Just an absolutely beautiful day in West by God Virginia:
I took that this morning on the way home from the farmer’s market. It’s been just a glorious day.
And then I looked at the news. The beauty of the day contrasted with just the ugliness of everything going on in the world is startling and depressing. Virtually every headline is bad, everything the Republicans are trying to do is an assault on the nation and democracy in general. There’s flooding and earthquakes and wildfires and tornadoes and hurricanes and heat waves and assassinations and it just feels like everything is falling apart.
Sometimes it’s ok to feel a little helpless, I guess. There’s a ton of shit going on.
cope
I know how you feel. I find myself narrowing my focus considerably to blot out the shit. The shit doesn’t go away and never will but that’s how I cope.
Raoul Paste
There is a lot of goodwill on this blog, and other people are way more eloquent than me. Maybe the best thing I can do is thank you for this vehicle of optimism, information, and action
Jeffro
Didn’t Obama have a quote at some point during his years in office, about realizing that basically the world is always on fire, so don’t get overly stressed about it?
If not, I think we should just pretend that he did. It sounds like something he would say. =)
karen marie
Is that the field your previous vehicle threw itself into after being alarmed by a big truck?
Jerzy Russian
I have been feeling very tired lately. Unfortunately napping does not help, since I only feel worse after an attempted nap. I should probably try to get an appointment for a doctor visit next week.
Elizabelle
It is a beautiful day. Enjoy it.
The autocrats/Republicans are testing all the institutions, like velociraptors trying the doors. Climate change is a thing, not an intellectual conceit.
Rest up, because the fight will always be there, and we have to (a) stay sane and (b) win it.
We have choices on how we expend our attention. Always remember that.
Mary G
@Raoul Paste: Ditto. I have never been comfortable with so many people at once in my life, even electronically. It’s such a blessing to be able to blurt anything out and be understood even if not agreed with.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: Relatedly, …
;-)
There was lots of good news yesterday, along with the bad.
Hang in there, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
Things are better than they were last year at this time.
But the news is designed to make you feel helpless and overwhelmed.
jl
Everything’s always been falling apart. Only thing I’m worried about is man-made climate change since after things fall apart there, they will stay falling apart for a very long time, unless we do an order of magnitude more about it asap.
But I agree with Cole, except would reverse it, is all, and go the other way. Read up on the crap, first, then take some time to just forget it all. I hope he appreciates how lucky he is to have that beautiful West By God Virginia countryside, and takes time from time to time to stop, forget all his cares, and just soak it in.
Baud
@Mary G:
I understand and agree.
John Cole
@karen marie: THAT IS INDEED SUBARU FIELD
OzarkHillbilly
A little something to warm the cockles of your heart, John: $5 million fundraising attempt for Giuliani legal defense gets less than $10,000
mrmoshpotato
Minor League ballpark? :)
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: Couldn’t Ghouliani just suck all of the blood out of the prosecutors?
NotMax
Sometimes it’s just a guy with a bow.
:)
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: That got a chuckle.
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato: That’s his back up plan.
trollhattan
@John Cole:
I think I see an antenna. :-)
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
They are. But I think we’re still dealing with the reality that, while we expected things to get worse if TFG remained in power, we expected more to be accomplished than this if we re-took the Presidency and Congress.
I don’t know if you’ve ever read A Wrinkle In Time, but it’s one of my favorite books ever. The story centers around Meg Murry’s father, who has been missing for years, and suddenly Meg finds herself on a quest to rescue him.
She succeeds! She finds, rescues, and frees her father. But they’re still in a serious predicament, and her father can’t take care of everything from there, like she’d always assumed he could.
It isn’t easy for Meg to deal with that, and it isn’t easy for us to deal with the fact that winning the Presidency and Congress hasn’t fixed nearly as much as it should have.
But them’s the breaks, and we’ve got to find a way to deal with all the shit that’s going on even though we’ve got the Congress we have, not the Congress we’d hoped to have.
OzarkHillbilly
I didn’t, but I live in a state of Misery so I always expect worse.
Cermet
At least the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over!
Also, someone is developing an ultra safe nuclear power source that burns hideously radioactive waste and provides electricity and low level waste – all carbon free. And its will be much cheaper than current nuke plants (for similar size.)
We can go in a sane direction if the will is there; likely most whites males over the age of 25 want the wrong way but a better way is possible.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
It sucks, but we have historically had a problem with focusing on the short term. This is good practice to help us change our ways.
realbtl
@mrmoshpotato: No, Subaru Field. Built it and they will come. John’s heard the secret call.
John Revolta
@lowtechcyclist: I read that back in grade school and loved it. I reread it about a year ago and while I still loved it, it got a lot scarier toward the end than I remembered!
Another Scott
(via TheRealHoarse)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
Rudy can apply for a job at Four Seasons Total Landscaping: $10 an hour to start.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Stanch the bleeding before administering the curative procedures.
JPL
@Mike in NC: They’d be happy to have him, since he has already brought them a lot of publicity.
WhatsMyNym
@Jeffro:
The Prodigy
Worlds On Fire
Album released 2011.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I spent the day on a giant bus full of old people touring downtown Chicago. That probably sounds worse than it was, but I’m glad to be home.
E.
Where I live we are fresh off one heat dome and about to enter the next. Our City Council is making noises about the creek that supplies 100 percent of our water possibly going dry this year, for the first time ever. I have now lost count of how many 100+ degree days we’ve had this summer. Usually it’s two to five, and they come in the last two weeks of July. So far this year we’ve had maybe 20? Forecast for today is 106. This is a part of the world where just about nobody has cooling because we never needed it. Overnight lows are typically in the high 40s. This year? Mid 60s when we are lucky.
Then there’s the fires . . . .
It’s hard to see how this is going to get better. I want to be optimistic but the only way I can get any purchase on it is by looking the other way.
WhatsMyNym
@John Cole: But it is a beautiful field.
But Hunter Biden’s laptop and his artwork
Cole,
You took the words right out of my mouth.
By the way, amazing photograph!
A few decades ago, it would have been unthinkable to have lunatics like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Louie Gohmert, and Madsion Cawthorn serving in Congress.
Madison tries to outflank his colleagues in the Olympics of batshit craziness:
Madison Cawthorn Says Biden Comments on Door-to-Door Vaccine Outreach Means They Could Come to ‘Take Your Guns’ and Bibles
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/news/madison-cawthorn-says-biden-comments-on-door-to-door-vaccine-outreach-means-they-could-come-to-take-your-guns-and-bibles/
Meanwhile, Axios’ Mike Allen, Wash Post columnist Henry Olsen, and Ann Althouse are all praising that asshole J.D. Vance. At this rate, it wouldn’t surprise if there were a movement to draft this clown to be Trump’s running mate in 2024
https://www.axios.com/jd-vance-ohio-senate-race-8acbd970-f00c-49d8-9bd6-149f8cd1351c.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/08/jd-vance-is-scaring-americas-elite-good/
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/07/hillbilly-elegy-was-cited-by-hillary.html
Dan B
@E.: Seattle is similar. When we replaced our dying gas furnace with ductless heat pumps we laughed that we would use the cooling one day a year. It was 2009 and that summer Seattle hit 100 for the first time and then hit 103 and 100 the next week. We’ve used the AC 20 last summer and are likely to exceed that thus summer. We haven’t had rain for weeks and the sky is grey from smoke. Friends from back east wondered why you could see so far in the PNW – We see Mt. Baker, 90 air miles north but not this week.
And we probably lost the entire crop of berries – 80% of the berry crop in the US. Food may be the second failure after drought and floods wreak havoc.
JoyceH
There is a lot of ugly shit going on, sure enough. And yet, I can’t help feeling optimistic, and it’s hard to explain why. I think for one thing, we now have substantial majorities that are no longer denying that the problems are even problems. Climate change is NOT a long series of weather coincidences, police brutality is NOT a long series of isolated bad apples. Vast income inequality is NOT natural and a public good. Public opinion has taken decisive swings away from those stances just in the past couple years, and when the public swings, the polity swings, it has to. Yeah, it would have been a lot easier if these issues had been tackled years ago, but in the meantime, the technology has been advancing along with the scope of the problems.
As for the ‘weeds’ of what’s going on with this or that bill, I try to keep from getting too fretful about it. A month or more ago, I heard someone on one of the news shows, and I can’t for the life of me remember who it was, but it was someone with real knowledge of the inside workings of the federal government, and what this person said, with complete confidence, was that by the fall we’d have a major infrastructure bill and a major voting rights bill approved, but in the meantime and until it actually happens, it’s going to look like nothing is happening and everything is a total mess. Maybe I’m naive to take comfort in that, and it certainly doesn’t mean like we shouldn’t keep pressing our elected representatives, and yet – I did take comfort in that.
And the fact that I did, made me realize something else, and this is utterly, utterly Gut Feeling. You know that famous old expression that gets everyone’s eyes rolling, the one about how the president is ‘playing eleven-dimensional chess’? It struck me just recently that I am much more likely to believe that about Biden than I ever was about Obama. I’m not sure where that’s coming from, but it’s there.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Your comment is very encouraging, thank you.
Betsy
It sucks.
OT. I’m waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because I’ll be flying next week. Afraid of the deltavariant.
I’m fully vaccinated, but middle-aged, and have never had great lungs: after any cold or flu I get lots of lingering bronchitis, once even had pneumonia after the flu. Overweight. Afraid.
I keep hearing more and more stories of breakthrough cases among the vaxed. Yes, it’s true the vax prevents infections, and when they do occur it prevents symptoms, prevents the overwhelming majority of cases, prevents hospitalizations, prevents death.
But then, also, I just . don’t . want . to ever have Covid.
We don’t know what this virus does to people decades later it could slowly destroy your immune system or your nervous system. It’s weird and we don’t know that stuff yet. I just basically don’t ever want to have Covid and I’ve spent the last 15 months assiduously not getting Covid.
Now the Delta thing is infecting the vaxed — and I saw what the airports were like when I flew last month. People with their stupid noses exposed.
I could cancel my ticket and lose $600 and drive. It’s a long trip, but then I won’t have to rent a car when I get there, and I won’t have a lot of other worries.
What should I do?
Elizabelle
@Betsy: take masks with you on the plane and change them every 3 hours. That is what KLM/Delta mandated, and it was good science in the pre-vaccination period. Use hand sanitizer. Just take your mask off to eat or drink. I think just behave as for the pre-vaccination days. Happy jet trails. FWIW, it no longer seems the cabin crew is coming down infected. Maybe read up on what they do.
Morzer
Here in Seoul we should be getting the Korean version of the monsoon season (the changma), but we aren’t seeing too much rain. Instead, we are experiencing consistently high humidity combined with increasing heat. If there is a worse combination, I do not know of it. That said, I agree with the esteemed and excellent JoyceH in feeling optimistic about the future, provided we keep our shoulders to the wheel.
JoyceH
@Betsy:
How far is the trip? If the drive is doable, I’d do it.
To be honest, I haven’t flown anywhere in years. I’ll probably have to next year because I want to do some coast-to-coast traveling, but I’m dreading it, and it has nothing at all to do with a pandemic. Flying for the past few decades has just been miserable and getting more so every year. Passengers are treated like cargo and crammed in just as tightly. Tempers are frayed and people act out.
Orrr – you could drive along the highway, listening to your own music or an audio book, taking breaks when it suits you, and not breathing anyone else’s exhalation.
frosty
@Betsy: My advice is the opposite of Elizabelle’s as long as it’s a one-day drive. The savings from not renting should assuage the angst of losing the $600. Plus, rental cars are (were?) hard to find. At one point there was no guarantee they would have one for you.
Chetan Murthy
@JoyceH: Thank you for this. Esp. your first para.
It’s difficult to remember back to the 70s and 80s, when (in Texas) gay people were in the closet and fearing for their lives, the n-word was no biggie, and men talked about raping girls and women as if it was no big deal.
And as awful as climate change is and will be, at least, now we’re getting to see what extremes feel like, and maybe, just maybe, some people will demand action.
ian
@But Hunter Biden’s laptop and his artwork:
Republican’s have been claiming Democrats have been coming to take their guns and bibles for as long as I’ve been alive. That merits a big yawn in my book.
JPL
@Betsy: Wear a mask. You would probably meet more unvacced folks driving. imo
JoyceH
@Chetan Murthy:
Age grants perspective, doesn’t it? Heck, I remember when ‘boss chases secretary around desk’ was considered a topic for a comedy skit, not a lawsuit. I remember when the help wanted ads were in two sections, for men and women. When the ‘funny drunk’ was a cute character, not a public menace. When an accusation of being gay in the military got someone in front of an administrative discharge board, and guys would use that to pressure the women to sleep with them or they’d tell everyone they were lesbian.
Gvg
Bad news sells. TV newsrooms and newspapers cannot fill their time with nothing much happened, things are going along OK. There are sufficient people in this world to make something bad happen all the time to be on the news, and that’s what happens.
it seems nice today here in my town. I had a slight traffic jam coming home yesterday. Someone’s car broke down and a cop had blinkers on to direct people around. I grew up in a much larger city and learned to drive in heavier traffic than Gainesville ever sees. In those days I would not even have noticed Fridays “traffic”. When I had been here 10 years my aunt was complaining about the horrible rush hour here and I said “what traffic?” But now I have been here 30 years I notice. The point is most of the time most things are going along OK, even though we also have other things not going ok.
it didn’t rain so I mowed and edged and planted rudbeckias.
Brachiator
Kinda like most days. What is hopeful is that there are people trying to make each day a little better.
When you don’t need an answer there’ll be days like this
When you don’t meet a chancer there’ll be days like this.
When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit it.
Then I must remember there’ll be days like this
NoraLenderbee
I’d rather drive 600 miles than fly any day. Flying was never fun, and it’s gotten worse and worse.
zhena gogolia
We finally got smartphones. Big mistake. Our IT guy helped us set the whole thing up, and we were able to send and receive e-mails. I just spent the last hour trying to figure out why I can receive e-mails but not send them. My husband can send and receive, and he has the exact same phone and the exact same setup. So instead of having cocktail hour I’ve been pushing little buttons for an hour. I hate it.
NotMax
@ian
“Guns or Bibles. You get to keep one or the other. So which will it be?”
“Uhhh… [infamous iconic scene from Scanners ensues]”
//
WaterGirl
@Betsy: Safety is important, do whatever makes you feel safe.
Imagine that you fly and you get Covid. Will you have regrets? Be mad at yourself because you knew better?
Imagine that you drive and you don’t get Covid. Will you have regrets about having driven
There is no right or wrong here. There’s just what’s right for you. Listen to your quiet voice, I’m sure you’ll make a good decision.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Frustrating!
Is it possible that the configuration looks the same, but that you have a typo somewhere? A comma where a period should be?
If you are using SSL, do you have the right numbers? Maybe you transposed something?
Anotherlurker
@NoraLenderbee: I would opt for flying.
The prospect of driving from the Bay Area to NYC thru the deep red, Asshole States, scares the shit out of me. I figure a red Prius with Ca. plates would be an object of unwanted attention to the more aggressively ignorant residents.
NotMax
@Betsy
$600 is quite a bite. Might consider bringing along a bundle of disposable masks. One for inside the airport, another(s)* for the plane, yet another once landed, for destination airport.
*Quantity dependent on the length of time aloft. Changed, say, every 90 minutes or so.
Also, that individual seat air nozzle is a boon. See here for a bit more.
JoyceH
@NotMax: Showing my age, but I had a flashback to Jack Benny’s famous response to the stick-up demand “Your money or your life!” – “I’m thinking, I’m thinking!”
Mary G
@JoyceH: Thanks, I needed that. I am by nature optimistic and Pollyanna-ish, but lately everything has been just too much and I had a bad depressive swing. Got a lot of good advice and am doing better except for fear of not having water and the joyous prediction that it’ll get up to 131 degrees tomorrow in Death Valley, the highest temperature ever recorded on Planet Earth.
@John Cole: Well, if the poor Subaru had to wait and wait to be hauled out of the field, at least it got to look at all that beauty while it sat there. That much green does ick me out, probably because the only place I’ve seen it was on a Greyhound bus from St. Louis to Lebanon, Kentucky, the trip from hell.
Chetan Murthy
@Betsy: It’s hard to give advice: it all depends on the person’s risk tolerance, and the actual risks of the proposed journey.
If it were me, I’d fly it: the pandemic seems somewhat suppressed right -now-, and delta doesn’t seem so awful for the vaccinated, so I’d risk it. But I’d go buy myself a better mask — I’ve read that N99 respirators are better than N95 masks. And I’d abide by the strictest hygiene I could, including simply not taking off the mask except for water. A 600mi flight, I don’t see why I’d need to eat during. Just minimize the instances of taking off that mask.
Note: I don’t know the details of these N99 respirators (I was given the rec by Sentient AI over at LG&M, but never needed to follow-thru). But I’m sure this is an easily-researchable issue.
laura
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times – twas ever thus. When things seem so hard I shrink my focus down to a level I can handle. I’m grateful to be in our little house watching my Giants crush the Nationals and everytime the broadcast cuts to a view of the bay I’m just blown away by the beauty of sea and sky. Fresh fruit and vegetables- the labor that brought these gifts to the table. A woozle is snoozing in a soft bed, a friend has been given a life saving surgery that will keep the evil of cancer at bay for a decade and more. A young lady crushed the spelling bee and is revealed to be a wonder- an absolute wonder! Despite the trauma of tfg and a global pandemic, there is so much to be optimistic about.
debbie
Last time I felt like this was 1968.
NotMax
@JoyceH
That was 100% absolutely the inspiration behind the comment.
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
Things are better than they were last year at this time.
Just the fact that Trump is no longer president and has been banned from social media is great for my peace of mind.
For my money, Biden’s response to the pandemic is the major achievement of 2020 and 2021. Not just the vaccine rollout, a major feat in itself, but the stimulus payments and taxpayer relief, which is essential to getting the economy in back in gear. This had to be done, and it has been done well.
There is more to be done and I know that the opposition will be foolish and fierce. But we are in a good place to get things done.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Yup yup. Incremental improvement is still improvement. We’re barely six months into remediation; “Clean up on aisles 1 through 1000!”
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I don’t know what SSL is.
m.j.
Mr. Cole,
If you are in need of a calming influence and you have an Amazon account (evil, but I have one too, ugh) you can watch a show called, “Cruising the Cut.” I’ll leave it to you to find it. It’s about narrowboating in England and I find it very relaxing.
Warning. There is some very dry British wit.
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser.
Dan B
As I look at the hazy skies here I’ve been motivated to research high quality LED’s and recommend ones I’ve loved. There are some wonderful small companies that need to get the word out. We went solar, 90% electric (Seattle is ~97% renewable electricity), super air sealed and insulated so great lighting was next. I bought 2 countertop induction burners so use the gas range once every couple weeks.
I feel like we are living very comfortably and a low carbon footprint is not difficult and we would do well to invest in it so everyone can benefit.
We’re loving it, although my partner freaks when another wonderful new (sometimes pricey) LED arrives.
James E Powell
You left out the worst: Democrats are DOOMED!!!
gwangung
@NotMax: Dem and Progressives’ biggest problem is the lack of patience. They lose interest six months into a four year job, decide Dems are as bad as Republicans and fail to show at mid terms, turning a four year repair job into an eight or ten year job.
Repeat as needed.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I drove 15 hours to the Outer Banks in NC and back over the last week. I saw less than a handful of tfg signs and bumper stickers and such. Although this a.m. we drive by a huge pick up with 2 ginormous flags. One a tfg 2024 and the other a F@#%”Biden flag. Super classy!
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Do you and your husband have the same type of email accounts? Both University or both gmail? Something like that? Some email accounts require SSL, which is an extra security feature, You would know if that was set up on his phone.
If you guys have different kinds of accounts, say you have a university account and he has gmail or some other work account, that changes everything. Each email provider typically requires particular settings.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: I never answered your email! Shit. Off to find it.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
We have exactly the same type of e-mail, university accounts, that we set up with the university IT guy on Zoom working with us. When he got done with us, everything was working. We haven’t used it since, but we wanted to send some pictures to somebody. I tried to send them to myself so I could then send them from my laptop, but I never got a “message sent” thingy, and they never arrived. I also couldn’t send any test messages to myself or my husband. But he was able to send photos and messages to me. I’m receiving all the new messages but can’t send anything.
Downpuppy
I thought I was keeping up until my wife asked me about Haiti this morning. 5 articles later, I still have no idea of who Claude Joseph, Joseph Lambert, or 15 Colombian mercenary assassins represent.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: How long ago did the University guy set you guys up? Seems like it’s time to call him back.
Speaking of which, are you still working from home?
NotMax
@m.j.
Also would recommend Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery. No longer is free with Prime, for now, but is free via Hoopla or (with ads) Pluto.
Overstuffed with twee, yet charming (in discrete doses) is Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages – 3 seasons still free with Prime, AFAIK.
WaterGirl
@Downpuppy: I’m not sure anyone can keep up these days.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I’ll contact him Monday. He set us up over a week ago, but we’ve pretty much had the phones turned off since then. The puzzling part is that my husband’s works and mine doesn’t. Everything was exactly the same.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Now, if you both switch phones and the same works-for-he-but-not-for-thee situation is taking place, best have the theme from The Twilight Zone already cued up and ready to go.
dexwood
@WaterGirl: I don’t try to keep up. Mostly, I try to remember there is only so much any individual can do, that it’s ok to pull back, recharge, work on yourself.
nclurker
@Anotherlurker: come ahead thru the deep red states.
most of us are not assholes.
alot of us are,but the asshole density is lower than you think.
cheers all
stinger
@JoyceH:
Same here, and I think it’s because, for all his brilliance, Obama had 4 years experience in politics at the federal level before becoming President, while Biden had 45 years. [numbers approximate]
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I will look forward to hearing what the problem was.
WaterGirl
@dexwood: Yep, yep, yep.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
In terms of addressing climate change, the short term is about all we’ve got, as far as I can see.
Anotherlurker
@nclurker: Thanks. I know that if I stick to the interstates, I should be OK.
I guess I’m traumatized from trying to live in Fla. for 3 years.
m.j.
@NotMax:Terry Jones. I should like to watch that.
I’ve already looked at some of Penelope Keith’s tour.
Thank you.
Kathleen
@JoyceH: I know the thread is beyond dead but thank you and I have the same hunches you do. I still needed to hear that.
Kathleen
@debbie: I hear you.