Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Come on, man.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

White supremacy is terrorism.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

People are weird.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Progress, If We Can Keep It

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Progress, If We Can Keep It

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159Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    puts the party’s domestic infrastructure agenda back on track.

    It was never off track. The media keeps trying to fit this into their disarray paradigm, and it’s so transparently wrong.

  2. 2.

    Splitting Image

    But I was reading that a prominent pundit spoke to Republican congressmen who said off the record that Democrats were privately telling them that Nancy Pelosi was offering bribes, making threats, and otherwise playing tyrannical hardball to get the budget passed.

    This stuff is all supposed to be appalling when a Democrat does it.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    Fucking Ben Sasse. An interview all about the failures of the current commander in chief, and not one peep about the previous commander in chief who played surrender monkey to the Taliban. Fucking Steve Inskeep, playing fanboy with zero pushback. Now I’m going to be angry all day.

  5. 5.

    John S.

    @debbie: What do you expect of Nice Polite Republicans? It would be impolite to suggest that a Republican was responsible for anything bad.

  6. 6.

    Immanentize

    So, yesterday was day two of classes! For me, one class of more than 80 in a maybe 100 person classroom; one class of more than thirty in a 35 person classroom? Packed in like boquerones! But all were masked (although I had to say some version of please speak up, huh, what? several times in each class but that might be my old ears). There were probably fewer than five in each class who were more than six feet away from at least six others. Fractal!

    However, I am really here to report that this afternoon I walked from my happy pod on the third floor to use the facilities and immediately was met by four students blabbing away outside a classroom, unmasked! Whoa!

    “Mask up, people,” I said in a very congenial way. I was met with resistance and puro bullshit. One student just decided not to put on her mask hoping it seems that I would just keep walking. Another male student started arguing with me — “Isn’t this is a mask optional area?!” No I said and added that there were no such things on that floor. Then I was told that there were on the fourth floor and in the library which somehow meant (at least as an argument point) that all non-classroom areas are mask optional?

    I am en fuego about this. If this happens again, I am leaving and not coming back this semester and I will happily teach online.

    Rant over — gotta get ready for day three!

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    It would be nice if the fershlugginer MSM would note along with every story that the proposed spending is $3.5 trillion over ten years.

    While it is not to be disbursed in equal amounts per annum, for the sake of budgetary perspective that would hypothetically work out to $350 billion per year, less than half the current annual DoD budget.

  10. 10.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    The House Democratic Caucus has to put together welcome materials every new Congress. I should write them. They’d be two paragraphs long:

    Welcome to the House Democratic Caucus. Here are a few housekeeping rules as we begin the 1## Congress.

    Rule number one: please do not fuck around and find out with Nancy Pelosi. She will cut you. Rule number two, keep the posturing to a minimum and remember, when all is said and done, you are a House Democrat and will be expected to act accordingly. If you have any questions on rule number two, please refer to rule number one.

  14. 14.

    satby

    @NotMax: If they could do math they wouldn’t have majored in journaliimism (misspelling deliberate, we have precious little journalism in this country).

  15. 15.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    Tell them they’re worse than Ohio State students (who all seemed to be compliant or at least resigned to masks). That’ll get them to straighten up!

  21. 21.

    Spanky

    @rikyrah: Further evidence that Desantis is performing for the MAGA horde nationwide in preparation for 2024.

    May his ass be handed to him.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    Then I was told that there were on the fourth floor and in the library which somehow meant (at least as an argument point) that all non-classroom areas are mask optional?

     

    Science has shown that viruses shun libraries and tall buildings.

  24. 24.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Immanentize: A mask optional area? Bless that student’s pea picking heart, as my grandma might say. And bless you for dealing with these brats.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    BTW, noted that the free-with-ads Pluto TV streaming service now includes two channels with selected older seasons of British programming.

    Channel 187: Britbox Mysteries and channel 154: British TV.

    Drawback is that at the moment the Britbox offerings are not on demand, so it is catch as catch can as to what is streaming on that channel at any given time.

  28. 28.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: Unfortunately, there is a little bit of disarray in the Senate with Manchin and Sinema acting as foils to President Biden’s agenda. Sigh.

  30. 30.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: This is why I stopped listening to NPR news programs years ago.  I only listen to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” and the Kojo Nnamdi political hour on Fridays. Too much bending over backwards to please Republicans for me.

  32. 32.

    topclimber

    @NotMax: This constantly bugs me as well. I intend to talk about the $7.5 trillion defense budget from now on if anyone gripes about the Dem’s Build Back America plan.

    Instead of trying to make them put the annual numbers on the same footing, make them defend the long-term ones.

  34. 34.

    Dagaetch

    I live in Seth Moulton’s district. Any suggestions for what I should say when I call his office this morning to tell them how stupid I think he was to go to Afghanistan?

  39. 39.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Speaking of the moderates, there have been rumors on Twitter that the Republicans have been threatening to retaliate against at lest one of the moderates families.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The past 2 morning s been a bit busy with sleepless nights in between.

    Sunday night, Billie Jean decided to engage in some face time with a copperhead. Caught it on the muzzle like dogs always do. Decidedly miserable with swelling on the muzzle and fluid buildup in her neck wattles that night, Mama constantly worrying, texting back and forth with a vet up in STL, and me trying to talk her off the bridge. (I’ve seen this before, painful? yes. fatal? maybe one every 2 or 3 million) Took Mama to work Monday morn and hung out in the vet parking lot until they opened (my truck was back in the shop again*). They crammed her in between appointments, prescribed antibiotics, antihistamines, and steroids. By Tuesday AM her swelling was noticeably reduced and she while still a bit lethargic she seemed otherwise more or less normal. Today, her swelling is all but gone and she is back to being her happy go lucky puppy self, tho a little bit shy of tall grass.

    Yesterday, I got my first pelvic stent put in. The other side gets done in 2 weeks. Mostly uneventful with the exception that the general anesthesia wasn’t very general, like not at all. I didn’t think much of it as it is all needles just varying in the size of the bores. The number of needles seemed a bit excessive, I lost count at six or seven, and the size of the needle for the stents felt like they were drilling the Chunnel into my leg. I think it was when he was inserting the stents that I finally emitted a noise that was something between a groan and a gasp. It was a bit violent, and he said something about giving me more of the “happy juice”. Not that it did any more good than the first jolt of it did.

    I will be discussing this when I see him for the follow up next week. Something like, maybe give me a local?

    The only side effect this morn is my right nut is more than a bit tender. Probably normal but I think I’ll call the office as I was not warned of this possibility.

    *my only good news this week: I blew a power steering hose that had just been replaced, so that repair was free. Yay me.

  47. 47.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Spanky: It’s GOP logic, if the DeStanis does the right thing, the crazies are large enough to primary him. In the General Election DeStantis record is a non issue because of the moderate and independents will never, ever vote for anything with a D after it’s name.

  48. 48.

    satby

    OT, but FedEx has degenerated from it’s formerly meh service into truly abysmal. A shipment that includes fragile essential oils is still listed in transit from the last stop 4 hours away, even though it shipped out almost 9 hours ago. And probably has been mostly sitting in hot trucks since the supplier sent it to me a week ago with the expected delivery date of (last) Saturday. ?

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    @Dagaetch:

    How dare he disrespect the President.

    How dare he take up a seat that could have gone to someone desperate to leave.

    How dare he grandstand that way.

    He needs to stay in his lane ??

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: I would suggest getting out a pad of paper and asking their names, you don’t even have to do anything with them, but I have no idea if that would be acceptable at your institution.

  52. 52.

    Jay

    Here in BC, mandatory masks are back for all indoors.

    Word from Corporate is that we are going back to door counts, mask stations, line ups and “special accommodations for the maskless”, also known as “order on line, contactless delivery in lot”.

    Also, by Sept 13, no more employment if not fully vaxxed, and no more “medical style” masks for employees, KN95’s supplied.

    Saw six skids in recieving, all marked “not for sale, for Associate use only”.

    Also, 28 days paid sick time for covid/quarantine are back as of the 13th.

  60. 60.

    MomSense

    @Dagaetch:

    Tell him it was a GD publicity stunt that interfered with the evacuation of people we are trying to save and he should be ashamed of himself.

  61. 61.

    satby

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: moderate and independents will never, ever vote for anything with a D after it’s name.

    I get really tired of this take because it’s obviously not true or we wouldn’t have a President Biden. Crossover voting is smaller than we want, but it exists and shouldn’t be ignored. The Republican party is doing it’s best to help expand crossovers. That’s the entire point of the Sargent tweet above.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Puppy memories are short. I give it a week at best beofre she’s right back at it. I am hoping that a more cautious approach at night lasts. Right now, with the heat we are having, that is the most dangerous time. I’d like to go hunting for the snake so I can move it down the road, but the most likely locations involve a lot of lifting and right now I am limited.

  67. 67.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @satby: If I recall correctly Biden under performed in the polls in Florida and there was a whole discussion about how the Latin American immigrants there view the Democrats as commies.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: There must be some moderates and independents in Florida who will vote for someone with a D after their name. Afrer all, in the 2018 Governor’s race Andrew Gillum trailed Desantis by less than 40,000 votes out of over 8 million cast. The 4 million+ voters who backed Gillum weren’t all liberal Democrats. Probably less than half were.

  69. 69.

    Rusty

    @Splitting Image: Wow, she is engaging in politics.  Makes me think of Lydon Johnson, he had no trouble digging in to pass legislation and under him we had one of the biggest waves of progressive legislation.

    Nancy Smash, keep it up!

  71. 71.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: UGA plans to be completely back to normal this fall for home football games, with capacity crowds of 92,746. There will be no masks or social-distancing requirements, and Georgia will not be asking for proof of vaccination to enter the grounds.

    Better attend the homecoming game, there might not be many more this season.

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Trust you more than online translators. What would the Russian be for the expressing the antithesis of Ronaldus Magnus, no-vax philosophy of “Mistrust and never verify?”

    ;)

  74. 74.

    gvg

    @satby: I have had 2 Fed Ex orders lost since Covid and another took an amazingly long time. I have had no issues with the regular mail that I know of nor Amazon. Don’t know that I have had any UPS deliveries. I haven’t heard a story about Fed Ex but have been wondering what’s up.

  75. 75.

    Soprano2

    I have an update on our new kitty, who my husband has decided to name Killer. We were able to take Killer to the vet last Thursday, where he got a clean bill of health. The vet gave him all his vaccinations and neutered him. He had to spend two days in our bedroom upstairs with our other cat; neither of them were particularly happy with that situation, but he couldn’t go outside until he had completely recovered from the anesthesia. He went back outside on Saturday afternoon. He’s happily hanging out around our front yard, and he loves to be petted now. He actually demands it! We’ve come a long way from him not letting us get too close. He walks in front of my husband and tries to stop him so he can get petted more. We’re working on getting him and the dogs used to each other; my goal is to get him to live comfortably inside by winter. I hope I can do that!

  76. 76.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: Fucking Ben Sasse. An interview all about the failures of the current commander in chief, and not one peep about the previous commander in chief who played surrender monkey to the Taliban. Fucking Steve Inskeep, playing fanboy with zero pushback. Now I’m going to be angry all day.

    Did you notice that at the end of the interview, Sasse said something about not making deals with the Taliban? Right then the interview ended, while I was saying to my radio “Why don’t you ask him who made the deal with the Taliban about us leaving Afghanistan?” You notice Inskeep didn’t ask him anything about that. Also, how are we supposed to get people out if we don’t know they’re there? I’m sure there will be one American somewhere who doesn’t get the word, and then Republicans will point to that person and talk about how Biden failed. *rolleyes

  78. 78.

    Kay

    FedEx has always treated their drivers like shit and it’s gotten worse in the last decade. That impacts quality.

    The USPS does “last mile” delivery for both FedEx and UPS and the FedEx drivers would always ask me if the USPS was hiring and that was before FedEx essentially turned their drivers into Uber drivers.

    You can’t treat your employees like shit and maintain quality.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: the trump campaign ran an effective social media campaign in Florida that targeted Latinos. The program started over a year before the November election. trump ended up doing really well with Latinos in South Florida, where a lot of Cuban Americans live. I believe that Biden ran even or ahead of trump among Florida Latinos overall, though. Estimates of the Latino vote nationally last year seem to average around 70%.

  81. 81.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Immanentize: Were these your students? I hope they get kicked out. University of Virginia ‘disenroled’ 238 students for lying about vaccine status. That’s great.  Universities need to play hardball on this stuff

  85. 85.

    Kay

    Despite FedEx’s insistence that thousands of their FedEx Ground drivers are independent contractors, a federal appeals court has ruled that they are actually employees – and entitled to compensation for their misclassification.
    Identifying worker status is a critical but often difficult chore for employers, and misclassification can be costly. Contractors are denied many of the protections of permanent employees, such as access to employer-provided healthcare and other benefits, and are required to foot the bill for their own work equipment. For independent owner-operators, this can mean paying full price for truck maintenance and registration – not to mention fuel.

    FedEx practically invented the shitty Uber “contractor” model. They’ve been ripping off their drivers since the start.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Ugh. I have to send some important time sensitive papers by Fed Ex.  Not my choice, but now I’ll worry.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Not many. Most caves are damp and leaky. I helped survey* one down in Arkansas that the front 100′ or so was a hostel/B&B. (A nice place, it was originally a high dollar whore house, heli pad and everything. Very secluded and I’m sure the local sheriff got tips for free.)(or so the legend goes, and I think it accurate. Every bedroom had a bathroom and every bathroom had a bidet. Not exactly haute couture for an Arkansas hillbilly bunny ranch) The owners told of going on a week long vacation once and losing power while they were gone. Dehumidifiers? Not that week. Every bit of fabric in the domicile had to be thrown out. All the carpeting, window shades, couches, easy chairs, beds, linens, clothes etc etc was mildewed beyond repair.

    * it was a really cool cave, about a mile long with a dome complex at the very end. My team found that part after digging thru a gravel sump for half an hour while I lay in the water and howling winds. Once we got into the domes I, in a very sleep deprived state, had great difficulty making my sketch make sense of the very complicated complex. We were in the last and tallest of the domes and one of my guys says, “Hey Tom.” And holds up a very green leaf that looked like it could have been plucked from a tree just moments before. I looked up from my sketching at the ceiling 100′ above me and while I couldn’t see a hole I was able to make out what had to be a passage to the surface.

    That winter, some guys went to the ridge above the cave and found a hole that they could enter and rappel into the dome. Did the first door to door ever in that cave.

    I’m pretty proud of that find. It was a long hard trip with a lot of pain and discomfort and one BIG payoff at the end.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Jeffries has the communication skills and work ethic to be a good Speaker. Jeffries had served only three terms when his fellow Democratic Caucus members elected him Caucus Chairman. They must have seen something they liked.

    I think Hakeem Jeffries is around 50 years old. I hope he has a long, successful career as Speaker.

  89. 89.

    sdhays

    @debbie: This is exactly why I stopped listening to Morning Edition. I didn’t like being so angry after hearing their awful political coverage.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jay: I don’t want to repel the snakes, they help keep the vermin in check. When I see a copperhead, I try to catch them and move them down the road. I suspect this is the same one I found warming himself on a concrete step post sundown. Wasn’t able to catch it then because Billie Jean was jumping back and forth over the step with happiness at getting home. She never even saw the snake that time. I suspect this time she heard it moving thru the grass and that was what caught her attention and drew her to it.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think they have really good branding and marketing but their drivers are the most disgruntled group of employees I have ever encountered. It’s because they have an easy comparison to the other delivery services, USPS and UPS, and the two others are vastly better for the driver. UPS is brutal- they work really hard- but they pay them enough to make it worthwhile. I think that eventually affects the quality of the hires. You really don’t want to be the employer of last resort in a given service.

  93. 93.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @debbie: ​
     

    Fucking Steve Inskeep, playing fanboy with zero pushback. Now I’m going to be angry all day.

    Reason #1,265.7 never to listen to NPR’s news programming. And give them money? Bwahahahahahahaha.

    And that’s Steve Inscreep. Jeeeesuskeeeristonabike he’s such a tool and has epitomized everything wrong with NPR for close to 20 years.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    @Baud: UPS’s drivers and package  processors are represented by the Teamsters. The drivers seem very efficient. I’m not sure how UPS is for time sensitive stuff, though.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    UPS basically invented metrics to track drivers. They were doing it in the 1990s before anyone else. The drivers run because their employer knows exactly how long that drop should take and they’re always either behind or trying to gain time to allow for a delay later.

  97. 97.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve seen dogs go right back to the thing that hurt them.

    We had two huskies who got sprayed by a skunk twice! We told them not to play with the cat with the stripe down its back, but they didn’t listen to us.

  98. 98.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah: ​
     

    Biden and Dems must lean much harder into speaking to this neglected silent majority

    Damn straight! As one who’s plenty old enough to remember Richard Milhous Nixon, I think it’s about damn time we reclaimed the ‘Great Silent Majority’ for our own.

  100. 100.

    MattF

    So, Pelosi keeps slapping down more idiots and Dems are not in disarray. Also, fwiw, Biden is not senile. Didn’t know that Team Fox is pushing the ‘Big Pharma opposes use of ivermectin for COVID’ line, seems reckless.

    ETA: Also, OnlyFans has reversed its policy on sexually explicit posts.

  101. 101.

    dr. bloor

    @rikyrah:

    UGA plans to be completely back to normal this fall for home football games, with capacity crowds of 92,746. There will be no masks or social-distancing requirements, and Georgia will not be asking for proof of vaccination to enter the grounds

    Somewhere in the great beyond, Darwin is grinning and rubbing his hands together like Emperor Palpatine.

  102. 102.

    narya

    Completely OT. Mom emailed yesterday to say that she asked for a referral to a psychologist because she’s having anxiety (and that it took her a long time to even say that out loud).  I immediately called her to say “good for you,” and I’ll talk to her today, too. It’s not a surprise–she’s lost all remaining members of her generation in the last three years, except my dad, and at this point he’s not really a partner, quite, any more. (He fell again the other night, apparently.) I send her pictures of the sunrise from my morning runs, though, which she likes.

  103. 103.

    dr. bloor

    @Dagaetch: ​
     

    Telll him that for someone who wears his military service like a crown, he doesn’t seem to have much respect for that “chain of command” thingie.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    The drivers of the big trucks – the stretch trucks you see on the interstate- for UPS can make 80k to 100k a year but they have to be pretty close to perfect.

    It’s an interesting company. They put a ton into driver training. They have a whole set of driver practices they use to avoid accidents. It’s based on the vast amount of information insurance companies collect in the process of paying claims- what the driver did to cause or increase risk of an accident.

  105. 105.

    jonas

    @Kay:  FedEx practically invented the shitty Uber “contractor” model. They’ve been ripping off their drivers since the start.

    Lemme guess: they call it “flexibility.”

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: On that tracking bit. A buddy of mine has a place where they can’t make it thru the circle drive. The drivers are forced to stop and back it up at a location farther from the house and then turn it off and walk the package to the door because in their words, “If we back it up after we restart the engine we get in trouble.”

    Makes no sense to me but I’ve gotten the same story from 2 or 3 drivers.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It absolutely helps. They have a lot of leverage too because when they go out the whole system slows down. When UPS went on strike the USPS filled with those parcels. They went out over a weight limit increase. It matters A LOT to drivers what the weight limit is for the parcels they’re expected to deliver without a helper.

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    MSNBC is telling me that Madam Speaker Nancy SMASH! is going to speak soon about Moulton and Meijer, and I will be there for it.

  111. 111.

    debbie

    @sdhays:

    My local NPR stations (I have two) are both great and are why I stick it out. The local television news is even worse.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They can back up into a parking space because if you’re in front of a parking space and it’s clear it remains clear. So restarting means they were doing something other than that.

  114. 114.

    jonas

    @rikyrah: ​
      UGA plans to be completely back to normal this fall for home football games, with capacity crowds of 92,746. There will be no masks or social-distancing requirements, and Georgia will not be asking for proof of vaccination to enter the grounds.

    What could possibly go wrong? Now, being outside generally lowers the risk, but there’s all time on game days spent in the corridors, bathrooms, standing in line for food, etc. where people are going to be packed like sardines in more enclosed areas breathing all over each other. This is nuts.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I like my UPS lady. We have the same one at the office and the courthouse and I feel she goes out of her way to greet me at the courthouse and she does not greet the other lawyers :)

  120. 120.

    evap

    @Immanentize:  Curious what level students you are teaching.  I’m about to teach my first in-person class at a private research university.   If a student does not wear a mask in class, we can kick them out and report them to the conduct council.   I assume we can also report students not wearing masks elsewhere indoors.   They can get booted from the dorms and/or campus for non-compliance.

  124. 124.

    Soprano2

    I’m listening to the Sasse interview again. From listening to him you’d think Biden was TFG and totally abandoning all the people who worked with us in Afghanistan. He talked about how China has people all over the world who are laughing at us (no they don’t, we’re getting tens of thousands of people out of there every day now). He also talked about us abandoning Bagram, and about how “we never should have been negotiating with the Taliban”. Hey, you idiot, it was the Republican president who negotiated with the Taliban first! As for Bagram, I heard a podcast with Jason Kander yesterday where he explained that Bagram is about 40 minutes away from any population center, and would have been an extremely poor place to use for this effort because of that. It would have made everyone have to travel through even more checkpoints to reach safety. Having two runways doesn’t negate those problems.

  125. 125.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattF:

    MSNBC cut away, I guess because she was just talking about boring things like the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill.

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Virginia is a “right-to-work” state, but the Teamsters represent UPS workers here. I think that UPS and the Teamsters have a national contract.

    At a meeting earlier this year, the Temsters voted to begin the process of organising Amazon. They may have what it takes.

  131. 131.

    geg6

    @Immanentize: ​
     
    I can relate. It seems that about 45% of the students here think that masking means the mask is NOT required to cover the nose. I’ve let it go until today, but as of today, I’m going to start turning into the mask Nazi.

  132. 132.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @rikyrah:  back to normal meaning… another win losing in the sec championship, at best?

    … 1980 ain’t walking thru that door.

    (Not sorry to report to the Chairman Mow.)

  133. 133.

    Kristine

    @Soprano2:

    We had two huskies who got sprayed by a skunk twice! We told them not to play with the cat with the stripe down its back, but they didn’t listen to us.

    One summer, Gaby got sprayed 5 times. At least she started circling farther and farther away so the results weren’t as…bracing. But terrier-husky mix. Wouldn’t back down from anything.

    I don’t think I’ll ever forget the burnt rubber stench of skunk ? concentrate.

  136. 136.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: I thought so but wasn’t sure. The Teamsters have a chance against Amazon, at least. Maybe even a good chance. Fingers crossed.

  140. 140.

    Kristine

    @Kay: we had the same UPS driver for years. She was fit but very slim and not that tall—Mom always talked to her and worried about her lifting and gave her baked goods to build her strength.

  141. 141.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @rikyrah: shades of theONION community voice piece, from when theONION wasn’t on one (meaning, before the move to nyc in summer 2001), “did 6 million really visit the holocaust museum?”

  143. 143.

    topclimber

    @rikyrah: Are they really whining? Or is that just the Village and the GQP?

    Some may be military contractors; some civilian ones the Taliban have no reason to bug; some may work for NGOs that intend to stay on the job until forced to leave; some married to Afghans and determined to stay, perhaps protected by clans.

    Yeah, I know. That takes someone to actually go to all those diners in Afghanistan and talk to the little people. Or maybe to people at a DC Starbucks where State Department employees hang out.

  144. 144.

    Quiltingfool

    @Soprano2: My husband named our kitty Killer too!  He thought it was funny, I guess.   She doesn’t go by that name, though – I’ve always called her Baby.  She was known at the vet clinic as Killer.  It was rather funny when they called out “Killer” in the waiting room; every head in the joint whipped around to see the killer cat.  I had her name changed after that.  She has always been very good with the vets, even though she hates going.

  145. 145.

    oldster

    Nancy’s line about “clarification” had me snorting with laughter.

    If Chuck Schumer were half as good at his job as Nancy is at hers, I would be less worried about Manchin and Sinema.

    (To be fair, I realize that structural issues give Senators more power vis a vis leadership than Reps have. But Schumer could still take some lessons from the maestra.)

  146. 146.

    Quiltingfool

    @Kay: UPS drivers do work very hard.  When they deliver at my house, they don’t saunter, they practically run.  Plus they have long hours.  Around here, though, they pay really good wages and a job with them is sought after.   Drivers know they have to work hard going in, but the money is worth it to them.

  147. 147.

    Dan B

    @gvg: You probably know that FedEx is non-union and UPS is union.  Our neighborhood FedEx driver seems flakey.  The UPS driver(s – varies a bit) seem more responsible.  You Know what’s going on with the USPS….  FedEx seems to be experiencing growing pains from increased demand for online shopping and shipping.  Their non-union stance may be a causative factor.

  148. 148.

    Dan B

    @OzarkHillbilly: We visited Blanchard Springs in 1960, before the caverns were discovered / revealed.  It was clear that things were going on underground with substantial streams coming out of the ground in several locations.  I was amazed when Life Magazine posted the first photos.  Lots of caves in Arkansas, some badly desecrated:  See Cave Junction, or was it Cave City?

  153. 153.

    WendyBinFL

    @Dagaetch: This morning CNN broadcast part of a press briefing at the Pentagon. One reporter asked if Seth Moulton and his Republican travel buddy Peter Meijer had distracted from the mission, and if they had taken up seats that would otherwise have gone to our Afghan allies. Admiral Kirby said they are now out of Afghanistan; that they flew on military aircraft, and he didn’t know the seating capacity; but while in Kabul, their presence DID divert time and attention away from the evacuation effort. Zing!

  154. 154.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @rikyrah: True to form. The dumbest and most belligerent motherfuckers I’ve ever met were UGA football fans in the stadium. Would be a real shame if fall football sees the appearance of the omega variant, the one that kills the unvaccinated hordes quickly and cleanly, with minimal impact on the vaccinated. A real shame.

  155. 155.

    J R in WV

    @Splitting Image: ​

    …a prominent pundit spoke to Republican congressmen who said off the record that Democrats were privately telling them that Nancy Pelosi was offering bribes, making threats, and otherwise playing tyrannical hardball to get the budget passed….

    First, Off the Record required keeping a secret, which Republicans cannot do, being inherently dishonest.

    Secondly, who expects a group of Republican congressmen to tell the truth about bribes and threats offered by a Democratic leader? That sounds like right-wing fascist behavior at its base!

    Either way, here, we see a total lack of ethics and honesty on the part of Republican congressmen, not on the part of Madam Speaker Pelosi. Imagine that!!

  156. 156.

    J R in WV

    @Immanentize:

    …

    I walked from my happy pod on the third floor to use the facilities and immediately was met by four students blabbing away outside a classroom, unmasked! Whoa!

    “Mask up, people,” I said in a very congenial way. I was met with resistance and puro bullshit….

    Perhaps you should demand to see their student IDs to verify that they were there legally in the first place — then take steps to have them suspended for the semester, as they can’t follow rules.

    Perhaps proactive disbarrment for failure to follow rules? If you can’t attend law school, tough to become a lawyer.

    Or even just hint that they only get one pass at breaking health requirements, next time they’re outta here? Make them take it seriously, in other words, instead of you suffering thru their idiocy — make them suffer!

  157. 157.

    StringOnAStick

    Oregon’s Governor put the indoor mask requirements back in place last Friday, and this Friday the mask mandate is back for outdoor spaces where people are in close proximity to others. I think that’s been driven by outdoor music festivals that led to a spike in cases.  Only 7% of ICU capacity remains available statewide, and it’s probably less now 24 hours after that was reported. Only 9% availability on regular hospital beds   Things are worse than they’ve ever been here with Covid, and 91% of the people in hospital for Covid are unvaccinated.

  158. 158.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Sunday night, Billie Jean decided to engage in some face time with a copperhead. Caught it on the muzzle like dogs always do….

    Recently I went out the front door and across the footbridge with our small pack of dogs. Just 15 yards from the front door there was odd barking and circling something on the path.

    !! It was a small black pine snake, coiled and erect as if it were a cobra in an Indiana Jones film, hissing at the lead dog !! I ran the dogs back into the house, and we left little black snake alone to move on, which it did post haste. It was really pretty, glistening shiny patterns unlike many sorts of black snakes.

    Black Pine snakes start life out silver and become black as they mature, gradually losing the patterns. While they are in between  they can look a little like a copperhead, if you don’t know your local snakes.

    I hope my actions help the dawgs understand that they need to leave snakes of all sorts strictly alone. We’ve never had a dog bitten by a snake of any sort, let alone a copperhead.

  159. 159.

    J R in WV

    @Kay:

    UPS is brutal- they work really hard- but they pay them enough to make it worthwhile.

    UPS and USPS are both union shops, FedEx is not. That makes all the difference as far as I’m concerned. We try hard to not get FedEx services, as we’re a union household.

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