No scoops to share, but the news feels like a dump anyway — maybe the dump of a wooly mammoth who’d gorged itself on candy corn (don’t get me started) and Taco Bell tacos with Flamin’ Hot Cheeto shells.
The state of Florida is paying this well-educated lunatic half a million per year to undermine confidence in vaccines and masks and urge citizens to rely on “their intuition and their sensibilities” instead.
FL’s new political Surgeon General Joseph Ladopo, with Desantis, today became the first SG in the US to question the safety and efficacy of vaccines, saying to ignore the experts: “People need to stick with their intuition and their sensibilities.” pic.twitter.com/1H6tVQzwWb
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 21, 2021
As a Floridian who has lived among Floridians for decades, I wouldn’t recommend we trust our “intuition” and “sensibilities” to guide decisions on sorting laundry, let alone protect ourselves in a global pandemic that’s already killed one in 400 of us. Jesus Christ, I thought Rick Scott and his minions were bad, and they were. But these fucking DeSantis people are the worst.
The local dailies have done a stellar job covering the DeSantis fail parade while the worst of the Beltway gang lined up to give him tuggies. But even the locals seem to have given up. I haven’t checked every paper, but if they covered the above lunacy at all, the stories weren’t prominently placed.
All focus is on that dumbass probable murderer who maybe got himself eaten by alligators. A well-placed gator or two in Tallahassee wouldn’t come amiss.
Anyhoo, open thread.
Lapassionara
Does anyone trust the pandemic numbers coming out of Florida? What a mess!
Baud
Florida taxpayers should be offended, but at this point, I wonder how much influence yet another crank have.
Regnad Kcin
Thinking “My Old School” needs a rewrite: ‘Tallahassee tumbles into the sea…’ <horn run, ending in epic bari sax note>
MattF
It’s been noted that DeSantis copies Trump’s body language.
Kay
I no longer trust any numbers that come out of Florida. I just think we have more than enough information about the quality of the people making the claims to doubt the claims. I’d need a “neutral” to validate anything they say at this point. You don’t get credibility forever. It’s not a permanent grant. You can blow thru it.
scav
I’m just waiting for the DeSantis administration to announce all building regulations are best left to the intuitions of owners and shareholders as well.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
You say this batch are the worst, but watch the next batch prove you wrong.
Leto
@scav: I’m sure the capital of hurricane country is already there. “They’ve been through this before. They’ll be fine. Little bit of paint and bit of elbow grease… it’ll def survive the next Cat5.”
Leto
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: shit birds, all the way down.
Amir Khalid
It’s astounding to hear a state surgeon-general say those things.
leeleeFL
Betty, it must be Florida Hive Mind among us “not ridiculously STOOPID Floridians”. I thought that a plague of gators in Tallahassee might just save us. But, honestly, why would they want to help us!?
debbie
Oh, let it all stick and let them all die.
Today’s a day off, so I dropped my absentee ballot off this morning. There was a good-size crowd voting early.
Danielx
@Kay:
Sort of begs the question as to why anybody believed anything TFG said before, during and after his term in office. Especially his oath of office, since exes and former business associates were eager to point out that you can’t believe a word he says.
Baud
@debbie:
Voting for what?
JPL
@MattF: That is amazing. He does such a good job, and he needs to asked how long it took to get the routine down.
debbie
@Kay:
Scrolling through Johns Hopkins’ list of the top 25 counties for confirmed cases, Miami-Dade is third. Broward and Palm Beach also pop up. I wonder whether JH would be getting more accurate numbers?
CaseyL
I was just thinking this morning that, except for a couple of decades toward the end of the 20th Century, ever since the Civil War the South generally has been regarded as a backward, ignorant, and savage place.
We should probably go back to that. The South is a different country, and no one with any intelligence would want to live there.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: Ladopo apparently wants to return to those wonderful days of yesteryear when barber surgeons took care of people…
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Baud: I can’t speak for Debbie but in my corner of Ohio there are local government races, school boards and levies on my ballot.
Just One More Canuck
Florida Man says what?
Was there a point to the idiots in the background waving the gator placards?
feebog
In the meantime, here in sunny Los Angeles county, we are at a .81% positivity rate and just 613 hospitalizations in a county of 10 million residents. Thank you Gavin Newsom.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … TheHill:
Good, good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@feebog:
Good job not falling for the recall gambit. Virginia voters might not be so smart.
debbie
@Baud:
County and town stuff, the usual off-year election stuff. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see how absentee voting. More important now, what with DeJoy’s destructive practices.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Excellent.
Bobby Thomson
Florida completely memory holed how DeSantis sent his goons to steal the computer of the one person reporting accurate COVID numbers.
JPL
@feebog: well ladidah. GA is finally below ten percent.
Gvg
@Regnad Kcin: Tallahassee is not near the sea. It is not even on the peninsula part of the state so it won’t be washed away by sea level rise.
germy
I just learned that Chuck Schumer has endorsed India Walton for mayor of Buffalo.
Good for him, and good for her.
Kay
@Danielx:
It started before covid with me. I don’t believe their K-12 education numbers. They don’t align with the rest of the states in their group. They’re easy to game if you want to game them. So far most states don’t want to game them. I think Florida is, though.
The Dangerman
I’m intuiting this guy is an asshole.
Baud
@The Dangerman:
It was a mandatory qualification on the job solicitation.
Dan B
@Gvg: Give it time. Insurance companies will be less than enthused by anything less than 200 feet above sea level.
Now to look up Tallahassee’s elevation…. As I recall there is very little of Florida above 200 feet
203′ but there’s a lot of people much lower.
Kay
@Danielx:
You don’t leap up like 20 slots in national ranking of K-12 education in a decade. It doesn’t change that much, because while you’re trying to improve other states are too. The leading states aren’t standing still- they’re increasing the gap. If it’s true it’s a miracle.
Florida has one good thing- they seem to still have real newspapers. They fucking dogged Epstein until they got him. Good work!
BlueGuitarist
Ksmiami
@CaseyL: As long as we move the at risk ppl and our military bases then yeah cut them off and build a wall
Juju
When I read the tweet about the Florida Surgeon General, I read his name as Lapdog.
Ksmiami
@Dan B: a lot of the state can only buy insurance from state run agencies
Ken
Sounds similar to Abbott’s interview with Breitbart in the DKR stadium. Perhaps both are trying to get people to say “That’s my team! Yay!” instead of “What the fuck is this idiot saying?”
Ksmiami
@feebog: I look forward to the day when the western states go rogue nation and stop funding the red states…didn’t seem likely before but now?!
germy
We are primitive in our house and we are without cable TV.
We get by with the internet and various antenna TV sub channels.
We found a 24 hour news channel called “Newsy” and at first I was skeptical because new stations are always popping up, and it always turns out they’re an arm of the sinclair network or some other rightwing endeavor. Also, the name is dumb.
But Newsy seems to be on the level so far. We haven’t seen anything objectionable or anti-Biden. They broadcast his speeches unedited. They do segments on climate change, income inequality, etc.
It’s owned by Scripps.
J.
I’m now at the point whenever I hear DeSantis or one of his cronies say sh*t like this, I’m like, “Good, fewer Republicans to vote in the next election.”
Kay
I love how they have the Right wing political rally behind them. That certainly inspires confidence! Not politicized at all. Nah.
Why do people even bother? It’s like being hijacked into their stupid rally.
Baud
@germy:
Over the air?
Let us know how it is. It would be great to have a straight news source.
Dan B
@Ksmiami: And more will be stuck with state funded insurance for more than hurricanes. If it’s Ike the rest of government it would be wise for people to “trust their intuition”.
germy
scav
@Another Scott: Barber surgeons were often a step up — being at least empirically based — from rote-theory-based doctors: haul out the four humors and bleed a little more! Florida’s moving toward a water-cooler insta-poll based system of medicine. They could televise live surgeries and have trends on twitter direct the surgical robots! Why bother with hospitals, just add a few scalpels and a rag-tag bag of veterinary drugs to the cleaning fluids now provided 24/7 in every hotel suite.
Kay
@Baud:
This is the seamans church. For your attachment to the maritime industry. My middle son loves ships too. He once took me out on Lake Erie to see them bring a disabled ship in. We cheered from our tiny boat but they weren’t on the deck. He follows the ships online, I’m not sure how.
trollhattan
“Florida: where comic book villains kill real people.”
One of many, many lessons Trump and W. Bush taught us is there are no real consequences for mismanagement, bad governance, self-dealing, lying, abusing and killing people you simply do not care for. This now comprises the template for Republican governance and is shared by rightwing authoritarians worldwide.
I’m no longer even shocked.
Woodrow/asim
So we’re doing this “abandon the South” thing again, hunh?
I want someone — any one of you — who says this kind of crap, to say it to a Stacey Abrams’ face. To any of the people organizing in Texas to keep fighting for Abortion Rights. To the many, many people here fighting the good fight, day in and out.
Tell them — and the millions they materially help the lives of — that it’s all worthless, they just need to move to The North, where all they have to worry about is horrific redlining and states created for, and still hosting, White supremacists. That it’s OK, the North’ll take care of their Brown and Black asses, no worries, no racism up here!
The South is backwards. But the North? Is spineless, 9 days outta 10.
And the fix is to resolve this across the whole-assed country, not to drop millions into the gentle hands of white supremacy again because, just like the Compromise of 1877, actually fixing racism by building actual working political coalitions or equals, and speaking truth to the subtle power of white privilege?
Too much like work.
germy
@Baud:
They have a website as well which I haven’t explored much. Their TV station seems to be straight, old fashioned reporting with some more depth than we expected. We’re still waiting to be disappointed, but it hasn’t happened yet.
newsy.com/
Elizabelle
Does anyone know if any of the COVID denier governors, state executives, and this ridiculous vaccine-doubting state “Surgeon General” could eventually be brought up on criminal charges? For negligence, at a minimum?
They are malicious. People under their control are dying and suffering in numbers not found under good governments. Can you imagine the economic effect an unchecked pandemic is having on their states?
There are numbers. They can only cook them so much, as Kay has pointed out.
There should be consequences.
PS: Lapdog or LaDope works for me. What a tool. How do they keep finding these fools?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
A woman is dead, a man is in the hospital with, I gather, serious injuries
And this is the guy the OH R establishment is hoping beats the other gross one?
Josie
@Woodrow/asim: Thank you.
germy
@Elizabelle:
By waving big sums of money in their air.
It’s like the sound of a can opener. The cats will come.
Baud
@Kay: Cool.
I haven’t gotten around to following ships online, but I believe there’s a website like there is for flight trackers.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is Vance a sociopath?
scav
@Baud: There are at least two
https://www.vesselfinder.com
https://www.myshiptracking.com
trollhattan
At long last northern and central California are receiving a series of wet fall storms, the first legit Pacific storms since March. Sorry SoCal, someday.
They won’t technically “put out” the biggest fires but will stop them from growing and allow the crews to go in to mop up. It’s not commonly known some fires last over winter, smoldering under the snow in stumps, and can spring up the following spring. Folks sometimes fall into virtual fire pits walking over the top. Guessing aerial infrared surveys help ID and put out hot spots nowadays.
Fire season is over, thankfully. This week is the 30th anniversary of the Oakland Hills firestorm–we’re all jittery until the season’s first storms end the threat for a time.
Baud
@scav: Very cool. One looks a lot busier than the other one, but I didn’t play around with the settings.
StringOnAStick
Here on the OR coast for a few days; we walked by a house that is so, so close to a generic high tide level, and with rough seas the norm here. It’s obvious they are no longer maintaining the house; I bet it’s uninsurable and rebuilding on the likely tiny lot won’t be allowed. Add in a sea level rise and it’s one good storm combined with a higher high tide from being driftwood.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: If memory serves, Vance was a hedge fund manager, so the answer is yes.
brendancalling
@CaseyL: Speak for yourself. I moved from Nashville to Vermont, and I miss it so much it hurts.
I won’t move back—the south is too volatile right now, what with the Trumpism. But I’d move back (and likely will, sooner rather than later).
oatler
One thing, I will brook no more gifs of Bugs Bunny sawing Florida off into the sea.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They’re both so horrible they’re the only reason we have a chance. It feels unimaginably lucky. What if they were normal !!?
I was gonna say “what are the odds they’re both horrible?” but I realize “pretty good”
Baud
OT: Supreme Court will have oral argument in the Texas abortion case on November 1.
Cameron
If any state should be freaking out about rising sea levels, it should be Florida. I didn’t know until after I moved here and attended a few amateur archaeology lectures that the state has already been sinking for centuries. They’re actually doing underwater digs on fishing villages that are now some distance out in the Gulf.
trollhattan
@Woodrow/asim:
Eh, everybody hates California, because California. Yet we endure and aren’t threatening to seceded.
Villago Delenda Est
What “Florida Jobs” is DeathSentence protecting? Gravediggers?
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: I’m not Jim, but yes.
MattF
OT. Just scheduled my booster. CVS, Pfizer, in a week. And yes, CVS is now scheduling booster appointments for anyone, regardless of previous type of shot (I had J&J).
Percysowner
@Baud: Yeah and they won’t stay enforcing the law until they make the decision. Roe is going to fall and Griswold isn’t far behind. Also too Lawrence v Kansas.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Good to know.
I am House of Pfizer.
What do you guys think about a Moderna booster for that one??
germy
@Villago Delenda Est:
You’re right, though. There’s something missing from Vance’s character, a sense of empathy and compassion.
I bet he wants to be president someday. Look at him. He’s got the dull doll eyes of a shark.
Ken
The 5G compatibility jokes have become passé, right?
germy
If I get a booster, will I be able to communicate telepathically with animals and small children?
Baud
@Percysowner:
Yeah, but at least no one is giving Wall Street speeches anymore.
sab
@Ohio Mom: Same in NE Ohio.
sab
@Ksmiami: Then what will you do for water?
West of the Rockies
@leeleeFL:
I’ve heard of Sharknado… maybe Florida needs a Gatornado or a category 5 gatorcane.
Villago Delenda Est
@Regnad Kcin: May I offer an alternative lyric? “Mar-A-Lago, tumbles into the sea”
Villago Delenda Est
@germy:
Yes, provided the small child is a three-year-old trapped in a seventy-five-year-old body.
MattF
@germy: No, no, no. You have to use the 5G band.
Betty
@scav: When they aren’t enforced, it probably doesn’t matter.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Something to make you jealous. I went on a Schooner trip for 3 days off the coast of Maine. It was great. I had a calendar with different old timey sailing ships, I painted some of them. I may share them sometime.
Ohio Mom
@sab: What great timing you have! In my email from the ARC, I see that there is a support grouping Akron, do you already know about it? If not, here is the link
aspies.org/meetings.html
(running out of house right now)
sab
@Ohio Mom: Thanks.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL: That’s pretty harsh.
zhena gogolia
@Woodrow/asim: As I very often do, I must commend your comment!
scav
@Betty: Well, yeah, but he wants the air time for his campaign rally. Who gives a care for reality and consequences when there’s publicity and a newscycle on the table?
Ksmiami
@sab: annex Colorado… build desalinization plants (like they should have yrs ago)
zhena gogolia
@germy: Seems as if the answer is obvious.
I never fell for his schtick.
Soprano2
@Cameron: Yeah, most of the sewer there is on pump stations because of how low it is. Makes it really bad when you lost power, because then even your sewers don’t work. At least where I live you can still flush the toilet with water and the sewage will go down and flow away to the plant.
Kelly
@CaseyL: The only difference between the south and rural Oregon is our racists have so few non-whites to be racist to.
“Keep your stick on the ice, we’re all in this together”
Red Green
germy
@zhena gogolia:
My local public radio station sure did. They couldn’t get enough of him when his book came out.
Every day I’d say to my wife “This guy again?”
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL: I know I am supposed to recognize that people are just frustrated and venting, but there comes a point where people say things often enough that one needs to believe them. You don’t really seem to be invested in the concept of the United States as an entity anymore.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: Judy interviewed him and fawned over him for the Snooze Hour. Our media is pretty sociopathic. They promoted that horrible Tiger Mom woman as well who BTW is Vance’s mentor.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I think the secret is that they both came up with really catchy titles for their books!
Ksmiami
@Woodrow/asim: I live in Texas where all the economic growth engines are in cities and we are robbed of political power every election. I am sick of fighting for basic decency and basic democracy tenets. Move the good people out and let the Republicans have their neofeudalist vision. They’ll eat eachother.
zhena gogolia
Sorry I’m commenting so much. We’re starting a fall break today. It’s supposed to be this coming Monday and Tuesday, but most of my colleagues and students started it on Wed afternoon. I’m one of the suckers who kept working through this morning. But that brought on an ocular migraine, so I’m officially on break now!
Citizen Alan
@CaseyL: After I finish my LL.M, I will take any legal job that keeps me out of the South and especially Mississippi. If circumstances force me to go back to Mississippi, I expect to be dead of a heart attack, stroke, or suicide within 5 years.
The Moar You Know
A news dump that is coming soon, perhaps later today, is going to be that the NIH is now having to explain that one of their subcontractors WAS working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on gain of function research on coronaviruses, and that said subcontractor failed to report to NIH that some of the viruses were causing far more severe illness in mice than expected. While the viruses in question were not COVID, they were bat coronaviruses, and you can expect the GOP to take this and run with it. Be ready because this one is going to be ugly.
NYT link (which as at least not calling for Fauci’s head on a pike. Yet.)
The story requires a great deal of explanation, and you know what they say about explaining; if you’re explaining you’re losing.
Also, IMO this kind of research just flat out shouldn’t be getting funded by anyone. It’s going to end badly. Obviously.
Kay
@germy:
They put him on opiate addiction panels all over Ohio for years. OSU gave him undergraduates to use as unpaid labor for his fake foundation and to promote his own career. It’s just sad how many truly horrible people owe their careers to people who should know better. They can’t find a real opiate expert?
leeleeFL
@West of the Rockies: Sharks, gators, as long as they’re carnivorous and hungry!
Geminid
@germy: Vance and five other Republican Senate candidates will debate this Sunday evening at Genoa Baptist Church in Westerville Ohio. The event is sponsored by the Center for Christion Virtue. Hew Hewitt will be one of two moderators. Not one to hide his light under a bushel, Hewitt is telling his radio listeners to watch how a real debate moderator does it.
Meanwhile, Ohio Senate candidate Jane Timkin has lent her own campaign $1 million, and is rolling out a six-figure ad campaign. Apparently, Ms. Timkin is running against Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: we wouldn’t be the First country undone by a pandemic….
MoCaAce
DO NOT HARSH MY MELLOW. If the whole state of California can tumble into the sea then Florida can too…. and take Tallahassee with it.
And don’t give me any crap about the lack of earthquakes in Florida.
leeleeFL
@germy: YES! That’s from today in “Captain Obvious tells it like it is”
Ksmiami
@The Moar You Know: we’ve always done research on viral strains to build expertise
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
I don’t think it changes what they said, and still say. They can debate whether that research should be carried out at all, but it’s a huge leap to say it caused the virus.
Another Scott
@The Moar You Know: FTFNYT has no credibility with me on reporting things like this.
YMMV.
[eta] Was said contactor being funded by NIH to do the work in question? Lots of contacting companies do lots of work that isn’t part of a particular government agency contract…
Cheers,
Scott.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: I wish this had been an option when I got my booster three weeks ago, as I would have absolutely done the Moderna booster instead of the Pfizer. Numbers are not the whole story but Moderna’s are far better than Pfizer over a six month interval.
Ohio Mom
@sab: Now ensconced in waiting room of Ohio Son’s tutor, I can finish my thought.
I am not sure I ever found all that much emotional support when I attended Autism parents’ groups, but I wasn’t looking for that. I wanted practical suggestions — pediatrician recommendations, strategies for IEPs, that sort of thing — and I often found what I was looking for.
As Scott says, HTH.
JoyceH
Open thread segue – saw an article that said the prop gun Alec Baldwin fired contained a live round. Why were there live rounds on set? Sounds a lot like a murder mystery I read once…
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
I’ve been debating that. If I could go back in time, sure Moderna seems more attractive. But a Moderna booster would be a single half dose of the shot, so I’m not sure how much benefit it would have as opposed to a Pfizer booster for a Team Pfizer member.
The Moar You Know
@Kay: the media is not saying that. Neither are the acknowledged facts or the demand from the NIH to the contractor. But the GOP will say it, and explaining that it didn’t, well, like I said, you know what they say about explaining.
Anotherlurker
@Kay: Hi Kay, I, too, am a fan of ships. There are several apps and websites devoted to the world’s marine traffic.
marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:25.0/zoom:4
https://www.vesselfinder.com
Here are the 2 I frequent.
Baud
@The Moar You Know: They’re always throwing shit at us. Sometimes the NYT is on board with them when they do. We don’t help matters if we shake in our boots every time they might make hay over something frivolous.
JoyceH
@The Moar You Know: the anti-vaxxers are already claiming that the vaccine contains a microscopic sentient aluminum-based life form, so it’s not like they need actual evidence of anything.
The Moar You Know
@JoyceH: Same reason thousands of people shoot themselves “by accident” every year; nobody checked. Also, there are apparently multiple unions working the set, a local that handles the props ( and probably the firearms) and the SAG, which handles actors and filming. Someone dropped the ball.
Bad hires, as Kay is always saying. It underpins a lot of the problems in the world today.
Lapassionara
@Baud: I just read that the arguments are not about the merits of the Texas law, but instead about whether the DOJ can sue Texas about it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ksmiami: Go reread Woodrow/asim’s comment.
Subsole
@CaseyL:
S’pose you could break that down into smaller words for all us mental defectives not blessed with you as a neighbor?
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
Is this a thing for normies though? That the NIH should be sanctioned for gain of function research?
I mean, I could see it happening- they went completely insane over a relatively obscure legal theory when the Right screamed “black people!” enough, but they’re going to have to connect some dots- get out the yarn and the pushpins.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
Might have a bit more of a reaction to the Moderna shot, but better protection is worth it.
Ohio Mom
How are you supposed to find out about viruses if you don’t explore “gain of function”? Why do people think we know as much about viruses as we do? It’s scientists doing stuff most of us can’t possibly understand.
I can’t help but think certain people are running with this “China is trying to kill us!” narrative because they are itching for a more confrontational approach to our relations with China.
Baud
@Lapassionara: If the U.S. can sue, I think they easily win, at least until the Supreme Court officially overturns Roe.
MomSense
@MattF:
Oh god the accordion hands.
realbtl
Vaccine update-get the booster. Tue the 12th I got my Pfizer booster. 3 days ago I got an emergency call from vaxed friend in distress. Went to his house and had to call 911 for him. That’s right he has breakthrough covid- smoker, diabetes, overweight. Still no symptoms for me so the vac seems to be working.
Get your shot.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: For some of them, it’s specifically an attempt to find a roundabout way to blame Anthony Fauci for causing the COVID pandemic (via advocating funding Chinese research that somehow made COVID). I know it sounds absurd, but that’s what it is. The strength of evidence doesn’t matter much because it’s motivated reasoning.
Brachiator
The surgeon general is supposed to be an expert. Instead he is a puppet or willing fool come to deliver the bizarre right wing pseudo libertarian wet dream of science denial and repudiation of the idea of public health.
Imagine if a doctor said, “You have cancer, but go with your intuition and personal sensibilities in deciding what you want to do about it.”
De Santis is willing to sacrifice the lives of people, including his own constituents, on the alter of ideology.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: Aqua Buddha has been screaming at Fauci about it for months, to no discernible effect.
MattF
@MomSense: But DeSantis didn’t get the hand-size reduction surgery.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Right. As long as the right words appear in the story — NIH grant China virus — the details are unimportant. They NYT knows what it’s doing. They did the same thing with EMAILS!, where the hack of DNC emails became conflated with Hillary’s email server in the minds of the haters.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: Brandon Lee was apparently killed on set because the production wanted to save some $$ and sent its firearms expert home for the day. But: .44 bullet in the chamber. No one knew. They kept filming after he went down.
RE live rounds: it sounds like some productions use live rounds for filming weapons being loaded.
And: blanks apparently require even more gunpowder than bullets.
I hope Halyna Hutchins’s tragic death brings an end to using working firearms on sets, whether loaded with blanks or not.
I am curious as to how many actors were killed filming the earlier Westerns. Maybe they were smart enough not to use working firearms, and productions started using them once the cameras picked up so much more detail? For “realism”?
Not worth killing or injuring those on the set, though. And would mean that productions would not have to use experts for the firearms; that would seem to save some bucks. Why can’t they just manage with special effects? (I know the firearms experts union will not like this, but there’s a body count now.)
Enough.
Halyna leaves a 9 year old son, and a husband of 16 years. Tragic.
Kelly
@Elizabelle:
What I’ve read of mixing vaccines is intriguing. However I’m just a guy on the internet whose most advanced biology class was a lower division University of Oregon class on social insects (ants, wasps, bees) my sophomore year back in the mid 1970’s.
From what I’ve read we’re very likely to be getting regular Covid vaccinations for the rest of our lives. Much like the flu. Plenty of opportunities for mix and match in the years to come.
The likelihood that Covid will be around to kill people forever really has me wondering how this is going to work out for the hard core anti vaxer’s
Ladyracterinok
@schrodingers_cat:
Kavanaugh’s mentor too, as I recall.
She recommends her female students to be his interns, even going so far to lost the physical type and demeanor he wants.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Just in time for early voting in Virginia and New Jersey. And local elections all around the nation.
Thanks, Fuck the Fucking NY Times!
James E Powell
@Kay:
I haven’t trusted numbers out of Florida since November 2000.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I can’t point to where I saw it, but even at “half strength” the Moderna booster is stronger than the Pfizer booster.
And by “stronger” I mean it has a higher number for what protects us than the Pfizer booster.
Elizabelle
@Kelly:
Perhaps it will reduce their numbers, and their audience. Fuck ’em.
I wonder if the most prominent anti-vaxxers could be prosecuted criminally, too.
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: I’m no expert but based on everything I’ve seen, I suspect it doesn’t matter much either way. The Pfizer and Moderna shots functionally differ mostly in the size of the dose, but since the Moderna booster is supposed to be half the size of the original shots, that makes it more similar to the Pfizer in that way too.
John S.
This (among other reasons) is why after nearly 40 years of living in Floriduh, I’m looking to get the fuck out.
This state is a dumpster fire, and it’s only going to get worse in the coming years.
Geminid
@germy: Vance may or may not be a sociopath. But he is only in that race because Peter Thiel is backing him with $10 million dollars, funding the Preserve Ohio Values PAC (Thiel is a Californian.) From what I read, Thiel is a sociopath.
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: I did and I responded
Baud
@WaterGirl: But the Pfizer booster, I assume, builds upon the original Pfizer shot. Can the Moderna booster do the same, or is it completely different?
Ladyracterinok
@schrodingers_cat:
Kavanaugh’s mentor too, as I recall.
She recommends her female students to be his interns, even going so far to lost the physical type and demeanor he wants.
@schrodingers_cat:
Baud
@Elizabelle: I hadn’t thought of that angle. Wouldn’t surprise me.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
FYI.
Ksmiami
@Brachiator: as I’ve said before the Constitution ain’t a Suicide pact. If we have to be married to these lunatics, our own futures are at risk… better to isolate them into a small area
James E Powell
@Woodrow/asim:
I thought we were supposed to move there and turn it blue.
I guess I have to modify my zillow searches again.
Ksmiami
@John S.: ecologically you have the right idea anyway…
Ksmiami
@NotMax: the thing I don’t get is why the fuck Baldwin was aiming a gun at them in the first place. This wasn’t a scene gone wrong- it was being stupid and reckless as even a gun w blanks is extremely dangerous at close range.
VeniceRiley
@The Moar You Know: The propmasters say no member of their union is on that job. Presume it was a non union local person.
bluefoot
@Woodrow/asim:
Thanks for this. A lot of people, as long as they are personally comfortable, are happy to write off other people and ignore the problems immediately around them. I see it all the damn time here in greater Boston.
Brachiator
@Ksmiami:
Not possible. It’s not like they all lived bunched up together.
Of course, right now many of them are choosing to die of Covid. This reduces their ranks somewhat. Problem is they take to many innocents with them.
John S.
@Ksmiami:
Thats as much the problem as anything else. Between the hurricanes, the rising sea levels and the lack of sustainable population growth, I just don’t see things improving here.
Especially here in South Florida where all these issues are more acute than other parts of the state.
Peale
They do this because they think the pandemic is over. Every damn time. Every wave the same thing. Right now it looks promising that we’re not going to have wave IV as there isn’t a new variant currently worth being concerned about. Unless that new UK gift to the world turns out to be something. Next up for Florida is making sure the “free” vaccinations are no longer “free” and taken away from the moochers. Then probably banning vaccines outright for everyone. Anything to pander to the google reesurchers. Wait until Spring and it will be hitting them hard again.
zhena gogolia
Salma Hayek on the cover of AARP magazine makes me feel really old.
zhena gogolia
I refuse to spend the first afternoon of my fall break worrying about the effect of the NYT on the VA election.
mrmoshpotato
And extra refried beans that were a little…off!
Benw
If people are interested the Club Championships for USA Ultimate are streaming free on youtube. Chicago vs NY is starting now. Should be a good game:
youtube.com/watch?v=mNkCuu8hngs
Old School
@Ksmiami:
This is pure speculation, but my assumption is that Baldwin was aiming the gun at the camera. And they were both behind the camera.
James E Powell
@trollhattan:
If I thought we could pull it off without war . . .
germy
@Old School:
Here’s a thread (not too long) with some information about blanks, guns on set, etc.:
Frank Wilhoit
@scav: They’ve been there for a century: ask the Mizners.
Regulon
@Baud: Up here in Indiana, you can choose half or full dose if you have an underlying condition. I got the full Moderna dose for my booster.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I also read (sorry no source) that the Moderna booster for the Pfizer shots resulted in something like 48x more [something good] than before the Moderna booster.
I would get the Moderna booster in a heartbeat if I had the Pfizer shots.
My friend’s husband just got back from an appointment with his cancer doctor (he got outstanding news) and the doctor say to definitely get the Moderna booster. For what that’s worth.
Betty Cracker
@Kay:
I love this! Will definitely steal. :)
Anotherlurker
@VeniceRiley: The (admittedly few) union movie sets that I have been on always had very strict protocols in place when firearms were involved.
Cameron
@Brachiator: When the next COVID wave hits down here, we’ll see how well his approach works…..
Sure Lurkalot
That Florida SG and those of his ilk should have their licenses revoked. If our 1st amendment has no defense against intentionally harmful speech like that of the Frontline Doctors, Fox and associated media talking heads, then I’d say let’s take a re-look. These charletans should be held responsible for their words.
Good news…this morning I was able to book Moderna boosters (at Kroger pharmacy) for tomorrow for both my spouse and me. We could even have gotten one today. Quick and easy and I hope we both feel fine afterwards..
Frank Wilhoit
@Brachiator: C. Everett Koop, coming soon to a Ouija board near you.
Betty Cracker
@John S.: I have friends in South Florida so visit a fair amount, and I wouldn’t want to live there either. But it’s a big and diverse state, as you know. The place I live might as well be a different planet for all it resembles Miami.
Baud
@Regulon:
@WaterGirl:
Thanks!
Ken
GUY STANDING IN FRONT OF A BLUE WALL DRESSED IN A GREEN OUTFIT COVERED IN PING-PONG BALLS AND GLOWTAPE: Why, exactly, do I need to be shooting a real gun when every other element of this scene is CGI?
Robert Sneddon
@Elizabelle: No live ammo on set, this is a hard and fast filming rule. What happened with the Brandon Lee death was a two-step safety failure and, I expect, the death on the Baldwin movie set will turn out to be something similar.
Step 1: The gun is loaded with what looks like a live cartridge on camera. For film purposes a real cartridge is used but the bullet is “pulled” and the powder charge removed before the bullet is replaced in the cartridge. This leaves the primer intact though, first mistake. A real prop bullet would have the primer disabled too, although this is a more complicated process.
At some point during filming the gun is fired, the primer ignites and that’s sufficient to push the bullet out of the case and into the barrel. Primers are quite energetic and easily capable of doing this, but the bullet will stop due to the friction as it deforms into the rifling of the barrel.
Step 2: No-one checks the gun after this to note the barrel now has an obstruction in it (note that this obstruction can be something like a plug of debris from the gun being dropped muzzle-first into mud puddles or wet soil etc., it doesn’t have to be a bullet). The gun is now loaded with a blank cartridge without a bullet, probably a reduced-charge compared to a full-power cartridge for the shot to be filmed. The gun is pointed at the camera for filmic effect and fired. The blank charge propels the bullet out of the barrel at speed and, worst case, it hits someone.
Armourers on TV and movie sets are supposed to check a gun thoroughly before and after the actors have handled them on-set or during rehearsals to prevent just this sort of screw-up. Someone didn’t.
zhena gogolia
@Ken: I’m watching The Hobbit at a rate of 15 minutes a day. I’d rather see Ray Harryhausen effects. These CGI effects are so fucking fakey. I hate them.
Ken
My only exposure is through community theater, and we are just as strict. The prop person, the person who will fire the gun, and anyone the gun will be pointed at must all be present before the show as the gun is opened, emptied, loaded, and locked up, and it doesn’t come out of its box until just before the scene where it’s used.
And that’s with very cheap prop guns that are basically a (loud) cap pistol.
Eunicecycle
My husband and I got our Pfizer booster 3 weeks ago. Neither of us had hardly any reaction at all- sore arm and MAYBE a slight achy feeling I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been thinking about it. I wonder if that means we didn’t get much benefit.
Ksmiami
@John S.: I lived in Miami for 5 years. It’s basically porous limestone and landfill; one bad hurricane away from disaster
NotMax
Closed caption funnies. Flashed across the screen a minute ago:
Dialogue: “Did you get a tip or were you following a hunch?”
CC: “Did you get a tip or were you following a hot shower?”
:)
zhena gogolia
Our CVS is still saying only Pfizer people can get a booster.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
And all anybody has to say in response is, “Who was president when this happened? Trump? Why didn’t he do something to stop it, if it’s true?”
Scout211
@zhena gogolia:
Did you check the national CVS vaccination site?
mrmoshpotato
Cameron
Kay
She’s an economist who became a friend to the Twitter Right when she was scolding schools for being closed (and also selling her book about how families should be run like businesses- gross).
Anyway, now she wants to be among the normies and back vaccinations, so they’re savaging her :)
You can’t come back to normieville when you align with them- it always ends this way. You can’t just be a Right wing tourist.
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
That never seems to work with right wingers. Every one of them I know who screams about Ruby Ridge blames it on Clinton & Janet Reno.
germy
senyordave
@Geminid: I read that Thiel greatly admires Ann Coulter. If that is true, res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself). Not trying to show off since that is literally the only Latin I know (excluding the pig variety). He also seems to have a problem with women voting, this from a piece he wrote for Cato Unbound, a Libertarian think tank: Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
Thiel is a sociopath at best, sounds like a fascist masquerading as Libertarian. Plus, he’s bankrolling JD Vance for senate in Ohio, who is basically running as a white nationalist.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: Probably depends on how much difference there really is in the types and diversity of viral particles each vaccine contains. If they’re really similar it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot whether you get Pfizer #3 or the Moderna half dose. If they do have significant differences then getting a different one will create more a more diverse antibody set to help you fight the virus off easier.
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: no. I’m not traveling to another city for it.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: Adorable!
catclub
@James E Powell:
That is why only 39.5M people live there. Nobody goes anymore, its too crowded.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I had Moderna shots. The website asked me what vaccine I had and asked for the date of the second shot.
The next screen said I was eligible for the booster
My CVS just let me sign up for any booster i wanted. They even had appointments for today, though I chose Monday morning instead
I went to cvs.com and went from there.
NotMax
@senyordave
Isn’t Thiel no longer an American citizen but a New Zealand citizen now?
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: When my husband gets home, I’ll try it with him. I don’t want to sign him up if he isn’t ready. We’re seeing our GP on 10/29, so he probably wants to wait until he talks to her.
Kay
@senyordave:
This country doesn’t much like women. If you’re not a celebrity abused by a powerful man or a Democratic politician with a me too problem we’re not much interested in policy that mostly benefits women. We’re the only wealthy country in the world that doesn’t financially back time off for having children and childcare . Women are the safety net.
They’ll win if they run against women. It played a huge role in Clinton’s defeat. I heard it, over and over and over. Pure, mean spirited anti-female animosity. White working class men were the most blatant, but not the only ones. The US stalled sometime in the 1990’s re: women and now we’re going backward.
Sasha
“Florida Man Tell Florida Men to Act Like a Florida Man”
Scout211
@zhena gogolia:
I meant the national vaccination sign up site for CVS versus your local store site to sign up for your appointment. The national site gives you choices of stores near you and which vaccine they have at that site.
cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ken: Method acting? They want the fear on screen to be authentic.
Ben Stiller was mentioned the reason he made Tropic Thunder was to mock the over the top macho some actors will get into, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Blanks are for wussys!” is a big part of these accidents.
catclub
@NotMax: So what? Open a 501C4 and have it back Vance. The problem is what is legal.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I suppose the most Florida death ever would be a guy trying to use cocaine to self medicate for covid being eaten by an alligator.
zhena gogolia
Beautiful “God Bless the Child” by my friend.
youtube.com/watch?v=tmu49gLPNCs
Dan B
@Ksmiami: Ooh, cooking show opportunities: Italian cooking (really!), fusion (many versions!!), hoomin – the other white meat, hot pot or hot tub? – We’ll explain when and how, plus surprise shortcuts!
And the proverbial Texas style BBQ!
Sorry, I tossed and turned all night ? so grey matter is whacked out.
Dan B
@Citizen Alan: I thought Mississippi had one of the highest Covid death rates, so that’s another option for you. Having lived in Arkandas during Jim Crow, and attended school when their schools were worst in the nation, I have the same feeling about Arkansas, but the rest of the south outside Atlanta or Research Triangle (and even then) gives me anxious feelings just thinking about them.
But from your perspective somewhere like those two options plus Fayetteville, AR, Athens, GA, and a few others might be tolerable.
Ksmiami
@Dan B: you’re fine – after all, it’s just a modest proposal…
Zelma
New Jersey has a pretty easy to navigate site telling who has which vaccines where. Most places nearby are Pfizer but I found a CVS with Moderna. I had Moderna originally, did not have a bad reaction, so decided to stick with it. I got an appointment for Monday. I am heading for Pittsburgh for a family wedding next week and I’m not sure if my daughter or sil are vaccinated. They are Trumpers so I employ a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. I decided to be safer.
Chris Johnson
@Ksmiami:
Still working on fomenting civil war, eh? Is the pay that good?
Biden lost in Florida 51.2% to 47.9%. There’s a good five million people on each side there, even in Florida. But by all means carry on if what you really want is maximum American deaths, insurgency, and despair.
For fuck’s sake… they could lose that three percent voting margin (likely partly fake anyway) to COVID. We gotta start smuggling masks into Florida to keep the 50% that’s our people, alive.
sab
@Kay: The one good thing about American misogyny is it might keep Jane Timken from being our next Senator from Ohio.
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
I just made an appointment for a Moderna at a CVS here. They don’t seem quite geared up for them yet, though. I couldn’t get a Moderna at any of the closest CVSes to my home. I’ll have to drive about 15-20 minutes to get it instead of less than 5.
sab
@WaterGirl: My Ohio grocery’s pharmacy just let us do a walk-in appointment today. They had to thaw our shots so that took a while. Very different from the computer sign-up games last spring.
E.
My Congressman, Doug LaMalfa, has already publicly called for Fauci’s prosecution over this.
ETA: (The NIH virus-study controversy that I don’t understand because it’s too boring.)
debbie
@sab:
My CVS began appointment-only about a month ago.
billcinsd
@Ksmiami: it was being stupid and reckless as even a gun w blanks is extremely dangerous at close range.
really, look at the death of Jon-Erik Hexum, who was playing around on set with a 44 Magnum loaded with blanks, and died when he fired the gun while it was against his temple.
@Ksmiami:
Regnad Kcin
@Villago Delenda Est: well-played
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom: I wouldn’t be surprised if scientists are using the term “gain of function” differently than the critics and reporters.
NIH – Gain of Function:
IOW, something has gained a new capability that it didn’t have before. It gained a function.
RollCall in the bottom of the story:
Yeah, the company should say why the report was late (if it was). They should say why they didn’t report the increased growth (if they didn’t).
But this has all the signs of yet another GQP snipe hunt ala Fast and Furious and Solyndra and Benghazi and Hunter Biden and … I’m not going to pay attention to the screaming GQP stories about it. Remember dsquared’s mantra – (roughly) Never give known liars the benefit of a doubt.
Cheers,
Scott.
badgirl
@Woodrow/asim: I know this is a long dead thread but thank you for saying this!
wenchacha
@Kay: Is there a reliable report of deaths, so that at least we can see if the number is much higher than average years?
MrKite
@The Moar You Know: Dead Thread, I know. But a colleague pointed out an earlier report in the NY Post several weeks ago on this subject. Haven’t seen the NYT article yet, which I’m sure has more depth, but I have read a portion of the funded gain of function grant. We do know that the Covid virus sequence shows none of the telltale markers of lab splicing, strongly suggesting that the virus is not a modified lab escapee. Our scientific community had a major role in the development of the Wuhan facility and training of workers. There are obvious advantages to this collaborative arrangement given the expected sources of current and future pandemics (before our early pandemic response team and support was dismantled under the former administration). The original gain of function work was to allow study of substituted known SARS-related sequence cassettes in a mouse model, a normal and understandable goal. This work is also, I think, incredibly important and IS work that needs to be funded, particularly since 1) there is no evidence that the modified virus escaped containment; and 2) as noted the results of the study mentioned by Moar are not predictable in a theoretical sense.
MrKite
@The Moar You Know: Dead Thread, I know. But a colleague pointed out an earlier report in the NY Post several weeks ago on this subject. Haven’t seen the NYT article yet, which I’m sure has more depth, but I have read a portion of the funded gain of function grant. We do know that the Covid virus sequence shows none of the telltale markers of lab splicing, strongly suggesting that the virus is not a modified lab escapee. Our scientific community had a major role in the development of the Wuhan facility and training of workers. There are obvious advantages to this collaborative arrangement given the expected sources of current and future pandemics (before our early pandemic response team and support was dismantled under the former administration). The original gain of function work was to allow study of substituted known SARS-related sequence cassettes in a mouse model, a normal and understandable goal. This work is also, I think, incredibly important and IS work that needs to be funded, particularly since 1) there is no evidence that the modified virus escaped containment; and 2) as noted the results of the study mentioned by Moar are not predictable in a theoretical sense.
@Ohio Mom: Agree completely.