SRSLY!
Even though I didn’t vote for him… Newsflash: Biden won. pic.twitter.com/lBGUhDiUaX
— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) September 24, 2021
Meanwhile in China…
A giant moon escaped the Moon Festival in Henan province on Monday morning.
Some natural satellites just can't be caged ?? pic.twitter.com/lw7Wa78GPz
— Metro (@MetroUK) September 22, 2021
Just *look* at those expressions…
The U.S. and Russian military chiefs of staff met Wednesday in Helsinki for the first time in 20 months, amid Washington's hopes for support to continue surveillance of extremists in Afghanistanhttps://t.co/0i6li9Anby
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) September 22, 2021
Virginia capital unveils monument marking end of slavery after removing Confederate statue https://t.co/vcTumeZEEh pic.twitter.com/rGLBdqfKUO
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 23, 2021
'Side-eying Chloe' Clem to sell iconic meme as NFT https://t.co/uMqxN1Ubfe
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 23, 2021
Patrick has something for all you LC fans in your famous blue raincoats. https://t.co/hQTcRHZHr4
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 22, 2021
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Cyber Ninjas conclude Biden won Maricopa County by a slightly larger margin than previously reported. LOL
I wonder if that will discourage the other states looking for recounts
Also, I really, really want to see TFG’s reaction
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Glad to hear even idiots figured that one out, but isn’t that pretty much what every one of these alleged audits has concluded?
JPL
We should come up with a new term besides sore losers for the trumpettes. I’m tired of their attempts to destroy our democracy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And it only cost a few million $s.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie: True, but the rest of them never looked for bamboo fibers. When you get to that point, anything can happen
MJS
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I expect the response to be, “See, the counts weren’t accurate, and can’t be trusted! We must audit every other state, where we’re sure to find Trump actually won!”
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Obviously, the “they got COVID-19” story was just a dodge for the lizard people replacing Cyber Ninjas’ leadership with look-alikes.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
NPR just reported that there will be a presentation in the AZ Senate which will cast doubt in other areas of the election. This should be interesting.
NotMax
As the Tonys will be broadcast on Sunday, a little info for any interested.
How/When/Where to Watch the 2020 Tony Awards
The aftershow (plus three awards included within) has way too many talented names confirmed to list here.
The original production numbers are generally very good, sometimes spectacular. With the whole megillah having been cancelled last year am expecting pent-up enthusiasm to blow the doors off the place.
Kay
@MJS:
They’ll say the counts don’t matter because the votes were fraudulently cast.
What we learned with the voter ID laws is that “ballot security” doesn’t matter at all – voter fraud was an imaginary problem so real fixes can’t cure it. State after state passed voter ID laws and the claims of fraud have gone dramatically up, not down.
Voter impersonation fraud- the kind of fraud voter ID laws were meant to cure- was almost wholly invented so it’s impervious to being “fixed”. The audits won’t change a single mind.
NotMax
Augh! Bad linky above. Fix.
As the Tonys will be broadcast on Sunday, a little info for any interested.
How/When/Where to Watch the 2020 Tony Awards
The aftershow (plus three Tonys awrded within) has way too many talented names confirmed to list here.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
The Six Million Dollar Scam.
OzarkHillbilly
Canary Islands ‘miracle home’ stands alone against volcano’s lava flow
Reminds me of a house a buddy of mine built in the STL suburb of Sunset Hills. A few years back that neighborhood was devastated by a tornado. Knocked down, blew up every single house in it’s path… Except for the house that Henry built. He liked to say the house was so well built the tornado bounced right off it. Loudly and often.
Gremcat
No this wont stop the other states from demanding a recount. Texas has agreed to do a recount because TFFG is demanding one. At the tax payers expense even. Only the largest counties are going to be audited. I guess to prove that the asshole won by more than 7 million votes and that will prove he won the popular vote as well.
Kay
Ask Republicans why the voter ID laws didn’t assauge their fears about voter fraud. We were told we needed voter ID laws because the GOP base didn’t trust voters. Their fraud claims have increased 100-fold, to the extent that they now deny the validity of every election. Now they’re planning on layering audits on top of voter ID laws and the claim is THAT will convince the GOP base? Why would that work when the voter ID laws didn’t work? How long and to what extent are we supposed to coddle these people and respond to their conspiracy theories? How much will we spend and how many normal people will be inconvenienced before a grown up tells them “no” ?
WereBear
@NotMax: Perfect!
Any of us who are wingnut adjacent, or lived through the W administration, or even suffered under an abusive authority figure… essentially any contact with the constricted paranoia of the Authoritarian makes these kinds of Control Theater so damnably familiar.
The moved goalposts, gaslighting, and making us fear their tantrums so we’ll cooperate… it’s something over a century of developing therapy pulls down the whole curtain on.
Like Toto uncovering the Wizard of Oz.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
That video from China
?????
rikyrah
@Kay:
Tell it, Kay ??????
hueyplong
@Gremcat: More likely they’re going to claim that the Texas cities are hotbeds of “fraud” and must therefore be subjected to rigorous voter suppression.
[“fraud” is shorthand for the existence of more Democratic voters than Republican ones in the particular area in question. This can, of course, only be true if the place is awash in illegal aliens or Negroes voting three times each, etc. GOP voters will not be replaced.]
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Baud
The absence of evidence is the most damning evidence of all.
Steeplejack
Anybody want to weigh in on tooth implants? I’m scheduled to have an abscessed tooth extracted in a couple of weeks—#20, one of my favorites, a beautiful bicuspid on the lower left side—with an implant and cap to be installed in the (surprisingly distant) future. I’m committed to the implant, because the alternatives are to leave a gap or to have a bridge installed, which would involve construction on the neighboring teeth. I guess I’m asking for tips, tricks, war stories and general advice. Please keep the horror stories within reason!
Okay, I’ve got my coffee working and a couple of pieces of Trader Joe’s rugelach at hand. I guess I’m ready to face the Morning Joe opener.
debbie
@Kay:
Make them pay with their own money instead of wasting taxpayers’ funds. That would work.
Steeplejack
Just laughed at the “deer in the headlights” picture of Kash Patel accompanying the story about the January 6 committee subpoenas. Which reminds me: do we have enough Trump miscreants to fill out a deck of cards à la the Iraq war?
P.S. I want to see Patel go down hard. He was a weasely weasel who mostly stayed under the radar.
ETA: Damn it! I just gave away my Kickstarter project.
OzarkHillbilly
They’re gonna go far.
Kay
@debbie:
It would work and it’s easy to do. Anything past an ordinary audit that is triggered by a close race is “loser pays”. Let them bleed their idiot donors rather than the broader public.
Geminid
@Kay: I also worry about an army of bad-faith, disruptive poll watchers on Election Day, paid with dark money.
rikyrah
???
Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) tweeted at 3:46 AM on Wed, Sep 22, 2021:
The video that everyone is talking about in #Rome this week: a dozen wild boar walking calmly through traffic on Via Trionfale. #cinghiali https://t.co/ZrLfK49lOZ
(https://twitter.com/wantedinrome/status/1440598433966948355?s=03)
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Are they offered in a variety of decorator colors?
Basic white is so mundane.
:)
Geminid
@rikyrah: During the first months of Covid curfews in Israel last year, wild boar showed up on the streets of their cities. Jackals also.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Keeping it subtle.
Kay
@Geminid:
States can tighten that up by making them “enter” (a written entry that goes to the common pleas court in the jurisdiction) and take an oath. They made a lot of noise about mobbing polling places and bothering normal people in Ohio but putting just a few requirements into place peeled off most of them- if they’re entered at the polling place they can be held accountable if they harrass people, so that scared them off. You also need a strong pollworker team who won’t put up with any nonsense. Polling place rules are strict- enforce them. I have walked out to the parking lot and called the Bd of Elections (the career employees) to report GOP pollworkers who were adding voter ID requirements that don’t exist. They have to follow the rules exactly, can’t be demanding another ID because they don’t like the look of someone, they can’t use their discretion because that’s when bias comes in.
marklar
@Geminid:
That would never happen here. The jackals I’ve seen here may be wild, but they never bore.
Another Scott
@Geminid:
Cheers,
Scott.
Butter Emails!
@Gremcat:
Curious that it’s always the most populous counties getting audited. I mean, if Democrats were going to cheat, why not add a few votes to each of the more numerous but smaller counties? Make them go 65:35 In favor of Republicans instead of 68:32. 6 pt swing, no need for a truckload of fraudulent ballots to show up in the dead of night in Houston.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: I had #18 extracted and replaced with an implant I’m guessing 5-6 years ago. Surprisingly uneventful procedure, which I barely remember at this point. The dental surgeon said I needed some bone grafted/implanted to build up the base, which he did, that led to a fairly lengthy interval between procedures. It’s all pretty expensive, but I had good dental insurance at the time which covered half the cost. I elected to take the nitrous oxide for the extraction and had to pay out of pocket for that, but it wasn’t much. First couple of days were a little uncomfortable, but really nothing compared to the pain that tooth was giving me before.
Like you, I didn’t want to leave a gap or go for a bridge, and I have been very happy with the outcome.
Nicole
@rikyrah: That video is amazing. If I were a driver I’d carefully just drive around them, too. Wild boars are tough and they really don’t care.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: I had a molar replaced years ago and couldn’t be happier about my decision. It prevents bone loss under the bridge, too, because it picks up the pressure like a normal tooth, so it’s a more natural experience for the body to adjust to.
Also easier to take care of.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
So not gonna flaunt your hipster cred by going…
…bluetooth?
:)
Ksmiami
Obligatory: Fuuuuuuuck Joe Manchin
NotMax
@rikyrah
Street signs going up announcing “No Porking Zone?”
:)
sab
@Baud: There is evidence. They undercounted the Biden votes!
Kay
@Geminid:
When voter ID first went in in Ohio there was a “catch all” at the end of the requirements that said “government document”. OMFG, I thought I would have a nervous breakdown, the way GOP pollworkers were working so hard to exclude “government documents”. Our fights were around automobile registrations, which they were trying to tell me were not a government document. Those are convenient for people who didn’t know the ID requirements went in because they drove to the polling place so the have it. It’s really two fundamentally different approaches to voting- my goal is to help them vote, their goal is to find a way to say “no”. I felt they really relished saying “no” – that they were thrilled to boss people around and reject them.
Bunter
@Steeplejack: They’re fine, easy and painless. At least for me, there were no issues that weren’t creates by my waiting a stupidly long time from extraction to implant. And by stupidly I mean years, though to be fair I was either out of work or so severely underpaid that dental work wasn’t an option. But the actual procedures were very easy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: I watched an interesting cell phone encounter this week. I was walking down the hall behind an old guy with a cane. He was talking very loudly on his cell, and he says, “I am driving in my car and cannot take your call.”
At that point, he turned down a different hall, so that was all I got. Life is a mystery.
WereBear
Indeed, it is what they live for.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
I’d worry a bit if he signaled prior to turning.
:)
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks for the feedback. My oral surgeon is going to put some Bondo-type stuff in there to build up the damaged bone, so the implant won’t be installed until February (which surprised me). Then there’s another three-month wait until my regular dentist puts on the final cap.
Fortunately I have had almost no pain, so I was able to hold off on getting this done until I figured all parties involved would be vaccinated, which they are. I think that I, too, will opt to take the nitrous oxide (which was offered as an option). Feels like a bit of a luxury, but I still have PTSD from my last big mouth project (broken jaw and sequelae).
Soprano2
I wish this would go from your mouth to the ears of reporters. I keep harping on this because what’s reported sets the narrative about the subject, and right now the narrative is “States need voter ID laws to make sure only legitimate voters actually vote”. Republicans have been pretty successful at selling that narrative, because on its face it sounds reasonable. Reporters need to press Republicans about why, in spite of tightened voter ID laws that they passed, they are still saying without evidence that there is fraud. Why didn’t the ID law fix the “problem”? Show that they cannot justify what they are asking for, so the voters know that. Of course, we all know the truth that reporters dare not say – their true objection is that non-white people are voting at all! That’s why all the allegations are in counties with big cities, and why they never believe there is fraud in majority white counties.
Ken
@Baud: Shows how deep the conspiracy runs.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
?
Geminid
@Kay: I think Democrats will be ready to combat Republican disrupters at the polls next year. They will have to be. I see the radicals taking over local and congressional district Republican commitees, and they will send aggressive observers who will try to stymie balloting.
Politico Magazine has long article today on Shannon Burns, Strongsville Ohio’ GOP Chairman. It’s mainly about how Burns has trumpified the local party. It has enough details of Burns’ biography to show that while he might not be a criminal, Burns is definitely a crook. “Scammin’ Shannon,” another Republican called him.
Denali
@Steeplejack:
Have two implants, and have been very satisfied with the outcome. It is a lengthy process, and I hope your dental insurance will cover at least part of the expense. I feel it was well worth it.
gvg
@Steeplejack:
I have one and I wish I could afford several more. There is pain, like with all major dental but hydrocodine worked for me. I cut back the dose gradually using my own judgement. Basically when it made me dizzy instead of just killing the pain and making me sleepy, it was time to cut the pill in half, then take it less, then stop.
I hate my teeth. Last summer 3 in a row got infected. Not just cavities, but multiple courses of antibiotics. Still paying too. Dental insurance is….so insufficient.
Kay
@WereBear:
“Common law” names. People use different combinations of their names. So they will have a period where they use their middle name and then on another document they will drop it, or use an initial. This happens a lot. Then there are the people who use an initial for first name they don’t like, but not consistently. These are all reasons people can’t vote to GOP pollworkers. The language in the statute is “substantially similiar”. Try that on them. You’ll have a stroke.
Soprano2
@Steeplejack: My husband had an implant, and as far as I know he didn’t have any problem with it. He had to have one to anchor a new bridge to, because they tooth they had been using had deteriorated a lot. There is a significant amount of time between the prep work and the actual implant, because they have to wait for it to heal.
Peale
@Soprano2: outside of the big cities, time has stood still. Everyone knows their neighbors. Why the poll worker might be Aunt Bee herself. Everyone knows each other, so no need for ID. It’s lke one big Amish barn raising 24/7 out there. I found this out one time I took a trip to a roadside diner in North Texas and interviewed a bunch of GOP officials pretending to be independent voters.
Soprano2
@Kay: Heck, sometimes when I sign my name I use my middle initial, sometimes I don’t. I think on my driver’s license I actually spelled out all three names, which I normally never do. Now I have to remember to put “TTEE” at the end of my signature on anything I sign for my mother’s trust. They know that people do this, but I’m sure they enjoy using it to try to deny people who they don’t like the right to vote.
Cermet
@Steeplejack: First off, can an impact be done? If towards the back of the mouth, upper jaw, affecting the sinus areas can be an issue preventing an implant. In which case your choice is bridge or gap. In any case, an expensive fix, unfortunately.
Chief Oshkosh
I wonder what those two guys think they’re going to do if they ever catch up with that Moon rolling down the street…
Soprano2
@Peale: I know all about that, I grew up in a place like that! Population less than 1,000, 30 people in my graduating class.
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack: I have an implant, a bicuspid in my lower jaw. It was definitely a drawn-out, multi-step procedure–it took longer than getting a knee replacement. The operations themselves were all done under a local and were completely painless (modern dental anesthesia is amazing) but there was recovery pain, which was manageable mostly with Tylenol and Advil. I had prescriptions for Vicodin and for Tylenol with codeine, but I only ever used one of the latter and decided I preferred sticking to the OTC stuff.
It was entirely worth it. The implant works basically like a regular tooth. I don’t think about it 99% of the time.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: As I recall, there was something in the Texas ID law that required married women to use their birth name as their middle name. Obviously a lot of women don’t do that
Steeplejack
Thanks, all, for the implant feedback. I wasn’t anticipating problems, but I had a vague memory of people here trading big horror stories.
Kay
@Soprano2:
A LOT of people do it, but you can’t leave anything up to discretion with people who are primed to exclude voters. You can’t give them a word like “substantially”.
Steeplejack
@Cermet:
Yes, an implant can be done, and it is already scheduled for October 5. Good old #20 is on the bottom, so the sinus thing shouldn’t be a concern.
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack:
That’s how it goes. They need to fill up the empty tooth socket with your bone so they can then essentially make a screw hole to put in a titanium socket. The stuff they put in the hole (which I think involves ground human bone) is to stimulate that to happen. But there’s nothing to do but wait while the bone grows in.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Back when can remember routinely encountering more than a smattering people with gold teeth. Not uncommonly with a design (usually a star) etched on them.
I guess one could say that modern implants have taken us off the gold standard.
Cameron
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Reminds me of the time I had somebody on the phone who wouldn’t get off and who I didn’t want to offend. I said, “Uh-oh, somebody’s knocking on the door,” which I then proceeded to do.
Auntie Anne
@Steeplejack: I have three implants and am delighted with them. I also opted for full sedation, being the World’s Greatest Dental Chicken. They are expensive, but feel just like real teeth.
As others have said, it’s a long process, especially with grafting involved (2 of my 3). My first got infected, which was easily handled by a round of antibiotics. The infection wasn’t painful – there was just this odd taste in my mouth.
None of the procedures were especially painful – prescription ibuprofen was all I needed. There’s a day or two of adjustment between your temporary cap and permanent one. No pain involved, though. I was just aware my bite was different.
Cermet
@Matt McIrvin: My implant certainly didn’t need to do that; the bone grew back just fine after the tooth removal (and waiting a few months) and I’m no spring chicken. I had zero pain after the local wore off. Tender for a few days and had to work hard for the wound to keep clean/uninfected. That, at least for me, was the real issue.
OzarkHillbilly
You’d think dentists would push to fix this hole in US healthcare.
Chief Oshkosh
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep. I think Florida has something similar PLUS at some point you have to provide a birth certificate and marriage certificate(s) to show exactly when where how your name changed over the years. Total bullshit.
prostratedragon
@rikyrah: Mmmmm, guanciale! Pappardelle al Sugo di Cinghiale!
(ETA: Actually they’re rather cute, aren’t they?)
Betty Cracker
From the article linked by the Reuters tweet in the OP on the statue unveiling in Richmond:
The relative clause in the first sentence made me smile. You probably wouldn’t have seen the Confederacy described that way in a mainstream news outlet targeting American audiences even a few years ago. No wonder the neo-Confederates are so angry and panicked.
Cermet
@OzarkHillbilly: They make far too much money to really care; so, no motivation esp. since like medical schools, between the cost of the training and limited enrollment, no incentive for real competition for them to worry about limited business .
JoyceH
I can’t help but wonder if the recount might have “discovered” a different outcome if the Justice Department hadn’t issued that letter about how they’re watching what’s going on with recounts. They might have decided that the fiction they were planning was just too risky.
dman
@MJS:
BINGO!!
Betty Cracker
@Chief Oshkosh: I don’t think FL requires married women to use their birth last name as their middle name, but I can confirm that several years back, they started requiring women to account for every name change from birth certificate to the present as a condition for license renewal.
That said, I know this predated Trump and the current fever pitch of voter fraud fraud because it affected my mom, who died in 2014. She had to produce the paperwork the last time she got her license renewed and was PISSED since she had to dig up documentation for a couple of ex-husbands. ;-)
OzarkHillbilly
@Cermet: In my experience, greed knows no bounds. Enough is never enough.
eclare
@Cermet: I had my right upper last molar replaced with an implant over ten years ago. No issues. No one even mentioned potential sinus issues.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s like “Butchie” Doe in Beantown.
[Butchie was a gangster, survived multiple attempts on his life — shootings, stabbing. He ended up dying of cancer.]
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That would be fine if Social Security guy had agreed, but he just bulled ahead without asking, and I ended up with my original middle name still being my middle name. Not what I had intended, but not a big deal.
Steeplejack
@Auntie Anne:
I’m not too worried about the pain. I’m pretty stoic, and I think that I have a relatively high pain threshold. As a kid in the ’60s I suffered through several years of braces, which now seems akin to medieval barbering, and about a dozen years ago I had a compound jaw fracture that led to a lot of complicated stuff. This should be a walk in the park.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m not so sanguine – they’re going to start ratfucking future elections, and will use this “finding” to bolster credibility.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Which in certain circumstances would mean ending up with a name such as Mary Smith Smith.
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Like I need more reasons to NOT live in Texas.
Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker: this is probably them going overboard on the getting ready for Real ID and patriot act inspired terrorism laws about states having to “know” who is who. Some probably took it as an opportunity to make it as hard as possible so they could wring out some potential voters for their trouble.
lowtechcyclist
I see plenty of our fellow jackals already have, but I’ll add my voice to the consensus. I had my upper left eyetooth replaced by an implant ~20 years ago, and it’s doing fine.
As others have mentioned, it’s a bit of a process – I remember its being about a year from removal of the bad tooth to the placement of the permanent implant.
Main thing, once you finally have the implant, is to faithfully floss around it every day. The rest of your mouth doesn’t need flossing nearly as often as your dentist likely tells you, but the implant does. And make sure you get in there good and deep with the floss from both sides. It still only takes a few seconds each time, so it’s no big deal, but it’s important to do it.
Wapiti
@Steeplejack: One thing about an implant is that you need to maintain good oral hygiene after it’s in place. At the beginning of Covid I basically gave up flossing for about 6 month and my dentist noted the gums receding around my one implant. She counselled me to take better care. With daily flossing and using a sonicare toothbrush I was able to get the gums back up to snuff at my next checkup.
(and I see lowtechcyclist got there first. I’ll leave my comment up as repetition sticks.)
rikyrah
Reuters (@Reuters) tweeted at 7:35 AM on Fri, Sep 24, 2021:
Some Republicans vying to run the secretary of state offices that oversee elections in U.S. swing states embrace former President Donald Trump’s false claims that he lost a ‘rigged’ election https://t.co/b8gKKKvw6W 1/8
(https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1441380727350722571?s=03)
Steeplejack
@lowtechcyclist, @Wapiti:
I am a reliable flosser, but thanks for the reminder.
lowtechcyclist
@Wapiti: And since we’re talking about dental floss…
Frank Zappa “Montana” (1973) – YouTube
PPCLI
Let’s not take a victory lap prematurely. These people may be ridiculous but they do have a relentless goniff’s cunning.
Perhaps they realized that there was no way to jigger things to claim that Trump won without engaging in fraud at a level that was sure to be detected. And since claiming Trump won would trigger a fine-toothed-comb examination that could give them serious legal exposure, they settled on a “The Producers” strategy. “Who’s going to audit us if we acknowledge Biden won?”
Then they can litter their report with flatly false crap about fraudulent ballots etc., which they will trumpet at their press conference, and the right-wing noise machine will repeat at high volume 24/7.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: The GOP trying to fix elections or are they terrified The Base is about to capitulate and drop out of politics?
bbleh
@rikyrah: what I want to know about that vid from China is, what do the guys running after it think they’re gonna do if/when they catch it?
prostratedragon
Another moon escaped yesterday, in Hong Kong. You just can’t keep a good moon down. Actually, is this where the idea for Rover in The Prisoner came from?
@NotMax: Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt.
zhena gogolia
Does anyone else have a strange font change in BJ?
Soprano2
A tale of two credit card cancellations. With Discover Card, it was easy to reach someone who could cancel the card. They were courteous and efficient, and it was pretty much hassle-free. Chase, OTOH, was terrible. It was one of those automated menus that assumes you want to use the automated services. It wouldn’t even recognize the last 4 digits of the card number! It took me calling it twice and probably 10 minutes to even get a person, then they had to transfer me to another person. Once I got someone, they were actually pretty efficient. He told me they have a number to call specifically for this. I said how was I to know that, I just called the number on the back of the card. What I’ve learned is that you’re lucky if they give you one phone number to call, because they really really really don’t want you to talk to a person. I’ve got three more cards to call about, fun stuff.
Steeplejack
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Not me. Same dismal sans-serif font on my phone. In Firefox on my computer I have the default text font explicitly set to Georgia, so I wouldn’t expect to see a change—which I haven’t.
Geminid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: According to Wason Center polling, the portion of registered Virginia voters saying they are Republican declined from 31% in December 2019 to 25% in February 2021. If these numbers are accurate, that’s an almost 20% drop. I suspect that many of these defectors are members of the party’s former base of moderately conservative voters. They are repelled by the party’s new base of bible thumpers and tea party cranks.
WereBear
They have outsourced customer service to us, the customer. It’s devilishly cunning, isn’t it?
It took me an hour to straighten out a recent credit card issue, which was entirely their screw-up. They have charged the wrong amount, and I have that card set to pay off the balance each month. So the payment was rejected by my bank, which charged me a late/overdraft fee from both places, and it took five phone calls and two chats.
Part of it is that they ruthlessly stick to their script. So the first ten minutes of every call was me getting to the part where they realize they are the wrong department. And since they don’t announce what department they are in, ever, I can’t correct them with my firmest voice, either.
Just a dystopian nightmare. Too insane for my previous metric for sf-horror, John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up.
Kristine
@Kay:
I really believe this is the end all and be all for many of these folks. Pathetic.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2: A couple of years ago I found a service that looked up human contact numbers for many companies. Can’t find that exact site just now, but perhaps this directory site will help:
Elizabelle
Biden speaking now. Getting after the unvaccinated. 25% of Americans have received no vaccine.
Speaking of the danger they pose to us, physically and economically.
ETA: 92% of active duty military are vaccinated. 97% of United employees.
Reiterates: “Do the right thing.” But: he is speaking to a significant segment of that 25% who will not ever do the right thing. That said, there are reachable people. I guess they need to have a loved one on a ventilator before the pandemic becomes real for them.
Not Biden, me: Fuck the GOP, the antivaxxers, rightwing media, everyone who is prolonging this pandemic. Fuck em all.
sab
OT. I want that adopted cat that brings money home ( Ad on BJ that leads to interminal story with ad clicks and no end) . My newest cat just hugs my arm, tastes me and then chomps. I thought the tasting was friendly licks like a dog. But no, it is tasting, because he always chomps after the licks. Time to swab my arms in vinegar.
Elizabelle
He’s taking questions. First Q is about the Haitians at the border. Do you take responsibility for the chaos that unfolded?
germy
I left this in a thread below, but here it is again:
They made a movie about Louis Wain!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzDr_tbL-es
Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role. Good casting.
germy
Kamala Harris will be on The View today.
Sunny Hostin is anxious to ask her about the Haitian refugees. (Sunny’s in-laws are Haitian)
Elizabelle
Peter Alexander lecturing about Afghanistan debacle. Chiding for Biden coming in on a pledge of competence and unity. Even his own party members won’t go along with some of his ideas …
Fuck him. Not up for all this GOP framing. Might have to leave this press conference with the DC press corpse.
Biden is doing great answering, pretty much over the press corpse’s head.
germy
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
That is just great.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Absolutely. And, MONEY UP FRONT before anything is recounted.
rikyrah
@Kay:
That is the essence of who they are, Kay.
Steeplejack
@germy:
LOL, that’s the picture they used on Morning Joe earlier.
germy
sab
@Elizabelle: His co-worker Richard Engle just lost his reason for being and eventually probably his job as a professional forever-war-correspondant.
I don’t remember anyone much concerned with Afghan peasants being randomly bombed because their lives aren’t hard enough already.
Richard Engle went to Stanford. I am sure that if he applies himself he can get another job, possibly even in journalism.
Ken
It wasn’t originally a balloon (as you may know), info here.
Elizabelle
LOL. Biden just said “I come from the corporate state of America” while answering a question about having the rich pay their share.
germy
Hope vs. Susan
Elizabelle
@sab:
Richard Engle is clinical. And what a surprise. He works for NBC.
The Moar You Know
@WereBear: Total Eclipse wasn’t depressing enough for you?
Another Scott
@Geminid: The political places are screaming about a new Cook story (behind a paywall) saying that Virginia’s governor’s race is a “toss up” because of the drop in Biden’s national polling, etc.
PoliticalWire:
Lots of weasel-words there. “Fundaments favor him, and he has lots of advantages, but ‘seems’ and ‘hopes’ and …” :-/
If lawn signs could vote, TerryMac should be worried. But they can’t.
Still, we can’t take anything for granted. Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@Ken: Knew that it wasn’t, but not how elaborately wrong the original idea was. What they settled on is much better –as I recall the island was supposed to have no sharp instruments readily available (including minds). As for the rest, I guess sometimes life imitates art.
rikyrah
@Steeplejack:
UH HUH
UH HUH
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
TELL IT
Miss Bianca
@Steeplejack: I was in a bike accident 30 years ago and lost seven teeth in my lower jaw, among other injuries. I’ve had implants for…oh…28 or 29 of those years and had no problems with them. Waaayy better than a bridge, although I had to fight my insurance company/ies like hell to get them. They were “experimental” or something back then. Go for it!
sab
My husband has pulled the ” you must support my kids whatever they do” crap on me for the last time over twenty years. One of his kids has a serious personality disorder. I will support her in public, but I will not let her dictate our behavior at home in the privacy of our house ( she lives elsewhere.) These kids are all almost forty. If they are worrying about what Dad thinks then the whole set of relationships are seriously unhealthy. Normal kids move on. Dad gets a normal empty nest life.
Faithfulness and loyalty has now become willing subjugation to gaslighting. I was married before. I am fed up.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Miss Bianca:
Thanks! Good to get all the positive feedback here.
Steeplejack (phone)
@sab:
Sounds tough. Stay strong!
laura
@Steeplejack: go for it- keep as many toofs in your head as possible.
Jeffro
Hmmm…looks like my mom has joined the ranks of the trumpie crazies for good…she’s got a post up on FB that is basically
Sigh. Sorry mom, but blowing off 1/6 is my personal ‘red line’, so you are UNFOLLOWED. (oh no! =)
And here I was hoping that just one member of my family was going to stay semi-sane. Oh well, looking forward to donating my eventual inheritance to a variety of progressive groups and charities!
Mo Salad
@Steeplejack: I am in the same boat. Lower left #17, pulled about 2 months ago. All I can add is make sure to build up your HSA / FSA balance ahead of time.
2liberal
I’ve got several. They’re expensive and are food traps, you gotta do a lot of flossing to get rid of some food scraps. I’d recommend them if you don’t want to have an empty spot. I had a bridge done about 40 years ago and it was a disaster, it cost me another tooth.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mo Salad, @2liberal:
Thanks for the input.
Steeplejack (phone)
@laura:
Thanks. I’m trying!
Starfish
@Miss Bianca: That is a lot of teeth! I am trying to figure how to shift you into the “Colorado bicycle stunt person” category that I have for so many people here.
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker: Yep, same with my mom, though the last “ex-husband” was because he’d died. Going through that fucking pointless process for all the fuckhead Republicans on that round put her through a whole other level of grief. We finally convinced her to move to a blue-purple state to live near one of my siblings.
Origuy
@Steeplejack: I had an implant on a front upper tooth about 10 years ago. That tooth had been broken when I was a kid and had a crown on it. Eventually I had to have a root canal. The second time it broke at the gumline, so there was no way to put on a crown. It has worked well for me. Sometimes they do fail. I occasionally get transferred pain from a sinus running near it. My dentist recommended having a mouth guard made as I grind my teeth sometimes at night. She said people with implants should always have them. The bespoke ones fit much better than the $20 ones from the drugstore.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Origuy:
I have one of the cheap mouth guards that I use occasionally not because I grind my teeth but because my bite is a little off since my jaw was broken. My jaw muscles get tired because my teeth never come to rest, and the guard helps with that. It’s like a shim.
J R in WV
I got a custom mouthguard a couple of months ago, NOT cheap. It’s really hard transparent plastic, acrylic or something like that. My dentist is really good, spent a lot of time adjusting it, two followup appointments for more adjustments. We’ve been seeing him for at least 30 years now — painless dental care!
But I hate it. I’m really disappointed by its rigidity and hardness. But dentist insists that it’s rigid for reasons… he refers to it as a splint. So now it sits on the bathroom counter as a trophy to spending money on a useless dental appliance. I got it because many crowns (not cheap themselves, thank Dog for my insurance!) have been ground down over the past presidential term and two election 1cycles.
Wife has an implant, yes it took a while, now it appears to be doing really well in her mouth…
Steeplejack (phone)
@J R in WV:
Maybe one of the cheap ones is all you need.
sab
@J R in WV: I got Invisiligners about a year ago. The process seems neverending. But I do have some nice plastic trays to gnaw on. In perpetuity apparently. And they are soft and flexible. I tend to chomp on them, which irritates spouse and dog. I am curious about what the mythical end of process retainer will be like.
sab
@Miss Bianca: My husband loves his implants.