Tuesday Morning Open Thread: High Summer
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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…
We are considering all Article I remedies to Presidential misconduct, including articles of impeachment.
We will continue our investigation.
We will hold @realDonaldTrump accountable.
This is America.
And no one is above the law.
Not even the President. pic.twitter.com/9FnZsdETYp
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) August 12, 2019
No, if Putin falls, Trump's reelection chances would drop dramatically. Two for one! https://t.co/8fYeaUpYHu
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 12, 2019
And some genuinely good news…
Ebola no longer "incurable," scientists say, after discovery of two highly effective drugs https://t.co/4g0rBD6MKR
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 13, 2019
Good Morning, Everyone 😄 😄😄
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.
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) Tweeted:
Our latest Democratic primary tracking data is now live:
Biden: 33%
Sanders: 20% (+1)
Warren: 14% (-1)
Harris: 9%
Buttigieg: 5% (-1)
O’Rourke: 3%
Booker: 3%
Yang: 2%
https://t.co/19xcvc2eMC https://twitter.com/MorningConsult/status/1161091929519611906?s=17
@rikyrah: Good morning 🙋
@Baud: and to you.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: hope it sorts out a bit before she flies. But I thought they were diverting around the closed HKIA.
@rikyrah:
The polls are so all over the place. I don’t know if any of them are that reliable right now.
@satby:
👋
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.
@Baud: polls are clickbait, and daily polls are the worst. Super Tuesday will be the poll that will really matter.
@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).
I am thrilled to hear that Ebola is now treatable and curable. That is good, happy news.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I agree. They can take advantage of our weakness right now.
Nothing Juicers don’t already know.
@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.
Ironically, their voters don’t overlap as much as the article thinks.
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.
@Baud:
It’s Reuter’s – like the AP under Fournier, albeit much more dry.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I haven’t noticed them being particularly being anti-Dem the way Fournier was.
@Robert Sneddon: I imagine the Ebola patients would rather roll the dice and survive now than wait for double-blind placebo controlled testing. I would.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Why not change the flights and avoid the situation altogether?
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
China didn’t seem to give a fuck about world opinion during Tiennemen. I don’t think they care now.
@satby: Here’s a link to Wired on the Ebola cure, for those who don’t have a WaPo subscription.
@Baud:
From the Reuters article
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.
Has any reporter talked to Biden supporters, especially black voters? It’s not just about progressives v moderates.
@Brachiator:
If that drove you a little nuts, this will push you right over the edge.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/13/media/democrats-media-reliable-sources/index.html
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.
@Baud:
He sure has. I wonder if they enjoy their role as the Welfare Queens of the Twenty-First Century?
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.
@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.
The cure for Stupidity, however, remains elusive.
NYT has a Bernie apologist.
That Warren chick should try proposing some ideas if she’s serious.
@Baud:
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.
Sydney incident: man arrested over knife attack had history of mental illness– as it happened
Pikers. Here in America we give our “mentally ill” fully automatic weapons with expanded round magazines and thousands of rounds of ammo.
( “mentally ill” in quotes because 99.9% of our mass shooters aren’t actually mentally ill, they’re just sick motherfuckers)
@Brachiator:
Trump and bullshit? Together? Pshaw!
Speaking of vaccines, here’s one for BJ After Dark.
@Brachiator:
Bullshit is right.
@Baud:
Trump’s lies are approaching escape velocity
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
How does your wife have an “old” passport without holes in it? Instead of turning in the old when she got the new did she just claim she list the old one? How does that work? I voided a Visa or two getting new passports.
@Baud: I think Harris and Warren overlap more, don’t they?
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!
@eclare: Congratulations!
@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.
@eclare:
Pet insurance? My ideas are spreading.
@debbie:
Thanks. The Doc said progress is measured in weeks not days. Or hours which is the Immp’s unit.
@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…
@satby: Thanks! I have 15 years til I get Medicare, and I think this could get me there.
@Brachiator:
They measure their wealth by land values and “cash rent”- what people will pay to work the land they own. This is 2014:
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.
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.
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. A Never-Trumper R would give Rs someplace to go that isn’t a D.
@eclare:
Congratulations!
@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?)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Howard who? Kidding, but that guy is not going to get ballot access anywhere, is he?
@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.
@Kay:
If they lose their farms, they’ll blame the next Dem president or the last one.
@Brachiator: How many soybeans can the Brits eat? Do they even like them?
@satby:
Thank you. And no I haven’t heard from Eric. I am going to send him an email today. I have a worry….
@Sab:
Soy Bangers with soy Beans!
@Immanentize: I think we all do, he’s not been sighted.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Ooo. That’s good. The last one I sent in had holes solid through when it came back.
@Baud:
“Them goldurn libruls done gived away all the agriculture aid with that soc!alistical Pigford giveaway to them no count coloreds….”
@Immanentize:
I think that they wipe the RFID chip, which takes care if most of it.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
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.
@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.
@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?
@Brachiator:
Right. We can’t control other people, and we can’t allow ourselves to become intimidated by people who threaten us.
@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.
@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.
@Baud:
When your goal is to lose badly and blame DA STABBISHMENT, actually having people vote for you is a drawback.
@Kay:
They will take a double hit if land value declines and there is nothing to be gained from working the land.
@Kay:
It’s a bubble. When the inevitable crash comes, expect a lot of corporate buyers. They are flush with cash right now.
@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.
@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.
@eric: Good(ish) news.
@eric: I’m glad to hear things are going more or less well. I think you said that was the last of the bad chemo.
Take care of yourself. Your stress level must be through the roof.
@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.
@eric:
Best wishes to the little one.
@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.
@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 :)
@Baud:
And, yet, they will still vote for him..
Oh well.
@Baud: Couldn’t the same be said of all non-plutocrat Republicans, i.e., 95% of them?
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know how many of them are hurting like the farmers are because of Trump. But at some level, yes.
@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.
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
Poor Nate launched elebenty thousand flying monkeys…
@eric:
Thanks for checking in.
Sending you and the young one positive thoughts 🙏🙏
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…
@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.
@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.
@eclare:
Congratulations! 🎉
@Baud:
Me thinks Baud’s planning a porn star sexapalooza for himself.
Know not if this was mentioned yet. A detente of sorts has been reached on Mauna Kea for now.
@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.
@hedgehog mobile:
Hope that you have a great time at the convention :)
@Kay:
Kay,
I appreciate you explaining things like this about the farmers.
PS- Have you convinced your daughter to move back home?
@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.
@eric: relieved she’s doing ok. Sounds gruelling for all of you. We’re all pulling for her.
Long-time lurker first time commenter…decloaking to say “Yes, I will be at Worldcon in Dublin this weekend.”
@Betty Cracker:
Almost as if he expected a coronation. Last I heard, that was a bad thing, but maybe only for the undeserving wimmenz.
I’m not in Dublin, but fellow BJ’r Hedgehog is there with her husband.
Going to Dublin as well. First Worldcon.