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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Odds and Ends (Open Thread)

Odds and Ends (Open Thread)

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Here’s a photo of Badger looking surprised:

Odds and Ends (Open Thread) 1

Badger looks surprised in all photos. Other creatures who may or may not have been surprised earlier this week: Republican lawmakers who texted Mark Meadows about plans to execute a coup before the violent mob attacked the Capitol Building on January 6th. Yesterday, January 6th committee members read some of these texts without naming names.

The texters included a Georgia official who implored Meadows to end the call in which Trump was pressing officials to “find” votes to overturn Biden’s win in the state because it wasn’t “productive.” They also include texts from House members who congratulated Meadows for a scheme to have Trump appoint Jeffery Clark as AG so the administration could use the DoJ to overturn the election and support other elements of the coup plot. The committee is going to name names eventually (CNN):

In another text message from November 4, 2020, the day after the election, a member suggested to Meadows an “aggressive strategy” for Republican-led state legislatures to “just send their own electors” to Congress and let the Supreme Court decide who won the election…

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the select committee’s chairman, told CNN on Tuesday the panel will “make a decision within a week or so when to release” the names of the authors of the texts to Meadows. At this point, he added, the panel had only identified House members who had sent their former House colleague text messages, and not Republican senators.

These texts got less attention than the ones from Fox “News” personalities and the namesake fail-son, who all begged Meadows to have Trump denounce the sacking of the Capitol Building because they considered a violent coup a bad look that was detrimental to their joint political prospects. But arguably they are more important.

I assume this is also part of what Adam called the committee’s “influence operation on Trump and Trump world” a couple of days ago. Whereas Trump can be expected to resent the Fox personalities’ and Junior’s implied criticism of his leadership, the lawmakers attached to the pro-coup texts are probably the most obnoxious and unhinged people in the Republican caucus. In other words, the face of the party. Good.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  3. 3.

    Major Major Major Major

    Rooting for injuries!

    Open thread? This week at work has been so bad I just took the morning off for my mental health. Back to back meetings and interviews all day every day and still expected to do my actual work. No thanks. They can have one or the other.

  4. 4.

    germy

    https://wnyt.com/politics/jim-bob-duggar-among-candidates-in-arkansas-primary-election/6331726/?cat=661

    SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) –

    A former city council member and a retired U.S. Navy captain are headed toward a runoff for the Republican nomination for an Arkansas state Senate seat, beating out candidates in a special primary that included “19 Kids and Counting” father Jim Bob Duggar.

    The poll results from Tuesday’s election show that Colby Fulfer, who is chief of staff for the city of Springdale, won over 46% of the vote. Steve Unger won over 36% of the vote. The two will face off in a Jan. 11 primary runoff.

    Duggar drew roughly 15% of the vote.

  5. 5.

    frosty

    Please please please let Scott Perry be one of them. And in a perfect world, let’s have him indicted, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned. Remove this stain on South Pennsylvania.

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    At the dentist for my initial gum/jaw drilling implant stage on a tooth I’m having installed (I’d cracked one and had to have a removal a couple of years ago).

    I have a severe dental phobia, BTW.

    Yay me.

  8. 8.

    germy

    Republican lawmakers who texted Mark Meadows about plans to execute a coup before the violent mob attacked the Capitol Building on January 6th. Yesterday, January 6th committee members read some of these texts without naming names.

    Maybe we can guess their names by noting which ones are yelling loudest today?

  11. 11.

    Benw

    @Major Major Major Major: I feel this. I’m in a (Zoom) review of the Canadian side of our project while also trying to finish a bunch of documents.

    Pros: lots of politeness and delightful French Canadian accents (I adore how one of my collaborators pronounces “cryoprobe” ).

    Cons: can’t actually follow the review and sloppy mistakes in the documents. Just pick one!! Yeesh

    ETA: yay Badger!

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    Badger!  Hardest working dog in your casa de swamp.

    Goodie — name names.  I want to hear all the Republican senators, too.  Make them own their words.

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    This guy Eastman’s complaint about being called before the 1/6 tries to make the claim that the commission “serves no legitimate legislative purpose”.  Good luck with that one, sir: YOU and your stupid traitorous plot demonstrated the urgent need to reform the Electoral Count Act, which – surprise! – will require legislation.

    Unbelievable!  “You legislators looking into my crime plot so that laws can be passed preventing future crime plots…you’re totally illegitimate!”  Up is always down with these people.

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    Btw there are multiple articles up at the National Review website blaming trumpov for 1/6 and noting that it happened because he “lies, lies, lies”.

    Y’all are about to go through some things, GQP.

  16. 16.

    The Dangerman

    Can’t use taping machines (unless you have another Rosemary Woods around, I guess). Can’t use email. Can’t use texts. What’s an asshole to do?

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I had my first (probably won’t be my last) implant last year. It took a long ass time– three or four spaced out procedures– but as far as pain/discomfort, a lot less than root canals, of which I have had too many. And I’m probably not done with those either.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    So, some Republicans were aware of the threat posed by Trump’s actions, and others were eager to jump on the train to Coup Town.

    The texters included a Georgia official who implored Meadows to end the call in which Trump was pressing officials to “find” votes to overturn Biden’s win in the state because it wasn’t “productive.” They also include texts from House members who congratulated Meadows for a scheme to have Trump appoint Jeffery Clark as AG so the administration could use the DoJ to overturn the election and support other elements of the coup plot. The committee is going to name names eventually (CNN):

    In another text message from November 4, 2020, the day after the election, a member suggested to Meadows an “aggressive strategy” for Republican-led state legislatures to “just send their own electors” to Congress and let the Supreme Court decide who won the election…

    Is this how American democracy ends, not with a Bang, but with a Twitter?

  25. 25.

    cope

    Maybe Badger is surprised that he went to sleep on the nice comfey rug and woke up with his head on that hard parquet floor?

    I have a new tactic for dealing with the slow roll of accountability that is so maddeningly frustrating.  Maybe all these pots will come to a boil in time to make the 22 elections a blue tsunami.

    Hey, I have to have SOMETHING to hang on to because at my age I won’t be around when everything is finally fixed.

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    Dropped the car off for a diagnostic, probable culprit: wheel bearing(s), and picked up a rental because it’s not the time of year when I can just hang home and uber as needed.  Enterprise said they had a Chevy Malibu, but when I got there they gave me the keys to a Charger GT.  “Uh… where’s the Malibu?”
    “We consider this a sedan, same as the Chevy.”

    “I’m 62.  Nothing good can come of this.  What else ya got?”

    Nissan Versa.  Do I regret my decision?  Yes, but…

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    @Major Major Major Major: One of my customers is semi-retired, but stll keeps up with his field of corporate management. Last summer he observed that the pandemic would put a long term dent in brick and mortar corporate headquarters. Corporations were discovering that by aggregating their employees in a physical facility, they had been wasting an inordinate amount of time on meetings and preparation for meetings.

  31. 31.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator:Is this how American democracy ends, not with a Bang, but with a Twitter?

    Apparently, it ends in dribs and drabs

     

    The endangered state of American politics is the dominant theme of eight articles published by the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, with titles like “Polarization and tipping points” and “Inter-individual cooperation mediated by partisanship complicates Madison’s cure for ‘mischiefs of faction.’”
    The academy is not alone. On Dec. 6, The Atlantic released “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun,” by Barton Gellman, and “Are We Doomed? To head off the next insurrection, we’ll need to practice envisioning the worst,” by George Packer.
    On Dec. 10, The Washington Post published “18 Steps to a Democratic Breakdown,” which warned:

    Democracy is most likely to break down through a series of incremental actions that cumulatively undermine the electoral process, resulting in a presidential election that produces an outcome clearly at odds with the voters’ will. It is this comparatively quiet but steady subversion, rather than a violent coup or insurrection against a sitting president, that Americans today have to fear most.

    Michael W. Macy, a professor of sociology at Cornell and the lead author of “Polarization and tipping points,” put it this way in an email:

    Unlike the threat to democracy posed by a military coup, the threat posed by authoritarian populism is incremental. If the water temperature increases only one degree per hour it may take a while before you notice it is too hot and by that time it is too late. We might be better off if we faced an armed insurrection, which might be the exo-shock needed to get the G.O.P. establishment to wake up.

    The political scientist Suzanne Mettler, also at Cornell, used the same metaphor of slowly boiling water in her reply to my query:

    The greatest danger to democracy right now has emerged in one of our two major parties — a longstanding party that helped to protect democracy until recently, and this makes it hard for people to recognize what is going on. Finally, I think that most Americans now see politics through very partisan lenses and are mostly attentive to how their “team” is doing; they are much less likely to be thinking about the health of the basic pillars of democracy, e.g. electoral integrity, the rule of law, the legitimacy of the opposition, and the integrity of rights. Our political system is in crisis and we should be shouting from the rooftops about it and coming together to save it.

    Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, writing on Dec. 9, raised similar concerns: “We are experiencing failures on both the elite and mass public level,” he wrote, as Republican elites “have chosen to normalize the violence committed by their extreme right flank on Jan. 6.”

  37. 37.

    Kayla Rudbek

    Open thread: I have about twelve weeks left in my current soul-sucking job, and as of March 14 I transfer over to and start a new job! Same employer but different side of the house, so to speak.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: National Review has played both sides of the net since 2016, haven’t they? Still, can’t argue with this:

    Donald Trump’s claims of massive election fraud (only in the states he lost, btw) were treated by people around him as a kind of naughty habit that had to be tolerated or indulged. When the people who treated these claims very seriously started acting like they were true — when they tried to “Stop the Steal” by interrupting the ceremony in which Congress certifies the results of the presidential election — then it had “gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

    Many elected Republicans and conservative pundits explicitly said this. Oh, what’s the harm in indulging Trump’s democracy-destroying lies for a little while? And now the majority of Republican voters no longer believe in democracy, and civil order is hanging by a thread.

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I had my first (probably won’t be my last) implant last year. It took a long ass time– three or four spaced out procedures– but as far as pain/discomfort, a lot less than root canals, of which I have had too many.

    Also had my first dental implant not too long ago. Yep, overall much less discomfort than a root canal, and recovery seemed faster.

    The one odd thing was the sensation of part of the implant being screwed into my jaw.

    At times dentistry is as much a a home hardware job as it is a medical procedure.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeffro: It’s no problem at all.  I did notice the 3 dot comment, followed by the 2 dot comment.  I presume that when you tried 3 dots again, WP told let you know that you had already said that?

  52. 52.

    CaseyL

    Badger looks surprised in all photos.

    I get such a kick out of dogs who have”permanent” expressions. Am particularly fond of the ones who look perpetually horrified.

    But I have to say, my favorite Badger photos are the ones that show off his Sister Bertrille ears.

  54. 54.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro:

    … which might be the exo-shock needed to get the G.O.P. establishment to wake up

    Ugh, I’m so tired of this. The “GOP establishment” is fully awake. They just don’t care about “democracy”. Stop talking about them like they’re something different from the rest of cult.

    I also take exception to “partisanship” also being “both-sided”. I feel like partisanship among Democrats is largely driven by the insane cult that is the Republican Party. Yes, I look at things in a more partisan light than I used to because THE GQP WANTS TO SUBVERT DEMOCRACY AND IS WILLING TO BURN THE COUNTRY DOWN TO DO IT. If they weren’t insane, a lot of people would be more open to listening to them.

    The GQP is and has been driving this partisanship train. It’s all the same fucking thing.

  55. 55.

    Fleeting Expletive

    I too have a car problem, I don’t know what mistake to make next, but it won’t be pretty.  I drive a 2001 great beast, a Volvo V-70 turbo wagon with barely 84,000 miles on it, bought new. It’s been very, very good to me for the most part. In August it entirely quit on me and was towed,  to languish for six weeks in the shop. Thirty-three hundred bucks later, with a new CEM (?) computer brain installed, it runs like a charm but neither the radio nor the odometer work. I drive only locallym but I’m a good driver.

    I’m an old person and it’s logical to wonder if I can putter along until I no longer drive, or trade in the car for something else workable, or if I should have done that back in August. Second-guessing myself every bit of the way.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Yup.

    Later in the NYT article, it notes:

    elected officials can respond to the signals of extremist donors by becoming more extreme themselves. When these extremist representatives become party leaders, they are then in a position to punish moderates in their party by backing more extreme candidates in primaries. This in turn leads to the election of more extremist candidates and the cycle continues.

    In theory, voters are a potential check on this cascading extremism, but they must be willing to punish ideologically extreme legislators by voting them out of office. As voters have become more concerned about party labels than ideology, they have become less willing to do that, allowing cascading extremism to continue.

    This is what I told my RWNJ dad and brother oh, six years ago.  “Y’all are so incapable of putting country before party, so unwilling to draw a bright line and say ‘if trumpov does this, I will refuse to vote for him’ or ‘if he crosses this line, I will speak out’, that you’re going to end up following him down the spiral…and this is a man that has no bottom.”  (nearly direct quote)

    I mean, a guy who would mock the disabled, or go after Gold Star parents??  Come on…how was that ever going to get better, again?

    But this is their mindset.

  57. 57.

    James E Powell

    @The Dangerman:

    Can’t use taping machines (unless you have another Rosemary Woods around, I guess). Can’t use email. Can’t use texts. What’s an asshole to do?

    Never write what you can say, never say what you can nod, never nod what you can wink

    I used to advise my clients: You are not writing a letter, you are creating an exhibit.

  58. 58.

    JoyceH

    @burnspbesq: ​
     

    Seems thorough and well-reasoned, which is more than a slight surprise because the author is a Trump appointeee.

    That shouldn’t be a surprise. Trump appointed judges are not Trumpists. The only judge Trump ever knew was his sister. His ideal lawyer was Roy Cohn, and the Roy Cohns of the world tend not to become judges. Not knowing judges, Trump won the votes of a big chunk of the GOP in 2016 by promising to appoint judges from an approved list provided to him by the Federalist Society. So they’re going to be very conservative, but not necessarily Trump loyalists.

    It HAS been a surprise to Trump, of course. He’s assumed all along that any judge he appointed would rule in his favor in any case Trump was involved in – he thinks that’s what they’re SUPPOSED to do. But time and time again, it hasn’t turned out that way, and then he rails about ‘disloyalty’.

    That’s why Trump and his supporters always talk like the end game of any strategy is to get their case before the Supreme Court. Trump and the MAGA crowd genuinely believe that Trump has three henchmen on the court. But having actually made it to the SC, those three Trump appointees are no doubt highly offended at being considered henchmen. They’ve got no loyalty to Trump – what more can he do for them, after all?

  59. 59.

    Kay

    I still can’t believe these people are still running around acting like a normal US political party and fully 50% of the country is fine with it. OMG, is all I can say. Can it even be “we told you so” when it’s been happening right under their noses for 2 years?

    One of the schemes was intended to be run even before vote totals had been announced. That’s good faith! Absolutely!

  60. 60.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    I’ve been lucky. None of my root canals were the least bit painful.

    I had two like that and I was always “What’s the big deal with root canals?” Third time I found out.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    @sdhays: I also take exception to “partisanship” also being “both-sided”. I feel like partisanship among Democrats is largely driven by the insane cult that is the Republican Party. Yes, I look at things in a more partisan light than I used to because THE GQP WANTS TO SUBVERT DEMOCRACY AND IS WILLING TO BURN THE COUNTRY DOWN TO DO IT. If they weren’t insane, a lot of people would be more open to listening to them.

    If you have a minute to read the full article, that’s what most of the folks Edsall quotes are saying as well.  In fact at least one of them wrote a paper about the ‘asymmetry’ involved.

  63. 63.

    JoyceH

    I see several recipients of dental implants on this thread, so looking for some insight. I have two missing lower molars on the right side. So that’s really most of the chewing surface. I’ve been thinking/planning about getting dental implants, though I’d sure like to do that after this pandemic ends (if it ever does). So – if you were going to get two dental implants side by side, would you do them both at once or one at a time?

  64. 64.

    James E Powell

    @burnspbesq:

    Link to District Court opinion dismissing Trump’s attempt to keep the IRS from disclosing his tax returns to House Ways and Means. Seems thorough and well-reasoned, which is more than a slight surprise because the author is a Trump appointee.

    Maybe his law clerk was a law review superstar.

  66. 66.

    trollhattan

    @p.a.:

    Hah!

    We rented for a California->Oregon and back trip after wife.gov’s car died suddenly and when I picked it up they to my surprise had a Charger. “Fun!” says I. But in the walkaround inspection a small windshield crack was found and so they pulled the car and substituted a Camry, a car I eventually dubbed “the crippler” for its horrid, ill-fitting seats. We parked that thing at our Portland hotel and did not touch it again until the dreaded trip home.

    It got amazing gas mileage, some compensation for the fact it was nearly unable to pass semis heading up the many I-5 passes. Made a lot of sounds in the effort, though.

    Long wondered what the trip would have been like in the other car. Speeding tickets, maybe?

  68. 68.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Unlike the threat to democracy posed by a military coup, the threat posed by authoritarian populism is incremental. If the water temperature increases only one degree per hour it may take a while before you notice it is too hot and by that time it is too late. We might be better off if we faced an armed insurrection, which might be the exo-shock needed to get the G.O.P. establishment to wake up.

    We already had an armed insurrection. It happened on January 6. The GOP blew it off, and a good chunk of the American people continued to put their trust into Trump.

    One worst case scenario is that Republicans do what happened in the South during Reconstruction. Openly declare that they were determined to throw out democratically elected representatives and install a minority, nativist, racist government.

    The greatest danger to democracy right now has emerged in one of our two major parties — a longstanding party that helped to protect democracy until recently, and this makes it hard for people to recognize what is going on. Finally, I think that most Americans now see politics through very partisan lenses and are mostly attentive to how their “team” is doing; they are much less likely to be thinking about the health of the basic pillars of democracy, e.g. electoral integrity, the rule of law, the legitimacy of the opposition, and the integrity of rights. Our political system is in crisis and we should be shouting from the rooftops about it and coming together to save it.

    I hate this kind of thing because it is false “both sides” nonsense. Since the Newt Gingrich era, the Republican Party has insisted that they are the only legitimate, and patriotic political party in the United States. Since the Mitch McConnell era, the GOP has felt comfortable in excluding Democrats from governing when the Republicans are in the majority, and obstructing the Democrats whenever they can. At the state level, gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts are taken to ensure that only the Republicans can hold statewide office, or to ensure that they are always the majority.

    And it is the Republicans who embrace lies, fantasies and conspiracies to justify their actions.

    And it is the Republicans who have purged moderates from their ranks.

    I tried to explain to someone that Trump’s actions during the pandemic revolted me so much that I decided that I would probably never consider voting for a Republican candidate for any office under any circumstances. And this wasn’t because I was merely siding with the Democrats. I was choosing rationality over ignorance. I was rejected a president whose stupidity led to needless deaths. I was rejecting a Republican Party which decided to back Trump no matter what.

    Democracy is not a partisan issue.

  69. 69.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Do you guys have any thoughts on the Fed doubling the pace of tapering and warming up to interest rate hikes in 2022 or Powell retiring the phrase “transitory”?

  71. 71.

    Kay

    digby
    @digby56
    ·1h
    CNN Poll has Biden at 49% approval, 51% disapproval. IOW, it’s 50/50. But they just did something I’ve never seen before. They discussed the polling average as a better gauge(45%) and are now pulling out every negative number within it to hammer him. Incredible.

    I think Biden has been a good President so tell people that and that I support him but I also want his numbers to go up so these people have to report it as a “comeback”. Their coverage of him is ridiculous.

  72. 72.

    Betty

    @frosty: We know he’s guilty. Two questions are whether he will be held accountable, and if he is, will he be replaced by another kook? He is my Rep even though I am an overseas but very interested voter.

  75. 75.

    Mike in NC

    @JoyceH: Loyalty is the highest trait that mob bosses desire. That’s why Trump couldn’t fathom why “his” judges didn’t blindly support him.

    “I need you to find me 11,000 votes” is straight out of the mob boss playbook.

  76. 76.

    opiejeanne

    @JoyceH: Both at once.  I had mine done with general anesthesia. I did the prep work for a second one in January 2020, and have a big hole on my upper right, toward the back so it doesn’t show.

    I may go back to have the screw inserted next year, if Covid eases up a little.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    @JoyceH:

    I see several recipients of dental implants on this thread, so looking for some insight. I have two missing lower molars on the right side. So that’s really most of the chewing surface. I’ve been thinking/planning about getting dental implants, though I’d sure like to do that after this pandemic ends (if it ever does). So – if you were going to get two dental implants side by side, would you do them both at once or one at a time?

    I have only had one implant so far, so I cannot answer the question directly.  I would certainly ask the dentist about this. In my case, I have been lucky. My dentist does a great deal of reconstructive dentistry, and has been recognized for his work and seems to have been in the forefront of some advances in the area.

    BTW, some years ago, a lot of good dentists revamped their offices so that they could safely and effectively treat patients who had AIDS.  These dentists also took proactive measures to develop procedures to deal with the Covid pandemic. And because this incurred costs in investing in new equipment, some dentists chose to retire instead of continuing their practice.

    This is to say that if you are experiencing discomfort or problems, you might be able to find a good dentist who has a good Covid regimen instead of delaying things.

    Best of luck.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Gerrymandering doesn’t just lead to more Republicans, it also produces worse Republicans. This is a problem I have not seen on the Democratic side.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Oh, I don’t know. I think they went from an over-reliance on “mood” and “optics” to an over-reliance on polls as determinative. I get it- a number seems stronger but when you’re parsing that far – “average the Fox with the CNN” they lose me. Digby’s right. It’s 50/50. Close enough.

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    Today 12/15 16% / 0 in

    Generally cloudy. Record high temperatures expected. High 64F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph

    With a strong chance of “How the fuck is this Chicago weather?!”

  81. 81.

    Gravenstone

    @p.a.: The Charger GT is the on-demand AWD version and only packs a 6 cylinder. It’s reasonable fun (I had the 2D Challenger sibling until earlier this year) but a bit of a land yacht by contemporary car standards. You wouldn’t gotten into too much trouble, had you stuck with the offer.

  82. 82.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Update – terror subsided, implant peg installed. Am drinking shots of tequila with beer at a Mexican place while my prescriptions are being filled.

    I plan on an evening of drunken self-pity.

  83. 83.

    Nora Lenderbee

    @JoyceH: Get both at once. My husband had two implanted side by side, and it went well. If you do it separately, it means you double the number of visits for no benefit.

  85. 85.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC:

    “I need you to find me 11,000 votes” is straight out of the mob boss playbook. 

    Wasn’t the number from the Soviet shitpile mobster conmanbaby more specific, or am I misremembering what he bellowed out of fat, orange, fascist face?

  86. 86.

    Gravenstone

    @WaterGirl: Tikka has successfully schooled Tom in interpreting the nuances of dog and cat expressions.

    I believe “you have been judged, and found wanting” is Tikka’s default position.

  88. 88.

    CaseyL

    @JoyceH: I have a lower right molar implant.  Love it – I don’t even notice that it doesn’t “feel” like the other teeth anymore.

    Regarding getting them both at once – I’m not sure you can do so even if you want to.   I mean, it might be something the periodontist plain won’t do.

    That’s two holes in your jawbone and gum that need to heal.  Also, since it takes a long time to heal completely, there is also the risk that your teeth will start to move around to fill the empty space.  Doing both at once means a bigger empty space.

  89. 89.

    JoyceH

    @Brachiator:

    BTW, some years ago, a lot of good dentists revamped their offices so that they could safely and effectively treat patients who had AIDS. These dentists also took proactive measures to develop procedures to deal with the Covid pandemic. And because this incurred costs in investing in new equipment, some dentists chose to retire instead of continuing their practice.

    This is to say that if you are experiencing discomfort or problems, you might be able to find a good dentist who has a good Covid regimen instead of delaying things.

    My dentist is probably as good as can be, it’s just the general community that I live in where COVID is raging right now. And the teeth issues don’t really bother me all that much. I just chew on the left side. It’s been something that ‘I ought to get seen to’.

    I wonder if I even need to replace both. The one furthest back went first, and it wasn’t until I lost the one in front of where the back one had been that I realized my chewing was impaired.

  93. 93.

    guachi

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think it’s the right idea at the right time. The data are clear after the latest CPI and producer price data. Inflation is here and it needs to be snuffed out.

     

    The economy is doing well. It can sustain the hit. What also should (but won’t) happen is tax increases to reduce the deficit and suck up demand without having to resort to interest rate hikes.

  95. 95.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jeffro:

    I also saw an NYT headline on Sunday about how many Trump loyalists were being installed into election administration positions across the country and the Democratic Party was taking few steps to counter this. Wish I could find the article online

  96. 96.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Jeffro: What would help is if after Cheney or whoever on the Jan 6 committee finally names names, someone levies charges and prosecutes crimes. Because if that doesn’t happen the the people whose names are named will have a couple of bad media cycles, figure out what BS spin they can sell to their voters, at which point their voters will buy it hook line and sinker and those folks will waltz to victory in their next election. At that point they’ll be even more emboldened because they tried to overturn an election, got caught, and…nothing happened to them. So why not try again only this time harder. Tell me where I’m wrong here. I want to be wrong but I don’t think I am.

  97. 97.

    JoyceH

    Also – since this is an open thread, are any of you folks adjusting your Christmas plans due to the COVID situation? I’d planned on having an old college friend come to stay for Christmas, something she’d sometimes do pre-pandemic, but now… I dunno.

    We’re both vaxxed and boosted, but she gets out more than I do, goes places, and since she doesn’t have a car she takes buses and metro.

    My local hospital posts to Facebook a COVID report every week or so, and the trend is really concerning. They have this little graphic that shows, vaxxed, unvaxxed, and boosted, and right now there’s a boosted patient in the ICU. They ALSO posted a thing saying that the monoclonal antibodies are becoming scarce and not everyone who wants it is going to get it. So… yikes. I just dunno…

  98. 98.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    @Kay:

    I guess those are fair points. Still, it feels like polling has been undermined over the years so there’s one less check to make sure elections are being done correctly

  99. 99.

    A Streeter

    @JoyceH: …if you were going to get two dental implants side by side, would you do them both at once or one at a time?

    Both at once. I had this situation, and got them both at once. It costs twice as much, which it would either way, but you have to go through the processes only once.

  100. 100.

    Gravenstone

    @p.a.: Funny story. When Dodge first offered the GT Charger, they had a couple of the 8 cylinder engines as options. No one bought those, they all went for the 6 cylinder. So after a couple of years, those options went away and it’s been the 6 ever since.

  102. 102.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @guachi:

    I agree. I wonder if the Feds raise interest rates then savings account interest rates will finally go back up again as well since the two usually track pretty close

  104. 104.

    ian

    @mrmoshpotato: \

    The number is as specific as it needs to be.  Not= find me the missing voters I know are there for the election results to be right- not- find the missing Trump Voters- not – get rid of ‘fraud’ – just-find me enough votes so that I win by .01%.  No one here is surprised by his lack of commitment to democratic norms, but if there was a more damning chain of events in his presidency to show his true fascist colors I can’t remember it

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    There was a regular poster here who used to tell us every day “no President has been re-elected under 50% approval”. Ok, whatever.

    Dolt45 never ever reached 50%, yet him being underwater his entire time in office didn’t slow them down in pushing how he was strong for re-election.

  106. 106.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    God in Heaven, I am sitting eating at the bar, next to a couple that’s bickering. He’s a dick, and she’s impossibly irritating. Late 50s, early 60s.

  108. 108.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The amazing thing about these messages the 1/6 Commission has been showing is I have some respect for the Cheny’s (of all people) because they told Trump to go f himself like any human with some self respect should, and that makes me feel uncomfortable.

  109. 109.

    Comrade Colette

    @Fleeting Expletive:

    I drive only locally

    Only 84k after 20 years? You sound like an excellent candidate for an electric vehicle, assuming you have a place to charge one. I know doing that right after spending the $$ might hurt, but your Volvo still has some trade-in value, or you can donate it, get the tax write-off, and get a big ol’ polluter off the road.

    I love my Kia Niro, which is a rocketship with decent cargo capacity, and other jackals have been happy with that and other current e-vehicles.

  110. 110.

    trollhattan

    @Gravenstone:

    Charger’s mojo has been yanked over to the Challenger, for which one can get truly ridonculous engines, FAR exceeding 500 HP. A few of those snarl around town, matched by their Mustang and Camero cousins. It’s 1969 all over, again.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @Geech:

    Your entire post seems to belie your last statement – Democracy is now a partisan issue.

    What do you define as partisan?

    The GOP is trying to overthrow democracy. It is not a battle between Democrats and Republicans for supremacy. Also, some Democrats and the media don’t even see an issue and are doodling with politics as usual.

  112. 112.

    Gravenstone

    @trollhattan: One of my co-workers kept egging me on about getting a Hellcat when they first came out. I asked him where the fuck I was supposed to drive a 700 HP vehicle? Hell, I had enough trouble keeping my foot out of the 375 HP Challenger I had at the time.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @JMG: It’s not just that.  It’s not random, it’s deliberate.

    They didn’t like the better numbers for Biden, so they went with the surely better but seldom used rolling average because that allowed them to report something negative for Biden.

    If they all move to the rolling average, all the time, I’m all for that.

    But this is bullshit cherry picking, which is obvious to everyone.

  121. 121.

    Fleeting Expletive

    @Comrade Colette: I would dearly, dearly love to drive an electric car.  I’ve been noticing where the charging stations are located around town, I don’t know if they have the quickie-chargers here yet.

    Donating the old one has been one of the options I’ve looked into, maybe the replacement would be something like a little hatchback so if need be I can haul around a walker or even a wheelchair. That might involve a van or SUV, so it’s all uncertain at this point.  The Honda Fit, the Versa, those are the cute little multi-tasker vehicles I’ve noticed that look useful.

  123. 123.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Always – got a set of tacos carne asada, couple of beers and a reposado.

    The woman talking to the man next to me is a relentless talker. Their relationship must be new – she’s talking about her sisters and her first divorce. She’s quite single while he’s bickers. He got snotty with me when I sat down an picked up a menu – guess he’d been in the john.  Looked genuinely offended.

    Explains why he’s single.

  125. 125.

    steppy

    @Mike in NC: I am irrationally annoyed about the insistence on reporting this as “finding” votes. “Finding votes” is nothing more than normalization.

    The mob boss ordered the Georgia secretary of state to falsify the document certifying the election. He ordered the secretary to report a false vote total to make it appear that the mob boss had won an election that he did not win.

    “Finding votes” sounds like asking a favor. Falsifying state documents is perjury. Ordering someone to falsify a state document is subornation of perjury.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    William Turton
    @WilliamTurton
    ·18h
    those guys were trying to do a coup so hard and meanwhile people were writing explainers like “here’s why this doesn’t qualify as a coup according to merriam webster”

    It always makes me smile because it absolutely happened like that – “Coups are ILLEGAL”

    Oh, okay. I’ll be sure and tell THESE CRIMINALS that :)

  127. 127.

    Dan B

    @Comrade Colette: Yes!   We’ve leased Nissan Leafs for years and would never get an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle again.  We’re hoping for more quick chargers in the near future.  Otherwise the quiet, acceleration, lack of maintenance, and low cost are wonderful.  The current model has heated seats and steering wheel which are great because we’ve been cold – low 40’s and 30’s.

  130. 130.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JoyceH:

    So – if you were going to get two dental implants side by side, would you do them both at once or one at a time?

    all other things being equal, i.e. affordability and your dentist’s advice, both at the same time. Get it over with and do some eatin’!

    @James E Powell:

    I had two like that and I was always “What’s the big deal with root canals?” Third time I found out.

    same here, I think the difference was upper vs lower jaw, but I can’t remember which time I was lying on the floor in pain waiting for the drugs to kick in, Vicodin, which my dentist doesn’t prescribe anymore, and I could see how people get addicted.

  132. 132.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: Yup.  It can’t be a “coup” because a) ‘coups’ don’t happen here, we’re America and b) if one did happen, certainly it wouldn’t be a ‘coup’ by Republicans, everyone knows that “all the violence is on the left”.

    And yet: what do the evidence of your own eyes and ears and TV screens tell you, snooze media?  What else could you call it?  An election was held, the loser cried “stolen election” for months afterwards, all while plotting various ways to overturn the election results and stay in power.  Literally by any means necessary, including violent ones.

  133. 133.

    germy

    @Dan B:  Otherwise the quiet, acceleration, lack of maintenance, and low cost are wonderful.

    I’m thinking of buying electric.  What sort of maintenance issues can I expect?

  134. 134.

    Gloomyjim

    @Geminid:”Gerrymandering doesn’t just lead to more Republicans, it also produces worse Republicans. This is a problem I have not seen on the Democratic side.”

    You can see it from Kurt Schrader’s district.

  136. 136.

    Subsole

     

     

    @rikyrah:

    They are the same petty, squalling little mean-girl gossip queens Trump is. The same kind of inbred, nasty, insecure, vile little backbiting hater.

    When we rejected him, we also rejected them.

    Being the essence of petty, they are going to Jimmy-Carter Biden and Harris. To punish us.

  138. 138.

    Subsole

    @rikyrah:

    The whole point of that coverage was the media trying to make us like their scumbag drinking buddies as much as they did.

    “You don’t like Trump? These people like Trump. Shouldn’t you like Trump too? Look how many of them still like him. These people can’t all be wrong, can they? Are you sure you don’t like him? Maybe you’re the problem, here?”

    There was just this barely-concealed subtext of  “good, responsible white people like Trump. You don’t wanna be a race-traitor now, do ya Jimmy?”

    Of all their sins, THAT wheedling horseshyt made my teeth itch like no other.

    Like, naw. Your friends tried to murder my dog and rape me. They literally tried to throw our democracy in the trash and run off with the country packed in their trunk like a looted Matisse.

    I do not want to share cocktails with them.

  140. 140.

    Anotherlurker

    Since this is an open thread, I’d like to bitch and moan about my latest experiences with Apple.

    I had to replace the battery on my MacBook Air, after 3 years. I have no problem with that.    I have a problem with OS  Monterey. After much prodding from Apple, I downloaded and installed this newestbestist!! OS.  Immediately after launching Monterey, I was locked out of my email on the computer.   After 3 phone calls totaling 1.5 hours, the problem was not solved.  In fact, it got even worse.

    My brand new, Apple installed battery ($130.00ish.)  discharges even faster than the old, tired battery.  On top of the rapid battery discharge, the new battery is getting frighteningly hot. Just like the old, replaced battery.

    I have used Apple computers for 20+ years, mainly because I could eventually figure out my way around them.   I saw good products and excellent customer service.

    Now, however, I will rate Apple as a crap company with inferior products.

    Rant over.

  141. 141.

    germy

    @Anotherlurker:

    I had the same battery problem.

    That, and the incompatibility with other devices was the last straw.  I’m done with apple.  And I was a mac guy since the mid-90s.  Enough!

  142. 142.

    geg6

    @CaseyL: ​
     
    My entire upper is an implant. I had four holes drilled and the implant in all in one day. Easier than most root canals that I’ve had. And definitely easier than the pocket reduction gum surgery I had years ago.

  148. 148.

    Fair Economist

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think tapering should go as fast as possible. QE was to maintain stability in the financial system after the financial crash and we currently don’t need it. As to interest rates, I generally trust the Fed’s modeling although to some extent low interest rates have been used as a problematic supplement to inadequate fiscal stimulus and now that we have enough of that it might be good to raise interest rates to suppress asset bubbles.

  149. 149.

    WaterGirl

    @Anotherlurker:  I understand the need to vent.

    But whether it’s Apple or Windows or Android or whatever… wiith any new hardware or operating system, there’s a reason they call it the bleeding edge.   Let the techie people identify the bugs and issues and deal with them.

    Monterey (version 13.1) was released on Monday, and this is Wednesday.  It surprises me not at all that there are issues.

  151. 151.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl:

    Monterey (version 13.1) was released on Monday, and this is Wednesday.  It surprises me not at all that there are issues.

     

    Minor correction: Monterey 12.1 was released on 12/13. Lots of 12s and 13s to confuse us. ?

    I would have stayed with Mojave (which was awesome) but MS Office will not update anymore with that OS.  I took my Mac into the shop to get it updated since our internet is way too slow for OS updates.  I wanted a small update and he talked me into going all the way up to Monterey.  There are definitely bugs being reported  for many people (I am now reading).  My only bug is that it won’t let my iPhone 8 be a hot spot.  But many people are having all kinds of issues with blue tooth, including mice and keyboard pairing. The bugs eventually will get fixed but it is a kind of a frustrating adventure.

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @Gloomyjim: Not sure what you mean. Please explain. All I know about Scrader is that he is a moderate, maybe even a Blue Dog. Is this because of gerrymandering? 

  159. 159.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: I drove a 2010 Fit for a decade, and finally killed it by leaving it sitting too long during the most shutdown pandemic period–not only was the battery dead, but something was clearly wrong with the transmission, and getting it fixed didn’t seem worthwhile when it already needed a new A/C compressor.

    Great little car while it lasted. But the model’s time may be up.

    I always wanted to get a hybrid Fit but, while the model existed, it was never marketed in the United States. Probably they figured the Fit was positioned as an inexpensive car, and low American gas prices didn’t make the hybrid premium worthwhile for cost-conscious buyers. The Toyota Prius-C was conceptually very similar but that’s already gone. I did replace it with a hybrid… but I ended up getting a larger, fancier one, a Hyundai Sonata.

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