Good morning from the White House. President Biden today will convene his virtual Summit for Democracy, and visit the Capitol to pay respects to Bob Dole. He then has calls with Ukraine’s Zelenskiy and with leaders of eastern flank NATO allies, before hosting a Covid briefing. pic.twitter.com/D5T78JQ3Wy
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) December 9, 2021
Economy update:
-The economy has added 5.9M new jobs since January — the most jobs added in the first 11 months of a year
-Since January, unemployment has fallen from 6.3% to 4.2% — the fastest single year drop
-16M fewer people are receiving unemployment since @POTUS took office— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 8, 2021
"The time for losing is over. It's over. Over, over, over," concludes @POTUS in his latest #infrastructure speech. pic.twitter.com/TKpLAg2aQK
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) December 8, 2021
“Every time I vote, we win.”
-Vice President Kamala HarrisShe is breaking ties and the spirit of her haters. https://t.co/yehHKqwSZy
— josecanyousee (@josecanyousee_) December 8, 2021
From a BBC link. I can’t embiggen the visual, but the audio is perfectly clear:
debbie
Okay, I’m exhausted just reading Joe’s schedule today.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Tony Jay
Open Thread? A quick UK update for you to peruse over your trendy avocado and muesli breakfasts.
Following yesterday’s parade of shithousery from everybody’s least favourite stool of undigested mozzarella, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, the black-comedy pastiche masquerading as the UK Government has announced ‘Plan B’, a return to some of the anti-Covid protections arbitrarily scrapped by the same Government back in summer as part of their ‘Freedom Day’ propaganda campaign to convince the gullible that Covid was over and Big Bunter had saved us all. Apparently, when numerous Government Ministers and Spokesdrones were on TV and radio over the last week or two sneering at the very idea of bringing back compulsory mask-wearing and Working from Home, it was our fault for failing to understand their clear message that they were only sneering in a ‘limited and specific way’. It turns out that they always intended to enact these protections right now due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, honest, and any suggestion that they were bounced into it by Johnson’s panicked need for a dead-cat to chuck on the table as a distraction is just partisan sniping.
Typically, these protections (which include gaffle about Vaccine Passports that have the hospitality industry up in arms over perceived – and probably deliberate – incoherence) won’t come in immediately. That would be silly. Omicron is such a fast spreading and immediate threat that the only sensible thing to do is delay the start of the measures until Monday, giving time for people to have a jolly good weekend of boozing, shopping and generally breathing in each other’s plumes of invisible viral peskiness. Oh, and don’t worry about Nativity plays and Christmas parties, as the Government has negotiated a deal with the Covid General Staff for a cessation of hostilities anywhere there are kids, music and/or the opportunity for drunken knee-tremblers.
Leaving aside the (obvious and far too late) need for these protections, have they achieved their primary aim of pushing the Partygate scandal off the front pages?
No, is the simple answer. There’s a number of reasons for that, all entirely predictable and revealing.
Firstly, Flobalob and his diminishing circle of loyalists haven’t actually apologised or admitted that the December 18th 2020 Christmas Party actually happened, they’ve just apologised for any untoward impression of unconcern for Covid deaths that people may have chosen to take from the leaked video of Johnson’s then spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton (good chum of his wife, married to the politics editor of the Spectator, who is himself bestest chums with the current Chancellor Rishi ‘Disastro Capitalismo’ Sunak, incestuous little bunch of crims that they are) and other Downing St officials laughing and joking as they rehearsed what lies they’d tell if anyone asked them about the Party. Stratton might have resigned as floating spokeswoman for various things, but they’re still insisting that no Party happened, and if it did no one was there, and if they were there no Covid rules were broken, and since nothing happened and no one was there, the events surrounding what definitely didn’t happen are all being seriously investigated by Johnson’s well-broken minion, Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, who will report back in due course if he finds any evidence that his boss had done anything untoward.
Was Case himself at the Party he’s been tasked to investigate? Uhhhhhh, no comment. So that’s reassuring.
Plus, December 18th wasn’t the only Party for which some journalists have leaked evidence. There was one a week later, as well as more in Johnson’s own flat in November, one of them to apparently celebrate the ousting of bulb-headed wannabe cyber-svengali Dominic ‘Not a traitor’ Cummings as Prime Ministerial superadvisor by an alliance of Johnson’s then-girlfriend and the fragrant Allegra. All in violation of Covid rules, all of them somehow unreported in the Press until now.
Will Case be investigating any of these Parties as well? Uhhhhhh, no comment. So that’s reassuring.
Plus, of course, it wasn’t just Stratton and Downing St staff yukking it up about Parties. That loathsome bearer of one of Sauron’s prototype Rings of Men Jacob ‘Six Spawn for Satan’ Rees-Mogg MP is also on video giving a speech at the Institute for Economic Affairs Christmas Party on Monday telling his audience “I mean, this party is not going to be investigated by the police in a year’s time.” because everyone there was socially distanced. I’m sure the humanoid voted Men’s Health magazine’s worst ever centrefold will be called on to tell the relevant authorities what he was joking about, eventually, maybe, probably not. Who’d want to be in a room with that cadaver? The stench of old snuff, votive candles and embalming fluid would be eye-wateringly bad.
Plus, the Metropolitan Police have announced that they won’t be investigating the circumstances around the December 20th Party because “there’s an absence of evidence” (which is usually the case when there’s an absence of investigation) and the Met has a previously unrevealed policy of not retrospectively investigating violations of the Covid rules (when said violations were committed by VIPs and people connected to the Conservative Party). This decision by the Met’s Disney Villain of a Commissioner, Dame Cressida ‘M’s evil clone’ Dick has gone down like a stinkbomb in a candyfloss factory staffed by sherbet-dusted pixies and is example number Googleplex +1 of how institutionally corrupt that police force has been for eons. I can understand Dick not wanting to be Johnson’s bullet-taker in this situation, since giving him the rhetorical cover of “an ongoing investigation” to hide behind would make her the one in the evidentiary hotseat, but damn, this a stupid way to go about it.
“Absence of evidence”, Cresida? What about the CCTV footage and multiple Met officers stationed at Number 10? Have you checked their evidence? Do you really think that’s not going to come out? Fucksakes, woman, if you’re really that desperate to make the jump to ‘Lady Dick’ just hop a flight to Bangkok, I’ve heard the bars are crawling with them.
This isn’t going away, not a chance. All Johnson has done is delay the fallout while he desperately tries to uncover the leaker and put the nippletwists on wavering MPs, but does he even have the authority to do that anymore? The News Media might be desperate to shield their own from exposure (there’s persistent rumours that journalists were at one or more of the parties) but they know full well that all of these scandalous revelations are just the outward expressions of internal Tory Party conflicts over who gets to run the show, with Johnson being systematically targeted for humiliation and removal by factions that have all the evidence they need and their own Press contacts to get it out there. The News Media will play along, feigning surprise at each “Breaking News” pimple-pop, but they know the score, and once everything is set-up to protect the jobs and reputations of those who chose the ‘right’ side, the hammer will fall, and Johnson’s watermelon smile will get pasted.
Frex, the Electoral Commission have just completed their investigation into how the redecoration of Johnson’s Downing St pad was paid for and, instead of obediently dropping it down the back of the sofa or pre-briefing that it entirely clears the Johnsons like they normally would, have fined the Tory Party £17,000 + and put on record evidence that Johnson lied about what he knew about it and when he knew it, evidence that even the BBC’s Chief Political Fluffer is pointing out is a resignation worthy offence. It’s coming from all sides, on a variety of issues, and there’s no real Teflon left coating his mottled hide. But hey, you may have heard that Johnson’s wife popped out another child for him to abandon last night. It says everything about the hole he’s in that, beyond the predictable oohing and ahhhing from the Tory Press and BBC, the first question everybody asked was “Did she get induced to provide a distraction?” The answer, of course, being “Probably, that’s the type of people they are.” So now the greasy fuckwit will now be on parental leave for a few weeks, hiding out in a wine cellar somewhere desperately hoping that something, anything, turns up to save him.
What’s going to happen? Well, assuming Johnson doesn’t get done in by scandal shrapnel before then, there will be more Covid measures put in place as soon as Parliament is safely shoved off on holiday on Thursday, another important national issue turned into distractive chaff. Leaks will continue coming out, which will be even worse for Johnson because he can’t exactly cosplay as Prime Minister and try to change the subject when he’s hiding out in Chequers or the Russian Embassy or wherever. Muted voices will still try to draw attention to the horribly dictatorial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that is about to turn us into Hungary, but the News Media have uniformly decided not to bother reporting on that. Tory leadership hopefuls will keep on trying to catch the eye with flashy announcements of base-friendly lunacy while putting distance between themselves and Flobalob. Labour will continue standing in the corner being beige and expelling anyone who can spell the words “inequality”, “privatisation” or “political nous”.
There’s a bye-election next week in a seat so Tory-friendly they burn a Wicker-Man in the shape of William Pitt the Elder every Whitsunday Eve (Never Forgive, Never Forget) so we’ll see what happens there. If it’s a bad enough result for the Tories, things will start happening quite quickly.
Chappeax!
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Right? But for something relaxing:
This morning’s NYTimes has a terrific guest essay (“These Hirschfeld Drawings Capture Sondheim’s Shows Better Than Any Photo”) by its former theatre critic, Ben Brantley.
The piece is a celebration of Sondheim via Al Hirschfeld’s memorable drawings, and it is both insightful and great fun.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/opinion/stephen-sondheim-al-hirschfeld.html
There are ten drawings reproduced. I’ve spent the past hour happily searching for Ninas.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: You know this stuff isn’t in my wheelhouse but I heard and interview with him last week and I really liked him!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Nancy’s response is fabulous. That woman is older than I am and she is sharp and clear eyed.
NotMax
Scoff at the schmaltz if you must, there’s still something cozy about ’em.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay: Is The Crown going to make it up to Boris? I wonder who could play him. Gillian Anderson has been giving us nightmares.
raven
@zhena gogolia: Olivia Colman is in a new HBO drama/comedy, “Landscapers”. She and David Thewlis are awesome.
Chief Oshkosh
It’s disturbing that down in Georgia, Perdue is running on a flat-out insurrectionist platform, totally tossing rule of law and representative government, and the press is treating it as just another campaign strategy. I have not seen or heard of a single interviewer directly asking him even the mildest questions about this lunatic stance arising from lies and violence. Nope, the press has already completely normalized the end of democracy
EAT: https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/ajc-interview-inside-perdues-plan-to-defeat-kemp-in-2022/CYZFLSXL3RGHXG4IZUQIW7HKOY/
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
I don’t think Gary Busey can pull off the accent.
;)
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
She rocks
raven
@Chief Oshkosh: They have the things called “debates” but I wouldn’t be surprised if he bailed.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks, this is great! I’m a Nina counter from way back.
Tony Jay
@zhena gogolia:
By the time it gets around to modern day events we’ll probably be a desolate wasteland where more fortunate countries send their champions to earn renown by taking the heads of mutant badgers, so whoever it is, they’ll probably be Canadian.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Glad to hear that! And I am (baby-step by baby-step) almost kinda sorta coming around to a vague, passing interest in college football! Never too old, eh?
JPL
@Tony Jay: Just like trump, he’ll escape consequences.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
You remember he didn’t show up last year to debate Jon Ossoff.
Chief Oshkosh
@raven: I don’t doubt that either of the Republican shitheels will dodge debates or demand debates based on perceived political gain. Perdue certainly hid from voters his entire time in office and during the last campaign. But debates are aside from the press’ approach to the statements Perdue is making. Debates are just part of campaigns. Perdue is saying that, based on nothing, Kemp should have tossed the confirmed election results because the desired outcome was not obtained. Recall that one of the actual outcomes was Perdue losing his sinecure in the Senate. And that’s his central plank!
Geminid
For some reason, former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance missed the Balloon Juice post on trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a couple nights ago. Or maybe she was just lurking. But Vance had this to say on the subject yesterday:
OzarkHillbilly
Coming to the US in 3… 2… 1… Never.
Ken
@Tony Jay: Excellent, I feared yesterday that I’d missed your update. I do wonder, though, when you write:
Is there a name for this modern version of kremlinology? “downingology” or “westminsterology”, perhaps, though neither exactly trip off the tongue.
Tony Jay
@JPL:
Only if he goes quietly. If not, well, there’s an awful lot of blame the next Tory Messiah would need to shift onto the departing failure.
Geminid
@Chief Oshkosh: When he blasted back at Perdue, Kemp threw Perdue’s ducking of debates at him, also “padding his stock portfolio during a pandemic.” This looks like it will be a bitter contest, full of attacks. Early polling shows a tie race when Republicans are told that Perdue has trump’s endorsement.
Have you seen Perdue’s announcement video? That’s a very creepy 2-1/2 minutes. If a film director had to cast an actor to play a cynical, corrupt politician, they could not do better than the real Perdue.
NotMax
@Tony Jay
First ever lawsuit to challenge the results of a vote of no confidence?
Soprano2
I’m sure some of you have already seen this story, but I haven’t seen a link here. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-08/torrance-police-traded-racist-homophobic-texts-it-could-jeopardize-hundreds-of-cases It’s as bad as you’d think, and actually even worse. Reading the article made my stomach turn. These officers have imperiled hundreds and hundreds of cases. Makes you wonder if this is happening in every police department. Sadly, the answer is “probably”.
OzarkHillbilly
Helicopter lowers rescuer to car at top of Niagara Falls – video
That fucking wind…
hueyplong
@Geminid: This mess makes Charles Foster Kane vs Boss Jim Gettys look like the democratic ideal.
O. Felix Culpa
@Soprano2: What’s really sad, is how unsurprising their behavior is.
wenchacha
@Soprano2: At some point, cities have to protect themselves from the liability of their law enforcers. How many millions go from the coffers every time a cop gets qualified immunity?
NotMax
In more outré reportage –
*On hump day, natch.
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Less sad, though, is that the Publix heiress who helped fund the Jan. 6 insurrection is facing “public scrutiny.” (Although consequences a little more
severefitting would be welcome.)WaPo:
sab
Happy sort of news in my neck of the woods. Emilia Sykes is seriously considering a run for Congress in whatever district in Ohio they finally come up with. The current iteration is Medina and Summit counties and leans Dem.
ETA Summit is Dem. Medina is Rethug. I guess Summit has more people.
Geminid
@hueyplong: The irony is that by the old Republican standards, Kemp has been a succesful Governor. But this is a new, radicalized party. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine similarly is being primaried from the right by ex-Congressman Renacci. Renacci lost the 2018 Senate election to Sherrod Brown, by 300,000 votes, but he thinks DeWine’s Covid response makes him vulnerable. This can’t but help the Democratic nominee.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Waiting for the Commission’s information about Ginny Thomas, that boozy old flirt.
Soprano2
@wenchacha: That’s a great question, but I suspect they have insurance that pays for that stuff, so not as much as you might think.
hueyplong
@Geminid: Agree. Increased chances of winning various elections, but with a more fearful downside if the wannabe Nazis win. We use to feel confident that “I’m not a witch” candidates would lose, but the American political landscape has changed.
Geminid
@sab: I read that Ohio District 11 Congresswoman Shontel Brown was on Morning Joe today. Also, the excellent Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn.
Jeffro
Morning folks!
Two quick notes:
2. I finished Bewilderment by Richard Powers last night and couldn’t do much of anything else for an hour before finally toddling off to bed. Powerful stuff.
zhena gogolia
@raven: Yes, it looks weird!
sab
@sab: Challenging for a Black candidate, but everything always is.
Ohio has always had an amazing bench of Black candidates. The problem is our voters, who crawl out of their caves and out from under their bridges and vote Rethug.
Alce_e_ardillo
@Geminid: Shorter @JoyceAlene: “Mark Meadows, FAFO. We can fill in a picture just as well by painting around you.”
Immanentize
Did anyone else note that Coney Barrett, in arguments yesterday about funding religious schools with tax dollars, called that thing in Israel, “the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.”
She has crazy eyes because she is a cultist.
Gin & Tonic
Huh, what’s missing here?
sab
@Immanentize: I think you should drop the Coney thing. She is a very traditional wife who happens to be on the Supreme Court. When she got married she lost her identity. She should be referred to as Mrs. Barrett.
Tony Jay
@NotMax:
Ha! Johnson hasn’t got any money! And when the patronage is taken away, all he’s got is a phone that no one will answer.
narya
@Immanentize: Charlie Pierce had a piece up about that.
cain
Hah, what a devastating way to start a paragraph. :-)
cain
@Chief Oshkosh:
Hey, it would generate a lot of clicks! Imagine how much money they would make!
ETA: #50! Yayaaaa!
Geminid
@Alce_e_ardillo: Also, I’ve read that before Meadows belatedly decided to stonewall the January 6 Commitee, he turned over some good stuff.
Chief Oshkosh
@sab: But it’s so fun saying “Cultist Coney”
Tony Jay
@cain:
8-)
Me no likey them
oatler
@Soprano2:
I saw that kind of stuff on the “Police One” blog before it closed itself off to “civilians” (or witnesses).
cain
@Tony Jay: It’s never Tories, it’s always fuckin Tories. :-) A collective putrid mound of castrated bandicoot corpses.
Chief Oshkosh
@Soprano2:
It’s in every police department. I’ve had to be around LEOs all of my life, personally and professionally. I’ve never seen a bad person becoming better by becoming a cop. I’ve seen good people becoming bad after becoming a cop.
Tony Jay
@cain:
Licks end of pencil. Starts writing.
“Dear Santa…”
jonas
The end of the American republic and its replacement with a neo-fascist idiotocracy will be great for getting clicks and eyeballs, though!
lowtechcyclist
@jonas: They’ll all be competing to see which outlet gets to be Pravda and which one gets to be Izvestia.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Something deeply incriminating, I hope.
Viva BrisVegas
@cain: I object on behalf of bandicoots, which are luverly critters. Even when found in decomposting piles.
If you want something truly vile, try putrescent cane toads. That is a smell that is hard to believe exists in nature. Almost a match for your average Tory.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Creful you’ll get shunned around here.
raven
@zhena gogolia: It’s really well done and she’s awesome.
Brachiator
Love it!
ETA: But her headphones…
/snark
Soprano2
@Chief Oshkosh: I assume it’s the “power corrupts” thing, some people let the power of being a police officer go to their head. I had an experience with a county deputy in a parking lot once. I was backing my car up; it’s got that newfangled thing where it beeps if something is behind you when you’re trying to back up. I had looked behind me and didn’t see anything, so I turned around and started to back up. I heard a “thump” on my trunk so I stopped; turns out some people had been walking in the parking lot but weren’t yet behind me when I looked, and weren’t in the range of my camera yet. When they guy came to my window I rolled it down to apologize; he whipped out a Greene County Deputy badge and stuck it in my face, and said something like “you need to be more careful” in a hateful voice. I was so stunned I didn’t say anything, I just let him walk away. I wondered later if he felt he needed to do that because he thought I did it on purpose. All I could think was what a jackhole he was.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@raven: Colman is on my “I’d watch ’em read a phone book” list. I saw The Favourite, then Fleabag, and found her so compelling I watched The Crown, which because of the performances was better than I was expecting.
nevsky42
Just saw this headline…
Jobless claims sink to 184,000 and hits lowest level since 1969, but it’s not quite as good as it looks
Of course, sigh…
Chief Oshkosh
@Soprano2: It’s part of it, IMO. Another part is what we’re calling “toxic masculinity” these days, which I’ve always called plain ol’ just being an asshole. If you get two assholes and a normal person working together on Monday, by the weekend you have three assholes working together. It never goes the other way.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@debbie: What, you don’t think TFG was just as busy with a schedule that said only “making some calls, meeting some people”?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@nevsky42: yeah, I’m trying to figure out how this isn’t good news
when The Beast and other Rs would bellow about the greatest economy of their lifetimes, it was always about the unemployment rate, no footnotes, no caveats, no “but if you look at Ux instead of Uy….”
Patricia Kayden
Kalakal
@Tony Jay: He’s in the classic English political spiral. Some useless evil bastard gets away with shit for years and then suddenly you can’t move for negative stories about them. The actual thing that takes Johnson down will be someting trivial.
tells you 2 things about the English establishment.
1) They’ve had enough dirt to bury Johnson whenever they liked for years but didn’t do so implying that they approved of his “achievements” despite knowing what a loathsome waste of skin he is and that his “acievements” match his personality.
2) When someone is seen as a liability they shaft them faster than light
Johnsons toast, of course all the likely successors share his competence, integrity and work ethic hub
Patricia Kayden
Patricia Kayden
We know.
Cameron
@Patricia Kayden: Senselessly? Libtards have been pwned – I’d hardly call that senseless.
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
When that does come up, it’s nearly always an attempt to spin the results while claiming you’re un-spinning them, because the thing about all the Ux’s is that they move more or less in parallel. It’s not as if one goes up while another one goes down. Compare apples to apples across time and you get the same movements.
Mike in Pasadena
Ms. Speaker’s statement reminded me just how much I would like to see tRump buried so I could pour a jarful of piss on his grave. On my walk yesterday I tried, as an intellectual exercise, to list all of the good adjectives that can be applied to the idjt. Although the negative adjectives intruded constantly, I couldn’t come up with a single good adjective without lying to myself. Try it. Anybody find a good adjective that can be applied to the loser trump (TLT)?
eclare
@Mike in Pasadena: None. Tfg has absolutely no redeeming qualities. As the saying goes, even Hitler loved his dog…
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
I watched a clip of the Prime Minister Question thing. Boris Johnson doesn’t understand that Partygate will not go away. It was pathetic to see him offer the typical combination of lies and attempts at distraction: “I apologize for any party which did not take place. Labour is bad. Get your jab!”
Similarly, Jacob Creep-Mogg is equally clueless.
Even dopes who want to believe in the Tory agenda understand “one rule for us, another rule for everyone else.” Creep-Mogg’s japes insult people who obeyed the goddam rules and endured pain at not being able to be with sick loved ones.
Also, didn’t Jacob,as Leader of the House or whatever, insist that social distancing be ignored by making MPs show up in person to vote on bills? Didn’t he make supremely stupid comments about masks not being needed among friends? He is supremely tone-deaf. I suppose his constituency is full of people who imagine that they still live in the 18th century.
Again, Starmer used his prosecutor skills to clearly kick the crap out of Johnson. His example of Her Majesty the Motherfucking Queen obeying the rules as she sat alone at her husband’s funeral is, again, something that anyone can understand, and can contrast with the Number 10 Party crowd.
Also, how can “we don’t know if there was a party” stand up to a moment’s scrutiny. You don’t need cameras. I understand that anyone who goes into Number 10 must be noted, along with the the time they entered and left.
Who was the woman doctor MP who made a simple, eloquent condemnation of Boris Johnson? You could hear murmurs of sympathy and encouragement from other MPs as she was speaking. Very different than the usual partisan bullshit emitted by the background players.
The fun question is, who is leaking this stuff to the media? And the way that information has been released maximizes pain and embarrassment. I don’t know if it will be enough to topple Johnson, but it is clearly having some impact.
lowtechcyclist
@Patricia Kayden: One of the Twitter responses was “BREAKING: Water is wet.”
I just don’t understand anyone who, with holy-shit shock and surprise, is just now realizing this.
I can kinda sorta understand someone who was trying to reserve judgment on that conclusion, despite the evidence in plain sight, but finally has to wearily say, “yep, no way around it, he’s a traitor.” But that person isn’t suddenly going “Holy shit!” at that realization.
Geminid
@Mike in Pasadena: An adjective to apply to trump? I like Churlish.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
It is great to see all these expressions of love and admiration for Sondheim.
A standard obituary, or even essay of appreciation, cannot capture the impact that Sondheim had on theater.
These drawings are wonderful.
Ken
Somewhat insulting to people who did live in the 18th century, wo were pretty damn firm on the enforcement of quarantines.
Another Scott
@nevsky42: Relatedly, …
CalculatedRiskBlog:
Cue up the stories about the horrors of the USA turning into Japan (a country with about the highest life expectancy on the planet).
Seriously, the economy is changing rapidly. Shutting off immigration, and making it increasingly hard for young families, and boomers retiring, and, well, what did people think would happen to the labor market? It will take a while to find its new equilibrium, but it will happen.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
Which one?
Dan B
@Soprano2: The Seattle police “union” seems to be right in alignment with Torrance. The head of the “union” makes TFG seem like a nice guy. Our neighbor who’s the nicest guy avoids going to the whiter parts of town because of the police.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
RE: Publishing long-awaited draft legislation on Thursday, the European Commission said the burden of proof on employment status would shift to companies, rather than the individuals that work for them. Until now, gig economy workers have had to go to court to prove they are employees, or risk being denied basic rights.
California has adopted this, in decisions by the California Supreme Court, with legislation in AB5, and in challenges via Proposition 22:
In August, a judge ruled that Prop 22 was unconstitutional, but I think it has been allowed to remain in force pending some resolution.
Tony Jay
@Kalakal:
Johnson was always a tool in every sense of the word. A creation of Britain’s most self-absorbed institutions and a lucky beneficiary of both the tabloid-led radicalisation of the electorate and the determination of the establishment that anything was better than having an honest man in Number 10.
They knew exactly what he was, and they knew he’d crash and burn as he always does. Now someone less openly corrupt can get their hands on that lovely 80 seat majority and do some real damage without courting icky scandal.
Cameron
@Geminid: I sometimes refer to him as the swinish oaf, but that’s not nearly obscene enough.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Japan is both a good and bad example. Any country with a good health and social welfare system will see an increase in the proportion of the population age 65 and over.
In 2021, the percentage rose to 29.1 percent. About 16.5 percent of Americans are age 65 or older. Italy is the European country with the largest percentage of elderly population, about 22.8 percent. Japan is an outlier, but does give hints about what may happen in the future.
And Japan’s problems are worsened by the fact that they have always been anti-immigration. Even ethnic Koreans whose families have lived in the country for centuries are still treated as foreigners.
A recent episode of the NPR program Marketplace noted that the number of people not working and not looking for work had increased by about 3.6 million during the pandemic. About half of these were older people.
Many of these older people retired and are making it work. Covid fears may be keeping some out of the workplace, but overall from surveys these people are doing well. Of course, this reduces the overall workforce, which is worrisome. But some people complained that the presence of older workers made it harder for younger people to enter the labor market. We shall see how this works out.
Also, people who took early retirement because of Covid in 2020 got some very significant tax benefits. No penalty for early retirement and the ability to spread lump sum retirement payments over three years. This resulted in some hefty refunds in 2020. For a good chunk of workers, 2020 was a great time to retire.
Kalakal
@Tony Jay: The difference between the current establishment and that of even a couple of decades ago is how short term their thinking is. Johnson exemplifies this, he’s got an horizon of about 20 minutes, he’ll say and do anyting to get out of a mess without realising that that has become a matter of record. Even 20 years ago you could get into he said, she said but now everything is available for total, instant recall. The Tories blatent weapon has always between the medias selective bias in their favour and it used to be that the media had a near monopoly on the video/audio records. Now anyone with a smartphone can show you lying/contradicting yourself /looking like an idiot and put it out via social media that has a reach msm can only dream of albiet within bubbles It means you have to very disciplined a nd think ahead, not traits that people who’ve never had to deal with the consequences of their actions are famed for.
When the msm joins the pile on like they’re doing now it’s non-stop bad optics and unlike social media they have (unearned) crediblity with the normies
VOR
@Tony Jay: Whenever I read this stuff about Boris, I think of the Mark Twain quote: “The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.”
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: I had a similar experience in a Chicago police parking lot many years ago, but mine turned out better than yours. I got pulled over by a rookie cop for a traffic thing, and for some reason he took exception to the fact that I had a Michigan driver’s license, or something (I was a student at Northwestern at the time, but kept my car registered in Michigan because my insurance rates were cheaper that way).
Anyhoo, this Big-Brained Rookie decided he was taking me into the station, for some reason. I was, needless to say, flabbergasted. As were, apparently, some of this guy’s superiors, because after sitting around the station with a mouthful of teeth for half an hour or so, I was told I could leave. No charge, no ticket, nothing, just, “OK, you can go now.”
So.
Get in my car in the parking lot, start the car, look behind me, nobody, look down, back up without looking again and…in the ten or so seconds that I wasn’t looking, a cop car has pulled up behind me, and I hit it.
Bam.
At that point, rookie cop and his superior come out, and I just snapped. Starting screaming, “YES, IT’S ME, I DID IT, LOOK AT THAT, YOU GOT ME ON SOMETHING NOW, HOW YOU LIKE THAT”.
All the cops look at each other, and rookie is looking pretty hangdog at this point. His boss tells him (and me), “look, you’re going to traffic court, and basically, this never happened, all right?”
Which, yeah, I got off on the ticket, but the city of Chicago still billed me months later for damage to the cop car.
But that was the good old days. Nowadays, they’d probably just shoot me in the parking lot and claim that I’d been drawing a gun/lighter/pencil on them.
J R in WV
The absolute latest moment for someone to realize Trump is a traitor was during the 2016 campaign, when on live TV he asked Russia, “…if you’re listening, please release Crooked Hillary’s emails to the public…” or words to that effect. And like magic, those emails were released the very next day.
Zounds, at that very moment, we all knew or should have known that Trump was a pathetic traitor to the very nation he was seeking to lead. And indeed, he lost that election by what, 8,000,000 votes!?!!! Because of an unending drumbeat of phony news about emails being handled the exact same way the previous Secretaries of State handled emails, it would have been a huge landslide in Clinton’s favor without Comey’s absurd accusations and the news media, also Traitors to America.
Grrr!
lowtechcyclist
It was statements from various police union-type orgs that convinced me early on that the problem with the police was way more than just a few bad apples. Their top guys would always say things that you’d hope no law enforcement officer would say, and these were the guys elected by the rank-and-file to represent them.
I have no idea how we can fix this. Maybe one or two percent of the worst police officers will quit rather than get vaxxed, but since the problem goes way beyond the worst one or two percent, that only helps a little bit.
oatler
@Cameron:
A reference to his Peppa Pig speech? “Vroom! Vroom!”
Geminid
@Cameron: I never thought obcenity added much force to an epithet (but that’s just me). So I would settle for odious churl.
Geminid
@Brachiator: Some of those older workers may reenter the workforce wen the dust settles from all the disruption we’ve had the last couple years. Higher wages may be an inducement.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
True enough. Some older workers may be in a position that they do not have to rush back into the labor market.
Gravenstone
Intentional conflation of the religion with the state is nothing new for these people. Same “logic” that gives rise to screams of “anti-semitism” from that quarter any time someone dares to criticize Israel.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Of course, the same people who are big-time natalists tend to admire Japan’s hostility to immigration, because it’s not really about economics for them, it’s about racial competition.
Tom Fitz
@NotMax: Time for a remake of Best in Show
Brant
Joe’s a much nicer man than I, Bob Dole was justa non-criminal RichardNixon.
debbie
@sab:
Coney Barrett is so much more distinguished-sounding. //
Bill Arnold
@nevsky42:
That comparison does not appear to be population-adjusted.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ICSA
That is the seasonally-adjusted FRED graph, not population adjusted. The US population in 269 was 201(203??) million, vs 333 million now, so the 1969 equivalent would be 111, not what really happened in 1969, a low of 180 K (in May 1969). Assuming I’m reading the FRED graph correctly.
The headline is egregiously dishonest on multiple levels.