Opinion by Audrey McDonald Atkins: After two pandemic years, ‘Folly chasing Death’ takes on a new Mardi Gras meaninghttps://t.co/iQlxU5x1U8
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 28, 2022
When Mardi Gras was first codified into the European (Christian) calendar, this was a fraught season. Those who’d survived the worst of winter, after being forcibly isolated in small groups for weeks or months, were scraping the back of the larder and watching the carefully nurtured livestock required for future survival perish from poor sustenance and close crowding. Improving weather and more daylight meant everyone could look around, and see which of their neighbors had somehow done better during the Long Dark than seemed fair… or that the next settlement / village / barony over had suffered so badly that an enterprising freebooter might be able to annex the remnants without risking too much.
It was very much to the good of the general welfare if “everyone”, as codified by social custom and the Holy Mother Church, could agree that Lent should be a time of mutual self-mortification and public piety. Rich foods were therefore forbidden, as was making war on one’s (Christian) neighbors, for the entire 40 days. Shrove Tuesday was a last happy communal event, meant to seal the compact against public display and strife during a period when temptation was very real, and very strong…
======
The White House says Jill Biden wore this mask with a sunflower today to show support for the Ukrainian people. It's the national flower of Ukraine and has become a symbol of resistance to Russian invasion pic.twitter.com/YUUlzo4eTm
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) February 28, 2022
Tomorrow at 9 PM ET, @POTUS will speak directly to the American people about the historic progress we've made, the work that lies ahead, and his optimism for the future.
Watch the State of the Union live on @WhiteHouse and @POTUS social media or visit https://t.co/NBwmb75mb3.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 28, 2022
D.C. braces for possible protests around State of the Union address https://t.co/4zIGGYPEzp
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 1, 2022
May not be a big deal 2 y’all but my daughter, Danielle will be First Lady Jill Biden’s guest & will be sitting with Jill during the State of the Union Address. She is the widow of SFC HeathRobinson who died from burn pit exposure and illness after returning home safely from Iraq pic.twitter.com/D3aDQMjBMi
— Burn Pits Kill War Fighters (@SusanZeier) February 28, 2022
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Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. says her country needs more weaponry as it fights the Russian invasion. Congress is preparing supplemental funding to help Ukraine, while the White House is seeking at least $6.4 billion in military and humanitarian aid. https://t.co/tNyZdotlOz
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 1, 2022
We have to make sure that within our own country, we are calling out people giving aid and comfort to Putin and siding with autocrats against the global cause of democracy. pic.twitter.com/6R11vmtkKP
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 28, 2022
Remember Maria Butin? Imprisoned as a foreign agent, she now sits in Russia’s lower house of Parliament. She made Z shirts that appear to be modeled on the Z painted on many Russian military vehicles attacking Ukraine. “Team in support of our army and president. Work, brothers!” pic.twitter.com/kkxfBkicql
— Valerie Hopkins (@VALERIEinNYT) February 28, 2022
"We need to act."
Benedict Cumberbatch turned his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony into a tribute to the people of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/5gkIDIsIzf
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) March 1, 2022
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’ll repeat from below – I’d like to see every Russian commander in this op identified all the way down to regimental level. They willingly committed war crimes with indiscriminate targeting of civilian targets, and shouldn’t feel free to travel beyond their borders ever again without the lingering threat of arrest and long imprisonment.
Gin & Tonic
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I look forward to every Russian traveling anywhere having to think about whether the chef prepared a special dish for them.
BellyCat
Why the “Z”?
Baud
I am mortified with myself 365 days a year.
prostratedragon
Wrong Z.
Right Z: “Batucada/Drumline”. Note the first comment.
Gin & Tonic
“Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US says…” Huh, I wonder what the US Ambassador to Ukraine says?
What, you mean Biden hasn’t named one?
Spanky
@Baud: So are we.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Gin & Tonic: My Zumba teacher is Russian. She’s donating all her proceeds this week to Ukrainian charities.
SFAW
I realize, with all that’s happening, this is a little pedestrian, but:
On the “front page” [sic] of the FTFTFNYT website, one of the Op-Ed banners: “Four Times Opinion Columnists on What They Want Joe Biden to Say Tonight.”
The four “columnists” are David Brooks, Gail Collins, Ross Douthat, and Bret Stephens.
Gee, and here I was thinking that the FTFTFNYT is a “liberal” paper.
Assholes. Pinche Sulzberger can DIAF.
Gin & Tonic
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nice to hear.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Does anybody anywhere give a shit about anything Brooks says about anything?
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Last I heard, the nominee was waiting for Ukraine’s ok. Obviously, everyone understands that Ukraine is a bit busy right now, but I don’t understand why Biden is to blame for the delay at this point.
germy
scott (the other one)
@Gin & Tonic: Certainly not anyone who knows him in real life.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: US To Announce New Ambassador To Ukraine ‘shortly’ As Kyiv’s Approval Awaited.
Kay
@germy:
Two weeks ago she was saying “cancel culture” was the greatest threat the free world had ever faced. Now she wants to bomb Russia.
They’re ridiculous people.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes, that was the last news I heard as well. I wasn’t sure if something had changed, or if people are saying Biden should move forward without waiting for Ukraine.
germy
I won’t be disappointed if Biden doesn’t say what David Brooks, Gail Collins, Ross Douthat, and Bret Stephens want him to say.
John S.
@Baud:
Bridget Brink was named last month, but I think a lot of people don’t understand why it took Biden a year to even put her forth as a candidate.
Baud
@John S.:
Sure, that’s a legit criticism, but it’s also water under the bridge. At this point, Biden can wait for Ukraine, or put the nomination forward without waiting for Ukraine.
germy
JPL
The Met Opera opened last night with the Ukrainian National Anthem.
This might have been shared before, but it so beautiful that it’s okay to share it again.
Baud
@JPL:
All the support reminds me a little of how much of the world supported the U.S. after 9/11, and then Bush squandared it.
I’m confident Zelensky won’t make that mistake.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
So are we.
ETA – I see Spanky beat me to it. You should be mortified about that too.
Geminid
Some Twitter wag posted a fake CNN screen with pictures of President Biden and Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, headlined:
From @Susan Vermazen.
Baud
@Geminid: That’s a few weeks old, but it’s very funny, and apt.
OzarkHillbilly
A not Ukraine story:
Soprano2
@SFAW: Why do they think anyone cares what three conservatives want to hear Biden say? I wonder if they asked three liberals to write what they wanted Trump to say at the SOTU?
I figure that if Democrats lose one or both houses of Congress in the midterms we’ll almost completely quit hearing from them on radio and TV, because it seems that the only reason the press interviews them now is that they have to because they control Congress. They really don’t seem to want to talk to them, because when Republicans control Congress it’s hard to ever hear a Democratic office holder interviewed or acting as a pundit. Right now, even though Republicans control none of the federal government it seems that at least half of the politicians and pundits I hear interviewed on NPR are Republicans.
germy
Richard is slowly getting over his disappointment about our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Oh, these stupid snowflakes.
SFAW
@Soprano2:
It’s the FTFTFNYT. They’re a self-contained universe/echo chamber.
They went to a diner in Real America, searching for liberals, and amazingly enough could not find any.
Baud
@germy:
Note the war propaganda: not directly engaging the Russians military is “silence.” There are no other possibilities in between.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Same as Putin.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It is protocall for the host country to approve the ambassadorial appointment. To not seek and then wait for it would be insulting.
ETA: It is understandable that the Ukraine govt is a little preoccupied with more pressing matters at the moment.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gin & Tonic:
It would help if they didn’t act like assholes when they travel. I’m thinking specifically of the fat, gold-chained, hairy fuck that stared at my middle teen daughter in Jamaica. I’m also thinking of the snow white blonde who got miffed at a Sandals bartender for not having Aperol to make her an Aperol Spritz, and then got snippy with me for telling her in Russian that it wasn’t a thing there. She actually demanded to know why I would have ever wanted to learn Russian.
Oh, and then there were the cashiers in Hilton Head who were shit-talking the clientele back and forth until I greeted them…..
raven
Julia Ioffe, Puck News “Tomorrow will be worse”.
NotMax
FYI.
Kalakal
@germy: I noticed a brief splurge of wingnut astroturf crap on FB, “Texans against Sentience” type stuff. What I also noticed is that the comments were 95% shredding them. All the little bots giving the illusion of popularity seem to be having trouble paying their utility bills
mrmoshpotato
@Soprano2:
We all needed a good laugh.
germy
@NotMax:
1984!
Ken
There’s paradropping Richard Engel in front of the convoy, so he can report on the situation on the ground. But that might be considered a war crime against the convoy, whose personnel would have to put up with him.
sdhays
There were a few people who offered to talk to them outside, out of earshot of their fellow gun-in-belt-toting patrons, but those eggs looked so delicious…
NotMax
Fix.
FYI.
Said children slated to appear in court as witnesses for the prosecution.
Kay
@mrmoshpotato:
The cancel culture/CRT theory panic they started to “defend free speech” ended in with brand new laws banning speech in 11 states. Imagine how well her plans for Ukraine will go. Friends like that they don’t need enemies.
Betty Cracker
Florida Republicans are having dumb temper tantrums over the SOTU. DeSantis announced yesterday that he refused a Pentagon request for FL National Guards to secure DC. I dug a little deeper and learned these request routinely go out to all 50 states, and governors aren’t even required to respond — those who have extra guards typically respond with I can commit 100, 50, 200, etc., until such time as the Pentagon has all they need, and they close the request. So DeSantis is being a self-aggrandizing cock-waffle over an administrative email that no one gives a shit about. Quelle surprise.
Also, Rubio is meeping about being asked to take a COVID test and refusing to attend on those grounds. What a leaky douche-nozzle. I think Republicans are sorry to see the COVID restrictions go because it’s a political advantage for them and are nostalgically making the most of those that are left, like a test that takes two minutes.
Rick Scott probably said something really dumb too, but I haven’t seen it yet.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Second good laugh of the morning.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay: Yeah. Exactly.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: He’s a one man WMD: Weapon of Mass Delusion.
Soprano2
That’s because the liberals are afraid to tell you who they are because they feel threatened by their neighbors, something the NY Times seems to think is the liberals fault! The thrust of that article seemed to be “If only liberals in rural America would agree with conservatives that liberals are terrible and wrong about everything then they wouldn’t have to feel threatened anymore!” There was a story right there under their noses, but they couldn’t figure out how to tell it.
I have never felt threatened, but I’m reluctant to put any kind of bumper sticker on my car. I don’t think anyone would do anything to it if I did, but you never know.
Argiope
@Baud: I do wonder if there are any neutral-seeming countries that could broker an exit path for Putin that would allow him to withdraw with his massive ego intact. Seems like a high priority for international diplomacy to create an off-ramp, once he starts bandying about threat of planetary annihilation. China?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@NotMax:
Clearly, this is communism.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: @mrmoshpotato: Traditional family values.
Soprano2
Some of you were asking about the “trucker convoys” yesterday. The one calling itself the “People’s Convoy” came through here yesterday. Here’s a story about it.
Soprano2
@Kay: It’s so stunning to me that the very same people who were agitating about “freedom of speech” on college campuses and whining about their speakers being “cancelled” are also advocating for state governments to actually make talking about some concepts in public schools illegal, punishable with fines and even threats of jail! I’m still waiting for supposed free speech warrior Bill Maher to use his huge platform on his show to highlight all this repression of speech. So far, it’s pretty much crickets from him.
Geminid
@Argiope: Ukraine President Zelensky has asked Turkey’s President Erdogan to mediate, citing that country’s “good relations” with both Russia and Ukraine. There won’t be any substantive peace talks, though, so long as Putin still hopes for military gains on the battlefield.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: My truck is a rolling advertisement of liberal contempt for the right. Nobody has ever fucked with it and I have had only one hate honk incident. Mind you, when I leave it at a river access or conservation area parking lot, I am very careful to park it with it’s rear end to the woods where it can’t be seen.
danielx
@Betty Cracker:
Wait ten minutes…
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: It’s my understanding that the process is stalled because Biden is waiting for Ukraine to give their blessing to the person he plans to nominate. Do I have that wrong?
SiubhanDuinne
@Hillary up top:
Love you, HRC, and figured out pretty quickly what you meant, but that phrasing as it stands is a bit ambiguous.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Geminid:
I see this happen all the time – a party who expects the mediation to deliver 100% of the ask. My question in those instances is always the same – “what would possibly be their motivation to agree to give you your best possible day?”
Gin & Tonic
Russia will pay out 11,000 rubles to the families of soldiers KIA in Ukraine:
At current exchange rates (ha ha) that’s under $100.
Kalakal
@Betty Cracker:
Safest bet ever
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: It won’t be worth a plugged nickel by the end of the week. On the other hand Rubles make good tinder for starting fires in the woodstove.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: lots of people pushed back on Engel yesterday
I caught a few minutes of Morning Joseph and he seems to be climbing on the war train: How many more hospitals are we gonna let Russia bomb? that sort of thing
Baud
@Soprano2: Wasn’t their plan to be in DC by the SOTU tonight?
Peale
@Baud: They were using Russian planners for logistics advice.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Think of the ratings!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@Peale:
It’s funny because it could very well be true.
Ken
@Baud: Fourteen hours from Missouri to DC is possible, but it would break a bunch of regulations for time behind the wheel, and possibly rupture some bladders.
NotMax
@germy
Deciphering Engel.
Pictures of a line of trucks: bo-o-o-ring.
Pictures of a line of burning trucks: now that’s good TV.
//
germy
Mallard Filmore
@Gin & Tonic:
Normal Russian tourists will have a hard time getting out to their destination. Russians already out and having a good time will have problems paying for food and lodging, along with difficulty going back home.
Most are normal people … I feel for them.
Kalakal
@Baud: Their cheques suddenly started to bounce at the gas stations
cmorenc
@Gin & Tonic: brooks might be worth reading if he wrote reviews if Applebee’s salad bar.
germy
@NotMax:
He’s an adrenaline junkie, to be sure.
War is his business. He could be using his talents filing reports on housing conditions in the inner city, but where’s the fun in that?
Ken
I’m a little surprised the next generation didn’t leave out the battery. “Well, it’s nearly useless anyway….”
JMG
There have been a number of polls out the past few days and they all show the same three things. 1. Widespread support for US actions taken to support Ukraine/sanction Russia. 2. Majority disapproval of how Biden, the man who took those actions, is handling the crisis. This is the “there’s bad stuff on my TV, it must be the President’s fault” syndrome.
OK, that paragraph was another fine example of how ignorance and plain old stupidity will be our national doom. Here’s thing three, a more hopeful one. Big majorities oppose any US military action against Russia.
germy
@Ken:
Mac streamlined out of existence.
Mallard Filmore
@germy:
I am puzzled about why this convoy has not been stopped. Its exact location is known and the means to stop it are available. Drones could take out any vehicle, front, back, middle.
Yarrow
@germy: I’ve seen comments elsewhere on Twitter about a noticeable drop in Russian bots. Wonder if the fall of the ruble means they aren’t getting paid so they aren’t working.
Associated with that, wondering how the sanctions on Russia will impact Russian rightwing organizations operating here. Maybe they won’t have the ability to pay for “grassroots” demonstrations and associated information warfare.
Baud
@JMG:
As long as Dems represent people who society has traditionally taken for granted, Dems will be taken for granted.
narya
Good morning, juicers! Surgery appears to have gone okay–sore today, and an array of interesting bruises (robotic assisted and laparoscopic, so they’re where the robot was rummaging around), but so far able to manage the pain with ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Throat’s scratchy from the anesthesia. But I’m moving around, drinking (mostly) and eating (a little). Apparently the (baseball-sized) fibroid that was part of the whole thing was sufficiently calcified that it broke the knife; that’s second-hand info, I’ll ask the doc when I go back. But organs are gone (which feels weird to say). I’m focusing on resting and keeping moving, both.
Baud
@narya:
?
Soprano2
@Baud: I think originally it was, but now I think they’re saying by March 5th. It’s so dumb, they want an end to all mandates, which has pretty much already happened, and an end to the emergency declared for Covid.
Jeffro
Has our DougJ NYTPitchbot tweeted yet that this was the issue/week that won DeSantis the presidency in 2024?
(I’m sure DeSantis thinks so)
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Here’s hoping Biden conveys the same concept in a more folksy and accessible manner tonight. My sense is most Americans don’t understand the connection between what’s happening there and what’s happening here.
Jeffro
@Soprano2: it’s almost like it was never really about free speech…
Ken
I suppose that’s logical, since the rectangular ones require three 180° rotations before insertion. I think they must use spinors, which otherwise show up only when rotating quantum particles or black holes.
Geminid
@Mallard Filmore: Ukraine may be running low on their deadly TB-2 drones, and the rockets that they fire. Those are produced by Turkey, which might not resupply them.
germy
@narya:
Stay well and keep us posted on your progress.
OzarkHillbilly
@narya: Good news.
Soprano2
I totally understand this sentiment, I really do. I was also dating an Iranian student here when the radicals took over the American Embassy in Tehran in November 1979. My BF and his friends had nothing to do with that, and were against it, but that didn’t matter – they felt threatened and intimidated everywhere they went. My BF said he felt like people were staring at him hatefully all the time, and they probably were. All of the Russian people are not behind this war, and in fact I suspect the majority of them are against it.
NotMax
@Mallard Filmore
Elaborate feint allowing Putin to swoop in and lay claim to the real prize: Brighton Beach.
//
Mallard Filmore
@Ken:
That battery is good for when the wall power goes out. Emergency backup power to give the computer time to shut itself down.
Soprano2
This makes zero sense. I mean, zero. “I approve of U.S. actions but disapprove of how the president is handling this crisis” is just nuts.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: Good to hear!
germy
Soprano2
@Jeffro: Well, it’s about free speech for them to say whatever they want and be totally free of criticism for it; free speech for others, not so important in their eyes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: I was working with an Iranian student when the shit went down and he and his fellow Iranian students had similar experiences.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mallard Filmore: Makes a good door stop too.
Yarrow
@narya: Good news. Rest up and keep us posted.
SiubhanDuinne
@narya: Good to hear from you and glad everything went well. Wishing you a comfortable and speedy recovery.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I haven’t seen the polls, but this may a swing of just 20% of respondents. Some of these may be Republicans who just won’t give the President personal credit for their nation’s actions.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: It’s not a situation Biden can, or is willing to, exploit like Bush after 9/11, rattling the saber and playing bellicose strongman. And that probably hurts him politically. We also may be in a world where, simply, only a Republican can benefit from this type of thing because they’re the toxic masculinity party.
Anne Laurie
Wouldn’t surprise me if some percentage of the bot-operators were simply frozen in uncertainty, waiting for new instructions.
Also wouldn’t surprise me if a portion of those (formerly) Russian-funded bots were Russian speakers outside Russia… including, *cough* Ukraine *cough*… who’ve flipped from It’s a paycheck, someone’s gonna do it to Holy schnitzel, how do I scrub my media history!?! with a quickness, this week.
sab
@narya: At last we get some good news from somewhere. Best wishes on that resting while moving thing.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: It was kind of scary to be dating him then for sure. His dad came to see him a couple of weeks before the takeover happened; he told his son that something bad was probably going to happen soon. My BF was here because his parents were trying to keep him out of the Shah’s army. He and his friends told me terrible stories about the Shah; he might have been the U.S.’s friend, but he was a terrible dictator. I heard from him several years after we broke up; he stayed here and managed to get his mother here too. I think his father had died at that point. Sometimes I wonder what happened to him.
Ken
@Anne Laurie: At least the DPRK News Service is still providing us with the news we richly deserve.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: There’s probably a lot of truth to that, but do you think it’s possible for a Democratic president to rally Americans (non-Repubs, obvs) to the cause of saving their own democracy? Maybe by explicitly connecting the march of autocracy across the world over the past several years with its advances here at home? I sure hope so. It’s hard to see how we save democracy if most people are still voting like it’s an American Idol episode and they’re bored with the current act.
Anne Laurie
@narya: Good news! Hope you continue to heal quickly, and can keep your sense of humor.
Soprano2
@narya: Good luck for a speedy recovery! Glad everything went OK.
frosty
@Soprano2: I’m with you. No bumper stickers, no yard signs. I don’t need to advertise that I’m different from my South PA neighbors.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I’m curious: are you seeing much from Val Demings’ Senate campaign?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I honestly think Putin is waiting for the West to get bored with Ukraine. Unfortunately, it is not unresaonable for right-wing authoritarians to believe that, if they keep pressinig, their adversaries will get frustrated and move on to the next shiny thing.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Nosferatu may have shot his bolt with the Eleven Theses of Assholery.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: The guys I knew tried to avoid politics as much as possible, figuring it was a no win conversation. Mostly they were just happy being here instead of Iran.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2:
Benw
@narya: great, hope all goes well!
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
QFT. I want better co-citizens. :)
CaseyL
@narya: Best wishes for a speedy and comfortable recovery!
@Betty Cracker:
Americans have been rendered dazed and confused by disinformation coming at them from all sides (including the MSM, which contributes by having the purveyors on their talk shows without challenging them). With a major source of their funding cut off via the economic sanctions on Russian oligarchs, we’ll have to see if the American oligarchs can maintain the shitflow on their own.
lowtechcyclist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Since they’d been comparing vaccine and mask mandates to being Jews under Hitler, that’s totally believable that they would say their pain is as great as what Ukrainians are going through right now.
And the more of them that say that, the better, so that more people will hear them saying it and point and laugh at them.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: My BF and his friends were the same. They would have been in the army if they hadn’t been here, and they certainly didn’t want to be in the Shah’s army.
NotMax
As it is Open Thread –
Odd duck of a comedic TV series that if given the chance grows on you found on Hulu, Please Like Me. Forced, but in a good way.
Subtitles recommended, the Aussie accents run thick as week-old gravy.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The whining will be really epic when their mysterious backers never pay off, and they’re all on the hook for the expenses of a cross-country deadhead run.
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wish there was a way we could magically transport all of these idiots to Ukraine, so they could find out how their problems are nothing compared to what Ukraine’s people are going through now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@SFAW: Yeah, I clicked on that a couple days ago, got as far as the first comment by Douthat and said, “wait, what? Why is that moron on a panel for anything?” and left.
Ken
The NYT wants a balance between the views of the plutocrats who only want to enslave us, and those who want to harvest our blood and organs for rejuvenation therapies.
SFAW
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I almost never click on their stuff any more. I ran out of free reads, and there’s no way I’m going to put money in Pinche‘s pockets.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Ukrainians are white, so the West will continue to pay attention. Yeah, the racial politics suck, but here we are.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would have volunteered to be the diplomat who stayed behind and ostentatiously played games on my phone while he was talking.
NotMax
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
Only panel he should be on is the on board one managing the ‘B’ ark.
;)
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: that’s always what this has been about anyway. The mask mandates were going to ease once we got past Omicron, which in general we are. They’ll probably come back in September or whenever the next wave is. The noise machine wanted to declare COVID “OVER.” One of the benefits of moving on is that the people who have moved on don’t have to listen to the whiners any longer.
Ken
In “sometimes lucky is better than smart” news:
??⬜⬜⬜
?????
Jeffro
I wonder how much of the negative poll responses are people essentially saying, “I’m still stressed out – maybe even more so – than when the former guy was in the WH”. Prolonged pandemic confusion and infighting over masks & vaccines; lack of visible accountability for the insurrection, especially at the top; no BBB; blessed gas prices; fighting over schools; and on and on. And now the prospect of world war.
Not that President Biden isn’t working his butt off and managing multiple crises. I’m just saying in America we often praise/blame the president for things that aren’t to his credit/fault, or blame the president just because a lot of shit is going down all at once (even when much of it is the GOP’s fault)
japa21
OT but happy paczki day.
Old School
@Ken: Congrats!
Peale
@Ken: I figured today’s would be a streak breaker. Its not a word in daily use by 80% of the world.
NotMax
@SFAW
There’s paywalls and there’s paywalls, and the NYT one is so porous it makes the walls of Jericho look positively resolute.
Peale
@Jeffro: I want gas prices to be what they were when 20% of us were unemployed! And I want prices to be what they were when I was 11, but I will not vote for anyone who would offer subsidies because that’s socialism.
Baud
@Jeffro:
We can’t stop right wingers from making trouble. If that gets people down on Dems, then there’s very little we can do.
Ken
@Peale: My win was on one of the wordle knockoffs. The real one took me four tries.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro:
ian
@Gin & Tonic:
I know this is personal for you, but that is one hell of a sweeping condemnation there. What about the Russians protesting this war? They should get the treatment too?
@Betty Cracker:
It helps them do the whole constant persecution/victimhood thing they need to justify their worldview.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I have no idea. The problem there, of course, is that Republicans have projected this backwards like they do everything else, and will tell you that Trump was robbed, Democrats are the autocrats and THEY are the ones working to save democracy. So the rhetoric doesn’t necessarily connect cleanly to action.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: The campaign is spamming the ever-loving shit out of me on every channel, using dire polling or donation shortfall hooks in pitch after pitch for further donations. But aside from that, no. Seriously, Demings’ campaign has the most overactive outreach operation I’ve ever seen. It’s downright obnoxious, but if it works, I’m all for it, I guess. (Yet another reason to support campaign finance reform!)
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: We have an opportunity with public hearings on the January 6 attack. Link funding for these groups and funding for Republicans with the attack. Make it clear. It’s all about telling the story. That TFG was impeached the first time over Ukraine is big red flag now. People who didn’t care or understand it before will be looking at it differently.
Gin & Tonic
@The Thin Black Duke: Please be aware, also, of the Russian disinfo machine playing the race card – they are very good at that, and, according to my daughter, who teaches in PG County, MD, it’s already having an effect.
NotMax
@Baud
Yup. Biden rescues puppy, gives it to orphan.
Fox (and its ilk) screaming headline: Biden grooms innocent child for pizza parlor basement.
Betty Cracker
@Yarrow: That’s my hope too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: the emails I shrug off, but whoever thought that using texts as fund-raising spam? I hope they never work again!
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Hell, I feel bad, don’t you? When Americans feel bad they blame the President, that’s how our politics works.
They may not be able to articulate the mechanisms and connections, as you can see when people say we’re in an economic depression. They know something’s wrong but it takes a certain level of savvy to know what. And the misperception, or mystification, of causes and effects is a big failure mode of democracy in general. Everyone thinks A causes B but actually the opposite of A causes B, and the only thing for it is to wait out the catastrophe that happens from people voting backwards.
This never really ends. The danger is just that it gets to the point where it actually destroys the democracy and the long-term remedy no longer works. It’s a thing we live with.
Calouste
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s got more to do with it being close to most of Europe and people being worried that they will be next on Putin’s list. I mean, Azerbaijan and Armenia had a war last year and no one gave a shit about that. Racism plays a role, but it’s not the only factor.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t feel bad
ETA: And if people feel bad because Republicans are causing trouble, then they will always feel bad, and like I said above, there’s little we can do about it.
Gin & Tonic
@ian: I’ll save my concern for the people living in basements and subway stations while Russia uses cluster bombs.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not surprised. We have been bombarded with INFLATION!!!!!1!! stories all year, and my god, the American fixation on gas prices is just amazing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Chickenhawks must be smelling blood in the water with Russia if are all suddenly wanting war.
That is kind of ironic; Putin was trying to use Ukraine as a punching bag and now becoming one himself for the other school yard bullies.
Leto
Politico: ‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes; Putin is trying to take down the entire world order, the veteran Russia watcher said in an interview. But there are ways even ordinary Americans can fight back.
If you don’t want to give Politico the click, here you go.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think it was akshully Engels who was deep into epidemiology and public health authoritarianism, but Teeny Weenie Marco makes a good point here.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
The final word in “It’s the economy, stupid’ carries the majority of the weight.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What happened 20 years ago?
Also, too, Engels is like the Pete Best of communism.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Thanks. I was hoping that there might be signs of the Demings campaign outside of cyberspace. Florida’s a very big place though, so maybe there is more activity elsewhere.
I too would like to see camign finance reform, even if it just extends to transparency. For exexampleas in how much of of this dollar that I sent in is going into the fundraiser’s pocket, or is going on to his brother-in-law’s advertising firm? I don’t think that would be a too big a problem with Demings’ own campaign, though.
Jim Appleton
@Ken: your lucky guess has its own value …
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin: I feel horrendous but I know who, and what, to blame for that, and it’s not the current president.
I don’t think we have to accept that it will never end. We can at least work to curb the effects by speaking up (maybe now more than ever) when we see misinformation (whether ignorant or purposefully misleading).
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ah, now they are trying “Marxist.” I think that when Republicans focus-group “socialist” they find out it isn’t as dirty a word as they hoped it is.
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: Yep, plus other white people in Europe are threatened by this, thus the different reaction than say to what’s happening in Syria or Yemen or anywhere in Africa or Asia.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: They’re in Indiana tonight. Not going to give their link, but they’re calling themselves the “People’s Convoy”. There’s at least one site that had their planned route that wasn’t their page, but I can’t remember where it was.
I wasn’t really tracking discussion of the SOTU, I had heard more in recent days about the convoy idiots, so I’d seen an update on their route that was projecting DC by Saturday.
That led to the following conversation last night.
Wife: “Is the State of the Union tomorrow?”
Me: “No, I don’t think so, I think it must be this weekend sometime.”
Wife: “No, I’m pretty sure it’s tomorrow”.
Me (googling): “Huh. So it is.” Googling trucker idiots, confirming Saturday. “Huh”.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: Economics is a profoundly weird and counterintuitive subject with politically charged battling schools of thought and I really don’t expect the average person to have any deep understanding of it.
Yarrow
Has this moment from Boris Johnson’s press conference made it here yet?
The journalist calls out the UK PM. “Women and children are being bombed from the sky. …It is impossible for them to get to the Western border safely…Britain guaranteed our security under the Budapest memorandum. You are coming to Poland PM. You are not coming to Kyiv or Lviv because you are afraid.”
Soprano2
@japa21: My hubby loves those things; he found some in the store a few days ago and bought them. I shrugged and said “they’re filled donuts”. LOL He says they’re better in Chicago, where he’s from.
O. Felix Culpa
Thank you to the BJ commenter who recommended the documentary “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” which is about the 2013/2014 Maidan Revolution. It gave me an even greater appreciation for Ukrainian toughness and determination to fight for their freedom. It’s available on Netflix.
ETA: It also makes me incredibly sad that only a few years later, the Ukrainians have an even bigger, more lethal fight on their hands.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Matt McIrvin: I’ll concede that Paul Krugman seems to understand it, and also make it seem rational to the rest of us. I’ll also concede that John Nash, another Nobel winner, understood at least his corner of it.
I’m not going to believe any other “economists” understand it thought.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It really is absurd, and all the Republican pols down here do that, though Lil’ Marco perhaps more reflexively than most. Sometimes I think a candidate who treated that bullshit with the contempt it deserves might win respect, but probably not. They do it because it works.
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow: Daria Kaleniuk. She is amazing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I was thinking it might be a good sign for Demmings if Marco already feels teh need to shore up support down at the Versailles cafe
or his little brain is just one buzzword bingo card
guachi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Americans are truly stupid people.
That’s what we get, though, for a right-wing MSM that spent the vast majority of their time screaming “inflation” and spending almost no time on other economic news.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
Is it a day that ends in Y? Then, yes.
Yarrow
Interesting development.
Soprano2
That’s because the price is in your face everywhere, and it’s an expense most people can’t avoid at least in my neck of the woods. Everyone here drives everywhere, and if you’re driving to work that’s a fixed cost every week. When filling your gas tank goes from $40/week to $80/week, you notice the pinch because you have no other way to get to work. And yeah, no one told these idiots to buy huge gas guzzlers, but they like them and with the current car market they’re stuck with them. You should tour some new car lots – there are hardly any cars! I’ve never seen anything like it.
hueyplong
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Marco Rubio as a one-note programmed guy? Come now, let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Marco Rubio doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, definitely. Good for her for doing what the usual toady press should do but rarely does.
Brachiator
@Yarrow:
Boris Johnson is dancing around applying strong sanctions, because the Russian oligarchs have contributed so much to the Conservative Party.
Another evil BREXIT dividend is that the UK is shamefully dragging its feet on accepting refugees from Ukraine. Anti-immigrant sentiment has become the standard.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2:
When I bought my Highland hybrid a few years ago, two friends who don’t know each other were (essentially) concern-trolling me about how long it would take to offset the extra cost with gas prices so low. Even the salesman was hinting at it, as if he thought I would come back and try to return it if I figured out that math.
delk
Rubio and every Republican that lost to trump in the primary needs to shut the fuck up.
Gin & Tonic
So reports from Kyiv indicate that Russia’s attempted air strike against the major TV tower instead hit the nearby Babi (Babyn) Yar, site of the Nazi massacre of tens of thousands of Jews in 1941 and, more recently, a Ukrainian memorial to that atrocity. That’s how “de-nazification” is going.
At the commemoration of the major memorial in 2006, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv spoke, and said:
Since Putin has already proposed a “solution” to the “Ukrainian question” I’m left wondering if history is repeating.
Kay
I’m discouraged. I know everyone here hates to hear this, but there is virtually no Democratic response to Republican attacks on “culture” or anything else. It is not just the ordinary complaints about “messaging” that we have all heard for 20 years from. It is REALLY, unusually bad.
2010 was a bad year for Democrats but it was not this bad. They all managed to keep Obama slightly (above) water and there was at least some kind of coherent plan going forward. They’re just adrift and it’s been like this for months. It is going to be really hard to turn it around. I’m baffled by why they let it get this bad politically without changing anything they were doing. I don’t understand that.
How do you have a huge and expensive political operation in the Democratic Party full of marketing professionals and people not know there has been record job and wage growth? If that’s not their job then what is their job?
NotMax
@Soprano2
Not a indicator of blistering sales, it’s a result of chip and other supply chain instability.
The more complex the innards of a car have become the more their availability is impacted by heartburn in the production process.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic:
The choice of language doesn’t seem accidental, but I fervently hope that any intended repetition of history is stopped, and quickly.
Betty Cracker
@hueyplong: Chris Christie is a prick, but I’ll always think back on his primary debate pantsing of Lil’ Marco with fondness. Christie brutally exposed and humiliated Rubio, and all these years later, I am STILL here for it! :)
Yarrow
@Brachiator:
Oh, it’s so much more than that. He’s up to his eyeballs in connections to Russia. He himself is compromised. He is trying to figure out thread this needle and save his own skin.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I think President Biden will speak to fuel prices tonight, probably announcing releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and maybe calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax.
Baud
@Kay:
I might move to Ukraine. Their people are willing to fght fascists.
hueyplong
@Betty Cracker: I hear you, and don’t miss many chances to remind people of that magic moment. Loved Rubio’s deer-in-the-headlights moment.
Soprano2
@NotMax: I know that, what I’m saying is that even if they want to get rid of their gas guzzlers the market right now makes it hard for them to do it. They buy those things with the expectation that gas will never go up in price again no matter how many times the price of gas skyrockets.
Soprano2
@Kay: I know, it’s crazy! How can they not be fighting back against censorship in schools, for one – that’s such an easy argument. Why they aren’t talking constantly about the great job market I have no idea. It’s like they’ve allowed themselves to be cowed by the national press into admitting that Republicans have a point about these things, when they really don’t!
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Unfortunately, they are accustomed to wearing pants. Kyiv is cold in the winter.
Soprano2
@Geminid: Suspending the national gas tax would be ultra stupid IMHO. He should put more pressure on Saudi Arabia to increase production if he wants to do something about high gas prices.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m a “Party person” Baud, in Ohio political speak. I’m a team player. I have a position in the county Party, I’ve taken roles in the state Party, I took a role in the national Party in 2008. But someone needs to contact the coaches because this is bad. There’s virtually no risk at this point- it couldn’t get worse for them. They can only go up. They should feel free to get creative. There’s very little downside risk left.
lowtechcyclist
Dem messaging needs to tie the threads together. Back in 2016, the GOP was going to have a platform plank advocating supporting Ukraine and providing them with weaponry. Trump and Manafort got them to remove it.
In 2019, of course, Trump was going to stop giving them any assistance unless they came up with dirt on Hunter Biden, and if he hadn’t been exposed on that, we would have ceased to send them any aid after 9/30/2019.
And throughout, Trump has kissed up to Putin while saying we weren’t going to do much for NATO because our allies needed to chip in a lot more. That’s one of the things “America First” meant, that we were going to defend our own selves, and the rest of the world could go hang.
And apparently he was going to pull us out of NATO altogether if he’d gotten re-elected.
And of course, just the other day, he was talking about what a brilliant plan Putin had in his attack on Ukraine.
So there’s a clear pattern here of non-support for Ukraine, non-support for NATO, and kissing up to Putin.
And until last week, the GOP was largely with him on this, not to mention people like Fucker Carlson who have more influence on the GOP than any five Senators do.
Kay
@Soprano2:
They used to know how to do it! I don’t know what happened.
Not “censorship in schools”. The people involved. The AA principal who was attacked in Texas because he expressed support for “equity”. “Equity” has been the mainstream policy of US public schools for 20 years. It’s not radical. Talk about him.
geg6
@Soprano2:
Mmmmmmm, paczki. There is a paczki shop near here. I need to stop there some day soon. They have sweet and savory versions that are both superb.
Jeffro
@Soprano2: I hear you. I also know I’m kind of an odd one when it comes to gas and gas prices: I work from home most days, my commute is super-short anyway, I drive a pretty fuel-efficient car, and it’s not a significant part of our household budget.
My biggest worry about gas is…not paying enough attention to my fuel gauge, honestly. I haven’t run out or anything, but it drives Ms. Fro nuts the way I run it down to 1/8 full before refueling. =)
Kay
@Soprano2:
I think we have to admit there’s a problem because everyone else knows. That’s why there’s 30 retirements from the House. They know.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: The fundamental nature of democracy is that you have inexpert people controlling the government by proxy. It’s what keeps driving Very Smart People to dream of ditching it in favor of rule by an oligarchy of super-smart philosopher kings–not recognizing that eyes on the ground are their own kind of expertise, and when you abandon that you just get a different type of stupid, the kind that has a degree. But I do think the fact that the masses aren’t experts in everything implies a tradeoff that is not completely eradicable.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Even when playing the piano?
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I acknowledge the probable stupidity and the impact of the GOP continually badmouthing the economy and the Biden administration. But I wonder what else is going on with public sentiment and the actual economic life of the average person.
When addle-brained Trump bragged about the Dow going up, this did not necessarily put money into people’s pockets.
Similarly, rising GDP and even increases of GDP per person does not necessarily mean that most people have benefited in a rise in wages or a general increase in standard of living.
I see the stories about low unemployment, but I also keep seeing stories about women and other groups having post-pandemic employment problems, early retirees having second thoughts and looking for jobs, etc. And I know that here in Southern California, and probably elsewhere, the hospitality industry and other areas have not bounced back strongly.
And I notice more businesses shutting down, empty store fronts, etc.
BTW, I see similar stories about negative economic sentiment in the UK and elsewhere. Coming out of the pandemic has been unsettling, even when the overall economic picture is positive.
ETA: I know that by official government measures, we are nowhere near recession and certainly not depression.
geg6
@NotMax:
In my neck of the woods, it’s both supply chain issues and the fact that every idiot around here drives a honking huge, gas guzzling monster truck or SUV and refuse to buy an actual car. I hate those fucking things with such a passion. So much that I would never buy one even if there were only SUVs available to buy for the rest of my life. I hate everything about them.
lowtechcyclist
@Leto:
I clicked through partly because of that “ways even ordinary Americans can fight back” part, but I really didn’t see anything specific. Did I just miss it?
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: There’s an exception to every rule.
Soprano2
@Kay: Yep. You’d think that would mean they’d go “balls to the wall” on the messaging, not holding anything back, but instead it’s like they’ve all curled up in a ball and are begging the press not to hurt them anymore. I don’t know why they feel they have to play defense with GDP over 4% and the hottest employment market since the 1990’s, but they do. They’ve allowed the press’ constant talking about inflation to intimidate them into feeling they can’t mention anything about the good things in the economy. You can certainly acknowledge the problems while also talking about the things that are good. I would also talk up the vaccine effort and the subsiding of Covid, even though we know it’s probably temporary. I think one reason people feel so bad right now is because of the Omicron wave; we all thought things were getting better, then suddenly they got a lot worse really quickly so it’s not surprising people feel bad. There’s no reason not to talk up all the things that are getting better!
I agree about the stories about people being affected by these crazy speech policies. As you’ve highlighted, in some places people are already rebelling against the CRT-panic inspired school board members. Talk about how “Moms for Liberty” is nothing of the sort, but instead it’s just an arm of a GOP PAC. I don’t know why they’re so afraid to talk about this – it’s not “grassroots”, it’s Astroturf. (The same people who wear T-shirts saying “I don’t co-parent with the government” also agree with the idea that the government should heavily regulate how parents of trans kids take care of them. Talk about that!) Talk about how equity is not a radical idea, but instead is supposed to be one of the ideals we strive for! And on and on. Defending learning in a school shouldn’t be hard.
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’d be feeling better about the amount I’m saving with my brand-new hybrid car if it weren’t in the shop with a smashed-in rear end, a victim of the general deterioration in safe driving skills, waiting for a broken global supply chain to squeeze out parts. I guess if the car isn’t moving it burns even less gasoline, but I’m using less-efficient vehicles as a substitute…
Kay
@Soprano2:
The DeVos voucher bill they introduced everywhere as a response to “critical race theory”. It went down in flames in Utah. Democrats don’t have to be afraid of this. They can not just hold it, they can win it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I have no idea how much that is in practical terms, wrt the price per barrel for instance
Geminid
@Soprano2: It might not be sound in economic terms, but politically, suspending the gas tax would.be a winner, and will get a lot of applause from the audience. I noticed some Democratic incumbents in tough districts calling for a suspension even before this war.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Just learned that the dollar today is at 115 rubles. Yesterday’s terrible ruble news was about 99-100 rubles to the dollar. Last week before the invasion it was around 78.
The ruble is now worth less than the yen, which is 114.90 to the dollar.
Soprano2
@Brachiator: Prices for lots of things have gone up, and even though lots of people got big raises a lot of others didn’t. We got a mid-year 4% increase, which has never happened in the 25+ years I’ve worked here, and that won’t begin to make up for the increase in the cost of living. I think that accounts for at least some of it. I also think just in general things have been bad for the past two years because of Covid, and people are feeling that.
Peale
@geg6: They do have to do more to at least APPEAR to be doing things about supply chain issues. Either that or come up with some messaging about how our economy is resilient and capitalism is creative and will figure out a way to solve these problems and some bather about how they are proud of their voters for carrying on during this time and not joining the whiner brigade.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Perry Bacon has a column on this issue at WaPo, but it’s sort of a dog’s breakfast. Here’s a quote from it:
There’s truth to that in the sense that inflation and endless COVID puts people in a foul mood, but I don’t think Bacon mentions the year-plus the administration spent trying to work with the two conservadem flakes in the Senate. That certainly didn’t help.
I don’t know the answer either, but I agree with what you said about getting creative. Not much downside, right? Also, getting lucky would help, and we may, but that’s not a strategy. :)
Kay
@Soprano2:
Indiana:
Who are they talking to that they think this stuff is popular? They don’t even have to really lead on it. They can just follow. Democrats can win the culture wars. If they don’t play there won’t be a “war” that’s true. Instead we will just get far Right, unpopular culture.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2: Omicron seems to have had a mass psychological effect that Delta didn’t, even though as I understand it, Delta was more dangerous.
Soprano2
@Kay: I agree, most people like their public schools and really don’t like the idea of most of that money being siphoned off to pay tuition for wealthy kids to go to private and religious schools. They keep trying to push charter schools here, but no one wants them. About 20 years ago they took our most marginal high school (read, the one with the most black students in its district) and turned it into an IB school. Now it’s the best school in the district; I’ve heard music teachers complain about it because “I’d have that great violin player if only he/she weren’t going to Central instead”. Our public schools are doing pretty well, we don’t need charter schools, and this is a conservative area.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Grocery prices are sky-high too, at least where I live. I don’t blame Biden for it, but it’s unmistakable.
Peale
@Kay: Another thing they could be doing is constantly messaging about what they are going to do to help the kids “catch up.” I know the Department of Education isn’t really worth all that much nationally, but the state parties should draw a line about using COVID as an excuse to give up on public education. Here are the standards. Here is how we’re going to help support kids beyond just letting them walk around maskless. Parents know that there is a problem.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: The fact that most Americans seem to think Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if strong daddy Trump were in office speaks to a certain mental disconnect here.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Partly you do it to “persuade” voters (questionable!) but MOSTLY you do it for your base, who want you to win and need to feel they are part of some collective effort. You can’t ask them to do what you won’t do. They take sides in the “culture war”- they’re on the liberal side. Be on the liberal side with them.
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it’s because so many vaccinated people got sick with it. How many stories did you hear where people said “I’m fully vaxxed and wear a mask everywhere and I got Omicron anyway”? I think it’s what broke the will to wear masks even in liberal areas; if you’re vaccinated and wear a mask and get sick anyway, what’s the use of wearing it is what a lot of people will say.
Jeffro
@Kay: oh I’ll be retweeting that one around today a bit…thanks Kay!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2: good point– I think I personally know at least as many people who got mild cases post-tax and quickly recovered, including a 90 YO, than I do people who got it un-vaxxed. At least one repeat infection.
Jeffro
Agreed. The year of (now fruitless) waiting, bickering, and waiting some more for BBB to happen was VERY frustrating and demoralizing.
And 14 months of waiting for insurrection accountability (for the organizers, plus trumpov himself) equally so.
I wish they would hurry the hell up with those 1/6 hearings, at least.
Kay
@Peale:
Agree. My college son has a part time job in a Michigan elementary school tutoring reading to help ctach them up. He starts today. I thought they’d give him math because he’s good at it but he got reading. The money comes from the covid funding. He’s friendly and easy going- I think the little kids will like him. They read to him and then he asks questions to see if they understand what they read. He had to get a background check.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
That will make Covid go away donncha know……. I mean the only thing keeping it going is the government taking about it…
Was that close enough to rethuglican think?
Kay
@Peale:
I didn’t really realize the kind of huge hole until Hillary Clinton made a couple of statements and they got covered. It was like “oh, right, THAT’S what that sounds like!” and once you notice the void you can’t not notice it. There’s a lassitude, a lack of energy or urgency, and contrasted with the insane, frenetic effort on the Right it just seems grossly out of whack.
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Three people I know got COVID unvaccinated in 2020-21. One died, one was in the hospital on oxygen and had major long COVID issues, the other rode it out at home in a few days but has minor long COVID issues, almost two years later.
Many, many more people I know got Omicron infections after being fully vaccinated. It was more like a bad cold for them, but one did end up with a lingering cough for weeks (but I’ve had colds that did that before).
So that’s hard to boil down to a striking one-sentence summary. Except to say that protection against serious illness and protection against infection are clearly two different things.
Geminid
@Kay: I noticed that the recent Wason poll of registered Virginia voters showed a solid 69% favored teaching history in public schools without any special restrictions.
Interestingly, a similar majority of 70% favored placing law enforcement officers in public schools (some localities eliminated “school resource officers” in 2020 during the furor over bad policing).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I read that our Media Pundtry betters have declared Biden’s State of the Union speech weak and confused a day before Biden made it. Everything from the Pundits is just bullshit now.
Soprano2
@Ruckus: Yes, but I also know people who have taken it seriously this whole time who say things like “I’m so tired of hearing about it all the time, I wish they wouldn’t talk about it so much”. One of these people is my husband. LOL
The Thin Black Duke
Black people know this, Kay. It’s white people that are the problem. It’s like we’re living in John Carpenter’s They Live and White America don’t want to put the goddamned glasses on.
Miss Bianca
@Baud:
Jesus, that sounds just like the dream I had last night, except I was going because President Biden had called up a draft of 18-60 year olds to go. This old broad was standing in line waiting to get processed.
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s amazing how fast the “fuck your feelings” people pivoted to “don’t you dare hurt my or my children’s feelings ever” and almost no one even noticed!
SFAW
@Ken:
Damn. Took me three, and only because I changed my second word from its usual. Two is pretty impressive.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
Very funny. Also well said and so true.
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
There’s a RWMF on one of the main drags near me, his most recent sign (the kind stores use where they can change the letters whenever they want) says “Trump would never let this happen.” My unspoken response is “Fucking right, he’d encourage it.”
Or he’d be cowering under his fake-gold bed.
ETA: Or both
Brachiator
@SFAW:
So true.
The weird thing is that despite his manifest flaws and failures, his base has turned Trump into a kind of God Emperor Superman.
He is like all those dumb Chuck Norris jokes, an all-powerful, invincible character. And Trump leans into it with his constant self-promotion.
Trump cannot fail. He can only be failed.
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: I suspect that sometime after 2024 or 2028 we will have an American government that attempts to use the US military against Americans, maybe with a more convincing casus belli than Trump was able to muster. We may see scenes like we’re currently seeing in Ukraine. We’ll see how we manage then.
Ken
Who else besides Baud?
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
I’ve been having a lot of 80s-style thoughts about what I’ll say to my daughter when I know the ICBMs are in flight.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Tell her nuclear winter will solve global warming.
Kathleen
@The Thin Black Duke: I agree with you.
mrmoshpotato
@Soprano2:
From bully to whiny ass titty baby.
Matt McIrvin
@mrmoshpotato: It’s “fuck YOUR feelings”, not “fuck MY feelings.” These aren’t people who can perceive a connection between those two statements.
prostratedragon
@japa21: Not OT — Main T!
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
On my last trip to Manhattan we met a ton of great, happy, productive people who introduced themselves as “Persian” rather than Iranian. We were cool with that. They were friendly and helpful with our touristy intentions.
Persia, a great empire over there! Once upon a time… ;~)
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
This is so true… I drove by the downtown Chevy/VW/Kia dealer not long ago and thought they had either gone out of business or moved. Place was mostly acres of vacant blacktop. Then I went by the Mazda dealership for new batteries for our key fobs, they had more vehicles than the Chevy dealer, but still not a healthy number of cars.
SamIAm
@Baud:
You can’t attract eyeballs unless you breathlessly frame things as (false) dilemmas.