Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Everybody saw this coming.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

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

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

Innocent people do not delay justice.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

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

Let there be snark.

The National Guard is not Batman.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread & Medium Cool Announcement

Open Thread & Medium Cool Announcement

by | 124 Comments

This post is in: 

Looks like we can use an open thread!

I’ll take this opportunity to let everyone know that BGinChi will be back on Sundays with new Medium Cool posts, starting next week.  So look for the first Medium Cool on Sunday, 10/3.

We haven’t quite decided on a time yet, but it may be a bit later than before.  Maybe sometime around 7 pm Eastern.

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  12. 12.

    PsiFighter37

    German elections are tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the SPD and Greens can pull off enough votes without having to ask the FDP to be in a coalition.

  23. 23.

    jl

    Just looked at the thread below on covid vaccine hesitancy, though most of it seems to be a bunch of ignorant jackasses who proudly endanger themselves and others, and bully people in a passive-aggressive way, who might see reason.

    Inhaling nebulized hydrogen peroxide is pretty close to shooting bleach into your lungs. Close enough to count, IMHO. The all-American ingenuity of the Trumpsters and anti-vaxxers is inspiring. Only Trump could fix it!

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    On the Politico question (thread with good comments):

    I’m actually baffled about who Politico’s audience is. Every other article is explicitly written by Republican operatives and promotes right wing candidates, seemingly everyone sees through it, but it’s not picking up any right wing audience whatsoever.
    t.co/HfaEJ9zODA

    — Cousin’s Friend in Trinidad (@MenshevikM) September 25, 2021

    Good take:

    @Yayger: It seems like Politico’s audience is the media itself. It’s purpose is to set and reinforce GOP-friendly narratives in the broader media landscape, to lead the rest of the political press in normalizing Republican radicalism.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    It seems like Politico’s audience is the media itself. It’s purpose is to set and reinforce GOP-friendly narratives in the broader media landscape, to lead the rest of the political press in normalizing Republican radicalism.

    Truth.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    I have the sweetest rescue pup overnighting. Gretel. A black lab mix, maybe 8 months old. Started the day in Alabama. Will be in New Jersey tomorrow to find her forever home. She was a little apprehensive about being separated from her brother, Hansel, but is playing, exploring, and was a little chowhound at dinner. She’ll ride w Hansel again tomorrow.

  29. 29.

    tam1MI

    @WaterGirl: I live in Michigan, so escalating her story on my Facebook page won’t do any good.  I’m thinking of putting her story on a message board I hang out on, maybe someone there will step up.

  32. 32.

    Ken

    @Betty: Halloween candy’s been in the stores since late August, and people in my neighborhood have been decorating their yards for a week now. It’s terrible how Halloween has crowded out Elephant Appreciation Day.

  35. 35.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    You guys might find this funny. Parler was sponsoring JJ Yaley’s car in the NASCAR Xfinity series tonight at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race and he wrecked out in the first stage LOL

  38. 38.

    Starboard Tack

    Because I’m an alta cocka, I got my Pfizer booster today. I had some reservations about getting a third dose when so many who want it can’t get the first. But I figured that dose wasn’t going to be sent anyplace vaccine deprived if I refused it. I’m prophylactically treating the side effects with rye whisky, dark chocolate and black raspberry ice cream.

  40. 40.

    p.a.

    @jl: These reich wing idiots love anything termed ‘tactical’; tactical knives, tactical clothing, tactical flashlights(!), tactical sunglasses(???) so let’s just rebrand the covid vaccines ‘tactical intra-body interventions’ and maybe wrap the syringes in camo tape. Oh, and get Tom Selleck to do the ads.???

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @Starboard Tack: When I tended bar years ago, there was an older guy who swore by drinking a pint of rye when he felt he was coming down with something.

    He would go home, run the hottest bath possible, get in the tub with his pint of rye whiskey, and drink it until the water got cold.

    He swore by that remedy.

  43. 43.

    SpaceUnit

    @Ken:  Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays, and I’m old enough that it shouldn’t be.  Go figure.

    Also, it’s Saturday night and I’m commenting on BJ.  Shoot me.

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    I have a date with my dad next Sunday at a beer garden for Oktoberfest.  He hasn’t seen the kids’ band play so we are going to go see them together.  My stepmom will be out of town so it will be a father daughter outing.  I think we will be back at his place by about 8 so maybe I’ll catch the end of the medium cool.

  48. 48.

    mali muso

    Last night of single parenting duty  after the spousal unit has been back in Africa visiting the fam for two weeks (first time since he had to abort his March 2020 trip). I think I did a pretty good job of holding down the fort. But a shot of whisky or bourbon would not come amiss. Four year olds are no joke.

  51. 51.

    jl

    @p.a.: It was sad to hear that doctor talking about locals who snuck into his office to get immunized on the sly so they wouldn’t be bullied and ostracized.

    I hope the llama nabs work out. If they do, we should put up monuments around the world to Tyson, Fifi, Wally, and Winter.

    In the meantime, maybe someone could meme out the notion to the Trumpster dupes, nutcases, and cranks that having a camel spit in your face is a good prophylactic. Better than breathing hydrogen peroxide mist, so maybe it wouldn’t be unethical.

  59. 59.

    jl

    @Steeplejack (phone): A rally the day after the authoritarians and loons running the AZ audit that found no fraud and more votes for Biden is a good opportunity to lie about it.

    Probably need another one. I bet it’s just that those Chinese bamboo ballots are so hard to spot. Need to get some special x-ray equipment to examine the kernings.

  69. 69.

    laura

    @MomSense:l hope your son plays all the best songs on the shreddingest guitar that continues to be a collaborative partner in your musician son’s artistic life. You deserve a lot of credit for gifting such a lovely guitar.

  71. 71.

    Feathers

    @WaterGirl: I had a co-worker who once gave me a gift bag with his “cold remedy.” A shot of peppermint schnapps followed by a chamomile tea chaser. Repeat until no longer needed. I don’t use it when actually sick, but it’s nice for those crawl into bed early nights. Using Creme de Cassis now because I bought A bottle after watching Poirot.

  72. 72.

    tam1MI

    @tam1MI:I live in Michigan, so escalating her story on my Facebook page won’t do any good.  I’m thinking of putting her story on a message board I hang out on, maybe someone there will step up.

    And it’s done.  I gave our esteemed blogfather’s name as a contact, hopefully someone there will come through.

  74. 74.

    jl

    @Percysowner: I’m not sure I understand what point Trump is trying to make, so hard for me to figure whether it’s surprising or not.  I think Trump needs to criticize Kemp, and looks for someone else to be the cudgel. Trump seems to be claiming that Abrams never conceded, and she was right to do that. So implication is that Trump is right to not concede, and maybe Kemp is not legit governor. I can’t tell whether the crowd cheers or boos, or it is a mix of both.

    Edit: take away seems to be that Kemp is so bad even someone like Abrams would be preferable. Bright side is that if Trump keeps attacking and excommunicating GOPer pols who have shown that they can win elections, that is just fine with me.

  75. 75.

    Starboard Tack

    @Feathers: My favorite thing to do with peppermint schnapps is to drizzle a shot over the whipped cream on the top of a cup of cocoa. Makes a cold night in January almost pleasant.

  77. 77.

    MagdaInBlack

    @jl: Rawstory tell me he was gushing over MTG. How long before he’s pushing her for Gov?

    He has no point other than petty revenge and self- promotion.

  79. 79.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Brachiator: They’re claiming that the “duplicate” (they’re not and were literally already discovered and adjudicated in court) means theres “50,000 ballots that may have been illegal so we need to decertify”.

    That’s what they and the AZ Senate Republicans are banking on. “We just can’t know, so we need to decertify or have another audit”. Its already spread through the qanon portions of the party and is making it’s way through the party itself as the preferred known response.

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    AlJazeera:

    Several people have died in the United States when an Amtrak train went off the rails in the state of Montana, according to an official.

    Starr Tyler, dispatcher at the Liberty Country Sherriff’s Office, told the Associated Press news agency that at least three people were killed in Saturday’s incident.

    […]

    Amtrak said in a statement that there were multiple injuries.

    It said the Empire Builder train had about 147 passengers and 13 crew aboard when five cars derailed near the town of Joplin at 4pm (22:00 GMT).

    “Amtrak is working with the local authorities to transport injured passengers, and safely evacuate all other passengers,” it added.

    The cause of Saturday’s incident was not immediately clear.

    US media said the train was headed for the city of Seattle from Chicago.

    […]

    It was a straight section of track and the weather was clear.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Might work. but its dumb.

    Having the virus gives you SOME immunity. And not as good as one of the vaccines, and it’s not reproducible or testable, and the immunity varies by person.

    So all the state has to do is say “vaccines prove X% effective, catching the virus doesn’t necessarily give that amount. Therefore we require the vaccine because it gives the best immunity.”

  86. 86.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I know that feeling.

    By the way, I’m glad you’re no longer in immediate danger of being evicted from your apartment. That’s a scary and awful experience no matter what, let alone during a pandemic

  87. 87.

    Kay

    Is Joe Biden’s Presidency actually “dead,” “failed,” and all but “over,” as you have surely heard by now?

    Susan B. Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes a weekly column on life in Washington. She co-wrote, with Peter Baker, “The Man Who Ran Washington.”

    You will learn absolutely nothing from reading this article that you could not learn from 15 minutes of watching Fox News.

    They’re so, so bad.

  89. 89.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @MisterForkbeard:

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The experts quoted in the article sure seemed to think it had merit and could work. I don’t know. I personally think it’s a bad idea and will lead to abuse

    The 673,676-person Israeli study found that people who recovered from prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and remained unvaccinated were 27 times less likely to experience symptomatic reinfection from the Delta variant when compared to those who had not been infected and received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The study also found that previously infected people who received a single dose of the vaccine received additional protection against the Delta variant.

    In a smaller study conducted by Washington University School of Medicine and published in Nature, senior author Ali Ellebedy, PhD, an associate professor of medicine and of molecular microbiology, found antibody-producing cells in the bone marrow of 15 of 19 study subjects 11 months after their first COVID-19 symptoms. “These cells will live and produce antibodies for the rest of people’s lives. That’s strong evidence for long-lasting immunity,” Ellebedy said.

    In terms of legal arguments, George Mason University Foundation law professor and Cato Institute senior fellow Todd Zywicki legally challenged the university’s vaccine mandate and later reached an arrangement that led to dropping the suit.

    Zywicki told Yahoo Finance that while government entities have a right to take reasonable precautions against the spread of communicable diseases, that power has its limits. Those limits, according to Zywicki, are grounded in the 1905 Supreme Court decision Jacobson v. Massachusetts that upheld a state smallpox vaccine mandate, though the precedent may be challenged given legal and scientific evolution.

    “That was a different medical era,” Zywicki said. “There was no way to confirm whether you had a prior infection and recovery, which is obviously the case now.”

    A Michigan State University employee recently cited natural immunity as part of an attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order against the school’s vaccination mandate. The federal judge in the case denied the request, ruling the employee “has not demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of her claim.” Following a Sept. 22 hearing, the judge is now determining whether to issue a preliminary injunction to allow for an exception to the school’s vaccination mandate.

    Zywicki said a modern legal analysis should also consider the Supreme Court’s 1927 ruling in Buck v. Bell, which solidified individual rights to bodily autonomy.

    In Buck, the court voided a Virginia statute authorizing the state to force sterilization on men and women deemed mentally deficient. Later cases, Zywicki said, followed that jurisprudence, holding that even prisoners cannot be subjected against their will to state-mandated drug injection, especially if the mandate is for the state’s convenience.

    “Understandably, we are repulsed by that sort of attitude: that the government can do anything to you just because they think it’s a convenient way of dealing with some social problem,” he said.

    Zywicki further argued that some state laws that govern immunization for students and others who must be protected against measles, mumps, rubella, don’t offer states sweeping authority to require vaccination. Instead, he said, they require proof of immunity. No proof of immunity option is offered in some states for diseases such as tetanus and polio.

    “We’re concerned about immunity, not how you get there,” Zywicki said.

  92. 92.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    What I’m trying to get at is what if they’re right? I admit I don’t know anything about the ins and outs of the law. What if a judge or the Supreme Court agree with this argument? And what if those studies are also correct that natural immunity is just as good as vaccine-induced immunity?

  94. 94.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    That is true, those studies haven’t been peer-reviewed yet. I don’t know. I guess I just don’t want this to be a political setback (provided natural immunity is strong and long-lasting as those studies suggest) for Biden and the Dems. Or a setback for ending the pandemic

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    Trivia:

    Not too long after she graduated college, Scalia’s father (a professor there) took extended sick leave and Mom was contacted by her alma mater with an offer to come back and take over his classes.

    She already had recently signed a teaching contract elsewhere (public school) and didn’t feel it right to try to wiggle out of that, so said no.

    According to her, Scalia père never did recover enough to return to teaching.

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steeplejack (phone): That kind of reminds me of Conor Friedersdorf’s articles–all of which are seemingly aimed at liberals who are worried that their own partisanship is making them closed-minded, and intended to convince them that they’re unfairly neglecting some right-wing idea or another. I know a bunch of these people.

  98. 98.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): At this point I’m starting to think that every article that cites an Israeli study on vaccine effectiveness needs to be regarded with suspicion. It’s not that the actual studies are necessarily bad but they seem to consistently misinterpreted in weird contrarian ways that antivaxxers run with.

  99. 99.

    Another Scott

    @Major Major Major Major: I had chicken pox as a kid, before there was a vaccine.  When I transferred to a public school in another state, I was told I had to get a chicken pox vaccine before admission.  They didn’t care that I had the disease (and had the scars to prove it).

    As you say, carve-outs invite abuse.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    joel hanes

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Looks as if Elder will ultimately have been the choice on roughly 27% of ballots cast.

     

    There’s that number again, the base crazification factor.  Must credit John Rogers posting at kungfu monkey.

  102. 102.

    Fair Economist

    @WaterGirl: German Greens are reasonable. They form coalitions and get things done. Not much policy daylight between them and the SDP, mostly just leftist splittism.

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think that if immunity from prior infection is actually strong and long-lasting, that’s great. But it’s a ridiculous thing to use as an argument against vaccine mandates, because of two things:

    1. To have immunity from getting COVID, you have to get COVID. If you haven’t gotten COVID yet it’s an absurd thing to wish for. To actually get to herd immunity that way involves incredible levels of suffering and death–we all did the math on that a year and a half ago.
    2. A lot more antivaxxers think they already got COVID than actually already got COVID. Are we going to give them all antibody titers, or some more involved test to detect their preexisting immunity so they can be exempted from mandates? Will they submit to them? I doubt it. They’re just going to assert that they already had some flu-like illness so they don’t have to get the vaccine.

    I keep thinking back to Cheryl Rofer’s little spreadsheet model, in which she determines that in any remotely realistic scenario at this point we still get to a high level of general immunity mostly through vaccination, not through infection. Getting there “the hard way” takes a really long time if we want to keep general levels of disease low enough that hospital systems don’t crash. Or we just let them crash like in Idaho or Texas or Florida; this isn’t a good outcome.

    I also suspect the result is fishy, because of the other results determining that some fairly large fraction of people who get mild COVID and recover rapidly don’t even have detectable levels of antibodies afterward. Maybe they’ve got some harder-to-detect form of immunity but it makes me think they might be missing some mild cases in these studies of post-infection immunity.

  105. 105.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Fair Economist: I think that the fact that our election system makes minor parties have perverse spoiler effects prevents those parties from attracting people who are actually interested in being politically effective–instead they get trolls, grifters, false-flag puppets and performance artists. Voting-system reform to make third parties less damaging would eventually have the side effect of giving them better-quality candidates. And they might eventually not be minor parties any more.

  114. 114.

    JWR

    @jl: Just looked at the thread below on covid vaccine hesitancy,

    Me too, and the stories reminded me of listening to late-night KPFK, (SoCal’s Pacifica station), recently, and heard noted nutcase Gary Null going on about the “massive U.S. government Ivermectin cover-up”, which made me LoL, but also reminded me that there’s a fairly active contingent of leftie anti-vaxxers out there, doing their “research” into alternative potions and elixirs. I think that just labeling something alternative is the driving force for these people.

  115. 115.

    JWR

    @Steeplejack (phone): ​Aaron Rupar’s report on Trump’s rally

    TFG: “One thing is certain, this would never, ever be happening if I were your president…”

    Hey, waitaminnit! “if I were your president”? I thought they all believed he is their president. I guess the cognitive dissonance hasn’t sunk in yet. Give ’em time. (A lot of time.)

  117. 117.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JWR:

    TFG: “One thing is certain, this would never, ever be happening if I were your president…”

    TFG spent last November through January trying to overturn the election. At that same time, Americans were dying in droves in a wave that far exceeded the initial wave back in March through May 2020.

    Which he wasn’t doing a damned thing about. He was all about overturning the election to stay in office, and he probably didn’t even notice how many people were dying on his watch.

    The list of Trumpian crimes is a long one, but for me that one is near the top.  There is no limit to the amount of damage he’d inflict on this country and its citizens to stay in power, if he ever got there again.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: @Mangy Jay has been doing some interesting analysis of how anti-vaxers are cherrypicking scientific studies to propagate their anti-vax bullshit. She also has discussed the synergy between anti-vaccination agitation and rightwing “populist” movements in Europe and the U.S.

    John Stoerr’s The Editorial Board  has published some of Mangy Jay’s longer pieces. I believe these are paywalled, but the thoughtful @Mangy Jay’s twitter account has some some very keen analysis of current topics.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @JWR: Modern leftwing and rightwing “populism” share a common hostility towards what they consider establishment elites. The Pacifica broadcast you describe and trump’s attack on Georgia Governor Kemp have this element in common. What’s different is that the leftwing populists have no unifying figure to lead them, or as it happens, mislead them. They are also less numerous than their rightwing counterparts who are trying to execute a hostile takeover of the Republican party, formerly dominated by business elites and their politician partners.

  120. 120.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: What the popular interpretations often get wrong is that they describe Israel as a place where almost everyone is vaccinated. It’s actually not. They’re doing better than we are but it’s far from universal.

    Like the US and UK, they got an early head start with mass vaccination–earlier than either the US or UK, and that’s where they got the reputation. But, first, they have a significant fraction of vaccine-refusing people–smaller than in the US, but it’s a problem. Second, they haven’t done much to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied territories–that’s just getting started now. Third, Israel has a considerably larger fraction of children who are underage for vaccination. All this means that vaccinated people in Israel are in an environment with significant amounts of COVID circulating.

    Vaccination in Israel, IIRC, actually has been quite effective at preventing death and hospitalization, but a lot of these popular articles focus on infection or symptomatic disease, where we know the vaccines are somewhat less effective against Delta than against earlier variants. The numbers out of Israel always initially seem way worse somehow than elsewhere, but often that turns out to be some statistical artifact–in one, I recall the issue was that the headline “vaccine effectiveness” number everyone was throwing around was not breaking down subjects into age groups, and vaccinated subjects were on average much older than unvaccinated ones. The study was fine, it was just being cherrypicked for a sensational number.

    I also wonder if there isn’t some political pressure there to find support for aggressive booster-shot programs, since the government of Israel seems to have fixated on giving out lots of boosters to already-vaccinated people as the indication that they’re doing something.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl: 

    Wife’s grandma talked about a folk remedy for a bad cold, she called it the Two Hat Remedy:

    Put a fedora hat on the bottom bed post. Drink good whiskey until you see two hats! Then go to sleep (pass out). In the morning your cold will be over. I suppose any kind of hat will do.

    Might be the alcohol killing the virus? May just be that the hangover is so bad you no longer notice the cold.

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Natural immunity emerges as potential legal challenge to federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates

    What do you all think about this?

    I think it’s as stupid as claiming Biden isn’t president because That Fuckin’ Guy never conceded the election to him. If natural immunity worked, smallpox and polio and measles would have all disappeared from the face of the earth centuries ago. They didn’t, so “natural immunity” isn’t real.

    Anti-Vaxers are too stupid to protect themselves, and too selfish to protect others..

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’m pretty sure more people have had second Coronavirus infections than have had “breakthrough” infections after their vaccinations.

    We know that the vaccines are at best some 95% effective.

    I suspect prior infection is far less effective than even the poorest approved vaccines. Scientists wouldn’t spend their careers working with dangerous pathogens while developing vaccines if “natural immunity” really worked.

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