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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: High Summer

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: High Summer

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(Jeff Danziger via GoComics.com)
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Because a commentor asked: Any (other) Jackals attending the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin this weekend?

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It was in August that Richard Nixon helicoptered out of the Oval Office, one step ahead of the law…


 
And some genuinely good news…

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  3. 3.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m really glad that we have a robust and stable trade relationship with China. That, coupled with the flexing of our soft power and leveraging our long term alliances should help us to encourage Beijing to exercise restraint about doing things like extraditing Hong Kong defendants to the mainland and clamping down too hard on protests…

    All kidding aside, wife has some flights connecting through HKIA next month. I’m telling her to take the old passport with the China visa (good for 10 years, even if passport is expired) so she can leave Hong Kong if HKIA shuts down.

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Query – had the bulk of the Anglosphere and most of Europe not gone protofascist/nativist, riven by class divisions, would Beijing have even bothered with touching the third rail on the mainland extraditions?

    My take is “no”.

    Now would be an outstanding time to cement Spratley claims and get back everything that Kai-Shek stole in creating Taiwan.

  10. 10.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @satby:

    They will if HKIA continues to be the protest focus.

    There are actually better schedules and routes, but she’s mining for status and miles on AA partners with the Hong Kong stop (plus, that Cathay lounge is phenomenal).

  14. 14.

    Robert Sneddon

    @satby: I wouldn’t be too quick to cheer about this news. How effective the drugs are and what downsides they might have are still somewhat up in the air. It seems the authorities in the areas most affected by Ebola are willing to risk mass use of these drugs because of the emergency rather than spending years in double-blind testing and validation before rolling them out. Time will tell.

  16. 16.

    JPL

    Geez.. Woke up only to see Fredo trending.

    @satby: That is such good news and provides hope for those stricken with the deadly virus. Delivery to those in need will still be difficult though.

  17. 17.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    It’s Reuter’s – like the AP under Fournier, albeit much more dry.

  25. 25.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    From the Reuters article

    Friends and liberal standard bearers of the Democratic Party, the two U.S. senators espouse many of the same causes: universal healthcare, taking on Wall Street, and raising the minimum wage.

    This drives me a little nuts. Bernie is not a Democrat, but is using the party to fuel his ambitions. And although Sanders himself may be soft-pedaling the issue, for his most obnoxious supporters, the Democratic Party is the enemy.

    I don’t know. Maybe the other candidates need to call Sanders out on this early. Otherwise this nonsense may fester.

    But Warren may have appeal to women, particularly college-educated women, that Sanders cannot match. “I am sick and tired of men running the world,” said Janet Caldwell, 66, of Washington, Iowa.

    Has any reporter talked to Biden supporters, especially black voters? It’s not just about progressives v moderates.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    For Immanentize when he shows up: I caught up with your posts a couple of days ago about Immp’s recovery. G&T is right: It’s never linear which is why it’s so easy to become discouraged. Have him remember back to where he was a week ago, then two weeks ago, etc.; he’ll then be able to see how much progress he’s actually made.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The false teeth took several days to discover. Initially doctors had examined the back of the man’s throat, and finding nothing apparently amiss, carried out a chest X-ray and blood tests. Deciding the man had an infection in his lower airways, doctors prescribed him antibiotics, mouthwash and a course of steroids, before sending him on his way. The man returned, however, two days later and told medics, apparently with a hoarse voice, that he had been unable to take his medication because he was having difficulty swallowing. He was still coughing up blood and now required oxygen.

    After taking further X-rays the team suspected the man had pneumonia triggered by inhaling something. He was sent on to the ear, nose and throat team for further investigations. Finding no problems with the back of this throat or lymph nodes, doctors inserted a thin flexible tube through the man’s nose to investigate further. To their surprise they found a metallic plate covering his vocal cords.

    “On explaining this to the patient, he revealed his dentures had been lost during his general surgery admission eight days earlier and consisted of a metallic roof plate and three front teeth,” the report states.

  30. 30.

    Chief Oshkosh

    The Chinese leaders main concern is keeping the billions of mainlanders docile (read: somewhat wary to very scared of the government). Protest cannot be allowed to be seen as an effective political tool. I think their first impulse is to violently crush the HK protesters. However, they may instead use the HK protests as an excuse to oust the mayor for “mishandling” the situation (which would be a twofer, since she’s an obviously inept, emo, weak woman – amirite?), refocus attention with a “special” election for a new mayor (a threefer!) who will know which what his real job is (a fourfer!), mumble something about not expanding extradition policy, let the protest cool into the fall, and then go ahead with their long-range plan of bringing HK fully into The Empire.

  31. 31.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @debbie:

    Mining for miles, segments and status. The differences between AA levels is huge – she had Exec Platinum a few years ago, and the transoceanic upgrades (plus little things like free 1st class for 2 to go to Rome and transferable transoceanic upgrades – Atlantic and Pacific) make slight segment delays worthwhile. My current Platinum Pro is good for a lot, but is nowhere close to Exec Platinum.

    It also includes Flagship Lounge access, and Flagship makes the Admirals Club seem like Arby’s. It is super quiet, with premium spirits and a really helpful desk.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    Ebola no longer ‘incurable’

    The cure for Stupidity, however, remains elusive.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    NYT has a Bernie apologist.

    Why Bernie Sanders Stood Out at the Iowa State Fair

    NYT > Top Stories / by Sydney Ember / 1h

    Most candidates go to the fair to establish human connections with voters. Mr. Sanders’s approach underscored how his campaign is focused primarily on championing ideas.

    That Warren chick should try proposing some ideas if she’s serious.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    Donald Trump has emasculated the American farmer

    Yeah, but he is throwing money at them. It’s wild to watch Trump openly pursue a tariffs policy that clearly hurts his own base, and to watch those dopes claim that they are okay with it.

    ETA. Trump is making some noise that a post BREXIT deal with the UK will help save American farmers, but this sounds like a bunch of bullshit.

  40. 40.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:
    Trump’s lies are approaching escape velocity

    The Post’s newest count: “President Trump has made 12,019 false or misleading claims over 928 days…” (WaPo)

  43. 43.

    eclare

    Good morning everyone! Prob won’t see me much for a while, I recently started a new job. Benefits are incredible (pet insurance! three weeks PTO first year!), about twenty minutes away, job I can do. I really need to focus on that for a while. But I’ll be thinking of the Immp and all other jackals. Have a great day!

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    That’s what I’ve read. And Bernie and Biden. It seems strange until you recognize that ideological differences among primary candidates mean very little to most voters.

  48. 48.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Brachiator: I’ve noticed that political discussions in the US always devolve into a “left vs right” paradigm which completely removes race from the discourse.

    And since white supremacy seems to be the ONLY common organizing principle in the Republican coalition…

  50. 50.

    eclare

    @satby: Thanks! I have 15 years til I get Medicare, and I think this could get me there.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    They measure their wealth by land values and “cash rent”- what people will pay to work the land they own. This is 2014:

    Flush with cash and presented with low interest rates, farmers have bid up cropland to sky-high levels in recent years.
    “At one point you could still buy in the average price range of $3,000 to $3,500 an acre. It’s easy doubled in some areas,” said T.J. Zimmerman, a broker with the Carlin Co. Realty & Auctioneers. “Some areas are bringing $5,000 to $6,000 an acre. That’s kind of the new normal. We’ve sold property that’s upwards of $10,000 an acre for bigger chunks.”
    According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average value per acre for Ohio cropland was $5,700 in 2013, up 14 percent from 2012, and up 46 percent from 2009.
    Land with high-quality soil commands even more, with prices approaching $8,000 an acre.
    It’s not just Ohio where land values have shot up in recent years. The USDA said the average price for cropland in the five cornbelt states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri) was just less than $7,000 in 2013, up 16 percent from 2012 and up almost 80 percent from 2009.

    7000 an acre is high and a lot of them were getting it by by Obama’s second term. You heard that number over and over and it’s high.

    The future of the farmland market continues to be a guessing game. So far, values have been supported by low interested rates and a strong buyer pool for limited land for sale. But numerous financial metrics point to a deterioration of farmers’ financial health, according to a semi-annual market update from Farmers National Company.

    When the land values dip you’ll really hear screaming because they borrow on it. It’s hanging on, but just barely. I personally think it will drop. I wouldn’t buy it right now- not that I do. The truth is Obama was much better for them than Trump- not just on land value. TPP was great for US agriculture. They were one of the big winners in that trade deal.

    They’re dopes. It won’t be the worst thing in the world of the land values drop and someone new can buy it and get in. They haven’t made good decisions.

  54. 54.

    satby

    @Immanentize: hey Immanentize, I had already gone offline when you posted the update on Immp. I’m glad he is a little relieved with his decision to wait on uni for a fuller recovery rather than pushing himself before he’s finished healing. Let him know we continue to root for him (and eric’s Emma, have you talked to eric lately?)

  56. 56.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Immanentize:

    My recollection from my own is that they only mutilated the cover and data page on renewal. The China visa was intact on each when I inspected them – and China said that the visas need only be carried in the expired passport.

  63. 63.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    “Them goldurn libruls done gived away all the agriculture aid with that soc!alistical Pigford giveaway to them no count coloreds….”

  65. 65.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Josh Marshall has an interesting piece on the importance of third party candidates to who wins the 2020 election. Howard Schultz could draw off Dems if Warren or Sanders is the nominee

    Is Schultz still running?

    I don’t know what the Democrats could do. Third party progressives live in their own bubble. Also, as I noted earlier, I think the Democrats will have a bigger problem with any possible “Bernie or Bust” faction.

    I would love to see the GOP hobbled by a third party.

  66. 66.

    Immanentize

    @satby: his daughter was getting treatments when the Immp was in hospital. I heard from him day one of her treatments which was a bad one for the Immp, but a good one for Emma, he said. Then, nothing. I thought I missed him at the hospital because I was so focussed and stressed and exhausted. I tried to get dinner on that Wednesday with him in the cafeteria, but I think his daughter was supposed to go home then and I didn’t hear back….

    That is all I know. Now more concerned.

  67. 67.

    Bruuuuce

    @Baud: So we can expect the crazified response to the chlamydia vaccine, similar to the reaction to the HPV vaccine (and, earlier, treatments for syphilis and gonorrhea): to be outward deploring and moralizing about encouraging more loose and irresponsible sex, and strong use by the hypocrites hitting the fainting couches?

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Bruuuuce:

    As president, I will cure all sexually transmitted diseases so that people can engage in consequences-free intercourse.

    But I won’t say goddamn so that should mollify the evangelicals.

  70. 70.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Immanentize: I wouldn’t think so, but November 2016 cured me of thinking I know anything about elections.

    Immp made the right decision, I think. College will still be there and he’ll be fit to enjoy it.

  71. 71.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    When your goal is to lose badly and blame DA STABBISHMENT, actually having people vote for you is a drawback.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    They measure their wealth by land values and “cash rent”- what people will pay to work the land they own

    They will take a double hit if land value declines and there is nothing to be gained from working the land.

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    It won’t be the worst thing in the world of the land values drop and someone new can buy it and get in. They haven’t made good decisions.

    It’s a bubble. When the inevitable crash comes, expect a lot of corporate buyers. They are flush with cash right now.

  74. 74.

    eric

    @Immanentize: sorry…all good(ish) here. The little one is doing reasonable well as we enter the next phase of treatment…though we now have to worry about the recurrence of steroidal induced diabetes. Today she goes in for lumbar puncture 2 of 4 (over two weeks). been starting to work again more extensively so fell behind in my emails and posting.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    This is the “fast track” TPP vote in the senate. The most pro-TPP vote they took. Later they removed “fast track” to get more support. The success of the thing depended on ag state senators voting for it- and they did. The US lets agricultural products from other countries in, but those countries weren’t reciprocating by letting US ag products in. TPP leveled the playing field in the direction of US farmers who were at a disadvantage. It was great for farmers, particularly specialty farmers- high quality fruit and produce, smaller volumes, hence Oregon and Washington.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I actually respect Patriot Farmers. They vote their values, as odious as their values appear to us, even if they suffer economically for it. I respect them a hell of a lot more than people on our side who just couldn’t find a way to vote for Hillary.

    But my priority right now is helping Trump’s victims, not his enablers.

  80. 80.

    Cermet

    @Robert Sneddon: Double blind testing (the so-called gold standard that so very often produces drugs with no real benefit) makes as much sense on Ebola as using double blind on a gun shot to the heart and making one person be the patient receiving the placebo (i.e. cut open but no repair at all.) It is beyond stupid – if one is expecting a tiny fraction getting cured but most dying, then yes, that type of testing will tease out that type of result. With a killer like Ebola, it is fucking obvious if any drug helps or not when hundreds of people are infected.
    The issue is long term side effects and that is both an issue and troubling – except this is starting to embed itself in the population with terrible effects so, such caution just has to be thrown to the wind. Far too many lives are at stake and death by the disease is a almost certain outcome; for the small percent that do survive it unaided, the long term side effects of the disease are also terrible.
    Glad they have two more drugs/treatment – the other, while effective was a vaccine and not very effective if someone was already fairly ill.
    @eric: Hope all treatments go fantastically well and they are cured.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I don’t know- that hasn’t happened here in other dips. I don’t think Ohio has the vast areas to put together the big collection of parcels they need. It’s broken up. Part of the reason NW Ohio and Indiana have remained profitable is we have high quality, cheap water and lots of it. The whole region is on a huge aquifer and it’s really good water. Long term I think that matters more and more. This year they were drowning but it’s a long term natural asset. If corporations can figure out a way to cheaply move the water out of here then we’re in trouble. They’ll drain the whole thing and send it to Nebraska :)

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    There’s winners and losers in these catastrophes. I live in a fancier “in town” neighborhood (you know – relative) and one of the nice things about the financial crash was we got a bunch of new, younger families who bought houses at foreclosure auctions. If you were in a position to buy you could get in here for 40k less, and a lot of them did. They like it because kids can walk to the school. Obviously you had to have a job and we had 16% unemployment so a lot of people didn’t. Our housing prices don’t move that much- they don’t go up dramatically or down dramatically- so there was this brief window where they got a really good deal. Maybe the same thing will happen with farm ground.

  86. 86.

    hedgehog mobile

    Hi jackals. We are at the hotel waiting for our room to become available. Having a Guinness. Meeting a friend for dinner tonight. She’s never been to a science fiction convention…talk about jumping in with both feet! Our hotel is in the Docklands, which is being developed big time.
    hedgehog jetlagged in the DUB

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    Poor Nate launched elebenty thousand flying monkeys…

  89. 89.

    Zinsky

    There are allegations rising of Trump having paid off the families of some of his rape/sexual assault victims over the years, including a 13 year old girl Trump sexually assaulted at his Trump Vineyard Estate in Charlottesville, VA in 2012, just three years before his candidacy for president began. Michael Cohen was likely involved in the payoff. Expect that he will be found dead in prison…

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    @eric:
    I am so relieved to hear you and she are getting along. Because the Immp has decided to sit out a year, I do not need to go to Houston for weeks, so I am going back to teaching this semester myself. Looking forward to returning to that work.

  91. 91.

    JPL

    @eric: Glad that I checked in to hear the news. Hopefully the next phase is easier, but I imagine that is a relative term. Take care and thank you for sharing the infor.

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    As president, I will cure all sexually transmitted diseases so that people can engage in consequences-free intercourse.

    Me thinks Baud’s planning a porn star sexapalooza for himself.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    Know not if this was mentioned yet. A detente of sorts has been reached on Mauna Kea for now.

    Maunakea Observatories to Return to Limited Operations
    [snip]
    The Maunakea Access Road remains blockaded. However, activists agreed, after the Emergency Proclamation was withdrawn, to allow all existing observatory employees, including astronomers, to access Maunakea using the Old Saddle Road and a section of unpaved lava. This route is unimproved and lined with tents, cars, and people. However, pursuant to this agreement, on Wednesday, 7 August 2019, the State laid cinder and cones in an attempt to address safety concerns. The people blocking the road also agreed to allow larger vehicles to access Maunakea by going around the tent blockade. This means the vehicles will travel on the road’s shoulder.
    [snip]
    The Observatories plan to send regular day crews back to the summit to prepare the telescopes to resume operations. During the prolonged shutdown, some instruments and systems were disabled to protect the health of the technology, so the restart process will vary in complexity from telescope to telescope. The Observatories hope to resume scientific observations as soon as possible.
    [snip]
    This four-week suspension has been the longest period of time in the five-decade history of Maunakea astronomy that all telescopes have been simultaneously offline… Source

  95. 95.

    Doug

    @hedgehog mobile: I had an amazing time at Helsinki in 2017 and am gutted that school schedules and finances have kept me away from the Dublin worldcon.

    They’re not the jackals, but the commenters for File 770 are having a meetup, and it’s possible that people from the venerable blog Making Light will have a meetup as well.

  98. 98.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    @Baud:
    The same bug that causes the STD also causes trachoma, an eye disease that results in blindness is not properly treated. It’s not an issue any longer in most developed places, but there are still plenty of places, mostly rural and underserved medically, where a vaccine will be a Really Big Deal as far as dealing with trachoma is concerned.
    The complications from the STD can be pretty unpleasant as well, so this is great.

  100. 100.

    sjh

    Long-time lurker first time commenter…decloaking to say “Yes, I will be at Worldcon in Dublin this weekend.”

  101. 101.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker:

    You get these hints of a sense of entitlement from Sanders

    Almost as if he expected a coronation. Last I heard, that was a bad thing, but maybe only for the undeserving wimmenz.

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