Stars Wars Day — May the Fourth be with you…
— Kerim (@UCLAKerim) May 4, 2020
May the fourth be with you. Don't forget to keep washing your Hans! #Maythe4th pic.twitter.com/caj7Rf8NOV
— Monash University (@MonashUni) May 3, 2020
May the fourth be with your immune system pic.twitter.com/DfbUvTy2O3
— Beth-Ann Bloom (@beth_annbloom) May 4, 2020
The Fourth is strong with this one. Not social distancing would be a wookie error. #MayThe4th pic.twitter.com/gCG9TkWgRe
— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) May 3, 2020
.
But also a tragic anniversary:
If you hear CSNY’s “Ohio” in heavy rotation on the airwaves today, there’s a reason. A sad and grim anniversary. pic.twitter.com/jtV72BJ3kE
— Stefan Dziemianowicz (@StefanDz11) May 4, 2020
“We went with our young reporter and we were right." — Robert Giles, editor in charge at the Akron Beacon Journal on May 4, 1970. On Monday, that will be 50 years ago. The paper won a Pulitzer Prize. … My column here: https://t.co/z1FGKfxg1P
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) May 3, 2020
… “The gunshots still echo in 2020,” wrote Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch. “It’s no accident that in the months immediately after Kent State, business leaders and other conservatives began looking for ways to quash liberal thinking on campus and counteract it with the conservative web of noise that became talk radio and Fox News.”
But as Giles, the Beacon Journal’s former managing editor, told me in an interview, the worst of it is that no justice was ever done.
“No one has ever been held accountable, in a country where the rule of law is supposed to prevail.”…
Later, the paper investigated false allegations that sought to shift the blame from the National Guard to the students — for example, that there had been a sniper in the protest crowd.
Photography played a role, too. Looking back at the work of three student photographers used in the paper’s coverage, Giles saw in retrospect how clear it was that the guardsmen had not been threateningly surrounded by students, as some were claiming…
JPL
Kent State was a gut punch.
Miss Bianca
Yow. I was six years 50 years ago today, so I don’t remember a lot about the actual day, but I had older brothers and sisters – one of whom was just graduating high school that year, so I heard a lot about it and it’s been burned into my brain as one of the signature events that heralded the ascent of shitty right-wing authoritarian thinking.
My whole damn life has been marked by this ascent. First Goldwater, then Nixon, then Reagan, then Bushes, now Trump. Fuck this shit. I’ll probably be dead before it really turns around. Tho’ I hope not.
Elizabelle
Harrison Ford has had another runway incident, very recently. Crossed an active runway, although we’re told no one was endangered.
BBC: Harrison Ford: The ups and downs of his long flying career
Did not realize he’s a heli pilot too. Cannot imagine how much his insurance bill is…
lamh36
Evening BJ.
I submitted my final paper for my graduate capstone course (taken in your final semester) early. It was due Thursday. I want my teacher to read it and JIC he wants me to do more. I can. But if he gives it at least a B for effort, I’ll take it and I ain’t redoing it!
We’ll see!
Next up, my final test next Wednesday for my last class.
lamh36
Now we know why OANN has been given such a premo spot in the briefing room
Steeplejack
Report from the coronasphere:
Beautiful day here in NoVA: sunny, breezy, high up around 70°. Energizing. Short shorts are winning the seasonal battle against yoga pants, but I don’t think they can declare victory yet. Highs supposed to be bouncing up and down around 60° the rest of the week. Back to March weather after some true April weather today. But I digress.
I drove my friend B. to work at Trader Joe’s at 5:00. Lots of people out jogging, dog-walking and pedestrianizing in Ballston and Clarendon. “Lots” in the context of a couple of weeks ago, but still probably not at the level of the before times. I don’t know, because I didn’t drive through there very often back then. Not everyone wearing masks, but if I was out there and maintaining proper distance I probably wouldn’t be wearing one either.
I got so energized that I sacked up and forced myself to make a long overdue run to the super Giant that opened in my neighborhood a couple of months ago. I don’t know why I have a mental block against it. I think it’s just a block against the general idea of shopping during the pandemic. In fact, it was a breeze—as it was the other two times I have been in there since it opened. Not crowded, masked staff and (most) customers (including me), shelves pretty well stocked except for obvious (toilet paper) and weird (tonic water) gaps. And it’s a really good store—not quite in the Wegmans zone but definitely high-end. I intended to get just a few odds and ends to get me through the next few days, but I ended up dropping almost a hundred bucks, which is a big haul for me. But I’m set for a while now.
I think the states reopening is going to be a disaster, and I am resigned to this lifestyle for the foreseeable future: shelter in place, drive B. to Trader Joe’s, make occasional forays for required shopping and takeout from my short list of “supported” restaurants. It’s not bad; 90% of the time I am home putzing around the same way I did before. And I feel blessed that I have the resources to ride out the storm. I don’t know exactly where Virginia is on the policy spectrum. I think we’re doing pretty well, but I don’t know for sure. As I said, I’m staying hunkered down until things are much safer than they are now.
Returning to Clarendon at 9:00 to pick up B. The tactical gear (pants!) and the doughty Kia have been getting a workout during these troubled times. Which reminds me: I need to gas up the K-whip tonight or tomorrow and check in with my guy at the BP station. Mega Millions is looking pretty tempting at $173 million (cash option) tomorrow! If I win I’ll take Balloon Juice ad-free.
Another Scott
I just happened to look at the muted TV to see a long ad for our God-Emperor on HGTV with images of Cuomo and Newsom and USPS workers and Navy Sailors and the Blue Angels and masked healthcare workers just about everyone everywhere being happy about him keeping us safe and bringing America back under his glorious leadership.
That answers the question about why the Blue Angels and the rest were flying over east-coast cities this weekend.
He must be worried by his tanking poll numbers. As he should be.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Emma
Speaking of important anniversaries, another one is coming up on May 13th, for the 13 May Incident in Kuala Lumpur in 1969. Curious to know if anyone has read The Weight of Our Sky, which deals with this very topic (Malay vs. Chinese communal violence in the wake of a parliamentary election), because even though it’s a YA historical fiction novel, I find that it’s actually more mature than a lot of adult novels, particularly in how the author ends the novel.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
priorities…
trollhattan
Watching Burns’ “Vietnam” I had to stop for a time after it covered Kent State. The cruel slaughter of course, and also the national mood with the not-so-silent majority opining those kids had it coming. Who are we, really?
raven
I’d been home about 7 months, flunked out of Illinois, went out west, came back to go to the College of DuPage and live in the room I’d told my old man I wasn’t going to live in. I went down to C-U for a demonstration and met the woman I would marry in the melee. When the shootings happened I really lost it. I was in Chicago and I called her and told her to stay put until I got there because I thought the war was coming home. I hauled ass down there and, when I got there, I went totally to pieces shaking and crying at the thought of what was coming. It was bad but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I’m counting on that again now.
Elizabelle
That’s very interesting, that UPI initially went with “2 dead National Guardsmen and 2 dead students.” Got that straight from the NGuard, no?
Also that the college photogs on site made it clear: the Guard was not surrounded by students, or endangered…
Has anyone ever seen any reporting on the Guardsmen in the years after the shooting? Would imagine it was traumatic for many of them.
And nine injured. Forgot that part of it …
Another Scott
@lamh36: Remember that there were rumors of Donnie wanting to own his own cable network once he lost the election to Hillary. He’s probably dusting off those plans again…
Cheers,
Scott.
Delk
We got the trump letter today and unceremoniously tore it up over the recycle bin. We got the direct deposit checks last month.
debbie
I don’t remember if it was the same day as Kent State or the next day in reaction to Kent State, but there were also demonstrations at OSU. Riot cops, tear gas, the whole nine yards. A German Shepard was incapacitated by the tear gas.
The next morning, I got the morning paper from the front step for my dad. On the front page above the fold and spanning most of the columns was a photograph of a military tank trundling down High Street along the OSU campus. The street there is four lanes across, with parking on both sides, so it was a tight fit. That photo scared the shit out of me.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
Bless you for doing the Lord’s work.
My Sunday Costco run was shockingly quick and easy, doubly so considering it’s the beginning of the month. No TP, of course. I bandana’d because where the hell exactly are people getting masks? My April Amazon mask order tracking informs me it has departed a joint in China, so perhaps here sometime before June….
Got the van smogged, so good there for 2 years. Interesting how certain things are much easier than usual.
Anne Laurie
I was just young enough (not quite 14) that I remember my reaction as Oh, that’s what it’s gonna be like from now on. Oookay…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36:
with independent, successful business man Donald trump, JR, who has buckets of cash to invest from his successful independent business career
Elizabelle
Hmmm. A WaPost reader comment on the Margaret Sullivan story about Kent State anniversary.
zhena gogolia
@Delk:
We haven’t gotten anything. Are the blue states being stiffed?
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Once Again”? Can we make it “Never Again” and call it a wrap.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan:
Why is TP still impossible to get?
Elizabelle
And a response from another WaPost reader:
Another Scott
@trollhattan: We ordered 50 surgeons masks on eBay over a month ago. They were due by April 15. I figured they were never coming, but they did eventually show up a couple of days ago.
Maybe add 2 weeks to the estimated delivery time. :-/
I was able to snag some bandanananas on Etsy that I’ve been using for several weeks. I fold it in half diagonally, then over again and pin it with a safety pin. I tie it on as high on my nose as possible (just below my bottom eyelid), and it works fine for ~ 1 hour walks. It’s not ideal, obviously, but neither are the paper surgeon’s masks. It’s enough to block big droplets, and that’s good enough for my needs.
We’re saving the surgeon’s masks for later.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Anne Laurie:
I think everybody was already jittery because Nixon had announced the Cambodia invasion on what, April 29? and campuses blew up in response. What a fucking time to be alive.
Steeplejack
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Ohio.” With a pretty good student video montage.
Man, I can’t believe the wave of emotion—and tears—that overcame me as I watched and listened to this. I was a freshman in college, and this really was a watershed moment.
Delk
@zhena gogolia: not sure. I’m in Chicago. We filed our taxes and the check came pretty soon afterwards.
khead
“I encourage all businesses that are allowed to open to do so – only – if they fucking follow the guidelines to keep WV safe”. – WV GOV Jim Justice
JPL
@Anne Laurie: That’s why I don’t compare events to today. It really was a gut punch. When I realized that we just kill our own now I became physically ill. Now we are all frogs in the pot of water.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
IDK. It must be getting snatched up during geezer hour in the morning. Or…? We had plenty in mid-March when lockdown started but now the supply is dwindling. Guess I have to start bartering with the neighbors or something. But what do I have they’d want? Maybe starters from the backyard willow, I hear they’re popular.
Uncle Cosmo
May 4, 1970. Johns Hopkins (the university, not hospital) had already been in the midst of a student strike over the admin allowing military recruiters to set up shop on campus when Tricky Dick invaded Cambodia (in fact a referendum on the recruiters was being held the morning he did it), & we just segued over to that issue.
I remember walking into the strike office in the back of the upstairs dining hall at the student union that afternoon, where someone’s radio was blaring out the news from Ohio. The 3 or 4 of us in the office looked at one another very, very solemnly. It penetrated, finally, that this was not a spring fling or a game – we could get killed doing this.
Anne Laurie
As I understand it, Just-in-Time supply lines. It’s made from (mostly imported) timber pulp, and there was no advance planning for a once-in-a-century crisis where the cargo container ships might not be arriving and the freight trucks might not be rolling on the predicted schedule.
And it’s one thing to priority-ship drugs or PPE, but toilet paper?!?
Chyron HR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Fixed.
Anne Laurie
@JPL: “Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they are seldom disappointed.”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
So they didn’t even have that figleaf, did they?
Also, a bunch of conservative babies got their knickers in a twist when Jane Fonda was a speaker for the 50th commemoration this year
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
The bandana thing is tricky, good to hear another method. Did not like the stagecoach robber look and eventually figured out how to make a sort of rectangle and capture the knot with the hole in the back of an adjustable ballcap, so it won’t slide off. Then I only looked like an incompetent stagecoach robber.
Do you find yourself shouting with it on? “I don’t know if you can hear me, so let me overcompensate!”
Uncle Cosmo
@trollhattan: Since tomorrow is Karl Marx’s 202nd birthday, why don’t we let them have “Once Again” – so long as we can subtitle it “This Time As Farce.”
(It’s also my very dear Czech friend’s 80th birthday tomorrow. Všechno nejlepší k narozeninám, Milane!)
Jay
@zhena gogolia:
timber mills and log cutting shut down in Canada down last spring because of oversupply of dimensional lumber, shortage of cut stock and the extended forest fire seasons.
As a result, a lot of the “chipped waste” that would go towards pulp mills or local cogeneration plants, doesn’t exist.
lamh36
@Another Scott: See I was just asking about ad buys on twitter. Biden has a new digital ad out and I was just wondering if any of the digital ads made it to broadcast tv.
Cause I haven’t seen a Biden ad yet.
I mean, I know the point is to create buzz. I freely admit I don’t watch political news shows anymore, but I do watch national/local news. So far the only buzz I’ve seen about the digital ads have been on social media.
That’s why I asked if any of them have so far made it to broadcast
Becasue IMHO, as good as these ads are, if they dont’ make it to broadcast then????
For all the folks on SM…majority of reliable voting blocks are not.
Am I wrong in thinking these ads outside of “buzz” are are wasted just a little if they aren’t on broadcast outside of online fundraising tools of course?
Here’s the new Biden ad:
https://twitter.com/chrislongview/status/1257430402760953856
debbie
@trollhattan:
Summer’s going to be tough wearing those things.
Brooklyn Dodger
@trollhattan: Try Etsy.com Lots of small business folks making them, and found some hand sanitizer too, though that has reappeared in the stores.
trollhattan
Re. Cambodia, see if the last two sentences resonate at all.
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
Kudos for all your work! Send us a picture of your sheepskin when you get it.
zhena gogolia
@Delk:
We filed a long time ago and have gotten neither our refund nor the stimulus, in CT.
zhena gogolia
@khead:
Are those his exact words?
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan:
@Anne Laurie: Groan. Oh well, I guess there are worse problems.
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah. Two words for Culo deRienzo:
Court. Packing.
We can do it, too. And unlike you, we’re actually competent enough to make it stick.
Motherfucker.
Jay
Not so much,
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36:
I don’t know if/where these ads are running. I’ve gotten so far away from watching anything not streamed these days– except political news shows. I used to watch Jeopardy pretty regularly (don’t know why I stopped) but they had heavy ads in rotation. Wasn’t trump already running ads during football games last season?
Robert Sneddon
@Elizabelle: A guy I used to room with was active-service British Army. He had been seconded to the UN peacekeeping effort and had done duty on the Green Line in Cyprus (UNFICYP) which has been a contentious location for over fifty years. He got riot control training and protective gear but the only offensive equipment they were issued with on deployment were staves and tear-gas projectors. The heavy kit, armoured cars with machine guns mounted were kept well back from the Green Line and never brought out unless things were really going into the shitter.
Calouste
@Anne Laurie: Also, people are using a lot more TP at home that they used to use at work/school/going out. And commercial TP has different supply chains than residential TP, and in some cases commercial TP comes in completely different sizes than residential TP.
Steeplejack
@raven:
I feel you, man. I was a bald-faced freshman journalism major, and even at my shitbird land-grant school (yay, Mizzou!) there were huge protests. For a while it felt like it was really going to go down.
Bookend to “Ohio”: “Almost Cut My Hair.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: or, as Josh Marshall put it :
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Anne Laurie:
I’ve also heard that a lot of factory lines were only geared towards commercial toilet paper and paper towels. Supply lines for home TP/PT weren’t prepared to meet demand
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
PPP Poll — Iowa Senate — May 1st (link)
Joni Ernst………………….43%
Theresa Greenfield…..42%
Ernst’s approval rating is in the shitter at 37%.
tick tock muther fuckers.
Tenar Arha
@trollhattan: I do the origami folded ones with the two elastics version, and I broke out my rusty Home Ec skills cutting out 12” squares from t-shirts for three 4-seam versions using shoelaces or velvet ribbon to tie them on over & under my ears & behind my head. I’m also waiting on a pack of 3 for $20 (bc part of the proceeds is donated) I ordered 4/18 from Crooked Media.
ETA 4-seam mask instructions https://twitter.com/maryrobinette/status/1246915396403372032?s=21
origami bandanna w elastic https://bumblebeelinens.com/blog/diy-face-mask/
lamh36
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s kind of good news. Is there anything the Trumps have not run into the ground?
Jay
@Calouste:
Commercial tp also comes in a bunch of grades ranging from “as cheap as possible while still pretending to be TP”, to the grade known as invisible/impossible.
Subsole
@Another Scott:
We’ve had supply issues here in Texas as well.
So either president goodbrain is shafting everyone, or he’s shafting blue states and the effects are rippling over to red states as well because supply chains, how do they work?
Either way, adding a few days onto your shipping time is probably prudent.
“The packages go out, the packages come in. You can’t explain that.”
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
I ran a poll on that here last week, and the answer was no. Just random, no apparent screwage.
debbie
@lamh36:
Why not a similar investigation about Kennedy’s “retirement”?
JPL
If there is one positive from this, it’s that I discovered Charmin is septic safe. My son bought me tp at Costco and researched septic safe and Charmin popped up,
WaterGirl
@lamh36: My last exam in grad school… I was SO VERY TIRED at that point that I wrote my name wrong on the exam. I have a long last name – 12 letters – and I apparently wrote the last half twice.
My thesis advisor happened to the be the instructor in the class, and he threatened to fail me for not being able to write my own name. (not for real)
Is your exam early in the day, or late in the day? Don’t be too tired! Is your final the only thing you have left???
lamh36
https://twitter.com/RonanFarrow/status/1257425628334379010
Oooh.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
From that poll:
What planet are these people living on?
khead
@zhena gogolia:
At the 14 minute mark.
Feathers
If I were to offer masks for sale, would people here buy them? I’ve been cleaning up and found that I have a ridiculous amount of cotton. I thought I had given it away before I moved. What would be a fair price? I don’t currently have elastic, and would have to do ties, but apparently the local fabric store is getting supplies in and you can pick up by appointment. I wouldn’t take orders, just announce that I have some to send, because I wouldn’t want to let anxiety slow me up. I can do either the ones with the pleats or the more fitted ones with a seam down the middle.
Went to the grocery store yesterday. Well, actually Target. I’ve been taking the bus in to Porter Square, but there were quite a few unmasked homeless people on the sidewalk between the bus stop and the shopping center. There was a line outside the grocery store and I had to go to Target anyway, so I just went there. I don’t like the Stop & Shop in Arlington, so I may get stuck going to Whole Foods. Normally I really like that Cambridge is so tolerant of the homeless and mentally ill, but yesterday it was putting me above my cope level. I don’t like that about myself. Although, now that I know the situation, I may just plan for it and reroute myself to use the other bus stop.
Subsole
@Jay: In fairness, “the most successful part of the Vietnam War” seems…not a very high bar?
I mean, wasn’t it essentially Iraq, but with more palm trees? And more domestic violence?
WaterGirl
@raven: Thanks for sharing that. Perspective is a wonderful thing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@lamh36:
Thank god Lack is getting the boot
Kathleen
@Miss Bianca: Two people were killed at Jackson State University on May 15, 1970:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/jackson-state-killings-1970/
I was a junior in college in Portland, Oregon though my family lived in Cincinnati. My dad said it was open season on college students.
Mike in NC
Old enough to remember Kent State, where poorly trained Guardsmen were sent out carrying loaded M-1 rifles. WTF? Nixon called the victims “bums”. Hard to believe we’ve done worse, though I imagine many of our elderly asshole neighbors loved Tricky Dick as much as they now love Fat Bastard.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lamh36:
Congrats! What a relief.
lamh36
Out of all the Pulitzer Prize news, this one is the BEST of them all, IMHO
JeanneT
If anyone is still thinking of sewing their own facemasks, I highly recommend the pattern from ragmask.com. It’s a fitted mask, but very quick to sew. I’ve been make mine out of calico with a lining of lightweight/featherweight interfacing and 16 gauge aluminum wire in the nosepiece. They fit snugly, but don’t steam up my glasses. The pattern as printed fits teens and women; scale it up to 105% to fit most men. FWIW!
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
I was shouting through my mask at the customer service guy at Giant today. I had such a good experience that I broke down and got one of their discount cards, which involved selling my soul to Big Data. I thought I was speaking clearly as the guy typed in my info, but he was not getting anything.
“Sleeper pack?”
“Steeplejack!”
“Dead Pill Lane?”
“Threadkill Lane!”
By the end I felt like I was screaming, and he still probably couldn’t understand me.
Hmm, if the card works and they screwed up my info, that’s actually okay with me.
Kathleen
@trollhattan: My dad’s cousin managed the food service at Wilmington College, about an hour north of Cincinnati. When Wilmington College students staged a protest march after Kent State he brought food to them on the route (he was a liberal Democrat but also made the point the kids paid for the food so they were entitled to it). He received death threats. Good times.
Subsole
@lamh36:
And yet another piece of the 2016 election coverage puzzle falls into place…
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Make it a mini-trilogy: “Long Time Gone.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: here’s hoping crazy old Rupert sees this as a personal threat
Subsole
@debbie:
Jesus. They rolled tanks on y’all?
That sounds insane.
Like, I knew things were wild but nothing I’ve read really conveyed how wild.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: @Subsole: that fucking Commander-In-Chief forum hosted by Lack’s protégé and fellow predator Matt Fucking Lauer…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Adam will love this;
In Russia there is a Conspiracy Theory that there is no Russian Federation and the Soviet Union still exists.
https://youtu.be/btIGYe28jWw
lamh36
@WaterGirl: it’s all online. and since it’s a night program, the exam is at night. 6pm. Our last exam was online as well, so it’s all good. Luckily it’s not cumulative, just the last 3 weeks of material will be on the test.
and yup…it’s my LAST exam and last day in the program!
Kathleen
@trollhattan: The Kroger store I went to yesterday in Newport, Kentucky was fairly well stocked with toilet paper, even the Charmin.
Subsole
@Steeplejack:
Such a good band…good album, too.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Where I live, there are several local businesses selling cloth masks. One is a dry cleaner/tailor, who is allowed to remain open because laundry and dry cleaning are considered essential. Another is a little clothing boutique, which is closed but will do local deliveries. I think there are a few other businesses also selling them. You can probably find them in your area if you look closely. If not there, you can probably get some very cute ones on Etsy.
Jay
@Feathers:
so far here, we are not seeing much Covid19 amongst the unhoused or even the working unhoused.
it has been reported that being unhoused is most often a isolated/solitary/lonely experience, even in areas with large encampments for a large variety of reasons.
In the unhoused communities that I assist, I am more concerned with one of the working unhoused bringing Covid back to their family through exposure at their “essential” job that doesn’t pay enough to provide shelter, shortages of food at the food banks, the closure of street kitchens, the loss of community workers who provide broad ranges of support,
And all of that pales in comparison with going to my “essential” job, where we have lost 3 co-workers so far and another 2 sick, in a world with more than enough Covidiots.
WaterGirl
@lamh36:
Excellent! You have worked so hard for this, it has to feel great.
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
HA!
Ahahaha!
Hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaaahahaahaaahaahahaaa!!!
lamh36
@lamh36:
BTW, I wondering if Farrow is/will be doing any reporting on the Tara Reade vs Biden allegations. I mean I could see him not wanting to touch it cause of a conflict of interest? His fiancee, Jon Levitt was a former Obama speechwriter so he had a personal relationship w/Obama and by extension Biden.
I wonder if Farrow doesn’t want to touch anything to do with it all.
I did notice that Farrow and Levitt have not mentioned anything about it all on their twitter pages…which is interesting since mostly all of the Obama alums have come to Biden’s defense on social media.
HMMM
debbie
@JPL:
Huh, the manager at my last apartment told me I’d have to pay for damages resulting from using Charmin.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I was in grad school at Michigan. We were all just filtering in for the start of the summer half term. I remember sitting in a grill with friends staring at the TV in disbelief. “They fired into a crowd?” someone said. I said earlier today that it was the single most radicalizing event of my life.
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I keep thinking of Les Moonves.
“He may be had for America, but he’s great for CBS!”
Fuckin’ slime of the Earth, these people…
Steeplejack
@khead:
Sounds more like he glitched on “follow/can follow” as he was reading.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lamh36:
As I understand it, Farrow backed away from the story earlier.
lamh36
Of all the younger candidate, I did like Beto, just didn’t think he was ready for POTUS.
Kathleen
@Subsole: As well as the Biden frenzy.
Subsole
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I – whut?
The Orthodox Church will be stunned to hear that, I’m sure
lamh36
@WaterGirl: yup. right now in the class, I have a B+ As long as I get at least a B on this exam…I can still end up with a B in the class and at this point, that’s really ALL I want…LOL
Kathleen
@lamh36: Congratulations to you! I know how hard you have worked and I admire your intelligence, tenacity and focus.
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
Richly deserved.
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ugh, I thought I was over that.
I’m not.
zhena gogolia
@khead:
I think he starts to say “follow” but says “fo–” then “can follow.”
But you probably knew that!
lamh36
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I know that was what I had heard too. But I just wonder if Farrow had a REAL scoop vs Biden, he’s been such an advocate for this cause that I cannot imagine he not still looking into it, even with a conflict.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36:
Lovett talked about that angle on the O’Bros’ podcast today, having watched Farrow research and write these stories and how hard it was and how much time it took; ETA: he was pretty noncommittal as to whom he believes. Favreau tip-toed up to the line of pointing out that, pace Chris Hayes, Reade’s accusations are not in fact carved in marble by the hand of God. I don’t think it was my imagination that you could hear fear in their voices as they addressed the topic. On last week’s episode, Tommy Vietor did an interview about it with Amanda Marcotte that was more or less fair, discussed the evidence for and against each party, and got swamped with (mostly) Bernie-ragers on twitter
Elizabelle
@lamh36: yea you!!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan:
That’s “old folks hour”…damn kids.
Raven
@Steeplejack: or Find the Cost of Freedom
https://youtu.be/GMfvYxK9Zoo
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Somebody told me Farrow was talking to Reade, but I’m too nervous to look it up. I wish she would go away.
zhena gogolia
@Subsole:
Unfortunately, that attitude has survived Moonves.
Raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: John Sinclair and the White Panthers!
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: interesting. “fear” of the unknown, or “fear” of the “known”…I wonder???
Steeplejack
@Subsole:
Yeah, I wore out that album and Déjà Vu in college
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Don’t tell me you think Biden did what she says he did.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Raven:
Yes indeed. I was mostly buried in the library, but I walked across the Diag every day, the place where all demonstrations at UMich took place. The scene at Kent was just unbelievable.
lamh36
@zhena gogolia: no I don’t believe it. Her story is too sketchy to me.
But I was just wondering about the “fear” aspect of it. I imagine is was the “fear” of even broaching the subject at all?
Subsole
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That channel is fascinating
lamh36
Welp…let the screeching from the Bernie-left begin!
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Good one. I can’t believe how emotional all this makes me. After 50 years!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: fear of blowback from the Bernie-ragers, mostly. Just my subjective interpretation. When they moved on the Veep-stakes there were joking about how relieved they were to have changed the subject
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Good for her.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The Sanders people are as bad as the Trump people.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: I am sorry to say that Lovett DID mention it on the podcast I listened to this weekend, which must have been Lovett or Leave It. He seemed every earnest in his concern and was saying that obviously we have to take this very seriously.
PUKE.
I wondered if that was the embers of his Bernie love being revived. I was not happy.
zhena gogolia
Where’s Trump’s DNA? Where are his tax returns?
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Someone in that thread says something like, “That’s a pretty weak defense.” What? What more could she say?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: and dumber. At least trump and his people understand the stakes (linking to my own comment to save time and space).
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Subsole
@Kathleen:
Yep. They are gonna butter those emails til their arms fall off.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Whatever she said, it would never be enough.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I guess she could say, “I was with Joseph R. Biden Jr. every moment of every day throughout 1993, and he never did this.”
Baud
@zhena gogolia: They would demand that she document where he was each of those days.
Subsole
@zhena gogolia:
Eh. She has already been pronounced anathema and excommunicate by the Stras serites.
I doubt it will be any different from the angry foaming delirium they already stagger through their day under.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It occurs to me that given Farrow’s connections to Biden-world, not just Lovett but Farrow worked in the Obama admin too, and MSNBC, I imagine his degrees of separation are few. If he were investigating Biden, talking to ex-staffers and Hill people, it would get back to Biden, and Warren, and Obama, and…. Dan Pfeiffer, the sorta O’Bro from Delaware, says DE’s political world is a small town. They would know if Ronan were comin’
trollhattan
@Tenar Arha:
You had me at “No sewing required.” Thanks!
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If he changes his name from Ronan to Omar, watch out.
Another Scott
@Jay:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/what-the-us-bombing-of-cambodia-tells-us-about-obamas-drone-campaign/273142/
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: I rarely go to Giant, but when I do the checkout people always use their own card (or one at the register) when I say I don’t have one. Works for me. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Gotcha
lamh36
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: interesting. thanks for that background.
Bex
@lamh36: Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer interviewed Reade at length a while ago and decided there was no there there.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Yeah, I had been doing that, but then today I found myself not getting a couple of things because I didn’t want to roll the dice on not getting comped. What the hell. Google has probably sold them my data already.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: China, the Deep State, and those kids in Bulgaria have all your information already. I wouldn’t worry about it.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Steeplejack:
Tonic Water is one of the essential food groups for people who drink tonic water based cocktails. My primary Kroger’s store was out of the prime canned tonic water last week… I got bottles instead, which imposes a higher waste load on us.
Wine bottles are bad enough!!
Gvg
@Feathers: I have heard my county is giving away masks to lower income people. Commentary is they aren’t publicizing where. My guess is they are afraid of running out immediately. Now that supplies are starting to show up, I bet there will be more of this and their needs to be. I hadn’t even thought this through till now.
all of my adds for the last month seem to be for various fashionable masks. Silly looking actually.
J R in WV
More seriously…
50 years ago today I was in USN Boot Camp at Great Lakes IL. When we heard about Kent State, some of us were appalled, disgusted, horrified. Others were vocal about wanting to be armed and sent out to kill college students. All of us were in Navy Boot Camp to avoid being drafted into the Army/Marines and sent to the mud and jungles of SE Asia. So many of those guys spouting off about killing anti-war college students were NOT volunteering to fight in the ‘Nam.
Despicable. The whole hitch in the Navy was like that… I was out before we ran away from the catastrophe. I enjoyed the work, the team work to handle heavy dangerous tasks safely. But the politics, the anti-commie line of the lifers, the militant hate of the anti-war movement which I supported. I hated all that. So relieved when I was discharged honorably.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Tonic water is certainly one of my essential food groups! Today I scored the last Schweppes six-pack in the store. First one I’ve seen anywhere in a week or two.
Anne Laurie
I think most of the political ads today are done explicitly for ‘social media’. Partly because so many people have stopped watching tv ads entirely, but mostly because the ‘swing voters’ are getting their news from Facebook, Twitter, etc. And not only are such social-media placements cheaper — they have a considerable ‘earned’ (free) multiplication factor, as people forward them around on related media. (Pay for one facebook ad, have its viewers send it to a dozen of their friends, each of whom forwards it to dozens of their friends, while a percentage of those forwards get introduced to Twitter / TicTok / whatever the kewl kids are using this week… )
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: I don’t know how to explain to my adult kids what 1970 was like. I was 20 when the Kent State massacre happened, and parents told their college-age kids that the students had it coming. A lot of those people said they’d never go home again, and a lot of the young men we knew went to Canada.
My own dad said the same so I pointed him to the very good article in the LA Times on his coffee table, where they told what each of the 4 murdered students had been doing at the time of their death. IIRC, two were not part of the protest, which doesn’t matter in reality, but it mattered when arguing with those parents who said they should have killed more students.
It was an angry time, a frightening time. 10 days later 2 students were killed and 9 more wounded by police at Jackson State University, an HBCU.
Currants
@lamh36: Congratulations! That must feel great.
Alex
My mother was involved in the student strike at Wooster College after Kent State. Her father, my grandfather, said they should have shot all of them. He came to visit her, secretly drugged her dinner, and she woke up in a mental hospital in Cleveland. Because protesters were crazy and maladjusted. She wanted him prosecuted (she was 19), but they said that was a sign of unhealthy paranoia. They kept her months, and she would have been transferred to the state hospital for an indefinite stint except her grandmother signed her out against medical advice. Kent State really laid it all bare for a lot of people.
And now my grandfather is 93 in a nursing home that has a Covid outbreak and I have to manage all his affairs.
Amir Khalid
@Emma:
I’ve never heard of this book. What is the author’s name?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Alex:
Holy shnikeys, that is wild as! Was there ever any kind of reconciliation in the family?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
Hanna Alkaf. Book here.
SteverinoCT
@zhena gogolia:
That’s weird. My wife’s company declared their furlough policy mid-March: two weeks’ pay. I filed immediately and got a confirm email the next day, under their special furlough policy. We even got UI for two weeks until the company decided they would give their employees two more weeks’ pay, which screwed up everything. NOW they have a form for that situation, but I already re-filed and they think (I thought) that she was working again. Was ready to slog through the help when this morning we got two of the $600 kickers. Was that for the already-paid-and-we-have-to-return-it two weeks? Or for last and this week, legit unemployed? Oy. At least I am still WFH with the main income intact.
And we got our DD stimulus the first day. Go figure.
Alex
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, it was pretty messed up. My mother didn’t really want to continue a relationship with her father after that, but she kind of had to in order to maintain contact with her mother and younger brother. She also decided not to tell us kids any of this until much later, because she wanted us to have a grandfather. She married my dad, who was at Kent State during the shootings, and we always went to the memorials. And she became a licensed clinical social worker to help people with mental health problems.