"We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic," Biden continued, speaking from his own experience about the "black hole" experienced by those who've experienced profound grief.
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) February 22, 2021
"We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow"
US President Joe Biden marks "grim milestone" of 500,000 deaths to Covid-19 https://t.co/ZraXMNQRrS pic.twitter.com/8LK9I16jzR
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 23, 2021
Democrats begin the final push for Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill this week, dropping any pretense of bipartisanship to quickly pass the package before an earlier round of benefits runs out.@elwasson @laurapdavison https://t.co/9smFOwSDBg
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 22, 2021
On The Road – Gin & Tonic – Stockholm #2
OzarkHillbilly
‘Dare mighty things’: hidden message found on Nasa Mars rover parachute
satby
Good!
debbie
I’m looking forward to the Jan 6 hearings today.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Very cool. Geeks rule.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Seems too hackable.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I gotta write my congress critters a letter telling them that if they are so damned concerned about the deficit maybe they should do something about it, starting with a repeal of their budget busting knob slobbering tax cuts for corporations and the rich.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
“We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow.”
I’m not terribly prescient but when the previous (mal)administration started its (non)plans for dealing with the plague, I said that what they wanted long-term was for people to become used to a certain threshold of death. I likened it to automobile fatalities. I just knew that was the literal road to perdition the GQP was aiming for.
It’s so great that we’ve made a sharp 180 degree turn. I supported Biden the first two times he ran. People like me saw what we’re seeing now. Damn glad he’s there.
rikyrah
😡😡😡
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Josh Hawley, working class populist, will get right on that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie: Me too. Not that I’ll actually watch. I can’t stand to watch the hypocritical liars telling hypocritical lies, but I want someone held responsible
rikyrah
About the deaths:
I can’t dwell on this, because I would spiral into depression.
The thing that haunts.
That will haunt until I am 99, if I live that long.
I. Will. Never
Not. Ever.
Get the feeling out of the bottom of my soul.
That the election of 2016.
Could have prevented 90% of these deaths.
Not 20
30
50
I believe 90%
90% of 500,000 people would still be alive if Hillary was President.
That’s what haunts.
All those families broken.
All that pain. That didn’t have to happen.😭😭😭😭😭
OzarkHillbilly
Hidden in a shoebox: vintage Edinburgh shots that were nearly lost – in pictures
Robert Blomfield’s stunning pictures of the Scottish capital were locked away for decades. Now his family want to share his talent with the world
Chief Oshkosh
Don’t know who Jennifer Jacobs is, but fuck her and her shitty framing. No doubt she wrote that shit from a warm, dry, paid-for domicile.
Ken
@rikyrah: I was wondering when we’d get some reporting on CPAC.
The Thin Black Duke
Good morning, fellow jackals.
Every day when I wake up and check the news, I’m smiling because He Who Shall Not Be Named isn’t sitting in the White House anymore, and my smile gets bigger.
I also published another essay today. This time I’m enjoying the sad, sad soap opera of Senator Ted (“Let Them Eat Snow”) Cruz. Poor thing.
Skepticat
The really painful issue is that the figure of half a million very likely is a serious undercount for a variety of reasons. As hideous as this needless loss is, I don’t think we could begin to deal with the true figures.
Soprano2
This shit drives me crazy – the only place this bill doesn’t have “bipartisan support” is in Congress! Everywhere else it’s supported by the vast majority of people. It’s just lazy to say there’s no bipartisan support for this bill.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yeah, it ain’t gonna do any good other than allowing myself to lower the level of bile I am carrying around by spewing some of it on them.
Chief Oshkosh
@rikyrah: I agree. But it’s worse than that. Recall from those original calculations of 90%, that the basis was on “once the first case arrived in the US.”
From WWII up to Trump, the US led in worldwide efforts to address diseases like Covid-19. If Hilary had been in place, it’s likely that the initial spread would have been much, much less. Thus, it’s likely that not only would 450,000 Americans still be alive that are now dead, a significant proportion of Covid-19 victims around the globe would still be alive.
The Thin Black Duke
@Soprano2: Stenographers pretending to be journalists. Same as it ever was. Thankfully, Biden doesn’t pay attention to them anymore.
Baud
@Soprano2:
The media sees DC like a romcom series with the same plot every episode: Will D’s be able to woo the GOP this time?
Soprano2
Someday someone will do a statistical analysis of COVID deaths and come up with what’s probably a more accurate number, which will probably shock a lot of people. They estimate 675,000 people in the U.S. died in the 1918 pandemic; last year I thought we could never reach that figure with COVID, now I’m not so sure.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
Please remember us little people when you make it big.
Soprano2
Wow, I love that framing, I might steal that. It would be much more accurate to say “gave up any pretense of trying to get support from Republicans in Congress”, because that’s the truth!!
OzarkHillbilly
Percy is in mourning. He hasn’t eaten in 3 days.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Sorry, Baud. You folks are stuck with me.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I’m surprised The Lancet commission’s recent report didn’t get more media attention. Maybe I missed the coverage, but I don’t think so. It estimated Trump’s pandemic mismanagement was responsible for 40% of COVID deaths, or around 200K people, which is breathtaking.
Your estimate may be closer to the mark for all I know. But I am pretty sure if Hillary Clinton were president and 50K people died on her watch instead of the 500K who perished due to Trump’s malice, incompetence and selfishness, Clinton would have been impeached, convicted and forever vilified for it.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Poor fellow. He found a safe haven from his past, but lost a true friend. Has he gone outside with you?
I picture him peaking through the plants and fence in your summer yard.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Poor baby. Hope he rebounds soon.
I worry about how Badger will carry on when our old Daisy shuffles off her mortal coil. She’s nearly 13 (ancient for a boxer dog) and showing her age a lot lately, poor girl. I can hardly bear to think of it.
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke: “Jewish space lasers” still cracks me up everytime I read it.
RandomMonster
I think we could easily hit that mark. We’re still around 2K deaths per day, and we have months to go.
Geminid
@debbie: Today’s hearings will be before a joint meeting of the Senate Homeland Security and Rules Committees. Former Capitol Police chief Steven Sund and the former House and Senate Sergeants at Arms will testify. Homeland Security Committee chairman Gary Peters (MI) says this hearing will be the first of many. Later this week the House Appropriations Committee will hear testimony from acting Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman and the acting House Sergeant at Arms.
Soprano2
Well, Jacobs is getting roasted in the comments to that tweet, so there’s that.
Ramalama
@OzarkHillbilly: Well my mood’s certainly taken a sudden upswing. Gorgeous photos. I was about to rumble and moan around my limited social presences.
Skepticat
I just read the transcript of the president’s comments, and it brought me to tears. The contrast between our past and current “leaders” is astounding but somehow not surprising. I’ve been extraordinarily lucky and haven’t lost anyone close to me to COVID-19—yet—but this a good reminder of how unusual that is and how grateful and empathetic I should be.
Mai Naem mobile
@Chief Oshkosh: Jennifer Jacobs is the reporter who reported Hope Hicks’ COVID diagnosis and some other WH staff COVID diagnoses when they were trying to hide it. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her frame Biden stuff in this fashion but I don’t believe she’s a Maggie Haberman.
Eric S.
Tomorrow is LIHEAP (Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program) Action Day. It’s a day when utilities and others concerned about home energy costs lobby Congress to authorize money for the program. My company sent me to DC to participate last year. Tomorrow I have multiple Zoom meetings to with staffers from 6 IL Legislatures including both Senators.
rp
Jacobs’ framing isn’t great, but I think she’s trying to convey the idea that they’re more focused on helping people than worshipping at the alter of bipartisanship.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: Gaby stopped eating almost entirely after King passed, and I wound up having to change her food.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@The Thin Black Duke: Absolutely righteous rant. My favorite part thought was the parenthetical RIP after the reference to the Lincoln Project.
Also, I keep marveling at how none of these people believe the buck stops with them, no matter how much power they have.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: @Betty Cracker: He usually follows me everywhere I go (currently laying on the floor behind me), trying always to keep me in sight (with exceptions for distractions) but now his anxiousness has gotten extreme. We went to my wife’s daughter’s for lunch on Sunday and both times I went to the bathroom he frantically ran around looking for me and whining until I came back out. And he knew where I was, refusing to follow me in because who knows what happens in there? Some of his old behaviors have resurfaced too, those deeply ingrained habits born of the intense abuse he suffered before he found his way here.
He hasn’t even taken any treats. (the most finicky dog I’ve ever met, only certain treats will do and he always sniffs them first like they might be poisoned). I’m not too worried yet, we’ve fattened him up plenty in the past 2 1/2 years, lot’s of reserves there, but by the end of the week…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: That is so sad! Poor Percy
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
I mean, here’s the thing – corporations CAN drop their tax obligation to zero by using profits to invest in their infrastructure, boost worker pay, increase workplace incentives, and pay dividends.
It’s pretty damned simple, really. Favoring capital gains over profit payouts has been a really counterproductive policy ideal.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kristine: That is worth considering.
Uncle Cosmo
@The Thin Black Duke: ” Senator Ted (“Let Him Eat Yellow Snow”) Cruz. ”
FTFY!
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
That is the coolest thing! I wonder if my ex-sister-in-law’s friend had a hand in this? He designed the parachute, but that was mechanical, not decorative AFAIK. Also, he’s at Langley, not JPL. But it’s still an extremely cool thing to have done! Forwarding the story now to ex-SIL.
citizen dave
@Eric S.: I know about LIHEAP from work. Good on you for participating! It’s an important program. Utility rates have to be paid one way or another; or else low-income people would just go without.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh, that’s so sad.
jonas
@Soprano2:
Given what are sure to be significant undercounts in many areas of the country (I’m looking at you, Florida), I think there’s a very good chance of that. Of course in 1918, we had something like one third the population we do now, so that was the equivalent of almost 2 million dead today — which is hard to wrap your head around.
Betty Cracker
@rp: I agree, but our media peeps really must get better at choosing copy for tweets and push media alerts. Sometimes I think they’re in denial about the small percentage of people who click through and read the whole thing. But bad framing is kind of a sub-species of disinformation, IMO, and I wish they’d proactively address it.
The Thin Black Duke
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks.
I believe that’s why these clowns are so obsessed about “cancel culture”. They never had to deal with the consequences of their bad behavior before and they don’t like it.
Uncle Cosmo
Keep in mind that the US population in 1920 was 106 million . For the current population of 328 million, that scales to well over 2 million fatalities. Just sayin’.
dmsilev
@OzarkHillbilly: Another cool theory that I heard being tossed around is about that very “blocky” mission logo: It’s a reference to “The Game of Life”, Because, of course, one of the big scientific goals of the mission is to look for any signs that there might have been life on Mars way back when.
Mai Naem mobile
@OzarkHillbilly: you need another dog. Preferably a young one. Give Percy something new to think about.
something fabulous
@OzarkHillbilly: Same; poor Gigi is usually a vacuum of whatever food is around. Has been very picky since Milo passed. I’m like Kristine and have made a few changes, but so far she is turning down every kind of wet food, and it’s been a month now. Fortunately has decided on a dry food she likes OK, but it’s not the same. She had some weight to lose, snarfing up whatever Milo had not gotten to, but I don’t want her to lose too much too quickly, either. Poor critters! So sorry for the loss of your Woof.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I compare the handling of the pandemic to the other female Heads of State, who, as a collective, have done a remarkable job.
I have no doubt that Hillary would have handled it the same way.
She wouldn’t have thrown away 44’s Global Pandemic for Dummies handbook.
She wouldn’t have fired, all but 2 of the almost 4 dozen people that 44 had set up throughout the government to watch out and be prepared for a pandemic.
She wouldn’t have closed the office in China, which would have been our eyes and ears on the ground when this first popped up.
She would have coordinated a FEDERAL RESPONSE from the beginning.
She would NOT have left the States on their own in Spring 2020, when we had the Hunger Games around PPE.
She would have thought the idea of sending 5 masks to every household in America that the USPS wanted to do, would have been a great idea.
I want to remind people that this was never a case of incompetence because of non-understanding about the scope of the virus.
Bob Woodward laid waste to that theory.
They understood COMPLETELY the depth and what was involved with the virus.
All decisions were made with DELIBERATE MALICE.
rp
@rikyrah: I’m quite confident that if HRC had been President we’d have 1/10th the number of deaths and the MSM and the right would be calling her the greatest mass murderer in history.
OzarkHillbilly
@dmsilev: There are more on it. Yours sounds very plausible to me.
The Thin Black Duke
@rikyrah: Genocide. That was the intent.
something fabulous
@rikyrah: I think you’re right on all those things. AND I think Betty is right and she’d have been dragged every possible way for however many deaths there still would have been, instead of like the hero that would have made her, like Aherne (sp?) in New Zealand is. Malice would still find a way.
arrieve
@OzarkHillbilly: Those are wonderful photos of Edinburgh’s children. Thanks for the link!
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, I would have figured that one out on my own…NOT
It’s good to stay humble, especially when you’re me. =)
Nelle
@The Thin Black Duke: Thank you for the link. You are a seriously good writer.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mai Naem mobile: My wife and I both started secretly looking Saturday night. She spilled the beans to me on Sunday and I had to laugh because I wasn’t going to say anything for fear that she wasn’t ready. We’re going to get another Lab, female this time because we think it might be easier for Percy to adapt.
JML
COVID has killed more people in the US than the population of Minneapolis.
There are way too many people who ignore the massive death toll of this pandemic because it’s diffused across the country and over 12 months.
OzarkHillbilly
@rp: They already did that after Benghazi.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: Heh, all I noticed watching the video was a red and white parachute, my brain never even noticed there was a pattern.
Ken
This season’s grimdark twist: The GQP has a psychotic break and ends up strapped to a bed in a mental ward, howling day and night. Will D remain loyal, or seek elsewhere for a partner in governance?
The Thin Black Duke
@Nelle: Thank you. (now I’m blushing)
evap
@OzarkHillbilly: I read this and thought, yeah, I should write something like this to my senators… and then I remembered that my senators are now Ossoff and Warnock! I haven’t gotten used to having decent senators yet.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Thin Black Duke:
The core of Republicanism today, driving their policy and behavior, is that they’re assholes who want complete freedom to be assholes and have had it up to here with social mores increasingly restricting them. It started with racism, but now it’s assholery, period.
Cleek’s Law is a subset of that, their desire to scream “Fuck you!” Evangelical Christianity is part of that, their cruelty and seething resentment they’re not being praised for forcing everyone else to obey their sadistic whims. Trumpism is its rawest form.
It was bad enough when the federal government muscled in and forced desegregation and prosecuted hate crimes. They. Are. PISSED. that they are getting punished by society in general now.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: Heh! My comment was going to be that Percy needs a dog, but Mom and Dad are of course ahead of the game.
Are you still allowed personal visits to the shelters? Need to take the boy along.
Ken
The Gift of the Magi, except in this version each gives the other a dog. I think it’s an improvement on the original.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
I want this comment front-paged!
Geminid
@Ken: This year’s CPAC conference is titled, “Uncancelled America.” (They’ve already had to cancel one speaker on account of past anti-semitic postings). There will be a lot of conference news coverage Sunday, when trump will take his Fred C. Boggs impersonation to Orlando.
Benw
@OzarkHillbilly: Good luck with the dog search! Our shelter lab is 3 years old and a very good boy
Benw
@Frankensteinbeck: one of the (few) things Orwell got wrong was that two minutes per day would be enough…
Betty Cracker
@Frankensteinbeck: Agree, and as someone who was subjected to Jesus Camp-style indoctrination as a child, I heartily concur with your specific callout of evangelicals, but I would qualify it as follows: WHITE evangelicals. Someone pointed that out to me once (maybe here), and it stuck with me as an important distinction. I think evangelicals in general are more conservative than I am, and as a nonbeliever, I find their impulse to restrict others’ behavior in accordance with what I consider superstitious nonsense irritating. But it’s the white evangelicals who went all in for white supremacy and formed a cult around Trump.
OzarkHillbilly
That Lauren Underwood profile somebody above referred me to is well worth the read. I can only hope she really is the future of the party because down here the DEMs could use some rejuvenating. Especially at the state level.
Brantl
@Soprano2: Not pretense, hope for evidence of Republican moral character.
Jeffro
Or realize that they don’t need a partner at all, with this kind of…dare I say…bipartisan support?
Subsole
@rikyrah: Yep. All this havoc over a G-D temper tantrum.
germy
Subsole
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Power divorced from accountability. Mankind’s oldest dream lives on.
Geminid
@Immanentize: There may not be Jewish Space Lasers, but an Israeli mosquito laser is in the works. Israeli entrepreneur Saar Wilf has developed a device which uses infrared technology to detect flying mosquitos. When a mosquito lands, it is marked with a laser and a phone notification is sent to the owner. This doesn’t sound too useful, but a spokesman for Wilf’s company says later models will have the capacity to “eliminate” the mosquito. That could be a big seller if safety issues can be worked out.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Our 17-year-old cat died while we were on vacation a few years ago. We both solemnly agreed that we were going to put pet ownership on hold for awhile, months at least.
We visited a cat cafe in every city were were in. Neither of us asked the other or if we had changed our mind on adoption. Surely this was just for fun, since we are east coasters and these places were on the west coast. We just looked them up, made an appointment to visit the kitties and went.
Then we got home, still swearing we were going to have a moratorium.
Before the first week back was over, there was a new kitten and an 18-month old (not housebroken!) beagle mix in the house.
You loved your old guy. And you still have love that you need to share with a furry housemate. I’m not at all surprised that you found yourself looking around for the next furball even before you probably admitted to yourself that you were ready.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: One more reason to not watch it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@germy:
“Well, Senator, we’ve learned there was some asshole named Hawley giving the rioters inside intel, which really hampered our efforts to protect you. Don’t worry, we’re going to catch up with that guy.”
Subsole
@rikyrah: She also wouldn’t have sold our vaccines out the back door (I still think all those missing doses ended up in KSA).
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: As a swamp-dweller, I hate mosquitoes with the fire of 10K exploding supernovas, but I also assume they’re a necessary part of the local ecology. For that reason, I hope the mosquito laser will be confined to indoor use only. Or maybe an app that creates a mosquito-free zone around the user outdoors. Now, that would be cool! :)
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I knew I was going to be looking before Woof was gone, Labs are just so special. My wife on the other hand was saying she didn’t know if she could deal with the pain of loss again. I figured eventually she would come around, if not before than surely after I plopped a Lab puppy into her unsuspecting lap.
Subsole
@Geminid: I heard the guy they cancelled was a RAGING hotep, to boot.
So. Of course they cancelled the black guy.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Some powerful testimony going on right now from Capitol police.
Captain Menoza is describing her experience. “Large hostile groups, proud boys, assembling…”
She said the next morning she couldn’t move because of the pain she was in.
I’m watching. She’s going through this effort with her statement, in uniform, reliving her horror. I’d hate to think no one’s paying attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fULqKkm_NCY
germy
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Where is the hand flying to my heart, tears running down my face emoji when I need it.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Bat houses can maybe help. They are easy to build, a little harder to put up. But the bats don’t neccessarily move in. My friend Joan put a medium sized one last year to go along with a smaller one she had, but bats did not move in to either one. They come back to Virginia in April, so maybe this year.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
No need to reinvent the wheel. Already exists — it’s called a cigar.
;)
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Poor Percy, my heart breaks for him. And you guys. First losing your beloved Woofie, now seeing Percy so inconsolable. More tears.
Have you tried lying on the floor with Percy and crying together?
Subsole
@Betty Cracker: Meh. Not to discount your lived experience, but I have known some Latino and black evangelicals who supported some pretty bassackward stuff. I think it really is a church problem at this point. It may well have started out racial, but it has metastasized.
I think a lot of it really does stem from the fire and brimstone circus-tent style being monetized into a multibillion dollar sales circuit.
The thing that always wore me out about church, even more than the dog whistles they were always blowing (including at my grandpa’s funeral, thanks ever-so, pastor) , were the endless sales pitches.
Here’ pastor’s friend with a new book he wants you to buy. And here’s a video from a group selling tickets to Israel. And here’s a video of a megapastor with his latest gimcrack accessories. And here’s a paid speaker on his layest sermon circuit tour, selling his books and videos. Be sure to check our facebook.
Just so. Many. Commercials. Ugh.
OzarkHillbilly
No worries on that score, plenty will be watching, but I don’t need to be subjected to *politician after politician grandstanding for the camera’s*. I’ll read all about it tomorrow and hopefully 95% of that bullshit will be weeded out.
** this is one behavior that truly is bipartisan. The AOC’s, Adam Schiffs and Katie Porters who are actually capable of questioning witnesses are rare creatures in Congress, and far outnumbered by the too damned many Hawleys and Gym Jordans there.
Subsole
@Betty Cracker: I read somewhere a way back that they really can’t tell what ecological purpose mosquitos serve. They really may just be parasites.
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: I would actually drill it down a little further on the evangelicals. It is a subset of the white evangicals that are prosperity gospel, home or church affiliated schooling, highly pastor controlled groups. A relative of mine is in one of those churches and was sliding toward that, but was still fairly normal until the pastor retired and they hired a new one. After this guy came in the whole bunch went full metal MAGAt.
WaterGirl
@germy: There are no words for how wrong that is.
Subsole
@NotMax: Those are pretty good at getting rid of Limbaughs, too.
Or so I’m told.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: As with so many things, “location location location” is very important, but even the best location will take a few years. It was 3 or 4 years before they moved into mine and then woodpeckers attacked it and drove them out with their incessant pecking.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Dogs are so amazing and sometimes like twitter Rex, I wonder if we deserve them. Hugs to both you and Percy.
germy
Robert Contee is testifying now. (Metropolitan Police Chief)
A Black man describing a violent mob interfering with a peaceful transfer of power.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: He always jumps up on the couch to lay right next to me. He gets plenty of lovin’s from the both of us.
Subsole
@Doc Sardonic: Yep. There’s always prosperity gospel in the mix. The trickle-down afterlife, brought to you by the first national bank of Jesus.
Like, Jesus didn’t run the money changers out of the temple for a laff, kids…
JPL
@germy: The witnesses can’t be more different.
Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
sorry Ozark, it’s tough on our friends, and there is little we can do, other than be there.
Betty Cracker
@Subsole: I don’t disagree; when I said evangelicals in general are more conservative than I am and tend to try to burden the rest of us with their religious strictures, I meant ALL evangelicals. But the white supremacists and Trump cultist evangelicals are overwhelmingly white. That was the point I was trying to make. Sorry it was unclear.
@Doc Sardonic: Fair point. I’m not sure how large a subset that is these days within evangelicalism — the loopier set seems to comprise 99% of the white Baptists I know.
I’m also acquainted with some wonderful liberal Christians whose faith inspires them to do all kinds of good in the world. But I can’t help but be heartened every time I read a survey that marks the decline of religion in America.
Doc Sardonic
@Subsole: Forgot to add that along with the other stuff in the MAGAt evangelical shit parfait is a liberal sprinkling of fear as a topping. My aforementioned relative went from a confident, assertive person to a scared shitless person wanting assert that fear on everyone.
rikyrah
@Baud:
On point
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: It has metastasized in the Baptist’s. Seemed to go from the independents to a subset of Southern Baptists but now it’s spreading like the red on an old WWII newsreel map.
germy
Sen. Klobuchar is doing a fine job running these hearings.
Just One More Canuck
@The Thin Black Duke: I wonder if the only way that Texas will change is if a high profile Cowboys player chooses to go to the 49ers or the Seahawks or some other team from a socialist hellhole and very publicly says that they couldn’t put their families through something like this again
PST
@OzarkHillbilly: Underwood is on the front lines where the swing voters live. She has Denny Hastert’s old seat (with some boundary adjustments). Don’t worry; she’s a nurse. She knows how to sterilize things. She’s the kind of representative we have to look out for and protect even if sometimes that means accepting a little less than we might otherwise want. We need her suburbanites.
Subsole
@Betty Cracker: No worries, I see what you are saying. It is complicated by the fact that the modern Charismatics are so beholden to their pastors. Each shepherd rules his flock like a personal kingdom. So you can see a lot of variation in intensity.
Geminid
@Doc Sardonic: Russell Moore, head of a public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been quite critical of evangelical support of trump, but other Southern Baptists are trying to rein him in. One complaint is that Moore has cost them donations. Baptists used to have a strong tradition of separation of church and state, but power hungry preachers have sold that birthright for a mess of political pottage.
The late Jonathan, Lord Sacks, of Britain said it best: “When you start to mix politics with religion, you end up with terrible politics, and even worse religion.”
Betty Cracker
@germy: I was pleased when I read Klobuchar would be running the hearings because I knew she’d do a good job. I really came to appreciate Klobuchar’s abilities more during the primary campaign.
Nelle
@Subsole: Ah. Someone who thinks like I do.
Subsole
@Doc Sardonic: Yep. Everyone’s the anticrhrist and everything’s an omen. I think it comes from the obsession with being on the winning side of the Tribulation. They want to stand tall in a wicked world and shame the devil. Which is odd. Like, they all seem more concerned with surviving in the post-Rapture than being good enough to get called-up, as it were, and skip the misery.
It really is just another Zombie Apocalypse fantasy, if you squint at it right.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t doubt that at all. I had just wondered if having a good cry or talking about how much you miss the Woofmeister might help him in some way. But you are the Percy whisperer, so I was probably off track.
My sister lost her pup a month ago and they all struggled terribly (including the remaining dog) until a week ago when the brought Rocky home. Dakota snapped right out of it.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Blunt’s line of questions seem to place the blame some place else rather than the office of the president.. Am I wrong?
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@The Thin Black Duke: Great essay. I’d only take issue with one thing: Cruz may in fact be intelligent, but what he’s sorely lacking is wisdom. There’s a reason those are two separate stats on a D&D character sheet (and charisma is a third unto itself). Cruz has like zero points in either WIS (not knowing how stupid the Cancun trip was) or CHA (based on the observation that if he were shot dead on the floor of the Senate, 99 senators would swear their backs were turned and they didn’t see who did it).
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
I laughed out loud
rikyrah
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: That’s actually great news!
Doc Sardonic
@Geminid: There has been a split brewing in the SBC for a long time. It started when Zig Ziegler and some of the early fundies got control and some of the more progressive churches formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I think it was called, in 89. It looks like a bigger split is looming over MAGAtism, sexual abuse and a few other things but I left that world a long time ago so I am not as plugged in as I used to be.
JPL
@rikyrah: Perdue played golf with the orange menace who apparently complained about Kemp and McConnell. Even though he filed and was considering a run, he changed his mind. Perdue said that the trump meeting did not play into his decision. (HAHAHHA) I assume Loeffler will want a rematch, but since the orange menace likes Marjorie Taylor Greene, she’s a possibility.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Yes agreed 100% and that’s why I can’t ever forgive people who knowingly made the horror of Orange possible
Betty Cracker
@JPL: I can’t watch live, so I don’t know, but that sounds like Blunt.
Geminid
@JPL: Former Congressman Doug Collins (Idiot-Habersham) is also said to be interested in running against Senator Warnock. It could be preacher vesus preacher in 2022.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker:
I am absolutely sure that’s what would have happened. The (media-defined) standards are different for any Democrat, and for Hillary they would have been impossible to meet – by design.
CaseyL
@Geminid: Many years ago, I worked for a company that buys patents. The company was started by a tech billionaire who wanted some toys to play with. He also funded a research lab that was absolutely The Ultimate Tech Toy for anyone fortunate enough to work there. I got to tour the lab once, and the things they were working on were fascinating – but I couldn’t figure out whether they’d actually be of any use, or in what context they would be of use.
One project the lab was working on was lasering mosquitos, supposedly to combat malaria and other mosquito-carried diseases. The advantage was that it killed skeeters without recourse to harmful chemicals, but the disadvantage was that it, uh, didn’t seem to work. The project had a tank full of skeeters and lasers firing at them and, near as anyone could tell, the kill rate was quite low. The bugs moved too fast, too randomly.
The Israeli project sounds like an interesting – if inefficient – variant, but if it leaves ultimate disposal up to the person getting the call, then the original thought behind it (eliminating need for harmful chemicals) is no longer operative. IOW, I’m not quite sure what the point is.
JPL
@Geminid: The menace has made it known that he wants Collins to run against Kemp. Loeffler seems to be preparing for a rematch against Collins.
yellowdog
@Subsole: Some mosquitoes are pollinators.
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid:
And issues you a ticket for illegally parking your mosquito?
Ivan X
@Frankensteinbeck: Reposting from a thread a couple of months ago (not by me): https://artiststruggle.wordpress.com/2020/11/15/the-s-my-d-party/
artem1s
open thread so maybe not OT?
found the best article about rescuing Sea Turtles from the storm. Look for the helpers!
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/texas-volunteers-saved-thousands-of-sea-turtles-from-the-shocking-cold-weather/
Brantl
@Subsole: they feed a shit-ton of fish, birds, bats, etc.
Geminid
@CaseyL: This Wilf guy is interesting. I found him when his sister, former Labor Party Knesset member Einat Wilf, retweeted some posts he made on Vitamen D and Covid-19. He’s done well with some tech startups, which may or may not mean something, and is a top amateur in the poker scene. Advances in technology may make his invention viable. Einat Wilf has sat out Israeli politics since she lost her seat in 2011, but she is fairly young and may get back in. Several Israeli politicians are sitting this election out, but the March 23 election may be as inconclusive as the last three, so Israelis could end up going to the polls again this summer.
Anotherlurker
@OzarkHillbilly: I want to extend my condolences for the loss of your dear, furry family member.
You will know when it is time to adopt a new pup and it appears that the time is now.
When I lost my boy, Buddy, in January 2020, I waited 2 weeks and began my search. By then, however, it was too late. Rumors of COVID related quarantine orders were circulating. As a result, the shelters and the rescue groups were rapidly running out of Pups to place. I could not find a dog for 11 months.
If it wasn’t for a friend of a friend of mine who suggested a wonderful rescue group, Bunny’s Buddies (bunnysbuddies.com). Their mission is to rescue Pups from the Asian dog meat trade.
They matched me with Addie, a beautiful 8 year old Golden who was used as a breeder dog, to supply puppies to that trade. She is the new love of my life.
I hope you find your new Furry Family Friend soon, but if the local shelters and rescue groups are not working for you, please think of other avenues, including foreign rescue groups.
Again, I feel your grief at the loss of Wolfie. I know well how much it hurts.
Bex
@Betty Cracker: I’ve always thought if only one person had died, Hillary would have been impeached, convicted, and given the death penalty.
NotMax
@CaseyL
Initially read that as:
One project the lab was working on was leasing mosquitos
dnfree
@rikyrah: Lauren Underwood is in a district neighboring mine, and I donated to her along with my representative (Sean Casten) and another neighboring district (Raja Krishnamoorthi). Very proud of all three.
Jay
@Subsole:
only the females suck blood. They need the protein to make eggs.
they spend 90% of their time a pollinators. No mosquitos, no blueberries.
Skepticat
@OzarkHillbilly:
Fascinating and so very cool!
Skepticat
I encourage anyone looking for a loyal, smart, and devoted pet to check out https://www.facebook.com/northabacopotcakerescue. We have an active foster program for Royal Bahamian Potcakes, and when the puppies leave here, they’re healthy, socialized, and housebroken. We have great volunteers who fly them to the States, and we’ve rehomed them all over the States and Canada. One puppy even got a ride to and Francisco on a private jet.