“This is the United States of America. We’re all in this together.”
In the wake of a devastating hurricane, @potus showed up for the people of Florida and will continue to show up until the work is done. Regardless of who you voted for, Biden’s got your back. pic.twitter.com/Mmhtc6IwQa
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 6, 2022
President Biden has amended the Major Disaster Declaration for Florida to extend the time period for 100% Federal funding for debris removal and emergency protective measures by an additional 30 days.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 5, 2022
That help will be needed. Per the Washington Post:
… Ian already is shaping up to be the deadliest storm to pound Florida since 1935. State authorities have documented 72 deaths thus far — slightly under Hurricane Irma’s toll in 2017, according to the National Hurricane Center. County sheriffs have reported dozens more, pushing the total to at least 103. That makes Ian more fatal than Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Ian’s storm surge has claimed the most lives, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, which is tallying direct and indirect deaths. Slightly more than half of Ian’s victims drowned, the latest data shows, underscoring what experts call a frequently overlooked reality: Water usually kills more people than wind…
One week after landfall, rescue teams continue to wade through wrecked communities — often with only a vague idea of who might be buried in the rubble. Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais admitted at a news conference Monday that officials do not know how many people they are searching for. First responders are relying on cadaver dogs…
Counting the dead is an imprecise science — there is no certain tally from Hurricane Katrina, for instance — and throughout the years, officials have debated what qualifies as a storm death. Hurricane Maria’s toll was initially in the dozens, with officials including only drownings and blunt force trauma. But an analysis of excess deaths later pushed the total into the thousands. Many elderly people died in Puerto Rico as the island’s blackout continued for months and medical care was hard to reach.
DeSantis at first indicated that indirect deaths might not be counted.
“For example, in Charlotte County, they recorded a suicide during the storm,” he said the day after the storm. “They also had somebody pass away from a heart attack because you don’t have access to emergency services.”
But the agency tasked with cataloguing the deaths, the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, adheres to a broader definition.
“We include motor vehicle accidents if someone is trying to evacuate and they hydroplane,” spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. “If someone had a heart attack when medical services were down. … If there was any suspicion it was related to a hurricane, that’s a storm death.”
Water — storm surge, rainfall, inland flooding and surf — directly cause 90 percent of tropical cyclone deaths in the United States, according to the National Hurricane Center. The top indirect killers: car wrecks, carbon monoxide poisoning, electrocution and heat. And the lethal danger persists after the skies have cleared, said Jay Barnes, a hurricane historian in North Carolina.
“Deaths often occur during cleanup,” he said. “Everything from carbon monoxide poisoning and chain-saw victims to people falling off roofs.”…
Stay careful, Florida jackals!
Meaningless or not, it was noticeable throughout this visit: Biden smiles quite a bit; DeSantis scowls quite a lot and smiles almost never. https://t.co/OE0uK1cgUn
— Sebastian Smith (@SebastianAFP) October 5, 2022
WaterGirl posted this Pulitzer-worthy photo last night, but in case you missed it:
This moment is everything. pic.twitter.com/hyJwdZsnwu
— THEE Tío Sam 🇺🇸🇨🇺🇺🇦 (@TioSamSays) October 6, 2022
look, i think it’s poor taste to make fun of desantis having obviously gained a lot of weight since he took office, but his tailoring is for shit and looks terrible and is absolutely fair game https://t.co/DO1unXWlja
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) October 5, 2022
it’s also funny that they apparently had to put him on a milk crate
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) October 5, 2022
President Biden, after surveying a Fort Myers, Fla., neighborhood impacted by Hurricane Ian, said climate change is driving the number of natural catastrophes, not only in Florida but across the nation. https://t.co/WLWBBqAocX pic.twitter.com/owstrrxAUI
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 5, 2022
But that’s not what really caught the attention of Our Failed Media Village Idiots:
we have a code blue fainting couch emergency situation here, people https://t.co/EtDjRXQFsE
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) October 6, 2022
So let me get this straight: the F**k Joe Biden cult has a problem with this? NOW they want to talk about integrity in the White House? F Them! #Biden #DarkBrandon https://t.co/tFRCu86xI1
— GᖇEGOᖇY G. ᗩᒪᒪEᑎ (@GregoryGAllen) October 5, 2022
We need dark Brandon memes with a dialogue bubble that says “fuck”. The pandemic of vapours that would ensue among members of the media would make covid look like nothing.
— Enlightened Despotist in Name Only (@EnlightenedDINO) October 6, 2022
We need to keep reminding people that America can’t afford a GOP-run government right now. It’s one thing to vote for ‘proud culture warriors’ when times are good and everyone’s feeling prosperous; but when we need actual *government*, that’s when we Democrats come into our own. Because, for example:
No, we have a party that runs around kidnapping immigrants. https://t.co/Vgc6yR5zzD
— Millard Fillmore's porcelain zither (@agraybee) October 5, 2022
mapaghimagsik
The more they see DeSantis, the less they like him.
Lurst!
Ten Bears
No, we have a party that runs around kidnapping people who look like immigrants …
Spanky
Does Betty have one of those Cracker tee shirts? One must assume so.
Eunicecycle
I saw people criticizing Biden for smiling so much and that DeSantis’s scowling was appropriately somber. “Does he think it’s funny?” they were demanding to know.
suzanne
I agree that fat-shaming is gross and not okay, but I am absolutely here for clothes-shaming.
topclimber
@suzanne: Is this sudden weight gain for him? Might he be taking the kind of depression medication that causes this?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
JPL
@suzanne: What about pj’s? grand imp who is 14 months and 25 pounds is staying with me from tomorrow morning til Sunday afternoon. Mornings are cool enough that flannel might be my fashion choice.
JPL
DeSantis copied trump’s gestures, so maybe he is just emulating trump by consuming big macs.
suzanne
@JPL: Flannel PJs are 100% awesome. At home. I look less favorably on them at, like, a funeral.
suzanne
@topclimber: Could be medication. Maybe he started taking birth control pills.
That picture of him with the stupid vest tucked into his pants….WTF. Those vests are kind of silly anyway IMO — just wear a fleece jacket — but don’t tuck it in. Even on someone who is slender, that would look dumb.
Betty Cracker
Odd that DeSantis dressed up for yesterday’s meeting with Biden since he (DeSantis) has been running around in casual campaign swag and shrimper boots for the past several days. I hope Biden’s advance team suckered him into it so DeSantis would look like an overdressed, scowling middle school vice principal while Biden was casually yukking it up like a common cracker.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
President Biden is just 😎😎
rikyrah
@mapaghimagsik:
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sanjuro58
DeSantis must be losing it to show up in public in a sport coat WITHOUT an American Flag pin on the lapel
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
DeSantis and his wife looked ridiculous, with their scamming azzes😡
Steeplejack
Supposedly DeSantis often wears a bulletproof vest, which is never a slimming look.
What has interested me is DeSantis projecting like IMAX when he talks about “politicizing the crisis.” He tries to make it sound like he has had to pry assistance from the reluctant, sclerotic federal bureaucracy, and yesterday he told some no-name right-wing interviewer that the “regime media” wanted Ian to hit Tampa.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: Flannel pjs are a good choice. That way you can collapse in a nap
whenif the grandchildren doEmbraceYourInnerCrone
@suzanne: totally O/T but this reminds me of the stranger who showed I at my sister in law’s funeral and got up to say a few words…wearing a black sequined tube top. No one knew who she was she just said a few nice things and left. Turns out she was a former coworker of my SIL. It was surreal like something out of a TV show… it was made more weird by the fact it was in rural Kentucky…
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Someone really needs to investigate Sleaza Braun’s disaster fund, damn it!
SFAW
@Eunicecycle:
His demeanor doesn’t bother me, and I more-or-less understand the situational aspect(s) of it, but they have a point.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: The interviewer was setting up an alibi, that the “regime” media misled Floridians into believing that the hurricane would not hit the area south of Tampa. That’s bullshit of course, but DeSantis seemed to go with it.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: Such a bizarre claim about the media wanting the hurricane to hit Tampa. It makes no sense. Sure, the networks stationed people there as they always do on the forecast track of a big storm. It’s a weird, Trump-like claim and probably coming from the same place — a desire to deflect blame.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Lissen up, libtard! I am 1000 percent SURE that the “Disaster” Fund run by the wife of a corrupt governor is COMPLETELY legit, and that AT LEAST 55 percent of that fund will make it to people — but not those people, of course — who probably need it. Such as wealthy donors, real estate “developers,” and resort owners (other than Disney, of course).
Ken
Any ideas why DeSantis is making an issue of “died of hurricane, or died with hurricane”? Maybe he’s worried that being governor during the deadliest hurricane in 85 years will affect his polling? Pro tip: No one will blame him for the bad storm, but they will blame him for a bad emergency response.
Jeffery
Poor Ron, not looking very presidential next to Dark Brandon. Looks a little pudgy.
oldgold
Many wealthy residents of the Twilight Hardy Zone have become “residents” of the Sunshine State as a consequence this Ponce’ de Leon’s peninsula having no state income tax.
Is it out of line to suggest that as Florida reaches out for assistance from the rest of the nation; particularly, from states that have a state income tax, that it Florida consider imposing a state income tax on its residents.
Betty Cracker
Regarding the Florida Disaster Fund (which personally belongs to Casey DeSantis, according to Florida’s lieutenant governor) — from what I can glean online, DeSantis set it up as part of the state’s emergency management division. Supposedly, all funds raised go to the pre-existing Volunteer Florida nonprofit, which predates the DeSantis regime by decades.
Every cent is supposed to go to the nonprofit with no administrative fees skimmed. Not sure why they didn’t just urge people to contribute to VF. To be scrupulously fair, maybe there are good reasons and every previous governor did something similar to deal with storm fundraising. I have no idea. But I do know that associating the fund with the hyper-polarizing DeSantises doesn’t inspire trust. I sincerely hope there’s some independent oversight.
Geminid
@oldgold: It’s not out of line line for you to suggest a state income tax. It probably would out of line for Charlie Crist to suggest it if he wants to win a term as Governor.
He might suggest it if he wins a second term, and has a Democratic majority in the legislature to suggest to.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Acyn via Anne Laurie @ Top:
As a New Yorker who was here when DeSantis was a House Rep. voting to withhold aid from NYC after Hurricane Sandy, DeSantis is lucky Joe Biden is president.
Because if I were President, I’d be explaining to Floridians that DeSantis made his views clear, way back in 2011-2012, re: the Federal gov’t giving aid to states after a natural disaster, and that we’d be following the precedent he set after Sandy.
Yes, I am petty and vindictive when it comes to Republican pols (and the people who vote for them) asking for disaster aid after they tried to block my state from getting it. Fucking hypocrites.
Geminid
@Lacuna Synecdoche: In 2020, 47.86% of Floridians voted for Joe Biden, while 51.22% voted for his opponent. But your attitude is very common among people fortunate enough to live in solidly blue states. I don’t share it, perhaps because I live in a blueish purple state.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffery: And he has to wear a bulletproof vest (per comment above), but the POTUS doesn’t?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@oldgold: Mr DAW’s sister and BIL established residency in Florida for that very reason. And that’s despite them both drawing pensions as state employees of Rhode Island.
I get that Florida wants to impose fees on tourists who use the roads and other services. Maybe no income tax is common in states with high tourist traffic?
Betty Cracker
Regarding the lack of state income tax in Florida: y’all may be shocked to learn that it mainly benefits wealthier people because the state makes up the shortfall through high sales taxes and excise fees, etc. The state is consistently ranked near the bottom in tax fairness.
Wanderer
DeSantis is schlepping around like a total petulant loser. No reason to consider him for any public office ever again. His demeanor is of a lost person who has no ability to cope with anything. A very bad look for someone representing themself as a person who wants to cope with everything. Any media type that continues to put him forward as anything other than a failure needs to find a different way to make a living. So much death during his watch. His taste in footwear is improving though.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Wanderer: By definition, a natural disaster is chaotic and hard to deal with, so I have some sympathy for the person in charge of dealing with it. Since Florida has many hurricanes, I assume they have some means of coping in place. But the attitude the leader projects also matters. When TFG threw those paper towels, he was trivializing disaster. De Santis just looks put out by the inconvenience
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Just a normal interview with a normal journalist who wears a Three Percenters T-shirt and happened to storm the Capitol on January 6. (Video)
SFAW
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
Ri-i-i-i-ight
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Also, De Santis may realize he looks bad compared to Biden, the man he hopes to run against in 2024. He looks worse physically and in friendly demeanor. Also Biden is the one handing out money. DeSantis is the one asking for it.
FridayNext
So fat shaming is out of bounds.
But short shaming….
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
What bullshit. If the “national regime media” were rooting for anything, it’s that Biden would be floundering around.
Of course, “regime” is the new Biden Admin descriptor coming from the vile mouths of QAnoners like MTG. Got news for you, Marjie: were it really a “regime”, you’d be in jail. At the bottom of the Marianas Trench. After getting deposited there from 20,000 feet, without a parachute.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And alone in that, since not a single Republican in the Florida delegation voted for the funding.
Paul in KY
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: For a segment of Kentuckians, a black sequined tube top counts as formal wear.
Leto
@FridayNext: there’s plenty of things to shame DeSadTits about without mentioning that he looks like 20lbs of shit in a 5lbs Trumpov branded and tailored bag.
FridayNext
@Paul in KY:
Things seen at my Aunt’s funeral a couple of years ago in rural Indiana:
NRA T-Shirts, John Mellencamp T-shirt, MAGA Hats, Bib Overalls, a tube top, stiletto heels under really tight jeans, confederate flag bandana,
oldgold
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Millions have done this. One of my pet peeves. And, I actually have a shack in Naples.
Soprano2
OT, my mother’s estate sale starts today. Definitely mixed feelings looking at all the pictures the estate sale company put on FB and their Web site. It’s strange seeing stuff I’ve looked at literally my whole life up for sale like that. There is one picture of a cat with an origami figure that I almost kept; it belonged to my sister. She loved it so much she decorated her bedroom around its colors! But I don’t have anywhere to hang it in my house and it’s not really my taste, so I let them sell it. I’m glad we’re having good weather this weekend, dry and highs in the 70’s. I’ll be relieved but sad when it’s all done. Link for anyone who’s curious.
NotMax
The good Hurricane.
What we see is what we choose
What we keep or what we lose
Forever
.
Soprano2
@FridayNext: It’s shocking to me the way people will dress for a funeral these days. It’s yet another sign that I’m old….
Ken
@FridayNext: I have entertained the idea of hiring people to appear at my funeral service, just to puzzle all the people who thought they knew me. A biker gang coming up and doing a farewell salute, a nun sobbing and throwing herself across the coffin, stuff like that.
germy shoemangler
sab
@Betty Cracker: I learn something new here every day. I had never heard of shrimper boots. As a midwesterner it seemed very odd for anyone to be wearing white boots at all, much less when tramping through mud. Midwesterners would be wearing knee high green farmers boots, or maybe black or yellow wellies (although we’d never call them wellies, just rubber boots.)
jonas
Joe Biden got caught saying a swears? I guess the only question for the media is whether this is one or two million times more scandalous than the time Jake Tapper caught Obama sneaking a cigarette behind the Oval Office.
jonas
@SFAW:
Well, it was his fault for not raking the beach better. That would have prevented the storm surge. Or something.
germy shoemangler
FTNYT
Gin & Tonic
@oldgold: Have or had?
germy shoemangler
sab
@Soprano2: Good move to sell everything that you can’t immediately use. I am now clearing out the storage locker where I saved stuff from my parents’ house. Mom died ten years ago. And a lot of that stuff was from her mother-in-law’s house that she stored and never used for fifty years.
Ken
@germy shoemangler: The funniest part is that probably 80% of them weren’t actually at the insurrection attempt, but thought claiming it would get them a date.
I could swear I saw that used in a suspense-comedy movie — some guy brags (falsely) to his date that he works for the CIA, and is kidnapped by the bad guys. Maybe I’m thinking of the Bill Paxton character in True Lies.
Steeplejack
@jonas:
Plus, the pearl-clutching from the “Fuck Joe Biden” crowd is some epic hypocrisy.
germy shoemangler
@Ken:
Lying or not, some of them seem to be getting visits from the FBI.
At least that’s what they’re complaining about
Ken
@Soprano2: @sab: Seems to be the weekend for this; I’m in town to clear out my parents’ house and get it ready for sale. Garage sales this Friday and Saturday, and then charity shops and 1-800-GOT-JUNK for the rest.
We checked with an estate sale place, but they said we didn’t have enough good stuff to make it worth their while. This despite my parents having cleaned out the houses of five sets of relatives, and stuffing most of it into the basement.
Soprano2
@sab: No way I was going to put it in storage. I donated a bunch of her stuff to our local family violence shelter – clothes, bedding and linens. I gave about 25 cat beds, tons of cat toys and some food and litter to the rescue group that found homes for her cats. I figure people can be using that stuff, why should I put it in storage when I don’t have a use for it and don’t have anyone to pass it on to.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Please, Brandon, may I have some socialism?
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: Trump branded bags are definitely not tailored.
Soprano2
@Ken: That’s interesting, usually they’ll do it for a percentage. I did have one company tell me they wouldn’t take a job unless they were guaranteed to make at least $5,000. No way I could guarantee that, so I chose these people instead. They were recommended to me by a friend whose relative was pleased with the job they did on his relative’s estate.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack:
@Geminid:
the Post had a good piece up yesterday (it was focused on MTG’s violent rhetoric, but the broader point holds) that use of “regime” is intended to prime listeners that the Biden Administration is illegitimate and should be overthrown, by force if necessary.
It should be called out every time we hear it or see it
eta: I see SFAW noted this at #43 as well
John S.
That tweet from Gym Jordan is GOP shit being flung at the wall to see if it sticks.
Here in Washington, MAGA candidate Matt Larkin’s slogan is “Make crime illegal again”. While home sick yesterday, I must have seen about 20 ads on TV from a dark money group called Citizens for Sanity which shows a bunch of “scary” minorities in a montage of violence claiming that Biden and the Democrats made crime at an all time high.
This is the view from MAGA world. Everything is terrible and the evil liberals are out to destroy them. Not sure if that messages resonates outside of their bubble.
ETA: It’s always projection with these assholes.
germy shoemangler
@Jeffro:
I remember Rush Limbaugh discussing what he called “The Obama Regime”
The intent is to make Democrats sound like Pol Pot.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: same thing with Texas. They’re essentially flat-tax states (ie, wingnut paradise)
UncleEbeneezer
@Dorothy A. Winsor: New York and CA do tons of tourism. CA took in $100 BILLION in 2021 from tourism alone.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Kos has been following the Oath Keepers’ trial. Today the DoJ lawyers are asking for the admission of a “death list” found in one defendant’s home. Ruby Freeman’s and Shaye Moss’s names are on it.
lowtechcyclist
@germy shoemangler:
Jeez, that’s abhorrent. They just keep on getting more disgraceful.
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: True. I guess that’s just for his 50ft ties.
sab
@John S.: The funny thing is that around here if you leave your lawn mower or snow blower out in the driveway in the whiteflight suburbs it will probably get stolen, but not so much in town.
germy shoemangler
@lowtechcyclist:
The NYT is like the NY Post:
“Go out and get us some news”
“OK, here’s the news I got”
“No, not that news. That’s not the narrative we want to push”
The NYT to a photographer:
“Go get us some photos of what’s going on in Gaza”
“OK here they are.”
“You’re fired”
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Soprano2: So sorry for what you’re going through.
Baud
@germy shoemangler:
No one detests the NYT more than I do, but the tweet thread from that reporter that you linked to says that he was let go because of opinions he expressed on his personal social media feed, not the stories he submitted to the NYT.
Betty Cracker
@sab: I’ve never seen a shrimper wear boots as clean as those worn by Trump’s Afterbirth, but yeah, dirty white rubber boots are common footwear for Gulf shrimpers. Tom Hanks probably had a pair for “Forrest Gump,” assuming the film crew did its research.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The boots are fine. DeSantis just looks dumb in them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soprano2: When my dad was handling my grandmother’s estate about 10 years ago, the auction company suggested that family avoid the whole thing because it would be too upsetting.
Soprano2
@Baud: That’s true, but you can bet it wouldn’t have happened if he expressed support for Israel’s occupation. They need to judge the reporting apart from his personal opinions.
Soprano2
@Omnes Omnibus: This company said the family isn’t allowed because of just that. I had to sign a contract to that effect. They said they used to let family come, but had problems with people crying, talking to the customers too much, and fighting with them about how they priced stuff. I was going to go over there last night just to see how they set it up, but when I saw the pictures on FB and their site I decided that was good enough for me. When we were over there last Sunday night, we sat out on the back deck like I used to do with her and I cried about it some. I do think I would feel upset if I were there, seeing things I’ve taken for granted my whole life being sold off. I know it needs to go because someone else could be getting use from that stuff, but it’s still hard.
Steeplejack
@Soprano2:
There are some interesting things in your mother’s effects. I like the blue “snowflake” art. And it’s obvious your mother was a cat lover. 😹
It gives me a twinge, because we sold my mother’s stuff under somewhat hectic conditions in mid-2020. (She is still alive [age 92], but she went into assisted living in March 2020, about a week before the facility stopped accepting new residents. Whew.) We used an estate-sale company, and they did a good job, but I have regrets about not being able to go through the stuff and save a few more things. It was all left up to my RWNJ brother, who did a good job, but I have the feeling that a lot of “memorabilia” and family-history stuff was just pitched. And there was a Seth Thomas mantel clock that I wanted but was never able to get a straight story on where it was. I bought it for my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary on behalf of my brothers. I’d love to have it now. I like the sound of a ticking clock.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: He does, and I’ve enjoyed the hell out of every meme that mocks him for it.
Soprano2
Ya think? LOL What you can’t see much in the pictures is all the British stuff, she had hundreds of books about Britain, both fiction and non-fiction. She had 3 books signed by Diana Gabaldon, I’m sure they’ll get some money for those. I was both fortunate and unfortunate to be the only person going through things. Fortunate, because there was no one to bicker with over who gets what and what gets saved, but unfortunate for the same reason. I can’t imagine why they kept that clock from you, that’s terrible. One thing that influenced me over what I kept is that we have a relatively small house; some of that stuff is my stuff that I either got as a present and didn’t want or got but then never used. I went through my costume jewelry and got rid of a lot of stuff I don’t wear anymore. Figured I might as well, it’s a chance to get a little bit of money for it. I’m just glad I don’t have to do it! She wanted me to give everything away, but it’s a lot of work finding places to take different stuff, so I decided to violate her wishes in this one thing and do what was more convenient for me. So far no lightning bolts have struck me dead. LOL
WaterGirl
@jonas: The thing is, every accusation is a confession. That leads me to think that DeSantis really was hoping the hurricane would hit the blue areas.
Despicable.
Ken
@Soprano2: We were somewhat fortunate in that regard, since our parents redid most of the house about 15 years ago. The furniture, pictures, and such stuff that we grew up with were already gone. There were a few small things like books and china, but those have been taken by whoever wanted them; and the photos of course.
What we’re selling is mostly stuff that was acquired from those five sets of relatives I mentioned, with very little sentimental value for us.
Gvg
@oldgold: we pay for state services with sales and property taxes. I am sure they are higher than income tax states. We have a balanced budget by law. Overall its the same, except favoring sales tax over income tax sources favors the well off at the expense of the poor. It also causes shortfalls in economic downturns.
A balance between all sources works smoother in good and bad times.
It is not especially burdensome on the feds.
FridayNext
@Baud:
But white shoes after Labor Day?
Serial Mom would not be amused.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
My eyes just got very big.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Soprano2: My Mom once had us all come in to go over her stuff and take anything we wanted, probably thinking to avoid that whole “estate” thing.
She was very annoyed that we all went for (and in some cases fought over) the silly worthless crap like the toy souvenir from my Dad’s company picnic, and had to practically throw furniture at us to get anybody to take any of it.
My baby sister, god bless her, handled all that crap after my Mom’s passing. But her solution to the remaining worthless stuff like Mother’s Day cards sent in first grade or report cards from kindergarten, was to send every piece of paper to the person whose name appeared on it.
Wanderer
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I agree with you on an individual level but not when acting in the capacity of an elected leader who’s job description includes this scenario. Believe me, I truly understand and emphasize with anyone, on a personal level, trying to come to terms with overwhelming loss. That’s why I made the distinction.
sab
@Soprano2: When my oldest sister-in-law died her daughter had an estate sale and everything went. Family was allowed to go and we did and we behaved. But it was upsetting to see her rosary for sale. Why not just let her be buried with it rather than make a few extra cents in the estate sale.
ETA Daughter probably just forgot before the funeral, and the estate sale came later.
Ken
She didn’t accept “But we already have a dining room table and bedroom set” as an excuse?
Geminid
@Soprano2: I don’t think Mr. Saem needed to express support for Israel’s occupation-or in the case of Gaza, blockade- to keep his job as NYT freelancer. His problem was that like many Palestinians, he expressed solidarity in social media posts with Palestinians committing violent acts againt Israeli civilians. To Salem and others inside and outside of Gaza, these were justifiable actions of “resistance.” To others, these were acts of “terrorism.
Leto
@WaterGirl: that would fit right in line with Jared’s reasoning regarding COVID: it’d just hit blue areas, so they wouldn’t do anything.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: In answer to that question, the realtor who listed our first house when we moved, warned prospective buyers that there was “a lot of furniture”. We worked hard to squeeze in all the stuff my parents dropped on us unexpectedly over the years, and never thought to say no.
But yeah, by the time my Mom was giving her stuff away, we’d all gotten better at saying no. Some people took away a couple of lamps and some side tables, that was about it.
For some weird reason, our own kids will not accept any gifts of furniture from us, or indeed anything over very severe size restrictions.
sab
@FridayNext: LOL, but doesn’t Florida allow a leisure/resort wear exception to that rule?
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker:
Oh man, talk about an image that’s both hysterically funny…and…EWWWW!…at the same time.
eddie blake
@John S.: bit of a spike lately, probably covid-aftermath-related, but since the peak in the late seventies and eighties, crime is SOOOO way down in nyc it’s not funny.
i have NO idea why those fascist numbnuts think my city is a filthy, crime-ridden shooting gallery of a death-trap.it’s just NOT. they reslly ARE snowflakes.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I’m surprised he wasn’t gross enough to wear some of his campaign shit while appearing with Biden.
Steeplejack
@Soprano2:
I forgot to mention, if it wasn’t obvious, that the COVID pandemic was a big background stressor in all of this. I decided not to take the risk of flying to and from Las Vegas, so I resigned myself to having less of a say in things.
My other brother, the squire of Sighthound Hall, did go out there for a few days to put his oar in, but I think he had already been vaccinated because he was a “front-line” doctor at Kaiser. And he was masked to the hilt—with real medical masks, not those homemade T-shirt things we were all making in 2020. God, that seems like ages ago.
The few things I wanted, I always seemed to get the answer “Mom promised that to [RWNJ]” or “[RWNJ] is getting that.” The Seth Thomas clock had not worked for quite a while, but I am sure that it could have been repaired. It was probably in a closet somewhere and RWNJ brother just didn’t care. But, to be fair, he was stressed out through that whole time, since he was the one “on the ground” with our mother.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’ve taken to using the dishes in my china cabinet for everyday stuff. I drink my OJ from stemware. It’s not like my son is waiting around for it.
Sure Lurkalot
Good article by LA Times reporter Michael Hiltzik on how Republican cruelty hinges on Democrats’ good will
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Can you imagine if Obama had done that?
narya
@Soprano2: And those pictures are why I don’t go to estate sales. I am trying to NOT BUY MORE STUFF, but there are a few tempting things. I’m fortunate in that my parents don’t have a basement or attic full of stuff, but realistically, there’s still a lot. Mom’s good about sorting some of it now (e.g., who gets which jewelry, and selling stuff she doesn’t wear and SIL and I don’t want). But there are things like the grandfather’s clock that I do NOT want–I’m hoping my nephews, who used to be permitted to wind it when they were kids, will want it for when they’re older. Sending good thoughts your way . . .
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
On the plus side, the last time I went to Las Vegas for one of my three-week house-, dog- and mom-sitting tours while RWNJ bro did one of his motorcycle expeditions, in autumn 2019, I was able to get some valued things from my mother—a couple of Asian horse figurines and five or six quilts. My mother was a lifelong quilter and did beautiful work. I took every one I could find and shipped them back to NoVA. Should have looked for the clock then, but I didn’t think of it. It hadn’t become apparent that Mom would need to give up the house soon.
eddie blake
@Leto: they did a LOT more than “not doing anything”
they ACTIVELY interdicted PPE from the blue states.
did that go down the memory-hole? they were stealing equipment and gear from the blue states.
Betty Cracker
@Miss Bianca: I stole that gross nickname from someone on Twitter.
@Cameron: Me too. I think it’s unbelievably tacky that he and his horrible wife were wearing campaign swag for disaster relief photo-ops and updates, and maybe even illegal.
UncleEbeneezer
So we did get to take a short vacation to the E. Sierra to spy some Fall Color, after all. I’ll be submitting a couple OTR posts with some nice pictures of the aspens, in the next few days.
But while we were up there, MIL’s health took another bad turn so we decided to cut the trip a day short to give my wife more time to prep for her trip to Dallas today. MIL’s heart is failing and causing fluid to fill her lungs. She is at 45% pumped oxygen which is just shy of the maximum they can do. She probably only has a matter of days to weeks, with six months being the absolute best (but very unlikely) case scenario. So my wife has to go out there and manage all that and also try to get FIL moved into the Assisted Living home we found him. I feel so bad for her, having gone through a similar scenario with my own Mom in 2012 (though mine was a much quicker affair with way less responsibility since my Dad and Sister largely handled all the logistics of the burial etc.). Kelly will be away about 3.5 weeks and it just dawned on me that this will be the longest we’ve ever been apart since I moved in with her, ten years ago. It’s gonna be hard for both of us, but especially her. The good part though, is that we will finally start approaching the end of the tunnel, and once we get FIL in to his new home we can start saving and planning again for our own lives.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I have two set of china, since I inherited my mother’s dishes. I told my DIL and son that I planned on packing it up and donating it. They were shocked that I would do such a thing. They want it. I might have the only son who is interested in all that stuff.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
What, no “Visit Martha’s Vineyard” T-shirt?
//
The Moar You Know
@FridayNext: it’s not fat shaming to observe this: I can’t help but notice that both DeSantis and Trump broke out the “bulletproof vest” excuse to explain away pictures in which they look like someone has stuffed an entire couch underneath the fabric of their suits. Which I call bullshit upon. Neither one has ever worn body armor. They are just exceptionally fat.
You don’t see Chris Christie trying to explain away his unflattering pics by claiming he’s got a “bulletproof vest” on. He is fat and apparently he’s quite OK with that. I might add he also obviously understands the value of a good tailor.
Anyway
Assholes in KSA have decided to curb oil production as “a rebuke to Pres Biden” per WaPo. KSA along with Russia hates Dem administrations and will go to great lengths to undermine them. They are happy sucking up to and funding GOP operatives. The fact that Dems pay some attention to individual human rights and are in general less-corruptible (than Rs) is the reason for this.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Betty Cracker:
OK, snorted coffee on that one.
You are a TREASURE.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t know if it’s common (no State income tax) in states with high tourist income, but I do know that TN which has no state income tax has HIgh sales tax, on everything including food. Which adversely affects the people who can least afford it…
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
This is what makes me nuts about Americans and our understanding of how things work. The money comes from somewhere- if it’s not income tax, it’s going to come from some other way.
I read a great piece on financial savvy that said Americans put “taxes” in a different place in their brain from income and expenses, but really, it’s just “money in” and “money out” and there are plenty of situations where paying taxes is cheaper (see: living in a city where you pay taxes but don’t have to own a car). And as you point out, this misunderstanding of taxes makes it very easy for the wealthy to push the burden of making up the difference onto the less wealthy. And the less wealthy fall for it all the time.
Geminid
@Anyway: Also, Democrats back a clean energy transition that will eventually devalue Saudi Arabia’s huge oil reserves. Delaying the transition, as Republicans would, could mean trillions of dollars in future revenue for the kingdom.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Death Santa looks like he’s annoyed that anything is getting in his way of becoming the next SFB. He’s a two bit shit of a human, who wants power so he won’t look so pathetically non human and has zero concept of how to actually be one. If he had any concept of it he’d be able to not be so pretentious and actually be human. IOW he is who he looks like, a total schmuck, like his mentor, shit for brains.
NotMax
@The Moar You Know
“I’m a cutter. A tailor sews on buttons and hems trousers. Anyone with a needle and thread and 15 minutes can be a tailor. I studied for decades to be a cutter.”
– The Outfit
;)
Omnes Omnibus
@FridayNext: Some people only own jeans and tee shirts. But I would say about funerals the same thing I would tell clients about court. If that is all you have, that is fine. Just wear the nicest jeans and tee shirt you have.
JMG
@Anyway: Any American President who overthrew the Saudi royal family by military force would have an instant 90 percent approval rating. I wonder if the Saudis know that.
Baud
@JMG:
Bush invaded the wrong country!
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
“De Santis just looks put out by the inconvenience”
Death Santa looks to me to be the guy in charge who is in so far over his head that he can’t even comprehend how far that is. He looks like the stock boy at the supermarket that has zero idea what he’s supposed to do and has to ask every day what that means. My impression of him is that he’s a moron, in the actual textbook definition of moron. Living is almost over his head, he has to imitate other morons because there is nothing there in his own head to guide him. If he’s not a moron then he is a very good actor trying to look and act like one.
Ruckus
@Anyway:
So that’s why I filled up my car yesterday at $5.89/gal in CA and gas is less than $3.50/gal in many states, assholes in KSA?
It’s assholes far closer that KSA.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s a kind thing to say.
I think I’ve still got one suit left in the closet. Last worn 11 years ago, and I have no idea whether it would fit now.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: It is a practical thing to say.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Wanderer:
I agree. Just like you shouldn’t take a job as a boss unless you’re willing/able to fire people as needed, you shouldn’t take a position of authority if you can’t handle being the point person when there is a crisis.
No sympathy if he is feeling overwhelmed. DeSantis either took the job for the power or as a stepping stone, not to serve people.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Anyway: It’s too late for KSA to stop USA from transforming the worldwide energy market and becoming the world’s #1 energy producer.
(The Atlantic)
…
This is how we defeat the fossil fuel mafia in the long run. KSA and Russia are not happy about what we’re up to here. The IRA is going to drive HUGE changes over the next few years.
Thanks President Biden and Senator Manchin!
John S.
@sab:
True enough. Although out here in the exurbs where I live, it’s very unlikely that anything gets stolen off a driveway — at least in my neighborhood.
Overall property crime is up, but violent crime is down. But overall I feel much safer here in communist western WA than I did in freedumb south FL.
oldgold
@Gvg: Not so.
CaseyL
@Soprano2: Your Mom had some great stuff. This is why I don’t go to estate sales: there is always some great stuff – which I don’t actually need, have no room for, but would buy anyway because “I really like it.” (In your Mom’s case, that glass cat caught my eye.)
I think having professionals manage estate sales makes a lot of sense for the family. Not just the front end – the actual sale – but the preparation for the sale: getting the house organized, cataloging nad staging the items. One question occurs to me: If the estate sale is done by a third-party vendor, does the sale have to be reported to the state? Does sales tax have to be paid to the state? (If so, the vendor should be the one to deal with that, definitely!)
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Stop fighting, you two! It’s both!!
Alternatively: ¿Porqué no los dos?
oldgold
@Gin & Tonic: Have or had?
Still have the shack, but it is definitely shackier!
Soprano2
@sab: With something like a rosary, I would have asked if any of my siblings or other family members wanted it. I would have been disturbed by selling something like that. I found my grandmother’s Eastern Star ritual book in my mom’s stuff!! Why didn’t she call the local Eastern Star chapter and ask if they wanted it back? That’s what I’m going to do, eventually. I belong to a women’s music fraternity; we’re supposed to either be buried with our pin, or return it to nationals, but you can find a lot of them for sale in places like EBay. It makes me cringe to see it.
Soprano2
@Steeplejack: I can understand that, but if it had been me I would have shipped it to you. My father’s mother had a clause in her will saying that you could have back anything you had given her over the years. My mother took a green apple cookie jar that they gave her early in their marriage; I looked it up online once several years ago and was shocked to see how much money I could get for it because it has the lid with it!
Matt McIrvin
He should have said “no one lets go with a Brandon” like a gentleman.
raven
@Ken: I was talking to a buddy after I got the porthole from my dad’s WW2 destroyer and he said “don’t make the mistake of thinking your kids (which we don’t have) will want any of your shit when you die. I was thinking I could leave my 6ft tuna and my hundreds of framed pictures of me with fish to Suzanne. Whatdayall think?
Matt McIrvin
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Fossil fuels and the need to decarbonize are a major subtext to everything currently involving Russia, just as they have been with the entire sad history of US intervention in the Middle East.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thankfully several years ago my mother donated the good china she got when she was married to the animal rescue thrift store. I think she used it a total of twice in her whole life; what a waste of money.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG:
They also know that would evaporate the moment gasoline prices went up.
randy khan
Not that I have any expectation that Jim Jordan will ever tell the truth, but it’s pretty rich of him to send that tweet on the day that the FBI reported that violent crime was down slightly in 2021 and that property crimes dropped to their pre-pandemic levels after a sharp jump in both categories in 2020, when Trump was President.
Soprano2
@JPL: I think we had a thread about this, that thrift stores are now full of china sets that no one’s children wanted.
Salty Sam
After ten minutes on the deck of a Gulf Coast shrimp boat in summer, you’d be BEGGING for those white boots!
Matt McIrvin
@Nicole: There are actually some not-obvious aspects to that–for instance, federal finances are a bit different from state finances because the federal government is the backer of our money and is more capable of running large debts, and a state isn’t. The state situation ought to be easier to understand, though.
Sister Golden Bear
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
California says no.
Matt McIrvin
@eddie blake: I consider the Trump administration as having been actively out to kill me, and as guilty of mass murder of Americans.
Sure Lurkalot
@Nicole: Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, has flirted with the idea of ending our state income tax, which is already regressive (flat tax), stating that it limits growth and innovation. He said he’d like to do this without changing the current structure of property and sales tax…it is to laugh. To uber wealthy multimillionaires, never ending growth in the business sector needs to be fed by any means. He’s been a decent governor but I’m not fond of his libertarian leanings.
Soprano2
@CaseyL: Honestly I don’t know the answer to that question, but I figure since I hired them to do it it’s up to them to take care of things like that. I can’t imagine trying to do that sale myself – the only way I’d have time is if I were retired, and how would I know the value of things? You’d be surprised what stuff can be worth – at my grandma’s sale, a Dino the dinosaur wind-up toy sold for over $250! She had what we thought was a small ratty old Christmas tree – turns out it was an antique tree made of feathers from Germany, it sold for over $300! They always say not to throw anything away when you’re going to have a sale like that, because you don’t know what things are worth.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sister Golden Bear: So does Wisconsin.
narya
@Soprano2: My mother uses the good china at every holiday dinner–in fact, this is her SECOND set; she got tired of the set she got when they married (66 years ago . . .) and sold it. I want no part of it, and neither does my brother. But if she had colorful Fiestaware? MINE, I tell you!
Matt McIrvin
@eddie blake:
Of course, we all DO know why they think that (massive self-administration of racist, anti-urban propaganda), but we’re being polite.
Fleeting Expletive
Governor Sparkle Pony in his go-go boots talking about hurricane strengths says Ian came ashore with “the Full Monty”. One of the late night comic guys ran the film. I cackled so loudly that the cat ran out of the room.
Did anyone else see that?
Paul in KY
@FridayNext: Yeah. Same as you would find in rural KY. Some people have just got off work or stuff like that. Usually the family is glad to see them, no matter their dress.
Matt McIrvin
@oldgold: New Hampshire has no state income tax, but gets its revenue from high property taxes, among other things.
I’m always a bit amused by the Boston-area tech libertarians who go there to move out of Taxachusetts, only to get socked two ways because they still have to pay MA income tax by virtue of working in Massachusetts, but now they have to pay NH property tax too. Granted the real estate is a lot cheaper up there.
Paul in KY
@Ken: That would be funny! Too bad you wouldn’t get to see it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
ΣΑΙ ? Me too.
schrodingers_cat
@Salty Sam: If you go out in the Indian country side you will see most working men dressed in white head to toe. White is certainly the best color in hot climates. I can see why those shrimpers wear white boots.
raven
@Salty Sam: I mean how stupid is it to have this conversation again??
oldgold
Many of the Twilight Hardy Zone wealthy, snowbird down to Florida. They pretend to live there 6 months plus one day a year. As “residents” of Florida they avoid the Twilight Hardy Zone income tax of about 8%.
This 8% income tax, everything above $40K or so, plus sales tax of 7% and high real estate taxes, pays for our good public services. Services these so-called Floridians have prospered from and currently mine as they live up here 8 or 9 damn months a year.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
I didn’t even know that was legal!
eddie blake
@Matt McIrvin: facts. correct on BOTH points.
SiubhanDuinne
@Fleeting Expletive:
It was Colbert, who then was very funny with a follow-up line. I didn’t check time, but it’s within the first couple of minutes of the monologue.
CarolPW
@Fleeting Expletive:
Yes – it was a wonderful movie!
MazeDancer
President Biden is coming to NY today. He will be 50 minutes away. Very sorry I cannot go.
But at least I will not have to look at that district stealing Maloney.
Fortunately, I live in Pat Ryan’s district. Not stolen.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and PetSmart!
lahke
@Soprano2:
She looks like she would have made it as an honorary Jackal–a nice homey place full of cats.
zhena gogolia
Nobel Prize in Literature to Annie Ernaux. I know nothing about her except one review I read in NYT that didn’t sound too intriguing.
Immanentize
I got Covid.
Took Paxlovid for 5 days.
Felt like hammered shit if that could have a sore throat and headache.
Still exhausted but feeling almost human again.
But I dropped by to share this — why didn’t we know this earlier?!!
Geminid
@MazeDancer: Sean Patrick Maloney ran in the district his home was in. He surely disappointed people who wanted him to make way for Mondaire Jones by running in an adjacent district, but he stole nothing.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Reagan also wore jeans in the Oval Office and put his feet on the desk.
trollhattan
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Not unrelated in Australia, the world’s #2 coal exporter, they are setting rainfall records going back 150+ years and pondering the whole “climate change” thing, only this time without a Conservative PM.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63140277
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize: I’m so sorry! Everyone I know who’s had it lately has the same story.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Damn straight, Sparky!
Immanentize
@Baud: kill me now!! The resolute desk has been defiled, what will the shades of Pemberly think?
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: Its so hard to produce novel storylines these days. I have kept reading when awake and I am so glad you have kept up the good spelling fight! I think you scared Mr. Graziani.
eddie blake
@Immanentize: i hope you feel better. i’m double vaxxed and boosted, just went through a bout of covid at the beginning of september.
i’m at comic con at the javitz doing coverage. only about a third of the crowd is masked up even though the staff are pushing masks hard.
it’s making me very anxious. biggest crowd i’ve been in for three years and i have three more days of this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize:
I have had a mega-cold for a little while. I went to a walk-in clinic today. They gave me a Covid test. I am awaiting the results. The PA did say that is unlikely to be Covid, but if it was it was a very mild case that I should count as a win. Also, at this point, the treatment, etc., is the same no matter what fuck respiratory virus chose to fuck with me. I am just hoping I will be functional by the weekend so that I can do campaign thingies for Barnes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: LOL. That pic is great
Sorry about covid. Glad you’re on the upward swing
Baud
@Immanentize:
Get better. The law needs you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@eddie blake: During the depth of Covid Classic, I got anxious every time I saw people in a TV show walking around in an unmasked crowd. I can see why you’re a little on edge. Have as much fun as you can.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: sorry to hear you are ailing. Hmmmm. Between you and MomSense, sounds like a tough strain of Covid is circulating in New England. Feel better, and plz keep us posted.
Immanentize
@eddie blake: I was double plus booster too. I may have avoided this if Walgreens hadn’t screwed me on the new booster a couple of weeks back. It is a long boring story but I was supposed to get my booster, but didn’t. Then got Covid. Probably when visiting my Mom in upstate NY. But now I can’t visit her. So it goes.
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize: I wasn’t complaining about your storyline! I’m glad you’re feeling better.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: like you said, treatment is the same except for anti-virals which you can only get in an early window. They did a number on my digestive tract like strong antibiotics do.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Dude is wearing blue socks! Reagan had no shame whatsoever.
trollhattan
Speaking of covid, the earliest appointment I can get for the new booster is a MONTH from now. Given I have a plane trip this month I need to find a walkin opportunity in the meantime.
Heard an interview with a WHO lady who said they’re aware of more than two-hundred omicron subvariants, and there are doubtless more than that but many nations are no longer submitting the needed test results. She was very direct in stating we are far, far from done with it.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: i know — I was joking because in fact, everyone well protected is experiencing pretty much the same arc. Except one of my friends who had a terrible post-Paxlovid rebound. Only 10% chance of that, but that is now my only real worry. I’m going to pull it together and Zoom teach tonight.
CaseyL
@trollhattan: Insurance companies and the military take climate change seriously, because it affects their bottom line directly. Politicians and voters, not so much.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Immanentize: Sorry Imm!
Hope you heal quickly!
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Test results in: No Covid! No Influenza A or B. No RSV.
trollhattan
@CaseyL: True. Florida has a huge insurance reckoning ahead.
Australia reminds me of California with the fire/flood cycles. Don’t know about earthquakes.
Seven feet of rain would not be accommodated here at all. Maybe on the north coast or somesuch, at least the not-clearcut parts.
trollhattan
@Immanentize: Think I spot Peggy Noonan’s lipstick on those loafers.
eddie blake
@Dorothy A. Winsor: yeah. trying to. crowd is thick. it’s a weird vibe, but i’ve got a N-99 that i’m wearing, with two wraparound elastics and a rubber gasket, AND i think my just-covided antibodies are gtg.
still, i am uneasy.
FridayNext
@sab:
Serial Mom says no.
sukabi
@zhena gogolia: perhaps DeSantis KNOWS his positions and proclaimations aren’t very popular in his Stand Your Ground state…
Elizabelle
For Covid vaccines: Come to central Virginia! Got a same day booster appointment 2 days ago, with choice of vaccines. (I went Moderna, to mix it up; got the flu shot, too.)
Sorry to hear there is a wait for jackals in other states.
Paul in KY
@Cameron: You know he had his ‘Elect DeSatanis’ briefs on.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: that made me throw up a bit in the back of my throat.
Paul in KY
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good idea! Might as well use the good stuff.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: Hip hip, hooray!
Now just buy some Mucinex and get on with it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize:
I already have it.
Amir Khalid
@JMG:
Any American President who overthrew the Saudi royal family by military force would earn the instant and total enmity of the entire Muslim world, including the House of Saud’s worst enemies. I wonder if Americans like you, who speak so blithely of overthrowing other governments, ever stop to think how such talk reeks of Western imperialist arrogance.
glc
@zhena gogolia: My wife adores her work. Which she came upon during the pandemic.
That’s most of what I know about it. Anyway, she’s pleased by the news.
Gravenstone
If he’s feeling overwhelmed now after Ian, imagine how fucking incompetent (and miserable) he’d be should he somehow ascend to the White House?
Scout211
@trollhattan: MyTurn.ca.gov has a listing of walk-in clinics for COVID vaccinations and bivalent boosters.
I typed in a random Sacramento zip code here and found some community centers and local pharmacies that had walk-in hours. You could try one of those.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Omnes Omnibus: I read that, with masks, we had fewer colds, and those we get now are hitting us harder
ian
@Sure Lurkalot: Polis’ efforts to deny as much unemployment aid as possible to out of work people in Colorado was also a big disappointment. All to burnish his “anti-fraud” credentials. I hope he wins his re-election in CO because the alternative is awful, but I also hope Democratic voters give him the stink eye for his future presidential ambitions (which he certainly has).
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: I think also that as a practical matter, someone advocating just overthrowing the Saudi ruling family greatly underestimates the difficulty of that task, and even more the dangerous potential consequences.
And like it or not, it’s their oil. We don’t own it and we don’t own them.
CarolPW
@trollhattan:
You are in Sacramento aren’t you? My sister got her shot Monday at the pharmacy at Mercy Hospital, and scheduled it last Friday.
Dangerman
@trollhattan: I did my binary booster at Walgreen’s and no waiting. The Walgreen’s app is kinda slick as a bonus.
ETA: I found it odd that all the county (and state?) walk ins have been shuttered. At least in my neighborhood. It was Walgreen’s or similar. Also curious, my Pharmacy took down the plexiglass shields over the counters.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Soprano2: I noticed she seemed to like cats :-)
Ohio Mom
@Immanentize: Lots of pictures of McConnel in a tan suit too. If you google that, he’s wearing different ties so it’s many different occasions. Can’t tell what color socks he’s wearing though.
ETA: several people I know have had COVID in the last couple of months, and all had experienced similar to yours. That’s what I’m coming to expect when my number is up.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Damn I’m sorry you got it. Glad you are feeling better. Still dealing with fatigue but sooo relieved to be over the throat pain. That was horrible.
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes yes yes!!! So cool that you are a member! I was initiated Iota Mu at Drury College in 1980. Our alumnae chapter is going defunct because we are down to 3 active members, which isn’t enough to actually have a chapter. :-( Are you still active?
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: LOL, sentence structure, is that a thing?
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: Probably not. There’s a reason North Korea developed nukes, Pakistan developed nukes, India developed nukes, Iran is developing them, and pretty much any country that’s ever been on America’s shitlist wants them; it’s because America and the vast majority of its citizenry STILL fundamentally believes that we have the right to invade/overthrow governments we don’t like or approve of. As we proved in Iraq, Afghanistan, and virtually every country in Latin America.
Soprano2
@lahke: Yeah, except that her politics were radically different from ours. :-( She did love her cats, though. She had 4 when she died that the animal rescue found homes for. She had made arrangements with them quite a while ago that they would take care of her cats when she died. She’s leaving them quite a bit of money in her trust, too, when I finally get it distributed.
The Moar You Know
@MomSense: something else, isn’t it? Glad you’re feeling better. The fatigue thing will go away but that took several weeks for me.
Jackie
The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!
“Village authorities on St. Lawrence Island notified the Coast Guard on Tuesday that two foreign nationals had landed near the community of Gambell in a small boat.
A spokesperson from Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office said the senator was made aware of the situation after being contacted by a senior community leader from the Bering Strait region early Tuesday morning. Sullivan’s office released a statement that read in part:
“Given current heightened tensions with Russia, Senator Sullivan then called the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and spoke to him as well as another senior DHS official. Since those calls, Customs and Border Protection is responding and going through the process to determine the admissibility of these individuals to enter the United States.””
https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/10/05/russian-nationals-detained-st-lawrence-island-after-landing-small-boat/
Soprano2
@Gravenstone: He probably thinks the job consists of shitposting on Twitter, watching Faux News, and photo ops.
Peale
Ugh. The Na Klang daycare massacre seems like just another day, but still horrifying. Devastatingly sad for that community.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: He looks like a moron. Is not, though. Not to be misunderestimated.
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: Maybe we overththrew the governments of virtually every country in Central American. I would not include most of the other countries in South America.
And we did invade Mexico in the 1840s, but we did not replace their government. We did extort their cession of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, which we had taken by force.
geg6
@Elizabelle:
Same here in my part of Western PA. Easy to get appointments for the booster.
MomSense
@The Moar You Know:
Never experienced anything like that. It was like I had gargled with broken glass and sand and then set it on fire.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
I’m not at all active these days — not even on the PanPipes mailing list! — but back in the day I was president of the ΔΧ chapter (U of South Florida). This was in the very early 1970s. It was fortuitous timing, as the wife of USF’s President happened to be an ΣΑΙ, so we had access to all kinds of goodies, like the President’s Dining Room for initiations :-)
geg6
@Jackie:
That’s a wild story. There has to be a movie script in there somewhere.
schrodingers_cat
@Ruckus: He went to Yale and then Harvard Law and I don’t think he was a legacy student. Wikipedia backs me up on that one, I just checked. His mother was a nurse and his father installed Nielsen boxes. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale.
He just plays dumb for his marks, I mean voters.
trollhattan
@CarolPW: Yes, and thanks! Sutter not being my friend ATM, but there are options.
trollhattan
@Jackie: Emergency! Everybody to get from street.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: Where I taught, we had lots of smart grad students. But after a while, you could see that their ability to learn and do creative thinking was affected by their character or personality, not just their smarts. Sometimes, they were so used to being the smartest one in the room that they couldn’t take in new thought patterns. Maybe DeSantis is another example of that.
trollhattan
@Immanentize: Let me pile on. :-)
Jackie
@geg6: These two didn’t come by submarine lol
300 miles in a small boat in those waters… they REALLY didn’t want to join Putin’s army!
StringOnAStick
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Younger folks seem to only be interested in Midcentury Modern furniture and design, the older stuff that was popular with people our age is completely awful as far as they are concerned. I grew up with Midcentury Modern and do not care for it at all, but there’s more of it around than turn of the century stuff. I prefer the clean lines of Shaker style and simpler design in general, but I do have a 1922 brass smoking table that my grandfather purchased that year while a Navy Lt in China that is a bit ornate; it’s cool because of the family history. We have no kids so who knows what happens to it then. The younger couple we knew who are Midcentury fanatics thought it was horrid. Then again, they have a in bakelite radio as a treasured mantle ornament.
geg6
Interesting piece over at the GOS:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/6/2127332/-Looks-like-they-found-the-missing-White-House-phone-logs-Not-a-joke
Any of the jackal lawyers want to weigh in on possibilities?
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: People keep assuming that the ability to get good grades, test scores, and get in prestige colleges and universities means that people won’t be stupid outside of their area of study and/or won’t be awful human beings. Bad people can be very smart. Smart people can have limitations. Intelligence does not necessarily equal wisdom.
Another side of this coin is any assumption that a lack of prestige credentials signifies a lack of intelligence. Both are mistakes.
raven
@Immanentize: My buddy has it and he is young and strong and he feels the same way.
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Completely agree. I work with very, very, very smart people with excellent educations every day. Some of them are complete and utter idiots about whom I wonder how they pull their pants on every day without help. There are several faculty here to whom I have explained the FAFSA formula at least three times (and some considerably more times) who simply cannot grasp it. And we’re not talking about humanities faculty here. We’re talking engineering, chemistry, business and biology faculty, all with PhDs from prestigious universities.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Perhaps, but I don’t think we should underestimate him.
James E Powell
@germy shoemangler:
A friend of mine, reporter for local TV in a not large market. News director sent her out to interview farmers to talk about how hard their job is in the winter. Farmers told my friend “We’ve been farming here for a long time & we have winter every year. It is not a problem.” So news director ran film of the farmers, but had the reporter say how hard it was to be a farmer in the winter.
Shortly after, she quit her job over stuff like this & went into corporate PR.
StringOnAStick
@Soprano2: The estate sale company has staged your mom’s things very nicely.
My mom was a hoarder, and my dad isn’t much better so I dread dealing with 50 years of accumulation, and it includes the 4 metal sheds they built to handle the overflow, Most of which is likely full of mouse poo and Hantavirus. Most of it inside the house is just plastic crap and hundreds of Franklin Mint cars and models.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Hilarious. Well done.
@MomSense: Glad to hear you are on the mend, but how frightening. Do you think it’s a virulent form of Covid, making its way through New England? Sorry it was so painful, and hope that once the fatigue lifts, it is gone.
@ geg: good to hear vaccines are easily available in PA. This disease is not through with us yet.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: A customer (who seems to like the guy) told me DeSantis went to Yale on a baseball scholarship. If that is true, I expect he still had good high school grades, and he must have made good grades at the next level to get into Harvard Law.
James E Powell
@Sure Lurkalot:
I would add that – occasional reporters like Mr Hiltzik aside – Republicans count on the political press ignoring or covering for Republican cruelty. Most especially ignoring or refusing to report on the way that cruelty is central to Republican behavior and rewarded by Republican voters.
Sasha
“Dark Brandon came down to Florida / He had no fucks to feel.”
StringOnAStick
@Immanentize: Sorry you caught Covid and had such a rough go of it. Here’s to feeling better each day.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: for those wondering about well-credentialed DeSantis, I raise you one Elmer (Stewart) Rhodes now on trial in the Oath Keepers case.
Fancy schools do not bestow EQ. And although DeSantis’ rap worked in Florida, I am not sure it is transferrable except in a “MAGAs will vote for who they are pointed at” way. Sadly, I fear we are doomed to find out.
Tony G
Looking at those photographs of Biden and DeSantis, I’m reminded of the fact that, back in the day, an attribute of a successful politician was possession of people-skills (or, at least, the ability to fake people-skills). I’m reminded, for example, of my father visiting his congressman in Washington in the seventies, and being greeted like the guy’s best friend from high school. All fake, of course, but it made my father feel good for a minute and made it more likely for the congressman to be re-elected. But DeSantis — he just looks like a miserable, unhappy human being who wants to make other people miserable. Yet, he’s a “successful” politician — governor of a large state and possible president some day. It seems like ugly behavior by miserable people is considered to be a positive attribute in the modern right-wing movement.
Tony G
@StringOnAStick: I’m the executor for my uncle’s estate after who passed away after a very long life (leaving no children) recently. His house has literally 95 years worth of “stuff” in it. A challenge!
Immanentize
@MomSense: I seemed to have purchased a similar gargle product. Labelled: Bottle o’ Glass. It kept moving up and down my throat too. Hot salt saturate water gargle was my only real (and painful) relief.
J R in WV
@narya:
but if she had colorful Fiestaware? MINE, I tell you!
That’s what we eat off of every day. Multi-colored too. There’s even a local store that sells seconds… But you have to be careful, antique pottery frequently has pigments that include uranium based coloring agents!
We have a few old pottery items that make my scintillation-counter click away. Not dangerous to have around, but you don’t want to use them for foods at all. They did sit on window sills, but when we got young cats we boxed most of that stuff up and put it out in the shop. Kind of a remote attic.
JMG
@Amir Khalid: You’re right. The historical accident of being custodians of the holiest sites of Islam is the real security guarantee for the Saudi regime. I was not advocating their overthrow by US forces, just flippantly making the point Saudi Arabia is far from popular in my country. I apologize for my tone. God, after Iraq it’d make more sense to just have all US forces leave the Middle East posthaste. In reality, having the Fifth Fleet hoist anchor and sail away would be a more effective means of influencing the Saudis than saber rattling.
J R in WV
@FridayNext:
My Aunt Billy Gail’s funeral was like that, she married my mom’s big brother. Her family was sweet people, but kinda trailer folks. Variety from prom dresses to lumberjack shirts and jeans. Rural WV.
I think I was more copacetic with it than my cousin, which surprised me some.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tony G: One of Bill Clinton’s abilities was that he could make you feel like the most important person in the world for the couple of minutes he was talking to you. Obama and Biden can do it as well. When they talk to you, they are talking to you and not thinking about their next meeting.
Paul in KY
@StringOnAStick: My cousin once was down in my parent’s basement for some reason & said it looked like King Tut’s tomb (minus the gold & stuff).
Not looking forward to the coming defenestration.
Anyway
@schrodingers_cat:
I always thought DeSantis was mean, shrewd, calculating — never “dumb”. He set out to make his political opponents miserable and has been quite successful in that.
RaflW
“Governor DeathSantis has downplayed deaths in daily briefings, saying the tropical cyclone’s numbers will not come near the 1928 hurricane that killed a record 2,500.”
Republicans do not care if people die. It’s still shocking.
Kayla Rudbek
@Elizabelle: I got a same-day appointment at Walgreens here in Northern Virginia.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: This is what Beshear did to raise money for victims of flooding in Eastern Kentucky:
https://secure.kentucky.gov/formservices/finance/EKYFloodRelief. Totally transparent.
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
Our county health department does walk-in vaccinations daily, in town. It is the state capital and largest town in the state, but that only means 50K odd people. Some very odd… ;~)
Anyway, we got our first full vaccinations in the V small town county seat at the county primary care clinic, the only health care org in the county. But all three boosters (first two Moderna, last bivalent booster was Pfizer) in town at the health dept.
The first booster was really early, they had a large batch of vaccine about to expire, and just did it, a friend who had worked there at the time called us and told us to show up early in case someone backed off. But not. She is retired now, was a senior inspector.
gvg
@Omnes Omnibus: I just got over strep. Did not enjoy waiting out a hurricane/potential power loss while feeling like crap. Did they test for that? It’s going around. Antibiotics needed if thats what you have.
Elizabelle
@Kayla Rudbek: good to hear
WRT DeSantis and his ilk: Biden is a joyful, caring, and determined person, authentically, and that has to be coming through in personal contact and even in media bites of his visit.
I realize how “polarized” politics is, but wonder if some Floridians are looking at the contrast with fresh eyes. Because many of them are just a natural disaster or two away from where those affected by Hurricane Ian find themselves
Do you want a self-aggrandizing scold, or someone who genuinely wants to help you, even while reminding that we will be seeing more and more of this, with climate change?
Lot of storm victims are going to leave, through attrition, I would think.
Omnes Omnibus
@gvg: I think they ruled it out early. They did look in my throat though. Oddly, my brother had almost the same thing have about a month ago. I have not had any contact with him over that time.
Denali
@JR in WV,
We also eat off of my mother-in-law’s Fiesta ware. I did get rid of the orange pieces because of the radioactive potential. I assumed the other colors are ok.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
I just got back from the raygun library. And NO, I absolutely did not go to see anything about his ass, there was a WWII exhibit that closes in 3 days. Reasonably big exhibit, expensive entry fee, reasonably well done. Got to walk through his Air Force 1 which is on display. Now for the crap part. Someone must think he was actually god. It really was a concrete blow job for Ronnie. Yes I know he was president. Believe me someone was impressed by him. It isn’t me. When he was president or today.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
No wait here in CA at CVS. Got my second and third booster at the one a long block up the street, no appointment, just walked in. Tried to make an online appointment, twice, it failed both times so I just walked in. Had to wait for the vaccine to warm up, they are stored cold but that didn’t take long and bing, bang, ouch and I was done.
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
I know he’s not an actual moron. He does a good job of acting like one though. He is however not all that bright. Evil yes, real bright, no.