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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: Stock Up While You Can…

Monday Evening Open Thread: Stock Up While You Can…

by Anne Laurie|  October 18, 20217:02 pm| 114 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Popular Culture

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tempted to buy this because it is funny to me pic.twitter.com/v7HcDTPkxz

— Starfish Who Just Wants To Grill (@IRHotTakes) October 17, 2021

Advent calendars are marketing ploys by definition, but this is one of the odder appropriations I’ve ever seen. Or does Warhammer 40000 include some kind of in-game 12/25 religious holiday I don’t know about?

Unrelated, except it’s from the same tweeter:

"Who are you?"

"I am the ship captain."

"You're telling me a black man is the ship captain?"

"Me? Black?! Are you saying a black man could steal a ship of the Confederate States Navy? Sounds like DAMN YANKEE TALK to me."

— Starfish Who Just Wants To Grill (@IRHotTakes) October 18, 2021

Amazing how much people are capable of not seeing, in context…

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Previous Post: « Double or Nothing (Open Thread)
Next Post: Late Night Open Thread: The Political Horseshoe Is Real! »

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    October 18, 2021 at 7:04 pm

    This is what a libertarian folk singer puts on his guitar pic.twitter.com/ZfSL21Ma8x

    — ? Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong (@Bread__Santa) October 18, 2021

  2. 2.

    germy

    October 18, 2021 at 7:06 pm

    Left: Colin Powell threatened to resign over homosexuals serving in the military.

    Right: Colin Powell telling a journalist that despite misgivings he "didn't have any choice" but to support Bush in the case for invading Iraq, a decision he never threatened to resign over. pic.twitter.com/rA1eMjN2Hd

    — Zeeshan Aleem (@ZeeshanAleem) October 18, 2021

  3. 3.

    Betty

    October 18, 2021 at 7:07 pm

    There are so many great stories that ought to be told.  This is one.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    October 18, 2021 at 7:10 pm

    @germy:  Fortunately views change over time. You must remember when Obama was against marriage for gays.  Although you are correct, over time views change.
    This is Powell’s republican son In 2013, Powell was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case

  5. 5.

    JML

    October 18, 2021 at 7:12 pm

    I’m doing the Q-workshop dice advent calendar with some gaming buddies but the Warhammer 40K Chibi image made me LOL. Whether it’s real or not.

  6. 6.

    prostratedragon

    October 18, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    I’d love to see a Robert Smalls movie, so much that I would write it if I  could.  Great part for someone like Forrest Whitaker.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    October 18, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    I want to steal a ship now.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    October 18, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    @JML: Grand Imp is terrified of the Claus guy so I was looking for one that would make him excited about the big day.  You gave me some ideas.  thanks

  9. 9.

    cursorial

    October 18, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    I grew up near Beaufort, SC, knew kids who went to Robert Smalls Elementary School, and had no idea of this history until stumbling across an episode of The Memory Palace podcast last year. “History” as taught in the former Confederacy <sigh>.

    It would make an incredible movie, based on the story in the podcast.

  10. 10.

    ruff the dog

    October 18, 2021 at 7:19 pm

    @prostratedragon: very much agree. Better than my first impression, which was “that guy looks like Keenan Thompson.” That could be a franchise to rival Austin Powers.

  11. 11.

    PAM Dirac

    October 18, 2021 at 7:26 pm

    @Baud: I would think you would need more than one to coordinate the massive flotillas for Baud2024!

  12. 12.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    @prostratedragon: OTOH, a hero like that (I read about him some years ago, and yeah, What. A.  Hero.) you just know they’re gonna be lookin’ up Denzel Washington’s ph#.  Or maybe Michael B. Jordan (these days).  Gonna take a heroic-looking actor to do justice to the role, these days.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    October 18, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    @PAM Dirac: 

    I was actually thinking of doing something with dirigibles.

  14. 14.

    JML

    October 18, 2021 at 7:33 pm

    @JPL: 

    there are all kinds of them out there now; a buddy did a lego one with his kid. I’m a big dice dork, so this one will be fun. Hope you find the right one for the Grand Imp!

  15. 15.

    gwangung

    October 18, 2021 at 7:38 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I say yes to either (but, seriously, TONS of black actors in Hollywood could do this justice).

     

    @prostratedragon: Well, I was jonesing for a story about Ching Sheh, the Chinese pirate queen, and had to do it myself, so….

  16. 16.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 7:41 pm

    @gwangung: Sure, I was just reaching for the top of my grab-bag of “too beautiful and manly”.  Though, I guess there’s too too beautiful and manly — I don’t think Idris Elba could pull it off, only b/c …. well, too too beautiful and manly.

  17. 17.

    Alex in FL

    October 18, 2021 at 7:44 pm

    The Robert Smalls story would make a GREAT Amazon or Netflix Mini-Series. (more people would see it). He not only slipped away with an armed Confederate Navy Warship, he also took his family and other slaves away to freedom in the process.

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 7:46 pm

    @Alex in FL: And then fought that ship on our side for the rest of the war.  Heroic AF.

  19. 19.

    PAM Dirac

    October 18, 2021 at 7:47 pm

    @Baud: How about dirigiberbils?

  20. 20.

    Auntie Anne

    October 18, 2021 at 7:49 pm

    This would be a movie or miniseries I would ❤️ to watch!

  21. 21.

    Starfish

    October 18, 2021 at 7:51 pm

    Should the Sanders and Manchin bromance be a movie?

  22. 22.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    October 18, 2021 at 7:53 pm

    Marjorie Taylor Greene called a “Communist” by Qanon

    This is too good!

  23. 23.

    Salty Sam

    October 18, 2021 at 7:54 pm

    @cursorial: I grew up near Beaufort, SC, knew kids who went to Robert Smalls Elementary School, and had no idea of this history until stumbling…

    Two years ago, as we were working our boat south, we spent a few days in Charleston SC.  One of my favorite discoveries was a street plaque giving a brief history of “Capt” Robert Smalls and his escapade.  I’ll echo the tweet above and say I’d watch the HELL out of that story made into a movie.

    That story relieved a sense of dread I was experiencing- Charlestown is a beautiful place, but I could not shake the feeling of ghosts of slaves on whose backs such beauty was accomplished.  The ghost of Robert Smalls made it a bit easier to take…

  24. 24.

    The Moar You Know

    October 18, 2021 at 7:54 pm

    Robert Smalls was a fucking badass from start to finish.  The Wiki article on that man ought to be required reading for kids as an example of “winning at life”.

  25. 25.

    prostratedragon

    October 18, 2021 at 7:57 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:  Actually, if those drunk history photos of a young man are really Smalls, someone like MB Jordan would be a good bit of casting for the young scenes. Does happen occasionally; Denzel was not vastly more handsome than Malcom X.

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    October 18, 2021 at 8:03 pm

    @gwangung:  Wow, I think I’d heard a little something about her before. Seems she was the basis of a character in one of the Pirates of the Carribean movies. Is your movie where one can see it?

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    October 18, 2021 at 8:03 pm

    I read about Robert Smalls in (I believe) a Navy Times article. Smalls was an expert pilot who knew the coastal waters around Charleston, South Carolina better than any white Rebel or Yankee. On one night mission, his U.S. Navy ship was spotted in Charleston harbor by Confederate gunners at Fort Sumter. They opened fire, and the white officer who was nominally in charge wanted to surrender. “We’ll be killed if we don’t!” he cried. Smalls told him to shut up, that if they surrendered Smalls would face worse than just being killed. His Black crew backed Smalls up and they sailed clear.

  28. 28.

    prostratedragon

    October 18, 2021 at 8:05 pm

    Note: Did we all miss Talk LIke a PIrate Day around here? It was Sept. 22.

  29. 29.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 8:07 pm

    @prostratedragon:

    Denzel was not vastly more handsome than Malcom X.

    From the pics of seen of Malcolm, this is truth.

  30. 30.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 8:07 pm

    @prostratedragon: Newtonmas is comin’, Newtonmas is comin’

  31. 31.

    Ken

    October 18, 2021 at 8:08 pm

    @prostratedragon: Great part for someone like Forrest Whitaker.

    HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS:  Hmm, yes, but marketability… Could we get Downey?  Or Bale?

  32. 32.

    gwangung

    October 18, 2021 at 8:09 pm

    @prostratedragon: I don’t think the movie did her justice; she clawed her way up from prostitute to leading a pirate fleet that was the largest in history (and she was under 30-35 at the time).

    It’s more a stage play that’s entering pre-production, but I’ll make it available for video on demand when we produce.

  33. 33.

    gwangung

    October 18, 2021 at 8:10 pm

    @Ken: This….is not an exaggeration.

  34. 34.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    October 18, 2021 at 8:11 pm

    @Geminid:

    Wow, this makes Robert Smalls sound like even more of a total badass. Guy knew he had nothing to lose; he’d have rather have died than return to slavery. He probably would’ve been killed if they’d surrendered too

  35. 35.

    Rich2506

    October 18, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    As far as Robert Smalls is concerned, I’m still convinced that Django, Unchained

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_19

    was intended to be the first chapter of a serial.

  36. 36.

    Mary G

    October 18, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    I think the Advent Calendar is a marketing ploy. A card stapled to a plastic bag containing a jumble of small crappy figurines and hanging on the shop wall with all the other plastic bags of crappy figurines is only going to bring a few bucks. They probably weren’t moving well, so hey! Let’s take a box, cut 24 little doors in it, put it in another box and charge four times more!

  37. 37.

    raven

    October 18, 2021 at 8:23 pm

    @prostratedragon: Ghost Dawg!

  38. 38.

    kmeyerthelurker

    October 18, 2021 at 8:24 pm

    Smalls was later elected to congress, where IIRC he got caught up in a fair amount of graft.  Maybe end the series with his election.

  39. 39.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 8:26 pm

    @Ken: Or, y’now, Idris [sploosh]

  40. 40.

    Geminid

    October 18, 2021 at 8:28 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Smalls would have been tortured and probably mutilated before he was killed.

  41. 41.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 8:29 pm

    @kmeyerthelurker: from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smalls#Family

    The monument to Smalls in this churchyard is inscribed with a statement he made to the South Carolina legislature in 1895: “My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.”[36][37]

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    October 18, 2021 at 8:31 pm

    FYI. On a scale rating gross, obnoxious predictability on a scale of 1-10 this scores about a 14.

    Derek Chauvin, a convicted killer and former Minneapolis police officer, has hired new legal counsel from a firm that has previously represented parties challenging the 2020 presidential election, among other problems.

    According to Law & Crime, Chauvin will be represented by William F. Mohrman of the Minneapolis firm Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson in his appeal of his April conviction, in which he was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd. Source

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    October 18, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    @Geminid: The Navy Times article on Robert Smalls was published February 12, 2019 and is titled, “Meet the Unstoppable Mr. Smalls.” Besides Smalls’ Civil War exploits, the article covers Smalls’ life before and after, including his service as U.S. Congressman from South Carolina.

  44. 44.

    prostratedragon

    October 18, 2021 at 8:35 pm

    @gwangung: I’ll be looking forward!

  45. 45.

    prostratedragon

    October 18, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    @NotMax:  Flight to quality on his part, eh?

  46. 46.

    Mike in Pasadena

    October 18, 2021 at 8:45 pm

    Robert Smalls life would make a great novel and movie. Too bad we have not heard of him 40 years ago. Inspiring.

  47. 47.

    AxelFoley

    October 18, 2021 at 8:47 pm

    @JPL: Obama wasn’t against gay marriage. He didn’t let Republicans use it as a wedge issue in 2008. You think all of a sudden he changed his opinion on it, or Joe Biden helped change his mind, when he had been quoted as being for it before he was a U.S. Senator?

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    October 18, 2021 at 8:47 pm

    @NotMax: Was Sydney Powell not available?

  49. 49.

    Kelly

    October 18, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    Greta Thunberg’s latest :-)

    https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1450178114890391558

  50. 50.

    Ken

    October 18, 2021 at 8:50 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER: Hmm, interesting, but we already have Bale signed in the lead role of the noble white Confederate sailor who rescues Smalls.  We can’t afford Elba for the smaller supporting role of Smalls.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    October 18, 2021 at 8:54 pm

    It’s a day ending in “y” so the RedSox get another grand slam in a playoff game.

    6:0 in the bottom of the 2nd.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 18, 2021 at 8:54 pm

    @prostratedragon:

    Did we all miss Talk LIke a PIrate Day around here? It was Sept. 22.

    I missed it! AAARRGGHHH!!!

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    October 18, 2021 at 8:56 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Some of us were otherwise engaged inspecting our booty.

    ;)

  54. 54.

    gwangung

    October 18, 2021 at 8:57 pm

    @Ken: Also not an exaggeration. A movie on Bruce Lee’s early days as a martial artist starred a white man who was one of his students.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    October 18, 2021 at 8:57 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    :-)

  56. 56.

    Feathers

    October 18, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    I went to TC Williams the school from Remember the Titans. Much amusement when we learned there was going to be a movie and Denzel would be playing him. Not a bad looking man, but no Denzel.

    Fond memories. I had him for behind the wheel in drivers ed. He made us do backwards figure eights through traffic cones. So, yes, the kind of teacher they make movies about.

  57. 57.

    Ken

    October 18, 2021 at 9:12 pm

    @gwangung: I was thinking of The Blind Side, but I’m sure we could come up with a long list of “white savior” films.  In fact… yes, wikipedia has a page for that.

  58. 58.

    Feathers

    October 18, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    Just to note. Lost that comment due to page reloading on my iPhone using Safari. Will post to request for comment thread next time I am on my laptop. They

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    October 18, 2021 at 9:18 pm

    Wondering if perhaps a front pager would consider worthy of posting this (25 minute) video during a slower (weekend?) time as a springboard for discussion?

    At an off the cuff estimate would say about 80% of what he’s trying to convey provides some chewable food for thought from a sociological perspective. Whether (and to what extent) that correlates in a straight line to ineluctable behavioral and/or psychological alteration is, shall we say, a passel more fuzzy. IMHO the (for want of a better term) old ways aren’t necessarily subsumed or rendered extinct by experiencing the new, they are incorporated according to an expanded hierarchy of utility within the boundaries of the framework we’ve been dealt as a species.

    The underlying thesis (clickbait title nothwithstanding) is hardly devoid of merit, though its explication is sprinkled with layers of assumption of widely varying certitude, and approaches many of those from an emotional rather than a more clinical or academic standpoint.

  60. 60.

    Anotherlurker

    October 18, 2021 at 9:25 pm

    OT.  I got the first dose of Shingles vaccine today.

    Injection site aches along with the whole body .  Fatigue. Chills.

    Still a fuck of a lot better than the year and a half I spent dealing with recurring shingles.

  61. 61.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    @Anotherlurker: I’m getting mine around 1 Nov.  I got the covid+flu on 14 Oct, and decided I didn’t want to make a three-fer, just in case the covid booster kicked my ass.  Ah, well, it didn’t.  But now I don’t want to go back into that foreign building until 2wk pass (so the booster has a chance to its thing).

    But yeah, I’m really, really looking forward to the shingles shot.  I had chicken pox in high school, and I do NOT want to fuck around and find out about shingles.

  62. 62.

    dopey-o

    October 18, 2021 at 9:31 pm

    The underlying thesis (clickbait title nothwithstanding) is hardly devoid of merit, though its explication is sprinkled with layers of assumption of widely varying certitude, and approaches many of those from an emotional rather than a more clinical or academic standpoint

    i don’t understand why you think i might want to spend 25 minutes watching this. More context, or the promise of Twain-like mordant humor, or just a quick list of his points would pique my interest.

    and I’m as bored as all-get-out these days.

  63. 63.

    Professor Bigfoot

    October 18, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    There oughta be a Freedom-class corvette named USS Robert Smalls.

  64. 64.

    karen marie

    October 18, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    @NotMax: Appeals in such cases are automatic, so there’s nothing especially gross or surprising about it.  That he’s hiring a wingnut attorney, well, that’s going to be his problem.

  65. 65.

    raven

    October 18, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I had shingles  in my eye, you don’t want it anywhere.

  66. 66.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    @dopey-o:

    i don’t understand why you think i might want to spend 25 minutes watching this.

    Brad Delong has put up his rehearsal videos for his course in 20th Century Economic History (at Berkeley).  I started watching, and it’s interesting and a really different POV on the history of the 20th Century (and really, on human history) but even at 1.25x, it’s just too goddamn slow and repetetive.  So instead, I just went and downloaded his publicly available book draft: https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/readings/2021-07-31-slouching-%23tocopyedit.pdf

    And I’m halfway thru in one night.  Much faster.  I think videos suck.  Just.  Suck.  You can’t skip forward while still being on the lookout for something interesting you want to stop for.

  67. 67.

    JimV

    October 18, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    No, there is no Advent holiday in WH 40K. There might be a few archaic remnants of Catholicism on backwater planets but there are only two main religions: God-Emperor worship, and worship of the Chaos gods, such as Khorne. (Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!)

    As fantasy universes go, it is not very worthwhile, except for Dan Abnett’s novels. He is just a great writer. He can make me laugh and he can make me cry. I just finished rereading “Titanicus” for the fourth time and it still moved me.

  68. 68.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: And if I were the social sort, I’d be offering up his book (and, sure, video lectures) for a reading group.  B/c it’s excellent, excellent stuff.

    He’s a mainstream economist.  But boy howdy, you read the book (or listen to the lectures) and you think he’s a hair-on-fire Senator Perfesser Warren acolyte.  Or AOC convert.  And all for sound economic reasons that he makes incontrovertibly clear.

  69. 69.

    currawong

    October 18, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    You can’t beat a craft beer advent calendar – looks like I was too late to order mine:

    https://www.beercartel.com.au/beer-advent-calendar

  70. 70.

    SpaceUnit

    October 18, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    A bit OT, but there was a thread yesterday about, among other things, the Washington State football coach (Nick Rolovich) trying to get fired by refusing the university’s vaccine mandate.  Mission accomplished.

    ETA:  Of course he’ll probably run for office now as a martyr and hero.  Whatever.

  71. 71.

    The Pale Scot

    October 18, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    @NotMax:

    Oh my, NotMax,

    The simple apparent reality is that barring some incredible technological breakthrough, technological civilization is going to start unraveling 20 yrs from now, if we are lucky. I think we have ten. The global reinsurer companies put out prospectuses a decade ago predicting government toppling famines after 2040. As I have with all the other climate predictions, I multiply that time period by .8. When the reinsurers business model dies, so do all the major industrial projects that keep the global economy running. Without insurance no one is going to risk their capital. The only variable I can see is whether the countries that get hit first in SE Asia launch nucs in an attempt to secure water. And whether nuclear power  plants are secured and deactivated before they are abandoned.

     

    Yea I’m downer. Since Reagan was elected, it seems the only outcome possible

  72. 72.

    debbie

    October 18, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    @Feathers:

    Welcome to that sorry club.

  73. 73.

    Kent

    October 18, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    You can’t beat a craft beer advent calendar – looks like I was too late to order mine:

    https://www.beercartel.com.au/beer-advent-calendar

    My local Costco has stacks of them.   Apparently they are very popular.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    October 18, 2021 at 10:04 pm

    ICYMI, …

    Ted Cruz’ dumb tweet about Australia, and the response from Michael Gunner, the Chief Minister for the Northern Territory. pic.twitter.com/wuFi93VhW9

    — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 18, 2021

    Beautiful. That’s how you do it.

    (via BettyBowers)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Torrey

    October 18, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Not to forget Hannah Jones, Smalls’ wife. She was the one who thought to bring a white bedsheet so they could signal surrender once they encountered the Union Navy. (I’d originally heard it was a tablecloth, but Wikipedia says it was a bedsheet, so. . . .)

  76. 76.

    Anotherlurker

    October 18, 2021 at 10:14 pm

    @raven: I had it in my left eye and cheek.  Horrible.  I looked like a bad makeup test for a 50s sci-fi film.

    I made the mistake of looking up my symptoms on WebMD and the first thing that popped up was Tear Duct Cancer.  I didn’t know that that was a thing.

  77. 77.

    debbie

    October 18, 2021 at 10:26 pm

    @Another Scott:

    That is a thing of beauty!

  78. 78.

    billcinsd

    October 18, 2021 at 10:29 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: so he’s given up his love for methodological individualism, DGSE, free trade, and Neo-Keynesianism for actual Keynesianism

  79. 79.

    Kayla Rudbek

    October 18, 2021 at 10:33 pm

    Thanks to you yarn enablers, I started on my mother-in-law’s blanket tonight. Size 17 needles (12.0 mm) necessary instead of the size 11 according to the pattern.  The balls of yarn are hilariously large.

  80. 80.

    FlyingToaster

    October 18, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    @JPL: WarriorTeen, back when they were under-12, loved the Lego Advent Calendars.  By the time they were 8, they were demanding the Star Wars, the City, and the Friends.  Which, honestly, were fun.  Set up all three around 3 sides of a card table.  Every afternoon we’d go and open that day’s and assemble it together, one calendar after another.

    Becoming a teenager meant that all the Advent Calendars went by the wayside, along with Hess Trucks and Basher books.  Alas.

  81. 81.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    @billcinsd: That is a pithy but accurate[1] way of putting it.  What’s interesting though, is that he explains -why- he changed.  He provides a vast narrative explanation for why all that other stuff was wrong and Keynes was right.

    [1] halfway thru the book (WWII just ended) but that’s accurate so far.  Maybe something different soon.  He has a really interesting take, bringing in Karl Polanyi’s work as a sort of moral underpinning to it all.

    It is very,very, very rare that someone in his position (ex Assistant Treasury Secy, full prof at one of the premier universities in the world) has a Damascene conversion and also explains to onlookers what he believed before and after, and why he changed.  He doesn’t spare himself.  And he doesn’t share “The Market” either.

    And for all that, he remains an economist, who believes in the power of markets and capitalism.  And his narrative, his world-view, his thesis, is self-consistent.

  82. 82.

    wombat probability cloud

    October 18, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    @prostratedragon: Found this, courtesy of the Google thing: https://explorebeaufortsc.com/hollywood-movie-finally-being-made-about-robert-smalls/

  83. 83.

    wombat probability cloud

    October 18, 2021 at 10:36 pm

    @prostratedragon: I found this via the Google apparatus:

    https://explorebeaufortsc.com/hollywood-movie-finally-being-made-about-robert-smalls/

  84. 84.

    Kent

    October 18, 2021 at 10:37 pm

    Well, this is a BIG FUCKING DEAL here in Washington State:  https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32426315/nick-rolovich-washington-state-football-coach-refusing-state-mandated-covid-19-vaccine-source-says

    Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich, 4 assistants out after refusing state-mandated COVID-19 vaccine

    PULLMAN, Wash. — Nick Rolovich is out as the Washington State football coach after refusing to become vaccinated against COVID-19, a requirement for all state employees, the school announced late Monday.

    Washington Gov. Jay Inslee had set a deadline of Monday for thousands of state employees, including the Cougars’ coach, to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or risk losing their jobs.

    Assistant coaches Ricky Logo, John Richardson, Craig Stutzmann and Mark Weber are also out, the university said, after not complying with Inslee’s proclamation that was issued in August.

    “This is a disheartening day for our football program,” WSU athletic director Pat Chun said in a statement. “Our priority has been and will continue to be the health and well-being of the young men on our team. The leadership on our football team is filled with young men of character, selflessness and resiliency and we are confident these same attributes will help guide this program as we move forward.”

    Defensive coordinator Jake Dickert has been elevated to interim head coach. His first game in charge will be Saturday at home against BYU.

    Rolovich, 42, had applied for a religious exemption to the vaccination requirement, but it is not yet clear how the university committee assigned to evaluate religious exemptions ruled.

    Rolovich was the highest-paid state employee with an annual salary of more than $3 million in a contract that runs through 2025. He has been asked repeatedly for weeks to expand upon the reasoning for his refusal to get vaccinated but has declined to provide clarity. He was the only unvaccinated head coach in the Pac-12 and had worn a mask during games.

  85. 85.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 10:37 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: All of this started after 2008, in his attempt to understand why he and his profession were so wrong about the Great Recession.  So he’s also trying to explain that, and its aftermath (including Trumpism).  It’s a ….. sizable task.

  86. 86.

    Kayla Rudbek

    October 18, 2021 at 10:40 pm

    @Kent: the next thing you know, the Opus Dei types will be demanding that Notre Dame hire him…

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    October 18, 2021 at 10:43 pm

    @Salty Sam:

    Served on a ship home ported in Charleston SC for 2 yrs.

    Lot of walks around town because I didn’t have a car for over a year of that. Lots of history there, most of it celebrated for the losing side. I didn’t mind no longer being there after 2 yrs.

  88. 88.

    Mike in NC

    October 18, 2021 at 10:50 pm

    Our minds are blown by the new season of American Horror Story on FX, which has President Eisenhower in the 1950s dealing with hostile aliens trying to pitch the Americans against the Soviets by offering advanced technology (like microwaves) in return for experimenting on kidnapped citizens. The guy playing Nixon is also very creepy. Character actor Neil MacDonough plays Ike.

  89. 89.

    wombat probability cloud

    October 18, 2021 at 10:50 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: Via the Google: https://explorebeaufortsc.com/hollywood-movie-finally-being-made-about-robert-smalls/

  90. 90.

    JWR

    October 18, 2021 at 10:51 pm

    For all those clamoring for more good, and less bad, Biden news on this here blurgh, here’s some:

    From NBC

    WASHINGTON — While President Joe Biden’s economic agenda is mired in Democratic infighting, the Senate is quietly making history on his judicial nominees.

    On Monday, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 52-41 to confirm Gustavo Gelpi to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, making him the fifth new circuit court judge on Biden’s watch with a background as a public defender.

    Set against recent history, that is a remarkable statistic. President Barack Obama confirmed a total of five former public defenders to the appeals court over his entire eight years, according to the progressive judicial group Demand Justice. Biden has matched that in his first nine months.

    Overall, Gelpi is Biden’s eighth new judge with experience as a public defender. That’s as many as Presidents Donald Trump, Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton landed in their first years combined, said Chris Kang, the chief counsel of Demand Justice.

    “It really is amazing how far Biden has shifted the paradigm,” Kang said. “This is going to be an important part of his legacy.”

    It’s from the 16th, so maybe a bit old. (Yes, two days is old nowadays.) ETA. Nope, it’s from today after all.

  91. 91.

    MrsCoachB

    October 18, 2021 at 10:51 pm

    @cursorial: very interesting…lived in that area for about 4 years, and there are so many families with the the last name Smalls….Beaufort County and adjacent Jasper County, and probably up into Hampton County.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    October 18, 2021 at 10:52 pm

    @Anotherlurker:

    A year and a half? Damn that’s about 50 years too long.

    I won’t tell you how long I suffered but in a contest of shingles time I would have come in a long ways behind you.

  93. 93.

    debbie

    October 18, 2021 at 10:52 pm

    I admire Smalls’s chutzpah!

  94. 94.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    October 18, 2021 at 10:52 pm

    @prostratedragon: Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno comes pretty close to capturing the Robert Smalls story.

    Benito Cereno is based on a different true story, but it’s pretty clear that Melville must have also known about Smalls.

    Definitely excellent movie material.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    October 18, 2021 at 10:56 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    You want to get that shot. You want that shot more than pretty much any other. I had the shingles up the right side of my neck and face. I’d rather go through the accident where I got hit head on by a truck – and I wasn’t in a car. Again. I have no idea how one would deal with shingles for a year and a half.

  96. 96.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 18, 2021 at 10:58 pm

    @Ruckus:

    You want to get that shot.

    Amen to that.  Just waiting until I feel safe leaving the house.  I only left for the booster b/c …. well, booster.

  97. 97.

    Tony Gerace

    October 18, 2021 at 11:00 pm

    @Baud: Stealing the ship might have been easier than it seemed, given the fact that supporters of the Confederacy were really, really dumb.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    October 18, 2021 at 11:19 pm

    @Another Scott: Proverbially (shorthand for “false but it’s a better story this way”) Australians live on a continent where absolutely everything is deadly except some of the sheep, so it makes sense that they’d handle COVID properly.

  99. 99.

    Rukus

    October 18, 2021 at 11:31 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I’d bet that anyone who has had shingles would say that even in the middle of a pandemic – get the damn shot.

  100. 100.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 18, 2021 at 11:34 pm

    @Baud: Alestorm – Quest For Ships

  101. 101.

    Anotherlurker

    October 18, 2021 at 11:38 pm

    @Ruckus: It kept on cycling, month to month.  Started by feeling a little sick and achy, later rashes and lesions and burning pain, stabbing pain and numbness. Month 2 was death-like.   Same pain symptoms but more intense. Pain cycled but sometimes occurred all at the same time.  Fatigue was awful.  Sleeping up to 20 hours/day.

    Next month started slowly feeling a bit better and in month 4 almost felt normal, but tired. This could last into month 5 when it all started again.

    My case started with intense stress in my life.   Doc said stress could be a big factor.

    I only started to recover once I fled the source of the stress. In my case the source of the stress was Superstorm Sandy followed by me moving to Fla. to start my life over again.  Fla. was very toxic for me. I love the fishing and diving but I ended up despising the myriad types of toxic asshole I kept running across.  Being from NY, I thought I knew every type of asshole there is, but boy was I wrong.

    I made a move to SF East Bay, at the urging of my oldest friend,  and I recovered my health about 6 months later.   I revived my career to the extent that I work some physical days in TV sports, just to keep my hand in and prove that I can still work a 10 hour day and walk up to 7 miles in the course of it.

    Get the vaccine.

  102. 102.

    Fake Irishman

    October 19, 2021 at 12:00 am

    @cursorial:

    “the Memory Palace” is an astonishingly good podcast. Very short segments packed with incredible history. My wife made me listen to the Robert Smalls one and I’ve appreciate it ever since.

  103. 103.

    sdhays

    October 19, 2021 at 12:06 am

    @Another Scott: I remember an Australian friend years ago telling me that Australians liked to put Texans in their place by reminding any Texan that came their way that Australia has a ranch that’s bigger than Texas.

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    October 19, 2021 at 12:12 am

    Meanwhile, …

    It’s come to my attention thanks to @crampell that the Manchin proposal would make grandparents raising kids orphaned by COVID, opioids, or what have you take jobs to earn the child tax credit — and now, I just want to throw things. https://t.co/Sv1dJ1cY8h

    — Greg Greene (@ggreeneva) October 19, 2021

    Means testing is a horrible thing.

    My autistic brother can’t work more than 1 day a week or he risks losing his benefits.

    :-(

    But with enough Democrats we can fix it later. And with enough Democrats we can fix it sooner. Get the program started, claim the win, and elect more Democrats to fix it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    Peale

    October 19, 2021 at 12:15 am

    Had to update my phone to iOS 15 for work. Whomever thought it was a nifty idea to put the browser address bar on the bottom is a real genius. I mean 25 years of using browsers and finally someone moved it to a unique location. My eyes are rolling.

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    October 19, 2021 at 12:16 am

    @sdhays: The Mercator Projection has a lot to answer for!!

    World Mercator map projection with true country size and shape added #Map #Maps #Amazingmap #Amazingmaps #Mercator pic.twitter.com/1xHNSvEXBR

    — Amazing Maps™ (@amazingmap) August 21, 2019

     

    (via TerribleMaps)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    October 19, 2021 at 12:16 am

    @Another Scott: Too many links in the tweet, I guess.  Help?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  108. 108.

    Anotherlurker

    October 19, 2021 at 12:27 am

    @Anotherlurker: BTW, I am pushing 70.

  109. 109.

    patrick II

    October 19, 2021 at 12:28 am

    A significant military base should definitely be named after this guy.​

  110. 110.

    JWR

    October 19, 2021 at 12:57 am

    @Another Scott:

    Means testing is a horrible thing.

    QFT!

    Also, I think he’s jonesin’ for Ronald Reagan coo-cooing coo-coo in his ears. Sh8t fer brains needs to spend less time on his yacht, er, i mean his houseboat.

  111. 111.

    prostratedragon

    October 19, 2021 at 1:19 am

    @Kayla Rudbek:  Not this year.

    Notre Dame: ranked #13, 5-1 record
    Wash State: unranked, no votes, 3-2 record

  112. 112.

    Rukus

    October 19, 2021 at 3:29 am

    @Peale:

    Same reaction here. I wonder if they moved it just to fuck with us….

  113. 113.

    Rukus

    October 19, 2021 at 3:40 am

    @JWR:

    Yes. Yes it is. But what is the alternative? Don’t check and risk/have massive cheating? Maybe actually try to help people survive and prosper rather than a few become uber wealthy, like now that the Forbes four hundred are all billionaires? I think that it is very likely that our entire tax system needs an overhaul so that those wealthy actually pay a higher percentage than people that actually work for someone else for a regular paycheck.

  114. 114.

    thalarctosMaritimus

    October 19, 2021 at 5:46 am

    @gwangung:  mr thalarctos and I watched your performance of it when it streamed–4 thumbs up!

    Please do let us know when it’s available on demand.

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