I went in to a local pharmacy to get vaxxed yesterday and for whatever reason the signup machinery had assigned me the Novovax protein subunit COVID vaccination. (Here’s a Mayo Clinic article on the different vaccines.)
The pharmacist said that the Novovax vaccine is supposed to have fewer side effects, and I’m here to tell you that I’m feeling better today than I ever have after a COVID vaccination. Normally it would be at least 12 hours of fever/chills, but I haven’t had much (or any) of that. The soreness in my arm is almost gone, which is also pretty good for 24 hours post-shot. (I also got the flu vaccine.)
FYI and FWIW to those who haven’t gotten their Fall shots yet. Open thread.
narya
I have gone to my local Walgreens three times in search of the Novavax, but they don’t have it and haven’t gotten it in. I’m gonna try other pharmacies tomorrow; three tries is enough.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@narya: Try CVS, that’s where I got mine.
twbrandt
Trump-supporting Arab-Americans are having second thoughts.
I completely understand why that community is furious with the Biden admin over its ME policy, but why would anyone think that Trump would not be even more pro-Israel?
One factoid in this story that surprised me is that Massad Boulos, a Lebanese businessman who led pro-Trump efforts in the Arab-American community, is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany
beckya57
I’ve heard that about Novavax. We’ve never had problems with the MRA vaccines, and already got the latest, but will keep that in mind.
Butch
I got the flu vaccine but skipped Covid because I’ve always had such a bad reaction. I didn’t know there was a difference among the Covid boosters.
cain
@twbrandt:
I would ignore it. They were never interested in palestinian rights, they were always interested in voting republican and did not want to vote for a black woman.
Let’s see how well they protest the Trump administration’s support for Israel. I’m also interested in seeing if these youths will also go out of their way to help or disappear under a rock. Especially since they decided to trade women’s rights for their protest vote.
HinTN
Got COVID and flu (the version for geezers) at my local Kroger on Friday. This was the least arm-achy set of inoculations I can remember.
In other news, the drizzle has given way to barely visible blowing mist on this semi-clammy 65 F day. The chicken pot pie for lunch was a perfect antidote to the weather.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Butch: It was new information to me, too, and the pharmacist (very pleasantly) quizzed me about why I picked it, and I told her I didn’t remember picking a specific vaccine. She explained that their supplies were kind of low and it was supposed to be reserved for people with bad reactions, but she had already prepped my shot so it would have been wasted anyway, so here we are.
twbrandt
@cain: in Dearborn, where I live, Trump got 43% of the vote, Harris got 37%, Stein (!) got 13%. In heavily Arab precincts in Dearborn, Trump did even better, Harris even worse.
zhena gogolia
I just had a thought. People scream about Merrick Garland and how slow he was. But Trump was in fact convicted of 34 felonies, and was adjudicated a rapist. Yet millions of Americans still voted for him. So what difference does it make what Merrick Garland did or didn’t do? They would have voted for him if he was in jail. (And he probably would never have gone to jail anyway.) The problem isn’t Merrick Garland, it’s our fellow citizens.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’ve had my flu and covid shots, but I need to ask my doc if I’m up-to-date on everything else. I know I am on pneumonia and shingles and RSV. But I think I need a tetanus booster.
On another topic, I’ve been around less lately because I’m trying to keep Trump from taking too much space in my head. The last time, he sucked all the air out of the room. I don’t want that to happen again. I’m busy keeping an eye on Mr DAW and playing online escape games. Yeah, I see the metaphor.
lollipopguild
@twbrandt: One person quoted in the story said,”Yes, I voted for trump but I do not endorse him”
brendancalling
Just got my flu shot 10 minutes ago. Solid doctor visit. I’ve been struggling to get off tobacco, and while discussing how it’s going, I mentioned that I don’t so much have cravings as much as I have triggers. Specifically, social occasions. So my doc wants me to try Welbutrin, which helps with depression and anxiety, as well as kicking tobacco.
John S.
@twbrandt:
I’m sure Rep. Tlaib will save them.
After all, she encouraged the protest vote, and led her constituents to believe there would be no consequences. Because Genocide Joe was worse.
villieageidiocy
I got Novavax (via CVS) to make sure I mixed up delivery systems for my immune system; my hope is that will give me more robust coverage. It’s made like the older, standard versions of vaccines vs. the new mRNA ones. I had a very slight response over the next 24 hrs, mostly just a little tired. My experiences with the mRNA vaxes varied between 0 to 1.5 days iffy feeling (the worst felt like a mild flu for a day). My SO, however, reacted to it with a general flu like feeling for about 24hrs leaving them pretty useless, which had never happened with the mRNA versions. So, YMMV.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
That gives a pretty big pass to the fact that his strategy of prosecuting J6 from the bottom up instead of the top down was wildly ineffective and performative.
How he ran the DOJ has nothing to do with the voters.
HinTN
@brendancalling: I agree with the triggers analysis. I had gates I had ti traverse: with that first cup of coffee, after a meal, with a drink. Being aware of those and resisting the temptation “to have just one” was really helpful. You can do this!
HeleninEire
I got an MMR vaccine yesterday. I am getting EVERYTHING before the end of the year.
Still to go: TDAP, Hep A and B, and pneumonia.
I’ve gotten everything else except for RSV. They said I’m too young. :)
lowtechcyclist
I’ve had my Covid vax (Pfizer this time) but still need a flu shot. Later this week, maybe.
cain
@twbrandt: They did not want to vote for a woman that too a black woman, so it was never about Palestinian rights. They can go fuck themselves with their whining.
brendancalling
@HinTN: I’m already on the patch, which is great. I generally don’t have enough time in the morning to smoke. Also, I smoke hand rolls so it’s not as easy to get as a pack of Marlboro (I hate the taste of pack smokes). I don’t even like the taste of the stuff—a buddy of mine got me into mixing weed and tobacco, and that’s what got me re-hooked after a nearly 25 year break.
I’m interested to see how the Welbutrin works on my anxiety.
Geminid
@twbrandt: What I wonder is, what was the baseline; that is, how did Dearborn vote in 2020? Harris clearly lost some Arab American voters over the Gaza war, but I think that many of them would have voted for Trump anyway.
I’m just looking at the Gaza war as an electoral factor here, without reference to the broader foreign policy and moral issues that made it a voting issue for some.
cain
@zhena gogolia: Garland waited two years before starting anything and not until the House commission brought enough evidence through their hearings that the DOJ couldn’t ignore it.
I don’t know why Garland didn’t start immediately on it and waited till the House did their hearings instead of building on the work already done prior. We would have had an extra two years to build this case.
Percysowner
They asked me if I wanted Norovax at Kroger this last time and I said yes. I figure mixing them up isn’t a bad idea all in all. I had absolutely no reactions to the shot. With the others it has varied from minor to being down for a day. Next year we may all be trolling the streets asking the heroin and fentanyl addicts who has the best black market COVID vaccines. Either that, or I’ll schedule a nice trip to Canada and see if I can get mine there.
Quinerly
@cain:
I honestly think Garland would have done nothing but for the House’s commission and the testimony.
zhena gogolia
Okay, sorry I brought it up.
Merrick Garland is the world’s greatest monster. Bye everyone.
Alce_e _ ardillo
Got my Covid and Flu shots about 2 weeks ago.
Covid was the Moderna Spikevax– and I had no problems with it
and I got Flublok High dose ( for my age) and again no problems.
Citizen Alan
@twbrandt: I find it nearly impossible to feel a smidge of sympathy for these cretins. I feel sympathy for the doomed Palestinians (as I do for so many other victims-to-come) but not for pampered Palestinian-Americans who voted Trump to “teach Biden a lesson.” It is one thing to be surprise that the leopards are eating your face. It is another to continue to be surprised at the actions of a President who made siccing the leopards on your face his number one priority the last time he took office.
I wonder if any of the people interviewed will be shocked to find that family members will be facing deportation next January.
OlFroth
Got my flu shot earlier this month at the clinic held at work, and my covid booster today during my semi-annual checkup.
brendancalling
@Citizen Alan: they most certainly will. I have no sympathy for them. Idiots.
Old School
Merrick Garland did not wait two years before investigating January 6th.
eemom
@zhena gogolia:
lol. Yeah, and if the Supreme Court hadn’t fucked us last summer they’d also have voted for him anyway. Also if he’d shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. Also even though he tried to overthrow the government, stole classified documents, etc etc etc.
Exactly what do you gain by making garland your personal Savior and hill to die on? Just curious.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: That is simply not true.
eemom
@zhena gogolia:
You’re the one obsessed with the dude, lady.
Betty Cracker
@brendancalling: I quit smoking in 2012 and used Chantix. I think it helped, but I had the most bizarre dreams ever, as did my neighbor at the time, who also took Chantix to quit at the same time (it stuck for both of us). I’ve heard Wellbutrin can also cause weird dreams.
Good luck! You can do it! It’s so worth it!
Jackie
@twbrandt: I have no qualms about telling them they KNEW who they were voting for.😡
zhena gogolia
You should see my bedroom — pictures of Merrick Garland plastered all over the walls! It’s like one of those scenes in Inspector Lewis where they find the shrine to the victim in one of the suspect’s houses!
This place is getting really sour, unpleasant, and unenlightening.
Trollhattan
Did my 1/2 covid (Moderna)/flu jabs in October, in anticipation of cross-country trip. (Good thing, 80% of the passengers at Midway seemed to have something or other and we were stuck there five hours.)
Day 1 nothing, night 1 the covid arm hurt like hell (despite taking a painkiller) and Day 2 was feeling sickish, maybe a combo of shot and no sleep. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Day 3 was back to a pair of sore shoulders and nothing much more.
Covid SUCKS flu SUCKS and if this helps me avoid both, well worth it.
hitchhiker
Got the Moderna + flu vaccines on Nov 4th. Spent the evening of the 5th in bed dozing off and on with a 100.5 fever and growing despair. I always have a reaction for a day or so post-jab.
This time was worse.
LAC
@zhena gogolia: I would just speak with attorneys who actually do this work on the monumental task of complex criminal cases. They can offer a more nuanced perspective on this matter. As far as everything else, it is another version of the sparkle pony fauxgressive nonsense that has us in a circular firing squad. It does not win us elections, but it feels soooooo good.
Deep breaths, zhena…
Layer8Problem
@eemom: Really interesting reaction you have there.
rikyrah
I am making appointments for my sister and I. I’m thinking first Saturday of December. Just get them out of the way.
sentient ai from the future
@beckya57: HOLY SHIT, THERES A VACCINE THAT KEEPS AWAY “MENS RIGHTS ADVOCATES”? WHERE THE FUCK DO I GO AND WHO DO I THROW MONEY AT?
Trollhattan
@twbrandt:
An Afghan coworker on the 6th: “Maybe now we’ll get a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Me: “Why do you think that?”
Coworker: “He promised he’d end the war.”
In my head: “Oh you poor naïve child.” Out loud: “I don’t know, he’s good friends with Bibi and will probably give him everything he asks for.”
The poor Palestinians seem to function as a prism to peer at and create/reinforce a worldview, without actually doing anything for them. See also: the much less cared-about Kurds.
cain
@zhena gogolia:
Eh, ignoring your hyperbole – Garland is a poor planner and strategist.
Then again, I’m not the one who has to watch his beloved DOJ keel over. He’s an institutionalist. I hope he’s putting some guardrails and traps in the DOJ to safe guard it – that’s all he got now.
Martin
I think this is a failure to understand how effective vs ineffective institutions shape the behavior of citizens.
There is an argument that Obama’s failure to hold bankers accountable for the 2008 financial crisis has led to a lot of today’s unhappiness with the economy because it internalized a lesson in a LOT of people that doing the right thing will get your house foreclosed on and scamming people out of money is how you actually get ahead – and the result is a LOT of young men, in particular, relying on crypto and meme stocks and various other scams to achieve financial security because the institutions didn’t reward the people who did the right thing and punish the people who did the wrong thing.
We know that people respond to injustices in the legal system similarly – as Trumps behavior has now be validated as fine. Looking at the situation from the other side – it wouldn’t be irrational to argue that if the feds has a real case against Trump they would bring it, and if they are dragging it out, it must mean they don’t have a case and are fishing for one. IOW, Trump is being set up.
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ is not a legal maxim that is disputed. And Garland isn’t solely responsible here, Democrats in Congress are as well. I’m of the view that Democrats deliberately delayed some of these things so that they either play out in the context of a campaign. It’s not just him being slow – it’s pretty much all US institutions, with a handful of exceptions during crisis like covid vaccines, etc. But the day to day operation of all institutions in this country is glacial. It’s why large development projects take ages. It’s why the US is largely uncompetitive with China in manufacturing – the ability to bring a product to market faster, and get sales sooner, overwhelms whatever cost savings might come from cheap labor.
Holding Trump accountable sooner, putting that evidence in public sooner, would have for a lot of people proven that Trump was in fact guilty of a crime, and it would have proven that Democrats can effectively wield institutions. Adam here has been for nearly 3 years critical of Biden for failing to do that around Ukraine. Californians are understandably upset why HSR will take 30 years to complete – almost entirely under Democratic management.
So yeah, part of it is that you do have to make the case – and the feds never did, even though the delay tactic was obviously going to happen. And part of it is demonstrating that you are competent at running the operation, which I would argue Dems often fail to do. If it is this hard to bring cases against someone, either the institution is broken and needs to be fixed (and the people in power failed to do so – there’s been no expression that DOJ needed to be reformed by Democrats) or the people running the institution aren’t competent at doing so. All of that ground get ceded to Republicans.
Steve LaBonne
@Martin: Well, I think Trump would not only have run from prison, but as a “martyr” would have gotten even more votes. Neither of will ever know who’s right so perhaps this is not very high on the list of questions that people need to be arguing about right now.
cain
@Old School:
Thanks for the link. I must have missed when this link was published over the various threads over the past 4 years.
I appreciate you setting me straight.
the writer is Mueller She Wrote, and not someone that Adam is a fan of. The post does not have any links externally. Can someone from the DOJ or federal/DOJ expert say this is correct?
One of the biggest problems we are having is figuring what information is valid and what isn’t.
zhena gogolia
@Martin: Is it the fault of the DOJ that rich people can afford lawyers to keep filing appeals?
NotMax
Have been Moderna (now called Spikevax) all the way (a jab every six months since the initial two a month apart) I follow the “never mix, never worry” rule of thumb for pub crawling.
YMMV. ;)
Josie
@HinTN:
We had not been out to a bar for about a year after I quit smoking since I had a small child to look after. We went out for a beer one night and, when they brought the drinks to the table, I took a sip and reached for my purse to pull out a nonexistant cigarette. That was after more than a year. Triggers are very strong and long lasting.
Old Man Shadow
@twbrandt: Well, I’m sure if they really complain about it, then Trump will offer them 2% off a week long stay at the Trump Gaza Resort when they go visit the graves of their relatives they voted to kill.
Baud
@Trollhattan:
War won’t go on for another four years. There will be a peace of some sort of another.
Melancholy Jaques
@zhena gogolia:
Given the outcome of this election, I’m inclined to agree.
Also too, Democrats and even quite a few in the political media repeated over and over that Trump tried to overthrow the government. Over and over the videos were shown and not just in ads.
The majority of white people just do not care. They despise the rest of us and they vote accordingly.
Ohio Mom
I’ve had every vaccine there is, that is one set of errands checked off the eternal To-do list.
I have also started trying to stay away from Trump news. Not easy to do when your favorite spot on the internets is Balloon Juice!
We all know things will be rocky and awful, we just don’t know the details. In one place I read, Asians will be the first on the to-be deported list, in another place I read that private prisons are salivating at the bought of all those government contracts to hold deportees, the list goes on, I’m sure everyone here could add to this list of predictions they’ve heard of since Election Day.
These predictions are the sorts of details I’m trying to ignore. Just takes up space in my head, I’m not in any position to do anything about any of it in the short run.
Anyway, back to housework.
Old School
@cain:
Here’s Garland’s speech from a year after the insurrection.
I guess you can decide if what Garland says has been done is true or not.
Melancholy Jaques
@zhena gogolia:
C’mon, don’t be like that.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: Kinda.
For one, if you know you’re in a race to the next election and rich people will keep filing appeals, maybe don’t wait 2 years to hire the guy to start the case. Jack Smith moved quite quickly, but he wasn’t appointed until Oct 2022 – 21 months after Jan 6. He should have been appointed on Jan 20, 2021.
And if you observe his flaw in the American legal system, why aren’t Democrats doing anything about it?
The problem with institutionalists is that there is no honor in defending an institution that doesn’t work. Institutions aren’t magic – but Democrats put faith in them as if they were. If the system isn’t working, you need to change or abandon the system. I think that’s the real takeaway from this election – voters have lost faith in US institutions and they’re open to a candidate who promises to burn them down.
Quinerly
Garland appointed Jack Smith on 11/22/2022.
House Select Committee to Investigate J6 formed 7/1/2021. Disbanded 1/3/2023
Source: Wikipedia
jonas
@Geminid: So not only did some Arab voters evidently think Trump would somehow be better on Gaza (!), but they’ve apparently already forgotten that the first thing he did out of the gate in 2017 was try to implement a ban on Muslim immigrants. How did that go down the memory hole so fast?
NotMax
@brendancalling
Tried the patch for the first time for the long flight to NY this year.
Never again. Took nearly three weeks to fully recover from the severe vertigo I experienced.
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: It’s useless. I’ve debunked the Anti-Garland Mythology, point by point, numerous times (with extensive links). These people are as resistant/oblivious to evidence as MAGA.
eemom
@zhena gogolia:
YOU bring up your bizarre apologism for the guy for the gazillionth time in a thread it has nothing to do with, and “this place” is to blame if people are getting sick of it? Gotcha.
Honestly, he’s not worth all this energy, especially now. The time to fire his sorry ass was three years ago, and if ever a ship sailed, yeah that one did.
He’s a chickenshit coward who didn’t do his job. Whether he would have prevailed against trump has zero the fuck to with that simple fact.
He also PROMPTLY bent over backwards to fuck Biden with that IC appointment. You like Biden, right?
Betty Cracker
@Martin:
That’s where I land — obviously something isn’t working when a POTUS can lose an election, attempt to overthrow the government and successfully delay a reckoning for that (for four fucking years!) until he can slither back into power and make it go away.
That should not be possible, and yet here we are.
Old Man Shadow
Anyone have any tips on getting over seething rage and misanthropy?
twbrandt
@Geminid: here is a comparison with 2020. In heavily Arab east Dearborn, Biden got 82% of the vote, Harris 13%.
Trollhattan
@NotMax:
In my best Cloonie voice “I’m a Pfizer man” was the mantra for the first…four? jabs. Then my network suddenly only offered Moderna and a change was baked in. First one was a bastard, too.
Better than answering to “Sputnik, or Sinovax?”
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: Teri Kanefield?
Trollhattan
@Baud: Yeah, seriously there’s not much Gaza left to raze.
I wonder what happens once General Huckabee arrives on scene?
zhena gogolia
@eemom: Sorry I didn’t stick to the ironclad discipline of thematic discussion on BJ.
ETA: I was fantasizing what would have happened if Garland had been able to do more faster. Nothing would have happened. They would have voted for him anyway. That’s all.
Old Man Shadow
@twbrandt: Maybe if they complain, they can get a discount on a stay at Jared’s Trump Gaza resort built over the graves of their relatives.
Old Man Shadow
@Trollhattan: Starvation. Journalists trying to film the conditions “accidentally” shot.
NotoriousJRT
@zhena gogolia: Have some pie, if necessary.
Old Man Shadow
Starvation. Death. Journalists trying to film the conditions “accidentally” shot.
Jared buys up some of the annexed land with Bonesaw’s blood money and builds a new Trump resort.
UncleEbeneezer
@cain: Her podcast co-host, Andy McCabe is former DOJ/FBI who worked on Crossfire Hurricane (the investigation into Hillary’s emails) and was himself persecuted by Trump. He has pretty much completely agreed that all the “Garland did nothing for two years” complaints are bullshit. But I guess we can’t trust him either because Adam doesn’t like anyone who works with Gill.
frosty
I feel exactly the same but I’m still around here as much as I have been. I’m trying to take the afternoon off while I work on various things. However, you can see I fire this site up when I’m on a break. Sigh.
chopper
@zhena gogolia:
TBF, eemom has always been a pretty miserable person
scav
People do sometimes spend a shitload of time looking for a clear someone to blame for events. It simplifies things to have a clear villain, that one easy trick and it provides the illusion that the world is both logical and controllable. It can be comforting to have one clear super-villain up there on the stage rather that a shitload of dubious and varying bad / stupid / ignorant / malevolent / messy people everywhere that you have to deal with everyday including over the dinner table.
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: The idea that Trump could’ve been convicted, sentenced and jailed before the election is incredibly wishful thinking. The pre-trial litigation and appeals process can take YEARS, even without a biased SCOTUS ready to kick the can down the road (or dismiss the case altogether). And that still doesn’t prevent Trump from running and winning and serving as POTUS, even with a conviction.
zhena gogolia
@chopper: I’ve always liked her. But not today! 😄
zhena gogolia
@scav:
My Country, ’tis of thee!
twbrandt
It would sure be nice if people around here would extend a little grace to each other. Pipe dream, I guess.
geg6
Got ours last Thursday, both the COVID and flu. Had a bit of a sore arm that night but it was gone by the next day. I don’t know what but and I got but the pharmacist said it was the updated. So I’m glad we got them while we still can.
Baud
@Trollhattan:
About 45,000 Gazans have died out of a population of 2.2 million. Still plenty for Trump and Huckabee to do.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: The people who could have and should have stopped him were the United States senators who were empowered to vote in the two impeachments.
cain
@Martin:
and willing to use imperfect vessels so to speak, to do it.
This is the kind of stuff I missed hearing from you.
UncleEbeneezer
I made the mistake of watching an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Karen Hunter Show on YouTube where they discussed Gaza. It was all the usual framings of: Racism, Colonialism, Imperialism, Genocide etc., framing Zionism as some sinister global threat. Sigh…
Coates desperately wants to paint the I/P conflict as simple, but the problem is it is anything but. Check out this great interview for just a taste of all the reasons that “simple” claim is complete bullshit (it’s two hours but well worth it):
Terrorism, Israel, and Dreams of Peace (with Haviv Rettig Gur) on the EconTalk podcast.
frosty
You and me both!
rikyrah
@Trollhattan:
that was so polite of you.
cain
@Betty Cracker: Exactly!
And look at all the DOJ and state cases magically melting away. Jack’s gone, his career over. Is this how an institution is supposed to work?
We don’t really have a target here but the system is broken in that fashion when Dems slow walk something and the GOP is just bomb throwing.
If you see the situation like this, would Kamala Harris have been able to fix it?
pika
I sought out Novavax this time because of the discussions on This Week in Virology (especially the clinical update on Saturdays) suggesting that there are fewer side effects with Novavax.
According to TWiV, there’s also an emerging question for which evidence is needed: is there something about the mRNA vaccine platform that makes the vax less durable in terms of protection? is the Novavax platform more durable? is it something about the virus?
I got both Novavax and the flu shot at the same time, and had not even a sore arm.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you.
cain
@chopper:
Alright folks, let’s cool off and lay off the personal stuff. We can have a discussion without going into personal attacks.
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
I wonder if McConnell ever second guesses himself on that decision.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you for reminding me of Terri Kanefield.
WRT her blog: great post from just before the election. She’d traveled to Chile; discusses those who liked Pinochet (as a way of understanding “nice” people who support The U.S. Felon); also a great discussion on disinformation. Haven’t read it all, but will.
Why I am Setting out on a Journey and Inviting You Along
November 2, 2024
cain
@zhena gogolia:
I agree, but that didn’t happen. Hell, look at them now, itching to confirm a sex offender as attorney general.
The cabinet looks like a more stupid version of Batman’s gallery of rogues.
zhena gogolia
@Josie: No.
frosty
Exactly! Speaking of institutions (and their failures) I realized that I’m counting on two of them. I’m hoping for Republican senators to not recess and refuse to confirm any of these ridiculous cabinet appointments. And I’m hoping for the military not to go after US citizens and not aid in any deportation.
I’m a fool.
cain
@zhena gogolia: McConnell doesn’t have a conscious. He’s more machine than man.
LAC
@cain: so, destroying the DOJ for example because mainly republican adminstrations have used it as a weapon against people instead of understanding that voting has consequences, the upholding of the rule of law is very important and not electing craven dumbasses like a Trump is an astute observation? Soooo, more letting folks off the hook for their decision making? It’s the institution, baby!
Yeah, 2028 is gonna be a blast!
cain
@frosty:
and watch GOP House people attack the GOP senate.
Good times.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
From the bottom of my heart….
This was a matter of Whiteness.
You will never
and I mean never ever
convince me that if Barack Obama had done 1/100th of what the Orange Menace has done..
That the Justice System would be throwing up its hands like this.
That would have allowed him to game the system and delay delay delay. …
Let alone run for President again.
You will never convince me.
EVER.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@zhena gogolia: Have you used scented markers to draw little hearts on the pictures?
<Ducks> Completely kidding and love your sarcasm.
TBone
@rikyrah: 🎯
chopper
@cain:
i mean, let’s be real here. there are some people you see commenting at this site over the decades who generally fit a certain description.
sentient ai from the future
@pika: i’m not going to do a seminar on immunology here, but prior to the moderna vaccine it was in some question whether it would be effective enough in humans for something this serious, and my understanding is that the immune system doesn’t “remember” it through the same mechanisms that it would a noxious bacteria or other kinds of virus. the assumption of a short immunity window for the mrna vaccination is based on that understanding of immunological memory, and so it’s an experiment still in progress.
pika
@rikyrah: me neither
sentient ai from the future
@chopper: J’ACCUSE!
cain
@LAC:
I think you and I have interpreted Martin’s comment differently. I interpreted Martin’s comment that an institution that cannot protect itself or its citizen is an institution that needs to change and the fact that Dems who are the institutionalists are not interested in changing it is part of the problem.
I suspect that is the underlying theme everywhere, why has congress, the DOJ, our voters, and our media just broken?
rikyrah
Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) posted at 10:20 AM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
The people who make $700 an hour have convinced the people who make $25 an hour that the problem is the people who make $7.50 an hour.
(https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1858908316568875026?s=03)
pika
@sentient ai from the future: That’s a helpful gloss on what I’ve been learning from TWiV–thanks
cain
@chopper: and we scroll right past them. Hell, I know a number of people who have triggers over the years. I try not to trigger them and when they are having a moment, I scroll by and not contribute to that.
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 10:24 AM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
in a conversation with someone on here, the subject of South Asian, specifically the Brahmin Indian caste’s fascination with white Americans of the political extremes came up
once you see it, you can’t unsee it
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1858909321691558196?s=03)
Martin
@UncleEbeneezer: Coates does not frame the conflict as simple – that keeps being put in his mouth over and over. Coates frames the observation of the current state as simple. Israel is conducting apartheid. That is simple to observe. That says nothing about how we got to this state or how we get out and Coates makes no suggestions to either of those. He’s quite open that he is unqualified to do so, but he’s not unqualified to observe that whatever claims to Israel being a democracy are untrue and Israels policies violate human rights in a way that are not controversial in the west.
His argument all along is that the most important job of journalists is to observe and report (this is after all a book about writing, not politics). And doing only that job is still a very valuable job. It can be clarifying as it allows you to escape the trap of how the effort to explain how the current state came to be can cause you to rationalize why the current state is acceptable. Coates can leave that task to other people and stand and remind us that the current state is still the current state, and the current state is indefensible to maintain.
This is the kind of trap I’m trying to describe above about the DOJ. If you are too invested in defending the DOJ, or the legal system more broadly, as Democrats defending it against bad actors, then it often causes you to rationalize away the stuff that’s broken. But someone coming in from outside the political space doesn’t give a shit why the system is the way it is, they observe that its broken, look at who is in charge and wonder why nothing is being done about it. And democrats wonder why they lost. They lost because they denied that things were broken.
rikyrah
Fly Sistah![]()
(@Fly_Sistah) posted at 7:39 PM on Mon, Nov 18, 2024:
Down to 1.69%. No. Not a landslide. Vice President Kamala Harris in 107 days was very close despite him running for 9 years. Trump finished 255,425 votes behind Biden in MI, PA, & WI in 2020. Harris is 232,626 votes behind Trump in those three states. https://t.co/zdkZDfdijG
(https://x.com/Fly_Sistah/status/1858686475325370606?s=03)
rikyrah
Ragnarok Lobster![]()
(@eclecticbrotha) posted at 10:31 AM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
People are gonna spend the next four years in a master class on scapegoating. Anything that can’t be blamed on the Biden administration will be blamed on immigrants, LGBTQ and Black people. And why shouldn’t Trumpers do it? That’s how he got elected.
(https://x.com/eclecticbrotha/status/1858911084880490576?s=03)
rikyrah
President Kamala’s Hand (Again) (@myronjclifton) posted at 10:24 AM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
This is small..
But you know all those videos of smarmy reporters interviewing Trump rally people for entertainment?
Showing the obvious for chuckles as if it’s surprising how dumb & racist they are?
Yeah, I don’t need to see any of that stuff for next 4 years.
(https://x.com/myronjclifton/status/1858909146936197554?s=03)
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: forget it Jake, it’s Balloon Juice
rikyrah
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) posted at 9:52 AM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
.@Morning_Joe has turned off replies to tweets and hasn’t posted clips from the show the last two mornings. A sign that Joe and Mika’s trip to Mar-a-Lago isn’t going over well.
(https://x.com/atrupar/status/1858901129729286625?t=T9di3LpFg8aIc4n4vRhE_Q&s=03)
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Martin: Yes. Thank you. The system needs reform. There needs to be limits to how much you can delay while walking around free. I don’t care if they would have voted for him anyway.
Even locally, it can take months to wrap up an investigation of a cop that lost control of his car and crashed into a poor bar owners bar. This happened in 5 minutes. How does it take months to investigate that? Seriously. Our justice system is being attacked as worthless exactly because of things like this. It just lends itself to the evasion of accountability.
Villago Delenda Est
Too late a warning for me (got mine three weeks ago at the VA, both flu and COVID) but I had no issues with either, sore arm for about a day, otherwise good to go. But good info for those out there who don’t have my semi-strong constitution.
Planetjanet
@eemom: Why are you so mean?
Geminid
@Trollhattan: I look at Trump and Netanyahu more as “frenemies.” They had a constructive partnership when it came to the so-called “Abraham Accords” whereby Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco established formal ties with Israel.
But Trump realized the slippery Netanyahu was obstructing his proposed “Deal of the Century” intended to resolve the Palestinian question. Even Trump doesn’t like being lied to, and anyone dealing with “Bibi” finds out quickly that “he lies as he breaths,” as Noga Tarnopolsky puts it.
And Trump really got bent out of shape after Netanyahu called Joe Biden to congratulate him soon after AP called the 2020 election. “Fuck Bibi,” Trump said to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid a year later.
However, Trump is surrounded by advisors and mega-donors who are big Israel hawks, and they will pressure him to back the Israeli government to the hilt regardless of how he feels about the Israeli PM.
So in practical terms, I’d say your scepticism is warranted, but with one caveat: this war will not go on indefinitely. Both the Israeli government and Hamas say they’ll fight it out as long as it takes, but they’ve been fighting for a year already, and they could fight for another year and end up in the same place they are now basically. They both need a deal.
So Trump may be lucky and get to announce an end to the war early in his term. and thereby validate your Afghan co-worker’s view of him as a peacemaker. Like a lot of people, he’ll probably stop paying attention to the area once the bombs stop falling.
coin operated
@brendancalling:
My doc prescribed Welbutrin when I was going thru a nasty (and I do mean nasty) breakup and had started smoking again as a stress response. Doc said that it’ll take a few weeks, but if you really want to quit smoking, you will. Took about 3 weeks but one morning I lit up, said to myself “This tastes like shit”, and have never felt the need to have another…even after coming off the meds.
Quinerly
Dr. Oz tapped for Medicare and Medicaid office.
CNN reporting
Captain C
@Baud: So, basically peace in the sense described by Tacitus (or him quoting Calgacus).
Belafon
@Martin: I always wonder what to do in a situation where you can’t make changes because it costs money and the very imperfect existing system is still standing between good and evil.
Kind of like the Department of Education. Could there be better ways to do stuff? Maybe. But it’s often the only thing stopping states from turning their block grants into “I’m sorry, you don’t qualify because you’re not a white male, I mean you just didn’t meet the standards we have set.”
MisterForkbeard
@Quinerly: “People who’ve been on TV and kiss Trump’s ass”, part one billion
Quinerly
@MisterForkbeard:
All such a fucking joke.
Baud
@Quinerly:
We thought America wanted boring and was tired of the drama. We were wrong.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@UncleEbeneezer:
I see this as a real problem. Speedy trials were a principal in the constitution. It shouldn’t take years. The system is broken.
Soprano2
@cain: It will be interesting to see what they do once TCFG is president. It won’t surprise me if they just melt into the woodwork and quit protesting the government’s policy toward Israel and the Palestinians.
sentient ai from the future
@Martin:
snyder’s On Tyranny implores us to defend institutions. i believe him that it is necessary. we must do so without the expectation that those institutions will save us; that particular delusion is especially common. institutions have their own logic and their own defenses and their own priorities.
we must defend institutions so as to keep them from being turned directly against us, hastening both their and our demises. we must defend institutions so that when the fever eventually breaks, we have some institutional memory and continuity.
we still have the task of saving ourselves.
UncleEbeneezer
@Martin: He presents simplistic takes about aspects about the conflict that are COMPLICATED! Watch the interview. Just one example (of many). He brings up the fact that Palestinians freedom to come and go to Israel is restricted by the security checkpoints and uses that to bash Israel. But he won’t acknowledge the years of suicide bombings that made those checkpoints necessary in the first place. Or the moral obligation that Israel has to protect its’ own citizens. He pulls this move on everything, over and over. This (thing) is wrong and is why Israel is bad. It’s a bullshit move that purposefully draws conclusions on cherry-picked areas of focus that align with his preferred lens.
Geminid
@jonas: There are a lot of Americans who should have known that a vote for Trump was against their own and their community’s interests, but voted for him anyway. Arab American voters demonstrated that this is a melting pot both in good ways and bad.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: I hate that he’s going to get away with all of it, especially the stolen documents case. Garland got a bad break there, because that was a slam dunk case that should have already been tried if not for Cannon seeming to be in TCFG’s pocket. I’m with you, I’m not sure it would have made a difference in the end, but he shouldn’t be getting away with so much crime.
AWOL
@UncleEbeneezer: Like Trumps’ pathetic lot of Arab voters (so openly racist toward Harris in NYC), he’s a clown. He has some talent as a comics fantasist and some nice self-deprecating humor, but not much else going for him. His “Case for Repartitions” felt paper-thin, amateurish, underwhelming. It went nowhere.
He made a fool of himself by supporting Boss Jeffrey Goldberg’s decision to hire “National Review” fascist Kevin D. Williamson at “The Atlantic.” Williamson wrote that women who have had abortions should be hung. Eventually, even the readers of that shoddy publication rebelled and the offer to Williamson was rescinded. Then Coates left to work on “Black Panther.” He cashed in well.
I guess he discovered the Palestinian cause to distance himself from Goldberg, a strong supporter of Israel. But I don’t trust him. I don’t trust anyone who would welcome the hiring of a fascist.
And he did.
chopper
@sentient ai from the future:
you know what you did
cain
@satby: Wait.. is his name Jake?! Cool.
Also, don’t forget – if there is one thing I’ve learned about human nature once you have incorrect info at the onset it takes a mountainload of time to correct it.
LAC
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: The accused is afforded the right to a speedy trial. If the accused wants to prolong the legal process by various legal machinations, and can afford it, then they can.
frosty
@Quinerly: That son of a bitch is just fucking trolling us and daring the Senate to do something.
“If they can make you believe an absurdity they can make you commit an atrocity.” These Cabinet picks are the absurdities.
Lobo
@Martin: Actions must match rhetoric. If not, they rhetoric is dismissed as noise. To many people, a coup attempt is treason and should have been treated as such. Yet, crickets. It was jarring not to see some urgency there. The institution shouldn’t come at the expense of doing the right thing.
cain
@Soprano2:
Hey that’s what they did during Trump’s term. Hardly a whisper of protest.
cain
@Lobo:
Yeah, that was what was nutty – the president can do anything and the qualifications are more open than getting a job at McDonalds.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@LAC: We need limits. The victims of those crimes shouldn’t have their misery dragged out for years.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Martin:
Jay Rosen expresses this as “I’m here, you’re not, here’s what I see.” It’s a vitally important job of a reporter, and one of the big issues with the current way that journalism is practiced (especially in DC) is that they begin with interpretation instead of observation.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Here’s an interesting comparison point: when there were anti-migrant protests in England in (late July? early August?) and a bunch of hooligans were arrested, many of them were tried and sentenced in a few days. I remember reading that in the Guardian and being so shocked by it.
Martin
@cain: Correct. Democrats need to learn how to acknowledge the failures of these various institutions, and work to remedy them. Because if good actors aren’t willing to reform, then the task will be left to bad actors only because they’re the only ones willing to reform.
And I speak from experience on this – the hardest part of reform is tearing down, because you aren’t sure what you’re losing. Building the new stuff is easy.
TBone
@Quinerly: 🤡💩😤
I’m still waiting for Roger Stone’s nomination to Secty. of the Treasury.
This Homan clown thinks he already has power.
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/11/immigration-czar-tom-homan-threatens-dem
Jackie
@Josie: I’m guessing yes, but McConnell will go to his deathbed without ever admitting it aloud.
NutmegAgain
I think all my vaxes* were Pfizer-Biontec. I felt like I had a cold the first one, but nothing since. I got covid one time, about 4 months ago. I was dizzy and clearly not functioning really well in the cognition department.
Martin
@Belafon: There are always ways to so it. You may need to be creative, and you definitely need to know how to work the system from the inside (which a lot of politicians lack the skills to do, while others are very good at it – Biden is pretty good at it, for example).
But one thing Democrats should consider doing is completely flipping the problem. Be more open to the idea of sending some functions back to the states, because one problem that has developed is that it’s quite clear that blue states are subsidizing red state opposition to policy. Push these problems from the federal to state level where they will divide republicans.
Will there be damage to people in states that refuse to pick up the task? Of course, but we’re getting damage when we lose federal elections. When you have Republicans as least pretending to operate the government in good faith, it’s worth continuing to fight as we did, but when you have an administration that is going to punish blue states and reward red states, you have to stop playing the game as if the feds are there to level the playing field because the feds are now there to punish, not help, and it doesn’t benefit Dems to operate this way. In this environment, it’s better for the federal government to be defunded because you can’t win when the voters you rely on are the ones bearing the costs. That’s how authoritarians operate.
I’m not alarmed by the removal of the Dept of Education. Among other things, it might be the shockwave needed to pull higher education out of their death spiral. I spent a quarter century trying to find ways to steer my institution out of that, and I failed completely because the economic benefits to selling out the educational mission was too strong. Yeah, we’ll lose institutions in poor states – particularly red states. But I’d rather that than have the DOJ prosecuting faculty in blue states. We’re going to take losses and I think Republicans have made their position very clear they don’t want us helping them. Maybe we should listen and stop sending them money. Make disaster recovery a state function given that so many states aren’t interested in disaster prevention. Why do Democrats fight harder to fund Republicans than Republicans do?
By sending functions back to the states, we can at least have some functional agencies at the state level rather than having none at the federal level. We can always rebuild the federal agency later if voters decide that it’s not working at the state level. I remain convinced that all policy issues in the US ultimately are economic ones. If you can’t make the case that funding higher ed is valuable at the federal level, then make space for the states to make that argument by competing for industry and workers. Because nobody gets ahead in the former case, and at least someone can in the latter, and it provides a vehicle to demonstrate that it’s worth investing in – something that we have largely lost.
lowtechcyclist
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Problem is, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…”Doesn’t say anything about the rest of us, unfortunately. Though who knows, maybe the courts have said sometime over the decades that the citizenry have an interest in a speedy trial and share that right, though I’m just guessing here. Maybe our lawyers can speak to that.
ETA: Beaten to it by LAC @137.
UncleEbeneezer
@Martin: He makes simple assertions like “Israel is committing genocide” and there’s no follow up on the actual legal distinction, proportionality, intent, Gaza Health Ministry numbers coming from Hamas with false civilian/combatant numbers in recent past etc. All of those things make the determination complicated. But his assertion is just taken as fact. Same for Settler-Colonialism framing. Imperialism etc. All complicated but his interviews never explore that complexity. They just take all the Anti-Zionist talking points as given and obvious.
Sally
@frosty: They are the atrocities.
Snarki, child of Loki
REMEMBER to pick your COVID vaccine based on the type of ‘chip you want to get!
FREX, the Moderna vaccine will give you a Microsoft chip, which does *not* play well with Apple 5G phones. And Pfizer will give you an Apple chip, which will make your Windows system crash (condolences to all the people who got BSOD).
Now, you can’t get the J&J vaccine any more, so it’s a problem getting updates, BUT it’s a Linux chip, so you just need to download the updates from Github. Make sure you aren’t on an old, dormant fork, however.
LAC
@lowtechcyclist: The importance of a speedy trial was to prevent people being kept in prison or of any type of pretrial confinement for prolonged periods leading up to a trial and the inability to defend themselves. It is a four part test and one of the tests is that the defendant asked for a speedy trial. The public does not have that right. Yes, a rich asshole with lawyers flying out of his ass can prolong a trial with preliminary court filings, but the amendment was not for rich assholes who can afford bail and can walk about freely.
nickdag
It’s not conclusive, but there’s intriguing evidence that Novavax’s durability is mildly better than the mRNA shots. Especially after 2 shots, it may also be somewhat more effective against future mutations (relative to the mRNA).
I don’t want to oversell it, but there are definitely upsides to having it.
kalakal
I took part in the clinical trials for nova ax. I’ve had that and the 2 mrna. I’ve never had a particularly string reaction to any but I’d say the strongest was to Moderna & the mildest to Novavax