Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Democrats are back in array!

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

No Justins, No Peace

Fight them, without becoming them!

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Shikata ga nai Open Thread: Updates on the Tokyo 2020 Asterisk Olympics

Shikata ga nai Open Thread: Updates on the Tokyo 2020 Asterisk Olympics

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It can’t be helped…

… No foreign fans. No local attendance in Tokyo-area venues. A reluctant populace navigating a surge of virus cases amid a still-limited vaccination campaign. Athletes and their entourages confined to a quasi-bubble, under threat of deportation. Government minders and monitoring apps trying — in theory, at least — to track visitors’ every move. Alcohol curtailed or banned. Cultural exchanges, the kind that power the on-the-ground energy of most Games, completely absent.

And running like an electric current through it all: the inescapable knowledge of the suffering and sense of displacement that COVID-19 has ushered in, both here and around the world.

All signs point to an utterly surreal and atomized Games, one that will divide Japan into two worlds during the month of Olympics and Paralympics competition.

On one side, most of Japan’s largely unvaccinated, increasingly resentful populace will continue soldiering on through the worst pandemic to hit the globe in a century, almost entirely separated from the spectacle of the Tokyo Games aside from what they see on TV. Illness and recovery, work and play, both curtailed by strict virus restrictions: Life, such as it is, will go on here.

Meanwhile, in massive (and massively expensive) locked-down stadiums, vaccinated super-athletes, and the legions of reporters, IOC officials, volunteers and handlers that make the Games go, will do their best to concentrate on sports served up to a rapt and remote audience of billions…

Barring catastrophe, the IOC, local newspapers (many of which are also sponsors), Japanese TV, and rights holders like NBC will likely be unified in their message: Just getting through will be cast as a triumph.

Not many visiting journalists, however, will linger in ICUs or chase down interviews with angry residents who feel these Games were hoisted onto the nation so that the IOC could collect its billions in TV money…

Some numbers here, to show the calculations involved:

Struggling businesses forced to temporarily shut down around Olympics venues. Olympic visitors ordered to install invasive apps and allow GPS tracking. Minders staking out hotels to keep participants from coming into contact with ordinary Japanese or visiting restaurants to sample the sushi…

The worry for many here, however, isn’t too much Big Brother. It’s that all the increased precautions won’t be nearly enough to stop the estimated 85,000 athletes, officials, journalists and other workers coming into Japan from introducing fast-spreading coronavirus variants to a largely unvaccinated population already struggling with mounting cases.

“It’s all based on the honor system, and it’s causing concern that media people and other participants may go out of their hotels to eat in Ginza,” Takeshi Saiki, an opposition lawmaker, said of what he called Japan’s lax border controls. So far, the majority of Olympic athletes and other participants have been exempted from typical quarantine requirements.

There have been regular breakdowns in security as the sheer enormity of trying to police so many visitors becomes clearer — and the opening ceremony looms. The Japanese press is filled with reports of Olympic-related people testing positive for the coronavirus. Photos and social media posts show foreigners linked to the Games breaking mask rules and drinking in public, smoking in airports — even, if the bios are accurate, posting on dating apps.

“There are big holes in the bubbles,” said Ayaka Shiomura, another opposition lawmaker, speaking of the so-called “bubbles” that are supposed to separate the Olympics’ participants from the rest of the country…

… Some athletes, among them Japan’s football [soccer] team men’s captain, Maya Yoshida, question the decision to bar spectators.

“A lot of people’s tax money is going to hold these Olympics,” Yoshida recently. “Despite that, people can’t go and watch. So you wonder about who the Olympics is for, and what it is for.”

[Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe] Dubi said such questions should be put to the organisers and local authorities.

“We have received questions from a number of athletes who are observing the same. As far as the IOC is concerned we respect this decision and abide by this rule but you could address this question to the organising committee or the local authorities,” he said when asked by Reuters.

Dubi said there was still the possibility that should the number of coronavirus cases drop then organisers could review the ban.

… “There are many issues with these Games that are proving difficult to be understood,” Toyota Chief Communications Officer Jun Nagata told reporters Monday.

Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, the company founder’s grandson, will be skipping the opening ceremony. That’s despite about 200 athletes taking part in the Olympics and Paralympics who are affiliated with Toyota, including swimmer Takeshi Kawamoto and softball player Miu Goto.

Nagata said the company will continue to support its athletes…

Motoyuki Niitsuma, a manufacturing plant worker who was banging on a bucket in a recent Tokyo protest against the Olympics, said he didn’t like the idea of cheering for the national team, and the pandemic has made that message clear.

“The time to compete is over. Now is the time to cooperate,” he said. “We should never have gotten the Games.”

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    phdesmond

    the asterisk

    is like Escherischia coli

    but was invented by

    Asteriskos of Samothrake.

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    I’m more concerned about the approaching College Football season than the Olympics. Those giant stadiums of the SEC are gonna be packed with Folks, mainly without any masks, etc.; at least Tokyo will be trying.

    That said, the Games could be a CF. Time will tell.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    Hey Anne Laurie, this is really a Covid thread, masquerading as an Olympics thread!  :-)

    I predict that by a week from now, Olympics and Covid will be synonymous.  Just proving that you are ahead of your time, as always.

  9. 9.

    Martin

    Toyota too sensitive to advertise during the games, but will fund Republicans who tried to overturn the election? Need some cultural uniformity here buds.

  11. 11.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    I know a lot of people love the Olympics, but in all seriousness if you have a group of people in your city trying to bring them in you should quietly beat them senseless until they agree to stop.

    They are excellent at displacing the poor in the host cities and sucking their coffers dry for the benefit of a tiny group of bloated plutocrats and the tiny group of people who can actually afford to go.

    Their time has come and gone. They should be ended.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    So, about the ‘all athletes are vaccinated, probably’…

    Olympic swimmer Michael Andrew defends decision to not get vaccinated, calls it a “risk” he’s willing to take

    Star American swimmer Michael Andrew says he is standing by his decision to not get the COVID-19 vaccine before the Tokyo Olympics.

    Andrew, an Olympic gold medal favorite, said in an interview on the Fox Business show “Varney & Co.” on Tuesday that remaining unvaccinated is a “risk” he’s willing to take.

    “Everything we take and put in our body is very calculated,” he said. “You know, with the period going into Olympic trials, I didn’t want to risk any time out of the pool.”

    Honestly not sure which is worse, deciding to forgo the vaccine or deciding to talk about that decision on Fox Business,

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    @polyorchnid octopunch: Or they should be in the same location year after year.

    Cities want the olympics because they think it’s a good way to get “free” infrastructure.  It’s also used in the same way as budget cuts at Universities and businesses.

    They use that as an excuse to get rid of the people they would prefer not to have anyway, so they get rid of a position, and then when (miraculously there is more money again) they fill the position with someone new.

    That’s what these countries do with the poor.  Get ’em out of there for the Olympics, then they can do what they want and build what they want.  Sociopaths everywhere.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Not The Onion, just a B-J version reminiscent of it.

    “American Journalists Reported Lost While Searching For Heartland Diners In Japan”

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    Fingers and toes crossed no one on or associated with a U.S. team shows up on camera wearing a MAGA hat.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: I’m sure it’s beyond hard.  But if you’re sure, then it’s the right thing.

    Do they have any idea what the meeting is going to be about?  I’m sure your leaving will be a devastating loss for them.  (Not intended to make you feel bad or feel guilty, just thinking that if I had lost someone like you, it would have been a real blow.)

    The good thing is that you can bring all of your talents to bear on other things, whenever you choose.

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    @Cameron: There was, earlier today, a lawsuit tossed out where the plaintiffs were students objecting to their university’s planned vaccination mandate. Specifically, they were objecting to the ‘if you have a religious exemption, you don’t have to be vaccinated, but you do have to wear a mask, get tested regularly, etc.’ One student objected because, among other things, a mask interferes with her deadlifting.

    The judge was like LOL no (using slightly more legalistic  language).

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    These Olympics prove to me that the Games have completely and irrevocably lost whatever meaning they once had.  The competitors are not amateurs; the national pride evaporates the day after the medaling event; and the IOC is so corrupt, so reckless and thoughtless, it blows the mind.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: The IOC should be burned down to the ground.

    Incredibly,
    Obscenely
    Corrupt

    We need to find a word that fits and begins with O.

    edit: all credit to Cameron for Obscenely

  31. 31.

    Gin & Tonic

    @CaseyL:

    The competitors are not amateurs

    They never were. There were just more layers of pretense before.

    Training to that level of athletic accomplishment is all-encompassing. But you still have to eat and pay the rent. So how can you do that?

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    I hear that. Elation on the day I exited the ad agency in NYC prior to relocating here for employment was jeroboam of champagne worthy.

  36. 36.

    Darkrose

    @Martin: One of the best things I ever did for myself and the people who care about me was quitting my job six years ago. Do what you need to do.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Training to that level of athletic accomplishment is all-encompassing. But you still have to eat and pay the rent. So how can you do that?

    By being independently wealthy, of course.  That was the original point of amateur athletics: keeping the riffraff out.  The upper class snobs didn’t like having to compete with, and frequently lose to, their social inferiors, so they created amateurism rules to keep them out.

  39. 39.

    Ruckus

    @Martin:

    As popular as Toyota is here, I bet they might be even more popular in Japan. Plus turning Japan into one giant superspreader event, and paying a lot of money to do it, may not go over as well as it sounds like it would.

    TOYOTA, buy a car, and die. Not really a commercial that will sell a lot of cars.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    odious, odiferous, opprobrious…..

    feels like we’re re-writing some old show tune, with a dark bent

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    @polyorchnid octopunch:

    I know a lot of people love the Olympics, but in all seriousness if you have a group of people in your city trying to bring them in you should quietly beat them senseless until they agree to stop. 

    Just gonna sit here smugly enjoying Chicago losing the Olympic bid.

  47. 47.

    CaseyL

    @Gin & Tonic: I do differentiate between “amateurs” who get corporate sponsorship to be able to train, and competitors who are already professionals (usually very well paid professionals) in their sport.

    Exhibit A: The basketball “Dream Team” of a few years ago.

    This particular perversion of the athletes’ alleged amateur status may be confined to the team sports, I don’t know.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  ISWYDT – very well done!

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    I’d given the CEO of my job in pro sports my 2 week notice and it felt really, really good. About half way into that 2 weeks we were talking and I made a snarky comment, (I would never do that!) and he said he could still fire me. I responded, “Please do!” Company policy was that if you were fired for any reason other than theft, you got a weeks pay for every full year you’d worked there. Ten weeks pay wasn’t nothing and as I’d quit I wasn’t getting it. He declined after standing there looking at me, and I informed him of the policy. (This was a subsidiary and he was newish so he didn’t know that particular company policy)

  52. 52.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Roger Moore:

    Yup, that’s the history of English football. Netflix has a Julian Fellowes (sweet mother of liberalism, he can’t write a left-leaning character to save a drowning baby) the amateur rules were specifically to keep the game a gentlemen’s club game.

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    @HumboldtBlue:

    the amateur rules were specifically to keep the game a gentlemen’s club game.

    Pray tell what Olympic sports were being playing in a strip club.

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ruckus:

    Company policy was that if you were fired for any reason other than theft, you got a weeks pay for every full year you’d worked there.

    That’s one interesting policy.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    FYI, special program about and with the Texas Dems who left their state beginning on MSNBC.

  65. 65.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: No, they don’t know.

    It’s hard because 4 generations of my family have associations there, from just a few years after they founded. It’s hard for that to end, even if it’s the right thing.

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    @CaseyL: Lindsey Vonn, downhill skier, typically earned between $100,000 and $500,000 per year in her prime in prize money alone. This was purely competition-based, not endorsement contracts. Matt Centrowitz, Jr. a US middle-distance runner and reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meter run, is estimated to earn between $400,000-650,000 per year in prize money and endorsements.

    Are these figures excessive? They are not NBA-level salaries, but they are a comfortable living for something which one will be able to do for a fairly limited period of their life.

  68. 68.

    Martin

    @Betty: Yeah. I’m not scared. And I’m sure it will feel good after, but I’ve spent more than half my life there. I first visited 42 years ago because my grandmother worked there. I’m really heavily invested and that’s really hitting my anxiety hard right now. It’ll be fine after, I’m sure of that. But part of my brain is screaming at me even though every person around me, my family are supportive of this.

    But the anxiety is also why I need to go. My wife would like her husband back.

  69. 69.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    He wasn’t going to fire me, even without the policy. It would have taken paperwork.

    And like a lot of people I did my job well and had been doing it long before he got there, without any supervision. There was only one person between me and the CEO, I worked, when in the office right next to his office. It was not a huge conglomeration, there were only 16 full time employees in the sub corp. I was responsible for a lot, got it done, and he knew it. The only part about leaving was that about 4 months before, 2 other people quit on the same day, without either of them knowing they were quitting. I knew that I was going but still had personal business I had to take care of before I gave notice and I thought then, what if I walked in and told him, nearly a quarter of the employees quit, all on 1 day, and none of them knew the others were quitting. It was a fun place to work…..

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    he’s kind of a prick, but he’s got a point

    David Frum @davidfrum 4h
    Who’s to blame for vaccine disinformation? Facebook? Or anti-vax right-wing elites? On today’s @BulwarkOnline podcast, I point out: there’s Facebook in Canada too, but Canadians are getting vaccinate

    ETA:

    and he’s a massive prick, and a moron, and about a dozen other things, but… did somebody find a way to scare teh Murdochs? today’s stock market stumble?

    Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur 24m
    SEAN HANNITY: “Please take Covid seriously. I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more death. Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor… I believe in science. I believe in the science of vaccination.“

    If Tucker sings from this hymnal, something’s up

  71. 71.

    Amir Khalid

    @CaseyL:

    The competitors are not amateurs

    They were amateurs to begin with only because Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the guy who got the modern Olympics movement going, was an aristocratic snob who wanted to keep the lower classes (and Those People) from competing.

  75. 75.

    Ruckus

    @mrmoshpotato:

    It kept a lot of supervisors from being complete dicks. Not all of them mind you, my immediate supervisor was a drunk. Fun guy to work for. Thankfully he didn’t show up a lot, towards the end he’d come in late in the afternoon, check his mail/email and leave. Also I traveled a lot. Still, working for a drunk is fun. No it really is……. Seriously……

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jennifer Bendery @jbendery 2h
    Tonight, the Senate voted 63-33 to confirm Tiffany Cunningham to be a lifetime judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

    She will be the court’s first-ever Black judge.

    She’s also Biden’s third appeals court judge confirmed. All have been Black women.

  81. 81.

    Kineslaw

    @Cameron: Japan has a rule that all vaccines approved for use in Japan have to be tested on the Japanese people.  It took extra time to do that, so they started late.

  83. 83.

    OGLiberal

    So there’s no vax requirement for the athletes, coaches, trainers, judges, etc?  Ridiculous.  Such an easy group to place a mandate on.  No vax, you don’t compete.  If this is the once in a lifetime chance they always talk about, they’ll vax.  Should’ve made them all do it and prove it.  Idiots.

  84. 84.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I guess it’s been going on all day, starting with Two Boobs and a Blonde this morning

    Amy Siskind @Amy_Siskind 11h
    Looks like Fox News is shifting on Covid with hosts admitting they are vaccinated – while in the past they are basically leading their viewers like lambs to the slaughter with misinformation. Guessing the Murdoch’s are worried about legal issues.

    With the Dow down 800 and markets shaky, you can imagine Murdoch and Republican lawmakers are now getting phone calls from donors telling them to knock off the nonsense on vaccine misinformation. Let’s see if they listen.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @Martin: I mean, seriously, even I’m shocked at this level of murderous cynicism, like encouraging viewers to play roulette with you but neglecting to mention your own gun isn’t loaded.

    Also, good luck tomorrow. No easy way to say goodbye.

  87. 87.

    jonas

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: SEAN HANNITY: “Please take Covid seriously.”

    Dafuq? Well, this just got interesting. It’ll get really fun when he comes out and names names of everyone at Fox who’s vaccinated (per company policy), including (of course) Carlson.

  88. 88.

    jonas

    @OGLiberal: ​
      Right, no need to vax up, so feel free to start your own outbreaks or whatever. But watch the IOC come down like a ton of bricks on anyone making a political statement during a medal ceremony or something. Can’t have that!

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Martin:

    Sounds like my job in pro sports that I’m discussing here. I’d worked as a part time, basically volunteer worker for 20 yrs before I went full time for that nearly 11 yrs and had moved up as high as possible without being employed full time. When I left I’d that full time part of that invested 31 yrs of my time in the sport. But it works on you and with the egos and time and the drunk boss, it just wasn’t worth it. In the end my job boiled down to saying no to pretty much everyone on the other side of the fence. Can we do this? No. Can we do that? No. Does this rule say I can cheat? No.

    At some point you have to recognize that you’ve given all you can to a job and the reality is that – it’s just a job. As good as you might be, as valuable to the organization, as professional as you are, as much time as you put into it, most often, at some point, it isn’t worth it. In my case the basic company that owned the sub that I worked at was broken enough that I just couldn’t show up another day. And the people that broke it made it far worse not long after I left. In the end we still have to think of ourselves, no matter how much we like the concept of the company/organization, the money, the work we’ve put in, how much we’ve helped advance the process, destroying your life one day at a time, still hurts. If you are good, and especially if you are great at it, and you are still getting screwed, even if it’s unintentional, the bottom line is that it often isn’t good for you. You, and your family are the ones that have to live with you, no one else. Even if you like your job, enjoy it, love it, you have to ask, what is the most important thing.  And if the answer is, the most important thing is not the hours, the effort, the paycheck, and there is better out there, even if you have to take the risk of making better yourself, it is always a trade off. It’s never simple, it can be scary as hell. I left that job, I started a new company that was fun, a huge amount of work, satisfying, did I mention fun, and yes, the economy tanked – badly (thanks rethuglicans! Again) and my company failed because of it, it was still worth the trying, the effort, the risk. I’m not suggesting that you take the same course but that if all the effort you put into your job/career has made the life that you live less than some other path, that one foot after the other thing will eat at you until there is nothing left but crumbs. You are the only one who knows how you feel, how the years of effort have paid off, the direction that it’s going now and you are the only one that can change that

    I have to add, I had participated in the sport I worked in as an amateur, I have spent over 50 yrs of my life involved. I have friends I made working there, involved in the sport. I don’t hate the sport, but the company just wasn’t worth spending another minute of my life in.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: George S. Patton was a young army cavalry officer when he competed in the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. The event involved fencing, swimming, equestrian jumping, and a cross country run with stops for target shooting with a pistol. It was designed to test the skills required of a cavalry officer caught behind enemy lines. Enlisted men were not allowed to compete, as they were considered professionals, while officers were not.

  91. 91.

    Origuy

    A deaf-blind Paralympic swimmer is dropping out because her mother, who is also her assistant, can’t travel with her.

    On Sunday evening, roughly five weeks before the start of the Tokyo Paralympics, Meyers, a deaf-blind swimmer with a chance to medal in four events, pulled the plug on her Olympic dream — most likely forever. With a click, she sent an email informing U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee officials of her decision to withdraw from Team USA.

  92. 92.

    CaseyL

    @Gin & Tonic:  Fine.  Then stop hawking the Olympics as a gathering of gifted amateurs.  It’s just another stop on the Pro Train, that’s fine, but don’t call it anything else.

  93. 93.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Games begin Wednesday morning: Women’s soccer

    UK vs Chile  3:30 AM Eastern

    China vs  Brazil 4:00 AM Eastern

    Goliath (photo) vs Sweden 4:30 AM Eastern

    Japan vs Canada 6:30 AM Eastern

    Holland vs Zambia 7:00 AM Eastern

    Oz vs New Zealand 7:30 AM

  95. 95.

    Urban Suburbanite

    So the wife signed me up for this subscription for a random box of used books every month. The box that came in yesterday contained the profound insights of the Giant Headed One, the Beard of Budapest himself, Dr. Sebastian Gorka.

    It’s painfully bad and dumb. Don’t read this sober.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m a little bit skeptical of shadowy bankers– or in this world, hedge-fund directors– making quietly threatening phone calls to people who like attention as much as they love money, but by the pricking of my thumbs…. somethin’s up

    Rudy W. Giuliani @RudyGiuliani
    Adults should look at facts and consider taking a Covid Vaccine

  97. 97.

    CaseyL

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    @jonas:

    What I’m seeing on Twitter is that the market dropped by 800 points because things might have to shut down again, and that got the MOTUs’ attention.

    Lives in danger?  Big deal.

    Market tanks?  Panic!!

    (Personally, I’ve been masking again when I go to indoor retail spots. And outdoors where there are other people around.)

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    @James E Powell:

    I don’t mind so much that I’ve worked 60 yrs from my first paycheck to the last one. And yes that first one was not very big, even at the time. But it was still a paycheck, I’d still earned it. And no, it was not as big as the last one, nor as earned as it either. Still it was an earned paycheck. But damn it does feel good to wake up in the (mid) morning and not have to go.

  100. 100.

    phdesmond

    @LiminalOwl (formerly The Fat White Duchess):

    the lyrics:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=profiteers+Spirit+Of+The+West+lyrics&sxsrf=ALeKk03wm-xIhbHZugIQgmd8wY__MTupSQ%3A1626750674815&ei=0j72YIWHMcGx5NoP75eF2A0&oq=profiteers+Spirit+Of+The+West+lyrics&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsANKBAhBGABQkqUBWInKAWCv0wFoAXACeACAAeQTiAHkE5IBAzktMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrIAQjAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwiFuPDA1vDxAhXBGFkFHe9LAdsQ4dUDCA4&uact=5

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    @Urban Suburbanite: Gorka has a third-tier radio show that’s on local radio on weekend afternoons. I was scanning around one day and caught him saying he would interview Lauren Boebert next, so I stayed tuned. Boebert was really something. I can’t stand Gorka’s plummy accent, but it was ok because that motormouth hardly let him get a word in edgewise.

  103. 103.

    laura

    @Martin: The best thing about endings are new beginnings. I hope you feel centered and at peace when you make your decision known. Positive vibrations coming at ya.

  105. 105.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ruckus:

    It kept a lot of supervisors from being complete dicks. 

    Ah.  Gotcha.  Good thinking on whomever came up with that.

  109. 109.

    Urban Suburbanite

    @Geminid: I only know of that show because some guys call in to his show to make jokes about his giant head and he gets way mad every time. (They also call in to ask Guiliani about marrying his cousin)

    This book isn’t even 150 pages (it’s padded out with plugs for various ultraconservative outfits and the Giant Headed One’s other jabberings) and still manages to be tedious as fuuuuuucccccckkkk. Gorka keeps losing track of his arguments, so he just admits he’s not bothering to support his own claims and he’ll get to it later. And he really wants you to know he read Sun Tsu.

  110. 110.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: On the other hand…

    Angelo Carusone @GoAngelo · 1h
    On his radio show, Hannity said almost same thing except he added 2 things:
    1) He urged listeners to do their own research about vaccines risks;
    2) he said vaccines weren’t as essential because hydroxychloroquine is effective.
    His radio audience is 4x size of his fox audience.

  113. 113.

    Ron

    That 96.1% number on Tokyo beds being filled is wrong.

    This is the official site for Tokyo and you can check for yourself – https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en

    “Hospitalized 2,346 (of which 60 are severe cases) / Beds secured 5,882 (of which 392 are beds for patients with severe symptoms)”

    I live here and they would be making a lot of noise if the 96% number was true.

  114. 114.

    James E Powell

    @dmsilev:

    I’m looking at the graphs showing the cases spiking up again and I’m just out of patience for assholes like Michael Andrews.

    It’s bad enough he is so stupid that he thinks the risk is only on him and not to everyone he is in contact with. But the proof that he is, in fact, an asshole is that he has to tell the whole world about it, which encourages others to refuse to get vaccinated, which increases the risk to others by a factor we cannot calculate.

  116. 116.

    Barry

    @mrmoshpotato: 
    (re: company giving 1 week’s severance per year worked)

    “That’s one interesting policy.”

    I fill bet that the fired person got that only if they signed some forms from HR, if you know what I mean.

    That was probably a rational decision on the part of the company.

  117. 117.

    tam1MI

    @OGLiberal: 
    So there’s no vax requirement for the athletes, coaches, trainers, judges, etc? Ridiculous. Such an easy group to place a mandate on. No vax, you don’t compete. If this is the once in a lifetime chance they always talk about, they’ll vax. Should’ve made them all do it and prove it. Idiots.

    Except that this policy then locks out athletes from poor countries that have not been able to obtain vaccines yet. I’d say the easy solution would be to offer the vaccine free on site to anybody who wasn’t able to get one from their home country, but Japan doesn’t have enough to go around for their own people, so…

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