They didn't say this a month ago, but now that red states are having massive spikes, they've all of a sudden realized that their election fortunes are tied up in wearing a mask. The politicization of mask wearing has killed people. Horrifying. https://t.co/CevhN4AKO4
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) June 29, 2020
JUST IN: @GStephanopoulos: “Is it time to mandate the wearing of masks across the country?”
“Definitely long overdue for that,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, adding that the CDC recommended use of masks but did not mandate it as to “not offend" Pres. Trump. https://t.co/y2qk2iXUsd pic.twitter.com/GTJ8UUieKm
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 28, 2020
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN): "It would help if from time to time the President would wear one to help us get rid of this political debate." pic.twitter.com/cS1i9nWw8l
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 28, 2020
The policy has been to maximize confusion so accountability is lost. Seen that way, there is no shift. Just more of the same: Confusion. https://t.co/zVNfHaGmCO
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) June 28, 2020
Pence Shifts From Trump : ‘Wearing A Mask Is Just A Good Idea’ https://t.co/1Nn7sLsvqp pic.twitter.com/vFXaA2eSPo
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 28, 2020
Suddenly, it’s no longer un-American!
80% of US adults report wearing a mask all, most, or some of the time when in stores or other businesses. Only 7% say they never do. https://t.co/gD8sKziGFt pic.twitter.com/5JxcrYftgr
— Caitlin Rivers, PhD (@cmyeaton) June 28, 2020
Excellent news, regardless — because As above, so below…
Does this keep happening because all of the community theatres are closed, or https://t.co/91QVdSioOd
— Niccole Thurman (@niccolethurman) June 27, 2020
Again their was an entire pre-existing culture of tacticool face masks wildly popular among reactionary types before COVID. Anti-mask stuff is entirely about falling in line behind their weirdo cult leader's kneejerk opposition to them and triggering thuh libs by not wearing one. https://t.co/YKJrRGE5gQ pic.twitter.com/srriOQLN9T
— Viridian Forest Autonomous Zone (@weedlewobble) June 27, 2020
“We’ve reached the point of this polarized pandemic where our current plan for salvation is convincing certain recalcitrant men that wearing masks is the testosteroney thing to do.“ https://t.co/AepFLKWItl
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 27, 2020
If your masculinity is so fragile that it can’t survive wearing a mask, then it is already broken. https://t.co/Dr2AnMPPWD
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) June 27, 2020
I think the biggest mistake we made is telling Americans that wearing masks is to protect other people. Know your audience!
— Jenni Konner (@JenniKonner) June 26, 2020
My brother asked someone who wasn't wearing a mask to maintain 6 ft. behind him in a checkout line.
The guy reached out and grabbed my brother's mask, so my brother knocked him out.
If you live in Oak Cliff and see a guy who resembles me, maintain 6 ft. ??
— Jason Rogers (@Rogers4Texas) June 28, 2020
reporters please stop asking the proudly maskless if they’re afraid of getting covid and start asking them why they have such a sociopathic disregard for other people
— shauna (@goldengateblond) June 29, 2020
I did not know, until I read this @davidfrum piece, that Sebastian Gorka calls masks "COVID burqas." Which is… really something.https://t.co/eRlBmiQR5e
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) June 29, 2020
HumboldtBlue
How absurd is our world that straight-up full xenophobia about wearing masks against the foreign flu may have saved lives.
Selfishness lives here.
And that Gorka is being quoted anywhere is yet another sign of the impending doom for this planet.
Cheryl Rofer
Went to the store today. At Trader Joe’s there was a man leaning on his Texas license-plated car without a mask, the only one in the area. As I went by, I caught his eye, motioned toward my mask, and said “Mask.” He didn’t put one on, but he kind of slunk to the other side of his car.
It’s probably no big deal in the outdoors, and he was away from others, but we’ve got an ethos in Santa Fe.
khead
Ventured downashore to Wildwood NJ this past Saturday. The beach experience was just fine. Lots of folks, but everyone was spaced out. The boardwalk? Not so fine…
Mathguy
I like the ring of truth of the phrase “Trump Plague.” Also has multiple meanings: the actual plague, or his spawn, or his hangers-on, or his cultists. Does a lot of work!
Achrachno
I think I’ll go put on my covid burqa and take the dog for a walk.
NotMax
So it turns out Jacksonville may not have been the wisest choice of venue.
//
@Cheryl Rofer
Possible he’s a smoker (of whatever) and you happened upon him just before or just after?
HumboldtBlue
@Cheryl Rofer:
Come on now, don’t be so modest:
He knows an ass-whuppin’ when he sees one.
A woman has to have a code so don’t fuck with the scientists.
Matt McIrvin
@HumboldtBlue: Xenophobia is one of the things keeping people from wearing masks, because it’s a practice from East Asia that Westerners have long described as if it’s some sort of quaint superstition or alien politeness ritual rather than an effective public health measure. Anti-Asian racism is a big part of this.
Matt McIrvin
I usually wear a mask my mother (who is a quilt artist, and knows how to make indestructible sewn goods) sent me which is in green mottled fabric, something close to a camo pattern. I didn’t need that level of macho but she may have been hedging her bets.
Samantha made me one that fit better which is purple with pink polka dots, and I love that thing but I put it in the dryer and one of the straps came loose. I need to repair it.
Adam L Silverman
I’ve updated my post with this new reporting from James LaPorta.
Mary G
LA County is closing their beaches for the holiday weekend, but the OC has surrendered to the wingnuts and isn’t, so it’ll be packed here. I have accepted an invitation to go to a dear friend’s house on the 4th, only her son and his wife will be there and I trust them, but it still makes me a bit nervy. I need a bit of in person company that isn’t the housemates.
Martin
Let’s not kid ourselves. We’ve been willing to kill Americans to win elections since our founding.
Marcopolo
@Adam L Silverman: Ah, the pale mustache of despair strikes again!
HumboldtBlue
@Matt McIrvin:
Not to get tangled in this web, yes I got ya.
I’m riffing “if Obama said breathing…”
And that if they had screamed “use a mask” to the idiots because China it may have helped in a perverse manner.
A
@khead: was the boardwalk at Wildwood ever fine?
Jeffro
Jenni Konner’s tweet is so spot-on.
And Sebastian Gorka can go DIAF…or D-on-a-ventilator, if he likes.
NotMax
@Mary G
Hate to sound like a sodden duvet, but stay home for now.
It’s not just a matter of trusting them, it’s also implicitly trusting every single person with whom they’ve been in contact.
Ken
I don’t see how there can be a venue for the convention Trump wants. He’d need a city or state with no restrictions on large gatherings, and no COVID problem. Incompatible, like a four-sided triangle.
Plus at the rate opinions are shifting, there’s a very good chance that by the time of the convention any governor or mayor who allowed such a thing would be dragged from their office by an angry (masked) mob.
Kelly
Shopping run this week included a trip to Lowes and since they didn’t match the decking we’e repairing needed a stop at Home Depot. Pleasantly surprised by 90% masked at each place. Salem is in Marion County one of 7 Oregon counties Guv Brown mandated masks in public building beginning last week. Made a big difference. Masks at stores went from 10%~50% to 90%. The mandate spreads to the rest of the state July 1. The mandate is toothless. I’m surprised people came around. News of the virus spread accelerating must be getting thru.
Jeffro
They can chalk it up to toxic masculinity, they can try to attribute it to Fauci’s early statements, whatever…the reason that half of one of our political parties went nuts about masks is because of trumpov’s stupid “hoax” and “it’ll all be over by summer” comments, and his persistent non-mask-wearing, to include him and his campaign’s making fun of Biden about it.
Let it be yet another thing that eats at his support – I’m certain that the mask issue and the overall failure to do ANYTHING about Covid-19 is why the Ill Douche is losing seniors at a historic rate. GOOD.
NotMax
@Ken
Alcatraz has scads of rooms.
;)
Ken
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, darn. That means the failure to defend our troops can’t be put on the list of “impeachable offenses he’s committed since the impeachment.”
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Gorka is weak. I broke him in three emails back in the summer of 2015.
Adam L Silverman
@Ken: It’s ongoing. Started before, continued through, still going on.
Marcopolo
@Ken: Empty cruise ship (though oil tanker would fit better) off the coast? We could all hope they let some asymptomatic folks onboard by mistake. Or they could all fly to NZ for a month or so (since they’d need to quarantine for 2 weeks).
Honestly, in my dystopian novel where the world is succumbing to a global pandemic and NZ is the only place in the world that is safe due to the strong action of their kick ass female PM, NZ would wind up becoming the new global superpower.
LongHairedWeirdo
More importantly, isn’t “protecting others” one of the manly virtues? “I’m sorry, but you’re no man if you only like the fun parts of protecting others, but wimp out when someone asks you to make a serious sacrifice like (checks notes)… wearing… (checks notes again, just to be sure, asks friend to verify he hasn’t had a stroke, and what was actually written was something difficult, that now just *looks* like “wearing a cloth mask”)
“Here’s a very masculine mask. Put that over your nose and mouth. (hands maskless dickhead the obvious choice: a jock strap)”
Marcopolo
Btw, I will feel much more assured about the outcome of the Nov election when this starts happening to Trump & Pence:
Kelly
@Cheryl Rofer: The two guys behind me at check out were some of the 10% unmasked. When the clerk asked if I wanted to apply for a Lowes credit card I turned around and said “No I just want to get away from these guys that are too special to wear masks”. The young robust looking nearest one claimed a medical condition. The one behind started in with “You people spreading fear are the problem”. Followed by claiming his wife, a doctor, said the virus problem was completely overblown. “BULLSHIT” I hollered and fled to my truck. ?
Marcopolo
@Adam L Silverman: As I asked in the prior thread, with the date that this stuff was first known being pushed back so far, how does that figure in the Taliban being invited/disinvited to Camp David around the anniversary of 9/11 in 2019?
Cheryl Rofer
@NotMax: Not that I saw
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: Got this?
Adam L Silverman
@Marcopolo: It means that if Bolton did indeed brief him on it in spring 2019, then he invited them while knowing what was going on.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: Well that doesn’t say anything at all. Well done DCI Haspel.
SectionH
@Mary G: I hope you have a great time! I get it – no really. Mr S and I have some hermit tendencies but yeah… we went over the the kids’ place for our g’daughter’s 9th birthday, because they have a yard. And it was really pleasant. They’ve totally been WFH, E’s (my g’daughter) school was only just over 2 weeks ago, so they’ve srsly been staying the fuck at home too. They’ve got a tiny bubble that is E’s best friend and her parents. And that’s it. And I’m completely paranoid about doing anything that puts us in danger of infecting them the next time we can get together. It’s not worth it to be stupid.
But a little bubble of ppl with mutual trust, yeah. That’s the little pressure vent that hopefully could keep a lot of people from breaking down otherwise.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I don’t care for this framing. Wearing masks do protect the wearer
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Spooks are insubstantial.
:)
Redshift
@Kelly:
That’s the thing, though – most government mandates are toothless, but making them mandates that businesses our other groups can point to and say “you have to” instead of “we’re making you” makes a huge difference. Most people who aren’t out to make a scene will just go along.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Honestly? There is no policy. These people are flying by the seats of their pants. They were fine with stubborn ignorance on social distancing/masking when it was only killing people in blue cities in blue states. Now that it might hurt them politically it’s all hair on fire panic mode now
Anne Laurie
Tragically, I suspect New Zealand under such circumstances would end up much as in On The Beach.
On the other hand… did you ever read John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
Exactly. Most people go along to get along too if it’s the law. Merely recommending masks doesn’t give any sense of urgency
Royston Vasey
@Marcopolo: I like that idea!
No masks necessary here in NZ (42 days since last community transmission, 34 days since last COVID death)
RV in nZ
trollhattan
Yippie.
I miss bats.
Villago Delenda Est
Seb Gorka needs to be stripped of his citizenship and deported to Hungary.
(insert efgoldman phrase here)
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard should never wear a mask. A better idea would be a coffee bean sack over his fat ugly head secured in place with a roll of duct tape.
trollhattan
@Royston Vasey:
Congrats on WWC 2023! Am hoping to make it over for a few matches. Everything should be Totally Normal by then.
Martin
@Redshift: Precisely. Most institutions need cover, at least now and then. Mandates are that cover. Every business is happy to step back and say ‘I don’t make the rules, take it up with the governor’.
SectionH
@SectionH: And by that I mean a real bubble, I mean, you can get closer that 6 feet, you can pee in each other’s houses, and stuff like that.
We just brought a present that I’d scrubbed my hands to wrap after fucking sanitizing it, wrapped with paper that was 10+ years old, and I had separate plates and plastic forks and cups and stuff for us, and we sat 6 ft away. E does a self-hug thing looking at you, and you hug the same way back at her. I’m so proud of my kids.
Ohio Mom
It doesn’t look to me as if 80% of adults are wearing masks when I am out and shopping around here. I would guess more like 60-70%.
I don’t know the name for the feeling I get when I put on my mask, it’s akin to the small buzz I get when I do small favors like holding a door open for someone or letting them first.
But I also admit that I wear it as a political message. I am proud I am nowhere near a Republican and I want tne world to know it.
Kelly
@Redshift: Yes and having the Governor’s mandate made me more willing to express disapproval to the slackers.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
“This fuckin’ guy.”
I make Adam my proxy WRT specific opinions on Gorka, but will never recover from the BBC WS interview that introduced me to him right after the November 2016 election, during which he declared in his plummy fake Brit accent, “The alpha males are back in charge.”
Hoo boy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: And it was glorious.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Ah, but New Zealand has a secret weapon.
:)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Remember how all of these appointees were spoken highly off by members of the Republican establishment and the media? Like Barr? All of them have proven to be pretty much useless.
I can’t understand why, knowing his history during the GHWB administration, they (as in lawyers in the media and in major institutions) went to bat for him. For Christ’s sake, he instituted a massive phone surveillance program 10 years before 9/11!
Anne Laurie
@trollhattan: Oh, c’mon — just about all pig influenza-type viruses are ‘highly adaptable‘ to humans.
I saw that article, and my private speculation is that the ‘possibility’ is being bullhorned at this particular moment because African swine flu is currently devasting China’s pork production pool — in America & Africa as well as the mainland itself. Since pork is every bit as key to the modern Chinese diet as beef is to ours in America, this is leading to a whole cascade of ‘secondary’ problems. (Did you know Tyson et al have been shipping tons of American pork to China even during the worst plant shutdowns here? Or that the CCP is moving mid-scale pig factory farms back into major cities, after years of striving to eliminate such potent sources of environmental disasters?… )
prostratedragon
Some say that real men are willing to do the diligence needed to avoid catastrophic failures like flying one’s plane into mountain side (James Fallows article; h/t digby).
Musical accompaniment: “Volver,” Carlos Gardel
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Gotta link it.
“Anyone else want that last ass?”
Martin
More on the tumult in the game community.
It’s been something, this year.
trollhattan
@Anne Laurie:
I’m weary of our one-way virus trade. What happned to our virus industry? My recommendation is shipping a hoard of hantavirus mice to China and see what happens.
Tom Levenson
@NotMax: brain bleach, please.
Anne Laurie
@Martin: That’s the thing about fragile networks — you remove one card, and the whole structure collapses. Once ‘everybody does it’ fails as a protective device for sexist / racist actions, the penalties cascade. Which is, of course, why the sexists / racists are so defensive about any criticism of Their Own!
Martin
@trollhattan: Dude, we’ve been working really hard on the booming measles industry, up 2400% in a decade. Surely the export industry was about to explode on that one.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
It has. It’s incredible how much has been rapidly changing, much for the better. A year ago, if you tried to talk about removing Columbus statues because he was an awful slaver, you’d have been laughed off. Now, not as much
NotMax
@Tom Levenson
“Just like mama used to make!’
:)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Hell, why was Christopher Columbus chosen as the Italian that Italian-Americans choose as their patron saint, so to speak?
Dude has a lot of baggage. Galileo is a much better role model
Martin
@Anne Laurie: A lot of this relies on threats. Fear keeps people quiet. There are worse things to be afraid of right now than your abuser.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): And your state capitol is?
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I don’t know how that came about, but Columbus was already an icon before the USA had significant Italian immigration.
Yutsano
Add to the list of things that officially suck:Hong Kong just lost its freedom. If Boris is going to do anything about this now would be the time.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Matt McIrvin: The irony in all this is the Karen at work who refuses to wear a mask is, naturally an Asian woman. Being a dangerous jerk is hardly a white thing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh, I’m aware. I think the name should be changed. To what, I don’t know. Will it happen? Don’t know. I guess the city could put it to plebiscite. Have to wonder if the Republican governor and/or leg would try to interfere, given it is the state seat of government
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@James E Powell:
It was, but Italian-Americans in the 20th century didn’t have to pick him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What does trust have to do with it? They could be asymptomatic and not realize it, Best thing, keep it outside and keep 6ft.
Martin
@James E Powell: Apparently we have Washington Irving to blame for this one.
Also that book is to blame for why we think people believed the earth was flat. They didn’t believe that.
Apparently Italian Americans attached themselves to Columbus because they were being discriminated against at the time that the US decided to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of his voyage, so they grabbed onto a figure that the American public already supported (mainly due to the aforementioned book).
SectionH
@Yutsano: I’ve heard that Singapore has been egging China on… I am Shocked!
Martin
I’m eagerly awaiting the decision regarding what to do with Stone Mountain.
mrmoshpotato
Nancy SMASH: George, how many months are we into this? How many people have died unnecessarily? Do you always ask stupid questions?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He was the best known Italian-American for non-Italians that wasn’t in the mob.
mrmoshpotato
LOL It would’ve helped if the rest of you fuckers had voted to remove the Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Do you think that they were aware of the problematic aspects of his history? Or did they see him as a heroic figure who took three small ships across the Atlantic and also as an Italian who was seen as heroic to the rest of America already?
Also, you might want to be careful about applying 20th Century morals and mores to people from an earlier time. Behavior we may see as monstrous could have been commonplace in a previous era.
lgerard
They could just take a hammer to the Columbus statues, make a few subtle changes, and call them Guglielmo Marconi
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Saw this about Stone Mountain:
This whole thing is a huge “fuck you” to everybody who thought the Confederacy were a bunch of human rights abusing, traitorous assholes. It should be sandblasted off the side of Stone Mountain.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Probably. I was taught that in elementary school in the early 2000s. I used to think that he was only responsible for bringing more people from Europe to the “New” World, not being a slaving POS.
I have to disagree with this. What Columbus did was always morally wrong, no matter what he or the society he came from believed. A basic, universal morality that transcends time and space exists, and the key to finding it is treating everybody like they’re human beings; the way you’d like to be treated, basically. All Columbus had to do was consider the natives he found as equals and ask himself, “Would I like to be enslaved and mistreated”? He evidently didn’t do that because he didn’t consider the native people he found human.
James E Powell
@Anne Laurie:
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows!
Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida act 1, scene 3
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Thanks for the explanation. I guess that, Martin, and James E Powell answered my question
Anne Laurie
What I was told, back in the 1960s? American Catholics set up the Knights of Columbus, because the Masons (with all apologies to our own late beloved Alain) did not permit Catholics to join. The Catholics chose Columbus as a patron because they felt he was a good ‘patriotic American’ choice.
The Knights were, originally, mostly Irish-American — but as more Italian (& later Polish) Catholic immigrants arrived, they joined the Knights as well. The Italians, bidding to become ‘ethnically white’ (that’s a whole ‘nother saga) in the 1940s, used the Knights as an excuse to claim Columbus as ‘one of theirs’.
Once every big American city started having a big official St. Patrick’s Day parade, the various urban Italian-American communities demanded they get a parade, too — more or less at the opposite side of the year, mid-October to the Irish mid-March.
Basically, the choice of Columbus was secondary to a bunch of existing factors. But it was never gonna be Gallileo, because when the original Knights were organized, Guiseppe G was under interdiction by the Vatican — the Pope didn’t officially ‘forgive’ Gallileo until maybe 20 years ago!
Jinchi
This is probably a big reason we saw so many people wearing masks during the protests. Especially after watching gun-toting, “Re-Open” militias storming US statehouses, masks became a visible statement of whose side you were on.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): So should we dynamite off the busts of Jefferson and Washington from Mt. Rushmore? They owned slaves.
TR’s policy towards the Philippians was awful, blow him up too?
Lincoln suspended rights during the Civil War, off with his head too?
As Omnes said, applying our standards to what was socially acceptable in the past can be a bit of a problem.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Then you will find history full of irredeemable monsters. There are few people of historical significance who can stand up to that kind of scrutiny.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I always thought the commemoration on the centennial of Lincoln’s assassination was a nice touch. He was a Republican you know. Not many people know that.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
Apologies to The Drifters
(
UnderOut on theboardwalkplague ship)We’ll be havin’ some fun
(
UnderOut on theboardwalkplague ship)People
walkingdying above(
UnderOut on theboardwalkplague ship)We’ll be fallin’ so ill
(
UnderOut on theboardwalkplague ship)Yeah (Plague ship)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s not what I said. I think that everything that a person did should be taken into account and taught in schools and universities. I think individuals like Thomas Jefferson, T.R., Washington, etc are not in the same league as people such as Columbus, Richard E. Lee, or Jefferson Davis.
IOW, on balance, they’re deeply flawed people who did some bad shit but also contributed some positive things to history. I’m fine with statues, etc honoring them along with plaques for historical context
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Wowie, really? I didn’t know that. Now I know what all those “Lincoln dinners” are for ; p
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think Columbus was less an icon of Italian Americans, and more a fable designed to reform our colonialist past. There was a lot of romanticism at that time regarding how the arrival of Europeans was the greatest thing ever for the indigenous people who lived here. Columbus was just the opening chapter of that story.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: There are two qualifiers I would note:
Confederate statues all fall under 1)
Under 2), Democrats don’t believe that Korematsu was wrongly decided, yet we admire FDR. Yeah, he fucked some stuff up, and we acknowledge that – we don’t hide that part of his history. But that hasn’t happened with Columbus. The statue of TR at the museum of natural history should come down, because the statue is a whitewashing of colonialism. But I think NYers would be fine putting a new TR statue in its place that celebrated the good things he did. Nobody minds the statue of Lenin in Manhattan because nobody is under any misunderstandings of who he was, and nobody is celebrating Lenin through that statue.
smike
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’d give Lincoln a pass because of the whole war-at-home thing, but for the rest of them – whatever.
“America! Right or Wrong!” is not a very good slogan.
smike
@smike: Was trying to ETA the previous comment to add that I was not implying that the slogan had anything to do with anything in your comment. So, anyway…
Fair Economist
@mrmoshpotato: That’s great. Somebody needs to do that. Is Weird Al available?
James E Powell
@Martin:
Me, too. I was wondering if it could be sand blasted back to a more natural look. The memorial park in front of it has to go, as well.
The Lodger
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Catholicism.
If you don’t believe me, could you imagine the fight between Holy Mother Church and the Knights of Galileo?
The Lodger
@The Lodger: Or what Anne Laurie said. Never pretend to know more about Catholics than someone from Massachusetts.
Ruckus
No kidding.
columbusqueen
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s a little late to change the name, I think. I sure as hell don’t want Flavortown, because Guy Fieri’s food sucks from what I’ve heard.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Except even Colombus commentaries though what he was doing in the Indies was pretty messed up.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
@NotMax:
A couple of weeks ago, as I was wrapping up an expedition to Kroger’s and other shops in town, I noticed a lot of people smoking cigs pretty hard on their way up to entering the No-Smoking store. None of those people had masks to don upon entering!
I think the self-harm embedded in using tobacco also shows in their total lack of concern about their health so far as Covid-19 as well as their lack of concern about others’ health involving second-hand smoke.
I remember as a little kid, both parents fired up Pall-Malls in the front seat and my little bro and I were trapped in back in that cloud of poisonous smoke. Dad quit cold-turkey in 1960 and never suffered any health consequences from his youthful smoking, Mom died of COPD caused by Pall-Mall addiction. She got hooked at the University, where free cigs were passed out like candy at the football games.
And Covid-19 is gonna kill even more people, faster, than tobacco ever could have, helped by people addicted to nicotine, as they no longer give a shit about anyone’s health at all. Unless a universal legal requirement to wear masks ALL THE TIME happens really soon, the population at large is screwed.
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: Seborrhea Dorka’s ugly mud-jar** mug will be much easier to contemplate once a competent mortician lays hands on it. Which can’t happen a nanosecond too soon. (Not that he’s anywhere near the top of the list – last I czeched ;^D, his tumbrel number was in the mid-100s.)
(BTW & just FTR, MAGA is Hungarian for ITSELF.)
**Phonetic rendering of magyar.
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Simple masks don’t protect the wearer very much, though, and claiming that they do opens one up to simple fact-based attacks.
As well as responses of the form “you wear yours if you’re so scared, I’m not scared.” If it’s all about me protecting myself, then leaving it up to individual choice and counting on karma makes a certain amount of sense. But it’s not–the benefit of wearing them is collective and therefore relies on there being a high level of compliance.
I don’t know how to reconcile this with the difficulty of getting Americans to do anything with this kind of motivation, but I don’t want to lie to people either.
Mart
Bastards told me no shoes, no shirt, no service. What happened to America?