This blow-dried stack of dumpster goo:
The 10th Member of Congress to test positive, this time a Democrat. Coronavirus doesn't care about politics.
Madam Speaker, where is your plan for testing? https://t.co/gfhcRrZ2A0
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 1, 2020
Radley Balko has the goods on the bio-warfare the Trump admin and House Republicans are waging against Democrats:
This is infuriating. Grijalva chairs the committee investigating the clearing of Lafayette Square. He wanted his hearing to be via video. The Trump administration said it wouldn’t cooperate unless Grijalva flew from Arizona to DC to appear in person.
Given his comorbidities, Grijalva and his staff told me they saw this as a childish taunt — a dare. He agreed anyway, because he thought investigating what happened is important.
Guess who else is on that committee, and attended the hearing in person?
Louie Gohmert.
There’s of course no way to know if Gohmert gave it to him. But the in-person hearing was a stupid risk, insisted upon by the GOP. The bargain was literally no oversight unless Grijalva subjected himself to the Capitol Hill COVID Petri dish the Republicans have created.
There probably IS a way to find out if Gohmert infected Grijalva — I’ve read accounts of local outbreaks that pinpoint sources of infection to the house party level. But even if Grijalva got the virus on the plane or elsewhere, it was the Trump administration and its House lickspittles who forced him to take unnecessary risks to do his job. The bio-terrorists even left a paper trail:
Here’s Interior Sec. David Bernhardt, telling Grijalva’s committee that he’ll only debrief him in person, and that the flight from Arizona to DC is an “easy trip.” 4/6 pic.twitter.com/418sKJwwcJ
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) August 1, 2020
This makes McCarthy’s simpering tweet all the more repellent. No wonder Republicans are hell-bent on shielding corporations from liability for unsafe workplaces in the aid package currently being negotiated. They created an unsafe workplace for fellow lawmakers.
Connor
There is no pit deep enough.
WereBear
Vile, every one.
errg
I think that you can do genetic testing on the virus to find out who you caught it from, by figuring out the exact genetic strain of the virus. There was a New Yorker article back in June about how Iceland was doing this (amongst other things), and how they got their outbreak under control.
Anotherlurker
Foul, horrible people
Is it too early in this thread to ask about a conspiracy that a friend (for now) keeps stuffing into my inbox?
germy
sherparick
@Anotherlurker: If Dante was around, he add at least one, if not more circles in Hell. By the way, if we can overcome the next 6 months of ratfucking, law defiance, and vote suppression by Trump, Barr, and the rest of this criminal crew, I will throw up at the first Democratic consultant and Beltway Pundit who says “look forward, not back” when calling all these thugs to account.
Yutsano
Nancy SMASH! actually explained this on CNN the other day. She doesn’t control whether testing gets done. It’s the Congressional physician. She can’t just snap her fingers and BOOM! instant testing. So of course McCarthy is being his usual weasel-like* self here.
*with all my apologies to the Mustelid-Americans out there for the comparison.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Meanwhile, his boss is doubling down on ‘slow down the testing, please‘
manuals and books…. Paging Ms Cooper, Ms Sarah Cooper… please report to your recording device.
germy
Super spreaders
Another Scott
Fingers crossed.
I hope Speaker Pelosi and the other committee chairs throw the book at Donnie’s minions over this. They do not get to decide how Congress does its business.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
Well, I had sort-of been on the fence re: whether McCarthy should be one of those executed per sentencing by the Truth and Retribution Tribunal.
Someone should swap one of Gohmert’s recently-used masks (now that he is supposedly going to wear one) for one of McCarthy’s about-to-be-used masks. I think that would be good humor
ETA: I have never been a particularly nice guy, but these fucking guys have done major work in helping my id come to the forefront.
JPL
Well Kevin should be thrilled when Nancy institutes a mask mandate. I hate them all.
Somehow I missed this.. Kodak gets $765M loan from US to produce medicines, reportedly including hydroxychloroquine. I guess trump’s choice of drugs is going to be produced first.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Palin’s problem was that she kept giving tells that she knew she was in over her head. Trump doesn’t have that problem because he’s a complete sociopath.
MattF
I think McCarthy is trying to be sneaky, assuming that misusing a rational argument prevents Democrats from using one correctly. Or maybe he’s just tossing verbiage out there. Who knows?
JPL
@different-church-lady: Maybe we’ll find out which books tomorrow, when he signs his health care law.
Anotherlurker
@sherparick: You are correct about the addition of another circle of Hell.
This friend is bombarding me with videos by a world currency financial conspiracy woman, who has as a prominent credit many appearances on “Coast to Coast Radio”.
My friend is an intelligent, accomplished person who falls for every new world order conspiracy theory out there. It baffles me that she falls for this drive and it is starting to annoy the crap out of me.
BruceFromOhio
Creating unsafe spaces is the GOAL, people. Sheesh.
germy
Since the scriptwriters for this dystopian movie we’re living in are slowly going insane, Grijalva will probably perish from this while Gohmert survives and tells everyone “I had it and it’s no big deal! No worse than a bad cold!”
Nora
@different-church-lady: “All of them” is no more a valid answer from Trump than it was from Palin. I’d like to see ONE book Trump has actually read in the last four years. I’d even accept a book on CD he listened to. I bet there isn’t one. Not a single one.
germy
@JPL: You’re right, it has been two weeks. He promised.
Ken
On McConnell’s desk, I would imagine.
sherparick
@Yutsano: More than that. The deference to the Office of the Attending Physician was a joint statement with McConnell & was certainly done in consultation with McCarthy back in May. See https://cha.house.gov/coronavirus. So McCarthy is just being very much a Republican, e.g. a Dickish Asshole, with this statement in response to Congressman’s Grijalva diagnosis with COVID-19. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/01/raul-grijalva-coronavirus-republicans
Alex
They’d likely be hard to sue anyway— legislative staff aren’t protected by most employment laws because Congress exempts itself and state legislatures. Likewise, governors/mayors can’t really order state legislators or on duty federal employees to stay home or wear masks. There have been several outbreaks in statehouses. It’s really risky to bring people together from all over the state, have them shout for hours in a Victorian building retrofitted for air conditioning, allow half of them not to wear masks, and send them back to their districts where they have much higher than average numbers of social contacts.
germy
@Anotherlurker:
Has she been retweeted by Trump yet?
zhena gogolia
THE HATRED I FEEL FOR THESE PEOPLE IS RUINING MY LIFE.
different-church-lady
@Nora: Right, but what I’m saying is Trump gets away with his version of it because he doesn’t even realize he’s been caught. Palin had at least a glimmer, but Trump can’t figure out he just stepped in a pile of his own poo. and that gives him a very perverse reality distortion field that fools some of the people all of the time.
Another Scott
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/brain-fog-heart-damage-covid-19-s-lingering-problems-alarm-scientists
Much more at the link.
Wear your mask!!
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
Let’s look forward to January 20.
Ken
@sherparick: @Anotherlurker: Hell already has plenty of circles. Since the sins are deception, they’re in either the eighth or ninth circle.
The ninth is for betrayal – traitors to family, nation, lords and benefactors. Quite possibly applicable to some of them.
The eighth is divided into ten bolgias or pits, for different varieties of fraud. There’s an embarrassment of riches here, with punishments for flatterers, grafters, thieves, evil counselors, schismatics, and falsifiers.
The last would be particularly appropriate. As punishment for corrupting society with lies, counterfeit goods, and impostures, the damned are afflicted with diseases.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“How to manuals”
O. Felix Culpa
@Ken: You win today’s internets.
Ken
Yeah, but I noticed his lips were moving when he did so.
germy
@Ken:
Which circle is for the inventor of the leaf blower?
Several times a week I have to close my windows to keep clouds of dust, dirt, and dried dogshit from floating into my living room.
And there aren’t even any leaves on the ground.
LuciaMia
What the hell does Pelosi have to do with testing? I thought that was Prince Jared’s assignment.. Oh, right…
sherparick
@Anotherlurker: When we get struck with the idea that Universe is an indifferent, violent place of just random events, some people go insane in a sense; they become vulnerable to any story that can make sense of it. Hence, in the end why 3 old English empiricists, the skeptic David Hume and Christian apologists C.S. Lewis & G.K. Chesterton, all stated came to believe that adhering to the form of Christian Orthodoxy is a sound way to avoid believing in all sorts of nonsense.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
meanwhile, the usual suspects are doing their best to keep trump in power
I’d forgotten about Howard Fineman. Apparently he’s at Real Clear Politics now
I haven’t looked at The Nation in years, but I used to take John Nichols seriously.
Anotherlurker
@germy: Lol! Not yet, as far as I know.
The “expert” is Catherine Austin Fitts.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have to assume Fineman and NIchols are both trolling us.
Ken
@germy: Since the leaf blower is damaging your property, it would be the sixth circle and the first round: those who do violence to others. Standing in boiling blood, in case you’re wondering.
SFAW
Actually, I can see the poetic justice in McCarthy’s tweet. After all, he’s just responding to the Pelosi/Hoyer joint/combined tweet re: Gohmert. Naturally, I’m speaking of their “Serves you right for not wearing a mask, you moronic fuck” tweet to Louie. It was all over the MSM, I’m sure I saw it somewhere.
Steeplejack
@germy:
Wow, “sparse” is generous, looking at the pictures.
Anotherlurker
@Ken: Thanks for the reminder, Ken. I need to re-read “The Inferno” , John Ciardi translation, of course.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nina Turner, my fucking word. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that he didn’t propose Briahna Joy Gray.
Ken
@Steeplejack: They must be using Trump’s advance team.
Anotherlurker
@sherparick: Thanks for your insights. I also think that conspiracy theorists and their believers like to think that they are privy to inside information.
Yutsano
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I can guarantee you that Nichols is quite serious. If they can’t have Wilmer, getting one of his true believers is the next best thing. Has anyone told Nina, much less told her she’ll have to re-join the party if she’s chosen?
Sister Golden Bear
For those who need a break from watching old movies on TV or snarking on BJ (strange but possible), here’s a chance to watch the world’s best performers in burlesque right from your very home—and support one of the quirkier museums in the nation.
The Virtual Burlesque Hall of Fame has online shows throughout August, since its annual fundraiser/festival, got cancelled due to Rona. It’s not just the sequins and feathers “classic” burlesque you’re probably thinking of (the link gives you a taste of the variety of contemporary styles) with both women and men performers Lots of titillating tease (see what I did there) but no actual nudity, so it’s PG-ish rated.
Schedule here. First show starts at 2 p.m. Pacific.
trollhattan
@germy:
The origin story I read was Japanese invented it to blow debris from zen rock gardens w/o disturbing the patterns. If true, that’s the most ironic invention in the irony gallery.
My biggest beef is with the commercial two-stroke models with their exhaust plumes and eight-gazillion decibel sound. When we had the world’s worst air quality during the Camp Fire there were still assholes running around using their gas leaf blowers, adding to the toxic soup. IDK why that’s legal. It’s especially fun while cycling.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia: ?
I feel you
JPL
@Yutsano: Biden’s motto is do no harm, so that won’t happen.
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
We don’t find out anything good about this disease 😠
Roger Moore
Where is the Republican plan for testing for the rest of us? This is the thing that angers me the most. The Republicans obviously understand the importance of testing in stopping the spread of the virus. That’s why Trump insists the people around him be tested daily and why McCarthy is so interested in testing for Congress. But they don’t give a damn about any kind of national testing strategy to stop the spread of the disease in the general populace. They care only about protecting themselves, and the rest of us can just die for all they care.
trollhattan
Our county just crossed 10k cases and 142 deaths (the most recent two on the 27th). Not numbers I could have imagined back in May.
PPCLI
@sherparick:
Um…. do you have a link for this?
PPCLI
@SFAW: Or Jill Stein.
debbie
@Yutsano:
As someone in a leadership position for some time now, you’d think he would know the House’s rules and processes. //
Elizabelle
@SFAW: WRT Briahna Joy Gray.
LOL. She is just barely 35 years old. As in, she is 34 now, but 35 by inauguration day.
Weirdly, it’s hard to find her birthdate (she seems rather coy about that), but this might be it. DOB August 15, 1985. From Marathi TV. Have no idea where they got the date, but it’s agreed she was born in 1985.
Jess
@sherparick: One of my grad seminar readings discussed the feeling of “wonder” as occupying the liminal zone between not-knowing and knowing. That sense of wonder can be an addictive drug, and I’ve noticed that the most compelling religions and conspiracy theories work to keep you in that zone where the secret knowledge is just about to come into focus, but never quite does.
LeftCoastYankee
@germy:
Maybe they’re practicing for the tear gas?
Jess
@trollhattan: Have they been partially redeemed by their use to blow tear gas away from protesters?
MomSense
@zhena gogolia:
I feel that. Come sit by me (six feet apart) and I’ll give you a needle felting kit so you can stab wool thousands of times and end up with a cute felted wool kitten or Fox.
senyordave
No one should ever forget that McCarthy was the one who said this:
On Tuesday, McCarthy bragged to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”
The best outcome of this would be for McCarthy to get Covid-19 and spend the last moments of his life gasping for air while on a ventilator. Bonus point if it is a faulty ventilator procured by a Jared Kushner shell company.
germy
@Jess:
The spiritual version of “edging”
germy
@senyordave:
Or my neighbor’s leaf blower.
Brachiator
@Ken:
It’s been a while since I read Inferno.
Where is it that the people who talked shit in life are forced to eat it as punishment?
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Bernistas would flip out at any choice, with the possible except of Wilmer himself (after gender-reassignment surgery of course), so it’s unlikely that their views will weigh heavily on Joe Biden and his team. As for Nina Turner, she just last week said that voting for Biden over Trump was like eating half a shit sandwich instead of a whole one (and no, that’s not a paraphrase), so I’m guessing her invitation to submit an application “accidentally” got misrouted to McMurdo Sound via the dark side of the Moon.
Steeplejack
@different-church-lady:
It’s not that Trump doesn’t know. He doesn’t care.
(Not saying that Trump does know. I wouldn’t take that bet. Just saying that it doesn’t matter to him at all.)
Ken
@Brachiator: Flatterers; eighth circle second bolgia. And they don’t eat it. Rather, when they speak, they… well, “talking shit” is not a metaphor any more.
Brachiator
@sherparick:
Okay, this partially explains why many people believe in God, but what about conspiracy theories?
In the US, particularly, conspiracy theory belief seems to be connected to trying to regain “control” in a society where people think that they are helpless. There also seems to be a need for the ego boost of being one of the few people who really know what is going on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: I don’t expect anyone on the Biden campaign to give it even a moment’s thought. Ed Rendell may be a moron, but his moronitude leads him in different directions. I’m just surprised at the source in this case. I would’ve counted Nichols as one of those who would like to live in a country where BS could be elected, but that he thinks that looney Turner could or should be anywhere near the White House is a jaw-dropper.
As much as I despise him, I am a bit surprised that Sanders is letting this nonsense float around, but then again, he did send Turner and some equally toxic people to what are supposed to be some kind of reconciliation meetings (which I thought were all over and done, but they can’t let go).
J R in WV
How many people do you have to cause to die, before The Hague will consider you a genocidal monster? We have a political clique that is deliberately causing very high numbers of death among political opponents right here in River City, folks!!! Being led by Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, and the rest of the White House Wrecking Crew.
Sounds like Louie Gohmert is personally responsible for spreading plague, along with Interior Sec. David Bernhardt, who squeezed Congressman Grijalva into an “easy flight” from Tucson to DC. I suspect millionaire lawyer and lobbiest Bernhardt is used to flying up in First Class, which is pretty easy always. I also bet Congressman Grijalva does not usually fly up in the front cabin.
We’re looking at hundred of thousands of people dying because they’re Black or of Color, or because of their political affiliation…
This sounds like a text book definition of genocide to me, allowing people to die because they’re of a different ethnic background or hold different political or religious beliefs, in order to sway an election. They aren’t really even trying to hide it any more, either.
Probably ignorant of the technical definition of genocide, so don’t realize they’re committing a very serious crime just by their discussion of why dropping testing and contact tracing might be to their political advantage, and then dropping testing and contact tracing.
Kent
Where does this Harris hatred come from? I honestly don’t get it.
But on the other hand, the fact that both the pasty old centrist white guy faction (Dodd/Rendell) and the pasty old lefty faction (The Sandernistas) both dislike Harris is her biggest recommendation in my book
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sounds like Nichols has been paid consulting/speaking fees by Our Revolution and wants to keep the grift going with praise to the paymaster.
I mean the comment is so stoopid. you don’t just pick a person at the last second, you have to spend months vetting a person, going through their taxes, political history, speeches, back ground check, launching trial balloons, etcetera.
Kent
Conspiracy theories are mostly, I think, an exercise in seeking to place blame elsewhere for one’s own failures and inadequacies. It is very much the same as the “involuntarily celibate” (Incel) types. Rather than looking inward, they seek increasingly ludicrous explanations for their own failures.
Easier to blame say…George Soros for your failings, than look in the mirror and figure out why no one wants to hire you or socialize with you.
West of the Cascades
You know who else has comorbidities and spent time very close to Gohmert’s virus-ridden, putrescent trap this week? Bill Barr. I hope THAT fucker catches it and dies.
Jess
@Brachiator:
This, and also a feeling of purpose, of having a grandiose mission to fulfill. Modern life is dreary for a lot of people.
Chyron HR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wow, between this and the fake rape accusations, those “Praise Bernie for conceding graciously (this time), you shitlibs!” takes really aged well.
JPL
@Kent: yup I actually think it’s coming from the trump folks.
Achrachno
@sherparick: Christian orthodoxy is at least one form of nonsense. Maybe more.
patrick Il
@germy:
… and hydrochloroquine saved me.
joel hanes
Open thread?
See his finances here
patrick Il
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What do Bernie fans have against Kamala?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
it looks like this lady is coughing on people with her camera going, I guess hoping she gets punched in the mouth or something, so that she can ??????, and then PROFIT! or at least a star turn on the Tucker Carlson program.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SFAW:
I’d advocate for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission erring on the side of capital punishment when it comes to high ranking GOP leaders. I figure there would be a few that might skate if it doesn’t….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@patrick Il: who knows? They tweet their dark fantasies at each other and then believe them like they found them on the pieces of that third tablet Moses dropped.
Steeplejack
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Fix’d.
Geeno
@Brachiator: The flatterers – Eighth Circle – Bolgia 2. It’s actually the other way around – only shit comes out of their mouths.
germy
@Kent:
John Revolta
@joel hanes: He snuck that one in right enough. I’m gonna assume that it’s clean though, or clean enough, or he wouldn’t have let it out in the first place. (I’m also gonna assume that people are combing through all 78 pages so I’ll wait to hear more.)
Frankensteinbeck
@Kent:
Sanders’ cult has a long and loud history of telling women and minorities to shut up and do what white men want.
germy
SFAW
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Fuck Reconciliation. I want Retribution. Without it, there will be no reason for them not to do it again. I’m OK with capital punishment, of course. For me, the big problem is: who first? I think Mitch, but I expect there are arguments to be made for the Murderer-in-Chief, Shill Barr, Newtie, and a number of others.
Jinchi
I don’t know, but Bernie and Kamala seem to get along just fine
joel hanes
@John Revolta:
I’m going to assume that it’s full of falsehoods, which might get teased out next year if someone has the staff and time to do so.
CREW will probably find a few sooner than that on their own.
Steeplejack
@germy:
To be clear, that’s Ta-Nehisi Coates talking. Is he a Sandernista, or just anti-Harris, at some level?
ETA: Well, I see he’s criticizing Sanders in your second quote.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: I support your edit.
Kent
Yes, actually it does make him a racist. Racism is not limited to stereotypical racial hatred of the KKK variety. If you insist on class-based explanations for inequity that is caused, in part, by racism. And your class-based solutions will disproportionately benefit white voters. Then you are perpetrating systemic racism. For example, Bernie’s free college for all idea would be one of the largest upward redistribution of wealth in this country. Millions of poor blue collar minority workers would be paying for affluent white students to attend posh colleges for free. If not paying overtly through taxes, they would be paying through the massive diversion of resources from other objectives.
NotMax
@joel hanes
Very quick scan shows that the royalties for the vast majority of books published under his name are listed as “None (or under $201).”
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy:
More from the quote:
Pararllax
What’s particularly sad to me is Raul Grijalva is one of the good guys. Like John Lewis, a simple man who lives a simple life and cares deeply about his constituents. If the world were filled with men like him, it would be a far better place. Will be praying for his speedy recovery.
catclub
@PPCLI: David Hume could out consume, Schopenhauer and Schlegel.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: I think TNC is missing quite a lot here. This was the whole truancy thing, there was a lot that went on before punitive measures were taken. It wasn’t the kid misses a week of school and lock the moms up. There were multiple attempts to rectify the problem before it came to that and the parents would have to uncooperative with all of them before punitive measures were taken. At some point we do need punitive measures, to take a current example, masking.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: This thing they have with Kamala (coincidentally a successful, fairly liberal minority woman) is really nuts.
There’s this crazy theory that she hates trans people and wanted them to die in prison, because she followed the law at the time regarding where to assign prisoners and whether the state should push for reassignment surgery.
Kamala actually pushed for a new policy parallel to actually following the old one, and before she left as AG there was a new policy that says that prisoners can get reassignment surgery and that they get assigned to the correct prison.
The fever swamp says this is actually proof that Kamala really does hate trans people, because… after she left it’s taken a long time for people who request the surgery to get it. You know, unlike the general population. /s
They just really do hate her and I can’t figure out why. It’s the same thing with Hillary, they had this imaginary monster in their heads with no resemblance to the actual person.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: I can’t remember what he said, but I do remember watching Jaime Harrison being interviewed the night of the South Carolina primary and thinking, “Damn, he really wants a Biden-Harris ticket”
MisterForkbeard
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Right. There was a reason why Harris didn’t put any parents in jail for truancy. It’s because the punishment was literally the last resort to just giving on the kid entirely, but there were several steps before that and if the parents was cooperating then they’d be fine.
Totally legit to say that she created a program which could be abused. That’s fair. It’s also applies to virtually every part of the justice system, so I’m just going to dismiss it.
trollhattan
@catclub:
My first thought as well. :-)
We got to sing along The Philosophers Song with Eric Idle. Bucket list item!
Kent
@germy: Teacher here. I have taught in states that held parents accountable for school attendance (Texas) and in states that did not (Washington) and the difference is night and day. Attendance at the almost entirely white exurban HS I taught at in Washington was far worse and the school was just powerless or choose not to really address it in any systematic way. And it was the kids that ultimately suffered (as well as society). This wasn’t a brown people thing. It was mostly white kids. I had one mother who had some sort of deep anxiety issues so she kept her 17 year old daughter home with her more than 50% of the time. I had to fail the daughter because she only made half-hearted attempts to get caught back up but never really followed through. She might have been better served by some sort of online school option. But the family was too lazy to bother exploring it. They just didn’t value school.
I don’t have the answer. But school attendance is a crisis problem in many states. And the only way to get parent’s attention is to hold them accountable. Police are the wrong vehicle for that. In Texas the district had truant officers who would go door to door. Usually assistant principal types who would try to work out attendance improvements with the families. But ultimately things could end up in court. I think those laws have since changed.
So I don’t really hold Harris accountable for those efforts in CA. They were trying to tackle a very real problem and no one else was coming up with solutions.
Yutsano
@germy: That’s old, from when Kamala was still a candidate. I wonder if Ta-Nehisi Coates has a different opinion now.
Citizen Alan
@patrick Il:
How about we start with the fact that she’s (a) black, (b) a woman, and (c) not another cosplay Marxist and then go from there?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Steeplejack:
Another quote:
IMHO, his problem with Kamala is the same as his problem with Obama. She is a Black politician attempting to become President of the “still pretty white” USA. The need to appeal to white constituencies creates a different dynamic and relationship with the Black activist community, with more tension. It’s understandable though, and I think Obama showed that it can be navigated with good outcomes for all sides.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@MisterForkbeard: Also what gets left out is the California Correctional Authority is not part of the California Department of Justice. It’s a separate (I believe cabinet level) organization, the CA DOJ would have the responsibility to defend CCA policies in court, but they don’t directly create the policy.
Ken
Maybe people used to do that, but Trump has shown it’s all unnecessary.
Ken
I suggest the Joker’s system in The Dark Knight. Put them all in a pit, announce only one gets out, and throw in a broken pool cue.
The part about one getting out is of course a lie.
Kent
Do you think any of it has to do with the fact that she does’t come from traditional African American roots like say a Val Demings. But is really the multi-racial child of highly educated immigrants? Her mother is a PhD research scientist from India who worked at Berkeley and her father is a PhD economist from Jamaica who taught at Stanford, Cambridge, and Yale.
trollhattan
Wish to single out Bernhardt in the OP, he of the “It’s no big deal” assertion. He is the head lobbyist for Westlands Water District, the country’s largest irrigation district. Each California water initiative he has spearheaded–there have been many–is specifically aimed at getting Westlands more water. Like Trump, he never stopped performing his former job upon taking office, regardless of what Westlands might say about that. And once he leaves his post, it will be right back in the saddle.
A neighbor works for Interior and deals directly with Bernhardt. He knows the danger the man presents, firsthand.
zhena gogolia
@Kent:
Right. I am constantly clashing with a church member Bernie-type who keeps trying to redirect the conversation away from racism.
Yutsano
@Ken: I mean, it’s not like Dolt45 spent a huge amount of time choosing Pence. He was just given the name and that was it. That was about the amount of time his pea brain could spend since all he was looking for was someone who couldn’t overshadow him. Pence is…definitely that.
opiejeanne
@WereBear: AZ to DC an easy trip my ass! It’s not great for people his age to be sitting on a plane what, 5-7 hours.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Another lobbyist? Like DHS Chad? Yeah, the Trump fella sure knows how to drain the swamp.
gwangung
@Kent: “Traditional” roots? Like…ghetto/lower class origins? There’s a bit of racism in that kind of thinking as well….which I wouldn’t be surprised at with some Sanders supporters….
trollhattan
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Whomever Biden picks needs to be a good campaigner and Harris was one of the better Dems in this primary, so makes a good choice on that basis should she be selected.
Since she would not be running for president I will not worry too much about what kind of president she will be. I use a different sorting hat for VP picks, while presuming Biden’s VP will be a partner such as he was, and not a hood ornament like Pence.
boatboy_srq
One hopes Pelosi’s response includes insisting Gohmert turn himself in for attempted manslaughter.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ken: Trump has shown it’s unnecessary, if you are a Republican. Everyone else has to be Caesars Wife* or the pearl clutching will never end.
* And let us note irony there is that Caesar own soldiers accused Caesar to his face of trying to hump any woman who couldn’t run fast enough, but the gal married to Mr Hound Dog better beyond reproach.
joel hanes
@trollhattan:
Because of the selenium in the soil, and because California’s water was already oversubscribed at the time, the initial development of Westlands should have been nixed at the outset.
It’s always been a land-speculation swindle by wealthy (Republican) investors, in which the spectacular increase in land values comes directly from the provision of irrigation water at public expense. Socialize the costs, privatize the profits.
And the high level of selenium in the soil causes pollution problems downstream, esp. at the Kesterton sink.
joel hanes
@trollhattan:
Biden is old.
There is a pandemic.
“What kind of President would she be?” is the second question in my mind, right after “would this pick destroy Biden’s chances?”
Yutsano
Speaking of Pence: Hoo boy he done got himself into somehot water with the former governor of Missouri!
Robert Sneddon
@Ken: That was the Joker’s secret superpower — he could say the most outrageous things and people would take him at his word and act as if what he said was anything akin to reality and believe he would keep any bargains he made.
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
I assumed Donny would be dead by now because he’s old, fat, sedentary, eats almost literal shit, has anger issues, goes to fake doctors. And yet….
Emma from FL
@MisterForkbeard: I’m beginning to think Kamala is a victim of the “of course I would vote for a woman…. just not this woman” syndrome.
Ruckus
@Anotherlurker:
It’s the only way they have opinions that are exact opposites of scientific or general knowledge.
gwangung
@Emma from FL: Which I think almost any woman would fall prey to….
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
All true. What’s “funny” is designing the federal CVP and state SWP in the ’50s and ’60s it was known that a drain to the Delta or even the Bay was needed to remove the west side toxic effluent and the state water contractors (Westlands uses discounted federal water) declined to pay what would have been their portion so it remains unbuilt. They also knew a Peripheral Canal or alternative (Delta Conveyance tunnel in 2020) was needed to maintain Delta health. And yet here we are.
Finally monitoring the groundwater basins has been quite the revelation.
MagdaInBlack
@Emma from FL:
Yup
L85NJGT
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
The VP as an impulse buy item. That worked great for George McGovern.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
any of y’all got kids who are pissed about tik-tok? are they part of this scheme?
trollhattan
@Emma from FL:
I’m beginning to wonder what “wonder woman” would get people to stop saying it. She may not exist. Pretty sure she didn’t run in 2020.
opiejeanne
@zhena gogolia:
I am so worked up right now, I need to go do something destructive, but it’s too hot to pull weeds.
And worse, what set it off was a woman on Twitter who jumped down my throat when she made a short comment putting the blame solely on DeVos for the poor education in the country. She accused me of man-splaining about school boards and really ripped into me. I could feel the acid she was spitting, it was that bad.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Any device that annoys and pollutes to the level of a gas leaf blower can only have one actual function, and it’s not blowing yard debris around, it’s annoying everyone within a half mile radius. What I like is those using an electric blower with a small gas powered generator because there’s no place to plug in the blower.
boatboy_srq
Don’t know if anyone else picked this up, but this was in the comments on that Twitter thread:
Jinchi
@Emma from FL: Not to trivialize this, but I think all of these attacks on Harris are from insiders pulling for their own favorites, and trying to knock down any rivals. A similar dynamic was playing out against Warren a few months ago. Outside that world, I haven’t seen any serious complaints about Harris since the primaries.
Biden doesn’t need to worry about the larger electorate getting up in arms about his VP pick. All of the women being mentioned are strong candidates.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this is a couple of days old, but I’ve always thought Begala was one of the best of the old Clintonites
I didn’t know that about Rendell, and I already hated him.
evodevo
@Anotherlurker: Is she one of those who continually asks about “deals” where you buy Iraqi dinars (or some such)? We have a friend whose sister has been on this kick for several years now. We keep telling him it’s a scam, but then a month later he asks again, just like we never said anything. He’s ditsy, but not totally stoopid. Maybe it’s catching…
Ruckus
@West of the Cascades:
I’d say that’s pretty much anyone within rock throwing distance of louie. Most of them run at the age range where comorbidities are a fact of life. Like several of us here on BJ.
Emma from FL
@gwangung: Oh yes. It’s all rinse and repeat with them.
MagdaInBlack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
OMG I’m dying, thats just wonderful !!
Dan B
@opiejeanne: OT Just wanted you to know I read your Arkansas saga. Typical, too typical. But there are some good people in the state.
burnspbesq
@Kent:
Where does this Harris hatred come from?
‘There is actually a reasonable critique, from a criminal justice reform perspective, of Harris’ record as San Francisco DA. I consider it to be overblown and of marginal relevance, but out Self-Proclaimed Progressive Betters can’t let it go or put it in perspective.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MisterForkbeard:
My feeling is that she’s relatable, attractive, measured, accomplished and not a raging, unreasonable ideologue.
These factors aggregated in a single personality are anathema insofar as the performative left is concerned.
Far better to lose and never govern.
burnspbesq
@West of the Cascades:
God doesn’t love us that much.
Another Scott
@germy: IIRC, leaf blowers became ubiquitous after local ordinances outlawed using water hoses to clean off driveways and walkways. A sensible thing to do to conserve water.
But…
Dyson and Musk should be working on cordless electric leaf blowers.
Cheers,
Scott.
dexwood
should be working on cordless electric silent leaf blowers
Only fix your comment needed.
Ruckus
@patrick Il:
She’s not Bernie. Of course neither is Joe, but that ship has sailed.
Dan B
@burnspbesq: I heard some “Harris didn’t prosecute big corporations.” noise but didn’t check it out. It seemed to come from Bernie supporters.
I’d love to watch a Harris / Pence debate, or as it might be described, Mopping the floor.
evodevo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Easy to deal with lol – take down her plate #, go to the local city attorney, file assault/wanton endangerment/terroristic threatening charges and sit back and wait. it may cost some legal fees, but it will be worth it….and DON’T BREAK OUT HER CAR WINDOW….not cool.
CarolPW
@Dan B: Not sure how much I would enjoy the debate, because I am not a fan of snuff films.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Ken: There has always been a double standard: republicans get a free pass, while Dems are held to high scrutiny.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’d knock her fucking ass into next week.
Philbert
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: yup.Republicans get the benefit of the doubt, the Dems get the doubt.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
My take is that god gets followed for a couple of reasons. First, the entire concept came about because no one had any real ideas of who, what, why, how of the creation, of planets, space, reality, our own being, other animals, etc. History was for the most part handed down verbally, there was little sense to it because there was little science that existed and far less of that was passed around or understood in any way. Any explanation was as good as any other. And an other world being actually probably made some seeming sense.
Second, the entire concept has been around for a bit of time. Also the stories have been retold billions of times, lending them credence and some of the first books printed were bibles, lending it importance. It’s only been a short period of history that we have any real idea of what life is and how it works and that’s not in any way complete. Humans are not necessarily all that rational about most things, it takes learning and actual understanding to see what we actually know and what we don’t. Religion takes belief, the system of it has been established long ago. That there are so many variations of religion, in detail and direction that if only one is correct, which is it and if all of them are correct, explain the differences. Shorter, people are seldom completely rational. Or even close.
burnspbesq
@Dan B:
In CA, that’s not the state AG’s office’s role. There are 58 county DAs.
Another Scott
@Ken: Heh.
There’s a story in Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago of a bunch of people being locked up in a metal box with a wet sheet and being told by the guards that they will be released when they get the sheet dry. They try and try and wring and wring and shake it out and after a few days/weeks they finally get the last drop of water out of it and are excited and can just taste getting their freedom back!
The call the guards over, “Look! It’s completely dry!! Can we please be released now like you promised??”
The guards open the door, drench everyone by throwing in a bucket of water, laugh and laugh, and close and lock the door again.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Ladyraxterinok
@PPCLI:
Yes, link would be good!
Another Scott
@dexwood: Fix accepted.
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
@Pararllax:
I met him and hung out a bit when I was a volunteer for Howard Dean in 2003-2004. I was kind of surprised that such a gentle, soft spoken, fundamentally decent person could not only be in politics, but win.
Miss Bianca
@Achrachno: Thank you, so I didn’t have to say it.//
And mark you, I grew up *steeped* in Christian orthodoxy – of the very, so very Church of England type that Christian apologists like Lewis – and Dorothy L. Sayers, good Lord! – are exemplars of.
James E Powell
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Agreed. LAUSD was saying the same things when I started teaching in 2005-2006. It was nothing unique or especially about Harris. People were making noises like this because the NCLB testing regime was coming down hard and if you didn’t get your students in to take the test, the results would be invalid.
There was both carrot & stick to these efforts. In the week leading up to testing and during test week, we’d be having music & free food. It all disappeared when the financial crisis hit and everything was cut.
TNC is a great guy, but he is just not interested in politics the same way most of us here are. I don’t want to speak for him, his ideas are readily available in print.
emmyelle
There is a way to know. Sequence the viral isolates from both of them and compare.
These mother fuckers.
Fair Economist
@Kent:
Both are hoping (unrealistically IMO) to take over the party. A popular African-American Veep close to the ideological center of the party, with experience in Congress and state administration, and a record of winning campaigns would such a strong opponent even they doubt their ability to dislodge her. Dodd/Rendell want a weaker leader for the party mainstream. The Sandernistas are just spewing BS – not sure what their strategy is, maybe just the usual sowing dissension among those opposed to the fascists.
joel hanes
@trollhattan:
I assumed Donny would be dead by now
Looks very much as if he’s had a stroke — his right leg often doesn’t work right, he sometimes can’t hold a glass of water, and he sometimes has observable tremor in his right hand.
I think it’s a race to see if his health fails before the election. The stress has got to be building as it becomes apparent that he’ll probably lose, and that many of us want him investigated and prosecuted.
But the Presidency has got to be a less stressful job if you spend most of it watching TV and golfing, and if you get through the first three years without a pandemic killing a thousand Americans a day.
Biden will start from a tough place.
MattF
OT. For those who don’t have the endurance to read them, the NYT has a useful summary of the long list of anti-Trump books. The ‘analysis’ article is written by Sarah Lyall, who was a Times London correspondent but has now apparently taken on broader cultural and political topics.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Heh, have not seen that one (yet). “Hey, I’m charging my solar system using a bunch of flashlights, because it’s cloudy.”
joel hanes
@opiejeanne:
school boards
And Republican state-level politicians who do not wish to understand that free public education is the most productive investment in the future possible, raises a state’s economy, and is one of America’s best ideas — because doing it well, even as well as it was done fifty years ago, requires taxation and state expenditures, which they regard as anathema. And because they don’t want any government anything to succeed, lest people learn that it’s possible. And because Jeebus.
Fair Economist
@germy: Phooey. I dealt with the Cali truancy system under Harris due to my recalcitrant son and they were nothing but supportive. You had to defy the system multiple times to even get a threatening letter. Harris had a good system set up. There were cases of racist sheriffs misusing it, but that’s true of traffic laws too and nobody says we should take down the stop signs.
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
Think I’ll send Joe an inauguration gift box with a climbing harness, rope, crampons (wait, warming so not need) and ice axe because that’s one hell of a mountain he’s facing. Bear Grylls will deliver it and stick around to give pointers.
joel hanes
@burnspbesq:
our Self-Proclaimed Progressive Betters can’t let it go
Motivated reasoning is a hell of a drug.
James E Powell
@Kent:
People said similar things about Obama. Say what they will about Harris’s parents, just ask a Trump supporter if she’s black.
joel hanes
@Miss Bianca:
and Dorothy L. Sayers
I love the bit in Gaudy Night in which the vicars wife, I think, explains that she’d actually prefer to decorate the church for Christmas in a particular way, but one musn’t give a leg up to the non-Conformists, so that’s right out.
This has helped me understand the culture wars.
trollhattan
Fingers crossed for a safe return.
Ladyraxterinok
@MisterForkbeard:
Hillary, Kamala—ANY WOMAN who might become a national political leader is completely unacceptable!
SiubhanDuinne
@joel hanes:
That’s in The Nine Tailors. Lovely little scene.
Kent
No, as in descended from African American slaves rather than immigrants.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Isn’t dense more like a trunk ornament than a hood ornament? You know smaller, doesn’t stand out near as much, makes much less of a statement……
SiubhanDuinne
@Ladyraxterinok:
Fixed. They were fine with Sarah Palin.
Dan B
@CarolPW: LOL in the grocery line!
I’m getting extra social distancing.
sanjeevs
@Ruckus: The troll armies thought Harris would be the biggest threat to Sanders. She was attacked online far more than any other candidate until the primaries started.
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: God, I’m so hoping we can get some TikTok youth to bomb the proposed “Re-elect Trump” rally in our county! Arrogant fucks have already started selling tickets, even though they haven’t been granted a variance yet. They are selling ticket to this event for $20, but “under 25s get to come free!”
I ask you, are they *trying* to get p*wned, or what?
J R in WV
@Another Scott:
Every sort of lawn maintenance equipment [perhaps excepting those really big mowers] including weed eaters, chain saws, leaf blowers and standard lawn mowers are available operated via rechargeable batteries.
I have a gas powered chain saw and blower, but my weed eater is battery powered, and the neighbor (who actually has a lawn) even has a battery powered lawn mower, as well as all the other tools I listed. They are much quieter than a gasoline power tool across the board!
Kent
I’ve read some of that material and it is weak. And it feels to me like flailing around for an excuse to dismiss someone for whom you have a pre-existing dislike. If feels to me like there is a real contingent of lefty types who dislike Harris from the start and look for reasons to rationalize that dislike. I’m not really sure why. She is a very mainstream liberal. Perhaps it has to do with a sense that as a non-Sandernista and non-Democratic Socialist type and that she might be too successful and displace the chance of getting someone more progressive in her place.
WaterGirl
@raven: I’d sue her ass into the next century.
Miss Bianca
@joel hanes: Is that in Gaudy Night? Must check in with Subaru Diane, she would be sure to be able to give me *ahem* chapter and verse on the matter. ; )
ETA: And so she has already, the creature! That will teach me to ‘theorize ahead of my evidence’, as Lord P would have it!
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
The Nine Tailors. Here’s the scene:
I adore the way she “performs the ancient pagan rite” of touching wood on the rood screen.
CarolPW
@Dan B: Gives me an idea – maybe I should try cackling madly next time I’m at the farmers market and run into the bitch that refuses to wear a mask and walks around yelling about how the virus is a hoax. Any distancing measure would be good.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Particularly when it sounds like she’s objecting to the terribly, terribly pagan Harvest Festival, LOL!
I think The Nine Tailors is wonderfully written, but it hasn’t been as much of a re-read for me as some of the others, like Gaudy Night or Murder Must Advertise. I think I find the nature of the ‘murder’ so horrifying that it’s hard to revisit it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dan B:
I have no particular desire to watch Pence stand at a podium and repeat bald-faced lies over and over, like he did last time. There’s not much you CAN do when someone just says repeats that black is white over and over.
joel hanes
@SiubhanDuinne:
Of course it is.
The one that mostly takes place in and around a church. In the Fens, yes?
I am embarassed by dumb mistake in public — again. Thanks for the correction; always glad to be a little less wrong.
Ken
@SiubhanDuinne: Sayers clearly recognized that, whatever theology may claim, the real traditions of the church – the ones people will fight tooth and nail for – are what color paint is used for the sacristy walls and which kitchen drawer has the salt shakers.
I rather like The Nine Tailors, but I’m in a bell choir and enjoy math. I’d also not known about circle-hung bells, and the thought of using a rope to control a ton of metal spinning through a full circle is scary fun.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Just a few days ago, I (re-)listened to Ian Carmichael’s audiobook narration of Nine Tailors, and it* was bloodcurdling, bone-chilling, and gut-wrenching to hear. But it’s definitely in my “top three” DLS novels, along with your two, Gaudy Night and Murder Must Advertise.
*ETA: The murder scene.
Anotherlurker
@evodevo: She maybe the same one. She has good credentials as a finance person, a Wharton MBA (MBA is a red flag for me. To me, MBA stands for Morals Being Absent.). Supposedly she held a high position in Shrub’s HUD. However she is also a dedicated Anti-Vaxer, Bill Gates is evil person, etc type of conspiracy person.
I guess she has a big following because all I find when I search for her is praise from dodgy sources.
SiubhanDuinne
@joel hanes: That’s the one. The last few chapters describe a devastating flood, which has a thousand or so people from miles around taking refuge at the church. The description of how they all coped day to day for at least a fortnight is among my favourite bits of writing — not just this book, not just DLS, but in the universe of English literature. (I have many favourites, of course, but this is right up there.)
Another Scott
@J R in WV: True, but AFAIK, the battery life is pretty short and the batteries are absurdly expensive.
Hmm…
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/battery-blowers/bga100/
$360 for the blower, ~ $400+ for long-life batteries and charger, and they claim some of the batteries last over an hour on max power.
So, I guess they do exist now. But they’re very under-powered compared to the largest gas-powered ones.
https://www.stihlusa.com/products/blowers-and-shredder-vacs/professional-blowers/br800ce/
Still, progress!
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yutsano
@Kent: You’re actually already overthinking it. “Kamala is a cop” was a Wilmer shibboleth to try and get minorities to turn against her. And in some quarters it worked. I don’t know how prevalent it is now but there was evidence that back in the primaries that some AA voters were turning against her because of distorted information about her record as DA of both San Francisco and California. And yes the truancy laws were part of all that.
Anotherlurker
@Anotherlurker: After some additional research, I find her name attached to the dinar and the buy gold school of finance.
Ruckus
@Anotherlurker:
I always thought that MBA stood for Must Be Asshole, as in it’s the first requirement for any job that demands an MBA.
Or Masters in Business Assholeyness works as well, the job being to remove all humanity from any business decision.
opiejeanne
@Dan B: Thanks. I do know that, we met some nice people in Little Rock. The lawyers seemed like good people, once they figured out that we weren’t there to skin Bobby’s inheritance. They really helped as much as they could.
There just wasn’t any helping Bobby.
The saga is so much more than what I posted. I mean, a guy who worked for the FBI (I think) but didn’t admit it, gave me the file on the con man the day we were catching the plane to Arkansas. I printed it out and we raced to the airport, and read it on the plane. The contents of the guy’s file were worse than we had imagined. We spent the entire time there dodging that guy, and I envisioned bullets flying at the airport when we were catching our flight home. I mean, it was that bad. He actually called hotels all over Little Rock looking for us, and left a message on the phone in our room.
It could be a book.
Omnes Omnibus
And you base this on your deep study of criminal justice reform?
J R in WV
@Ken:
This is so true! And which cloths are used for which holiday… And if people are being killed all over the place, it doesn’t matter as long as it isn’t on holy ground.
frosty
@Ruckus: @Another Scott: DeWalt has 4 cordless electric leaf blowers.
https://www.dewalt.com/products/outdoor/blowers
Anotherlurker
@Ruckus: Lol! I always like your take on things.
Ladyraxterinok
@Miss Bianca:
Do you also read Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion mysteries?
Several of hers are especially good—Tiger in the Mist, the one about the bus in the museum, the one about the boys devising a means of communicating mentally….actually I like almost all of them. And there are some Sayers’ books I don’t much care for.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: What is the rood screen? I know what a rood is, but not the screens she’s fussing about. Being a mere Methodist and an American, I am at a loss.
Kent
No, the evidence they present that she was anything more than an ordinary mainstream Democratic DA is weak. I found nothing I would consider disqualifying or even problematic.
What? Dems should avoid DA or AG positions because they can’t be pure enough in those jobs? We just leave that whole profession to the Bill Barrs and Jeff Sessions types?
It is similar to criticizing a Senator for a vote on an omnibus spending bill because there is some line-item you don’t like.
Kent
@frosty: Yeah. I have one. If you want the real high-power battery powered leaf blowers, get the Ego which uses 56 volt lawn mower batteries. It’s a beast: https://egopowerplus.com/blower-650cfm/
The ones that use the 18 or 20 volt cordless drill batteries are just too weak.
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: And don’t you dare upset the Women’s Group who oversee the silver closet, with the tea and coffee sets. That group was the most powerful in my church in Riverside because they presented a united front in their defense and maintenance of the silver. You practically had to sign an insurance form to be allowed to use them for a reception.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: You must have seen Ian Carmichael in the BBC version, right? At least I’m pretty sure it was the BBC – it was those TV adaptations that got me into the books as a teenager. Well, that and my father’s unabashed enthusiasm for Sayers. I tended to rate his taste in genre fiction quite highly.
Anyway, the way they cover the incident was quite effective. Effective in giving me nightmares, that is! I’ll have to see if I can find it on DVD and give it another whirl – I haven’t seen it since the 80s at least!
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
Basically, it separates the nave from the chancel in medieval churches and cathedrals. It’s usually made of ornately-carved wood.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca: All of the LPW adaptations (both Ian Carmichael and Edward Petherbridge/Harriet Walter) are readily available on YouTube, at no cost. I watch them with some frequency.
Miss Bianca
@Ladyraxterinok: I’ve read some Margery Allingham, I’m sure, but I will definitely look for Albert Campion books!
I desperately need some escapism. As I noted in a thread some days ago, tho’, Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t quite as ‘escapist’ as I thought it would be this time round, now that Trump has his own witch doctors talking about alien DNA and demon sperm…
geg6
@MisterForkbeard:
She’s a woman. With Bernistas, that’s enough said.
cmorenc
@Kent:
I’m going to call bullshit on labeling EVERYTHING that reflects economic class differences as due to the unconscious racism of anyone and everyone in a more advantaged position who isn’t a person of color. That said, it’s perfectly fair to argue that in practice, Bernie’s economic-based college tuition proposal will likely benefit a higher % of whites than blacks, because a higher % of blacks are burdened by other structural disadvantages beyond just economic class. But your argument isn’t going to persuade many of the people whose support you need to come up with a better, alternative solution by calling them racists – the instinctive response you elicit with that approach is “fuck you, asshole I’m not a racist” and it holds back achieving the changes needed to fix society. You’ve can’t get people to listen to what you’re saying when you alienate them right out of the starting gate, let alone get them receptive to being persuaded by your logic and message.
frosty
@Kent: Thanks for the update. I don’t have (or need) one. I just got DeWalt’s 20v weed whacker and I can do my tiny yard 4 times before it has to be recharged. I probably could have gone with something cheaper and smaller. But after my experience throwing away cheaper cordless drills, I’ve stuck with DeWalt. There’s other good high-end brands, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: No, any standard DA would be open to the same criticism. Not to speak for burnsy, but that’s probably why he didn’t see it as remotely disqualifying. It doesn’t mean that it isn’t a credible critique. If you look at the some of the newer big city DAs, you will see that they are bringing in a new approach to the job. Harris was a DA before this trend. I am not going to shit on her for it, just like I am not going to shit on Biden for supporting policies that had mainstream support at the time he was for them.
Dan B
@burnspbesq: That’s good to know that it wasn’t Harris’ job to take on corps. Something seemed like this pro-corporate story was built on a tiny shred of truth.
Now the question, do I tell my partner who loves Bernie and thinks Biden can’t win against Trump. I’ve been saying to him that Biden is non-threatening and not angry, like Bernie. People are tired of having a rage-a-holic in the White House. Harris is another even keel personality. My concern is her sister who seems out of her depth.
Kent
@frosty: Oh, the DeWalt stuff is great. I agree. I’m just saying that the lower voltage battery packs they use for drills and saws just don’t produce enough RMP to really drive a leaf blower fan at high enough speed to really move material. You need a lot higher voltage and larger battery for that. My leaf blower that runs off a drill battery is fine for dry grass clippings and such. But it won’t budge wet matted leaves. I gotta drag out my 120 volt corded blower for that.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Sad.
Kent
Yep. From all reports, the dysfunction in her campaign was mainly her sister. But I doubt she would bring her along in any sort of meaningful role as a VP candidate or Vice President. Biden’s people control the campaign not Harris’ people. And nepotism laws prevent that sort of thing when in office if your name is anything other than Trump.
We really don’t need a rage-aholic in the White House. We need people who can reach across and help heal the nation. I don’t mean reach across the Senate aisle. Those people need to be fumigated out to use Pelosi’s turn of phrase. I’m talking about reaching out to ordinary Americans who are hurting. That is someone like Harris much more than someone like a Nina Turner to cite a ridiculous example.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks. Sounds beautiful. We visited a couple of very, very old churches when we visited England, but I don’t think any were like that. One was so very old I think it dated to the Normans. It was one of two on Romney Marsh, the St Thomas a Becket. The key was at Becket’s Barn, just up the road.
Sebastian
@Jess:
do you have a book or material you could recommend for that?
gwangung
@cmorenc:
Why?
trollhattan
@Kent:
Sprang for the Greenworks 80V string trimmer and blower, and they work well enough for my yard. Somebody with an acre or such may need something more mondo, but I don’t miss screwing with the old gas trimmer at all. (Never had a blower so can’t compare.) The kit shipped with a 2A battery and I added a 5A one. That sucker lasts and lasts.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: This is a painting of the church I was trying to track down. I bought it from a friend on Flickr a year or two before our trip, and when we were heading to Rye from London to see where Miss Mapp and Lucia and Georgie lived, we decided to try to find the church.
Here’s the painting: https://flic.kr/p/eaW9jx
And I’m too late to correct my misspelling of Beckett. The key to the church was hanging on the outside of the house with a sign to just lock up after our visit and bring it back. The key was huge.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Are you familiar with Josephine Tey? Her best-known mystery is The Daughter of Time,
which is wonderful. But they all have their charms, although a couple are badly dated.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
What a lovely painting! Thank you. Assuming we’re ever allowed to visit other countries again, I’ll add that church to my list.
i did the Mapp and Lucia tour of Rye about ten years ago. Had actually visited Rye in 1959 on my first trip to England, but of course I had never heard of E. F. Benson at that point. It’s a charming town.
mrmoshpotato
FUCK THESE RUSSTHUGLICAN SHITSTAINS!
Can we punch them in the bones on Biden’s inauguration day?
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh, yes – it’s been a long time since I read Tey, I was a teenager for those as well. Is Daughter of Time the Richard III one? I loved that – as a teenage Shakespeare buff it was kind of eye-opening to me to learn from that novel that, well, views of historical characters can differ! You can have *theories* about things and personages and disagree about them with others!
chopper
@Another Scott:
my battery powered weed whacker and pole axe work the whole lawn job on a charge.
Kent
Wow…way to build straw men there.
No one here much less me has labeled as racist “EVERYTHING that reflects economic class differences as due to the unconscious racism of anyone and everyone in a more advantaged position who isn’t a person of color.”
The US is replete with both class issues and race issues. No one would deny that. I’m simply suggesting that Sanders tendency to label EVERYTHING as an class-based economic argument originating from the 1% has a built-in racial bias, in that it dismisses or minimized racism as a social problem on its own. Watch his old stump speeches and tell me how much he talks about the 1% vs other social issues like racism. There is a very real strain of thought present in much of Sanders-ology that suggests if you solve economic inequality most of these other problems go away as well. While any black person who has a shitty racist foreman or landlord or cop or teacher can tell you that racism can be as big or bigger of a problem then economic inequality. Most racist bosses, landlords, cops, and teachers are not part of the 1%. And they will still be shitty racists no matter how much we redistribute wealth.
That is also why so many young progressives have left the Sanders revolution behind in the past few months and moved over to the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s like the world suddenly shifted and they are stuck over in Burlington rattling on about the 1% still while the rest of the world has moved in a different direction.
Another Scott
@Dan B: I wish to commiserate with you, from 6 feet away.
My J was arguing with someone that she got an SMS from last night, that she couldn’t support Biden because he wasn’t for Medicare for All, etc., etc.
She’ll (almost certainly!) vote straight D in November, but she won’t like it. She’s very strongly wedded to her ideals and Bernie has been her guy since 2015 (or earlier). She’s taken too much of his stump speech (and all the BernieBro comments) to heart…
(sigh)
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
Tell her it is a really good thing that Sanders didn’t win the nomination and is still in the Senate where he can use his leadership skills to pass all those things. Because those are all legislative agendas, not executive branch powers under the president’s control. Sanders couldn’t have gotten any of those things implemented as president. But he can, however, get them all passed as a Senator if he chooses to lead.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
I have counseled my first-time voter kid that only twice in my life have I been able to vote for my top choice as presidential candidate, and that covers a lot of ballots. She’s a grumpy Biden voter, but really wanted Mayor Pete and then Warren. I was totally with her on Warren.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca: Yes, that’s the one.
Another Scott
@Kent: She doesn’t like it when I try to “reason with her” about politics. Not at all.
;-D
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
Great painting!
SFAW
@Ken:
I like that idea.
Similarly: I have long talked about deporting elected Rethugs, and their entire base, to Dumbfuckistan. The follow-on, which might be considered draconian: Build a wall around it. [A real one, not like the Murderer-in-Chief’s stupid POS.] Air drop about 10 million AR-15s or equivalent. Turn off power and food deliveries. Wait 30 days. Ask the survivors if they want to rejoin America. Allow them to do so, if they meet certain conditions (such as signing away their right to own/possess firearms).
Steeplejack
@Kent:
And remember to keep a straight face when saying it.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: The church is difficult to find, or it was then. We found another church first, the one that Disney used in The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. We ended up at the Romney Marsh Interpretive Center and the gentleman who worked there marked up a folding map that we gladly bought, and found ourselves driving through a farmer’s field at one point.
That’s when we were there, in May of 2010.
They found the baptismal font in a farmer’s barn in the 1970s? I think. It was hidden there when Cromwell was terrorizing the countryside, and his troops tried to burn the church but only got the roof, which was later restored. We paid for the little booklet that told the history of the area and the church.
The key: https://flic.kr/p/829Lrw
Ruckus
@Kent:
Thing is that the 1% and the racists are overlapping issues, not just separate issues. Even if every racist ass changed upon waking up tomorrow morning, we’d all still have economic issues to worry about. And those economic issues hit minorities harder because of the racism. And the racism issues have improved a lot in the last 50-60 yrs, although not even anywhere close to enough for sure and a lot more has to be done but the economic issues have actually gotten worse and those affect almost everyone and given the racist crap they affect minorities worse. So the Bernie crowd has it wrong, it’s not just the economics and turning this into a “worker’s paradise” won’t fix that racist crap at all. We need a two or maybe a two hundred prong attack. We have to think of, and this isn’t in any kind of order, the environment, politics and government, racism, economics, education, world politics – what our countries role should and shouldn’t be, our role as the world’s police, freedom of corporate speech and I’m sure many others, most of which we will have differing views on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne:
I read it in college, for a course in British history, and barely remember it thirty-odd years later. But I recently listened to Dan Jones’ War of the Roses, and just today the BBC history podcast was about the Princes in the Tower– they’re doing a series on “History’s Greatest Mysteries”, and the historian mentioned DoT.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: Thank you. Paul Jackson is a talented artist. The last time we were in England we went to a show he was in, and we should have bought another painting from him that I loved, just a window with a bottle on the sill, but it was pricey and I chickened out. It was sold when I called the gallery owner the next day.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dan B:
The whole ‘Biden can’t win’ is because Bernie’s followers cannot grasp that what they find inspiring may not be what the vast majority of Americans find inspiring. The polls, and the results of the primaries, show solidly that Biden is what most people want, and Sanders isn’t.
Patricia Kayden
@zhena gogolia: We are channeling the hate into donating to Democratic candidates and get out the vote orgs. I didn’t think that a worse President than Bush 43rd was possible but here we are.
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
But a note on the picture page says “painted by Art Nahpro in 2008”?
Kent
@Ruckus: No argument from me. We are entirely in agreement. I agree we have twin problems with racism and inequality. And they are inextricably linked.
My only argument is that focusing exclusively on economics and not recognizing the racist root to a lot of problems in this country can lead to policies that perpetrate systemic racism. Like implementing universal free college, for example, instead of pouring those same trillions into K-12 public education instead.
Based on how I think most of my black friends think. If I were to offer them an America that was truly colorblind. Where their kids were treated 100% like white kids in school, by police, in job interviews, by lenders and landlords, etc. etc. But the economic system remains largely in place.
Or an alternative world in which inequality is addressed by massively taxing the wealthy to support social programs. But racism remains. I think most would take the former world. And say that an equal chance for them and their children is really all they have been asking for. Of course most of my black friends are upper middle class so that probably distorts things.
Kent
Me too. I shudder to think what a worse president than Trump 45 could possibly be. Maybe a competent Trump. that would be worse.
Sloane Ranger
@opiejeanne: If you’re interested in old churches, the next time you’re in England (if international travel is ever allowed again) try to visit All Saints in Brixworth, Northamptonshire. It was built sometime around 650 and is the oldest and best preserved example of Saxon church architecture anywhere.
Ruckus
@Kent:
Yes, I believe that it does somewhat. Most of them probably can remember back when the overall racism was even worse than it currently is but I’m not black so I can’t speak to that, other than observations. And this last election of a massively racist fuckstick who has only regressed us a few decades in every way hasn’t helped. But the world is changing around us and a large percentage of americans still think it’s 1957 (or somewhere about that time) and the world owes us everything. The world has changed, in many, many ways and we need to understand that. shitforbrains is stuck in the 1950s or thereabouts and his racist/economic bullshit has taken us back in so many ways and empowered other racist fucks. From a human perspective that’s likely to be the most important thing but it can not be the only thing. This is going to be like a war with many fronts, none of which we can brush off. The pandemic makes the economy far worse for most, shitforbrains attempts at the theft of the country during and due to it as well as his general dickishness and idiocy has opened up a lot of problems with the way our government is or isn’t run and all of it needs a lot of attention and actual problem solving. We have to recognize that of the 537 elected people there will be/are many who may not be up to the task of running a competent government. Certainly many of them in office now are not. We need better safe guards and that so much of the running/decision making has been just given to the president. And it has hurt us a lot in many ways. We need actual representation for people, not just acreage as the senate gives us. More equal representation in the house.
Patricia Kayden
Citizen Alan
@Kent: I am morbidly curious as to whether the 2024 GOP nominee will be Tom Cotton or Ted Nugent.
Patricia Kayden
@Kent: Sanders being from a White state like Vermont is probably why he can’t understand the uniquely central role that racism plays in our economy, politics and overall society. He has a blind spot when it comes to racism.
Kent
Yep. Classic case of white flight from diversifying Brooklyn to lily-white Vermont in 1968. He says he was “captivated by the rural life” but has spent all his time in Vermont’s largest city.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: Nahpro is Orphan spelled backwards. He has a quiet sense of humor, I think he felt like an art orphan at that point, but I didn’t ask why. He’s a retired Civil Servant with a degree in Art. We first visited him in 2010. He lives in Etchingham and had just bought a car, a clunker to get around in and he picked us up at the train station nearby. He and his family fed us lunch and we met one of his two daughters. He’s a lovely man, a bit at loose ends after he retired, so he took up gardening for other people as well as learning about woodland management (I think that’s what he called it), and the clunker was necessary. After lunch we walked in the woods and the bluebells were blooming, just an amazing sight. He drove us around to the town that Kipling had lived in and the WWI monument in the middle of the town.
cmorenc
@Kent:
The fact that society has built-in disparities differentially affecting races beyond just economic class issues DOES NOT thereby mean that the cause thereof is the universal racism of more advantaged whites, though some among them may well actually be racist. You label the phenomenon of those others who harbor no conscious racist intent as still being “unconscious racists” – but you are still thereby calling them racist, which needlessly insults and alienates most of them from being receptive to your real main point – which is that their absence of any deliberate racial bias on their part isn’t sufficient to repair the structural inequalities holding blacks back beyond just economic class. That latter way of framing the problem doesn’t turn people off from listening receptively to your communicating to them about what these other structural inequalities are and what possible ways to fix that might be.
And yeah, Bernie’s a one-note singer with no range beyond that one screechy note. I’m with you on that.
Kent
Ted Cruz is also tanned and rested and ready to hurl his flop sweat across America once again. And Joni Ernst seems ready for larger things.
opiejeanne
@Sloane Ranger: Thanks for the tip. We didn’t go that direction on either trip, and I still want to visit many places we missed. I’ll put it on my list.
Kent
@cmorenc: I don’t know how we got so far down this path. I wasn’t labeling everyone racist, just pointing out that Sanders is sustaining systemic racism to the extent that he ignores race as a problem in the country and promotes only economic-based solutions instead.
But honestly I probably am calling a lot of white liberals racist as well. This was today’s CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/01/us/white-liberals-hypocrisy-race-blake/index.html
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
Cool. I’d like to see his other work.
I know what you mean about not buying a piece of artwork when you have the chance. I still occasionally think about a little painting I saw in a gallery in Austin, TX, in about 1998.
Jay
@cmorenc:
society punches down based on race, class, gender, status, (citizenship) and sexuality.
Solutions to inequality require that all are recognized and addressed.
and as we have seen, Bernista’s are only “interested” in class based solutions because many of them are horrible, racist, homophobic mysogenists.
SWMBO
@Citizen Alan: Tom Cotton. Ted Nugent will be VP and play at the inauguration.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: On the odd chance you come back to this thread, here is a link to his Flickr page. Some of it is paintings, some of it is “painterly” photographs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]