising anti-vaccine yellow Star of David badges

    A Nashville hat store is facing backlash after announcing on social media that it was selling yellow patches similar to the Star of David with the words “NOT VACCINATED,” sparking widespread condemnation, a protest and severed business ties.

    Iconic hat company Stetson announced Saturday it will stop selling its merchandise at HatWRKS, the company at the center of the controversy. Goorin Bros., another prominent hat company, also announced that its distribution with HatWRKS would end immediately.

    Gigi Gaskins, who is listed as HatWRKS’s owner in public records, apologized Saturday on Instagram for the merchandise resembling the badges the Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust.

    “In NO WAY did i intend to trivialize the Star of David or disrespect what happened to millions of people,” she said. “My hope was to share my genuine concern & fear, and to do all that i can to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again.”

    Previously, Gaskins had said people should be “outraged by tyranny” in the world and blamed her detractors for not understanding what is happening around them. In another post, she alluded to concerns about coronavirus restrictions and stated that she was a “target of the mob.”

  39. 39.

    dmsilev

    @Barbara: I think that’s right. My parents just bought tickets for a cruise that’s leaving in a couple of months (not from Florida; small ship sailing around Iceland) and vaccinations were required for passengers and crew. I didn’t ask about the verification logistics, but I assume there was something even if it was as minimal as ’email photos of your completed CDC cards.

  40. 40.

    Cacti

    Republicans make the giant flying cockroaches only the second worst thing about Florida.

  41. 41.

    Calouste

    I made the suggestion of raising the prices for the unvaccinated on this right here blog last Wednesday or Thursday. Or more exactly, raise the price for everyone, and give a massive discount on proof of vaccination. But I’d say it was a fairly obvious idea.

  43. 43.

    Calouste

    @dmsilev: How long before that asshat complains about seeing the free market in action in the form of the actions of Stetson?

  46. 46.

    Jackie

    @Barbara: Aren’t many countries these cruise ships are visiting requiring proof of vaccination? And, as pointed out, if these ships aren’t American, how does DeStupid think his rules apply to them?

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @pat:

    16-17 yrs ago I was trying to figure out where to locate the new business – bicycle shop, I was going to open up. I lived in OH at the time, had traveled extensively for work over the last decade and had a good idea that someplace it snowed more than a couple days a year might not be ideal. Also south of the Mason/Dixon line would likely be less than ideal nor appeal to me personally. That left the west coast. Now I know that a lot of people live in the areas that I’m taking out of the game and a lot of them are very nice and great people. Still I have to live there and I’m the one who has to live with my decision.

    What I’m saying is that we should live where we want and not where others tell us. I’ve liked aspects of most places I’ve been but some places not enough of the aspects to make me want to live there.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:

    It might do that, Stetson pulled their business. They might be able to sell some red shitforbrains caps but Stetson is a major player in hats that cost more than $7.95 and losing that might just possibly cripple their store.

    It seems to me that followers of shitforbrains, and the republican party these days, seem to be more there for the hate than anything else and while long term, hate is not going away, it might actually have run it’s political course around the world. The pandemic has shown a lot of people that there is actually some importance to life not to be a complete douche bag and only care about the uber wealthy becoming more uber.

  53. 53.

    Barbara

    @Jackie: I assume that it would mostly affect Fort Lauderdale, which has a lot of  Caribbean departures. I just don’t see how Florida could enforce it.

  54. 54.

    Cameron

    @Jackie: I agree that he can’t enforce it, but he and his ilk have to see that actions have consequences.  I think the cruise lines should all announce they’re moving (and you can bet there are a whole lot of non-Florida ports on the Gulf and South Atlantic that would be licking their chops) – let him beg them to stay.  Since he pretends to be Thor to Trump’s Odin, he’d be in a bit of a bind.

  56. 56.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @lowtechcyclist: It has already happened. I work with a guy who’s M-i-L DIED from Covid. His and his wife’s response was “oh, everyone knows that the hospitals lie about that ’cause they get more money if the death is labeled Covid.” This is the wife’s mother who died, who they cared for. I mean shit, they have full access to all the medical records and even read some of them. But nope, Covid is a hoax..until…

    Someone in the Biden administration said that they were sending some surplus vaccines (J&J? AZ?) to other countries in need. You guessed it: the nutjobs went right out and got vaccinated and bitched about how we should take care of those at home first before just giving our precious vaccines to lazy blah and brown people in (shithole) countries. But that’s the Democrats for you — always thinking of everyone else instead of taking care good Christian ‘Murkins back home.

  57. 57.

    James E Powell

    @Ruckus:

    Live where you want, work where you can versus work where you want, live where can.

    I think you & I are going for the former, but many do go for the latter.

  61. 61.

    Fair Economist

    @Feathers: I wouldn’t be surprised if the reichwingers had intentionally chosed 88 with the Chinese use in mind. They try to co-opt real signal so they can claim regular people are secretly supporting their evil. See their work on the near-universal “OK” sign.

  62. 62.

    Sallycat

    I hope that performers decide to skip Florida as a venue until the horrible laws passed this year are no longer in effect. Steve Earle has two concerts scheduled in Florida in August. I emailed his promoter and others (email addresses on Earle’s website) about the new laws, hoping that they respond to these laws appropriately, i.e., anything from boycott to requiring concert goers to wear masks.  Ten years ago I would have been certain these laws would all get thrown out in court, but now…

  63. 63.

    m.j.

    Has DeSantis been vaccinated?  I would assume so. He wouldn’t announce it much like Trump.

  64. 64.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @dmsilev:

    “In NO WAY did i intend to do that thing I did that now has me losing business. NO WAY! Kancel Kulture! Haters! Haters! I’m the victim here! Me! Me me me!!”

  65. 65.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Chief Oshkosh: Jeeze, I should post, THEN start drinking. “who’s” = “whose”, other errors, etc. The nuns would be very disappointed with me. Very disappointed, I telz ya.

  66. 66.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Chief Oshkosh: That’s hilarious. And totally in keeping with their underlying politics, which is: whatever the libs do, they’ve got to feel victimized by it somehow.

    God, what a bunch of whiners.  I miss the days when ‘real men’ didn’t whine.  Fuck the rest of that bullshit masculinity crap, but considering the RW men see themselves as ‘real men,’ I sure wish they’d cut the damn whining.

  67. 67.

    MattF

    @dmsilev: People like her are the reason written works should generally add a ‘Fuck You’ section to accompany their ‘Acknowledgements’ section.

  68. 68.

    Geeno

    The liner itself is NOT US territory – most likely Panamanian – It does not have to adhere to Florida’s laws. The cruise company may not be able to deny you tickets, because of your vaccination status, but the ship CAN refuse to board you.

  70. 70.

    dmsilev

    @MattF: One of my classmates in grad school wanted to add a ‘Disacknowledgements’ section to his dissertation. ‘This thesis was completed in spite of …’

  76. 76.

    Anoniminous

    Trapped in a floating hotel with 3,000 to 6,000 old, overweight, white people is pretty much my idea of Hell.

    And I am old, overweight, white people

  77. 77.

    James E Powell

    @Anoniminous:

    David Foster Wallace’s essay, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” told me everything I needed to know about cruises. Never have, never will.

  78. 78.

    Barbara

    @Anoniminous: I’m not sure any of the lines are cranking up the super-sized ships. No vaccines for kids under 12 makes those really problematic.

  80. 80.

    Another Scott

    "According to the Federal Aviation Administration website, no one on that flight was qualified to fly the plane."

    Sometimes, people take the "Jesus, take the wheel!" thing too far. https://t.co/LhT6cbCyuD

    — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) May 30, 2021

    This is my shocked, shocked face.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    The Pale Scot

    @Anoniminous:

    Trapped in a floating hotel state with a majority of old, overweight, white people is pretty much my idea of Hell.

    And I am old, overweight, white people

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    Sending up the Watergirl signal!

    The right flyout button for the next post isn’t showing up for me here in this thread. (I can’t see MM’s post after this one unless I get there via the front page.)

    Win10, Chrome, uBlock Origin.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: And, of course, right after I posted the comment above, it appears.

    Quantum software is supposed to be a few decades away yet…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: Or worse, vaccinate you.

    “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?  Now we can let you board. These two burly stewards will take you to your lovely cabin, where you will spend the next three weeks in isolation and quiet, then you’ll get your second dose just as the cruise ends and you leave the ship! Isn’t that wonderful timing!”

    (To be read in a perky Julie McCoy on The Love Boat voice.)

  86. 86.

    Origuy

    @Miss Bianca: Costco uses the cents of a price as a code for specials. Maybe Walmart does too. In the Costco code, .88 or .00 means a manager special, product to be moved out fast.

    If the store ordered a lot of burgers and hotdogs for Memorial Day, and they want to get them out quickly, they might set the price to let the workers know to push it.

    The Chinese superstition is a possibility, too. There’s a chain of Asian grocery stores around here called 88 Manor Market. I’ve seen 88 on other businesses, too.

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @James E Powell:

    I’ve mostly worked and lived where I wanted, although when I was young I wanted a different career. Oh well it’s life, most of the decisions you either didn’t get to make freely or they didn’t work out the way you envisioned when you started. I’ve had mostly a pretty good life so far, I’d like some more of it, if that’s what’s in store, even if everything didn’t/doesn’t end up a certain way. Sa La Vie.

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   LOL.  When I heard the “Christians” were headed for Palm Beach, that did not seem a coincidence.

    They may have been headed for a MAGA rally featuring Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne (the former Overstock CEO).  Of the three, I don’t think Byrne has been convicted of any major offenses. Yet.

    And, possibly, no one on the jet certified to fly it?  Jesus!

    That “church” and ministry seems to have a lot of assets.  I wonder if any heirs of the jet crash victims might sue it out of existence.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Anoniminous:

    I’ve been trapped on a floating tin can with 300 of my neighbors, some of whom snore, some of whom had questionable cleanliness habits, some of whom had unnatural eating habits, and some of whom were OK. Alright they were OK when not trapped at sea with them for a long time, they were OK when you realized they felt the same way about you that you did them, OK when you went on shore and didn’t have to see or hear them……

  91. 91.

    Ken

    @TomatoQueen: I’m joining those Sanitarians.

    As the cult founder receiver of the revelation, let me announce that Sanitarianism welcomes all. However I do ask that early adopters help with fleshing out the tenets of the faith.

    For example, it would be helpful to link ourselves to an older religion with similar principles, lest people claim we just made this up to avoid the law.  However the only one that’s coming to mind is that offshoot of Seventh-Day Adventism followed by Dr. Kellogg and company at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and I’m not sure that’s where we should go.  Any other ideas?

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cermet: In the First World, though… we like to talk about how uniquely stupid the United States is, and we fucked up COVID, but we’re actually far from the place with the worst vaccine-hesitancy problem. People are way more reluctant in Japan and Germany and France.

  97. 97.

    Percysowner

    @The Pale Scot:

    I agree about not wanting to go on a cruise. A friend did tell me that if you do want to, bring your prescriptions, because when you go to those island countries, because the prescriptions are dirt cheap.

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    Interesting backgrounder thread:

    1/ At the small GA airport I worked at through college, I got to know all types of airplane owners and pilots. The higher the performance, the more training and recent experience mattered. There’s a whole unofficial category of high performance aircraft known as “doctor killers.”

    — 14badgers (@jakeypooh79) May 30, 2021

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @Steeplejack: Thanks.

    Yes, these days, there really aren’t “freak accidents” and “acts of god”.  Aircraft and flying are well-enough understood that crashes happen for a reason…

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    terraformer

    No policy, no ideas, just this performative shit.

    It’s a double-barrel attack: crazy orders like this, practical impact of voter suppression, repeal Roe v. Wade over HERE, keeping the “great replacement” fears stoked and grooming their followers to mount an armed insurrection over THERE

    Daring us all the while to do something about it. Then, one day, they’ve done it

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   @Steeplejack:

    I got interested in 14badgers’ account of the pilot who cut corners.

    Story on the preacher/businessman who crashed two planes; the second fatally. 2001, in Farmington, MO.  BIL not on board; only pilot and his wife.

    Donald and Edith Mercer, of Hendersonville, TN — Nashville area again! — about 15 miles NE of the city.  5000 hours flight time, and he crashed one plane in Alabama in August 2000, and then the second in April 2001. Someone else on 14badgers’ thread said the 210 had a propeller strike years earlier, and the owner did not replace overhaul the whole engine, as one would be required to were it a commercial aircraft.  Private aircraft; up to the owner.

    Don Mercer had retired eight years ago and formed Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries. In his earlier years he had started a Christian coffee house in Hendersonville, according to the couple’s pastor’s wife, Karen Clark.

    Mercer had retired from the Mercer Corp., based in Tennessee. He was also on the board of directors of the Full Gospel Businessman’s Association and involved with the Gideons, a non-denominational worldwide group that distributes millions of Bibles every year.

    Jan Easterling, manager of the Sumner County Regional Airport, said Don Mercer had flown out of the local airport hundreds of times.

    “Don was an experienced pilot,” Easterling said.

    “He checked his equipment. I don’t see how this could have happened,” daughter-in-law Cathey Garrett was quoted saying in The News Examiner, a middle Tennessee-based newspaper.

    Mercer had been a licensed pilot since 1971. He had logged more than 5,000 flying hours.

    Tuesday’s crash wasn’t the first airplane mishap for the Tennessee pilot in recent months. On Aug. 5 of last year, he was involved in a crash of a twin-engine Cessna near a Shelby County, Ala., airport.

    In that crash neither Mercer or any of his three passengers were injured. He had reportedly begun a “go-around” maneuver which is standard procedure while waiting for another airplane to take off or land when his engine began malfunctioning.

    Reports show he did take action to land the plane only damaging the landing gear. All occupants reportedly walked away from that crash.

  103. 103.

    Misterpuff

    @Ken:

    Cleaniness is next to godliness.

    My body is a temple. Vaccine Jesus be throwing those viral Philistines right out.

  104. 104.

    Soprano2

    It’s a sensitive subject for me, small plane crashes, because my sister died in one along with her boyfriend and his three children. You could Google “Robin Melton plane crash” if you wanted the details. They thought it was pilot error; turns out it was probably a 0.25¢ screw that came loose from a piece of equipment that’s crucial for night flying. Her plane had a parachute but they were too low for it to work.  Who knew a plane could have a parachute? Whoever they were I feel for their families; it’s a horrible, public way to lose someone.

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    @Elizabelle:  Thanks, it was tragic, especially the deaths of those 3 children. I went to 4 memorials in 4 days, 2 of them extremely public. I was happy to sit at a nail salon for an hour just because I didn’t have to talk about it. Imagine having to talk to a reporter about your sister’s death. I never thought I’d have to until I did. I feel for their relatives even if they were crummy people.

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