Over the last few months, I've learned a thing or two from the young people in our country. I figured I would return the favor by sharing with you how to make a plan to vote in this upcoming election.
Get registered and vote early: https://t.co/Q5BUeMaOB5
Video: @attn pic.twitter.com/CNqjS7Dmxo
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 16, 2020
Pass it on.
Oh, how I miss him.
Open thread
ETA: Sharing this because it’s just amazing. Stripped down to just Marvin Gaye’s vocals.
Immanentize
You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone….
Gravenstone
vote(to)save.us is a genius bit of marketing with a painful nugget of truth at its core.
Benw
Barry O absolutely rocking the “rolled cuffs cause the sleeves don’t fit right” look
Baud
I was confused because I don’t remember speaking recently.
But that one is good too.
Betty Cracker
Pensacola needs an Infrastructure Week, stat!
Immanentize
@Baud: Don’t feel bad! Rotary Clubs need their good Presidents too, Baud!
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Sheee-it!
That happened in a huge storm in upstate NY (Unadilla) just a few years ago. Bridge over a creek! On Route 88 (Albany to Binghamton) washed out. One truck and a few cars drove off the edge in the night killing all the drivers. Scary.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: It’s always been like that. Pensacolans love their Dukes of Hazzard style jumps.
Immanentize
Caputo out for two months! Dangerous fucking mofo.
ETA. I am so procrastinating today. Help!
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Oopsie! That happened in Washington to the Hood Canal and Mercer Island floating bridges. What once floated….
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
Two months to election so…does he return with matches and lighter fluid?
Yutsano
@Immanentize: Help? You came here for help? Hell I’m having a bear of a time getting ready to leave for my doctor’s appointment and you ask for help?
*sigh* okay fine. We are a full service blog after all.
GET TO WORK YA LAZY SCHLUB!!!
Ken
@trollhattan: Shredders, perhaps. Though I agree with whoever said that this gang will print out the incriminating emails and shred the paper copies, thinking that will destroy the evidence.
different-church-lady
@Baud:
We do.
Kay
I really cannot exaggerate how crazy that video was. He thinks they’re going to kill him. This is like a normal day in the Trump Administration- one of them is sitting on his (porch?) reciting a disjointed conspiracy theory in an oddly expressionless manner, except his eyes keep shifting like he’s seeing things.
That’s the team! Can you IMAGINE working there?
Baud
@Ken:
Ah, but if they destroy the printout, you can no longer use the emails against them because of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine.
Martin
@Immanentize: That’s a long-ass 5150.
Immanentize
@Yutsano: Thank you! Thank you! Working now.
Elizabelle
@Kay:
I wondered if Caputo remained on the payroll so that he could keep his government health insurance. He seems to realize he does need mental health care. Further, he was advising his own friends to mask up and leave a venue if too many people were not masked.
There’s also the feature of “don’t fire Vlad’s helpmates.”
Anyway, less Caputo and his interference is a net gain for the CDC. Guessing it’s why Schumer and others pressed for Azar’s resignation. Get some attention on the situation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Don’t start quoting Milton at us. No good comes of that.
LeftCoastYankee
Is it me or are running out of “bad” adjectives? The hurricane flooding is being described as potentially “catastrophic”. Is that on an official scale for that?
Out here in the PNW, our air quality was “upgraded” from “hazardous” to “very unhealthy” yesterday. And those are actual EPA designations with progressively mealy descriptions of ways to breathe less.
Even the things the government is still able to do have been dumbed down and rendered ineffective from 40 years of Republican bullshit nonsense.
It doesn’t seem improbable at this rate for future floods to be graded by the number of rubber duckies you will need to stay afloat.
Vent over. 7 weeks and counting….
Immanentize
@Kay: luckily, Caputo crazy is now again available for all to see:
Immanentize
@Martin: my guess is that he was sent out to stock up on ammo for his friends in the administration….
J R in WV
A real shame Marvin G was killed by his own father, a seriously crazed preacher.
Oh, I miss Obama too!! I do not know how he survived his time in office…
JPL
@Baud: We are going to have lots of Florida man stories now.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Bridge carrying I-95 in Connecticut collapsed like that in 1983, no storm needed. People drove off and died. Luckily it happened at 1:30 am, so not that many.
Ken
@Baud: I am ashamed to admit that I forgot that legal principle, especially since it’s so fundamental, being enshrined in the Constitution right next to the absolute authority of sheriffs.
JPL
The season premiere of CBS’ “60 Minutes” will include an interview with President Trump’s former national security adviser, H.R. McMaster.
sorry if this was discussed previously
Geminid
@Kay: I happened to see Caputo on MSNBC last fall, and he looked fat and happy. In the picture of Caputo on his recent rant, he looks like he’s a meth addict. Trump makes people crazy.
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
Is he saying, more than once “…conjugal media…” for the MSM??
So strange, he obviously needs medical care for his mind! Too much kool aide, way too much, the dye is working in his brain…
If he takes a 2 month health break, perhaps there won’t be a job when he is ready to come back. We can only hope. What a case this Caputo guy has !!
tom
@Immanentize: The Times post on Caputo also said that Dr. Paul Alexander, Caputo’s science advisor who accused the CDC of trying to “undermine” Trump, is leaving the department.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I remember that (I was in law school). People got hot and bothered about fixing old bridges. For about a week.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Back in the 70s, maintenance work was underway on a steel truss bridge not far from where I was residing in the Poconos.
Whether the equipment was left in the open overnight or in a temporary work shed I don’t recall, but the upshot is that one night some vandals got hold of the acetylene tanks and torches and cut through the span midway, enough that both halves collapsed into the water. Recall seeing pictures of the suddenly V-shaped bridge in the local rag.
Immanentize
@tom: good!
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: LOL that the still photo from the video is backwards and Caputo’s tee shirt, which says NEW YORK, actually, looks to be cyrillic.
With a martial looking eagle below it, and more cyrillic.
One has to look for amusement where one finds it.
Another good thing: Caputo’s whack job “scientific adviser”, who was peppering Fauci with memos on lies to tell is also out at CDC. Paul Alexander. No idea if he has any kind of scientific background, and do not care.
Immanentize
@NotMax: vandals stole the handle?
Elizabelle
@tom: Rejoicing about that, too. Be gone, Paul Alexander.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: backwards is a big problem for facetime or zoom. There is a setting to flip the image so it looks normal, but most just leave the mirror image. Weird.
A Ghost to Most
Caputo just said out loud what the 27% really believe. Can’t have that.
JPL
SC polling is surprising
MAINE: Gideon (D) 54%, Collins (incumbent R) 42% SOUTH CAROLINA: Graham (incumbent R) 48%, Harrison (D) 48% KENTUCKY: McConnell (incumbent R) 53%, McGrath (D) 41% Quinnipiac
catclub
A Billion dollars for a new I-10 Twinspan over Lake Ponchartrain to New Orleans was allocated in about a week after Katrina.
Immanentize
Quinnipiac new poll in Maine!!
Sara Gideon (D) 54%
Susan Collins (R) 42%
ETA JPL! JPL! JPL! (is fast with the data)
Immanentize
@catclub: I’ve been on the old one going to Bogalusa!
catclub
Caputo was a PR flack for Vladimir Putin
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: I wonder if Susie is “troubled” or “concerned?” this may rise to “deeply concerned,” I’d think.
NotMax
@Immanentize
By the time the Visigoths showed up all they could do was snap pictures.
:)
Mallard Filmore
@Immanentize:
My guess is this is for when you are watching the screen for a selfie. It imitates what you would see in a mirror instead of what another person would see.
If you look in a mirror and raise your hand on the left, the mirror image hand on the left will go up. Too many people would trash talk a device that shows anything else, instead of figure it out.
John S.
@JPL: Collins is likely done. SC will definitely be a nail biter.
Kentucky is not surprising. Given a choice between a Republican and a conservative Democrat, the Republican usually wins.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: You take that back!
Baud
@John S.:
As opposed to some other type of Democrat in KY?
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Ok ok.
Rotary Clubs do not deserve good presidents
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
WaterGirl
@JPL: First I’ve heard of it!
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Saw that show. Even owned the PS1 game. I can’t believe they expected viewers to buy the Dodge being able to land those jumps. You could see the front wheel axles carving in with some shots!
JPL
@WaterGirl He’s going to talk about our biggest threats going forward which include Climate Change and cyber terrorism. Doesn’t sound like a trump supporter
I’m not sure that trump’s supporters remember who he is.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: “Conjugal media” appears to be a metaphor for how entwined the media is with the people who want bad things for this country – that the media is “married” to them.
How scary is it that I think he’s kinda right abut the media for the last at least 4 years. But not in exactly the way that he means, of course.
trnc
@Baud:
I see what you did there.
cwmoss
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, all Milton wanted was his stapler!
WaterGirl
@trnc: I had forgotten about that. Good times.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
There goes the Olympics and most of sports for 2021. Fuck.
FelonyGovt
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I guess I better not take the Angels up on their ticket offer for next season.
Barbara
@Immanentize: Not only is Caputo out, but his newly hired sidekick Paul Alexander is leaving altogether.
CarolDuhart2
Besides keeping his medical insurance, Caputo will be paid for the next couple of months-and if Biden wins, could simply quietly resign. By then he would be out of the news and perhaps be available for a back office job at some institute.
James E Powell
@Immanentize:
Same thing with the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007.
Martin
Oh, Barr is now suggesting that protesters be charged with sedition. I guess we’re doing this again.
Martin
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I’d say that’s optimistic if Trump wins re-election as there won’t be a distribution plan. Sounds realistic if Biden wins.
Ken
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I blame the Biden administration for not creating an “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate the actualization of the viral response proactively using the latest disruptive strategies for transformational potentialities and differentiation of our high-payoff catalysts for change.
cwmoss
@Immanentize: The torch was on the porch, I guess.
JPL
@Martin: Any day now another rumor will appear on social media implicating police in another shooting. Russia has to keep their toady in office.
Immanentize
@Martin: An oldie but a goody! Original sedition act in US? 1798.
Kent
Kentucky does have a Democratic governor so Democrats can win state-wide under the right circumstances when the GOP has a particularly vile candidate.
Immanentize
@Ken: And while he is time travelling, he should pick up a whale just in case….
trollhattan
@Kay:
Don’t know anybody there but have friends in EPA and Interior and let me tell you, they’re hanging on by fingernails.
Kent
NYT says it was a construction barge torn loose from its mooring that slammed into the bridge in Pensacola damaging it
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/hurricane-sally-live.html
japa21
@Kent: Well, they have elected 2 vile Senators several times in a row.
Martin
@James E Powell: About one bridge in 10 in the US is structurally deficient. That doesn’t mean they are at risk of imminent collapse, but it does mean that an earthquake, storm, etc. could collapse the bridge at a level less than the bridge should be rated at.
The problem is that we’re falling further and further behind. Bridges are going to fail at an increasing rate.
ThresherK
@James E Powell: All the bridges you want, in all the detail you need (if you’re a disaster junkie) can be had on the podcast “Well, There’s your Problem”.
And on Youtube it’s a podcast-with-slides.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@FelonyGovt: We were going to go to the soccer/futbol final in Tokyo (Air Canada has a real reasonable fare). But we’re also going to the full Euro Tourney/party in London in 2022 (photo), so we’ll use the Olympic budget for a side trip to Ireland.
Immanentize
@cwmoss:
Don’t be a bum, don’t chew gum!
Immanentize
@trollhattan: Add DOJ Voting and DOCommerce to that nail hanging list
Jeffro
Um, only if a competent administration is in place, running things without grift or malice.
Hint hint, America
ETA: I see Martin got there first
Jeffro
Twitler is in a blind panic over his polling and NOW he wants the Senate GOP to step up and SPEND WHATEVER IT TAKES
FOR ME TO WIN THE ELECTIONTO HELP INNOCENT AMERICANS!Uh huh.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: My first reaction is “and why are we suddenly supposed to trust the CDC again when they have pissed away their credibility over the past three months?”
piratedan
@Martin: if there’s anyone who needs to be sentenced to community service its Barr, I would be satisfied to see him picking up trash alongside of interstate 70 in Utah between Green River and the Colorado state line for the rest of his days.
Martin
@Jeffro: Don’t even need grift or malice. These are really hard problems to solve, and require a lot of competent planning.
The easy question to answer is ‘who gets the first dose’ – and there’s lots of good answers there – national leadership, medical professionals, etc. The hard question to answer is ‘who gets the last dose’ and how do you notify the country of this, and how do you defend it. Because the country will figure the answer out if you don’t address it, and you’ll have to answer for it. It’s pretty clear that under Trump, that will never get addressed. It’ll become a free market equation, because whenever possible hand responsibility to someone else, and in that case it’s entirely possible that we never get close to herd immunity. Thats never been how we’ve handled national vaccination programs before.
gene108
@John S.:
FTFY
Does not matter the Democrat. It’s a tough road to get elected for any Democrat in KY.
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: truth.
I don’t put a lot of stock in their estimates and expect that Dem leaders will ask to see the details of this plan (or should I say ‘plan’). What have the results been so far from each vaccine being tracked? Who’s ramping up on medicinal vials? Who’s putting the shipping/logistics in place? What’s the plan for getting it to seniors, health-care workers, and _____ first?
We’ll see how it shakes out.
Ken
@Jeffro: The same brilliant business mind that thinks that tariffs are paid by the exporting country.
Martin
Put some cameras out there so we can fundraise for the patriot that ends up tagging him with the front of their SUV.
WaterGirl
I just got a DESPERATE HYSTERICAL email message with lots of bright yellow and red text.
Says it’s from Barack Obama Alert (via Stop Republicans), with a title of “Goodbye, My Real Name”.
It reads very Republican. I went to Open Secrets, and if I read it correctly, they said these guys have given to NO federal candidates in 2020.
Ugh.
Jeffro
@Martin: I think I am typing about 2-3 minutes behind as you’re posting today…hopefully our timelines will converge at some point, LOL (see my note at #87 =)
Under trumpov, you are right: this and many other things will never be addressed, because he’s a lazy moron surrounded by Randians and utterly corrupt smash-and-grab artists.
Hopefully Biden & Co will be able to make hay of his lack of a plan for vaccine delivery – they are certainly ripping him a new one today over all the lies he told last night on ABC about having a “great” health care plan that’s always “2 weeks away”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
YIIIKES!
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s not quite as disturbing as it appears – at least we know now that that chunk didn’t just fall off for no reason.
Eunicecycle
Just read on Twitter that our governor Mike DeWine has said if Trump comes to Ohio for a rally he will not have to abide by any of the Covid restrictions. I am LIVID right now! We had been inching up in infections, etc and now he wants to allow a super spreader event! I retract any praise I gave him for the earlier handling of the pandemic. He can go to hell.
SiubhanDuinne
Wow! Quinnipiac says Sara Gideon has a 12-point lead over Susan Collins.
That’s concerning.
gene108
@Jeffro:
What about Trump’s 2016 campaign promise of having a health plan that would cost less, and cover more, than Obamacare?
J R in WV
@Ken:
Oh, MY !! to quote George Takai…
Well done MBAism rant. I once had a boss like that, we called him squirrel, and he went away pretty soon.
J R in WV
@piratedan:
Nope. He should have to dig graves for Coronavirus victims, with a shovel. He doesn’t know how to run a backhoe, nor a shovel, but he can learn how a shovel works. He should be paid one PBJ sandwich per grave dug.
Eunicecycle
@J R in WV: I thought it needed some “synergy” or maybe a “paradigm shift” but maybe that’s too 1980s.
SiubhanDuinne
@Martin:
Not for the first time, I’m grateful for Google.
germy
Hearing that isolated Marvin Gaye vocal track reminded me what a mimic/magpie Jeff Lynne and his ELO was/were
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t08RN2yPJik
Oklahomo
@Kent: In 2002 a barge train glanced off the I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River in Sequoyah County, OK, dropping half the bridge (both lanes) into the river and killing 14 people.
Danielx
@Ken:
FAIL!
No mention of paradigms, old or new!
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
They also serve who only stand and Baud.
SiubhanDuinne
@LeftCoastYankee:
I, for one, will be only too glad to see the last of “horrific.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro:
Friedman Unit = 6 months.
Trump Unit = 2 weeks.
oatler.
@J R in WV:
Speaking of
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/16/1977899/-Barr-encourages-prosecutors-to-charge-protesters-with-plotting-to-overthrow-the-U-S-government
Oklahomo
@?BillinGlendaleCA: According to Stormy, it’s under 2 minutes…
germy
“I looked over his shoulder and he was reading Hazlitt!”
Kent
Biden should call him out on that in the Debate.
“Donald: You’ve been promising your health care plan will be released to the American public in “2 weeks” since you first ran in 2016. You did it again at a public forum in PA last week. Can we have your word that you will release your health care plan in 2 weeks and then conclude that you have been lying to the American public all along and actually have no plan if it doesn’t appear?”
And then start a 2-week count-down clock to Trump’s Health Care Plan on some big web site.
trnc
I know, right? Who woulda thunk that Mr “That guy” would be the deciding vote to save a law named after “that guy?” Every once in a while, the universe surprises me.
Jeffro
ETA because everyone’s ahead of me today (specifically Bill this time =)
Friedman Units, Scaramuccis, and now trumpov Units.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
I was on that mailing list for a while. Awful. Finally unsubscribed, and to their credit I haven’t had another email from them.
Baud
@oatler.:
Funny. That’s what we’ll prosecute Trump for when he refused to leave the White House.
Kent
None of these cases would even reach trial before mid-late 2021 when Barr will (hopefully) be long gone. It’s all just grandstanding.
Although this probably isn’t the right environment for protesters to actually get caught doing illegal shit in a context in which Federal charges can be brought. Because they will gleefully make examples.
trnc
Everything old is new again, and that includes
promisesbullshit claims.Dorothy A. Winsor
I want Betsy DeVos sentenced to go to every funeral of a child who dies of COVID they caught at school.
I wrote for two hours today and wound up with 1500 fewer words than I had when I started. I am now eating ice cream straight from the carton.
germy
“Just think about the way we vote now,” Barr said. “You have a precinct, your name is on a list, you go in and say who you are, you go behind a curtain, no one is allowed to go in there to influence you, and no one can tell how you voted. All of that is gone with mail-in voting. There’s no secret vote. You have to associate the envelope in the mailing and the name of who’s sending it in, with the ballot.
“There’s no more secret vote with mail-in vote. A secret vote prevents selling and buying votes. So now we’re back in the business of selling and buying votes. Capricious distribution of ballots means (ballot) harvesting, undue influence, outright coercion, paying off a postman, here’s a few hundred dollars, give me some of your ballots,” the attorney general said.
Some jurisdictions require “secrecy sleeves” to separate the ballot from the envelope that could identify a voter. But would you trust that sleeve in Cook County, home of Johnny Rocco?”
Baud
@germy:
Nice of him to tell us his playbook.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I think they are grifters and are not Dems working to get Dems elected.
edit: I may or may not have used the word “fucking” in my explanation of why I was unsubscribing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Omnes Omnibus: I read this and wondered why anyone would be quoting “Paradise Lost.” It took me almost to the end of the thread to realize I had the wrong Milton.
germy
@Baud: He managed to insult postal employees and Italian Americans in just one interview
Kent
@germy: Such bullshit.
I could pay you to vote a certain way. And even in the privacy of the voting booth you could use a cell phone to take a picture or video of your ballot being filled out and cast in order to prove you did it.
Yes, mail-in voting allows say dickhead abusive husbands to force their wives to vote a certain way. But in-person voting doesn’t really solve that problem either.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Is moneys is now going to St. Petersburg?
Graphics straight outta 1992.
Geminid
@gene108: Political analyst Rachel Bitecofer argues that demographics overrides candidate quality. I think the example she used is that Claire McCaskill could have won in Wisconsin, but not Missouri. Bitecofer also emphasizes the educational component of demographics. This correlates with growth in the newer tech and service based economy and may explain why Virginia has gone from red to purple to blue in the past couple decades, and economically dynamic states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas are shifting from red to purple, while economically stagnant states like Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa have gone from purple towards red.
jackmac
Barack Obama and Marvin Gaye — two national treasures. Thankfully one of them is still with us, hopefully for many years to come.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@germy: and Edward G. Robinson (link)
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
What’s the Furrow Alert Level at today? Canyon?
Kent
That’s pretty much true. No Republican, not matter how “high quality” is going to win state-wide in CA or WA right now. I don’t care if you resurrect Eisenhower.
SiubhanDuinne
Oh — came to the thread so late I forgot to say how much I love both the Barack video (I love him when he’s all hip and cool and groovy like that) and that amazing a capella Marvin Gaye. Excellent midweek soothers.
germy
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Do they have mail in voting in Key West?
Ken
@germy: I assume it will turn out that Barr votes by mail. However, assuming not, where does he vote that still has curtained booths? Which by the way didn’t do anything to prevent buying and selling votes.
And as far as secrecy – last time I voted, they put my name in the computer and handed me a smart card. Then I stuck it in the voting machine and it brought up the ballot for my precinct on the touch screen. There’s no guarantee of secrecy there, barring a line-by-line review of the code to check they aren’t associating my name (via the smart card) with my votes.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
Mariana Trenches, I’m guessing.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I thought he was quoting “Animal House”
Gravenstone
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Does not exactly comport with another report on vaccine manufacture capacity which posits there won’t be enough for everyone before 2024. Of course, that report was talking worldwide, so assume “rich” countries would butt to the head of the line, as it were.
germy
@Ken: My guess is he hasn’t voted in person since back when there were curtained booths. He’s probably been voting by mail for years now.
Kropacetic
@OP:
I’m not sure what you mean, Trump has far exceeded the lofty expectations he set for himself. In four short years, we’ve gone from “only [Trump] can fix it” to “it will just fix itself.”
What more could we ask for?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anybody watching Biden’s speech/presser? Who’s this moron telling Biden it’s his fault no one can trust trump?
ETA: My god, the second question is basically same as the first. “IF you don’t trust the president, does that also mean you don’t trust the CDC?” Even as someone with little faith in the Beltway press corps, this is awful. Not funny enough to be self-parody
scav
@Eunicecycle: ♫ ♪ Dunn da la dun dun, dun da LUN dun, DAHN-Dah! ♫♬♪♫ Trump strides unto the platform. Voiceover: “Double-0 GoPers. Licensed to kill. This message brought to you by the Ohio government, Coming soon to a venue near you.”
Geminid
@Geminid: So even if McGrath were a better candidate, a Kentucky Senate seat may just be unwinnable for a Democratic contestant this year.
cckids
Yeah, no – he gets a less appealing place. He can do I-15 in Nevada, from Vegas north to the Utah border. Bleak, blasted, miserable desert all the way, with WAY more garbage than anyplace in CO.
Martin
@SiubhanDuinne: 5150 refers to a 72 hour psychiatric hold, most commonly for someone with suicidal ideation, but also routinely used for someone who’s gone off their meds. I’ve had a LOT of students over the years get 5150s.
It’s main use is to put the person in a safe place where they can get rapid increases or stabilization of their meds – faster than you can normally do with prescription. Unfortunately, the facilities are so underfunded that they don’t really achieve the goal so well – particularly for people who are depressed/anxious/paranoid because the facilities don’t feel safe, and because you lose so much agency while there, so patients are often overmedicated as a result.
Gravenstone
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
There’s another way to do so?
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I guess I have the wrong Milton too. Who, then, is the right one?
Jeffro
Yup, makes complete sense…purple->red states’ voters would be feeling very strongly (and correctly) that things really are getting worse for them, feel like they’re threatened, etc. Not an excuse but certainly a reason.
Kent
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I thought it was the Milton from Office Space: https://youtu.be/93ApqwRp7L8
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And that is a bad thing how?
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: No kidding.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I thought Biden’s answer to that was great.
WaterGirl
@Ken: We have the curtained booths in Champaign, IL. Everyone doesn’t have those?
SiubhanDuinne
@Martin:
Good intentions, unintended consequences.
Kent
My 1/2 gallon carton of ice cream says it contains 15 servings. They LIED. I only got two servings out of it.
Kropacetic
So, naturally, they vote for the people creating and reinforcing these trends.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maddening. Let’s think of it as prep for the stupid debate questions to come.
geg6
@J R in WV:
That is how Jared Kushner actually talks. I mean, pretty much verbatim, if not totally.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You had the right Milton. I was playing off “fruit of the poisoned tree” with “Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe.”
I am weird. I know.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Please tell me Biden didn’t really say “Broad of Scientists.” Please tell me the twitterer merely committed a typo.
Jeffro
@Kropacetic: Yes, unfortunately. They’re voting for the folks who are ‘speaking their language’, pushing on their fear buttons and tribal buttons, promising the moon (or, say, a super-duper health care plan in two weeks)
Kathleen
@Eunicecycle: Copy that. Also, he should have shown more support for Dr. Acton. I’m so disgusted with Ohio right now.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
Nothing weird about quoting John Milton.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: thanks for that, he would’ve been justified in calling her a moran
Biden is doing really well
and he’s done
Kropacetic
Well, the moon is relatively simple and generally understood without a whole lot of explanation.
SiubhanDuinne
@Eunicecycle:
At the end of the day, it’s all low-hanging fruit.
Ruckus
@Kent:
Like now
I think that probably a number of people in KY think that McAsshole would remain
Leader if they re-elect him. I’d bet that a lot of KY voters don’t really know how congressional leadership works.
LuciaMia
@SiubhanDuinne: Depends on how big the carton is.
Kropacetic
Like pretty much any point in my entire life.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Sez you. Weirdo.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kent:
You ever have Girl Scouts Thin Mint cookies? Another lie. I eat them by the box, and not once have they made me thin.
germy
Jim Carrey will be portraying Joe Biden in the new season of SNL
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh. When the talk verged into the economy, I thought you must have meant Friedman.
I need more ice cream. I’m sure that would help my focus.
Ruckus
@Kropacetic:
Aww, so my point was made…..
japa21
@Kent: Where do you get 1/2 gallon containers of ice cream? I thought they stopped making those years ago. I think they are now down to 1 1/2 qts.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Nope.
SiubhanDuinne
@LuciaMia:
Get out of here with your science-y metrics and shit.
Ken
@WaterGirl: I’m in DuPage county IL, and the electronic voting has small privacy shields to the sides of the screen but no curtained booth. Ten years ago when we marked a paper ballot they provided a lectern-like thing, also with privacy shields but no curtain.
trnc
@germy: Notwithstanding Barr’s bad faith argument, I could see how there might be a privacy concern about how we’ve voted, but it seems to me that the primary concern would be about someone trying to influence my vote while I’m in the voting booth. I’m having a hard time getting worked up about the idea that a ballot counter knows how I personally voted since the Tammany Hall days are pretty much behind us.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Heh. :-)
Love reading nutritional info on chip and cookie packages. Serving size is usually something like “five.”
As if.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If one is going to quote Milton, John is the better choice. Although…. Friedman is pretty mockable.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
Here in PA, it’s a 302. it’s a 120 hour hold for evaluation. If a doctor deems that hospital treatment is necessary, it becomes a 303. That’s for 20 days and then a 304b hearing can extend that up to another 90 days. Then a 305 hearing can be held to extend that up to another 180 days. That’s what I remember from dealing with my oldest brother’s mental illness many years ago. I believe it’s been changed a bit recently, but am too lazy to look it up.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
(My experience, anyway.)
Kropacetic
Don’t give them any ideas*.
As though they have the focus or brains to build an organization like that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Just like the “Skinny Pop” at Costco.
Eunicecycle
@Kathleen: Re: Dr. Acton. I know! He can’t get a new health director because he didn’t protect the last one. He gave some weak statement to the abusers to cut it out, but it was not backed up with any action. It was pathetic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: as somebody else said on twitter, I wonder what the regular cast members think of this stunt-casting. At least they’re not going to the McKinnon well again (and I’m a McKinnon fan).
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Also, too, don’t trust the president and you can trust Biden because he doesn’t lie like it’s second nature.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
INORITE?!
LuciaMia
When? Oh, When?
Eunicecycle
@SiubhanDuinne: made me LOL. That term is used all the time in fundraising.
Martin
@WaterGirl: No. When I first moved to CA it was literally a cardboard box with a black trash bag clamped to it, and we were using the little punch machines.
Now it’s computerized voting machines, no curtain, and that’s being shifted to drop your ballot off in the box or mail it in.
SiubhanDuinne
@Martin:
@geg6:
Thanks for the state-specific information. I’m sure Georgia, and most (if not all) other states have similar legislation, with their own unique codes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I knew somebody on twitter would track down the idiot
Mary K Bruce, ABC’s chief congressional correspondent. I honestly wondered if she was OANN. I suspect she was trying to get one of the wildly overrated Tim Russert’s infamous, and wildly overrated. ‘gotcha’ moments
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
?
chrome agnomen
probably only got two servings since the bastards downsized to a quart and a half.@Kent:
Benw
I’mma bake some choco chip peanut butter mutherfucking cookies
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LuciaMia:
James E Powell
@Geminid:
I think the KY senate race is not winnable in a year when the Greatest White President of All Time is fighting to save America from BLM, AOC, and the CDC.
Uncle Cosmo
Accusation = confession. Remember who the guy he works for works for: A guy with goon squads adept at tossing inconvenient people out 6th-floor windows or loading up a doorknob with lethal poison. You know they’d do it to us.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Good on Joe.
Patricia Kayden
Shalimar
@SiubhanDuinne: The Florida reference for the same thing is the Baker Act.
chopper
@trollhattan:
they need to have columns. one is “per cookie”. one is “five cookies”, and one is “for the whole goddamn bag”
Patricia Kayden
@Benw: Alright Samuel L. Jackson!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
how is this fat old oaf still with us, by which I mean on television
And it does not sound better in his nostalgic German….
You can see the Fox anchor (Harris Faulkner?) try to remember the times when she had a soul, and a promising future
lgerard
More White House staff test positive
Hope none of them are named Stephen Miller
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yikes! SNL has a very large staff, working in small quarters. This is a recipe for disaster.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Gilbert & Sullivan style. Five pages and their sisters and their cousins and their aunts.
;)
Benw
@Patricia Kayden: that’s right, Patricia mutherfucking Kayden
Barbara
Of interest: https://www.niskanencenter.org/trumps-covid-19-culpability/
Lays out our failure in ways that amplify the heartbreak of how many deaths have been so needless. Basically, this article really takes it to people like Ross Douthat who think we are no worse than average — and therefore absolve Trump of responsibility for excess deaths.
I wonder whether Douthat and company really understand how much they are doing to throw the concept of “pro-life,” family values, patriotism, moral probity, fiscal prudence, the greatest health care system in the world and American exceptionalism on the bonfire of ideals that the Republican party has decided are no longer worth the effort. To prop up someone as worthless as Trump. It’s just astounding.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Years ago a friend had a situation with her mother and put a hold on. Here they do it a tad differently because if you sign yourself in, you keep your right to bear arms. Our guns laws are so lax but that kept that one, because someone was released from the hospital, purchased a gun, and used it in the food court at Perimeter Mall.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Martin: A few years ago, one of the most important N-S routes between Philly and Washington, DC had to be closed because it started tilting.Tilting of highways is generally considered an undesirable thing, I hear.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: haven’t seen curtained booths in decades in northern Illinois. Just flimsy cardboard things that are open to the view of anyone walking behind you. Easy to chat with the person next to you.
James E Powell
They will all be back and central to the Republican campaigns as soon as Democrats are in office. And not just because they were always bullshit or because Republicans are hypocrites. But because they’ve got nothing other than that to cover for their efforts to repeal the 20th century.
Mary G
I’m excited for this!
From Vogue:
I love to hate Paul Hollywood.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jared Kushner is qualified to speak on this matter of international law because the previous two generations of his family built a large residential real-estate business, which created a large fortune, $2M of which Jared’s father–before or after his felony conviction and subsequent prison sentence, I’m not sure– used to bribe Harvard University to admit his son. He later married the daughter of another member of lucky sperm club, who himself hosted a bewilderingly successful gameshow. Hence Jared is one of the most influential people in the orbit of the leader of a country that once claimed to be the “leader of the free world
ETA: Forgot the link. That’s the same James Rosen who was for years held up as a martyr to the Obama administration, now with the Sinclair broadcasting operation? I think it is
dnfree
@WaterGirl: haven’t seen curtained booths in decades in northern Illinois. Just flimsy cardboard things that are open to the view of anyone walking behind you. Easy to chat with the person next to you.
@Kent: bet it’s not a half gallon? I mostly see 3 quarts these days.
trollhattan
@Barbara:
US has nearly 200,000 deaths.
China has 4,700 deaths with what, 4x the population? 5x?
How does Chunky Reese square that circle?
Geminid
@James E Powell: “Negative polarization” is a very potent dynamic, and Bitecofer gives it a large role in her political modeling. Anecdotally, two trump supporters I talk with don’t particularly like trump but they fear “the left,” and will probably vote for trump because of this. Interestingly to me, one says she will probably vote for Cameron Webb, the local Democratic candidate for the Va. 5th Congressional District. So maybe negative polarization is most powerful this election at the presidential level. I hope so, because I want to see Democratic Senate candidates Bollier KS, Bullock MT, Harrison SC, Gross AK, and Hegar TX win in November, even if trump carries their states.
NotMax
First, muster the schmuck out.
Second, the Army has an “esports team?”
trollhattan
Holy crap.
Mom of one of my kid’s buddies is a nurse there. Understandably freaked out.
Matt McIrvin
@Mallard Filmore: Yeah, most people prefer to look at themselves mirror-reversed rather than as others see them, because we’re used to looking in mirrors. Selfie cameras and videoconference systems usually accommodate that preference by default, but they often don’t return the image to normal for the version presented to others (many users might object if they did).
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, please. He’s not even qualified to speak about touch football!
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I remember the Perimeter Mall food court shooting very well (if memory serves, the shooter’s name was Music). That was my dad’s “neighbourhood mall,” as it were, and I remember kind of freaking out at work thinking he might have decided to go furniture shopping at Rich’s that day.
Thx for the info on Georgia committal law.
ETA: I’m wrong. Musick was the name of the guy who died, not the shooter. And I misremembered the spelling, too.
raven
@JPL: There is an ordinance in Kennesaw that said you had to own a gun.
Added Lt. Graydon, “It was not meant to be an enforceable law. The police department has never searched homes to make sure you had a gun. It was meant more or less as a political statement to support citizens’ second amendment rights to own firearms.”
Kent
Blue Bell in Texas still makes a solid 1/2 gallon ice cream. They actually advertise that on their labels: https://www.bluebell.com/get-the-scoop/ One of the few good things about Texas
Although if they ever sell out to a corporate conglomerate it will probably only take a nanosecond until some Harvard MBA type tells them they need to cut the carton size down to increase profits. And that will ruin everything.
Geminid
@Geminid: Rachel Bitecofer’s September update of her 2020 Election Model is coming out any day now, and I can’t wait. She has cut loose from Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center, and now her longer work is published by The Niskanen Center. She also puts up an informative Twitter feed. Rachel Bitecofer wrote a very interesting analysis of the 2016 presidential campaign, but she made her name with her 2018 congressional election model that predicted a 42 seat Democratic pickup. Her prediction was seen as an outlier, but in the event, Democrats flipped 41 seats. Bitecofer said in retrospect that the Dems left some seats on the table, including several in Texas that they are going after hard this year.
Matt McIrvin
@Kent:
Husbands can come into the voting booth with their wives–that’s actually legal under the VRA, for good and noble reasons (you can designate almost anybody as an assistant). But it does also mean your controlling husband can effectively vote for you in person. This does happen.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Mary G: Just in time!
We started watching GBBO in lockdown. After running through all the British ones, we went on to Irish and Australian, and are now in the second of three seasons of Canadian.
After we finished those we were going to start getting a little desperate.
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I was thinking of this Milton, for a while…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTM252Zffq0 (4:08)
Cheers,
Scott.
cwmoss
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Tilting of highways is being noticed more and more. It’s doing a great job.
J R in WV
@geg6:
Well, yeah~!!! Didn’t I say that? I mean, I didn’t use his name, but MBAism or such like!?! Yes, I did!
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: In Haverhill, Massachusetts there are no curtains. We use paper ballots and little open cardboard cubby partitions, usually set up on folding tables.
The poll workers check off your name and address at the check-in table, then give you a ballot. You take that to the cubby, where there’s a black marker, and you mark the bubbles on the ballot. Then you go to a checkout table and they check off your name and address on another list, then you stick the ballot in a machine that sucks it in–I don’t know if this is an actual scanner/tabulator or if it just stores the ballots.
There’s no curtain on the cubby. I think they have cardboard sleeves you can put the ballot in if you’re concerned about someone peeking at it while you check out, but few people use them.
Early voting is pretty much the same except you also get a ballot envelope, like the inner envelope for a mail ballot, and you have to put your address on that and sign it. The whole envelope gets sucked into the box (which obviously isn’t scanning it in that case).
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
We crumble them onto really good ice cream to make a sundae. with either cashews or pecans and sometimes fruit… ummm.
With a spoon!!!
Jinchi
If Trump wins it will prove that coronavirus really was just a hoax. He will be too busy arresting traitors like Nancy Pelosi and Jim Acosta to pay attention to a minor flu outbreak.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@Mary G: I got laid off last month. You’d think I’d be unhappy, but the executive I supported reminded me of a less TV-ready, more arrogant Paul Hollywood. I realized it once while watching an episode of GBBO and had to stop watching. The layoff made it possible to watch the show again.
(Epilogue: got a job offer last week. If this executive I’ll be supporting isn’t an abusive ass, it’ll be the best job I ever had by far. There’s landing on your feet, then there’s sticking that landing like Simone Biles. And I can enjoy the Great British Bake Off.)
Uncle Cosmo
@Kent: Dare you to try that with sugar-free ice cream of any variety. The lower GI tract does not care for sugar substitutes like Splenda or sugar alcohols & does its best to send them on the way toot-sweet. Half of half a gallon will get you 2-3 hours holding court ex cathedra porcellanibus.
(Same is true for sugar-free chocolates. When after my type 2 diabetes diagnosis, I first discovered them I gleefully scarfed down half a box. To misquote a girl group of the 60s, You do run run run, you do run run. Never again!)
SFBayAreaGal
@trollhattan: Winning blog comment of the day.
J R in WV
@Matt McIrvin:
On the other hand, my wife, a lifelong union member, elected officer and organizer, is now showing her age. So I helped her vote in the primary last summer.
Part of the ballot was non-sectarian elections, like judges and such. I researched those races, and had a sheet of paper with who appeared to be union-supporting Democrats, and pointed to the candidates for those races which had turned up OK.
It took me hours to find out what party some of the potential judges and justices belonged to. Some were guilty of multiple crimes, others were fascists, some, on the other hand, were good people, and democratic candidates.
J R in WV
@Another Scott:
Wait just a minute here!!
you mean you guys weren’t talking about Little Milton???
He was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single “We’re Gonna Make It.” His other hits include “Baby, I Love You”, “Who’s Cheating Who?”, and “Grits Ain’t Groceries (All Around The World)”.
A super-star of the R&B world, was Little Milton~!!!!~
“Grits Ain’t Groceries” is a great piece of work !!!!!
satby
@WaterGirl: I was an election judge in Chicago more than 25 years ago and they didn’t have curtained booths then. Cardboard surrounds on a table top.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: If you’re filling in little ovals and the machine sucks the ballot in, it’s probably an optical reader and it is tallying your vote immediately. My precinct had those.
Just Chuck
@Barbara: Not astounding. They never believed in those things in the first place. They were told to, and they fell in line.
satby
@JPL: @SiubhanDuinne: There was a single victim mall shooting here on Saturday, in the hall right outside the LensCrafers where I work in the doctor’s office. Two young guys in an argument, one kills the other.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Learn something new every day!
PST
@SiubhanDuinne:
What I love is the convenient single serving tube. (Not original.)
WaterGirl
@Ken: We still do a paper ballot here. I wonder if that’s the difference.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
A navy midrats sandwich, very cheap day old white bread, 1 cheap american cheese slice. If you are feeling particularly generous, a Tweenkie, and a hard boiled egg.
Citizen Alan
@John S.: Oh for fucks sake! The fact that it’s a very conservative state would have always given mcconnell the advantage, even before you get into expecting voters to throw out an incumbent who is also one of the most powerful persons in government. The idea that if only the democrats had nominated someone far enough to the left, they might have beaten Mitch mcconnell in Kentucky is nothing but wilmerite bullshit.
Mary G
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Congratulations! Many people have told me that getting fired or laid off was the best thing that ever happened to them, so you’re in good company.
Madame Bupkis
@Ruckus: Ha! Midrats. You are correct, sir. The things we put together. I was on USNS ships and we had a toaster!
Geminid
Thank-you TaAmara for posting President Obama’s comments. It is heartening to be reminded of a good president. Three and one half years is not that long ago, even if it seems like it.
Mike in NC
@Ruckus: The midrats I remember seeing were two slices of white bread with a single slice of baloney in between, and an apple for desert. Yuck.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: I don’t know, Ken… could you get some synergy in there? Needs some synergy.
Mary G
Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a Republican, brings the hammer down on the Ohio GOP for accusing a lower court judge of being a partisan Democrat in ruling on issue of how many dropboxes a county can have.
Ohio GOP’s lawyers tell the court they had nothing to do with the statement, and it’s been scrubbed. Oopsie!
Another Scott
rofl.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Mugster
@Immanentize:
…about 20 miles from me. Here’s the rest of the story about that 1987 Thruway bridge (Rt. 87) collapse.
eachother
Sweet music. I love the song and singer even more for hearing this.
Hanging ‘Vote’ signs like tree ornaments on the corner pine tree. Updated my 2018 General Election Information 2020 flyer hand out for FAQ.
Except for Covid, Fires, Economy, Hurricanes and rump being Impeached president, I’m feeling pretty good about the election. Beat the russian disruption, Vote early.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: @satby:
We do the little ovals with pencil. We do get a huge cover like thing where the ballot slides in, and then we run our own ballot into the optical scanning machine.
Interesting to see how even county-to-county varies.
Matt McIrvin
@J R in WV: And that’s why the VRA lets people assist.
debbie
@Mary G:
Maureen O’Connor takes no shit from anybody
P.S. The GOP has a very large majority. The Dems can’t do much more than voice their protest. This makes that “scrubbed” statement all the more ridiculous.
The Lodger
@Omnes Omnibus: No respect for Berle or Bradley?
Nutmeg again (formerly MoxieM)
@Gin & Tonic: oh yes–the Mianus bridge. Which would be 4th grade funny, except for the unfortunate drivers who died b/c the state failed to inspect and repair. However, they did finally finish the Q bridge! Glory Hallelujah!
Kay
@Mary G:
I was so pleased she wasn’t afraid to take them on. The state GOP has been lurching Right since Trump was elected and they’re now to the Right of most of the elected officials who have to run state-wide (rather than in heavily GOP districts). The state Party is essentially much further Right than the people who get elected. There was bound to be a collision.
I think it creates an opening for Democrats, if not this cycle then in upcoming cycles. This is not a fringe, far Right state. There will be a correction.
Kay
@Mary G:
We’re seeing the Trump-era corruption spike up too. The corruption is blatant. It’s now so bad that the latest scandal was revealed by a GOP political operative.
I bet the rot is spreading in other GOP-run states too. Look at the national leadership. That will all eventually trickle down to GOP state parties and electeds.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Five boxes maybe…..
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
Much older than day old sometimes, as is the pseudo salami, which can be green around the edges.
We had a cook face a captain’s mast for making the whole midnight watch shift violently ill one night. That green edge was a sure marker of really bad !!!! It was 100% of those watch standing sailors!!!
I don’t think Barr should have that kind of meal. No one should be sickened, just repulsed.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
What I described was the midrats at Long Beach station in 73 when I was one of the transit barracks master at arms for a few weeks. 12 hr shifts every 3 days I had the something like 6pm to 6am. Never had to talk to anybody in charge, paycheck was pinned to the board outside the chiefs office. The worst part about the job was the midrats.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I did that master at arms gig for a few weeks and then SP for a few more and I never saw anything other than whatever that stuff that looked vaguely like cheese. The twinkie was the best part of the meal, it actually tasted like a twinkie and the wrapper said Hostess. I was and still am skeptical about it actually being a Hostess Twinkie.
Jess
I haven’t had a chance to go through the comments so I don’t know if anyone’s already posted about this horrific development: