President Joe Biden expressed a desire for a deal on his major spending plans before he heads to Scotland for the #COP26 climate summit. Biden had held talks with moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, whose vote is critical to the package https://t.co/FTXIpyYHiC pic.twitter.com/wdTEruVjSf
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 26, 2021
U.S. Senate confirms voting rights advocate Perez to 2nd Circuit https://t.co/pPAoo2jAxL pic.twitter.com/1qTs7SyV4c
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 26, 2021
New — President Biden has once again refused to assert executive privilege over more documents that former President Trump has sought to keep out of the hands of the Jan. 6 committee. White House counsel Dana Remus sent a new letter to the National Archives today informing them.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 25, 2021
From last week’s town hall broadcast:
Too many people with mental health needs feel they have nowhere to turn. Having a broken spirit is no different than having a broken arm – please, don’t be ashamed to seek the help you need. pic.twitter.com/f8Q8tcyW0K
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 22, 2021
PST
Good morning, world.
Baud
@PST:
Good morning.
Raven
It seems maybe the red tide has moved for a bit so down to the beach at dawn!
Betty Cracker
Was just reading an article in HuffPo about an attack ad released by the Youngkin campaign featuring a concerned mom/GOP activist Laura Murphy, whose son allegedly had night terrors after reading “Beloved,” which was assigned in his AP English class. “Terry McAuliffe doesn’t think parents should get a say” blah blah blah. Anyhoo, interesting post-script:
LOL!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Another concerned independent voter. /NYT
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
I thought I read somewhere that he was a senior in high school when he was subjected to this traumatic material. The horrors
ETA: Yep, the Daily Beast says he was a senior in high school, and this was reading for an AP English class.
germy
“No one wants to work anymore.”
germy
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The right all babbles on about how Biden is senile and even Lefty doomglomers do that, but Biden is just talking and acting like old person who still sharp. Sure, moves bit slow, but he’s making eye contact with the people he is talking to, pausing to short threw what is about to say (like someone who is making a point does and not just spewing BS) and his hands aren’t shaking or he’s overly excited. The whole thing is just BS.
This came up because on twitter they were talking about watching politicians speak without the sound on and it seemed like few conservatives who replies were stunned that someone would pay attention to body language. I guess it all sound bites and slogans too them.
montanareddog
@Baud: “Beloved” = Liberal overreach. I am sure he was a life-long Democrat until he read it.
MomSense
@germy:
Imagine if the poor kid had been exposed to critical race theory.
germy
germy
@MomSense:
It would have killed him.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
His parents should have “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it” tattooed to the inside of their eyelids.
MagdaInBlack
@germy: Sounds like my company.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
(Reposting my comment from last night.)
Toni Morrison’s Beloved turned him into a lawyer?
When will the atrocities end?
debbie
@germy:
Even Clippy approves:
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Geo Wilcox
You know what gave me nightmares as a kid? A short story about a young man who comes home to find his whole family gone and the TV on with the word FED on the screen. The cops show up to the house, turn the TV off then on again and it says FEED. It’s a prolog to Fox News is all I can think… Oh and to this day (I am 63 and read that story in my early teens) I cannot have a TV in my bedroom.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Gets even better, this is over something that happened seven years ago. Oh yes, and the kid in question GOP staffer now.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
He was traumatized by CRT before CRT was cool.
rikyrah
@germy:
????
lowtechcyclist
Here’s some stuff from the February 7, 2013 issue of the WaPo:
If you can’t deal with college-level material, stay out of college classes until you’re ready. Duh.
germy
@debbie:
Dorothy A. Winsor
If Beloved disturbed this kid, then Morrison did her job well.
Baud
Old enough to be drafted. Too young to read Toni Morrison.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: Oh gross, the budding fascist went to my alma mater?!? (Not that that’s unusual — UF turns out more than its share of fascists. Still, the academic standards have risen since they let me in…)
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
AP Calculus still gives me nightmares.
Suzanne
@germy: To be fair, I don’t really want to work anymore, either.
We work too much.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: LOL re Concerned Mom Laura Blake. Now weaponized by the Glenn Youngkin campaign in Virginia.
I had wondered why an article from 2013 was trending on WaPost as most read.
Here she is, in all her Karen glory. Son was still a high school senior at this point, taking an AP English class. I had wondered how he turned out, 8 years later. Ugh.
WaPost, 7 February 2013, Fairfax County parent wants ‘Beloved’ banned from school system
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: Sounds like the little snowflake needed a Trigger Warning.
WARNING: LITERATURE AHEAD.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
How lawyerly: “It was disgusting and gross.” //
Ken
@Geo Wilcox: Zenna Henderson’s Hush was my nightmare fuel.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
So she doesn’t want the book even offered. Her son could have opted out. Instead she chose to lobby to ban the book, which of course undercuts her whole claim, that parents don’t have any input. The opt out was put in as an option for helicopter parents and that wasn’t enough. She also needs to helicopter parent my kid.
Gin & Tonic
I’m too old for red-eye flights. Don’t know why I do this to myself.
Booger
“Fine. You don’t have to read “Beloved.”
“Thank you.”
“Here’s your copy of ‘The Road.’ Have fun, you’ll be reporting to the class on Tuesday.”
Soprano2
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Those people have never taken a communication course or seminar ever, because they always emphasize that the things you say have the least impact on others as compared to body language and tone of voice.
hueyplong
They may have a point when it comes to the exposure of little snowflake to the T Morrison book. If some event had turned my child into a lawyer for the Republican Party, I’d be inconsolable and quite possibly suicidal.
Kay
I’m glad helicopter mom is their spokesperson. These are the people who will be determining what is taught in public schools if they get their way. Someone has to make the reading list, it’s a good slogan but “parents” aren’t going to be doing it because that’s chaos and ridiculous. Certain parents will be doing it.
If we’re going to insist parents should be running public schools let’s think about what that will look like.
Booger
@hueyplong: You know, it’s all kinds of ironical because IIRC ‘Beloved’ kinda addresses what a parent will to to spare their offspring a horrible life like that.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: It’s so funny how everything they say about liberals is actually a tell on themselves. They’re the biggest snowflakes.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
It could be worse. I have to deal with Fucker Carlson being a graduate of my alma mater. With his bit in the yearbook about being a member of the Dan White Fan Club or whatever the hell it was.
rikyrah
Amen.
Fire them all
Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) tweeted at 1:14 PM on Mon, Oct 25, 2021:
Covid is No. 1 killer of police over last two yrs
these are exactly the type of people who should not be wearing badges
(https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/1452699989373853696?t=m7Tlgm5sEdEkGZhbASTshA&s=03)
OzarkHillbilly
Malevolent Bottom Feeders
Soprano2
@Kay: This idea is so nutty – that’s why we elect school boards, to represent the parents. The idea that every parent will have input into every aspect of school curriculum – well, that’s a nightmare! No school does that, not any private school or any religious school.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
Word.
The Oracle of Solace
My nightmare-fuel book was Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory, especially after I found out which part of that book was based on a true story.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Calculus is fun, organic chemistry on the other hand…
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: Your idea of fun and mine are not the same. :)
Kathleen
@MomSense: My daughter attended School For Creative and Performing Arts in Cincy from 1985 to 1991. During audition process we parents attended sessions with school officials who told us there were 2 sets of cast members for each production; one cast had a Black lead and the other cast had a white lead. They proceeded to say if any parents had a problem with that they should not enroll their child. I wonder if they’re maintaining that position. Can you imagine one of today’s snowflake parents accepting that?
lowtechcyclist
That commercial cries out for a parody.
Find an actress who looks like Laura Murphy, and have her moaning about how her 18 year old son was upset by books he read in a college class, and how those books should be banned from college curricula, and she ought to have the right to step in and make sure no college class teaches materials that upset her poor helpless snowflake of an 18 year old boy, and how incomprehensible it was that T-Mac didn’t see it her way.
Done even halfway well, it would go viral, and turn the Youngkin ad into a laughingstock.
Betty
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: They also know well that he has a stutter he has to work to overcome. It’s all just so much malarkey! It’s exhausting.
Elizabelle
@Kay: You are so right about beating this issue with schools and school school board disruption back.
Unfortunately, I think they continue to take it national no matter who wins the Virginia governor’s race. It gives the radicals something to be angry about, in public.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Well, they sort of DO have an input. The loudest parents. But that’s the issue, really. Should the loudest parents run the school? No.
It’s the single most difficult issue in a public school, IMO. I was on a school council until last year when my youngest graduated and it is really hard to accomodate everyone. Our biggest disagreements were over discipline and I “get” both sides of that. I had both the misbehaving kid (my middle son) and the kid who resented the misbehaving kids because they are disruptive (my oldest). Both have to be accomodated. The quieter more studious kids who want an orderly environment are as important as the kids who can’t sit still, but just the nature of the thing means the more disruptive kids get more attention- negative attention, but it’s still time away from the other kids, right?
You need a broker. A mediator. A final decider, and that has to be the professionals the school hires.
brendancalling
It’s cold and rainy in Vermont again today. This state is an advertisement for depression meds.
MomSense
@Kathleen:
I think parents have always been problematic. The difference between healthy and unhealthy schools comes down to the administration and superintendent.
Elizabelle
Well, maybe you don’t want to, but — U Florida Law School item:
Meet UF Law Student Blake Murphy
Name: Blake D. Murphy
Hometown: Fairfax Station, Virginia
Undergraduate Institution and Degree Program: University of Florida, B.A. in Political Science
Law School Involvement: President, Florida Blue Key; member, Christian Legal Society
Betty Cracker
Eric Boehlert points out that the breakdowns kinda undermine the narrative that it’s suburban women who are propping up Youngkin. I don’t know.
Do y’all think the race is really this close? I have no idea, but I don’t trust polls. If so, why so close? Is it because McAuliffe is a quasi-incumbent?
Kay
@Elizabelle:
My husband and I, who are more on the “free range” parenting scale, call it “performative parenting”. You can be an over-protective parent privately, no one cares, but they never do that. They loudly proclaim what hyper attentive parents they are. You, the slacker parent, were not checking the AP reading list for forbidden content. She, the super parent, spends all day on it.
I want them to eventually be independent. That’s a goal. To get there they have to take some risk. He didn’t like the book! That’s just not a tragedy.
OzarkHillbilly
Hiker lost on US mountain ignored calls from rescuers because he didn’t recognise the number
My first thought was, “Who goes hiking with their cell phone?” Isn’t getting away from it all the whole idea? WTF, imagine communing with nature on the side of a mountain and the ex calls to bitch about something, or the boss calls wanting you to come in on your day off, or the doctor calls to tell you you have cancer, or…
Maybe I’m just weird.
Quiltingfool
@schrodingers_cat: Yep, organic chemistry. I had no problems with inorganic chem, but organic chem whipped my behind. My prof never smiled, was a very serious guy. Except – we made nylon in one lab session; I was winding the nylon strand around a test tube and remarked to my lab partner, “This will take a while to make a pair of L’Eggs pantyhose.” The prof was standing nearby and he actually cracked a smile when he heard that snark! To this day, I firmly believe that event got me a passing grade, because I expected to fail.
That class had me so stressed that the night before the final I drank way too much peppermint schnapps – and was still feeling no pain at the 8am final. I thoroughly enjoyed that final, just a happy camper! I never did see how I did on the final, I just wanted to memory-hole that course. But, I did pass, so there’s that.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: what’s funny is he went to my alma mater too (the high school, that is)
Go Bruins! And don’t be afraid to read Beloved! =)
Lapassionara
@Elizabelle: I don’t understand why he is not embarrassed by this. In a sane country, he would be. I’m beginning to think that the inability to feel shame and embarrassment is one of the requirements for being a Republican.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
What sucks is if they win on this we will get 100% crt panic for the next year. They don’t have anything else. It’s just mushrooming. Now they can’t even use the word “equity” in school materials. They’re going to try to get rid of the breakdowns public schools do, where AA and Latino scores are pulled out to measure gaps. They don’t have any way to address those without looking at them.
Jeffro
Great point and worth repeating. “Be careful who you accept, private schools!”
MomSense
I don’t think the issue is disruption at the school boards. Disruption is the wrong descriptor. I’ve been supportive of disruptive parents at school board meetings when the discussion is desegregation, banning same sex couples at dances, banning certain books, intelligent design, etc. What we are seeing with the anti vaccine anti maskers is not disruption or protest. We are seeing criminal threatening, endangerment, etc. I am wary of preventing peaceful protest or disruption. People who show up in vaxxed and un masked screaming threats are putting people at risk. Let’s not soften what they are doing.
Jeffro
I think so too. It’s not like they have anything else to offer or run on. “Oh look, here’s a great way to let our base vent their spleen/not have to look too hard at the disaster that was the trumpov presidency”
Parents’ school rights is the new ‘caravanzzz!!!!1!’
MomSense
I don’t think the issue is disruption at the school boards. Disruption is the wrong descriptor. I’ve been supportive of disruptive parents at school board meetings when the discussion is desegregation, banning same sex couples at dances, banning certain books, intelligent design, etc. What we are seeing with the anti vaccine anti maskers is not disruption or protest. We are seeing criminal threatening, endangerment, etc. I am wary of preventing peaceful protest or disruption. People who show up un vaxxed and un masked screaming threats are putting people at risk. Let’s not soften what they are doing.
JCJ
@schrodingers_cat: Both are fun. Everything is logical and both can show up in daily life to confirm what lou learned
Elizabelle
I realize, more than we wanted to know about Blake Murphy. But: talk about wired for Republicans:
he ends up in a 2020 puff piece in the FTF NY Times too! Look at the photo. Tell me he does not look like Jared Kushner’s younger brother. Uncanny.
MINI-VOWS
Mock Debates as Relationship Prep
Susan Webster and Blake Murphy met through student government at the University of Florida, where Mr. Murphy was Ms. Webster’s campaign manager during a bid for student body president. (She won.)
“Some evenings in late 2015 and early 2016, lights would snap on in an empty classroom at the University of Florida. Susan Dorothy Clara Webster and members of her campaign staff would waft in, along with the smell of pizza or sandwiches — brain fuel to consume as they worked to get Ms. Webster elected student body president. The front of the room would be arranged to replicate a debate stage. Ms. Webster would station herself there, alongside her vice president candidate and her treasurer candidate. Then Ms. Webster’s campaign manager, Blake Daniel Murphy, would begin grilling them all.
“I would prepare them for the worst-case scenario,” Mr. Murphy said. “I would just give them a really, really tough time, and make them squirm.”
Campaign staff who observed these efforts by Mr. Murphy to fillet the candidates might have been surprised when, months later, he and Ms. Webster announced that they had started dating. They might be even more surprised to hear that the two are now married.
Mr. Murphy, now 27 and the associate general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington, and Ms. Webster, 26, who works in global public affairs at the private equity firm Blackstone, also in Washington, arrived at the University of Florida in 2012. …”
And they got to have a Covid protocols wedding, after the 2020 election (which they did not win):
“Ms. Webster and Mr. Murphy were married Nov. 28 [2020] at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tampa, Fla., with the Rev. Michael Cannon officiating.
The scene there stood in stark contrast to the first time Ms. Webster and Mr. Murphy were in a room together, when a freshman Mr. Murphy eyed Ms. Webster from the back row of a lecture hall. For one thing, the pews in the church were largely empty — a sign of the times …”
Covid and a loser election. The pews, they were deserted …
Miss Bianca
@Quiltingfool: The one time I ever got blackout drunk was on peppermint schnapps. Alas, I was totally feeling the pain the next day. And to this day, I cannot abide the look or smell of peppermint schnapps, let alone the taste.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: It’s true that they have nothing else. Even if McAuliffe wins by 10, we’ll have nonstop caterwauling about CRT, which has become a catch-all for anything not overtly colorblind and/or white-centered.
One thing I suspect could gain traction outside the GOP activist base: elimination of gifted programs in public schools. AFAIK, no school district in Florida is considering it, but the anti-CRT people are always yapping about it.
Quiltingfool
@Kay: At a parent-teacher conference, I told one mother that I really appreciated her daughter; she was hard-working, paid attention and was an excellent student. I said that I was sorry my attention had to go to the few disruptive students and I could not give more attention to kids like her daughter; I told the mom that her daughter made my day, most every day.
Mom got teary-eyed.
Sometimes teachers get so focused on the few kids who demand our attention constantly that we forget about the majority of the kids who are being studious and doing their best for us. Kinda like right now, everyone is paying attention to the few screaming crazies, we aren’t seeing the vast numbers of people who want them to shut up and go away.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: I do think it’s this close.
McAuliffe has (up until oh, yesterday) essentially run against trumpov, and while the mango menace is still out there, it probably feels to many voters like the danger has passed. McAuliffe hasn’t put forth much of his own platform or vision – just “trumpov endorsed Youngkin” over and over. Okay yeah but what else ya got?
The press has let Youngkin run his wink-and-a-nod-to-trumpism campaign without pinning him down on much of anything: not abortion rights, not voting rights, not the ties to lunatic VA trumpies (like self-described “trump in heels” Amanda Chase) nothing.
Meanwhile, Youngkin has been putting out some sort of tax cut scheme (I haven’t bothered to look at the details) and raises for teachers, which are sorely needed here. He looks and sounds like a moderate, he presents as a friendly guy and a fresh face in contrast to wound-up McAuliffe, and well, we’ll see how it shakes out. If I had to put money on it, I’d say that McAuliffe squeaks it out – VA Dems are pretty well organized and motivated – but it will be pretty darned close.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: True. “Disruption” is soft pedaling what is going on.
I think of these Karens as the Real Housewives of the School Board Riots.
And the anti-vaxx, anti-masking campaigns underlying their presence is definitely organized and well (and secretly) funded. We know that Koch family money is behind some of this.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tampa! I was there in the Before Times for the funeral of a friend’s dad. It’s where the fancy folk go.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: The fancy folk and Trumpkin lookalikes. Baby Jared and wifey with the four names is a long haired blonde in a strapless wedding gown.
His mention of clerkships and internships via UF. He has been grooming himself.
Matt McIrvin
The anti-“CRT” people have really lost the plot: the narrative is supposed to be that the “politically correct” or “SJWs” or “woke” or “cancel culture people” or whatever are the censorious ones, trying to control what you think and see and ban all the books and media, and the right is now the freedom faction. But here they’re just trying to ban everything themselves.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I suppose of Youngkin wins, the message to send is that the GOP wins when they don’t campaign with Trump.
Also, we will have confirmation that negative partisanship doesn’t work for our side, even post-Trump.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Interesting — thanks for the local take. Hope you’re right about McAuliffe winning. This is just speculation, but maybe his campaign doesn’t think they need to spend a lot of time on policy because he was already governor once, so people know him?
I have mixed feelings about retread candidates. IMO, it’s almost always better to give a fresh face a shot at the job. I’m still traumatized by Republican-turned-Dem Charlie Crist trying and failing to unseat then-Gov. Rick Scott — and now trying again with sky-high stakes! But sometimes voters seem to want the reassurance of a known quantity, like with Biden. We’ll see.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: It is terrifying.
I just cannot believe that Democratic voters won’t turn out, if they have paid any attention at all to national politics.
One wild card: that mail in absentee ballots need the signature of a witness: that is resulting in some that need further contact to obtain the sig before they’re deemed valid and counted.
I have been urging people to early vote in person. Which is available through 5 pm this Saturday.
Early voting locations are open this Saturday, 9 to 5.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I think it works, but it can’t be warmed-over shit that doesn’t rouse anyone anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro:
interesting. I have a theory that a lot of people vote on affect–“s/he seems like a nice person”.
@Baud:
also, the dread Normies don’t see local elections through the national prism the way we do.
Geminid
@Baud: I am a little surprised that trump has stayed out of the Virginia race, considering how he craves the spotlight. I understand that several of Youngkins campaign staff are veterans of the trump campaign. They may be reassuring trump’s people that Youngkin is on their boss’s side, and can help trump once he wins. Youngkin’s wealth is an estimated $600 million. He can pay trump for his silence.
Youngkin essentially bought the nomination through the cockamamie convention Republicans staged. His money has helped smooth out divisions in the state party. Youngkin’s political career is just beginning. Even if he loses next week, I think Youngkin intends to be a player in Republican politics in coming years.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: I like fresh faces too, but Youngkin is a millionaire many times over. Former CEO of the megabucks politically connected Carlyle Group (private equity fund), so you know he is smooth and does not scare children. Harvard MBA.
I would love to see Jennifer Carrol Foy as our nominee and our governor. Too risky this year. Terry Mc is well-funded and did a fine job after his 2013 election (which was also pretty close).
Come on, Virginia. Stay blue.
Jeffro
Would be nice if some enterprising young reporter could be bothered to look into why they’re doing this. What’s in it for the Kochs, encouraging anti-vax, anti-mask nonsense? What do they gain by prolonging the pandemic this way? Or to put it another way: who do they feel they’re damaging by prolonging the pandemic?
Things that make you go ‘hmmm’
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
“It works only when it works” isn’t much of a theory.
Jeffro
@Baud: I think there will be every ‘takeaway’ under the sun regardless of who wins, but GQP campaigns will certainly take note of the fact that if your guy/gal can remain a cipher and not act like a rabid trumpie in public, the press will let him/her slide.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I’m trying to improve my behavior by not giving into the impulse to mock people’s appearance, but I’ll make an exception for the rodent-faced concerned mom Murphy who cut the Youngkin ad. Sounds like snowflake son has a similarly rat-like mien, if he resembles Kushner. Not gonna Google that NYT puff piece to find out though…
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: That Crist/Fried matchup in Florida is interesting. It does not seem to be a big ideological or policy fight, but more a contest of personalities: Fried the feisty newcomer, versus Crist the grizzled veteran (he even looks grizzled). Hopefully the primary will not be too divisive.
OzarkHillbilly
This is no way to run a company in America:
Will no one think of the poor shareholder?
Jeffro
I think lots of low-info voters do this. Or did, anyway…more and more folks on both sides are just voting straight party-line tickets.
Elizabelle
From tidewater Virginia’s public radio station, WHRO. Links to the interviews, so you can check them out yourself.
What Virginia gubernatorial candidates say about sea level rise
geg6
@Miss Bianca:
I know exactly how you felt. Cannot even begin to smell peppermint schnapps to this day. I can’t even use peppermint flavored toothpaste. More than 40 years later and I still can’t deal with it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Soprano2: I would think just the normal human experience would teach one to pay attention to body language since that is such a give away when someone is lying.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Concerned Mom did not take a good photo, to be sure.
Rodent face — you are not missing that, copious dyed blonde hair that looks unnatural in that light, heavy makeup with dark eyeliner around her tiny rodent eyes, snowflake white shirt, the crossed arms, looking away from the camera. I am a mean girl and will say that her skin looks terrible, although maybe it’s a medical condition.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: the article didn’t say how many employees Spanx has, so I Googled it, and apparently it’s 750. So for the low low price of $7.5M + 1500 plane tickets (let’s say $900k there), Ms. Blakely (worth over $1B; she owns the company outright) just bought herself a ton of free publicity and probably drove her retention rate up to to 99.9%.
Oh and Spanx revenue is a couple hundred million a year.
CEOs of the world take note: you can drop ridiculous amounts of $$$ on your workers and never miss it. Give it a whirl sometime!
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Organizing tool: bringing out people who are likely to vote Republican/conservative.
You don’t want vaccines and masks during a deadly global epidemic, you are not an advocate of science or public health.
Plus, it attacks the public — to them, “government”, schools.
Fuck ’em.
MomSense
@Jeffro:
Did the workers even want those tickets. I personally would have preferred the cash.
Elizabelle
Youngkin is soft-spoken, and 6’7″.
Some voters like tall candidates. It’s why TFFG wears lifts.
Cameron
@Matt McIrvin: Their vision of CRT is white kindergartners being forced to stand and make Maoist-style self-denunciations in front of the class. Similar to their definitions of ‘socialism’ and ‘Marxism’ are pretty much ‘very evil things that Democrats want.’
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: “I don’t know what causes it…so elect me and I’ll do something about it…provided you libs quit playing the ‘blame game’…”
Another VA road-test for the modern GQP’s future “policy” positions: (finally!) admit that climate change is real, and act like we’ve got to get to the bottom of what’s causing it, provided of course that Dems quit “playing the blame game” – ie, using it as a campaign issue.
Even though it polls really well, and polls better the younger the voter cohort. Give that up unilaterally, Dems. Let Republicans get elected and then, by golly, we’ll get to the bottom of this whole climate change thing which is totally happening but has nothing to do with our Big Carbon donors.
Ksmiami
@germy: the only way to fight the bullies is to push back. They are actually really wusses who need mom to make their beds
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: Wondering if you got my email message.
Ksmiami
@Cameron: it’s because that’s what they want to do to us with christofascist teachings- remember with Republicans it’s all projection, always
Miss Bianca
@geg6: Oh, myyyy…not that bad for me, I can still enjoy all other things peppermint. But just *show* me a bottle of Rumpelmintz (or whatever the hell it’s called) and I can feel myself going green-faced.
Bobby Thomson
@Betty Cracker: The cross-tabs tell me women of color overwhelmingly are propping up McAuliffe, which is exactly what you would expect in a close race. Youngkin is doing well enough with the wine mom vote.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: State Senator Annette Taddeo recently threw her hat in the ring too. Interestingly, she was Crist’s running mate when he tried to unseat Scott.
One advantage Taddeo might bring to the table is her experience as an immigrant (from Colombia, I think). Maybe she has better insights into how to appeal to Florida’s incredibly diverse voters; lord knows the white folks keep blowing it.
I like Fried, but I worry she’ll get Gillum’d. There’s a lot of fodder for unscrupulous and hypocritical Republicans to use against her, as there was with Gillum.
Bobby Thomson
@Baud: If Youngkin wins, the message is that it sure would be nice to have the Voting Rights Act back and that John Roberts’ unsubtle racism in Shelby County made it extremely difficult for Democrats to win in states where Republicans are in charge of elections.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Because “the plot” was always incoherent and poorly thought out. Of course it boomeranged immediately and turned into powerful people scolding less powerful people about being “woke” and , now, book banning and state statutes directing what words teachers are permitted to utter.
How was it supposed to work? What does it mean? What are they even objecting to and how will it be policed? It’s a series of anecdotes that they jammed into a narrative. It’s mostly filler. Our public intellectuals didn’t put a lot of thought into it. CRT (which I’m reading) is actually much more rigorous and considered than whatever this mess is.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: Yep. Check your inbox.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Is it just me or do those numbers not make sense?
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I’d really like to see approval voting used in Dem primaries here – I think it would create more cohesion than division. Still a fan of Gillum’s (despite his problems) – there’s no way he wouldn’t have been 10x better than…what we got.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Yes. Climate change is an enormous issue for young(er) voters.
So disingenuous of Youngkin. Who has an undergrad degree in Mechanical Engineering, from Rice. “I don’t know or care what’s causing it, but let’s fix it.” Right.
Professor Bigfoot
@Soprano2: sure works for my dog. I can call her all kinds of terrible things, tell her what a horrid beast she is while scratching her ears and rubbing her belly and giggling.
Giggling just ‘cause she does that to me.
Baud
@Bobby Thomson:
How are Republicans in charge of elections in Virginia?
Elizabelle
LOL. Is this the most non-informative headline ever? Found on a twitter feed. Generated by AI?
rikyrah
@Kay:
They don’t like stats, Kay. Because, if you have the stats, then you have to address the problems that the stats present.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Too bad they don’t vote like it.
Geminid
@Bobby Thomson: The Voting Rights Act still has some teeth in Virginia. A lawsuit under the VRA resulted in a redrawn 4th Congressional District, which State Senator Dan McEachin then won in 2016. McEachin does not get a lot of notice, but he is an excellent Representative
But yeah, eliminating the pre-clearance requirement of the VRA was a major blow to voting rights.
Cameron
@Elizabelle: Good excuse to try to run out the clock. “Yes, we really, really need to study this. Maybe get a final report around, oh, say, 2050 or so.”
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Uh huh
uh huh
What does CRT have to do with gifted programs?
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: I use a GPS trail map app on my cellphone for some hikes. A huge boon when the waymarking is poor/nonexistent.
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
lowtechcyclist
That the success of pretty much any approach depends on how well you execute it isn’t so much of a theory as a generally applicable rule.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Well then no theory can be disproved by failure. Someone can always say it could have been implemented better.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: They’re always pushing many memes simultaneously. They’ve been trying to push memes about an explosion in crime rates, etc. “Murder up XX% under Terry!!1” There’s a neighbor down the street that had one of the GQP House of Delegates candidates at his house last weekend. He’s now got some big sign about Respecting Lawnorder to go with all of his other GQP signs.
They’ll never quit in their appeals to fear.
I hope and expect that it won’t work any better this time than it did last time. But sensible people have to turn out and vote!
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Geminid:
How would the VRA have made a difference in Virginia’s state wide contests though?
Elizabelle
@Baud: re younger people not voting, even if concerned with climate change:
I hope that is changing. It might be. I don’t follow the numbers on younger voters; that would be a great topic for a thread, after the fall elections.
What has been the trend with younger voters in recent years? Where and when do you see engagement?
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: If I had to add to this narrative, it would be that the “natural progression” of things that has taken place in prior election cycles was severely disrupted because of the blackface scandal involving Northam and the allegations made against Justin Fairfax by his prior girlfriend. That means there was no one who was not previously in office with the same name recognition or statewide stature to run for governor. I am somewhat annoyed that so many people threw their hat in the primary, which meant that the vote was split many ways, a clear benefit to McAuliffe. Of these, I think Jennifer McClellan had the most experience and the best profile, but there were others who I would describe as a good biography in search of a political office who diluted her appeal, especially in Northern Virginia.
Also FWIW, I voted last Saturday and there was a steady line the whole time I was there, in Arlington.
lowtechcyclist
When people are doing actual science and stuff, exactly how an experiment was implemented is rather key, actually.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Unfortunately, with political theories, we don’t have limitless opportunities to run controlled experiments.
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: Is that like ranked choice?
Re: Gillum, of course he would have been a million times better than the Trump Mini-Me we have, but in my previous comment, I meant the ethical issues* from when Gillum was mayor, not the post-election tabloid fodder.
*Can’t prove it, but I still suspect FBI operatives intentionally blew up some hinky but Mickey Mouse shit to help DeSantis.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: They can’t eliminate gifted programs fast enough as far as I am concerned. One of my kids was selected, others weren’t, but, basically, it added nothing to her education. Maybe this is because a gifted program that has 40% of students in the program is not a gifted program, but nonetheless, if the schools are good enough (most local schools here are) your kid’s gifts will in fact come through. I never thought I would be so cynical about it, but G&T programs seemed mostly worthless — which was not the case with some of the other special programs, such as an extracurricular computer sciences program that was led by teachers and SAIC employees. It was open to anyone, and kids were placed according to their experience. As they say, everyone won, including the computer prodigies. Self-selection can be the best way of identifying talent.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: I think that it’s really hard to do decent polling now – harder than usual. But I also remember that previous polling in VA has been off quite a bit – with the final results being Democrats’ favor in the final analysis.
I see Terry pushing $15 minimum wage, vaccine mandates, teacher pay increases, biggest investment in education, protecting abortion and reproductive rights, investment in the new economy, fighting climate change, and all the rest. It’s all over his Twitter stuff, and he’s been going after Youngkin with a flamethrower for months, “the biggest issue is not election integrity!”, and not just for being TFG’s candidate.
Terry’s a hard working candidate and did very well as Governor previously. “Unemployment dropped in every county when I was governor!” My gut tells me that Youngkin (and his hangers-on) are paper tigers.
“… but we need a majority!” is always a problem, but I too expect Terry Mac and Team D to win.
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: One of the biggest potential failure modes of democracy is that it can be very difficult for anyone, including voters, to discern cause and effect, and very easy to hide what’s going on even if there are clear chains of cause and effect. If the popular wisdom is that that X causes Y but really the opposite of X causes Y, people will repeatedly vote to make things worse. We saw this with X=”government spending” and Y=”recessions” in the Great Recession.
The Moar You Know
@Matt McIrvin: Not at all. They have gotten exactly what they want, which is that a small minority of terrorists get veto power over the curriculum in all public schools. As a bonus, these same terrorists are giving a big assist to the charter movement. Ending public education has always been a priority for the GOP
And note my tense; this is a done deal, it’s over.
Betty Cracker
@Barbara: You may be right from an outcomes standpoint, which is what should matter about educational programs. I was commenting on G&T programs’ utility as a wedge issue. I have no idea how it’s playing out, but the behavior of Republicans tells me they think it’s a potent weapon.
lowtechcyclist
Indeed. Since he’s not going to do anything about what’s causing global warming, the ‘fix’ will ultimately be the evacuation of Virginia Beach and other low-lying parts of Hampton Roads.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Then there’s no alternative to exercising some judgment, is there?
Baud
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
We agree on that. But one reasonable judgment if we lose in Virginia is that negative partisanship doesn’t work that well for us even after Trump.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
My impression was the whole anti-CRT nonsense is something the MAGA heads talk themselves into rather than the Conservative elite is manipulating them with. CRT is the excuse but the MAGA loath school in general. PTSD from actually having to compete with other people and not coast by on their families connections or something.
Jeffro
I hear you on this, but most of what I’ve seen up until the past few weeks have been attempts to paint Youngkin as a die-hard trumpie, which just doesn’t stick for a variety of reasons. Youngkin’s more of a Romney – a plutocrat trumpov enabler when it suits him. It’s made this race closer than anyone would expect. (Well, that and McAuliffe’s own “I don’t think parents should tell schools what to teach” quote. Another lesson learned for Dem candidates going forward there.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a note on the Myrna Perez confirmation
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: I have really, really ambivalent feelings about G/T programs, because I feel as if Fairfax County, VA’s elementary-school center program was a real refuge for me when I was that age…… but there’s little about those benefits that would have really depended on the students being “gifted”. Good teachers, a curriculum with a lot of creative enrichment and a relatively bully-free environment… sure, those are great things, but don’t all the students deserve that? Should it just be for a few who scored high on some admission criteria? Doesn’t seem fair.
Soprano2
I think for a lot of what we would consider “low information voters” this is true. I heard an NPR story about Youngkin that in spite of him holding extreme positions he comes across as everyone’s friendly grandpa. That, of course, is deliberately done to obscure how extreme he really is.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Maybe, but I think the maddening truth is that there just isn’t a broad framework that applies across the board. As Jeffro says at #145, maybe tying Trump to Youngkin doesn’t stick for specific reasons unique to that candidate, whereas that same strategy would work like a charm elsewhere. And that’s before you even get into the unique foibles your favored candidate has, state demographics and history, etc. It’s crazy-making for us pattern-seeking animals! ;-)
cain
@Betty Cracker: This is all fueled by dark money – I would not be surprised that paid people are out there causing disruption across the nation. eg crisis actors.
lowtechcyclist
No, not at all. If that’s all you know – that you tried something that fit under the general rubric of negative partisanship, and the other guy won anyway, you don’t know shit about what was actually done, and whether it should have worked.
I mean, if I ran ads saying “all Republicans are commies,” that would be negative partisanship. But why would anyone expect it to move the needle one iota? You’ve still got to understand your voters enough to have a clue of what attacks might actually register with them as relevant.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agreed. Which is why I’m often not on board with liberal criticisms of Dem messaging approaches. But we (or at least the high Dems) need to have some idea of a campaign strategy. We (or they) don’t have the luxury of saying coming up with one is too hard.
ETA: Edited because I said the opposite of what I wanted to say.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: When my sister’s environmental consulting company turned 15 she paid for all her employees to go on a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas. I got to go with her, it was a great time. It’s not that hard to reward the people who work hard for you.
I heard a “How I Built This” program about Spanx and Sara Blakey. I was surprised to hear she still owned the company, because it seems like most of the people they interview eventually sell out to someone. I guess she finally cashed in. Good for her!
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: With approval voting, you vote for as many or few (including none) of the candidates as you wish – no ranking. Whoever gets the most votes wins. You can use current voting machines and there aren’t a bunch of run-off rounds. Confess I did a little (very little) volunteer work getting it approved in St. Louis. Details at Center for Election Science website.
Agree about Gillum’s problems while in office and about the questionable tabloid fare after the election. Still like him.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
As I’ve said above, it’s all complicated, but unless you’re willing to throw up your hands and say it’s too hard, you have to make an reasonable attempt to draw lessons. You’re approach doesn’t lead to any answers.
Soprano2
@MomSense: Oh don’t worry, some employee will complain about it, and the press will probably eat that complaint up. One of my sister’s employees refused to go on the all-expenses-paid cruise she did for them when her company turned 15; the complaint was “how dare you tell me how to spend my vacation”. *sigh* You cannot please everyone no matter what you do.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Elizabelle:
Locally, our Christian Lawyer Society (or whatever the fuck it was called) collapsed when the original organizer and long term president got charged with multiple felonies for setting up a bogus title company that he used to facilitate a mortgage kiting scheme that ran through loan proceeds for dozens of borrowers all to fuel his multimillion dollar gambling addiction. He tried absconding to Cuba for a bit, but didn’t have enough cash left to make it work.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
WWJD.
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: Right, yes, every kid should be free from bullying and in an environment that promotes learning. All I want to say is that G&T programs promote the idea that adult intervention, and maybe you, as a parent, have a lot more influence over the outcome of your child’s future than you probably do. Hence the near hysteria to get kids into G&T programs. I mean, if your kid is a mathematical genius he will most likely transcend not just the ordinary class, but the G&T class as well. I am okay with fast tracks for specific subjects, which recognizes specific achievements without labeling a kid overall as G&T. Very few kids are G&T in every subject but many programs are run as if they are. My favorite anecdote on this is my daughter’s friend who had to repeat 9th grade even as he was quickly running out of advanced math classes to take because he considered everything else to be a waste of time.
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Mortgage kiting. As Jesus advised, in The Great Book. LOL. Steal and flee.
Weapon X
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
they need something because nobody is kneeling at football games anymore. If the supply of outrage is exhausted, their voters will have no reason to participate.
Geminid
@Baud: There a actually was a VRA lawsuit that resulted in the redrawing of 11 state Delegate districts east of Richmond in time for the 2019 election.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Well he is an idiot if he went to Cuba. Everyone knows that there are many Caribbean locations with no extradition treaty for financial crimes but that still have banking relationships with the U.S. Now, if you commit murder or some other violent crime, Cuba might be the only destination that would work. Don’t ask me how I know all of this.
Baud
@Geminid:
Sorry, I’m referring to races like governor that are state wide with no districts. I’m not sure the VRA had any impact in those races in Virginia.
zhena gogolia
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: OT, love your Crete photos down below.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
BWA HA AH AH AH AHA HAH AH
Mike in NC
Well, it’s not even noon today and I think I’ve gotten about more 20 emails begging me to throw more money at Terry M’s Virginia governor campaign.
Nicole
@Barbara:
I have a family member who kept it secret from his parents for years that he had to go to summer school for English after his senior year because he’d flunked it and they only let him graduate because he committed to summer school. Today, he has a PhD in Statistics. Hell, even in high school the Trig teacher would sometimes a break and leave my brother in charge of teaching the material.
I hate G&T programs (or “Special Interest,” as they were called when I was in them in school). In NYC kids start testing into them at age 4 (!) and, at least in my anecdotal experience, the only kids in my circle who qualified were ones whose parents had paid for them to be tutored in taking the G&T test. Tutored at age 4. I get that some tracking will happen as kids get older, but I think G&T tracks in elementary school do more harm than good, long-term.
Geminid
@Baud: No, they don’t. I was basically using the commenter’s post to refer to the VRA’s impact on Congressional districting. Besides McEachin in Virginia, two new Democratic Representatives were elected from North Carolina last year as the result of a VRA lawsuit.
I also like to promote Congressman Dan McEachin (VA-Richmond), one of the many capable Democratic Representatives who get little notice in our star struck political culture.
Cameron
I’m going to have to give a serious think about moving back to Pennsylvania.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/10/the-outright-anti-vaxx-ron-desantis
Baud
@Geminid:
Ain’t that the truth.
It’s also kind of true for Republicans. Although we see how they often vote lock step in Congress, so our condemnation of them is appropriate, the number of Republicans we actually talk about is pretty small. In some ways, a small number of “celebrities” gives cover for the rest.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@zhena gogolia: Thank you! It has a special hold on my heart for sure!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Elizabelle: As wingnut schemes go, it wasn’t the usual smash and grab – he set it up with a great deal of finesse, and truth be told, he was actually a pretty sharp lawyer in practice.
Too bad he wasn’t a better gambler – he might’ve covered the losses longer.
UncleEbeneezer
@Kay: Said it before and I’ll say it again, Southlake podcast is a must-listen (or at least read this detailed review) for an understanding of how these fights are playing out. This bullshit is like candy for white people and we need to figure out how to fight it, and win. I suggest a dedicated thread in the Do Something series of political activism posts, specifically on this topic. This is pretty clearly, imo, going to be the “Caravan” of GOP messaging for 2022/4. We need good messaging and organizing to stop this shit from potentially giving the GOP wins in tight races.
Geminid
@Baud: My VA 5th Congressman is as horrible as any Republican in the House, just not as notorious (I am reluctant to type out his name so close to lunch time).
catclub
@Matt McIrvin:
I also benefitted, but pulling out G&T kids is cream skimming.
Elizabelle
@Cameron: Not going to read the LGM post, but perhaps give some thought to North Carolina? Milder weather, if that is what drew you to Florida, good beaches. Potentially a purple to blue state in a few elections, maybe sooner.
Sane governor. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. Insane state legislature, if memory serves, but — at least the sane governor.
I don’t think I could bear to reside in Florida right now, beautiful and unusual as so much of it is. Maybe if the alternative was Arkansas or Oklahoma. Otherwise, hard pass.
Kay
Interesting, from a public schools historian:
Exactly the same then as now. They even used “progressive” as a smear.
Fingers crossed they fail again. I do know public school teachers poll well- they’re one of the most trusted professions- and public schools generally poll well. He’s right it’s resilient too- they’re attacked constantly on the Right and they hold up quite well. I think it’s because the vast majority of people attended one, so “our” personal experience with school trumps the demonization. The biggest complaint I always hear about public schools from adults who attended one is how conventional they are- that they cater to the broad middle so don’t serve outliers well. It’s because they have a fundamentally broader mission than private schools- they have a public duty. Public schools shouldn’t become “like” private schools. It’s the wrong goal.
Cameron
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the suggestion – I’ve only been to North Carolina once, on a vacation to the Outer Banks. Liked it. If I could get the scratch together (highly unlikely), I’d like to move to Slovenia. My mom’s parents were from there, and I’ve got a load of cousins. COVID would make that impossible at the moment even if I could afford it. (Note to self: time to pimp the Old Country https://www.slovenia.info/en).
Kay
That’s because Democrats are sensible and it’s also because that’s how representative government works.
Which parents are going to run the school? Will there be a vote? What about when those parents kids graduate and leave the school? Are we stuck with the Class of 2021 parents views forever? What about the rest of the public who pay for and own the schools?
The issue isn’t that Democrats are radicals. The issue is conservatives don’t understand the basic idea behind public schools. They’re not private schools. That’s key.
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly: on the other hand, if you’re lost and someone calls, why wouldn’t you answer. You worried about a telemarketer calling about your air ducts?
Elizabelle
@Kay: I have been thinking that some of the strident GOP messaging is probably helping remind Virginia Democrats to vote.
Do you want ignorant, spiteful radicals setting curriculum for your kids?
And endangering everyone’s health, and our recovery from a pandemic, with the madness against simple public health initiatives like masks (which worked in prior pandemics) and vaccines?
I would love to find out the GOP ads inspired McAuliffe supporters even more.
Kay
I want to win this debate, obviously, but I’m glad we’re having it. We’ve uncovered a problem and the source of a lot of misunderstanding. Conservatives don’t understand the basic premise behind public schools. They’re not individual service providers. They’re not private tutors. They’re not homeschools and they’re not private schools. They can’t become those things and still be public schools, and no one should want them to become those things anyway.
Conservatives object to everything that makes public schools “public” which may be impossible to fix.
Just Chuck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The right also yammers on about how up is down and right is wrong and freedom is slavery and so on. The crazy guy on my street corner makes more sense. I long ago tired of pointing out the hypocrisy and all the logical failings of wingnuts because they do not care. They will simply repeat their previous arguments, louder. In fact, gaslighting depends on not making sense. They’re not interested in facts, truth, consensus, agreement, or anything other than making their word holes move and produce sounds that make their fellow monkeys grunt in unison and fling their poo at the ones that don’t.
And that’s basically what passes for truth these days. You can put the truth out there all day, but it’ll never appear on the facebook feeds of anyone you’re trying to reach.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Oh, I hope so. I always want to win. I don’t even bother feigning coolness :)
If for nothing else than I really can’t bear listening to helicopter parents for the next 6 months.
They’re going to finnd out the truth when they get on these school boards. It’s a hard fucking job! They should take a crack at keeping 2000 parents with differing goals and views and child rearing philosophies happy. It’s impossible. The compromises everyone sneers at? VITAL. I would sit on school council and think “good point!” and then someone would say the opposite and I’d think “also true!”
If you like kids, and I do, you want it to work. No one goes on these boards and says “let’s make this SUCK for them”
Just Chuck
@OzarkHillbilly: The “lost hiker” in question was unaware anyone was looking for him. Doesn’t sound like someone in a dire situation.
germy
@Just Chuck:
That’s why he didn’t answer a call from an unknown caller.
We’ve been conditioned to do that; we’re even told to do that, because of all the scam/spam/robo calls.
Jeffro
In an age where most of one party can be told to oppose mask-wearing in a pandemic…where they can be told to not only oppose a life-saving vaccine, but all vaccines (so that they’re consistent, right?)…I don’t have a lot of confidence that this will remain true.
Just Chuck
@germy: At the start of the pandemic when social distancing was a new thing, everyone was awkward around everyone else, keeping their distance as they were supposed to, not maintaining eye contact, and generally just tense. I remarked that it was weird watching everyone suddenly act like I always do.
So when it comes to answering the phone, I guess I’ve also been ahead of the curve.
TEL
@Jeffro: Thread is probably dead, but FYI McAuliffe has a 24 point edge over Youngkin with people who have already voted. I’m not sure the polling accuracy in off-year elections is ever very good. https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/1452732050235183113
montanareddog
@germy:
Exactly! Maybe, he did not know he was considered lost. And they were getting calls from an unknown caller and ignored them, as I do in normal situations.
I justify ignoring unknown callers on the grounds that if it is important, they will leave a voice mail, and I will then call back. Has it been mentioned in all the breathless reporting if the “rescuers” left a voice mail or not?
Elizabelle
@TEL: Thank you.
Northam pulled away by 9 in 2017, when the race was “too close to call.” These are not normal times, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Democrats turn out in a percentage resembling previous victories.
montanareddog
@Just Chuck:
Fear of the telephone is one of the 7 pop-psy markers of a tendency to introversion. I hit all 7. My extrovert wife howled with laughter when I showed the list to her.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: Yup.
Another thing that strikes me is that Sears apparently isn’t even bothering to campaign (at least on-line).
Repost – BlueVirginia.US (from October 21):
Terry Mac has spent ~ 3x as much as Youngkin on on-line ads.
The GQP isn’t running like they expect to sweep the races, or even as if they have more money than Zeus to swamp Team D.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@Kay: My father was a school teacher, coach, bus driver, principal and finally superintendent, so I got a really good look at that side of it while I was growing up. He sometimes spent two or three hours on the phone with an angry parent during the evening – that was time he wasn’t supposed to be working! I thought I wanted to be a music teacher until I realized how many people would think they were my boss – there was my boss, the school board, and every parent of every kid I’d have in the classroom. Plus, if you teach at a small town school here you can’t live there if you want to live a normal life – God forbid any parent ever see you buying alcohol or hanging out at a bar! All of that made me decide teaching wasn’t for me. I have huge admiration for those who can do this job, but I wasn’t one of them.
TheTruffle
I have realized that I prefer Balloon Juice to Twitter these days.
dopey-o
when I can’t get an important call picked up, i follow up with a text. because the text pops up on the recipient’s lock screen. “Dear John, you wife has reported you lost. Do you need assistance? From Ranger Bob.”
my phone will also transcribe voicemails and present them on my lock screen if i am too busy. “This is Doctor Malarkey’s office, we have had a cancellation if you’re available….”