Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

When we show up, we win.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

Republicans got rid McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

We still have time to mess this up!

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s a doggy dog world.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The revolution will be supervised.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Sharing Vaccine

Sharing Vaccine

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Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is the person to follow on Twitter if you want to know where the United States is sending vaccine.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also tweets about sending vaccines out, as you can see above, but it seems to be mostly Deputy Secretary Sherman’s job.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

187Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    • Enthusiasts – those who are already vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated
    • Vaccine Hesitant – unsure, but persuadable, which were further sub-divided:
      • watchful – waiting for now
      • cost-anxious – those with resource barriers like time or money
      • system distrusters – those that distrust the medical “establishment”, but not necessarily vaccines
    • Anti-Vaxxers – those that believe one or more conspiracy theories about vaccines or COVID-19. This group is likely to be largely unreachable and have reasoned themselves into a position where they will not accept the vaccine.

    https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/closing-the-vaccine-hesitancy-gap/

  2. 2.

    Another Scott

    It’s great that the US is doing this, but it seems like such a small amount given the worldwide need.  But we’ve got to start somewhere.

    I’m old enough to remember when the MotU were going to build giant factories for cranking out the stuff as soon as they were proven effective in the stage-3 trials.  Funny how we don’t hear much about that now…

    ~ 10 M doses a day seems like a lot, but there are a lot of people on this planet…

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    Peru will be important to follow to see how Pfizer does against the lambda variant, which now comprises most of their cases since appearing late last year. Chile as well.

  4. 4.

    germy

    @Another Scott:

    As you said, it’s a start.

    I can imagine people like trump and jared being confused by this news.  “You’re just giving the vaccines away???  What’s in it for you?”

  5. 5.

    The Dangerman

    I can’t believe the Looney Tooners were ready to drink bleach for TFG but are against the vaccine because of Biden. Not for forcing them to get a shot as long as they are willing to never fly, never go to a ballgame, etc etc etc

  6. 6.

    RaflW

    Good to see us engaging in some positive foreign adventuring. I wonder if any red staters will figure out that we’re giving away some of the shots that their morons should have taken. (Snark aside, we should share along the way, not just when we’re done with the bulk of our vaccine effort at home).

    Semi-related to the OP tweets, is there a good explainer article about why Australia has been so slow to vaccinate their population? It’s a rich country. First world infrastructure. Once any of the major vaccines was developed, why did they not jump on getting doses bought or manufactured? ty.

  7. 7.

    germy

    It’s not just trump lovers who refuse the vaccine.  Some people are just plain stupid.

    Lots of anti-vax people on the left who despise #45 but still pass around “natural remedy” cures to each other.  They’re convinced a combination of vitamin D, zinc, and cleansing juices will ward off the virus.

  8. 8.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    The bit about vaccine production that keeps ringing in my head is the description of the process as “less like manufacturing, more like farming”. I’m shocked and surprised that the US has any surpluses of vaccine at all, although the anti-vaxxers’ loss is to the benefit of those to whom the spare shots can be donated, I guess.

    As for the categories of vaccine hesitancy, the “cost-anxious” are very different from the “watchful” or “system distrusters”. They’d be a lot closer to the category of those who have the desire to be vaccinated but no access to vaccines, which included me and my brother and my father for a long time.

  10. 10.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @germy: TFG and his spawn all appear to be short-sighted transactionalists (is that a word?). They look at things as straight quid-pro-quo, zero-sum-gain, as shown by TFG’s insistence that it’s not enough for him to win, but those who oppose him must lose. The concept of building goodwill to bank against a nebulous future need seems to escape them, the way it escaped Bush Junior with his idiotic declaration of “I’ve got political capital and now I’m going to spend it”, which left him without political capital when he needed it the most.

  11. 11.

    RaflW

    @germy: I have one resister friendquaintance (maybe more, but if so, they’re more discreet about it). He’s an engineer. Certainly hates Trump — and generally liberal. But he’s worked himself into a tizzy that the vaccine is too new. “We don’t know what this may do to our bodies in 5 or 10 years” seems to be his main fear.

    A mutual friend who is a pediatrician has tried to reach him with “well we know what the short term effects of Covid can be” but the hesitant-distruster thinks he can stay safe with masking and having all the rest of us do his work for him (our little herd is otherwise close to 100% … except his own kid, who is too young! That’s the part that rankles me the most. He may be putting his own kid at unnecessary risk).

    Sucks to have a stubborn friend, and his engineering-trained mind is telling him that he’s researched this and is making an ‘informed’ choice.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    In the battle for supremacy for the coveted America’s Stupidest Senator® award, Marsha Blackburn would like you to know she Will Not Be Overlooked.

    July 9, 2021 at 10:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) continued her feud with Taylor Swift in a Breitbart interview, warning her that if we have a “socialistic government,” the state would have to “approve her music,” and won’t “allow women to dress, or sing, to be on stage, or entertain.”

    I find it very 2021 that Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Dolly Parton are among our most-important political leaders.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @RaflW: 

    “We don’t know what this may do to our bodies in 5 or 10 years” seems to be his main fear.

    I guess that’s technically true, but the comparative risk assessment is not one a rational person would make.

  14. 14.

    RaflW

    @Bruce K: It would seem that the vast bulk of the GOP are transactionalists (and it’s a word, even if spellcheck doesn’t think so, because it is in use and people grock it).

    TFG and spawn are the most cynical version. They absolutely cannot fathom a win-win. It’s one of the reasons I can’t believe people ever bought a condo from that guy. It’s clear that he thinks his own customers are chumps. Look at how he resisted putting in sprinklers. In a fkng highrise.

  15. 15.

    phdesmond

    John D. Rockefeller, Sr., is remembered for giving a shiny new dime to everyone he met.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    @trollhattan: 

    does Blackburn really think that Swift is going to hear her and go, “Oh. Oh my. I never thought about that! You’re right, Senator Blackburn, I’ve gotta do a 180 here and support the GQP up and down my next ballot, to protect my freedom to wear what I want from those damn Dimmycrats!”?

    never mind. of course Blackburn thinks that.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @RaflW:

    This has been a persistent beef I’ve had with a Certain Cohort of Engineers for many years. IDK what it is exactly, but surely some part of it stems from believing medicine and nutrition are no different than, say, structural analysis. Others flock to woo.

    Luckily, in sum they’re a minority but it always catches me short. “You what, now?”

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    @Jeffro:

    Setting aside no current Republican could begin to define “socialism,” what Blackburn describes is pretty much what Trump wants.

  19. 19.

    Old School

    @RaflW: 

    That’s the part that rankles me the most. He may be putting his own kid at unnecessary risk

    That’s what we’re dealing with here. How much risk is too much risk? When our schools open up again in the fall, they are planning on being fully in-person with masks optional. Mrs. School is completely against the idea. Our youngest, Elementary School, falls into a higher risk category.

    Granted, cases are less prevalent – but not nonexistent – in children. And less severe in general. But it seems being more cautious doesn’t appeal to many others in the area.

  20. 20.

    dr. bloor

    @germy: My first thought as well.  The list of “favors” he’d be demanding in return for doing the obvious, decent thing would be soul-wrenching.

  21. 21.

    Belafon

    @RaflW: A friend of someone over at little green footballs refused to get the vaccine and then he caught the delta variant and passed it to his underage son.

  22. 22.

    RaflW

    @Baud: Yes. And it seems to confirm for me one of humanity’s many foibles: We make a choice out of our emotional system, or even ‘reptile’ brain, and then backfill the decision with a set of notions that create a gloss of rationality.

    I’m not knocking those of us who think of ourselves as methodical and careful. I fall into this myself. And we can train ourselves to be less reactive and less irrational. But we aren’t Spock (and even he had that human hot blood in him).

     

    eta: @Belafon Gaah. My friend’s wife is in the medical field, and vaccinated. I cannot imagine the pressure on their marriage right now.

  25. 25.

    FlyingToaster

    @Another Scott:

    I’m old enough to remember when the MotU were going to build giant factories for cranking out the stuff as soon as they were proven effective in the stage-3 trials.  Funny how we don’t hear much about that now…

    Well now, there’s a reason for that…

    [My daughter’s godlessfather is a former HIV researcher who used to work next door to mRNA researchers.]

    The equipment used to make MRNA vaccines are one-offs.  Several pieces of custom precision equipment that would take roughly a year to build, apiece.  Operated by people with advanced degrees that take about 10 years to get.

    And somehow Jared* was going to ramp up production so that we could plant a machine in every county, right?  Operated by high school dropouts, because that’s who will take $7.25 an hour.

    FFS, vaccine production remains SCIENCE.  It’s not something that yields itself to belief or easy automation until you’ve done it for a long damn time. Check back in 30 years. it’ll be a very different story.

    *and other masters of the universe.  Tax them all!

  27. 27.

    PST

    @RaflW: Agree that transactionalist must be a word because a word is needed and we all immediately understood it. So, since we are speaking of “short-sighted transactionalists” and the thread is an open one, I was disturbed to read about Hunter Biden’s art today. (I hope this hasn’t already been thoroughly aired in a thread I missed.) I hate to pick on Hunter and have always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it is inexcusable profiteering for a close presidential relative with no record as an artist to start selling paintings for six-figure prices. The story I read said that protocols have been put in place to prevent prices and the identity of purchasers from being known, even to Hunter himself, on the theory that this will prevent anyone from making a purchase in order to curry favor with the White House. I see what they’re trying to do, but that’s a little like saying it’s okay to leave bags of money on a government official’s porch as long as you wear a mask and drop it off in the middle of the night. This is way different from saying that relatives of presidents have to be allowed to make a living. Hunter isn’t hanging onto a job teaching community college, for example.

  28. 28.

    RaflW

    @trollhattan: Idiots like Backburn (and much of the GOP) will say sh*t like “You won’t be able to play your own music” and then turn around and try to tell, say, the professors at the University of Nebraska what topics they may teach at the collegiate level. Because freedumb.

  29. 29.

    Just One More Canuck

    @trollhattan: exactly – engineers are worse than doctors for thinking that because they are experts in their field, they know more than experts in every other field

  30. 30.

    WhatsMyNym

    @trollhattan:

    the state would have to “approve her music,” and won’t “allow women to dress, or sing, to be on stage, or entertain.

    It’s always projection with them.

  31. 31.

    kindness

    You got to love President Uncle Joe & his administration.  What a change between him and the last criminal leasee who tried to wreck the place and then complained he didn’t get his deposit back.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @PST:

    To me, their solution seems perfect.  Just like a blind trust.  Although I don’t know what’s to prevent the buyer from telling Hunter directly.  And if the prices are secret, how do you know they are six figures?

    Anywho, Hunter has been made famous more by the GOP than anything Biden has done.  Can you name Biden’s other family members?

  33. 33.

    Spanky

    @Another Scott:

    It’s great that the US is doing this, but it seems like such a small amount given the worldwide need.

    I hope one of the White House press Corps noodleheads asks the PressSec this question and she responds with “Do those countries have the ability to get any more vaccine into arms without having it spoil? Cite your sources for your answer, because that wasn’t a rhetorical question. Noodlehead.”

  34. 34.

    Baud

    Via LGM

    There’s so much about the Trump administration that was utterly despicable. But close to the top was Herr Miller’s crusade to deport undocumented veterans of the U.S. military. Any conceivable talk about “respecting veterans” that Republicans love to engage in should permanently fall by the wayside, but of course it won’t because it’s all just rhetoric backed with nothing anyway. But my god, deporting veterans? Anyway, this is one problem the Biden administration is trying to fix:

    The Biden administration unveiled plans Friday to bring hundreds, possibly thousands, of deported veterans and their immediate family members back to the United States, saying their removal “failed to live up to our highest values.”

  35. 35.

    The Golux

    @RaflW:

    But he’s worked himself into a tizzy that the vaccine is too new.

    Except it’s not new.  Epidemiologists have been working on vaccines for coronoaviruses since the first SARS outbreak in 2002.  The vaccines in development only needed (relatively) minor changes to be effective against Covid-19.

  36. 36.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    One of my favorite tweets from the before times:

    Stage 1: Did you hear Marianne Williamson in the debate last night? LOL!

    Stage 2: Did you see her on Fallon? She’s wacky but she’s not boring!

    Stage 3: Wow, she stuck around longer than I thought! Crazy!

    Stage 4: I have reservations about President Williamson’s crystal tariffs.

    — James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) June 28, 2019

  38. 38.

    The Golux

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR:

    …short-sighted transactionalists…

    It’s a very short trip from short-fingered vulgarian to short-sighted transactionalist,

    Which reminds me – I always found it amusing that the thing that got TFG/SFB riled up was the “short-fingered” part; apparently, he was just fine with “vulgarian”.

  39. 39.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy:

    Lots of anti-vax people on the left who despise #45 but still pass around “natural remedy” cures to each other.  They’re convinced a combination of vitamin D, zinc, and cleansing juices will ward off the virus.

    I’ve been talking to one of these people (friend of a friend on FB) and he doesn’t seem to be quite a conspiracy theorist, but he thinks of his health in this strange, strongly moralized way. He seems to think you SHOULD be able to ensure your health with exercise and diet alone if you’re doing it right, and if you get a vaccine or any kind of conventional medicine, that means you’re not taking good enough care of your body and you want a quick engineering fix. The idea that it could ever be “both/and” just doesn’t register to him.

    He leans very, very strongly on the results indicating that obesity makes for worse COVID-19 outcomes. It comes very close to blaming the victims for being fat.

    So I don’t know whether to classify him as a persuadable “system resister” or just hopeless.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Weird. Diet and exercise can’t protect one from a virus any more than it can protect one from a gunshot.  In both cases, being fit may help you survive, but it’s not protection.

  41. 41.

    Matt McIrvin

    I’ve also been seeing some people (or trollbots) on social media just spreading extravagant lies. The latest one is a claim that all the animals who were vaccinated in animal trials immediately died in gruesome fashion when they were infected with COVID, so everyone who got vaxxed is going to drop dead in the winter when they catch the virus. (Strange how we don’t see that happening NOW.)

  42. 42.

    trollhattan

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Since it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere, we can check in with Argentina and Australia and New Zealand and South Africa to find out if they’re dropping like flies.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    But- but- some of those countries don’t have 5G, so that means the vaccines are useless, right? Scandalous!

    //

  45. 45.

    Scamp Dog

    @trollhattan: Ooh, I’ll define it for you! It’s any cooperation between people outside the context of a private corporation, the milia, law enforcement, or a suitably conservative religious organization. The latter three are there to support the first item, of course.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    @Matt McIrvin:

    He seems to think you SHOULD be able to ensure your health with exercise and diet alone if you’re doing it right [. . .].

    I think for a lot of these people the (unconscious) motivation is a fear of not being in control. A pandemic virus that can strike you randomly? That is terrifying, so they concentrate with increasing tunnel vision on things that they can control.

  49. 49.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think these people/bots have been watching too many movies. This isn’t The Stand. Or any other science fiction/fantasy story where the government can somehow keep major world-changing discoveries secret for the convenience of the plot. As much as I hate sounding like a conservative when I say this, that’s giving governments (and people in general) too much credit.

    I actually have a hard time suspending my disbelief now when it comes to governments responding to emergencies and crises in movies, because I’ve seen the real world fuck it up so badly. It makes me wonder if the world would’ve been better suited or not to the challenge (with or without Trump) when movies like Outbreak released in the mid 90s

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @Matt McIrvin

    Wait the requisite amount of time until a landing and they’ll be yelping about “Covid on the MOON!” beaming down viral rays.

  52. 52.

    gvg

    @Matt McIrvin: Does he not know brains are part of the body and we made the vaccines and learned all the science behind them with out brains?  The story about the religious guy who drowned because he didn’t accept help from rescue crafts three times comes to mind with God saying I sent you help and you wouldn’t take it.  The same science that discovered vitamins and diets also found medicine. And it wasn’t quick either.  Of course you know this, but your friend is indulging in faith over reason.  Vaccines work for viruses, diets not so much.  It’s a matter of using the appropriate tool for the specific job.

  53. 53.

    Gravenstone

    @The Golux: He understood “short” and “fingered”. Plus, the obvious connotation that combination meant to imply about his lacking endowment. The “vulgarian” part flew right between his ears.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    Funny COVID thread:

    Watching those numbers trend up against the upbeat reopening stories gives everything a big Amity 4th of July weekend vibe. It’s not like everyone got eaten by the shark, but it was definitely still out there.

    All we ask is that you stay close to the shore.

    GO TO HELL COMMIE I’M HEADED FOR THE DEEP WATER FREEDOM!

    Pouring chum in my swim trunks to own the libs.

    If I can’t strap dead fish to my body when I go for a swim do we even have freedom?

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Dangerman:

    I can’t believe the Looney Tooners were ready to drink bleach for TFG but are against the vaccine because of Biden. 

    I can.  It’s no longer a political party, but a cult.  If it were still a functioning political party, albeit with cruel policies, “Inject disinfectant!” would’ve hit people upside the head like a 2×4.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Wow, has it really been eight years? That ol’ tempus sure do fugit.

    Your looking for info about Maui, BTW, was what first drew me to comment here. The rest, for better or worse, is history.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    DougJ!

    Statistics show that about two-thirds of American adults are vaccinated, but in this Missouri ICU, that number seems much lower.

    — New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) July 9, 2021

  60. 60.

    JoyceH

    @mrmoshpotato:

    It’s no longer a political party, but a cult

    Have we tried reverse psychology? “Okay, just die then, and we’ll get all your stuff. Some libtard will marry your widow, raise your kids, run your farm, and give your gun collection to the government to be melted down for scrap.”

    Of course, sending vaccines overseas might be reverse psychology as well. “Wait, you’re giving MY vaccine to foreigners?!”

  61. 61.

    sab

    @RaflW: NPR was talking to an Australian reporter about their low vax rates. She said that initially they thought lockdowns would be more effective, especially back when everyone thought vaccines would take years to develop. By the time the government realized that vaccines would be available and the new variants came, most of the vaccine supplies had been sold elsewhere. Australia has to import all its vaccines.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    So glad to see these millions of doses going out to the world.  Thanks everyone who voted Biden/Harris.

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steeplejack:

    I think for a lot of these people the (unconscious) motivation is a fear of not being in control. A pandemic virus that can strike you randomly? That is terrifying, so they concentrate with increasing tunnel vision on things that they can control.

    The thing is, I get that motivation completely, but vaccination is 100% something I can control. I took action and vastly increased my immunity.

    Another friend theorized that these people associate conventional medicine with doctors and hospitals and, transitively, with death. So their fear of death actually leads them to avoid medicine and seek interventions that aren’t coded as medical. Which, of course, increases their actual risk of death, but only via a calculus that doesn’t emotionally register for them.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sab:

    By the time the government realized that vaccines would be available and the new variants came, most of the vaccine supplies had been sold elsewhere. Australia has to import all its vaccines.

    Vaccine supplies?  Are we talking about injection supplies, needles?

  65. 65.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: Lockdowns have been effective in Australia to a degree that is completely unimaginable here. The case rates they’re worrying about are so minuscule that we’d be celebrating if we had them here.

    But of course they can’t celebrate too much because of the lockdowns. And they have to keep it up forever unless they can get people vaccinated. It sounds like a big part of the problem there is people being picky about vaccines–nobody wants the AstraZeneca vaccine, everyone wants the Pfizer, but the AZ is widely available and Pfizer is in short supply. So millions of people aren’t getting vaccinated at all because they’re holding out for Pfizer. Their right-wing antivaxxers mostly don’t tell people not to get vaccinated, they say to wait for Pfizer.

  68. 68.

    JoyceH

    @Matt McIrvin:

    So millions of people aren’t getting vaccinated at all because they’re holding out for Pfizer.

    Hey, does anyone else think the news media sort of misinterpreted and wildly over-scarified that news story about Pfizer asking the FDA to approve a booster shot?

  69. 69.

    Mary G

    @Baud: I hope she will get a front page story; she’s just extraordinary. First African-American to win the spelling bee, and she has three world records in basketball. I think she can do whatever she wants to.

    Lamh is all over it on Twitter, of course, NOLA proud.

  70. 70.

    sab

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Bush and Obama administrations were actually pretty good on epidemic response. SARS 1, MERS, swine flu and Ebola were all on their watch. Since they responded well we didn’t have a crisis, so it looked like the government didn’t do anything when actually it did, and did it well.

  72. 72.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JoyceH: My impression is they are like teenagers with the whole “you can’t be the boss of me”, and ignoring them with comments like “that’s nice dear, be sure to make your’ goodbyes to the your’ dog before the end” is far more effective when they start with the “look at me, I am UNVACCINATED and you can’t make me!” than arguing with them.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    @Mary G:

    You know, I’m starting to understand why Republican voters resent us so much. Freaking overachievers keep making us me look bad.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    @Matt McIrvin:

    [. . .] vaccination is 100% something I can control. I took action and vastly increased my immunity.

    You’re submitting to the judgment of unknown others (the Man!) about what’s good for you. No way!

  77. 77.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Whatever happened to the Novavax vaccine? I recall seeing headlines three or four weeks ago saying that the US trials were over and it was 90% effective (seems like there should have been at least some Delta here while those trials were ongoing). I assume they submitted the data to the FDA but it seems like the FDA could have approved it by now. We really don’t need more vaccine here in the US at present but if it really is comparable in effectiveness to the Pfizer and Moderna ones then the rest of the world could hella use it.

  78. 78.

    Tarragon

    @Baud: I guess that’s technically true, but the comparative risk assessment is not one a rational person would make.

    Not an excuse, but maybe an explanation.  Engineers often deal with issues in terms of Risk of Event times Severity of Event and that sometimes breaks their ability to make rational decisions around low probability, high severity risks.  Also, engineers are often “smart people” in the same way doctors are so it gets even worse outside their field of expertise.

    As an engineer I have my own risk issues. For example I refuse to park a car in our attached garage because cars sometimes catch fire while parked and there’s a bedroom above the garage.  Crazy low probability, crazy high severity. Understandable but not rational…

  80. 80.

    Baud

    Biden to sign order to crack down on Big Tech, boost competition ‘across the board’
    Those wide-ranging goals and initiatives include:

    • Urging the Federal Trade Commission to “challenge prior bad mergers” that previous administrations let slide
    • Pushing the FTC to ban occupational licensing restrictions, arguing they “impede economic mobility”
    • Encouraging the FTC to ban or limit non-compete agreements
    • Encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to restore “net neutrality” rules that were undone during the Trump administration
    • Asking the FCC to block exclusivity deals between landlords and broadband providers
    • Lowering prescription drug prices by supporting state and tribal efforts to import cheaper drugs from Canada
    • Allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter
    • Establishing a “White House Competition Council” to lead federal responses to large corporations’ growing economic power

     

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The thing I don’t understand about the people who are afraid about long-term effects of the vaccine is why they dismiss long-term effects of the virus so easily. Of the two, the virus is the one that we know has long-term effects that are bad. But somehow, that gets “it’s just a flu, my body can handle it” while they freak out about these tiny, remote risks of vaccination.

    And all the bad things the vaccine could reasonably do to you… are things the virus does to you, worse.

  82. 82.

    Spanky

    @sab:

    I spent a whole summer just trying to learn how to ride a unicycle without juggling.

    Well there’s your problem. If you had been juggling, learning to unicycle would have been a snap.

  83. 83.

    StringOnAStick

    @germy: Earlier in the pandemic there was strong evidence that people who were chronically low on Vitamin D were the sickest, and unfortunately low D levels are pretty common in western adults.  It won’t keep you from getting sick but it appears to impact severity in many cases.  What makes it tricky is as a fat soluble vitamin, you can overdose in D because your body stores it instead of peeing out the excess like with water soluble vitamins (C, the B’s, etc.).  D is technically a prohormone, meaning your body needs it to make certain hormones, among it’s other purposes, like assisting in utilization of calcium (calcium is not just about bones, it is critical in making heart muscle function).

    Our cousin the MD internist orders a Vitamin D test anytime a patient complains of tiredness.  I was at what I described as “soul crushing exhaustion” to my doc 10 years ago, who immediately ordered the test and found my levels were so low that I was risking a heart attack.  The difference in my life after getting my levels back to healthy was enormous and I am tested yearly to make sure I’m neither too high or too low.

    The perversity of US supplement rules mean anyone can grab a bottle and work their way up to overdose levels, which is a concern amongst the “supplements and diet are better than that scary vaccination” crowd .  People have agency and often exercise it without enough knowledge to do it safely; I can’t change that but I can definitely share my experience , that it’s common past age 30, and encourage people to get Vitamin D levels checked at their annual physical.  It’s a lot more common to be low on D than people realize, including some MD’s.

  84. 84.

    Anoniminous

    @germy: ​
     

    Lots of anti-vax people on the left who despise #45 but still pass around “natural remedy” cures to each other. They’re convinced a combination of vitamin D, zinc, and cleansing juices will ward off the virus.

    Not surprising at all. Americans are appalling ignorant of Biology, e.g., 64% according to a Pew Research survey reject the Theory of Evolution.

  85. 85.

    sab

    @Spanky: Bicycles you only balance side to side, and you can coast. Unicycles you can fall sideways, you can fall forwards, you can fall backwards, and you have to peddle continuously or you will fall over. I didn’t have to learn to ride a bicycle. I just got on one at age five and peddled away. The unicycle was a whole different experience.

  86. 86.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin:He leans very, very strongly on the results indicating that obesity makes for worse COVID-19 outcomes. It comes very close to blaming the victims for being fat.

    This is my mother – she always mutters that almost all the people in the hospital who die of Covid are “morbidly obese” but “they” won’t tell you that. Evidently this is an article of faith on the right, that mostly it’s the victim’s own fault that they are dying of Covid.

  87. 87.

    Fair Economist

    @Baud: If Biden’s anti-monopoly executive can be enforced to any substantial extent, it will be a godsend to the American economy and people. The economic losses to monopoly and oligopoly in this country are just staggering.

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @StringOnAStick:  It’s a lot more common to be low on D than people realize, including some MD’s.

    This happened to me, I got checked because of bone thinning at a relatively young age. Taking regular supplements got my levels up to normal. That could explain some of the tiredness I used to attribute to taking OTC meds for my seasonal allergies.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: And all the bad things the vaccine could reasonably do to you… are things the virus does to you, worse.

    Yep, that tells me it’s not really worry about the long-term effects, but something else.

  92. 92.

    Anoniminous

    @Soprano2:

    The plurality of Americans are <a href=”https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html”>obese</a> — 42.4% for those who don’t want to click the link.  So it’s one of those almost-accurate Factoids Right Wing propagandist scum like to toss around.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @StringOnAStick: Until recently, vitamin D was the one thing I was actually supplementing because I had a diagnosed deficiency. I’m not sure it did me any noticeable good but I’m still taking them and my levels seem OK.

    After my recent surgery, my orthopedist put me on a multivitamin–maybe just to make sure any appetite loss or whatever in the immediate aftermath didn’t leave me deficient in anything. My understanding is that for most people, multivitamins don’t actually do more good than harm, but doctor’s orders are doctor’s orders.

  94. 94.

    Soprano2

    Wow, I just read that our Springfield Fire Chief declared Springfield’s Covid crisis a “mass casualty event” happening in slow motion. That’ll get the governor’s panties in a twist, because he stated in an interview that there isn’t really a Covid crisis here, that the hospitals definitely aren’t overwhelmed *rolleyes*, and that saying otherwise is misleading people. He’s the moron who’s misleading people!

  97. 97.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: In the worst-hit parts of Missouri the numbers are as bad or almost as bad as they were last winter. And it’s all 100% preventable now.

  100. 100.

    chopper

    @germy:

    Anti-Vaxxers – those that believe one or more conspiracy theories about vaccines or COVID-19. This group is likely to be largely unreachable and have reasoned themselves into a position where they will not accept the vaccine.

    i wouldn’t use the word “reasoned” tho

  101. 101.

    PST

    @Baud: Blind trusts are usually used to prevent the beneficiary from knowing what financial assets he owns so he can’t pursue policies that favor the companies in his portfolio. The issue with Hunter Biden is that he is selling assets that have no objective market value, so it is tempting for someone who wants to buy influence to pay a huge price for what would otherwise be an amateur’s daubing. The WaPo story gave the expected price range and an ethical view from someone I’ve come to respect:

    But the arrangement is drawing detractors, including ethics experts as well as art critics who suggest that Hunter Biden’s art would never be priced so high if he had a different last name. Bergès [the dealer] has said that prices for the paintings would range from $75,000 to $500,000.

    “The whole thing is a really bad idea,” said Richard Painter, who was chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. “The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices.”

    Sell ten or 20 of those and you’ve got it made for life. And since it is an asset that people hang on their walls, word is bound to get out who owns one. Even if President Biden never lets this influence him one iota, it looks terrible. It’s like buying a mansion and then flipping it to a Russian oligarch for multiples of what you paid, except art is even harder to value objectively than real estate. That looked corrupt when the Trump family did it. This isn’t the President’s fault and it doesn’t reflect on him personally, but it stinks and it makes it easier for the opposition to say, “everybody does it.”

  102. 102.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: Agreed. My read on things is that Lambda is no more transmissible than Delta, but like Delta can punch through some natural and vaccine immunity, but causes more severe symptoms/hospitalization.

    But the CA leg reinstated their mask requirement after 9 staffers contracted Covid, 4 of which were fully vaccinated. They have an 85% vaccination rate and are back to mandatory masks. Not sure what variant, but I’ll bet tonights cocktail that it’s delta.

  103. 103.

    gvg

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Any future vaccines are not going to bother applying for approval in the US because we are oversupplied. It costs money to apply here.  So they will apply elsewhere. Probably the EU as some countries still don’t have enough and approval there is good for the reputation but also other countries that need it, preferably countries  with some money…Drug companies do need to get paid although not as much as they always want.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @PST:

    Has he even sold one yet?

    I agree the critical issue is how well the protections work, and it does seem harder to accomplish than with a traditional blind trust.

    But I stand by my view that anyone who is interested in Hunter Biden is interested because he has been the victim of GOP attacks rather than because he is a Biden.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @PST:

    @Baud:

    I’ll add, ethicists lost some credibility with me after they tried to push the “only one family member in government” argument to make Biden seem akin to Trump.

  107. 107.

    Martin

    @Baud: Unenforceable non-competes are one of California’s secret economic weapons. Critical for startups.

    Overall, this is a really nice grab-bag of efforts. I especially like loosening of occupational licensing – particularly between states.

  109. 109.

    PST

    @Omnes Omnibus: Art he is creating. See Deal of the art: White House grapples with ethics of Hunter Biden’s pricey paintings in the Post, which is relatively nice about it. Long story short, Hunter Biden has taken up painting and multi-media, and he has a dealer who says that his stuff will fetch a bundle. I tend to believe it. The White House is trying to grapple with the fallout. The current plan is to make the sales completely anonymous, but that absence of transparency raises as many issues as it solves.

  113. 113.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @StringOnAStick: Did you read that article in Outside Magazine from a few years back titled “Is Sunscreen the New Margarine?” It made a fairly compelling case but further study has found that unless one is severely deficient in D that supplements don’t really do anything to enhance health outcomes. There are also indications that D is a marker for other sunlight induced health benefits – e.g. it appears to be involved in the production of nitrous oxide in the blood, which is important for blood vessel dilation. The article basically argues that D is a marker for other sunlight induced health benefits and just supplementing with D isn’t doing enough.

    A lot of people criticized it highly but they all fall back on “it doesn’t take that much sun exposure to get enough D so keep wearing sunscreen” without addressing his argument that it’s not entirely the vitamin D that is causing the health benefits of sunlight. I don’t know. I’ve never been D deficient and take a multivitamin with 150% of the RDA of D. In the winter I’ll supplement more. There seems to have been further fairly compelling peer reviewed evidence that sunlight is important for health in the interim. I’m not saying don’t wear sunscreen, at least at this time of year when the sun is at its most intense, but the risk of skin cancer seems low compared to the increased risks of heart attack, stroke, and various types of cancers that are associated with vitamin D deficiencies and lack of sun exposure. It’s something of a tradeoff – maybe you get skin cancer but if that keeps you from having a coronary early in life maybe it’s worth it?

  114. 114.

    Baud

    @PST:

    Since no one can ban Hunter from being an artist, does anyone in the article propose an actual ideal solution to avoid ethical concerns?  I can’t click right now, but it sounds like neither anonymity nor disclosure are sufficient solutions, so nothing can be done.

  115. 115.

    Gravenstone

    @Baud: Also, more than a bit of double standard. Sprogs of famous Republicans (or even those adjacent to the families) are typically more than happy to try and cash in on their family prestige/notoriety. With their partisan media infrastructure supporting and amplifying them all the way. Should a Democrat attempt anything of the sort, and it’s vilification from sunrise to sunset.

  116. 116.

    Baud

    @Gravenstone: The hypocrisy is a given.  But I also want to set and enforce our own standards.  Hunter is a private citizen, and Biden hasn’t brought him in as an advisor, so Hunter isn’t bound by any government ethical constraints.  The question is, given what he wants to do, what are the appropriate walls to put up to protect White House ethics?

  117. 117.

    Martin

    @Baud: Yeah, under the best of circumstances these kinds of assets are almost impossible to value (see NFTs). If market valuation is how we’re going to continue to do this, there really is nothing that can be done.

  118. 118.

    PST

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    There are also indications that D is a marker for other sunlight induced health benefits – e.g. it appears to be involved in the production of nitrous oxide in the blood, which is important for blood vessel dilation.

    Which is why nitrous oxide in the blood is essential for erections, among other benefits. You can always get your vitamin D from a pill. But I guess that’s true of erections too.

  123. 123.

    Old School

    @Baud:

    Here’s what the White House wants:

    Two sources familiar with the sales arrangement told CNN that the purchaser of the artwork will be kept anonymous and neither Hunter Biden nor the public will have knowledge of who bid on or purchased the work. If there is any unusual behavior — such as the offer price being too high or the collector doesn’t appear interested in the work — the gallery is expected to turn down the offer, the sources said.

  124. 124.

    PST

    @Baud: I agree that nothing can be done. Hunter Biden is being a selfish prick and putting his father in a bad position. If he wants to paint he should paint. Maybe he can sell something ten years from now. His father should just keep him at arm’s length, as difficult as that would be. I’m not sure I even like the idea of the White House negotiating the blind sale agreement to try to help insulate the President from criticism. It won’t help, and by getting tangled up that far it could be interpreted as tacit approval of a sort. As far as I’m concerned, Hunter is hurting us all by making Joe’s job harder at a critical time, but no one can stop him if he’s determined.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @Old School: 

    I’m not sure what else they can do, but the purchaser isn’t bound by the anonymity promise, so I’m not sure what the contingency is for that

    .@PST: 

    Well, I don’t see how ignoring the situation and doing nothing is any better for the White House.

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    Gravenstone

    And yet no one so much as raised an eyebrow over this about a certain couple’s D.C. digs.

    [Ivanka and Jared are] renting their current house from billionaire Andrónico Luksic, who bought it for $5.5 million through a shell company in December 2016. The Chilean national is renting the home to the family for a sum of $15,000 a month, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    Luksic is also the owner of a mining conglomerate — Antofagasta PLC and its subsidiary, Twin Metals Minnesota LLC — which is feuding with the US government over a mineral deposit worth billions of dollars. Source

    (Judging from the accompanying pictures, a student backpack would be sufficient to pack up their books when they moved out. That is, assuming the books weren’t rentals as well.)

  128. 128.

    stinger

    Thank you so much for this post. I had no idea we were *already* shipping vaccines abroad, just that we’d said we would. This is both wonderful humanitarianship and a likely boost in rebuilding goodwill towards the US around the world.

  132. 132.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    “Hunter Biden today was trading on his role as First Son to get a job as an assistant manager at the beachfront Hooters in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.  Long known for having the prettiest girls on Delaware’s oceanfront, it is highly likely that he will command a salary of $36,000 and all of the troubled young women with daddy issues that he can paw until he’s fired.  That pay is at least $2,800 more than he’d make at a Wilmington Hooters.  I am shocked, so shocked that he would take advantage of his unique position as a son.”

    Brian Kilmeade, Fox and Friends 2023

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @PST: What career fields may Hunter Biden choose?   Whatever he does he will always be Biden’s son and people will treat him as such.  Sometimes better, sometimes times worse.
    Let’s not get wound up in this stuff.  It doesn’t benefit anyone but the right.  He made an effort to insulate the White House while pursuing a calling.

  135. 135.

    Martin

    @Baud: Honestly, a decent solution to this is a properly progressive tax rate. You want that financial windfall? Great, pay your 80%.

  137. 137.

    James E Powell

    @PST:

    I really don’t think Hunter is making his father’s job harder. Biden does not respond to the FOX/GQP outrage of the day. The team seems to go about its business without being distracted. That Psaki has to respond to the questions doesn’t mean the administration is focused on it.

  140. 140.

    StringOnAStick

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: All good points, and I switched to mineral based sunscreen out of suspicion that absorbing the other kind might have reduced my ability to absorb vitamin D from food.  I’ve always lived in high sunlight areas and I’m outdoors for hours almost every day all season; one change I like from moving to OR from CO is I don’t feel as “under assault” from the sun due I think mostly to the lower altitude and more trees so more shade when hiking or mountain biking.  I bought some sun shield sleeves from Outdoor Research for biking  and if I feel overheated I just squirt water on them and enjoy the swamp cooker effect.  I try to wear long sleeves as much as possible for recreational stuff.

    My husband is fair skinned and has a form of chronic leukaemia that makes him more susceptible to skin cancer, and he’s had a patch of lentigo melanoma (not even stage 1 but you don’t screw around with melanoma) removed from his forearm. He’s switched entirely to thin but long sleeves or else wears white biking sleeves. It’s a balance for sure, some sun is good but if you’re outside a lot you need to regulate your exposure level.

    I had a severe attack of vertigo right before my low D diagnosis, couldn’t drive or work for a month. When I went to an ENT a few months later he linked it to the low D, telling me that low D makes you more susceptible to vital infections and that my vertigo was likely a viral infection of the inner ear.

  148. 148.

    Bill Arnold

    @RaflW:

    But he’s worked himself into a tizzy that the vaccine is too new. “We don’t know what this may do to our bodies in 5 or 10 years” seems to be his main fear.

    So your engineer is concerned about unknown (no evidence yet) long term negative effects of e.g. mRNA vaccines, which essentially convert some cells in one arm into SARS-CoV2 spike protein factories, and is not concerned about long term negative effects of actual SARS-CoV-2, which converts (some of the) cells in the body that express ACE2 into virus factories, said viruses including the spike protein. Some of those cells are probably important to your engineer, like oh neurons in parts of the brain:
    The Spatial and Cell-Type Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 Receptor ACE2 in the Human and Mouse Brains (20 January 2021)

    Thus, our results reveal an outline of ACE2/Ace2 distribution in the human and mouse brains, which indicates that the brain infection of SARS-CoV-2 may be capable of inducing central nervous system symptoms in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.

    I.e. they have not surveyed the research literature!

  149. 149.

    WhatsMyNym

    Mayo Clinic –

    Vitamin D is a nutrient your body needs for building and maintaining healthy bones. That’s because your body can only absorb calcium, the primary component of bone, when vitamin D is present. Vitamin D also regulates many other cellular functions in your body. Its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective properties support immune health, muscle function and brain cell activity.
    …
    The recommended daily amount of vitamin D is 400 international units (IU) for children up to age 12 months, 600 IU for people ages 1 to 70 years, and 800 IU for people over 70 years.

  150. 150.

    Cermet

    @StringOnAStick: Vitamin D is essential for the body to build proteins that neutralize viruses in mucus membranes (nose, lung) – the problem for deficient people is it takes three to four months for a person to build up these proteins as they take Vit D.  Yes, Vit D is useful for bacteria infections (it alerts and activates white blood cells) and apparently helps against  (through I have no idea why) viral infections, too.

  152. 152.

    PST

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I definitely remember Billy Carter and his beer. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this story. I think the incident made it just the tiniest bit easier for the opposition to make fun of President Carter. I am deeply ashamed that I voted for a third party candidate in 1980. I was young and dumb, and I have never and will never make that mistake again. But everything that helped make Carter seem like an ineffectual joke to young, dumb people like me hurt the cause.

  153. 153.

    Chetan Murthy

    @RaflW: I’ll pretend that his concerns are valid.  He should have no qualms, then, about using one of the new vaccines coming out that are based on old tech.  That is to say, not mRNA and not virus-vectors: the “protein-based” vaccines.

    If he doesn’t *work* to get access to one of those, then he’s just a straight-up moron antivaxxer.

  154. 154.

    StringOnAStick

    @Cermet: Thanks for the detail on why D helps against viruses.

    My doctor has me on 5,000 iu/day, down from 6,000, and blood tests show that’s perfect for me; one size does not fit all and obviously taking such a high dose without medical supervision would be insane.  There’s risks to too much D too, but that doesn’t stop the “diet, exercise and supplements” gurus.

  158. 158.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @StringOnAStick: I supplement with D but not the huge doses as I was aware that too much isn’t good for you. This time of year I have a couple of UPF 50+ shirts I usually don if I’m going to be out in the sun for a long time and put sunscreen on my face and neck every day. Round about late October through March I don’t generally bother with sunscreen at all.

    My dermatologist may disapprove but the sun is pretty weak that time of year and so I figure the extra natural D may be more beneficial than the damage from the sun that time of year. But who knows? I usually wear shorts in the summer (here in DC it is too hot for long pants) and don’t generally put sunscreen on my legs. They never burn or get super brown. I’m in the sun probably 3-4 hours total but only about an hour of that time is around noon.

    My dad has had a couple things removed – pre-cancerous growths (carcinoma). Yes, melanoma is not anything to mess around with at all. My biggest worry re: skin cancer is that I had a doc put my on one of the cyclynes (doxy or tetra, I can’t remember which) as a teenager for acne. I was not super careful about sun exposure while on it because a) I was a teenager and any consequences seemed, like, unimaginably far in the future and b) in the ’80 they were just starting to worry about sun exposure so wearing sunscreen really hadn’t penetrated public consciousness. Plus I’m not sure there were even broad spectrum ones back then so who knows if wearing it would have even done me any good anyway. I know people my age that have had stuff removed already and so far so good for me – I just had my annual derm exam about a month ago and nothing concerning yet at 52 years of age.

  160. 160.

    WhatsMyNym

    @PST: ​

    Bergès [the dealer] has said that prices for the paintings would range from $75,000 to $500,000.

    Maybe the dealer is just using the suggested high prices to attract more free publicity to the show. BTW the show isn’t until the fall.

  161. 161.

    Soprano2

    @Gravenstone: No, Springfield, MO. Sorry I didn’t put the state there. I’m in the middle of the worst outbreak in the U.S. right now.

  162. 162.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @PST: Carter’s deregulation of home brewing ushered in the craft beer movement. So while his brother may have been something of an embarrassment we have him to thank for beer with flavor. I really don’t understand why the GOP can turn a family member of every Democratic POTUS into a punching bag (well, the Obamas were cool enough to prevent any and all attempts from taking) but “family is off limits” when an R is in office.

  165. 165.

    CaseyL

    @Cermet: Is regular ol’ Vitamin D the same as Vitamin D3?  I take fairly large doses of D3, as a sort of help-along for my anti-depressants.  (I take D3 when I remember to, which is “irregularly.”)
    I figured the D3 meant I didn’t also need to take D, but there are different forms of Vitamin B that all do different things, so I better do a little research on this.​
     

    ETA: Nope; they’re the same thing. Slightly different formulation, with D3 being a bit more efficient in terms of absorption into the body. Good! I really don’t want to add more pills to my routine.

  166. 166.

    Fair Economist

    @Baud:

    Since no one can ban Hunter from being an artist, does anyone in the article propose an actual ideal solution to avoid ethical concerns?

    Of course nothing can be done, and that’s the point. It’s our old enemy the “clouds and shadows” trick – it’s just to create “concerns” that can be yacked about endlessly until most people start believing in non-existent corruption.

  167. 167.

    TomatoQueen

    O/T but could this be the general praise for Pres Biden thread for a minute?

    In my inbox at the same time as a GINORMOUS thunderclap (Elsa’s skirts draggin’ us) today appears the following:

    4:39 PM (31 minutes ago)

    From: ^Commissioner Broadcast <[email protected]>

    Sent: Friday, July 9, 2021 4:30 PM

    Subject: Change in Leadership

    A Message to All SSA and DDS Employees:

    Today, President Biden made the decision to change agency leadership and has asked me to serve as the Acting Commissioner.  Over the past several months, I have gained great appreciation for SSA and I have witnessed the commitment you bring to public service each day.   I thank former Commissioner Saul and Deputy Commissioner Black for their service to the public.  I am a strong believer in collaboration and Scott Frey and I look forward to working with all of you.  This is a pivotal time for the agency and the nation and I know we can overcome any challenge when we confront it together.

    Kilolo Kijakaz

    iActing Commissioner

    I believe a certain USPS Commissioner is next.

    You may imagine me dancing around the room and yelling a lot.

    WAHEY!

  168. 168.

    WhatsMyNym

    @CaseyL:   D3 is fine, there is also D2 for supplements.  Just take one kind.  Get a test to see what your levels are.I take 2,000 of D3 daily because of food absorbance issues. I can tell when I get lazy and stop taking it after a couple of weeks.​​

    ETA: NIH fact sheet

  169. 169.

    germy

    WASHINGTON (AP) – Two high-ranking Trump political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency engaged in fraudulent payroll activities – including payments to employees after they were fired and to one of the officials when he was absent from work – that cost the agency more than $130,000, a report by an internal watchdog says.

    https://wnyt.com/money/watchdog-2-trump-epa-appointees-defrauded-agency-of-130k/6166480/?utm_medium=onsite&utm_campaign=thumbnails&utm_source=zetaglobal

  173. 173.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    Although I could only afford a poster version…

    There are those who think putting the original artwork on your wall is somehow different from/better than putting an adequately verisimilitudinous reproduction.  I’m not in that camp.  De gustibus and all that.  I’d be happy to have a reproduction of that one with the text background and hand-like thing in the foreground.

    3D-Printers, assemble!

  174. 174.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    When Delta rages around in September/October and is slicing through the ranks of drawling morons who eschewed jabs and masks, those selfsame drawling morons will be whining about how Biden done gived away all them vaccines to colored people in foreign lands and he don’t care none about hardworkin’ ‘Murkans.

    At this point, I hope he gives away every dose.

  177. 177.

    trollhattan

    La-la-la-la I can’t HEAR you.

    There’s a decent chance that this could be the hottest weekend ever in Sacramento’s recorded history, dating back nearly 150 years.

    The National Weather Service on Friday morning upped earlier estimates for the heat wave blanketing interior California, now predicting a high of 111 degrees Saturday and 110 degrees Sunday in the capital city. A Sacramento Bee review of weather service records found that, going back to 1877, there has only been one weekend whose two-day maximum temperature averaged more than 110 degrees.

    It happened less than a year ago, on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, 2020 — when the state experienced a heat wave so sweltering that the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s grid, imposed rolling blackouts for the first time in nearly two decades. Highs of 111 degrees Aug. 15 and 112 degrees Aug. 16 made for the hottest Saturday-Sunday pairing ever in Sacramento.

    The NWS Sacramento office in a tweet Friday morning shared an infographic showing there is a chance — not likely, but not out of the question — Saturday’s max temperatures could reach 114 degrees or higher across a large swath of the Sacramento Valley, including nearly all of Sacramento County.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/weather-news/article252673603.html#storylink=cpy

    Goodie.

  179. 179.

    Citizen Alan

    @PST:

    Eh. It’s perhaps a bit crass, but so was “Billy Beer” during the Carter Admin. The simple fact is that there is a class of people who will buy “art” from someone, irrespective of its quality, so long as they’re in some sense famous. It’s just a symptom of America’s ridiculous star-fucker mentality, and not as bad IMO as getting 6-figure payoffs for one-time speeches. At least the art work will still exist after the check clears. And I bet Hunter’s getting a fraction of what Shrub could get for a picture of himself  in the bathtub that looks like a 6th grader did it.

  181. 181.

    Citizen Alan

    @Old School: 
    I actually kinda like the ones they showed. It’s pretty much my aesthetic when it comes to art. Granted, I wouldn’t pay $500,000 for a house let alone a painting, even if I had that much laying around. But if I were pulling in the big bucks, I could see dropping $5-10k for something like that.

  182. 182.

    chopper

    @Patricia Kayden: 

    Just shy of a majority of Republicans believe states should override the results of the popular vote of their citizens

    the only reason the response wasn’t 100% yes was that they didn’t tack “if a democrat wins” at the end of the question.

  184. 184.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chief Oshkosh: Not exactly. It’s only a slightly older technology than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines–a recombinant adenovirus that has been modified to deliver COVID spike protein genes instead of the genes to reproduce itself. The AstraZeneca vaccine is like that too.

    A “traditional” vaccine would consist of COVID-19 viruses that have been killed or weakened somehow. An example of that type of vaccine is… the Sinovac vaccine, which has had questions raised about how effective it really is.

  185. 185.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Old School: I’m actually slightly impressed–it’s not masterpiece stuff, but the guy is competent and seems to be expressing actual ideas. My color choices would be different.

  186. 186.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Not only that, but he’s 51 years old.  When does he get to be an independent person, able to make his own decisions, able to live his own life, without his father somehow being in charge or affected by him??

    It’s a stupid concern, and it’s a distraction.

    Hunter doesn’t work for the government, he doesn’t work in the White House.  He’s a private citizen.

    If he can sell one of his very interesting painting for $500k, good for him.  I hope he gets and Emmy and and a Peabody and wins the Ironman, also too.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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