Looks like we can use an open thread!
I’ll take this opportunity to let everyone know that BGinChi will be back on Sundays with new Medium Cool posts, starting next week. So look for the first Medium Cool on Sunday, 10/3.
We haven’t quite decided on a time yet, but it may be a bit later than before. Maybe sometime around 7 pm Eastern.
Totally open thread.
Baud
Looking forward to the new season.
NotMax
Had all but given up finger crossing it would be renewed for a new season.
;)
Sure Lurkalot
I’m in agreement with both Baud and NotMax!
debbie
@Sure Lurkalot:
Thirded!
Betty
It’s nearly October? How?
WaterGirl
Can somebody give me a number between 1-10? (inclusive)
Steeplejack (phone)
@Betty:
Tide comes in, tide goes out. You can’t explain that.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
5.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
15.
tam1MI
Any news about the Molly the dog?
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): That gave me a laugh, until I remembered who said it. I could go all
weekyear without thinking of him.PsiFighter37
German elections are tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the SPD and Greens can pull off enough votes without having to ask the FDP to be in a coalition.
WaterGirl
@debbie: You’re so good – how did you know I was going to ask for a number between 1-15 next? Are you
psychoticpsychic?WaterGirl
@PsiFighter37: Are the Greens awful in Germany also?
WaterGirl
Okay, now a number between 1-35, please. (inclusive)
I promise this will be the last number.
WaterGirl
@tam1MI: Last I heard Molly still needed a home.
debbie
@WaterGirl
I’m looking back at you from the future as we speak.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Gee, I hope I look okay. I’m already in my PJs and I haven’t combed my hair.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
00100011
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: My mac thinks that’s a dial-able number.
Richard Guhl
π
WaterGirl
@Richard Guhl: Fine print: integers only.
jl
Just looked at the thread below on covid vaccine hesitancy, though most of it seems to be a bunch of ignorant jackasses who proudly endanger themselves and others, and bully people in a passive-aggressive way, who might see reason.
Inhaling nebulized hydrogen peroxide is pretty close to shooting bleach into your lungs. Close enough to count, IMHO. The all-American ingenuity of the Trumpsters and anti-vaxxers is inspiring. Only Trump could fix it!
Steeplejack (phone)
On the Politico question (thread with good comments):
Good take:
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone):
Truth.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
26.
Elizabelle
I have the sweetest rescue pup overnighting. Gretel. A black lab mix, maybe 8 months old. Started the day in Alabama. Will be in New Jersey tomorrow to find her forever home. She was a little apprehensive about being separated from her brother, Hansel, but is playing, exploring, and was a little chowhound at dinner. She’ll ride w Hansel again tomorrow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
42, the answer is always 42.
tam1MI
@WaterGirl: I live in Michigan, so escalating her story on my Facebook page won’t do any good. I’m thinking of putting her story on a message board I hang out on, maybe someone there will step up.
Elizabelle
8, in honor of good dog Gretel.
Jackie
Ken
@Betty: Halloween candy’s been in the stores since late August, and people in my neighborhood have been decorating their yards for a week now. It’s terrible how Halloween has crowded out Elephant Appreciation Day.
Jackie
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): Thank you.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
You guys might find this funny. Parler was sponsoring JJ Yaley’s car in the NASCAR Xfinity series tonight at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race and he wrecked out in the first stage LOL
Ken
@WaterGirl: 2π
Ken
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Everything Trump touches dies, even at third- or fourth-hand.
Starboard Tack
Because I’m an alta cocka, I got my Pfizer booster today. I had some reservations about getting a third dose when so many who want it can’t get the first. But I figured that dose wasn’t going to be sent anyplace vaccine deprived if I refused it. I’m prophylactically treating the side effects with rye whisky, dark chocolate and black raspberry ice cream.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: 42 isn’t mysterious. 6174 is mysterious.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
@jl: These reich wing idiots love anything termed ‘tactical’; tactical knives, tactical clothing, tactical flashlights(!), tactical sunglasses(???) so let’s just rebrand the covid vaccines ‘tactical intra-body interventions’ and maybe wrap the syringes in camo tape. Oh, and get Tom Selleck to do the ads.???
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
How have you been lately?
WaterGirl
@Starboard Tack: When I tended bar years ago, there was an older guy who swore by drinking a pint of rye when he felt he was coming down with something.
He would go home, run the hottest bath possible, get in the tub with his pint of rye whiskey, and drink it until the water got cold.
He swore by that remedy.
SpaceUnit
@Ken: Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays, and I’m old enough that it shouldn’t be. Go figure.
Also, it’s Saturday night and I’m commenting on BJ. Shoot me.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Elizabelle:
Are they going to be homed together?
Starboard Tack
@WaterGirl: I don’t know if the whiskey will prevent side effects, but I’m thinking I won’t care.
MomSense
I have a date with my dad next Sunday at a beer garden for Oktoberfest. He hasn’t seen the kids’ band play so we are going to go see them together. My stepmom will be out of town so it will be a father daughter outing. I think we will be back at his place by about 8 so maybe I’ll catch the end of the medium cool.
SpaceUnit
@WaterGirl: A pint of rye? Holy crap. I suppose there’s a logic to it tho. It’s like chemo. Scorched-earth medicine.
mali muso
Last night of single parenting duty after the spousal unit has been back in Africa visiting the fam for two weeks (first time since he had to abort his March 2020 trip). I think I did a pretty good job of holding down the fort. But a shot of whisky or bourbon would not come amiss. Four year olds are no joke.
Steeplejack (phone)
Aaron Rupar’s report on Trump’s rally, with video snippets.
Starboard Tack
@mali muso: Works even better if you give it to the kids.
jl
@p.a.: It was sad to hear that doctor talking about locals who snuck into his office to get immunized on the sly so they wouldn’t be bullied and ostracized.
I hope the llama nabs work out. If they do, we should put up monuments around the world to Tyson, Fifi, Wally, and Winter.
In the meantime, maybe someone could meme out the notion to the Trumpster dupes, nutcases, and cranks that having a camel spit in your face is a good prophylactic. Better than breathing hydrogen peroxide mist, so maybe it wouldn’t be unethical.
mali muso
@Starboard Tack: LOL! Now I see where I messed up.
Jackie
@Steeplejack (phone): Faux not showing it and Trump endorsing Stacey over Kemp! What’s the world coming to?
debbie
@Steeplejack (phone):
I do like “obliterizing.”
Brachiator
@Steeplejack (phone):
Trump is still having rallies?
And the Arizona election audit results should shut him up.
jl
@Steeplejack (phone): They’re not flacking that weird Trump football? No one seems to be able to figure out what it is. American football, rugby, Australian rules. Apparently none of them.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Brachiator:
To the contrary! Has anything ever shut Trump up? (Rhetorical question.)
Steeplejack (phone)
Area woman finds world’s creepiest dog.
jl
@Steeplejack (phone): A rally the day after the authoritarians and loons running the AZ audit that found no fraud and more votes for Biden is a good opportunity to lie about it.
Probably need another one. I bet it’s just that those Chinese bamboo ballots are so hard to spot. Need to get some special x-ray equipment to examine the kernings.
Percysowner
In the annals of who’d have thunk? Trump says Stacey Abrams might be a better Georgia governor than Republican Brian Kemp
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken:
Obviously that’s the Democrats fault.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Yes, but 42 is still the answer.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Sore, work related.
Starboard Tack
@Ken: Every day is Elephant Appreciation Day in my house.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ken:
Yup. I remember laughing my butt off when I saw the front end of Yaley’s car crumpled
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
5.56.
Celsius.
:)
MagdaInBlack
@Percysowner: Petulant child is angry Kemp did’t throw the election his way.
smedley the uncertain
@WaterGirl: 27
laura
@MomSense:l hope your son plays all the best songs on the shreddingest guitar that continues to be a collaborative partner in your musician son’s artistic life. You deserve a lot of credit for gifting such a lovely guitar.
Starboard Tack
@MagdaInBlack: If there’s a way to piss him off enough at Abbot, maybe he’ll back Beto.
Feathers
@WaterGirl: I had a co-worker who once gave me a gift bag with his “cold remedy.” A shot of peppermint schnapps followed by a chamomile tea chaser. Repeat until no longer needed. I don’t use it when actually sick, but it’s nice for those crawl into bed early nights. Using Creme de Cassis now because I bought A bottle after watching Poirot.
tam1MI
@tam1MI:I live in Michigan, so escalating her story on my Facebook page won’t do any good. I’m thinking of putting her story on a message board I hang out on, maybe someone there will step up.
And it’s done. I gave our esteemed blogfather’s name as a contact, hopefully someone there will come through.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: The U.S. and German Green Parties have the same name, but they are two very different critters.
jl
@Percysowner: I’m not sure I understand what point Trump is trying to make, so hard for me to figure whether it’s surprising or not. I think Trump needs to criticize Kemp, and looks for someone else to be the cudgel. Trump seems to be claiming that Abrams never conceded, and she was right to do that. So implication is that Trump is right to not concede, and maybe Kemp is not legit governor. I can’t tell whether the crowd cheers or boos, or it is a mix of both.
Edit: take away seems to be that Kemp is so bad even someone like Abrams would be preferable. Bright side is that if Trump keeps attacking and excommunicating GOPer pols who have shown that they can win elections, that is just fine with me.
Starboard Tack
@Feathers: My favorite thing to do with peppermint schnapps is to drizzle a shot over the whipped cream on the top of a cup of cocoa. Makes a cold night in January almost pleasant.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator: His followers are huffing bleach now so it really should be no surprise.
MagdaInBlack
@jl: Rawstory tell me he was gushing over MTG. How long before he’s pushing her for Gov?
He has no point other than petty revenge and self- promotion.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): only the best and the brightest for team trump!!
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: They’re claiming that the “duplicate” (they’re not and were literally already discovered and adjudicated in court) means theres “50,000 ballots that may have been illegal so we need to decertify”.
That’s what they and the AZ Senate Republicans are banking on. “We just can’t know, so we need to decertify or have another audit”. Its already spread through the qanon portions of the party and is making it’s way through the party itself as the preferred known response.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack (phone): He needs the attention. He needs the adoration. It’s even more addictive to him than whatever the fuck else he’s on.
Another Scott
AlJazeera:
It was a straight section of track and the weather was clear.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Natural immunity emerges as potential legal challenge to federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates
What do you all think about this?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
I remember the Trump campaign even sponsored a car last year in the Cup series. What a joke!
MisterForkbeard
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Might work. but its dumb.
Having the virus gives you SOME immunity. And not as good as one of the vaccines, and it’s not reproducible or testable, and the immunity varies by person.
So all the state has to do is say “vaccines prove X% effective, catching the virus doesn’t necessarily give that amount. Therefore we require the vaccine because it gives the best immunity.”
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): carve-outs create paperwork and backlogs and fake doctor’s notes, and there’s no reason they can’t get vaccinated. We don’t allow this exception for chicken pox I assume.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I know that feeling.
By the way, I’m glad you’re no longer in immediate danger of being evicted from your apartment. That’s a scary and awful experience no matter what, let alone during a pandemic
Kay
You will learn absolutely nothing from reading this article that you could not learn from 15 minutes of watching Fox News.
They’re so, so bad.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterForkbeard:
And what do they think is going to happen after the election is decertified? That Trump is going to be “reinstated”?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterForkbeard:
@Major Major Major Major:
The experts quoted in the article sure seemed to think it had merit and could work. I don’t know. I personally think it’s a bad idea and will lead to abuse
MagdaInBlack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You use the word “think” as if its something they actually do.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): you can get a George Mason professor to say anything, who cares.
ETA the school is even fucking named after Scalia
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
What I’m trying to get at is what if they’re right? I admit I don’t know anything about the ins and outs of the law. What if a judge or the Supreme Court agree with this argument? And what if those studies are also correct that natural immunity is just as good as vaccine-induced immunity?
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): well, when judges say it it does sort of become law, but that aside, extremely inconsistent and preliminary scientific findings really have no place here IMO. Not a lawyer of course.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
That is true, those studies haven’t been peer-reviewed yet. I don’t know. I guess I just don’t want this to be a political setback (provided natural immunity is strong and long-lasting as those studies suggest) for Biden and the Dems. Or a setback for ending the pandemic
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Trivia:
Not too long after she graduated college, Scalia’s father (a professor there) took extended sick leave and Mom was contacted by her alma mater with an offer to come back and take over his classes.
She already had recently signed a teaching contract elsewhere (public school) and didn’t feel it right to try to wiggle out of that, so said no.
According to her, Scalia père never did recover enough to return to teaching.
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack (phone): That kind of reminds me of Conor Friedersdorf’s articles–all of which are seemingly aimed at liberals who are worried that their own partisanship is making them closed-minded, and intended to convince them that they’re unfairly neglecting some right-wing idea or another. I know a bunch of these people.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
Having read some Politico articles, that sounds exactly what they’re meant for. Also to demoralize and “gaslight” liberals
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): At this point I’m starting to think that every article that cites an Israeli study on vaccine effectiveness needs to be regarded with suspicion. It’s not that the actual studies are necessarily bad but they seem to consistently misinterpreted in weird contrarian ways that antivaxxers run with.
Another Scott
@Major Major Major Major: I had chicken pox as a kid, before there was a vaccine. When I transferred to a public school in another state, I was told I had to get a chicken pox vaccine before admission. They didn’t care that I had the disease (and had the scars to prove it).
As you say, carve-outs invite abuse.
Cheers,
Scott.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): i mean it would be a goat rodeo so I hope it doesn’t happen
joel hanes
@Steeplejack (phone):
Looks as if Elder will ultimately have been the choice on roughly 27% of ballots cast.
There’s that number again, the base crazification factor. Must credit John Rogers posting at kungfu monkey.
Fair Economist
@WaterGirl: German Greens are reasonable. They form coalitions and get things done. Not much policy daylight between them and the SDP, mostly just leftist splittism.
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think that if immunity from prior infection is actually strong and long-lasting, that’s great. But it’s a ridiculous thing to use as an argument against vaccine mandates, because of two things:
I keep thinking back to Cheryl Rofer’s little spreadsheet model, in which she determines that in any remotely realistic scenario at this point we still get to a high level of general immunity mostly through vaccination, not through infection. Getting there “the hard way” takes a really long time if we want to keep general levels of disease low enough that hospital systems don’t crash. Or we just let them crash like in Idaho or Texas or Florida; this isn’t a good outcome.
I also suspect the result is fishy, because of the other results determining that some fairly large fraction of people who get mild COVID and recover rapidly don’t even have detectable levels of antibodies afterward. Maybe they’ve got some harder-to-detect form of immunity but it makes me think they might be missing some mild cases in these studies of post-infection immunity.
Major Major Major Major
Matt McIrvin
@Fair Economist: I think that the fact that our election system makes minor parties have perverse spoiler effects prevents those parties from attracting people who are actually interested in being politically effective–instead they get trolls, grifters, false-flag puppets and performance artists. Voting-system reform to make third parties less damaging would eventually have the side effect of giving them better-quality candidates. And they might eventually not be minor parties any more.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Bull Moose, represent!
:)
MagdaInBlack
@Major Major Major Major: He is so handsome ❤️
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: In the US, Green means Getting Republicans Elected Every November.
The Lodger
@Steeplejack (phone): Edgar Allan Pup.
Benw
@Major Major Major Major: SAMWISE
MEDIUM COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: He is a gorgeous kitty.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: Israel has its own serious political problems with religous right wing nut factions, so I treat their studies with a lot of scepticism.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sab: Tend to agree.
JWR
Me too, and the stories reminded me of listening to late-night KPFK, (SoCal’s Pacifica station), recently, and heard noted nutcase Gary Null going on about the “massive U.S. government Ivermectin cover-up”, which made me LoL, but also reminded me that there’s a fairly active contingent of leftie anti-vaxxers out there, doing their “research” into alternative potions and elixirs. I think that just labeling something alternative is the driving force for these people.
JWR
TFG: “One thing is certain, this would never, ever be happening if I were your president…”
Hey, waitaminnit! “if I were your president”? I thought they all believed he is their president. I guess the cognitive dissonance hasn’t sunk in yet. Give ’em time. (A lot of time.)
JPL
The political reporter for the AJC has been getting texts from the local republicans
Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) / Twitter
lowtechcyclist
@JWR:
TFG: “One thing is certain, this would never, ever be happening if I were your president…”
TFG spent last November through January trying to overturn the election. At that same time, Americans were dying in droves in a wave that far exceeded the initial wave back in March through May 2020.
Which he wasn’t doing a damned thing about. He was all about overturning the election to stay in office, and he probably didn’t even notice how many people were dying on his watch.
The list of Trumpian crimes is a long one, but for me that one is near the top. There is no limit to the amount of damage he’d inflict on this country and its citizens to stay in power, if he ever got there again.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: @Mangy Jay has been doing some interesting analysis of how anti-vaxers are cherrypicking scientific studies to propagate their anti-vax bullshit. She also has discussed the synergy between anti-vaccination agitation and rightwing “populist” movements in Europe and the U.S.
John Stoerr’s The Editorial Board has published some of Mangy Jay’s longer pieces. I believe these are paywalled, but the thoughtful @Mangy Jay’s twitter account has some some very keen analysis of current topics.
Geminid
@JWR: Modern leftwing and rightwing “populism” share a common hostility towards what they consider establishment elites. The Pacifica broadcast you describe and trump’s attack on Georgia Governor Kemp have this element in common. What’s different is that the leftwing populists have no unifying figure to lead them, or as it happens, mislead them. They are also less numerous than their rightwing counterparts who are trying to execute a hostile takeover of the Republican party, formerly dominated by business elites and their politician partners.
Matt McIrvin
@sab: What the popular interpretations often get wrong is that they describe Israel as a place where almost everyone is vaccinated. It’s actually not. They’re doing better than we are but it’s far from universal.
Like the US and UK, they got an early head start with mass vaccination–earlier than either the US or UK, and that’s where they got the reputation. But, first, they have a significant fraction of vaccine-refusing people–smaller than in the US, but it’s a problem. Second, they haven’t done much to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied territories–that’s just getting started now. Third, Israel has a considerably larger fraction of children who are underage for vaccination. All this means that vaccinated people in Israel are in an environment with significant amounts of COVID circulating.
Vaccination in Israel, IIRC, actually has been quite effective at preventing death and hospitalization, but a lot of these popular articles focus on infection or symptomatic disease, where we know the vaccines are somewhat less effective against Delta than against earlier variants. The numbers out of Israel always initially seem way worse somehow than elsewhere, but often that turns out to be some statistical artifact–in one, I recall the issue was that the headline “vaccine effectiveness” number everyone was throwing around was not breaking down subjects into age groups, and vaccinated subjects were on average much older than unvaccinated ones. The study was fine, it was just being cherrypicked for a sensational number.
I also wonder if there isn’t some political pressure there to find support for aggressive booster-shot programs, since the government of Israel seems to have fixated on giving out lots of boosters to already-vaccinated people as the indication that they’re doing something.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Wife’s grandma talked about a folk remedy for a bad cold, she called it the Two Hat Remedy:
Put a fedora hat on the bottom bed post. Drink good whiskey until you see two hats! Then go to sleep (pass out). In the morning your cold will be over. I suppose any kind of hat will do.
Might be the alcohol killing the virus? May just be that the hangover is so bad you no longer notice the cold.
J R in WV
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think it’s as stupid as claiming Biden isn’t president because That Fuckin’ Guy never conceded the election to him. If natural immunity worked, smallpox and polio and measles would have all disappeared from the face of the earth centuries ago. They didn’t, so “natural immunity” isn’t real.
Anti-Vaxers are too stupid to protect themselves, and too selfish to protect others..
J R in WV
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m pretty sure more people have had second Coronavirus infections than have had “breakthrough” infections after their vaccinations.
We know that the vaccines are at best some 95% effective.
I suspect prior infection is far less effective than even the poorest approved vaccines. Scientists wouldn’t spend their careers working with dangerous pathogens while developing vaccines if “natural immunity” really worked.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Beautiful kitty!! So regal, so clean-cut.