John Oliver explains how the failure to air-condition prisons can cause both physical and mental health issues for incarcerated people, and why the solution is simpler than you might think.
This is big.
#BREAKING: NATO has agreed to admit Ukraine into alliance, a striking blow to Vladimir Putin and Russia.
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) June 14, 2021
re: #1 No Malarkey!
This is big.
No, it’s not
I just leaned over and asked Secretary of State Blinken — also waiting for Biden — if there was an update today on Ukraine joining NATO. He says no, “nothing has changed.”
We continue to wait. https://t.co/k7DAzlGJvm— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) June 14, 2021
Multiple sources tell us that no decision was made today to admit Ukraine to NATO. Rather, allies reiterated decisions made at previous summits regarding Georgia and Ukraine *eventually* becoming members at an unspecified time. https://t.co/B6HDCcC6qg
— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) June 14, 2021
Ukraine did not just become a member of NATO. Zelensky is reiterating something that was agreed to in 2008. This is from the NATO communiqué today: pic.twitter.com/nfANprVJCM
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) June 14, 2021
re: #1 No Malarkey!
President Zelensky of Ukraine says NATO has agreed to admit Ukraine into alliance. This is a move President Biden backed. https://t.co/fTcZrdmBtj
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 14, 2021
re: #3 lawhawk
Note that this doesn’t specify when.
NATO’s policy is that Ukraine should become a member but can’t open a Membership Action Plan yet, and so can’t actually become a member.
— Nate Schenkkan (@nateschenkkan) June 14, 2021
If you read Zelenskyy’s tweet carefully, this is also what he is saying. https://t.co/tms7cf3TIs
— Nate Schenkkan (@nateschenkkan) June 14, 2021
re: #4 lawhawk
Note that this doesn’t specify when.
Still, this comes just a few days after Putin stated that Ukraine joining NATO would be unacceptable.
Schrodinger’s NATO Membership.
I’ve got whiplash.
Ah the Weather Channel—said it would get to 83 today and now it is 89…
BREAKING: Three people have been wounded, including a sheriff’s deputy, in a shooting at the Big Bear Supermarket in DeKalb, Georgia. The County Sheriff said the shooting happened during a dispute over mask wearing inside the store. #gapol https://t.co/5pIc7KVepK
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 14, 2021
re: #9 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n😷Trips
Murica, fuck yeah! FREEEEDUMB!
Maybe Ukraine will become a member of NATO before half of Ukraine is occupied.
re: #11 jaunte
Maybe Ukraine will become a member of NATO before half of Ukraine is occupied.
Biden seems to back this up during his press conference. When asked directly about Ukraine’s membership, he says “it depends on whether they meet the criteria” and “they still need to clean up corruption.”
— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) June 14, 2021
re: #9 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n😷Trips
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I’m sure the individual responsible was a ‘responsible gun owner’ who just happened to be armed at the store for ‘protection’. Never know when Antifa hordes will attack your supermarket after all.
I would have thought they’d put long pig in with the ground pork. pic.twitter.com/gIHNQh2p1u
— Harry Turtledove (@HNTurtledove) June 14, 2021
President Biden calls Trump a phony populist and calls out Senate Republicans for pushing this fake populism when they know better. pic.twitter.com/Wqd1wJAJHX
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 14, 2021
Cat out the door again during thunderstorm. Fuck it. You got some place better to be during a thunderstorm than on the bed with me watching soccer, listening to me talk about what I may or may not be having for supper, then have at it.
I have tried to imagine what it would be like if Democrats were as ruthless in serving their constituents, the majority of Americans, as Republicans are in serving theirs, corporations and billionaires.
— aagcobb (@aagcobb1) June 14, 2021
re: #18 No Malarkey!
If they were that ruthless, it wouldn’t be a majority of Americans.
re: #8 JOE 🥓
Ah the Weather Channel—said it would get to 83 today and now it is 89…
it got to 83, it just didn’t stop
so they werent wrong….
re: #19 Belafon
If they were that ruthless, it wouldn’t be a majority of Americans.
Ruthless as McConnell politically. Not ruthless in the sense of violently attacking Congress.
Biden restates the US commitment to Article 5, which is the collective defense of the NATO alliance. Trump spent four years trying to destroy Article 5 for Putin. pic.twitter.com/JRpB27Pw0c
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 14, 2021
re: #11 jaunte
Maybe Ukraine will become a member of NATO before half of Ukraine is occupied.
That’s kind of the problem. Problem one is the ongoing corruption and infiltration of the Ukrainian government by Russian intelligence. Problem two is the fact that the day after Ukraine becomes a member it would invoke Article 5 and you’ve got either an instant war with Russian forces or a NATO that, in effect, tossed a couple of rolls of paper towels at their newest member and wished them lotsa luck.
On my first flight in 15 months, of course we were rerouted back to the gate because two passengers got into a physical altercation over elbow placement upon arm rests. pic.twitter.com/YBAV1iG2Fk
— Jack Krawczyk (@JackK) June 13, 2021
re: #24 No Malarkey!
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husband / wife?
do i have to separate you two?
On my first flight in 15 months, of course we were rerouted back to the gate because two passengers got into a physical altercation over elbow placement upon arm rests. pic.twitter.com/YBAV1iG2Fk
— Jack Krawczyk (@JackK) June 13, 2021
The covidiots are bound and determined to get sick, and they are going to.
Experts worry that unvaccinated people are falling into a false sense of security as more transmissible variants can rapidly spread in areas with a high concentration of unvaccinated people who have abandoned masking and social distancing. https://t.co/6OVtLWgcjE pic.twitter.com/FBX4r9PbNi
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 14, 2021
“It’s the single most consequential thing I’ve done in my time as majority leader of the Senate.”— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, on blocking Barack Obama from appointing a new Supreme Court Justice to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat.
is he provoking the Ds?
betting they won’t find their spine?
I mean, I think this is just what he looks like without the orange makeup https://t.co/scUcK7GKzm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2021
re: #26 No Malarkey!
The covidiots are bound and determined to get sick, and they are going to.
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i think i read in the last thread (or it could have been news at breakfast)
“soon, almost 100% of all hospitalized covid cases will be unvaccinated”
re: #29 Dangerman
i think i read in the last thread (or it could have been news at breakfast)
“soon, almost 100% of all hospitalized covid cases will be unvaccinated”
Science - how the fuck does it work?
//
who run bartertown?
NBC News: “A pattern is emerging for legislation the majority seeks to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate: When McConnell supports it, it has a chance. When he opposes it, it tends to run headlong into the 60-vote barrier. In short, there is no easy route to pick off the necessary 10 Republicans without him.”
re: #29 Dangerman
i think i read in the last thread (or it could have been news at breakfast)
“soon, almost 100% of all hospitalized covid cases will be unvaccinated”
If it doesn’t kill the hospitalized anti-vaxxers, it’ll destroy them financially, but they got to stick it to the libs by refusing to do the simple obviously right thing.
re: #30 Eclectic Cyborg
Science - how the fuck does it work?
//
i care about the can’t vax
no sympathy for the won’t vax
grudging deferral to the ‘waiting till the official fda approval’.
though by now that’s kinda weak sauce
re: #32 Punish Domestic Terrorists
If it doesn’t kill the hospitalized anti-vaxxers, it’ll destroy them financially, but they got to stick it to the libs by refusing to do the simple obviously right thing.
let em sell their guns to pay for their healthcare // (1/2)
Lots of tea leaves to read in GUILTY pleas just entered by Josh & Jess Bustle in Jan 6 case
Both are accused of illegally entering Capitol, but no assault or property destruction. Jess is accused of posting against Pence on FACEBOOK ==>
But some surprises in hearing (thread) pic.twitter.com/iJ7kYx6jIk— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) June 14, 2021
Judge opts to go through the traditional process, orders presentencing report and refers matter to probation office
But he won’t announce sentencing date
So, there are now 4 guilty pleas in federal court in Jan 6 cases and ZERO sentencing dates.
The wait goes on…— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) June 14, 2021
re: #33 Dangerman
i care about the can’t vax
no sympathy for the won’t vax
grudging deferral to the ‘waiting till the official fda approval’.
though by now that’s kinda weak sauce
I read an article that final approval is just a matter of time and won’t tell us anything we don’t already know. A gamble to wait by people who don’t understand the odds.
re: #36 No Malarkey!
I read an article that final approval is just a matter of time and won’t tell us anything we don’t already know. A gamble to wait by people who don’t understand the odds.
This sort of thing makes sense if you’re talking about an elective procedure. With COVID, nobody put the pandemic on hold while the paperwork is being signed, so you’re running an unnecessary risk. Besides, I assume we’ll just be hearing a new set of excuses from most of them when the vaccines have final full approval.
re: #35 No Malarkey!
They wanted to be the first ones sentenced so they became Wingnut pariahs and could fucking cash in once they were released.
re: #37 ericblair
This sort of thing makes sense if you’re talking about an elective procedure. With COVID, nobody put the pandemic on hold while the paperwork is being signed, so you’re running an unnecessary risk. Besides, I assume we’ll just be hearing a new set of excuses from most of them when the vaccines have final full approval.
They’ll be giving those excuses to their employer, and will find themselves discharged from the military if that’s their job. It stops being optional once it has full approval.
re: #36 No Malarkey!
I read an article that final approval is just a matter of time and won’t tell us anything we don’t already know. A gamble to wait by people who don’t understand the odds.
or the process
that’s why they get a ‘grudging’.
there is a lot to know and understand
and a lot of nonsense that you have to have some smarts to know to filter out
you have to pay attention.
i get why everyone won’t or can’t put in the time to be adequately educated.
so it’s fair (but barely so) to say i’m waiting till the fda officially approves it.
when the fda says so, just like with aspirin, that’s when i know it’s ‘safe enough’
i don’t agree but at least i can see it
re: #37 ericblair
This sort of thing makes sense if you’re talking about an elective procedure. With COVID, nobody put the pandemic on hold while the paperwork is being signed, so you’re running an unnecessary risk. Besides, I assume we’ll just be hearing a new set of excuses from most of them when the vaccines have final full approval.
at that point they move to the category of won’t vax and eff em then
re: #9 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n😷Trips
re: #24 No Malarkey!
On my first flight in 15 months, of course we were rerouted back to the gate because two passengers got into a physical altercation over elbow placement upon arm rests.
This is why I hate air travel. It’s not fear of the plane crashing; it’s having to travel with my fellow idiot Americans.
re: #42 Mattand
This is why I hate air travel. It’s not fear of the plane crashing; it’s having to travel with my fellow idiot Americans.
THIS.
And for me personally, all the TSA crap.
re: #17 steve_davis
Cat out the door again during thunderstorm. Fuck it. You got some place better to be during a thunderstorm than on the bed with me watching soccer, listening to me talk about what I may or may not be having for supper, then have at it.
theories:
1) she has a friend living rough who she’s trying to persuade to come home with her. Because she knows you have enough love for two cats.
2) she’s hunting. Because you’ve brought her dinner so many times, now she’s thinking it’s time she bring you a meal.
re: #43 Eclectic Cyborg
THIS.
And for me personally, all the TSA crap.
Pre-check and Clear make it a breeze. Though I seem to get selected for ‘random’ screenings by the pre check metal detector quite frequently.
re: #28 No Malarkey!
I mean, I think this is just what he looks like without the orange makeup
Now imagine him without the yellow hair dye and weird assed comb-over.
re: #42 Mattand
This is why I hate air travel. It’s not fear of the plane crashing; it’s having to travel with my fellow idiot Americans.
A lot depends on (1) what carrier you fly with and (2) how much you are willing to pay.
At least with legacy carriers you stand a chance on getting a reclining seat that has some cushioning. When I flew down and back to pick up my mother on Allegiant, the actual airfare was insanely cheap (under $20) - it was all the add-ons (carry-on luggage-seriously) that boosted the price. And their A319s had thin-ass non-reclining seats, and if you wanted any legroom at all you had to cough-up money for the privledge in sitting in an exit row.
re: #49 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
You’re all set for Nomadland.
You know who’s got air conditioning?
Cancun. pic.twitter.com/w41VxY6LZy— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) June 14, 2021
re: #49 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
Love it, toilet with a view😆😆
I don’t believe this for a New York Minute. And if such an event did happen, the question becomes which side does she land on?
— Eric The Fruit Bat (@ericfruitbat) June 14, 2021
re: #48 Eric The Fruit Bat
A lot depends on (1) what carrier you fly with and (2) how much you are willing to pay.
At least with legacy carriers you stand a chance on getting a reclining seat that has some cushioning. When I flew down and back to pick up my mother on Allegiant, the actual airfare was insanely cheap (under $20) - it was all the add-ons (carry-on luggage-seriously) that boosted the price. And their A319s had thin-ass non-reclining seats, and if you wanted any legroom at all you had to cough-up money for the privledge in sitting in an exit row.
That’s how they nail you. Advertise low, reasonable fares, then start nickel and diming you for all the extras.
Last flight I purchased, I had to pay extra for the bag fees, the right to be able to change my flight for an extended period AND to guarantee my wife and I sat beside each other on the plane. All of the extras more than doubled the cost of the initial fare.
re: #49 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
All in all that thing is pretty sweet!
re: #54 Eclectic Cyborg
That’s how they nail you. Advertise low, reasonable fares, then start nickel and diming you for all the extras.
Last flight I purchased, I had to pay extra for the bag fees, the right to be able to change my flight for an extended period AND to guarantee my wife and I sat beside each other on the flight. All of the extras more than doubled the cost of the initial fare.
re: #50 jaunte
You’re all set for Nomadland.
I’m starting to seriously give it some thought. We’ll see how it goes this summer.
re: #54 Eclectic Cyborg
That’s how they nail you. Advertise low, reasonable fares, then start nickel and diming you for all the extras.
Last flight I purchased, I had to pay extra for the bag fees, the right to be able to change my flight for an extended period AND to guarantee my wife and I sat beside each other on the plane. All of the extras more than doubled the cost of the initial fare.
One time that flying wasn’t crappy was when I was in High School, and a local corporation flew a group of students to Dallas for a special event in the private corporate jet. It was sweet!
re: #48 Eric The Fruit Bat
A lot depends on (1) what carrier you fly with and (2) how much you are willing to pay.
At least with legacy carriers you stand a chance on getting a reclining seat that has some cushioning. When I flew down and back to pick up my mother on Allegiant, the actual airfare was insanely cheap (under $20) - it was all the add-ons (carry-on luggage-seriously) that boosted the price. And their A319s had thin-ass non-reclining seats, and if you wanted any legroom at all you had to cough-up money for the privledge in sitting in an exit row.
re: #42 Mattand
This is why I hate air travel. It’s not fear of the plane crashing; it’s having to travel with my fellow idiot Americans.
Why any long distances on this continent are by Amtrak for me. I’d rather sit in a coach seat for days on the train than for hours in one of the illrun sardine cans.
Correlation of Biden vote share and adult Covid vaccination rate is now at .847. (CDC data) pic.twitter.com/J2hQHKYUIH
— Seth Masket (@smotus) June 14, 2021
re: #55 Yeah Sure WhatEVs
All in all that thing is pretty sweet!
Thanks. The interior need some work. Some of the lighting fixtures are either busted up or missing the diffusers. I’ll also replace the old florescent fixtures with LED if at all possible The floor is going to look amazing after a good scrubbing and a coat of wax to bring out the color. But the bottom line is:
I now get to join the ranks of RV owners (Hi Dad!) who continually bitch about throwing money into a bottomless pit. :-)
re: #61 William Lewis
Why any long distances on this continent are by Amtrak for me. I’d rather sit in a coach seat for days on the train than for hours in one of the illrun sardine cans.
AND
Real meal service like this!
Ghana plants 5 million trees in a single day to combat deforestation (Thomson Reuters Foundation News)
Of course they let things go way too far before realizing that deforestation was a problem.
re: #64 JOE 🥓
On my recent trip the only people who got full meal service was those with sleeper accommodations as well.
Rest of us got a small cafe area to buy stuff from that could be microwave heated and some spaced out tables to use. (And on one leg of the trip the table area on the cafe car was closed.) The coffee wasn’t that bad though. (Dunkin Donuts brand on the Philly -> Pittsburgh -> Chicago legs. I just wish they opened sooner than 7am.)
re: #65 Punish Domestic Terrorists
It’s better than chopping down another 5 million trees in a day, but ecological issues generally require the kind of sustained effort that’s just very difficult to do in practice.
John Demers’ resignation comes amid questions about the Justice Department’s efforts to secretly seize phone data from House Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as well as reporters, as part of the aggressive investigations into leaks. https://t.co/9hu2JMWNwA
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 14, 2021
re: #66 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)
On my recent trip the only people who got full meal service was those with sleeper accommodations as well.
Rest of us got a small cafe area to buy stuff from that could be microwave heated and some spaced out tables to use. (And on one leg of the trip the table area on the cafe car was closed.) The coffee wasn’t that bad though. (Dunkin Donuts brand on the Philly -> Pittsburgh -> Chicago legs. I just wish they opened sooner than 7am.)
That’s why I’m waiting until the Dining cars return. What ticks me off is that it appears for now Amtrak will only restore dining cars on western overnight routes. The “flexible dining” they have been serving has too high carb counts with every entree.
re: #16 jaunte
He should call out those in our party who are helping the Senate Republicans stifle his agenda. We know who they are.
re: #65 Punish Domestic Terrorists
Ghana plants 5 million trees in a single day to combat deforestation (Thomson Reuters Foundation News)
Of course they let things go way too far before realizing that deforestation was a problem.
It’s not unawareness.
It’s three intertwined things: one, many poor people who need wood either for timber or charcoal, who don’t really have an alternative because of supply chains or can’t afford it; two, small-stakes capitalism where you know there’s a depleting resource but to live in the market system you have to keep harvesting and selling; three, a government that’s not built to create infrastructure that most people actually need—like ways to cook food—and is really only doing development in a small number of places where it’s necessary to interface with international, high-stakes capital…and thus takes it own cut of timber independently that turns into money that leaves the country (and that ultimately gives no shit about wildlife or poor people).
Same thing has happened on Madagascar.
The normal people living every day with the consequences know it’s happening…there’s just no alternative. The people with power don’t care because that’s not where the money is at…saving the trees is a net expense, and capitalism is about socializing losses.
re: #51 jaunte
How many Texans died in the last deep freeze again? Ted should mind his own business.
re: #73 Patricia Kayden
We’re having a passing thunderstorm just now and the electricity went out for about ten minutes.
Heavy weather is coming into Philly.
weather.gov
re: #73 Patricia Kayden
It’s just more ewwwwscarylibrulcalifornia bullshit. Same shit as San Francisco is a dirty hellhole full of homeless people who will hurt you. I’ve been to SF, and I saw homeless people. They were waiting for food and shelter in a long line. No one was being awful. It was also the prettiest and cleanest city I’ve ever seen except maybe Denver. And everyone was super nice. But hey, some jerk online who never spent any time walking around a place talking to people who live there knows better.
re: #63 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
Thanks. The interior need some work. Some of the lighting fixtures are either busted up or missing the diffusers. I’ll also replace the old florescent fixtures with LED if at all possible The floor is going to look amazing after a good scrubbing and a coat of wax to bring out the color. But the bottom line is:
I now get to join the ranks of RV owners (Hi Dad!) who continually bitch about throwing money into a bottomless pit. :-)
Every single person deserves the right to their own bottomless pit! Enjoy!!
re: #77 Yeah Sure WhatEVs
We also want to see pictures of the progress on the remodel/makeover. I’m jealous. The Husband and I talked about doing this. But it’s too expensive and our kid needs a stable home of some kind. And our health issues kinda mean we need to stay near a major medical facility. So pictures Michele, I can’t wait to see it when you’re done.
re: #72 The Ghost of a Flea
You can’t earn enough money off your labor because your labor is devalued by the global distribution network: someone else will probably be desperate enough to do the work for less compensation.
You can’t forgo participation in the market because there are needs you can only meet through purchasing with money.
To stay ahead, you have to sell something—your labor, the minerals under your feet, the timber nearby.
…but the market buys as low as possible and sells as high as possible.
…and the capital-holders deliberately create circumstances in which whatever you have is devalued. Rare earth minerals are vital to the world economy, but the guys physically doing the mining are comparatively making very little money.
And as your prospects decrease as devaluation continues, you’re now competing more directly with desperate people all over the world for the same poorly-compensated work.
The only jobs that grow in value are the ones that create solutions that further decrease the value of any given labor unit. Most people think first of automation, but really this is mostly stuff like rotating subcontractors and lobbying for government activities that create devalued labor markets (like opportunity zones, or the kind of a rules a country has to accept to get an IMF loan).
The jobs that remain well compensated are just the ones that they haven’t figured out how to devalue.
This is what’s been going on in the developing and post-colonial world for decades…this is what “free market economics” has always been: forcing regions that are desperate, that can’t actually compete in the market versus countries that have enormous capital reserves obtained through stolen land and stolen labor, to participate in the market by selling off their non-renewable assets—their farmland, their water, their subsurface minerals—in return for a pittance and the promise of another pittance in the form of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.
But now technology and communications have advanced to the point that this can be applied in the developed world…and that’s what’s happening.
What has happened in Appalachian coal country both culturally and economically is, aptly, the canary in the coal mine for how this all works.
re: #49 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
So closed the deal on the RV. A 1976 Dodge Sportsman.
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Over all I think I got a pretty good deal for $4K
head out on the highway…..
WUT
There’s a pie fucker joke in here somewhere, but fortunately for you I’m too polite to make it. https://t.co/FmHot5LGmu
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) June 14, 2021
re: #81 The Pie Overlord!
They never put a couple thin slices of Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese on top like Mom did.
That’s the only way she could eat apple pie.
Flames that have engulfed a chemical plant in Rockton, Illinois, could burn for days after authorities decided to let the hazardous material burn itself out rather than risk chemical runoff spilling into a nearby river. pic.twitter.com/t4D0qOlIKm
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) June 14, 2021
re: #82 JOE 🥓
New England style. Styers Orchards used to make a wonderful apple pie and we would go up to the orchard almost every month to get one of their pies.
re: #84 PhillyPretzel
I’ve never acquired a taste for pie. It’s not a problem. The last thing I need is more ways to gain weight.
Creeks and springs at Point Reyes National Seashore haven’t completely dried up but they’re looking parched enough that park staff set up three large troughs last week to ensure tule elk herds get enough water to make it through the drought. https://t.co/2B487xmA2i
— KTVU (@KTVU) June 14, 2021
Just got the second vaccine shot. 💉🧲👍🤣 pic.twitter.com/idmCFI51dP
— Strictly (@StrictlyChristo) June 14, 2021
re: #88 (((Archangel1)))
Unfortunately there are people who believe that photo.
re: #79 The Ghost of a Flea
“the capital-holders deliberately create circumstances in which whatever you have is devalued. Rare earth minerals are vital to the world economy, but the guys physically doing the mining are comparatively making very little money.”
THIS.
There can only be incredibly wealthy people at one end of the scale if there are poor and exploited people on the other end.
re: #78 A Mom Anon
We also want to see pictures of the progress on the remodel/makeover. I’m jealous. The Husband and I talked about doing this. But it’s too expensive and our kid needs a stable home of some kind. And our health issues kinda mean we need to stay near a major medical facility. So pictures Michele, I can’t wait to see it when you’re done.
I shall endeavor to take both before & after pics of both interior & exterior repairs. No promises though.
Beckie and I also dreamed of doing this after I retired. I am fortunate enough to be able to see that dream through it’s conclusion. And I know Beckie will be by my side side every step of the way.
re: #90 Eclectic Cyborg
“the capital-holders deliberately create circumstances in which whatever you have is devalued. Rare earth minerals are vital to the world economy, but the guys physically doing the mining are comparatively making very little money.”
THIS.
There can only be incredibly wealthy people at one end of the scale if there are poor and exploited people on the other end.
I worry about that thought, because that’s the same line of thinking that leads people to treat economics as a zero-sum game. It’s the same thinking - although reversed in tone - that the Republicans believe, that they must keep people suppressed because allowing those dirty poors to have economic freedom must necessarily mean that they have to give theirs up.
re: #79 The Ghost of a Flea
All the colonial stuff done to other people in far off places—that we were taught happened because those people were different and maybe not as good—are now being applied to us…
…and we can literally watch the process of very powerful people and their bootlickers framing us as different and not as good.
There weren’t and aren’t crazy dictators and wacky fanatics over there because the rest of the world is strange and exotic, but because their world is fucked by poverty and trauma that benefits a local class of rich people and an international class of rich people that work in tandem.
There weren’t and aren’t terrifying disasters and accidents because those people over there are dumb. but because in their world it’s far more naked that everything has to be done cheap, or not at all, because the people with power—first locally, then internationally—always get their cut first and react badly if their cut doesn’t increase.
But now that need for a bigger cut has combined with the development of exciting new forms of force multiplication such that the powers that be don’t need whole nations and don’t need a middle class that does the intermediate work of empire—goons and accontants—so now they can apply colonialism next door.
Same thing’s happening with slavery, btw.
The people profiting won’t use the Sacred Bad Word to describe the situations they create where people do uncompensated labor…but they’re working hard to create new paradigms of captive labor that get as close as possible to the old ones. That’s why we have private prisons; that’s why we have an immigration system that almost always lets in the low-paying agricultural workers but works very hard to not let them stay and become something more than low-paying agricultural workers.
Okay, we’ve apparently reached a recorded high of 104.5 at the Valencia County Fire Administration weather station, which is essentially three blocks west of me.
re: #95 A Three Hour Tour
Very large (in geographical extent) high pressure aloft over the western US is bringing record high temps to many places this week.
Here it is only 81F, only because the ocean air is still cooling me down, but just east of here the temps rise rapidly.
Predicted highs for today:
However, Alpine hit 95F already today so they zoomed past the prediction.
Borrego Springs topped out at a mere 108F today, but is expected to hit 120F later in the week.
These are the kind of temps in late August or early September. Not so good for June.
re: #82 JOE 🥓
They never put a couple thin slices of Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese on top like Mom did.
That’s the only way she could eat apple pie.
I like vanilla ice cream on apple pie, but I’ll eat pie without the ice cream.
re: #93 Dopamine Fish
I worry about that thought, because that’s the same line of thinking that leads people to treat economics as a zero-sum game. It’s the same thinking - although reversed in tone - that the Republicans believe, that they must keep people suppressed because allowing those dirty poors to have economic freedom must necessarily mean that they have to give theirs up.
This is perfectly true from a sufficiently depraved (i.e., Republican) point of view, where a person’s worth as a human being is literally their financial assets minus liabilities. BTW, this is why I absolutely despise the term “net worth” for this financial information.
The average Republican church-goer will never be GOP donor-class rich, but that average Republican church-goer is likely to be many times better off than the working poor and/or homeless people nearby, and will bitterly resent any attempt at reducing this vast inequality, despite what this church-goer’s supposed religion has to say on this topic.
re: #96 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
Whew those are hot temperatures. Although I would expect a place called Thermal to be on the warm side.
re: #49 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
So closed the deal on the RV. A 1976 Dodge Sportsman.
[Embedded content]
Over all I think I got a pretty good deal for $4K
Looks like a good solid unit.
Ask around and find a good RV appliance service man to check out your gas/electric refrigerator, gas stove, heater, AC, water plumbing & waste systems before you hit the road.
If you’re experienced in RVs you know what I mean
re: #99 PhillyPretzel
Whew those are hot temperatures. Although I would expect a place called Thermal to be on the warm side.
I dunno, my thermal underwear is for when it’s really cold out.
re: #90 Eclectic Cyborg
“the capital-holders deliberately create circumstances in which whatever you have is devalued. Rare earth minerals are vital to the world economy, but the guys physically doing the mining are comparatively making very little money.”
THIS.
There can only be incredibly wealthy people at one end of the scale if there are poor and exploited people on the other end.
Yes…but also the bottom of this isn’t just poverty, it’s death.
Once you’ve established that it’s natural and good to devalue labor it follows that you just keeping trying out new versions of devaluation. One way to socialize losses is to just let people die.
Pay for safety features at your shirtwaist factory or let a hundred immigrant women choose between going up like torches and leaping to their deaths? Perform maintenance on your fertilizer factory and keep it well-staffed or let is go to seed, deliberately understaff to lower costs, and murder several thousand Bhopalis with phosgene while creating a permanent cancer belt?
“Just let them die” is a desired economic outcome…so long as you can control the optics. Compare and contrast the degree of philosophizing about Chernobyl and Bhopal. Or Chernobyl and Fukushima. Or Chernobyl and the Radium Girls. Or Chernobyl and tetraethyl lead. Or Chernobyl and current day cases of black lung.
Millions of people starve to death every year because food costs money and market actors would rather something spoil than give it away, and we’re trained to think of this as always an aberration. We are conditioned to not think of this as a trend, to tally these deaths as make a judgement: we are taught the opposite, that what is, is the best can be.
Two Communist countries trust Trofim Lyskenko and starve their nations to death and it’s a sign that Communism is unconscionable. The entire capitalist world just accepts that there will be a certain number of starved people a year like Derry accepts Pennywise’s casualty rate. People get mad if you point this out: the will defend the system that is indifferent to death by pointing out the individuals that put in the extra effort to combat that indifference…as if vampires should be credited for the heroics of vampire hunters
One of the anthropological things we’ve been watching in the USA is that people who are already doing well—whether that’s middle class or ultra-rich—having been experimenting with new cultural formations that make having material wealth a sign of moral and spiritual excellence…but subsequently elaborating that it is further divine favor to gain even more. And at the same time, any skepticism or demand that question the acceleration of gain is being viewed as dangerous…not just a dangerous idea, but a kind of attack.
Look—the thing’s that’s coming next is socializing the losses from climate, and that’s not going to be about money, it’s going to be about people starving to death and fleeing areas that are famine-ridden or destabilized. To which the response—which is already being practiced, and not just by reactionaries—is that their attempts to survive are disrespectful of the status quo’s rules, that they should have done better such that there wouldn’t be a problem…especially when the problem, like in Ghana or Guatamala, wasn’t about individuals on the ground making choices.
re: #104 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
Shudder. OTOH, thanks to my once and future girlfriend…
Bill makes it illegal to talk about anti-Native sentiment in Declaration & in policies of Founding Fathers. Also illegal to make any philosophical critique of meritocracy (a much disputed topic!) pic.twitter.com/XeR1kQkWPl
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) June 14, 2021
re: #90 Eclectic Cyborg
“the capital-holders deliberately create circumstances in which whatever you have is devalued. Rare earth minerals are vital to the world economy, but the guys physically doing the mining are comparatively making very little money.”
THIS.
There can only be incredibly wealthy people at one end of the scale if there are poor and exploited people on the other end.
Productivity increases and automation brought a standard of living to the masses that was unavailable to kings 200 years ago. The average person is better off today than ever before.
re: #96 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
To add to this, for those here who aren’t in the San Diego or Los Angeles areas:
Southern California weather and seasons are bit off from everyone else. Summer is from May 1 to Oct 31. Autumn Nov 1-Dec 31. Winter Jan 1-Feb28/29. Spring Mar 1 to Apr 30. So our “summer” is 6 months long, all the rest of the seasons such as they are are barely 2 months each.
From what I understand, July and August are the hottest months in most of the US. Here it is August and September. Someone I knew who moved here from Virginia was completely perplexed that it was hotter here in September than July. Every year. The whole month.
Although there are heat waves on and off all the time, it doesn’t start to get ridiculously hot here until after the 4th of July usually. Generally that’s the last weekend until October-ish that I want to go outside and do anything during the daylight hours. As the 4th passes and we start to head towards August, it’s always a feeling of BOHICA in this house.
For it to be 100-ish for several days in a row in June is not unheard of but it’s not remotely normal. I’m not looking forward to August this year. If my electric bill wasn’t already pushing near a grand per month in the hottest time of the year, I’d just run AC and wouldn’t give a rats ass, but it’s literally that expensive and I’m not rich. Whenever I hear anyone bitching about their electric bills and its like 100-300 I just laugh. I’d kill for that.
Every Gov. election here, I never hear anyone saying how they are going to deal with getting drinking water here and making my electric bill cost less than a grand and ending rolling blackouts like it’s a third world country. Oh Republicans might mention it from time to time, followed by a completely asinine “solution” that they heard from Fox and Friends. So… no.
re: #107 JC1
Productivity increases and automation brought a standard of living to the masses that was unavailable to kings 200 years ago. The average person is better off today than ever before.
That’s only true from a certain point of view. One good counter point (there are others) is that decades ago it was commonplace for a family in most parts of the US to be able to buy a home with income from a single earner. That is much less commonplace in the US these days.
re: #108 Jack Burton, Gunner on Death Star of David
September is the hottest month around here… but the hot days in October are the usually mean ones with very low humidity.
At least here where our electrical provider is SDG&E, blackouts are rare. Occasionally happens, but I can’t remember when the last one was.
re: #110 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
July and August and sometimes into September. And with Philly Electric (PECO) we do not have blackouts. The last time the power went out was when someone hit a utility pole with their car.
re: #110 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
September is the hottest month around here… but the hot days in October are the usually mean ones with very low humidity.
At least here where our electrical provider is SDG&E, blackouts are rare. Occasionally happens, but I can’t remember when the last one was.
Yeah I live in Escondido. I should have clarified on that, there hasn’t been a rolling black out here for awhile (just blackout due to high winds to try to avoid starting fires*) but they have been warning there might be and move into the “Reduce Your Use” payment modes many times. It’s only the threat of having to pay an arm and a leg that has kept it from happening I’d imagine.
I know they haven’t built any new massive solar, wind, or nuclear plants anywhere in the past couple of years.
*This is a another temporary half-ass solution to that problem that needs a better permanent one.
Posted earlier about all the lava filling up the high valley and spilling into the lower valley… with very fast moving lava.
Here is up close down at the bottom.
Hoomans wanting close-up pictures, while the lava is spitting little lava bullets into the air.
That place is low spot in the valley, and it’s been raining for a couple of days and the ground is soaked, so the fast moving lava traps the water… which turns to steam and thus all the spitting.
re: #109 EPR-radar
That’s only true from a certain point of view. One good counter point (there are others) is that decades ago it was commonplace for a family in most parts of the US to be able to buy a home with income from a single earner. That is much less commonplace in the US these days.
While true, we have to realize that that was an unusual time… Most of Europe was devastated during WW2, the rebuilding of which created massive demand that initially only the US could fulfill. The US became a superpower, and the dollar the default reserve currency. You can think of it like the economic golden age for the middle class in the US.
It was also a time when women couldn’t get a bank account without their husband’s permission, minorities were discriminated against in the legal code. Birth control wasn’t readily available, international phone calls cost dollars/minute, and most houses didn’t have AC.
Even though housing prices, healthcare, and education are less affordable than in the 1950s, I’d argue that there is far more economic freedom today. Sure, you can’t get a factory job and keep it for 40 years and get your pension, but you can start an internet business for less than 100 bucks if you have the right idea. You have access to the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. You can communicate with almost anyone in the world for free, even if you don’t share a common language. The harkening for the ‘job security’ of the 1950s only lends credence to the ‘job creators’ nonsense that the GOP keeps pushing. Profits are better than wages… No one, besides maybe a charity will pay you what you’re worth.
re: #114 JC1
While true, we have to realize that that was an unusual time… Most of Europe was devastated during WW2, the rebuilding of which created massive demand that initially only the US could fulfill. The US became a superpower, and the dollar the default reserve currency. You can think of it like the economic golden age for the middle class in the US.
It was also a time when women couldn’t get a bank account without their husband’s permission minorities were discriminated against in the legal code. Birth control wasn’t readily available, international phone calls cost dollars/minute, and most houses didn’t have AC.
Even though housing prices, healthcare, and education are less affordable than in the 1950s, I’d argue that there is far more economic freedom today. Sure, you can’t get a factory job and keep it for 40 years and get your pension, but you can start an internet business for less than 100 bucks if you have the right idea. You have access to the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. You can communicate with almost anyone in the world for free, even if you don’t share a common language. The harkening for the ‘job security’ of the 1950s only lends credence to the ‘job creators’ nonsense that the GOP keeps pushing. Profits are better than wages… No one, besides maybe a charity will pay you what you’re worth.
I’m not as enthusiastic about the internet/gig economy as you seem to be, but I could accept it if paired with a worthwhile UBI. More broadly, capital uber alles functions at least as efficiently in a gig economy as it does with underpayment of wages for jobs performed.
This is appalling. And depressing. And indicative of the fact that this country has lost its collective mother-fucking mind.
A man pulled out a gun and shot and killed an Atlanta-area Big Bear Supermarket cashier over the store’s mask policy, according to police.
re: #116 BeachDem
This is appalling. And depressing. And indicative of the fact that this country has lost its collective mother-fucking mind.
A man pulled out a gun and shot and killed an Atlanta-area Big Bear Supermarket cashier over the store’s mask policy, according to police.
Aerial footage shows law enforcement responding to fatal shooting at Georgia grocery store that authorities say followed argument over the store’s mask policy. https://t.co/vWUF4n45uL pic.twitter.com/pAzIhCUZDZ
— ABC News (@ABC) June 14, 2021
re: #104 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus
Even hotter tomorrow, above 100F even up to the Canadian border:
[Embedded content]
Damn, I wish I was in Oregon…
re: #115 EPR-radar
I’m not as enthusiastic about the internet/gig economy as you seem to be, but I could accept it if paired with a worthwhile UBI. More broadly, capital uber alles functions at least as efficiently in a gig economy as it does with underpayment of wages for jobs performed.
The future is unknown, of course, but I think that some sort of UBI will be unavoidable as automation and better dumb AI replace more and more workers. It’s only a matter of time before knowledge workers start getting replaced.
Were there some aspects of life that were better for the average white male in the US in the 1950s or 1960s? For sure. But on balance, I’ll take a bit of economic uncertainty along with my smartphone, effective vaccines developed within 24 hours of the virus getting sequenced, air bags, anti lock brakes, HD TV, internet, AC, longer life expectancy, etc.
re: #89 PhillyPretzel
Unfortunately there are people who believe that photo.
Well, the photo is real…
The Senate has confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first appeals court judge of President Joe Biden’s tenure. Biden has promised to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court, and many view Jackson as a top contender should a vacancy arise. https://t.co/crQdyrJp3O
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 14, 2021
re: #120 JC1
The future is unknown, of course, but I think that some sort of UBI will be unavailable as automation and better dumb AI replace more and more workers. It’s only a matter of time before knowledge workers start getting replaced.
Were there some aspects of life that were better for the average white male in the US in the 1950s or 1960s? For sure. But on balance, I’ll take a bit of economic uncertainty along with my smartphone, effective vaccines developed within 24 hours of the virus getting sequenced, air bags, anti lock brakes, HD TV, internet, AC, longer life expectancy, etc.
I’m not advocating for a return to the social mores of the 50s and 60s. What I am advocating is for the 21st century ruling class to give back its ill gotten gains or be forced to.
Edited to add: Life expectancy is more fundamental than many of the things you’ve listed, and I believe US progress has been relatively poor on that front, with the US lagging behind Western Europe for several decades now.
re: #28 No Malarkey!
He’ll look much better in jail — his natural habitat.
re: #118 Backwoods_Sleuth
I am so damned tired of this. I swear, the bodies just need to be piled up in front of the fucking governors mansion. And the state Capitol building. There was another shooting on I-85 today too. Everyone’s got a gun and if they don’t get their way in two seconds they’ll fucking kill you. I want to move. I hate it here.
just take a fucking seat, Qmoron
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “I have made a mistake… this afternoon I visited the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust is- there’s nothing comparable to it.” pic.twitter.com/skrF6YyC3u
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 14, 2021
Congrats, I guess, for obtaining a middle school grasp of history https://t.co/zTqFsCXkjc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2021
Couldn’t imagine a better partner for this journey. pic.twitter.com/cQpeynZdgq
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 14, 2021
re: #127 Backwoods_Sleuth
Oh just shut your yap you two faced bigot.
re: #122 Eclectic Cyborg
Clearly, the cashier should have been armed too.
///////
“Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the GBI said.
A DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to intervene while working off-duty. Authorities said he then began shooting at the deputy, who returned fire. The reserve deputy, whose name was not released, was working a part-time security job at the store, Williams said.
re: #127 Backwoods_Sleuth
Like she didn’t know that before going to the museum. No, one of her idiot advisors told her it will be used against her next election cycle and she’s playing CYA. She can fuck off all the way to the top of Fuck Off Mountain.
re: #124 EPR-radar
I’m not advocating for a return to the social mores of the 50s and 60s. What I am advocating is for the 21st century ruling class to give back its ill gotten gains or be forced to.
They certainly won’t give up anything willingly, nor frankly should they. I’m in support of a much stronger (more difficult to avoid) estate tax on billionaires. I also think that investment income should not get preferential treatment. I guess I don’t know what you mean by ill gotten gains… If they broke the law, punish them accordingly, if they followed the rules, I can’t really blane them.
re: #130 PhillyPretzel
Oh just shut your yap you two faced bigot.
On the possibility that she might actually have learned something from her visit, I will withhold comment for the moment. Time will tell whether her “repentance” is actually sincere, and even she deserves a benefit-of-the-doubt moment.
re: #133 JC1
They certainly won’t give up anything willingly, nor frankly should they. I’m in support of a much stronger (more difficult to avoid) estate tax on billionaires. I also think that investment income should not get preferential treatment. I guess I don’t know what you mean by ill gotten gains… If they broke the law, punish them accordingly, if they followed the rules, I can’t really blane them.
They are ill-gotten because they have skewed the laws to their benefit, and the rich are already generally above the law. Reforms are essential, and rich fat cats who stop such reforms should remember that those who make peaceful reform impossible make violent revolution inevitable.
re: #131 BeachDem
“Tucker walked directly back to the cashier, pulled out a handgun and shot her,” the GBI said.
A DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to intervene while working off-duty. Authorities said he then began shooting at the deputy, who returned fire. The reserve deputy, whose name was not released, was working a part-time security job at the store, Williams said.
Again. “I have rights. You do not.”
re: #66 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)
On my recent trip the only people who got full meal service was those with sleeper accommodations as well.
Rest of us got a small cafe area to buy stuff from that could be microwave heated and some spaced out tables to use. (And on one leg of the trip the table area on the cafe car was closed.) The coffee wasn’t that bad though. (Dunkin Donuts brand on the Philly -> Pittsburgh -> Chicago legs. I just wish they opened sooner than 7am.)
My experience pre-pandemic on the Silver Crescent.
re: #133 JC1
In a period of just 12-13 years I went from being a glibertarian on economics to believing there should be income and net worth caps, or a soft cap made by taxing everything over a certain amount in both areas at 99%. Almost no one is a billionaire without doing a litany of shady and illegal bullshit and exploiting people. It never trickles down. The velocity of money up there is fucking almost zero and that’s a very bad thing.
I knew (not well, but friend of a friend and the like) one person who had a 100 million-ish net worth. Turned out it was due to a massive scam over the course of a decade.
Steve explaining something he thinks is important that really isn’t. pic.twitter.com/H3xmOczzK4
— In Otter News…. (@In_Otter_News2) June 14, 2021
Dysfunction favors the anti-government party.
From Levitsky (co-author of 👇) the greatest danger to democracy is the government slipping into dysfunction, which will erode public confidence.
When public confidence erodes, people become vulnerable to the appeal of a strongman, who promises to get things done.
1/ pic.twitter.com/jhi8fWWyiK— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) June 14, 2021
One reason McConnell’s ploy is so effective is that a lot of people blame the Democrats.
People not paying attention assume that if government slides into dysfunction, it’s the fault of both parties. Why vote if both parties are the same?https://t.co/Lzsm3x8lUl
3/— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) June 14, 2021
re: #138 Jack Burton, Gunner on Death Star of David
In a period of just 12-13 years I went from being a glibertarian on economics to believing there should be income and net worth caps, or a soft cap made by taxing everything over a certain amount in both areas at 99%. Almost no one is a billionaire without doing a litany of shady and illegal bullshit and exploiting people. It never trickles down. The velocity of money up there is fucking almost zero and that’s a very bad thing.
I knew (not well, but friend of a friend and the like) one person who had a 100 million-ish net worth. Turned out it was due to a massive scam over the course of a decade.
For sure the velocity of money of most inherited wealth is next to 0. 100 million dollar paintings hanging on a wall don’t provide much benefit. This isn’t the case with many first generation fortunes. People like Musk or Bezos are creating massive wealth not only for themselves but for thousands of others. I think that an estate tax with teeth is the way to go, but make it really hard/impossible to avoid.
Edited addendum. I personally know self made centi millionaires and a couple of billionaires who in the course of making their fortune earned even more money for various public employee pension funds.
re: #138 Jack Burton, Gunner on Death Star of David
In a period of just 12-13 years I went from being a glibertarian on economics to believing there should be income and net worth caps, or a soft cap made by taxing everything over a certain amount in both areas at 99%. Almost no one is a billionaire without doing a litany of shady and illegal bullshit and exploiting people. It never trickles down. The velocity of money up there is fucking almost zero and that’s a very bad thing.
I knew (not well, but friend of a friend and the like) one person who had a 100 million-ish net worth. Turned out it was due to a massive scam over the course of a decade.
There was a time when “filthy rich” was a common idiom, and it was widely recognized that behind every great fortune was a great crime.
Quick, someone take Marjorie Taylor Greene here. pic.twitter.com/7XgDfztXqi
— Holly McCormack for Congress (@Holly_4Congress) June 14, 2021
The man who used to run the WSJ newsroom seems awfully bitter that Darnella Frazier, the young woman who captured George Floyd’s murder on video, has been awarded a special Pulitzer. https://t.co/tzATH0vQeU pic.twitter.com/aq2IooHniU
— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) June 14, 2021
I would just like to thank those in this thread who introduced me to twitter’s bodega cats. Whenever I feel down those cats cheer me up. And also to those who introduced me to The Mansky, Curious Zelda, Lorenzo The Cat and Number 10 Cat, Thanks.
re: #79 The Ghost of a Flea
These comments are so great and thought-provoking. I wish I could convince you to post them as Pages sometimes, I know I’m not the only person who’d find them interesting!
Thread https://t.co/ZECe7HVUBZ
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) June 15, 2021
Oh Louie https://t.co/UONh6vIjUS
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) June 15, 2021
re: #141 JC1
People like Musk or Bezos are creating massive wealth not only for themselves but for thousands of others.
There’s thousands of employees of Amazon who are forced to work in near dystopian environments and forced to watch anti-union propaganda and many Tesla factory workers who got COVID who would disagree with this.
I don’t know a single former Amazon employee who has anything good to say about the place and a few of them constantly beg everyone they know to boycott it.
I’m a proud late adopter of software and gadgets. Being on the cutting edge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You can get hurt out there.
I may have been one of the last humans on the planet to own a cell phone.— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2021
My landline phone with built-in answering machine is still sitting on a corner of my desk. Wordlessly rebuking me for abandoning it.
Answering machines were cutting edge technology not that long ago.— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2021
Everyone is talking about Breyer needing to retire because McConnell says he’ll block any Biden appointees. I think Thomas needs to fuckin’ quit first, then Alito, then Breyer, and all before 2022…and then the Democrats need to keep the Senate, kill the filibuster, and impeach Comey Barrett for being a piece of shit Stepford wife.
re: #150 Charles Johnson
I got my first cell phone 2-3 years ago, not really by choice.
So far I’ve resisted having my whole life be on the damn thing.
re: #150 Charles Johnson
Charles I too have a landline cordless phone with an answering machine and yes I still use it.
re: #150 Charles Johnson
When I was in college I had no calls for over a month, so I changed my outgoing message to “NOBODY’S HOME SO FUCK OFF!” - my mother called the next day.
re: #153 PhillyPretzel
Charles I too have a landline cordless phone with an answering machine and yes I still use it.
My landline is corded because cordless is worthless if the power goes off.
re: #154 darthstar
When I was in college I had no calls for over a month, so I changed my outgoing message to “NOBODY’S HOME SO FUCK OFF!” - my mother called the next day.
Which was precisely the effect to be expected of that change in the recording.
re: #155 darthstar
My Panasonic has battery backup.
wow, even for rand paul this is an impressive amount of unadulterated bullshit https://t.co/FWZRNfNorQ pic.twitter.com/uUtlsEzOWZ
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 14, 2021
re: #153 PhillyPretzel
Charles I too have a landline cordless phone with an answering machine and yes I still use it.
If someday I ever can actually own a house, I wanted to have a single old school landline phone that’s powered by the phone line and colored red, for emergencies only. However a few people I know who have tried to setup land lines via AT&T out here with no “frills” either for alarm systems or emergency phones like this have stated that they get nickled and dimed constantly for bullshit and AT&T sneaks long distance coverage on to it even when not requested eventually so you have to watch your bill like a hawk and call and bitch the second something looks hinkey.
It’s not worth it for my anxiety.
re: #45 sagehen
theories:
1) she has a friend living rough who she’s trying to persuade to come home with her. Because she knows you have enough love for two cats.
2) she’s hunting. Because you’ve brought her dinner so many times, now she’s thinking it’s time she bring you a meal.
3) she returns to the place she rode storms out in for a number of years while living rough, and then reappears when the sun comes out. This afternoon, she returned covered in cobwebs, so that was a fun 10 minutes of my getting those out of her hair. I’m guessing she’s going under the semi trailer that’s sitting out on a concrete slab in the parking lot.
re: #150 Charles Johnson
My wife doesn’t have a cellphone, and I gave the emergency burner phone I was given as a birthday gift to my son to use on his job search.
re: #159 Jack Burton, Gunner on Death Star of David
I have a Verizon Fios plan that allows me to have a landline phone, a cellphone and fiber optic internet. They keep bugging me to get their TV plans but none of those plans has what I want.
re: #149 Jack Burton, Gunner on Death Star of David
There’s thousands of employees of Amazon who are forced to work in near dystopian environments and forced to watch anti-union propaganda and many Tesla factory workers who got COVID who would disagree with this.
I don’t know a single former Amazon employee who has anything good to say about the place and a few of them constantly beg everyone they know to boycott it.
No one is forcing anyone to work at Amazon or Tesla, though I imagine that the average Tesla employee is quite happy with their stock options.
Amazon created a market where millions of people/companies can sell their products.
Could/should the average warehouse employee earn more and work under better conditions? Sure. Maybe the employees should unionize, though they keep voting against it.
re: #57 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire
I’m starting to seriously give it some thought. We’ll see how it goes this summer.
My goal is to have enough money put by to where I can buy one of those murphy bed pleasureways (damned things are in the 150k range). Then it will be me teaching online while traveling the country and perhaps doing some non-fiction travel writing.
re: #124 EPR-radar
Edited to add: Life expectancy is more fundamental than many of the things you’ve listed, and I believe US progress has been relatively poor on that front, with the US lagging behind Western Europe for several decades now.
Only if you’re averaging in EVERYBODY. If you limit your statistics to people in the upper half of the economic ladder (i.e., people with good insurance and preventive care and early treatment before conditions become serious)… American life expectancy is as good or better than the other OECD countries.
I’m just here for the ratio
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) June 15, 2021
re: #165 sagehen
Only if you’re averaging in EVERYBODY. If you limit your statistics to people in the upper half of the economic ladder (i.e., people with good insurance and preventive care and early treatment before conditions become serious)… American life expectancy is as good or better than the other OECD countries.
That’s pretty much my point — economic distortions in the US are reducing life expectancy. The US right is on a mission from their (self-created) God to make the lives of the poor as nasty, brutish and short as possible.
I hear rumbles of thunder and Philly is under a severe thunderstorm warning.
re: #165 sagehen
Only if you’re averaging in EVERYBODY. If you limit your statistics to people in the upper half of the economic ladder (i.e., people with good insurance and preventive care and early treatment before conditions become serious)… American life expectancy is as good or better than the other OECD countries.
Ironically, the biggest causes of early death in the US are the result of plenty… Obesity, and related diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are a bigger killer than tobacco ever was.
re: #163 JC1
No one is forcing anyone to work at Amazon or Tesla, though I imagine that the average Tesla employee is quite happy with their stock options.
Amazon created a market where millions of people/companies can sell their products.Could/should the average warehouse employee earn more and work under better conditions? Sure. Maybe the employees should unionize, though they keep voting against it.
Anti-union propaganda and being told that if they unionize, Amazon will close the facility to open a new non-organized one elsewhere tends to put the fear of starvation in them, just as Bezos wants.
And I wonder how good those stock options look to, say, someone who nearly died of COVID or to the survivors of those did die?
I have yet to see anything good from the super rich that outweighs the evil that they do.
The power grid in this guy’s state is failing to meet demand (again) and he’s doing this pic.twitter.com/MruZ0Ov8Jg
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) June 14, 2021
re: #171 Backwoods_Sleuth
We may have the laziest Senators of all, and that’s saying something.
re: #70 JOE 🥓
That’s why I’m waiting until the Dining cars return. What ticks me off is that it appears for now Amtrak will only restore dining cars on western overnight routes. The “flexible dining” they have been serving has too high carb counts with every entree.
I’m surprised they don’t create a kind of automat feature for dining. Just have a car that has a long wall of replenished entrees and desserts, drinks and what-not. At the end some cancer-riddled 4 pack a day lady running the cash register. Separate car for the actual eating. You don’t need wait staff. You can prepare a lot of stuff at a depot somewhere and just have it reheated right before it gets put in the automat spot.
Someone: “Damn it Jim, stand!”
Jim: “I am standing!”#JimJordanIsSoShort https://t.co/4SZC7cvoZB— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) June 15, 2021
re: #169 JC1
Ironically, the biggest causes of early death in the US are the result of plenty… Obesity, and related diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are a bigger killer than tobacco ever was.
Paradoxical plenty. Notwithstanding Trump, obesity tends to increase as ones’ economic hardship does. It’s well known that it is far cheaper and less time consuming to have a shitty diet than to have a healthy diet.
re: #169 JC1
Ironically, the biggest causes of early death in the US are the result of plenty… Obesity, and related diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are a bigger killer than tobacco ever was.
Obesity is definitely worse than tobacco in the US, especially now. I’m curious to know how many deaths, or illness in general, can be linked in someway to stress though. I’d not be surprised if some obesity is related to it, and outside of obesity other stress derived or related deaths being rather high.
This is just astoundingly grotesque, that someone can ascend to the Congress of the US and be this goddamned dim-witted and incurious.
She is SO horrible, like a parody of the worst possible right wing loon you can imagine. https://t.co/Zmv89aLDR8— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2021
This is what #MarjorieManson was doing instead of writing a heartfelt Twitter thread about how she was completely wrong about the Holocaust.
Ignore what they say. Watch what they do. #timetoexpelmarjorie https://t.co/OvKinZOLlB— Tara Dublin Is Vaccinated AF (@taradublinrocks) June 15, 2021
re: #170 William Lewis
I have yet to see anything good from the super rich that outweighs the evil that they do.
Most of the ultra rich really are evil pieces of shit, but I think wealth concentration at that level is intrinsically evil. Nothing good can come of it, either for society or for the rich person.
Holocaust museum and a radio show with a Nazi. Busy afternoon.
Needs more confirmation….but it looks like Belarus authorities may be deliberately trafficking refugees into Lithuania in order to start an EU migrant crisis - and perhaps to punish Lithuania for helping the Belarus opposition https://t.co/3mK67aIN3H
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) June 13, 2021
re: #180 jaunte
Holocaust museum and a radio show with a Nazi. Busy afternoon.
It’s the wingnut version of a serial criminal confessing on Sunday morning and committing his crimes again that afternoon.
re: #170 William Lewis
Anti-union propaganda and being told that if they unionize, Amazon will close the facility to open a new non-organized one elsewhere tends to put the fear of starvation in them, just as Bezos wants.
And I wonder how good those stock options look to, say, someone who nearly died of COVID or to the survivors of those did die?
I have yet to see anything good from the super rich that outweighs the evil that they do.
We’re not serfs or slaves… We’re not forced to work at any company. During covid there was plenty of government assistance and those TSLA employees could have quit.
Was Elon a dick for forcing his employees to work during covid? For sure. Could the company have survived a prolonged closure? I don’t know; they were in a precarious financial shape until recently. Did he ask people to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself?
Evil is a strong word. Some super rich are for sure vile, as are some poor people; the rich just have a larger influence/impact.
I read, and saw the play “Diary of Anne Frank” in Elementary School.
I read Eli Weisel’s “Night” in Middle School.
She’s 47. https://t.co/okKrRrn6S2— chris evans (@chris_notcapn) June 15, 2021
re: #175 EPR-radar
Paradoxical plenty. Notwithstanding Trump, obesity tends to increase as ones’ economic hardship does. It’s well known that it is far cheaper and less time consuming to have a shitty diet than to have a healthy diet.
Obesity comes down to calories consumed. I make fun of my friends who buy ‘organic’. You can be thin on a fast food diet if you keep the daily caloric intake low enough.
re: #185 JC1
Obesity comes down to calories consumed. I make fun of my friends who buy ‘organic’. You can be thin on a fast food diet if you keep the daily caloric intake low enough.
The likelihood of severe malnutrition with this approach is very high.
Exactly, she’s performing to keep her handlers from being embarrassed any more. Absolutely nothing about this is sincere. https://t.co/jYE5pByLB3
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2021
Possibly the fakest apology ever seen. https://t.co/92TjeRgYYJ
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2021
re: #186 EPR-radar
The likelihood of severe malnutrition with this approach is very high.
McDonald’s sells salads too.
Republican Mike Shirkey, majority leader of the Michigan State Senate, is pictured here smiling with William Null, the domestic terrorist who was plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. pic.twitter.com/m5TvOte0NZ
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 15, 2021
re: #186 EPR-radar
The likelihood of severe malnutrition with this approach is very high.
You can actually get most of what you need from fast food, add a multivitamin and avoid some of the worst items and you’d be mostly fine.
re: #187 Charles Johnson
I wonder how long it will take for MTG to spew out a tweet castigating “the Left” - or some Designated Boogeyman - for being so depraved as not to accept her heartfelt “apology”…?
Joining @TheLastWord at 10 ET tonight to discuss how GOP has passed 24 new laws in 14 states to subvert free & fair elections https://t.co/eQVAuUrZSR
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) June 15, 2021
While the GOP clown car performs, behind the scenes their donors are stealing your vote.
hey did you guys hear that bibi is finally gone?
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) June 15, 2021
Yes, the most important response to revelations that many of the wealthiest Americans are paying literally nothing in taxes because they game the system is to be sure that there are no further revelations. https://t.co/vJF9efyAwa
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) June 15, 2021
I really have to censor myself on some topics on Twitter, because if I say what I really think I’ll be barraged with attacks from one side or the other.
re: #193 jaunte
While the GOP clown car performs, behind the scenes their donors are stealing your vote.
It is beyond ridiculous that the best case for US politics in the next 1-3 election cycles is good vs. evil on the ballot in fucking nail biter elections, where if evil wins once by a large enough margin, there will be no future elections.
re: #127 Backwoods_Sleuth
just take a fucking seat, Qmoron
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My cynical take is this: Within a month (>95%) she will say something to the effect of “I can’t be anti-Semitic, I’ve gone to the holocaust museum. You just hate Israel.”
re: #199 Belafon
She’s probably fine with Arizona killing prisoners with Zyklon-B.
re: #200 jaunte
She’s probably fine with Arizona killing prisoners with Zyklon-B.
That freaked me out when I read it. Just insane.
re: #100 BeenHereAwhile
Looks like a good solid unit.
Ask around and find a good RV appliance service man to check out your gas/electric refrigerator, gas stove, heater, AC, water plumbing & waste systems before you hit the road.
If you’re experienced in RVs you know what I mean
Plan on it. Once it’s properly registered & licensed (tomorrow, I hope) I plan on taking it to a mechanic I know to inspect & correct any fuel system discrepancies. One of which the previous owner disclosed, transfer valve between fuel tanks doesn’t work & needs replaced. After that? An inspection of the water and gas systems.. Money into the bottomless pit…………… Joy, joy, joy
re: #190 danarchy
I’m going to quietly disagree with most of this discussion. Having been poor, homeless and without basic health and dental care, nope. I ended up without dental insurance or access to affordable dental care for nearly 20 yrs. Once I had it, I had to have several teeth extracted. I did my best to take care of my teeth every day, but it wasn’t enough. For almost two years I ate food that was being thrown out by local restaurants. Burgers, pizza, whatever I could get. I was not properly nourished and I think it set me up for many other problems later on. A multi vitamin also has to be properly absorbed to work, a lot can interfere with that.
Poor areas lack access to grocery stores and transportation needed to get there and back, as well as having a functional kitchen, which isn’t always possible if you can’t afford both utilities and a roof. You get groceries into homes, then you would see less hunger, shitty nutrition and health issues overall. Maybe we ought to work on making sure everyone has basic needs met, nutritious food, shelter, clothing and proper whole person medical care we would all benefit. Rich or poor. None of this is simple, but if you have never had to worry about where your next meal is coming from, it’s hard to really get how hard it is to take care of yourself. Even as a functional adult.
re: #186 EPR-radar
The likelihood of severe malnutrition with this approach is very high.
Not to defend fast food, but this is not a true statement. Modern food fortification requirements for make “severe malnutrition” not a thing in this country is you’re consuming adequate calories.
re: #134 A hollow voice says NOW drain that swamp!
On the possibility that she might actually have learned something from her visit, I will withhold comment for the moment. Time will tell whether her “repentance” is actually sincere, and even she deserves a benefit-of-the-doubt moment.
Deeds, not words.
re: #178 jaunte
“Do actions agree with words? There’s your measure of reliability. Never confine yourself to the words.”
— Frank Herbert, “Chapterhouse: Dune”— 😷 Teo 😷 (@Teukka72) June 15, 2021
re: #61 William Lewis
Why any long distances on this continent are by Amtrak for me. I’d rather sit in a coach seat for days on the train than for hours in one of the illrun sardine cans.
I pick up my son tonight at Amtrak in Pittsburgh. He has been down to see his girlfriend in DC for the week again. He loves Amtrak.
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