Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Not all heroes wear capes.

T R E 4 5 O N

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

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

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / (TGI)Friday Morning Open Thread: President Biden Is *Very* Good At His Job

(TGI)Friday Morning Open Thread: President Biden Is *Very* Good At His Job

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139Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    To be clear, most Republicans are worried the Biden plan will work. Covid is the key to the economy and if Covid drops, economy goes up and Republicans want the economy to fail under Biden. It’s not that Republicans think the plan won’t work, they are terrified it will.— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) September 10, 2021

    Wouldn’t it be great if this is the beginning of the end of negative political campaigning!

    It’s Friday, the end of the longest three-day work week of my freakin’ life. Let me dream.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    I think the ironic think may be that, if the GOP had allowed Biden to easily bear Covid, the achievement might have been forgotten by election time.  Now that the GOP has made our voters angry, we may have a better shot at winning.  Time will tell.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    Towns and cities around here ordered masking mandates taking effect today. Of course, one of the GQP candidates for Columbus Mayor is talking about initiating a lawsuit. Bring it on, you ?.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    NYT

    Democrats Eye Taxing Stock Buybacks and Partnerships to Pay for Agenda

    Senate Democrats say a 2 percent tax on the money companies use to buy back stocks and tightened rules around taxing partnerships would raise $270 billion for their $3.5 trillion social policy bill.

    Not sure who came up with that description.

  13. 13.

    SFBayAreaGal

    OT: Woke up to the sound of thunder, saw a couple of lightening flashes and best of all the sound and smell of rain. That beautiful, gorgeous, so needed rain.

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    I am glad that 46 called Fox News out about their shyt. Peddling every conspiracy theory possible, all the while those muthaphuckas ? have to be vaccinated AND show proof. Show their vaccine passport ?

  17. 17.

    ZeeLizzee

    Went for a job interview this week. Asked about their Covid policy. Interviewer said they were wearing masks right now, his was covering his mouth but not his nose. Asked about vaccine requirements, nope, they ‘aren’t sure vaccines or Covid tests work.’ Asked if they had had any Covid cases: ‘yes, about 30 last year and 3 people out now with Covid.’
    This company has about 100 employees!!!
    There is not enough money to induce me to work there.
    Good on Biden for the mandates, drop the employee threshold to 25, in addition to mandating teacher vaccination, get the bus drivers vaccinated. Make it mandatory, make it all mandatory. So fed up with the willful ignorance and ‘mah freedoms.’

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: 

    I think the ironic think may be that, if the GOP had allowed Biden to easily bear Covid, the achievement might have been forgotten by election time. Now that the GOP has made our voters angry, we may have a better shot at winning. Time will tell.

    It’s certainly the way to bet. It’s hard to imagine worse political ground than taking the pro-Covid side of “are you on the side of America, or are you with the coronavirus?” They’re traitors, but fortunately they’re really, really stupid traitors.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    @SFBayAreaGal:

    Woke up to the sound of thunder

    How far off, I sat and wondered.

    Glad you got some rain at last!

    Makes me thankful that I’ve lived most of my life here in the mid-Atlantic, where we can take rain for granted.

  26. 26.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    So the covidiots, all too predictably, are telling us that Biden has Unleashed Their Anger and now we’re going to see them really mad, like a bunch of toddlers having screaming meltdowns.

    How are we supposed to tell the difference between their pre-speech and post-speech tantrums?

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    I am glad that 46 called Fox News out about their shyt. Peddling every conspiracy theory possible, all the while those muthaphuckas ? have to be vaccinated AND show proof. Show their vaccine passport ?

    Wasn’t that the best? And I’m sure millions of Fox News viewers had no fucking idea that their idols were pushing all that anti-vax propaganda while being fully vaccinated themselves.  That Todd Starnes tweet at the end of AL’s coronavirus update post this morning was a thing of beauty.

    It’s their “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” moment.

  29. 29.

    Benw

    @Baud: only 2 places checked the reams of paper I’m carrying around attesting I’m vaxxed and have a need to work in the EU: the airline check in desk and my hotel in France. France also has you put an app on your phone to scan a code everywhere you go in for contact tracing. Help, I’ve been socialismed!

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    He is a vampire ?

    Explain it otherwise ?

    He and Paul Rudd…they are part of the same group…bitten together

    Trust Black women *We tried to tell you* (@NicolasEdny) tweeted at 8:56 PM on Thu, Sep 09, 2021:
    So Larenz Tate turns 46 & he looks finer than ever.
    He doesn’t look a day over 23!

    Dude been the same since I was in kindergarten ??

    Ain’t nothing better than being Black!
    ✊?✊?✊? https://t.co/HHOPHRZt69
    (https://twitter.com/NicolasEdny/status/1436146420596322306?s=03)

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    we’ll see if “not coddling” is any different.

    The media is already on its way to America’s diners to find out.

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    I was always going to be a Democratic voter. But, now, I am a pissed off voter. Those of us who did the right thing are pissed at the lying unvaccinated.

    If I had school aged children that are not available for vaccination , I would be beside myself with worry and angst, and fury if I lived in a state with OPTIONAL MASKS FOR SCHOOLS??

  39. 39.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: at best Lee was like a German general in the World Wars; knew how to win battles, didn’t know how to win wars.

  41. 41.

    trnc

    As I write this, Tapper is claiming that Biden is only scolding the people receiving misinformation, not the purveyors. Meanwhile, CNN keeps giving airtime to insurrectionists. Compare this with Chris Wallace.

    Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Wednesday he has “purposely” kept lawmakers off his Sunday news program who have spread unfounded conspiracy theories about electoral fraud and suggested President Biden’s win in 2020 was not legitimate.

    “Well, there were plenty of people, in the Congress, who were the leaders of challenging it who I have just not had on the show ever since then,” Wallace said during an appearance on CBS’s “The Late Show.”

    “And [I] have purposefully not had them on, frankly, because I don’t want to hear their crap,” he said.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/571475-chris-wallace-on-lawmakers-who-contested-bidens-election-i-dont-want-to-hear

    I guess CNN has decided to take up the mantle of #1 shitposter on anything Biden.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I’m glad that Democrats are approaching the private sector workplace rules as “workplace safety”, both rhetorically and legally (OSHA). That’s a perfect fit and it’s a good fight for Democrats to have. They own that whole space ideologically. There wouldn’t be any workplace safety rules if Republicans had always run things. It’s time they occupied it again. It’s a fine place to stand.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    There’s an op/Ed I’m the NYT that I didn’t click on, but the headline was OSHA is the wrong way to do it.

    Everyone has to have their hot take when leaders lead.

  44. 44.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @rikyrah: So  is there some scene were this guy is talking to Dracula and Lestrat saying “Unlike you two, I make being undead look good” lol

  45. 45.

    Cermet

    Speaking of action plans, I decided to go cold turkey and eat nearly zero carbs for a week; I ate one meal a day (a single standard size bowl of beans with some turkey mixed in) and ran two miles every other day (Hey, I’m lazy.) Result – I gained two pounds this week. Ok, something is very, very wrong here.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @trnc:

    Tapper is claiming that Biden is only scolding the people receiving misinformation, not the purveyors.

    In 2009, reporters rallied around FoxNews when the Obama administration declared that the network “is not a news organization.”
    That set up an exchange between then-ABC News reporter Jake Tapper and then White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:
    Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one –

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: OSHA was such a focus of conservative anger back in the 1970s and 1980s–I remember all the cartoons about hapless workers smothered in a pile of safety equipment, thanks to the tyrannical government. Everyone was doing just fine before they meddled, right?

    Later it was the ADA. They got so angry about businesses having to put in wheelchair ramps and Braille signs. Outrage stories about “absurd” things like seeing a wheelchair ramp at a roller rink–have we gone MAD? It all seems so petty and foolish now.

  48. 48.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I don’t thing the anti vac stuff is mere a political tactic for the next election. I think this is part of the freak out on the right about their world view crashing down around them. The government is the solution to a pandemic.  If it was just a tactic they would be sneaking off an getting vaccinated in private while egging on others, not taking horse laxatives in desperation. And remember at the start of the pandemic they were anti-vac and Trump was president.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    It was satisfying as a citizen to hear Biden give voice to the anger of tens of millions of Americans who’ve done the right thing so we can get our lives back, only to be thwarted in our collective efforts to beat the virus by oppositional defiant disordered rage-babies. I think serving as our anger-translator will be a good thing for Biden politically too. I was especially glad Biden called out DeSantis, Abbott and the other pro-COVID Southern governors in all but name. Keep hammering those mofos! Name names!

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    When Biden went after Facebook a few weeks ago, the media go mad at that too.  Dems will always be seen as doing it rong.

  51. 51.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Did you see that the KY legislature outlawed any kind of statewide mask mandate for public schools, so now it’s up to the local school boards? You’d think “I want to make it more likely that your child gets sick with Covid” would be the losing position, wouldn’t you?

  52. 52.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’ve seen some of them fulminating that the vaccine mandates are just a cynical tactic to get Republicans to react by branding themselves as the pro-COVID party, to make Republicans lose. People, you don’t have to do it. You have a choice. You had a choice.

  53. 53.

    trnc

    @Baud: There’s an op/Ed I’m the NYT that I didn’t click on, but the headline was OSHA is the wrong way to do it.

    The last bastion of the troll – process arguments.

  54. 54.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: headline was OSHA is the wrong way to do it.

    So did they have any constructive suggestions for the right way, or was it just a whinefest about Biden trying to make the Covid situation better? My bet is on the latter.

  56. 56.

    Soprano2

    @Cermet: Give it time, when I first changed my exercise and eating habits it took over 3 weeks for any result to register on the scale. One week isn’t nearly enough time to know if it’s working or not.

  59. 59.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: just a cynical tactic to get Republicans to react by branding themselves as the pro-COVID party

    I guess they haven’t noticed that Republicans have already branded themselves as the pro-Covid party!

  60. 60.

    Cermet

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Except Lee lost many battles – all the WV, peninsula campaign, Antietam, and very famously, Gettysburg’s; not counting a few other major defeats after that. No, he was never as good as most German generals but in WWII that isn’t saying much. They lost big time (ultimately) in Russia even when they won local battles (for awhile) – ironically, Hitler was correct in his strategic decisions for the major campaigns the first two years in Russia but the Generals changed his objectives and created a situation the German army & economy could never handle. Glad they were stupid.

  61. 61.

    Cermet

    @Soprano2: Thanks – just never guessed I’d increase my weight by eating less but that does make sense in retrospect now that you mention it. Likely my body simply went into calorie conserve mode because I was not eating anywhere near the amount I normally did. But still, ugh!

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    The same exact people who screamed that schools were closed now refuse to accept any covid mitigations at schools. It was never about the students.

    I don’t think conservatives can use public schools anymore- they don’t accept the basic premise. There had to be a baseline understanding that there are other people in schools- that your child doesn’t attend alone, and that concept is essential to the ability of the school to function. You have to go in with that.

    Of course, they won’t be able to attend private schools either, because private schools don’t have to put up with their shit so I assume every Right wing child will now be educated at home, alone. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    FTFNYT decided today that they would give prime real estate on their Opinion page to some asshole from Reason and a piece called “Biden’s Vaccine Mandate is a Big Mistake.” And so far it doesn’t look as though they’re taking comments. Ugh.

  64. 64.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Queen Elizabeth has been advised that recent revelations about her secretly manipulating the principle of ‘Queen’s Consent’ to avoid having to adhere to any of the diversity and anti-racism legislation that might have forced her to have ‘those people’ in anything other than the most menial of roles around her super-privileged bubble have led many to the conclusion that she’s as much of a racist as her late husband, therefore she’d like it to be bandied about that she actually supports the Black Lives Matter movement, says senior representative, without offering even the tiniest morsel of evidence to support this claim.

    Fixeth for thou, oh Exalted Eminence of the Sunset Lands. Brenda and all of her Heritage Heirs can go fucketh themselves. Verily.

  65. 65.

    trnc

    @Soprano2: So did they have any constructive suggestions for the right way, or was it just a whinefest about Biden trying to make the Covid situation better? My bet is on the latter.

    That’s a safe bet. During the entire media freakout over the Afghanistan evacuation, I never once heard a statement with actual details of what should have been done differently – just vague comments about how he should have started the evacuation sooner, as if that wouldn’t have triggered the taliban takeover sooner.

  66. 66.

    Soprano2

    Can I say how much I’ve come to loathe all these automated “customer service” systems? It’s extremely difficult to get the option to speak to a person, because they don’t want you to speak to a person. Then, when you’re on hold, every 20 seconds they suggest that you could probably resolve your problem with a visit to their Web site (hey, here’s a clue – if I could resolve this problem by visiting your Web site I would have already done that!). I put my phone # in for USPS to have a representative call me back “between 23 and 46 minutes from now” because I sent them a change of address for my mother’s mail over a week ago, and while mail stopped coming to her house none of it has come to me yet, which means I’m afraid her mail is piling up at a post office somewhere! Everyone says they have “excellent” customer service, but almost none of them have a person answer the phone when you call. It’s maddening!

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I don’t think Biden cares what the NYTimes says. Trump cared a lot, but Biden doesn’t seem to. But, the NYTimes had that long and mutually beneficial relationship with Donald Trump – they go back a long way.

  70. 70.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: I can believe there is a certain measure of that in the mandate. On the other hand, it is an obvious trap and the Republicans fell for it.

  72. 72.

    Anyway

    @Benw:

    A vaccinated friend flew to Bamako on Air France last week and at check-in they asked for and scrutinized his neg Covid test result (taken within 72 hours, PCR – not  Antigen) – they barely looked at his vax status.

    More anecdata – vaccinated FOAF flew back  to US from Egypt (I think) and they wouldn’t let him board without a recent Covid test.  Vax status wasn’t sufficient. He had to reschedule his flight.

    Covid test appears to be the norm for international travel.

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: The same exact people who screamed that schools were closed now refuse to accept any covid mitigations at schools. It was never about the students.

    This absolutely boggles my mind. Surprisingly, the school here has a mask mandate and has had very little pushback from these assholes. No other school in my area has one. I’m sure Springfield will be able to successfully keep in-person school going while other districts in the area struggle with sending whole classes home, or with people pulling their kids out because of the periodic quarantines. and they’ll all throw up their hands and act like they don’t know what the problem is. All of our colleges here have been able to have in-person classes successfully, too – I saw in an e-mail that the Concert Chorale at our local state university had a 100% vaccination rate, which makes me extremely proud of those young people. The evening choir I’m in there seems to have about a 60-70% vaccination rate judging from how many maskless faces I see at rehearsal. I hope that gets better as the year goes on, because singing without a face mask is much more pleasant than singing with one one.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    maybe it was, and they changed the headline. The one I saw didn’t mention OSHA (I didn’t read the actual piece).

    “No more clicks to give.” Heh.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    I am a little concerned the conservatives on the SCOTUS will “invalidate” or “repeal” or “vacate” OSHA as both an entity and a concept by way of an order issued at midnight without a hearing, but I suppose that’s a risk whatever Biden does, on anything. Wait ’till they find out about “workplace safety rules”. They’ll be outraged.

  77. 77.

    laura

    Rain! Lightening and thunder and actual rain and the smell of rain. It’s going to knock the high temps down too. Hopefully no fires, but oh, rain!

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    That McSweeney’s piece has been giving me unbounded glee for a few days now! And yes, it really is the perfect response to, well, all denizens of the Kingdom of Covidiocracy.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    We haven’t had any pushback to the mask mandate here either, and it’s a 65% Trump county. I don’t know why the loonies haven’t flocked in, but I’m grateful. Quarantines are much more disruptive and much worse for students than masks are, but then these people never wanted to discuss actual practical mitigations and reach a compromise. If they did the school board meetings would have been dead boring – they’d be discussing the merits of the various air filters, and whether “stacking” with masks and air filters can reduce quarantines and keep them in school. No placards for that. No reason to go get your gun or your zip ties. Just a school board meeting.

  80. 80.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Tony Jay: It’s us Americans for you, we just can’t understand the important being well-inbreed.

    On a less snarky note, I suppose it’s no surprise a woman who came of age in the 1940s is a bit of racist.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    John Harwood
    @JohnJHarwood
    ·2h
    new
    @CNN
    poll on Biden’s job performance:
    52% approve
    48% disapprove

    I bet they’re happy with that in Bidenland. Odd though because everyone on CNN told us his presidency was over because he withdrew from Afghanistan.

  83. 83.

    Ken

    @Baud: NYT: would raise $270 billion for their $3.5 trillion

    I know the 3.5 trillion is over 10 years.  Is the 270 billion also over 10 years, or did the NYT accidentally mislead readers by using the yearly figure here?

  84. 84.

    Geminid

    After President Biden’s speech, @Mangy Jay reposted a series of tweets she made a couple weeks ago. They concerned her experience when she had Tuberculosis.  Ms. Jay described how Public Health authorities imposed a vigorous mandatory regimen of isolation, contact tracing, and monitored her adherence to the required regimen of antibiotic drugs that themselves had potentially serious side effects.

    Ms. Jay’s point is two-fold:  Rigorous public health measures are nothing new. And they are what  keeps deadly, drug resistant diseases from spreading to our neighbors and our selves.

  85. 85.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    @lowtechcyclist: I saw that Todd Starnes tweet yesterday and since I didn’t know who he was, I honestly assumed it was some sort of parody. So now I know who he is: a fool

    He used to be some sort of bigwig at Fox News, got fired a couple of years ago, apparently for being too radical even for them.

    I just heard of him a couple of weeks ago, when Josh Marshall tweeted images of a couple of Starnes’ tweets.  In the first one, Starnes is praying for God’s protection for our people in Afghanistan.  In the second, he’s saying we should bomb an Afghan city for each American killed there.

    So he’s an all-around horrible person.

  86. 86.

    Torrey

    @Mike E:  I couldn’t find the link in the reddit post. Was the video in question “Did the Confederacy Have Better Generals?” If so, that’s definitely a good one.

  87. 87.

    Tony Jay

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    It’s us Americans for you, we just can’t understand the important being well-inbreed.

    Come on now, don’t put your nation down. You may have got into the Goodblood Rating Classification System a bit later than the Old Worlde families, but I’d imagine there’s an entire caste of willowy scions from the Harvard and Yale (Hale? Yard? What’s a good American expy for Oxbridge?) legacy alumni production line who wouldn’t consider marrying anyone with whom they didn’t share at least one grandparent.

  89. 89.

    Eunicecycle

    @Soprano2: I was in customer service hell with my bank the other day. It’s one of those where you have to “say” what you want, which only led to more branches of the CS hell. I finally hit “9” hoping that got me to a person, which it did. Also did the callback thing and it actually worked. But I was also reminded that I could just go to the website…

  90. 90.

    evodevo

    @Soprano2:  LOL we just barely have enough personnel to deliver the mail in an untimely fashion, much less answer the phone..
    but, seriously, it takes at least a couple weeks for the system to get the mail from a forward order to your house…it has ALWAYS been this way, unless you lived right down the block from your mother AND the carrier knew you both well enough to bypass the automated system. As a carrier, I have fielded these complaints for literally years…AND it depends on what the type of mail was…some senders have opted for electronic address change, and some opt for merely being informed abut it, but not wanting to pay for forwarding it..if there is someone moved in to her old address, check with them to see if they have been getting her mail…we have so many clueless subs on routes nowadays that her mail may not have been diverted to the forwarding system…a few irate phone calls to the LOCAL post office will speed that up. The 1-800 # won’t do much…

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I have decide that instead of calling these people “libertarians” I now just refer to them as “libertines.” Then I wait to see if people correct me or get it.

    Try it! It’s fun!

    Also, on language, I have completely adopted Kay’s term “Miscarriage Justification” bill instead of “Anti-abortion” legislation.

    Also love “devil take the hindmost” and putting it back into my phrase glove box (where useful things are easy to reach).

  92. 92.

    Josie

    @Cermet: ​Beans are not low carb. If you want low carb, eat meat, poultry, fish and green vegetables. Hard to stick to but it works.
     ETA: Be sure to drink plenty of water.​

  93. 93.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ve seen some of them fulminating that the vaccine mandates are just a cynical tactic to get Republicans to react by branding themselves as the pro-COVID party

    They’re behind the times, that ship’s long since sailed.  The Repubs ARE the pro-Covid party

    ETA: Beaten to it by Soprano2!

  94. 94.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I wonder if one could map the areas with mask mandate fights versus those with mask mandates but no fights. That would be useful news! As you say, many Trumpy areas have accepted masking without a fuss (occasional codpiece excepted). But others go batshit and become violent. What is the common denominator?

    To add, I’m sure the actual number of violent-adjacent anti-mask school acts are reported way out of proportion to their occurrence. Just like break through COVID cases.

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: All the news networks seemed to believe Biden’s presidency was over when his popularity rating dropped to the highest one Trump ever had, and now it’s already bumped back up. LOL I bet the newest actions on Covid will bump it up even more, because the vaccinated are done with the willingly unvaccinated. I wish hospitals would set up tents in their parking lots for the unvaccinated who come in with Covid. There, they could be cared for by their loved ones with whatever medicine they choose, but no actual medical personnel would have to be bothered with them – instead, they would now have time and resources to care for people who actually care about the health and welfare of their fellow citizens. I have a nurse friend who posted on FB not to get mad at her when she tells you that the symptoms you’re experiencing from trying to treat Covid with remedies like that mean you need to go to the ER immediately. Healthcare people are done with the willingly unvaccinated.

  99. 99.

    germy

    You only live once – you should try to spend as much time on the computer as possible. After you die, you won't have access to it any more

    — Boots, 'with the fur' (@afraidofwasps) September 9, 2021

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    @Soprano2: It is funny about polling democrats — we talk about it all the time here, but when we see poll numbers drop, I think we think it is actually people not liking Biden’s policies. But with democrats, there is also a huge trigger switch “go faster!” Group who get annoyed with Biden when he moves too slow. Republicans are overall more tribal and support their guy hell or high water. Hence Trump’s amazingly low but stable polling. I expect Biden will swing up and down more. And yes, I think the mandate will improve his polling.

  102. 102.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: @evodevo: My family is currently in a bit of mail-forwarding hell. When my parents moved into the assisted living place, we forwarded their mail there.  Doing it online was no problem, except it wouldn’t take their new apartment number (ominous chords).

    Now we’re trying to get the mail forwarded from there to one of my sisters, and USPS can’t do that because they list the facility as a business, not a residence. The facility is working on getting their designation changed, but apparently they need to have a certain number of residents before that can happen. I suggested they just lie to the USPS about the number of people they have….

  103. 103.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:

    Rather than randomly generating a geographically balanced sample of phone numbers, potential respondents were selected randomly based on their address and some known characteristics about the area where they live.

    A new version of “random!”
    Unskewing the polls for??

  104. 104.

    Tony Jay

    @Immanentize:

    Other than the modern BBC wouldn’t frame it as a question, or use that horrible R-word (maybe ‘traditionalist’?) then yes, that wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

    And, of course, a few hastily run-down scare stories about thieving darkies burgling the homes of wealthy white women on every bulletin for a few days, just to ‘lay the table’, as it were.

  106. 106.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

      We used to say “Ivy League”, but that keeps expanding.

    Ivory League*?

     

    *What’s expensive and white and synonymous with the exploitation of scarce resources by a bloodthirsty elite?

  107. 107.

    The Moar You Know

    Biden realized, probably some time back in Obama’s first term, that bipartisanship was dead.  He probably said his piece to Obama about it at some point and let it go.

    Now that he’s driving the bus, I am glad that he realized this from day one and has been governing accordingly.

  108. 108.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @trnc:

    During the entire media freakout over the Afghanistan evacuation, I never once heard a statement with actual details of what should have been done differently

    There were a few talking heads who actually admitted that they didn’t ever want us to leave Afghanistan and they were mad Biden got us out.

  109. 109.

    Soprano2

    @evodevo: Thanks for the info. The person who called me back told me it probably wouldn’t start coming until sometime next week. I’m afraid of how big that pile of mail is going to be; my carrier won’t be happy about it for sure! I was afraid I had accidently told them to hold her mail, rather than forward it, and that it was piling up somewhere and I was expected to come and get it. Her house is vacant now; I probably won’t be selling it for several months, because I’ve got to get all the stuff out of it first. As long as I know it’s eventually going to start coming, I’m OK with it. I didn’t even know you could call the local PO, although I’ve got a friend who is getting ready to retire from there who I could talk to if I wanted something.

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack

    Well, word comes from Bro’ Man this morning that his husband has a 101° fever and is scheduled for a COVID test at 2:00. The BIL (vaxed, of course) is a teacher in a D.C. school, so this isn’t entirely unexpected. But they have two kids—one 7 next month, the other 5—who obviously aren’t vaxed. I was going to go over to Sighthound Hall tonight for pizza and a look at the results of the summer renovation, but that’s right out now.

    I had been planning to keep a low profile anyway, until I saw how the first few weeks of school went, but I thought the danger would come from the kids. Go figure. It’s not a big deal (so far), in the grand pandemic scheme, but it’s the first time COVID has (potentially) hit my social circle.

  113. 113.

    frosty

    @Cermet: ​
      Get the MyFitnessPal app and record everything you eat. I did it and found out I was chowing down 200g/day; I cut it in half and lost 10 lbs. Sadly, not the other 10 I would like, but I haven’t gained it back either.
    Beans aren’t exactly low-carb friendly.

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    @Steeplejack: Could you please do me a favor? You may have well done this before, and I certainly miss a lot —

    Would you please just give a short description of what Sighthound Hall is? Where? How big? Why is it named such?

    Everytime I read you mentioning it, I try to picture it, but I still don’t know if you love it or hate it. I get that it is some familial abode, but is it newish or ancient, is it haunted?

    I would really appreciate a bit more as I can’t fix it even in my imagination. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t so evocative (but in shadows for me). Thanks!

  115. 115.

    frosty

    @Soprano2: ​
     I tried to call Apple to get an appointment with a Genius yesterday. The fucking automated system said it would send me a link, twice, and it didn’t. I finally talked to someone who could make the appointment — he was in Canada. YOU CAN’T CALL THE LOCAL STORE!!!!
    These guys made Comcast look like a model of customer service.

  117. 117.

    Tony Jay

    @The Moar You Know:

    The News Media still haven’t really internalised the fact that Biden and Co aren’t going to play the part assigned to them in the DC kabuki. They’re supposed to wait and see what Narrative emerges from the milky pools of Savvy on the mystical island of Cocktailia Partia and act accordingly, following the guidance of the Clickbait Oracles and enacting whatever policy they’re told will begin to restore their favour with the Powers That Be. Biden has told them to fuck right off. They’re positively steaming about that.

    Afghanistan was a case in point. The Media decided it was a catastrophic disaster that would destroy Biden’s Presidency if he didn’t turn right around and reinvade the country behind a Boom TV friendly wall of smart-bombs and live-streaming drones.

    He didn’t listen to them, the disaster didn’t occur, and now they look like a bunch of dime-store Cassandras. So now they want blood, and they’re not going to stop scratching at his ankles with their blunt little claws until he damned well acknowledges their relevance.

    My tears, they salty.

  118. 118.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kay:   For some time now, I have feared that covid would be what finally allowed the GOP to destroy public education. Make it impossible for the public schools to address covid, and then encourage parents to flee to private schools or home school.

  119. 119.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Torrey:

    Was the video in question “Did the Confederacy Have Better Generals?”

    Haven’t seen the video, but it does seem that many people focus on the part of the war that took place in Virginia (plus a couple of excursions north of the Potomac) to the exclusion of all else.  And if you do that, it’s a big thumb on the scales, given the crappy generalship of the Army of the Potomac for most of the war.

    Because west of the Appalachians, the Union pretty much kicked the Confederacy’s collective asses.  And that leads to Atlanta and Sherman’s subsequent adventures.

  121. 121.

    The Moar You Know

    I guess CNN has decided to take up the mantle of #1 shitposter on anything Biden.

    @trnc: I noticed that at some time in the last month their reporting had changed rather extensively; they’ve decided that the GOP is OK, preferable to any Dems, and that Trump is no longer a danger or a problem.

    In short, they seem to think that the GOP is not the party of Trump, or can be split from him.  They are wrong.

    I suspected this might happen.  Trump was VERY good for them, businesswise.  Sane government just does not generate the clicks that a psycho in charge does.

  122. 122.

    Steeplejack

    @Immanentize:

    Happy to oblige! Sighthound Hall is a big house in the Woodmont neighborhood of Arlington, VA. Not a McMansion, but an upscale house in an upscale area. The term “Sighthound Hall” has been a running family/​friends joke for a while. There was a previous Sighthound Hall before this “forever” one, maybe one before that. In fact, some years ago some friends gave Bro’ Man a very nice silhouette iron panel with a rabbit and greyhound in chase and “Sighthound Hall” on it, now proudly displayed in the garden. I think the origin of the term was that my brother has always been a real estate maven and serial renovator—and a certified master gardener—so the caricature of him as the squire of a mythical manor took hold.

    The house is not especially old, and it doesn’t appear to be haunted. Probably dates from the ’90s. It’s in an established neighborhood where people buy small old houses and replace them with bigger ones. (And there are some McMansions.)

    For most of his adult life Bro’ Man has had a succession of adopted greyhounds in residence. They are great dogs! The last one died a couple of years ago, and last year they got a chonky boi mutt who is a better fit with the rambunctious kids.

    For a while I have thought about sending in pics of the Sighthound Hall “grounds” for the Sunday garden chat. I should move that up the to-do list.

  124. 124.

    Soprano2

    @The Moar You Know: I suspected this might happen.  Trump was VERY good for them, businesswise.  Sane government just does not generate the clicks that a psycho in charge does.

    They got addicted to the crisis-a-day high of the Trump presidency. I’m not surprised at their turn either. I’ve noticed the return of the word “try” when they talk about anything the current government is doing. They didn’t use that word much when Trump was president.

  126. 126.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @Cermet: One suggestion I was given by a friend who was successful at losing weight was to start the exercise program first, give your system a week or so to accept that vas the new normal, and then start tweaking your food intake.
    Also, beans aren’t really low in carbohydrates. An excellent food choice in many other respects, but they are maybe not the best choose to start a low-carb program.

  128. 128.

    opiejeanne

    @frosty: Oh God, I dealt with ComCast yesterday on the phone and computer, but none of the options fit my problem. They finally FINALLY did have someone call me, after shouting agent AGENT at my phone, and it was within 2 minutes of telling me they would.

    It seems I need to unplug my Wifi tower and take it to the local store, where they will give me a new one. The current one has lost its oomph.

  129. 129.

    Miss Bianca

    @Tony Jay: Oh, my. That was a thing of beauty and a joy forever. I may just have to quote you on the whole damn thing when I try to explain to my friends just why they shouldn’t be allowing themselves to be jerked around by the junk every time the media throws a hissy fit over some Biden decision.

  131. 131.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah: ​

    Why isn’t this a CRIME??

    Jeremy Faust MD MS (ER physician) (@jeremyfaust) tweeted at 11:38 PM on Thu, Sep 09, 2021:
    Someone I know died of Covid after their home health aide *lied* about their vaccination status.

    But please, go on about freedom.

    Would be at least involuntary manslaughter, if not voluntary manslaughter, since they had to know it was a dangerous thing they were doing. Potentially causing death through one’s actions.

    A few dozen prosecutions like that might change some minds~!~

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    @SFBayAreaGal:

    Went to sleep with that sound and rain falling seemingly heavy here in socal. Didn’t rain much but yes it hasn’t forgotten how to actually do that. I was afraid that the world had forgotten how  here.

  134. 134.

    J R in WV

    @Kay:

    Wait ’till they [SCOTUS] find out about “workplace safety rules”. They’ll be outraged.

    Are there over a hundred employees at SCOTUS??? I’ll bet there are a lot more — bang, “workplace safety rules” rule~!!~

  135. 135.

    Tony Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    They’re a bunch of sniffy fashion critics who are pissed that the era of the rich white bad boy cosplaying as a ‘Pop-Punk auteur from the streets who breaks all the rules’ is over and they’re back to reporting on boring things like quality, cut and style, stuff they actually don’t understand and don’t find exciting.

    They can be ignored.

  138. 138.

    SteverinoCT

    @Cermet: beans are carbs. You know what isn’t? Bacon and eggs. Of course that’s cholesterol and calories. Veggies like squash are good. Potatoes, corn, peas, carrots; basically anything sweet has carbs.

  139. 139.

    pluky

    @SteverinoCT: Squash is a fruit. The winter ones in particular have lots of carbs. This is what makes them appealing to the eaters the plant is counting on for fecal seed dispersal. However yellow summer squashes and zucchini aren’t bad in that they are eaten by us before the energy packing really gears up.

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