Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Come on, man.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / John Lewis 1, Confederates 0 (Open Thread)

John Lewis 1, Confederates 0 (Open Thread)

by | 204 Comments

This post is in: , ,

I’m ashamed to admit that while growing up in rural Florida with Confederate monuments in every town square, I didn’t fully grasp the message they were installed to send. I didn’t think about them at all.

Hell, back then and to this day, there are still human Confederate monuments walking the earth, such as former Trump AG Jefferson Davis Beauregard Jubilation Chifforobe Sessions.

That’s why this is so cool:

Statue being lowered into place with a craneHere’s the AP News report from Decatur, Georgia:

A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis was installed Friday, at the very spot where a contentious monument to the confederacy stood for more than 110 years in the town square before it was dismantled in 2020.

Work crews gently rested the 12-foot-tall (3.7-meter-tall) statue into place as the internationally acclaimed sculptor, Basil Watson, looked on carefully.

“It’s exciting to see it going up and exciting for the city because of what he represents and what it’s replacing,” Watson said, as he assisted with the install process.

I’m generally in favor of fewer statues and more gargoyles, but Rep. John Lewis was truly a great and heroic American who faithfully served all of his constituents and therefore deserves the honor. It’s especially fitting that his statue replaces cheap-ass Birth of a Nation-era Confederate claptrap.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  2. 2.

    hueyplong

    Having served on a jury within sight of the new Lewis statue about a quarter century ago, I love it.

  8. 8.

    Gretchen

    I’m enjoying the whole white guy taco thing with Walz and Harris. Harris said she believed that she was the first VP to grow chili peppers. The wingers thought they had a gotcha: Thomas Jefferson grew them in 1769! Ha! Of course the response was a discussion about how it was really the slaves working in the fields who did all his farming, which was not where they wanted that conversation to go. But they’re still trying to argue that, since he mixed a can of mild chilis and some chili powder into a pound (!) of sour cream for his hot dish, he’s lying about not liking spice.

  13. 13.

    brantl

    I think they should have dug down and put the old statue under the ground, and then John Lewis’ statue on top of it. Just to make it clear.

  14. 14.

    prostratedragon

    Hooray for the statue — because sometimes you have to be tangible.

     

    ETA Ooo, in Decatur no less.

  15. 15.

    Geminid

    @BR: Republican Rep. Don Bacon’s Omaha-based Congessional seat is also a target here. Bacon has barely hung on the last two cycles.

  16. 16.

    kindness

    I grew up in Westchester and Fairfield counties (NY/CT).  Around there it was all Revolutionary War statues (other than Grant’s Tomb) everywhere they could possibly plant one.  I have to assume it was the same thing for Confederate statues in much of the south.

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    former Trump AG Jefferson Davis Beauregard Jubilation Chifforobe Sessions.

    Betty, you have the best words. Thank you!

    ETA:  adding Chifforobe to his name is *chef’s kiss*

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    I’ve  been waiting for this one. From IT security maven Jackie Singh:

       “Former U.S. Rep. George Santos has agreed to plead guilty to multiple criminal charges just weeks before his scheduled campaign finance fraud trial in New York  federal  court, @Law360 learned Saturday.

     

    My hope is that some New York Republicans will have a nervous weekend now. Santos may be able to incriminate them.

    My other hope is that Santos and Sam Bankman Fried end up as cellmates; a modern Odd Couple.

  20. 20.

    Dan B

    I’ve got my mother’s Daughters of the Confederacy certificate in the spare bedroom.  She hid it.  Her mother got her signed up.  The DOC was the group that got the confederate statues installed.  Family histories can be complicated messy.  My mother had her phone tapped in the 60’s, before mine was.  She was an unapologetic leftist activist.  At the same time she made it clear she hated “The war of Northern aggression.”  and “Carpetbaggers.”  It’s hood to have John Lewis celebrated.

  23. 23.

    KatKapCC

    @Baud: I would imagine young Black people paid attention, whether they wanted to or not, to confederate monuments.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    @KatKapCC: All the Black people had to pay attention to the statues. Most courthouses had a bronze Confederate soldier standing guard outside. Black people knew what that was about: intimidation.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I don’t know how many young people pay attention to statues. I sure didn’t.

    You don’t really need to pay attention to absorb the message. “Go down six blocks, turn left at the Taney statue, three more blocks and it’ll be on your right.” If you’re aware of the statue at that basic level, the message has registered, because you’ve also absorbed somewhere along the way the obvious knowledge that the people who statues are made of are people who are Respected.

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    @kindness:

    I have to assume it was the same thing for Confederate statues in much of the south.

    And names of highways and military bases and everything else.  Growing up in northern Virginia, there was Lee Highway and Jefferson Davis Highway, and there was a Taney Street somewhere in Alexandria.  My memory has faded on this, but I’m pretty sure some of our high schools were named after Confederate generals and leaders.

  29. 29.

    kindness

    @lowtechcyclist: It is kinda odd that a bunch of major US military bases in the south that were named after Confederates.  I didn’t really think about it until folks started making a fuss about it all.  Then it was ‘Oh yea.  That’s crazy!’

  31. 31.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I grew up, at least for a while, in Northern VA, Norfolk, Williamsburg, then awful Martinsburg WV.  I paid attention to statues and as I’m sure most people know, we had rebel statues *everywhere*.

    The infamous symbol in Old Town Alexandria was known, even to me as a kid in the 60s and 70s, that it faced south deliberately in defiance of those evil Yankees who had the misfortune to win the war.

    It wasn’t until this century that it became widely known about the Daughters of the Confederacy Treasonous Shitstains Who Should Have Been Hung After The War real role in putting them up (that one went up in 1889).

    That’s why it was great back in 2020 when they took it down.  Said “Daughters” paid to take it down.  Of course this clown:

    https://www.alxnow.com/2023/02/02/the-base-of-the-appomattox-statue-has-resurfaced-atop-confederate-graves-in-alexandria/

    has the base of the statue sitting in a cemetery he owns and wants to put the statue back up to commemorate the graves of Mosby’s Rangers.

    Oh well, it’s private property, he can do what he wants….and of course we’ll all look the other way if it’s ever vandalized.

  32. 32.

    SatanicPanic

    @Baud: None that involved political figures anyway. I thought the naked surfer statue in Huntington Beach was pretty cool.

  33. 33.

    piratedan

    it’s likely a gross-overreaction on my part, but since we had our own blog civil war regarding the efficacy of the Biden campaign and a welcome desired outcome on the events that followed, I think that since we’ve (as a party) moved past the perceived issues with our ticket, I think we’re looking at something historic.

    Despite the desperation of the rich, the media and those that own and control the GOP, they are losers.  They back losing arguments, their rationale for those arguments are chock full of inconsistency and illustrate that the wish to control, not govern.

    Depending upon the stamina of our candidates and their proxies, I believe that there is a real chance to reset the playing field, damn near everywhere.  Women are pissed, veterans are pissed, the middle class is pissed, almost every “minority”, be it based on ethnic background or personal orientation is opposed to these people.

    We are going to get our people to the polls and we’re going to thrash them.

  34. 34.

    RevRick

    @Geminid: The N word had that function and more. It was never merely a slur. It carried the implicit threat, “I can kill you… and get away with it.” And there over 4,000 lynching trees to back up that threat.

    Oh,  and we should rename “plantations “ for what they were: America’s Gulag Archipelago.

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    Good, good.

    Good statues can be inspiring.  Bad statues can be means of oppression and should be removed.

    Meanwhile, WhiteHouse.gov (from last night):

    August 16, 2024
    Remarks by President Biden After Air Force One Arrival | Hagerstown, MD

    Hagerstown Regional Airport
    Hagerstown, Maryland

    7:49 P.M. EDT

    Q How are the ceasefire talks?

    THE PRESIDENT: So far, s- — as of an hour ago, they’re still in play. I’m optimistic. Not t- — far from over. Just a couple more issues. I think we’ve got a shot.

    Q Are you more optimistic now than you have been in months past?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

    Q Why?

    THE PRESIDENT: If I told you that, I’d give away what’s going on.

    Q When — when would the ceasefire begin if you can get a deal?

    THE PRESIDENT: That remains to be seen.

    Q Okay. Are — are you going to work on your speech this weekend?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

    Q Okay.

    Q What’s your message to Democrats on Monday night?

    THE PRESIDENT: Win. (Laughs.)

    All right. Thank you, guys.

    Q Thank you, sir.

    7:50 P.M. EDT

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  39. 39.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I heard on some radio show that Kamala Harris planned to advance the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as one of her priorities but I can’t find any concrete statements on the campaign trail as of yet. I hope she does address it soon and that she has the Congress needed to pass legislation. It’s blindingly apparent that the Roberts court’s disdain for voting rights has had its intended effects.

  40. 40.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @kindness:

    I remember reading it was because of America’s entry into WW1 that these bases in the South were named after Confederate leaders. Something something national unity. Plus, Wilson was president

  41. 41.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: My school played the Lee Lancers back in the day; they were right across the Beltway from Annandale.

    Charlottesville has been renamed schools that were originally named after local segregationists. The trend now in Virginia is to name schools after geographical features instead of people. It’s less risky.

  42. 42.

    Starfish

    @RevRick: I want to visit the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. It is a plantation with a strong focus on the life of the enslaved people who lived there. The events look interesting.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    @KatKapCC: Well, you certainly did not exclude older people. I intended to add to your comment and not criticize it, but I apologize if I did.

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    I expect Judge George Santos to be lenient to fmr Congressman George Santos when sentencing him for acting as various other George Santoses in the pursuit of Peak George Santos, a goal shared by all George Santoses and the public in general.

    Guessing George Santos will be sentenced to dwell in an estate on Long Island and the further burden of a $million/year stipend.

    Former New York congressman George Santos is expected to plead guilty in his wide-ranging fraud case, according to US media reports.

    Mr Santos, who became the first member of Congress to be expelled in more than 20 years, is facing 23 federal felony charges that allege wire fraud, money laundering and the misuse of campaign funds.

    The Republican had pleaded not guilty last year.

    Mr Santos is expected to appear in court on Monday in Central Islip, New York and change that plea, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner.

    It is unclear which or how many charges he may plead guilty to.

    He was facing a maximum prison sentence of 20 years if convicted on all counts.

    Mr Santos was removed from the US Congress in December 2023 after the charges and a damning ethics report.

    The New York Republican became only the sixth lawmaker in history to be removed from the House, and the first since 2002.

    His short tenure in office was marked by a slew of controversy, alleged lies about his past and allegations of fraud.

    He had been accused of lying about a career on Wall Street, college degrees, and having Jewish ancestry. He was also accused of falsely claiming his mother died in the 9/11 terror attacks and scamming Amish dog breeders in Pennsylvania for thousands of dollars.

    That ends your George Santos report.

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: I think Long Island Republicans knew Santos was dirty but did not think he would win and draw all the attention he did. There was a campaign money laundering scheme going on, and Santos was just one part of it. He wasn’t a lone operator and he’s not a dupe.

  52. 52.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: I remember West Springfield. One of the “new” neighborhoods. I lived in North Springfield, just inside the Beltway. That neighborhood was built in the 1950s.

  54. 54.

    SteverinoCT

    USN ballistic missile submarines were named after “famous Americans”: the “41for freedom“, beginning with the USS George Washington and including USS Robert E. Lee, USS Stonewall Jackson, and USS John C. Calhoun. Admiral Rickover was known for getting funding by promising submarine names. My first boat was the USS Kamehameha (SSBN 642) (the Kam!), named after Hawaii became a state.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    @Geminid: Yes.  There is no “there” there in Springfield, Virginia.  It was just waiting to be a bedroom suburb and a mall, excuse me “town center.”  At least we got a Metro station!

  56. 56.

    XeckyGilchrist

    I love that they’re doing this. I regret only that it will become the second most vandalized object in the States after the Emmett Till memorial.

  58. 58.

    KatKapCC

    I live in hope that one day, Fort Bragg in Northern CA will get renamed, though it’s been shot down more than once by the grumpy white people up there. They complain about the “costs” even though it’s a tiny town of about 7,000 people. How much could it possibly cost, a few hundred grand? In government terms, that’s pocket change. I have a cousin up there and it’s a beautiful part of the state, but that stupid name irks me. California was not part of the Confederacy.

    Of course, we also have the dang lauded Missions up and down the state…

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    @piratedan:  Agree.  LFG!  Thrash them!

    Been seeing LFG a lot.  Is that “Let’s fucking go!”  If not apologies for the potty mouth.

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: “Jeb” Stuart did the Union a solid favor during the Gettysburg campaign with his misconcieved glory hunting. Most of the other top Confederates were screw-ups one way or the other.

    Jefferson Davis was the biggest screwup of all. He probably did more to destroy the Confederacy than anyone besides Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant.

    A contemporary described Jefferson Davis as, “Cold as a Reptile, Ambitious as Lucifer.” Sounds like he was a lot of fun!

  63. 63.

    terraformer

    Fantastic! I do hope the local authorities have thought to surreptitiously install video cameras around it, as it seems quite likely that it will be defaced (or worse) at some point.

  64. 64.

    H.E.Wolf

    @XeckyGilchrist:

    I regret only that it will become the second most vandalized object in the States after the Emmett Till memorial.

     
    No worries. Someday there’ll be a final resting place for the one-term former president, 2016-2020. And what will rain down like waters, and a mighty stream, will be justice indeed. :)

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    @Suzanne:  “New” is good cuz I’m not even aware Springfield has one.  We all had to head to Inova Fairfax Hospital, some miles away.  Believe Robert Byrd may have breathed his last there.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @SteverinoCT: The Navy has a decision coming up regarding the USS Stennis. The aircraft carrier will complete its mid-life refueling and upgrades next year (the Navy hopes!), and it will need a new name.

    The ship never should have been named after the segrationist Senator in the first place. Stennis was never much involved with Navy matters, unlike Carl Vinson who also has/had a carrier named after him.

  70. 70.

    sixthdoctor

    Heard some of Walz in his rally and he keeps getting better. He’s really good. If this is going to be America’s Cool Parents versus America’s Mean Grandpa and Weird Cousin, I like this matchup a lot.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @KatKapCC: Braxton Bragg was a terrible general. Other officers said it was painful to see Bragg struggle with a map. He did even worse with other people.

  76. 76.

    raven

    This was the Lion of the Confederacy about 5 miles from Decatur. I had an ancestor who fought with the Confederacy and was killed at the Battle of Atlanta. I could never find his grave and the thinking is that he was buried in a mass grave in front of the statue. After repeated vandalism they removed it from Oakland Cemetery and I don’t know where it is now. An interesting factiod is that is a copy of the Lion of Lucerne that was erected in honor of the Swiss Guard that was wiped out defending King Louis XVI. The sculptor that did it was not paid what he wanted so, if you look closely, he carved the enclosure in the shape of a pig!

  80. 80.

    LNNVA

    @raven: So are my father’s ancestors. They were from the part of Prince Edward County that helped form Appomattox County.

  81. 81.

    lamh47

    @KamalaHQ

    Trump says the vast majority of Jewish Americans have “to go out and have their head examined”
    https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1824918419780612261

    @KamalaHQ

    Trump: Would that be okay, North Carolina? (He is in Pennsylvania)
    https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1824917619503239193

    At this point, I’m beginning to believe this man truly doesn’t want to win this…or easier answer, he’s a fool who refuses to listen to his party or campaign staff…which hey, let him continue to impode.

    The sad part though is he’s still likely to get the same 45% of folks voting for him…smh

  82. 82.

    lamh47

    @Acyn

    Trump: But she’s prohibited from laughing. They say your laugh is horrible. Never laugh ever. So she’s walking around with her mouth like almost sealed shut. I want her to laugh. And then we will just claim victory.

    SMH…he’s spiralling…smh

     

    @atrupar

    Trump: “I used to call him Fake Tapper. Now I call him Jake Tapper because he treated us very fairly, and so did Dana.”

    I’m sure this makes Tapper and Bash proud…smh

  84. 84.

    zhena gogolia

    I love this:

    former Trump AG Jefferson Davis Beauregard Jubilation Chifforobe Sessions.

    Good To Kill a Mockingbird reference thrown in there!

  85. 85.

    Scout211

    Interesting, from Josh Marshall.

    I flagged this on social media. But I wanted to make sure you knew. Trump just announced a “crime and safety” rally for next Tuesday in Howell, Michigan, a town that has been heavily associated with the KKK for decades. Indeed, just late last month White Supremacists marched in the town chanting “We love Hitler. We love Trump.” Some but not all of the reputation comes from the fact that a long time Grand Drago of the Michigan Klan lived there and his farm was a sort of home base for the Klan. (I just found out this afternoon that a good bit of the 1991 documentary Blood in the Face – great doc, by the way – was shot there.)

    This is the kind of move that will be lost on many reporters and especially most out-of-state reporters. But it won’t be lost for a moment on Blacks and Jews from Michigan. It’s a bullhorn not a dog whistle. I had to have the connection pointed out to me too though I once I did the connection with the Blood in the Face documentary which I saw when it first came out placed it for me.

  88. 88.

    LNNVA

    @raven: Yes. Unfortunately, it was the center of some very ugly racism. One cannot choose their parents, let alone their ancestors.

  89. 89.

    BR

    Once again the NYT is demonstrating that they are more of a parody paper than DougJ could have ever imagined.

    Dowd: The Dems Are Delighted. But a Coup Is Still a Coup

    Whereas Dowd 4 weeks ago:

    Lord Almighty, Joe, Let It Go!

    That’s setting aside Ross D. and the obsession with Josh Shapiro and the other nonsense op-eds.
    I truly do not understand how people give NYT their money.​

  91. 91.

    raven

    @LNNVA: Yea, well I’ve lived in Georgia for 40 years so. . .Of course being from Chicago I know MLK said “People from Mississippi need to come to Chicago to learn how to hate!”

  99. 99.

    Gloria DryGarden

    John Lewis is a national hero.

    id like to see statues of Lewis go up in every state, and some counties renamed for him. Lewis county, it sounds good.  I’m sure there are kkk type folks whose names can be removed from some places. We did that in Denver, over in Central Park. It took 4-5 years, loads of panel discussions at the library, community voting, to ditch the previous name of the new neighborhood built on the site of our former airport; it was a kkk person. Now, it’s “Central Park” yay.

  100. 100.

    KatKapCC

    @lamh47: I cannot put into words how sick I am of people like him telling Jews who we are and what we should want. He knows nothing of the tenets of Judaism, as they are in stark opposition to every single element of his existence. He wouldn’t know Tikkun Olam if it slapped him in the face, and I wish it would.

    Roughly 3/4 of American Jews vote for Democrats. So he can shove it.

  106. 106.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lamh47: There’s no recording technology up Dipshit Donnie’s asshole where he’s had his head shoved since childhood.

  107. 107.

    Renie

    @Hungry Joe: Finally went back to doing my  Postcards to Swing State Voters.   I have North Carolina and have completed 100 of the 200 I have.

    I’ve been admiring your diligence at doing them constantly!

  109. 109.

    Ken

    @Baud: Trump will name it after himself unless we win.

    Doesn’t a person have to be dead before their name can be put on a ship? Or on a stamp? Decisions, decisions.

  114. 114.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Open thread, so, the real reason I’m on here this afternoon, after all my rants, and attempts at pointed writing, on other hot threads.
    My buddy is traveling, staying w his son, who now has Covid.

    Oh Jeepers. Does anyone know anything about the current variants, how long the contagion window is, how the illness is playing out?

    the good news is the son arrived from a 5 day trip. But if it’s still a longer window of incubation, he may have been exposed already. He’s great about precautions, but he’s 74, and has lung issues. The smoke from the fires makes him feel quite weakened for days after exposure.

    The other good news, is his current location is smoke free (it’s just when he goes on long drives around there.)

    TIA for any info you have on how Covid is playing out these days.
    I feel anxious, but trying to lean into the good news aspects. Any info you have will be welcome. He’ll see it too, when he comes a-lurking.

  120. 120.

    KatKapCC

    @Baud: It is possible it might tick down a tiny bit, because there are sadly some Jews here who think the only thing that matters is Israel and any statement from a politician that isn’t 1000% supportive is seen as a transgression. But trust me, they are a minority among Jews as a whole. in 2020, 77% of Jews voted for Biden. It might be less this time, but I highly doubt it would decrease by more than a few percentage points. Plus, there’s only around 7.5 million Jews in the US, so we can’t really sway an election one way or another on our own with small shifts…despite what a lot of weirdos want to believe, we don’t actually secretly control everything.

  121. 121.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Suzanne: Yes, at the now-defunct Landover Mall.  Wayne grew up in Springfield, VA, Landover was the “class mall.”

  122. 122.

    KatKapCC

    @lamh47: WHAT. He did not. He did NOT.

    Editing: I’m sure his stupid fans cheered at that. But that’s expected, because those racist pieces of trash simply could not ever view a person of color, especially a Black person, as attractive.

  123. 123.

    sxjames

     

    Umm…I think somethings broke in the blog.  When I click on a commenters nym in a reply to a comment I go back to the original comment as before.  However, when I then click on my browsers back arrow to go back to the current comment it takes me to the top of the comments (i.e. comment #1).  I’m using chrome on Windows 10 on a PC.  (yeah, I’m an old).   Not the end of the word, but it is kinda annoying.

    Thanks for your attention.

  125. 125.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    My wife got it 2 weeks back while we were volunteering for the Girls Rock Denver band camp.

    Doctor said this variant is “mild”.  She had it once before, 18 months ago, and while on paxlovid this time around, it was mild.  When she went off about a week ago, the chest cough persisted and she’s been feeling more tired than usual since.

    Again, not massively bad by any stretch but lingering.

    That being said, we’ve had several other friends also get it during this same time frame and got it bad.  Really depends it seems on age and how healthy one is.

    Good luck.

  126. 126.

    Ole Lurky

    Growing up I lived in a neighborhood with ALL the streets named after confederate generals. As a kid I assumed there were generals for both sides and it was just like a history thing. But no, all confederates.. The streets are still there in Wilmington, NC.. They had a petition recently to have them changed but it was apparently voted down..

    This country.. so fucking racist its insane..

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    @Gloria DryGarden: ​
    Per our local paper.

    What are the current COVID-19 levels in California?

    As of Friday, COVID-19 activity levels in California were “very high,” according to the latest data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Aug. 9, the state of California had an average test positivity rate of 14.3% over a seven-day period, according to the California Department of Public Health. This is an increase of 2.3% compared to the previous week, the department said on its website. The state health department reported that COVID-19 was the cause of 1.8% of total deaths in California over the previous seven days, as of Aug. 9.

    What’s the new coronavirus variant going around?

    Cases of the new strain, known as KP.3.1.1, have nearly doubled in recent weeks, according to the latest data from the CDC. As of Friday, the variant was linked to about 36.8% of all COVID-19 cases. Eric Topol, a molecular medicine professor at Scripps Research, wrote in a post on X that the new variant poses “more of a challenge to our immune response than KP.3 and prior variants” — especially for those without latest vaccinations.

    What are the symptoms of COVID variants?

    KP.3.1.1 is among the novel coronavirus strains known as “FLiRT” variants, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. While the new strains of COVID-19 are “indeed more transmissible than the original (ancestral) strain of SARS-CoV-2,” variations in symptoms between the FLiRT variants and the original COVID-19 strain have not yet been identified, the medical association reported in July. Symptoms of KP.3.1.1 are similar to those of the other COVID-19 variants.

    Will at-home tests detect COVID variants?

    While the presence of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 can potentially impact test performance, the COVID-19 tests are designed to detect all known variants, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s website. “We expect COVID tests to work well against all versions of the virus,” the CDC told The Sacramento Bee in January. While the Food and Drug Administration’s website states that tests will typically confirm if you have SARS-CoV-2 or one of its strains, the tests cannot identify which specific variant you have. “The FDA continues to conduct analyses to identify tests for which performance may be impacted for known SARS-CoV-2 variants,” the administration’s website states.

    ETA

    Will vaccines protect me against coronavirus variants?

    “The newest vaccine works really well” to protect yourself from FLiRT variants, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor and doctor specializing in infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Bee in May. Vaccines are consistently updated to the latest strain of COVID-19 to help people avoid severe disease and hospitalization, Chin-Hong said. Individuals aged 6 months and older are eligible to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, according to the CDC. In June, the CDC announced the 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be available this fall.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article291061405.html#storylink=cpy

    HTH

  129. 129.

    Baud

    @KatKapCC:

    Yeah, probably unlikely to sway the election. I’d just hate for them to lose their status as the best cohort of white people.

  132. 132.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ole Lurky: might take a few years.  Don’t give up yet. But how very tedious.

     

    im thinking of rude street names meanwhile, for ex rude racist pig avenue, general segregationist boulevard.. etc.  not as linguistically satisfying.
    id rather have justice and fairness for all, than horrid events and essential swear words.

  134. 134.

    dmsilev

    @lamh47: He’s creepy and obsessed and losing what little grip on reality that he once had. From the Post’s coverage of that same speech:

    Donald Trump is still talking about President Joe Biden dropping out. In his speech today in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., he claimed it was an “overthrow.” “What happened to Biden? I was running against Biden and now I’m running against someone else,” he told the crowd. “I said, who am I running against, Harris? I said who the hell is Harris?”

    ‘Who the hell is Harris?’ could be  accurate; he’s so wrapped up in his own decaying mind that he might actually not know who the current VP is.

  135. 135.

    Citizen Alan

    @XeckyGilchrist: Hopefully it will not need to be put under bulletproof glass like the Emmet Till road sign in Mississippi. The James Meredith statue at Ole Miss was only up for 6 months, IIRC, before some drunk frat boys hung a noose around its neck.

  136. 136.

    Princess

    @Gloria DryGarden: My experience with the most recent variant is, it is super contagious, like abandon all hope of not getting it if you’re in contact, laughs at masks and vaxxes. On the plus side, it is pretty mild and a few 80+ year olds of my acquaintance barely knew they had it. Good luck!

  137. 137.

    danielx

    @kindness: ​
    Forts Hood, Rucker, Lee, A.P. Hill, Benning, Bragg (who was an especially shitty general)….and the list goes on. Lot a southern congressmen sitting on the Armed Service committee back in the day, and the Army guys knew which side of their bread was buttered.

    Edit: every one of which generals would have been hung or shot in any other country. They all took oaths they betrayed.

  139. 139.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @raven:

    My mother’s family goes back to basically when dirt was formed in counties like Loudon, Clarke, Frederick, Jefferson (in what became WV) and around the Hagerstown area in MD.

    Fun ancestral factoid, my gr-gr-gr grandfather was the militia commander for the unit called out in response to John Brown’s “raid” at Harpers Ferry.  Two of his sons subsequently enlisted in the 2nd VA and fought for crazy-ass Stonewall Jackson.  His older brother got their father’s American Rev bounty land in OH, moved there and 2 of his sons enlisted and fought for the Union.

    No evidence they ever “met” on the battlefield.

  140. 140.

    zhena gogolia

    @sxjames: You have to first click on the date of the comment, then click the person’s name. If you do that, the back button should take you back to your comment. This seems to be something that can’t be fixed.

  141. 141.

    Citizen Alan

    @Geminid: Fucker should have been hanged. I wish Hurricane Katrina had scoured Beauvoir (Davis’s home) down to the foundations.

  144. 144.

    dmsilev

    @Gloria DryGarden: Anecdotal, but I got a case about a month ago. Paxlovid and relatively mild symptoms (three degree fever, fatigue, coughing), tested negative starting on day six, then a rebound infection starting on day eleven. Rebound infection (no medication except for OTC cough syrup) had a day of a two degree fever, more coughing and fatigue, and then cleared up. I still have a bit of a cough a few weeks later, but that’s about it and it’s slowly clearing up.

  147. 147.

    dmsilev

    @zhena gogolia: Amusingly enough, apparently he’s complaining about Peggy Noonan. From the Post:

    During his speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Donald Trump continued to complain about the Time magazine cover featuring Vice President Kamala Harris: “They have this unbelievable artist drawing her.” He also appeared to be referring to Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan writing that one of Harris’s advantages is her physical appearance. “She said Kamala has one big advantage, she’s a beautiful woman,” he said. “I say I am much better looking than her … I’m a better looking person than Kamala.”

    He apparently has a real bug up his ass about that Time cover; previously he said he thought it looked like Melania, and I’m not even going to try to begin to unravel the psychological issues on display there.

  148. 148.

    Citizen Alan

    @Geminid: TBF, didn’t the USS Stennis only get built because he pushed for it over Carter’s veto threat or something like that? (Carter was wanting to scale back production of nuclear subs.)

  149. 149.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @trollhattan: deep thank you.
    Sounds like rising rates, more transmissible, and I need an updated vaccination. Still Not sure about incubation / contagion time, they might not be tracking it.

    this was helpful. Seems folks have taken their eye off the ball, but it’s still one of the worse colds or flus I’ve ever had, and I don’t like my mild case of long Covid. I’ll keep contact w my pal. I’ll hope there is NO news

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Computer security maven Jackie Singh is a pugnacious poster. Singh loves to slam Elon Musk and now she’s  picked a fight with Chaya Raichik, the woman behind Libs of Tiktok.

    Singh might be doing this in order to ferret out bot networks which is one of her specialties. She answered a Raichik fan and a Musk minion with:

       You can send 500,000 bots to call me stupid, crazy, mentally ill, poor, racial slurs, etc. every single day and you will succeed in changing nothing about the way I operate.

    Good luck.

  153. 153.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @RevRick: this probably deserves its own thread. Really apt.

    The N word had that function and more. It was never merely a slur. It carried the implicit threat, “I can kill you… and get away with it.” And there over 4,000 lynching trees to back up that threat.

    Oh,  and we should rename “plantations “ for what they were: America’s Gulag Archipelago.

  155. 155.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    Anne Laurie’s Covid threads start with H1 N5, as that seems to be the next one coming, MPox will probably be added, but Covid is still covered in detail, below the break.

    T brought Covid back from Alberta, two weeks ago. It was mostly mild, but we are still coughing.

  158. 158.

    KatKapCC

    @dmsilev: You know how when someone hits their head or something, the EMTs will ask them questions to determine their mental state, and one is usually “Who is the president”? Perhaps Trump needs a medic to ask him “Do you know who the vice president is?”

  159. 159.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud: IMO, it’s worse than that. We all know why Reagan went to Philadelphia, MS. but at least he had the fig leaf of the Neshoba County Fair being a pretty big deal in the Southeast. From the wiki page, I can’t imagine why anyone would stage a political rally in Howell, MI who wasn’t explicitly trying to appeal to white supremacists and Christian Identity cultists.

  161. 161.

    Liminal Owl

    @Gloria DryGarden: Spouse and I had Covid last month.  Yes, highly transmissible; probably caught at a social event that required vax and mask8ng. He recovered after a few days (without Covid); I got Paxlovid but felt much worse than the first (other) time we had it and still feel pretty awful a month later. So this variant seems highly variable.

    Best wishes to you and your buddy, and to his son.

  163. 163.

    dmsilev

    @KatKapCC: Sadly, I think a lot of otherwise conscious Americans might flub that one. But seems reasonable to expect a Presidential candidate to know the answer.

  164. 164.

    trollhattan

    @Gloria DryGarden: ​
    A year and a week since my last and only covid bout, which I hate-hate-hated and I empathize with anybody fighting it.

    I’ll be racing for the next booster, for sure!

    Best of luck to you all.

    (Ain’t it grand school is starting back up? This crap is coming right back to the office as soon as parents have a week or two delivering their kids.)

  165. 165.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: especially when you look at the flavor and character and qualities of a person, the inner beauty  shines through, w Harris, Walz, Biden.

    I know beautiful people who feel plain or ugly,

    but an ugly-spirited mean nation-fucker who doesn’t care about anyone or anything but his personal gain, status, and his continued non-self-reflection

    has no way to become more attractive than people who hold kindness and stalwart support for people, and who laugh with joy, or share recipes.

    a cumbersome sentence, but possibly worth it.

  169. 169.

    scav

    @dmsilev: So, no idea who the hell Harris is, but he’s more beautiful than she is, she who was Indian but suddenly became black and is clearly a communist that had ruined this nations open borders and complicit in not raking San Franciscos forests enough and have you seen the fast forward on this box of Cheerios?

  170. 170.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ole Lurky: In Oxford, MS, the main boulevard is named after LQC Lamar, who was one of the main drafters of the Mississippi Articles of Secession. Most of the avenues that branch off of Lamar are named after US Presidents from Washington through Grover Cleveland.

    Lincoln Avenue is conspicuous by its absence.

  171. 171.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: yeah two weeks later, still coughing. That sucks. Glad you’re mostly better. For real.

    below the break.. did I not read far enough? Is it 8n the comments, or just page two, the earlier posts? Still learning the lingo around here.

  172. 172.

    Liminal Owl

    @KatKapCC: In 2018, a doctor asked me that question, and I said, “Hillary Clinton,” took a breath while she gave me a fishy look, and added “rightfully, but Trump stole it.”

  173. 173.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud: The Elephant Man was better looking than Trump. The list of people who are “better looking than Trump” is endless and possibly contains every living human being who is not suffering from advanced leprosy.

  175. 175.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Citizen Alan: amen:

    The Elephant Man was better looking than Trump. The list of people who are “better looking than Trump” is endless and possibly contains every living human being who is not suffering from advanced leprosy.

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan: I don’t really know. I think they laid the Stennis’s keel down in the 1970s so Carter could have been involved. Carriers and the rate of building them have always been a political bone of contention because each one costs so much. But they’re built in Newport News so Virginians like them. We like to brag about our thriving economy, but most of the growth comes from the money from 49 other states that gets spent here.

    I should take the tour of the Huntington Ingalls shipyard sometime. It’s huge. They were testing the new John F. Kennedy’s catapults out a couple months ago by launching heavy, wheeled sledges into the James River. Then they would reel them back in with a big winch and launch them again.

    The Norfolk Navy base also has tours that I hear are good.

  178. 178.

    Citizen Alan

    @Gloria DryGarden:  Oxford has an MLK Street that runs parallel to Lamar several blocks over. IIRC, they renamed a street that runs through what, at the time, had been a poor section of town. It’s the thought that counts, I suppose.

  179. 179.

    Timill

    @Citizen Alan: Never a president in MS – it seceded before his inauguration and wasn’t restored until long after he was dead. But I expect there’s one for Andrew Johnson, to whom the same would apply…

    [checks] Both Lincoln Ave and Johnson Ave are there these days…

  180. 180.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Princess: oh sweet Jesus. I’m gonna cry.
    Thanks for the heads up. He really can’t get Covid.

    and school is starting, I should start substitute work, or look for a different gig.  god, so scared and tired of this myself.

    WHAT ELSE IS POSSIBLE. WEIP?

  181. 181.

    KatKapCC

    @Liminal Owl: In 2018, our elderly neighbor took a tumble down his front steps and clocked his head pretty badly on the walkway. Bunch of us were outside with him when EMTs arrived, and they asked him first for his name, what year is it, and something else…and then asked who the president was. Another neighbor said, “Oh jeez, don’t ask him that!” Elderly man kind of grinned and said “I know who it is but I don’t want to say it.”

  182. 182.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan: No monuments commemorating Ulysses Grant’s stay in late 1862? Grant treated Oxford and its  citizens pretty well considering the circumstances..

  183. 183.

    Gvg

    @trollhattan: you know, I actually thought that was understandable. He had been living in a secret service protected bubble for 8 years as vice president, then 4 years as President, and he was out campaigning. He has to do random every 4 year interactions with the public and encounters something new that surprises him. Think how much changes in our lives fast, because of technology. All of my life things change, and I can’t exactly remember what little thing happened when.

    He was out of touch with us though. Part of why he didn’t get re-elected. I also felt people were bored. He was trying to continue the Reagan style because it was so magic for republicans while it worked, and IMO the public was just ready to be different, like a fashion change.

  184. 184.

    SteverinoCT

    Up there with WH Bush being mesmerized by a supermarket checkout scanner.

    Not that I have any sympathy for GHWB, but in fact he was being shown an improved version of a scanner that was much better at reading the barcode from different angles. That’s what was amazing; he’d seen scanners before and they weren’t that good.

  185. 185.

    Freemark

    Trump is coming to York, PA on Monday. I’ll be fairly close to the area and I feel nauseated just having him nearby. Perry will probably be there too…VURP.

  186. 186.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @dmsilev: guy can’t find his own duck…

    oh, the famous typo mix up. Dick.

    (and I’m trying to keep my ducks in @ row, and prevent unprofessional typos from being sent. Only happened once, over the ducks, to much hilarity)

  187. 187.

    OB-118

    @Geminid: USS John C Stennis was ordered in 1988, laid down in 1991, and commissioned in 1995, all long after Carter left office.

  188. 188.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Scout211: I sure hope someone went to that march and took down names. There might be a lot of businesses you can boycott. Even if you have to do shared shopping in the next town.
    yikes.

  189. 189.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Elizabelle: ​

    Hello from West Springfield!

    @Geminid: ​
     

    I remember West Springfield. One of the “new” neighborhoods. I lived in North Springfield, just inside the Beltway. That neighborhood was built in the 1950s.

    Hello from Groveton High School!

  190. 190.

    Jay

    ok@Gloria DryGarden:

    the main page only shows the top part of the post. When you click on the title, you get the full post plus the comments.

     

    From what I understand, Front Pagers can set the page break anywhere they want, but full posts “swallow” the front page.

    Anne Laurie’s Covid posts are a must read for me every Wednesday

    Fyi, Alberta, pandering to anti-vax, quietly shut down all their Long Covid research and Clinics last week, screwing over about 500,000 patients who will no longer get support or treatment.

  194. 194.

    Geminid

    @OB-118: Aha! Thank you for the correction. The ship would be getting awfully old if construction began during the Carter era.

  196. 196.

    Another Scott

    @dmsilev: Yeah, it’s his mountain of insecurities again.

    NYMag.com:

    […]

    Trump’s issue with the cover is probably based in his long-standing, retro obsession with Time. Trump first appeared on the cover in 1989, and he’s bragged that he’s been featured more than anyone else. That isn’t true; at the end of his presidency, Trump had been on the cover 35 times, putting him fourth behind three other presidents. But he made up for it by putting himself on fake Time covers, which are framed and displayed at at least four of his golf clubs.

    [ Time Cover, Doral, Florida

    A fake Trump Time cover on display at the Trump National Doral Miami on June 24, 2017. Photo: Angel Valentin/The Washington Post/Getty Images ]

    Time hasn’t been ignoring Trump. The magazine interviewed him in May, and he was featured on the cover (a subsequent Joe Biden cover was styled similarly):

    [ image ]

    And Time put out a single-issue edition about the Trump assassination attempt, featuring this undeniably badass photo:

    [ image ]

    But Trump will not be satisfied until his favorite magazine puts a pretty filter over his face and issues a cover showing Harris with devil horns.

    […]

    Every major newspaper and magazine should have her on the cover the day after she gives her acceptance speech at the DNC. Make him cry some more.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  197. 197.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ebony: ​
     

    I also grew up in Virginia. Do you remember MLK Jr. being named Lee-Jackson-King day? I do.

    Yeah, I remember that! ‘Why don’t we honor moral polar opposites all in one day, how’s that for an idea?’ What insanity.

  198. 198.

    Juju

    @KatKapCC: Fort Bragg in Fayetteville NC has been renamed to Fort Liberty. I did not realize there was more than one. Who knew the one with the name change would be in North Carolina?  It certainly surprised me.

  199. 199.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: aren’t y in bc? Dang. 500 k people, it’s a big deal.

    btw, one can be anti vax, but still notice Covid is a serious, real actual illness, and that long Covid is also a thing.
    sorry, I thought Canada had way less crazy or weird people than USA. Darn

  201. 201.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    Crazy doesn’t respect borders.

    Our “Con’s” have been importing ReThug “brain trusts” since the ’80’s.

    I am in BC, but we have family in Alberta, our TexAss north, other wingnut provinces are Sask, Ont and NB.

  202. 202.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: so that leaves what, pei, Manitoba, bc, Newfoundland labrador, quebec, Yukon/ nw  and I forgot the spelling Inuviak, oh im going blank. I had no idea Alberta was like Texas, i have a friend in n sask….I’ve even Visited NB in the last decade. Jeez. You got a lot of states w weirdos. Ontario? Except for Toronto? Oh dear. I had no idea. Thanks for enlightening me…

Comments are closed.