Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Here are a few news items that might interest you. Please feel free to share anything that might interest readers, but make sure to include links.
First news item
In an interview with CBS News, Biden was blunt when asked if Trump should get continued access to top secret intel. “I think not,” he said, standing by his earlier warnings of Trump being “dangerous” and “reckless.” “I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?” Biden said.
Second news item
The Trump Organization negotiated on behalf of then-president Donald Trump to make Parler his primary social network, but it had a condition: an ownership stake in return for joining, according to documents and four people familiar with the conversations. The deal was never finalized, but legal experts said the discussions alone, which occurred while Trump was still in office, raise legal concerns with regards to anti-bribery laws.
Talks between members of Trump’s campaign and Parler about Trump’s potential involvement began last summer, and were revisited in November by the Trump Organization after Trump lost the 2020 election to the Democratic nominee and current president, Joe Biden. Documents seen by BuzzFeed News show that Parler offered the Trump Organization a 40% stake in the company. It is unclear as to what extent the former president was involved with the discussions.
Third news item
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it could be possible to get back to school safely without hinging the return to classrooms on vaccines.
“There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters at a briefing. “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki walked back comments from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky suggesting that schools might be able to reopen before all teachers have received a vaccine to prevent Covid-19.
“The director of the CDC … said they haven’t issued their final guidance, and we, of course, wait for that process to complete and see its way through,” Psaki told reporters at a White House briefing…Psaki subsequently suggested that Walensky was speaking in her “personal capacity,” the first time Psaki has resorted to arguing that an administration official represented an opinion that did not reflect the administration’s position…“Dr. Walensky spoke to this in her personal capacity,” Psaki said. “Obviously, she’s the head of the CDC, but we’re going to wait for the final guidance to come out.”
The increasingly heated school reopening debate is forcing President Joe Biden to balance two priorities: getting children back into the classroom and preserving the support of powerful labor groups that helped him get elected.
Fourth news item
You can’t always get what you want:
President Joe Biden laid out his case Friday for moving fast to pass $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief, but even as he opened the door to proceeding without Republicans, he conceded that a key element of his plan — hiking the minimum wage to $15 per hour — was unlikely to become law.
…
“I put it in, but I don’t think it’s going to survive,” Biden said in an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell, adding he would push to raise it in a standalone bill. “No one should work 40 hours a week and live below the poverty wage. And if you’re making less than $15 an hour, you’re living below the poverty wage.”
Fifth news item
The gift that keeps on giving…to Democrats:
“The party is his – it doesn’t belong to anybody else,” Marjorie Taylor Greene says of Trump.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 5, 2021
Sixth news item
Fox News Media has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the program hosted by television’s staunchest supporter of Donald Trump and of his assertions of voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Times has learned…
Dobbs’ program, which airs twice nightly at 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Business Network, will have its final airing Friday, according to a Fox News representative who confirmed the cancellation.
…
The cancellation comes a day after voting software company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News and three of its hosts — Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. The company claims the hosts perpetuated lies and disinformation about Smartmatic’s role in the election, damaging its business and reputation.
Seventh news item:
McCarthy’s task was to keep an angry, fractious conference together in the face of growing animus toward two very different members — Reps. Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene. McCarthy, according to people on Capitol Hill familiar with his thinking, went into the week with one goal: no blood. That meant not taking sides between the establishment and pro-Trump wings of the party. The challenge was to save both wings and keep them unified.
To achieve this, McCarthy did what many Republicans outside of the House conference had long criticized him for — not taking a firm enough stand on certain issues and allowing individual members to drive the conversation, even when they were espousing conspiracies and pushing the lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
While some Republicans saw his hands-off approach as a sign of weakness, the style was aimed at keeping the conference intact, even if some of the Republicans’ dirty laundry had to be aired in public.
But by Friday, it was clear the Republican leader’s strategy had paid off. The GOP conference was unified and his own position inside it was secure.
“You elected me leader,” McCarthy told the conference at the end of their hours-long meeting Wednesday night. “Let me lead.”
Eighth news item
Ah:
Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, which never received a cent from the former president, moved an estimated $2.8 million of donor money into the Trump Organization—including at least $81,000 since Trump lost the election.
In addition, one of the campaign’s joint-fundraising committees, which collects money in partnership with the Republican Party, shifted about $4.3 million of donor money into Trump’s business from January 20, 2017, to December 31, 2020—at least $331,000 of which came after the election.
The money covered the cost of rent, airfare, lodging and other expenses. All the payments are laid out in filings the campaign submitted to the Federal Election Commission. Representatives for the Trump Organization, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ninth news item
Summers, the former Treasury secretary for Bill Clinton and top economic adviser to Barack Obama, puts down on paper what many liberal wonks have been whispering about for weeks: that President Joe Biden’s stimulus bill may be too big, that its overall cost could sacrifice other progressive priorities and that it could harm the economy next year, when Democrats will be defending narrow congressional majorities in the midterms.
For weeks the key economic talking point from the White House has been that the risk of going too small is worse than the risk of going too big. Now comes Summers who says … that might not be true. “[M]uch of the policy discussion has not fully reckoned with the magnitude of what is being debated,” he wrote.
Tenth news item
Leading Christie’s Modern British Art Evening Sale on 1 March 2021 will be led by Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque (1943, estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000)…
The painting is the only work that Churchill created during the Second World War, executing the painting in Marrakech following the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Churchill invited Franklin D. Roosevelt to join him in Marrakech the day after the conference concluded, motivated by his desire to share the views of the city and the light at sunset, which he so revered, with Roosevelt.
The view impressed Roosevelt so much that Churchill decided to capture the scene for him as a memento of their excursion. This act was seen not only as an indication of their friendship but of the special relationship between the UK and the USA.
…
Sir Winston Churchill began painting scenes of Morocco after being encouraged to visit the country by his painting tutor, Sir John Lavery. Upon his first visit in 1935, he felt that the light and scenery were unrivalled, creating some 45 paintings of the country. Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque stands out as the only painting created between 1939 and 1945, and the work is expected to realise one of the top prices for Sir Winston Churchill’s paintings at auction.
(Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, 1943)
Have a good weekend!
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (fd537d) — 2/5/2021 @ 11:15 pmThe party is with marjorie taylor green. If liz cheney vote had not been secret it would have been 200 to 10 for removal. Cheney and ben sasse will be primaried along with 10 rino’s who voted for impeachment and 11 who voted to strip mtg of her committee assignments. Any rino who votes for conviction will be primaried. The chamber of commerce connections to communist china is now being investigated.
asset (5c75fa) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:17 amThe Matriarchy is on the march, comrades!
Thomas makes history as first female Super Bowl official
Good for her!
I find it especially cool that the NFL renamed her officiating position from “Head Linesman” to “Down Judge”. Respect where respect is due.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:38 amIf the Cheney vote had not been secret than apparently Republican congresspeople would have voted out of fear, not conviction. Is that about right?
Victor (4959fb) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:54 amThe data is Biden’s victory. Now that Trump is gone, we can open up the schools, which frankly, should not have closed this long in the first place.
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:20 amSummers doesn’t understand – Biden can make it three times as big and never suffer a negative consequence. The Democrats and the media will blame Trump and Greene and everyone will nod their head in approval. Biden can shovel out free money to his most important constituents with impunity.
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:22 amThomas makes history as first female Super Bowl official
You know you’re a prole when …
— You think football games are historical events.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:29 amThis comment is not an attempt to relitigate the 2020 election(because I know I would get the boot for that) but is an attempt to learn from what is now history. Anyone who even remotely calls themselves a conservative in any way needs to read and discuss this article extensively. If you think liberals are just presenting facts to the American people and then just let them decide who is best for office, you are mistaken. Democrats are out to win and will do whatever is needed to accomplish that. As a reminder this isn’t a link to Brietbart or Steve Bannon, this is Time magazine.
Some pull quotes to hopefully convince you to read this:
My thoughts on this is I am fine with it, with exception the part where they got Congress to fund some of this. We all have the right to plot and scheme to get our guy or girl into office. But my question is where are the Republicans doing this for us? Last year we were huddled in our houses trying to stay safe from covid and debating if Trump was good or bad meanwhile Democrats were strategizing how they were going to win. It’s long past time for Conservatives to learn the real rules of the game that is being played.
ah-non-ee-mouse (b6adda) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:33 amYou know you’re a prole when …
— You believe that the Republicans and Democrats are two different political parties and they hold genuine elections in which how you vote matters.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:55 amYou know you’re a prole when …
— You believe that the Proud Boys are a genuine white supremacist hate group despite knowing that they are led by a Black Hispanic FBI informant.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:04 amThat’s just dumbaesch-ery on 10. Think of it as a Cobra Kai-Guardian Angel-Chicago North Side Greaser Gang gone awry.
urbanleftbehind (5d95d0) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:30 amYou know you’re a prole when …
— You don’t suspect that QAnon is a false flag operation by Deep State to discredit all scrutiny of Deep State as “loony conspiracy theories”.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:33 amhttps://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Time magazine admits the oligarchy ordered the code red.
NJRob (0bf784) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:34 amNinth item is Summers in the nice way saying what Larry “Snowman” Kudlow is saying much more bluntly here.
urbanleftbehind (5d95d0) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:35 amI thought QA was just a means to get good close seats up front at Trump rallies so that they could…you know…
urbanleftbehind (5d95d0) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:36 amhttps://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/02/what-we-are-doing-to-our-young-people-is-a-crime.php
Destroying a generation of children because the teachers union doesn’t want to work.
NJRob (0bf784) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:38 amIt says “Open Thread” right on top, urbanleftbehind, the sun is shining, and if my car starts I want my most serious gripe today to be the $3.98 for a bag of potato chips at Jewel when two weeks ago they were 2 for $4. The dirty gougers!
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:42 amGee, Dobbs, it wouldn’t have hurt to lay off of one cartel (maybe the one from whichever estado the Mexican wife is from) and diss on St. Patty’s Day…notice how Pirr-o and Bartirom-o kept their gigs…probably know some dangerous people.
urbanleftbehind (5d95d0) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:43 amHoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:22 am
They can blame whoever they want. If the stock market crashes or inflation spikes it doesn’t matter who they blame. The mask continues to slip everyday so they can nod all they want. Have you noticed that no one really argues the idea that the media isn’t biased anymore?
If Biden shovels a bunch of money out the door, the college loan idea is a good example, if that goes out as money to current debtors as opposed to something like a tax credit for degrees the number of people on the pissed/populism side of the fence is only going to grow.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:47 amRob, schools are just brainwashing centers for indoctrinating children with leftist ideology.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:48 amhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hunter-bidens-memoir-listed-as-231-best-seller-in-chinese-biographies-on-amazon/ar-BB1drnxb
Hunter Biden gets a book deal. I’m shocked, shocked. At least he’s #1 in Chinese biographies.
NJRob (0bf784) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:51 amnk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:55 am
Who are you and what did you do with the nk I normally disagree with?
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:51 amhttps://www.bostonherald.com/2021/02/05/baker-climate-official-blasted-for-comments-to-break-your-will-over-emissionsvideo/
Leftist politicians tell you what they really think when they believe they are safe from the public finding out the truth.
The goal is to gonafter homeowners and drivers. Make their lives more difficult.
NJRob (0bf784) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:53 amYKYAPW …
… you risk your life to go shopping for a bag of potato chips.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:04 amRob, schools are just brainwashing centers for indoctrinating children with leftist ideology.
This is a serious comment. As a parent who was in PTA, I can tell you that the main purpose of schools is to keep adolescents busy and out of trouble. For working parents, they’re an invaluable childcare service. For a lot poor kids, the school breakfast and lunch are the only decent meals they get (may Michelle Obama’s toenails ingrow painfully).
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:11 amAs for the education the kids are getting, you may find it hard to believe but inorganic chemistry labs just somehow don’t seem to work the same through a computer screen.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:18 amSo, in your conspiracy theory, Psaki’s attempt to pump the brakes by distancing the administration from reopening without vaccinations is just a smokescreen to disguise their true, and opposite, intentions?
Diabolical!
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:23 amscience is a lie mr nk
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:24 amI think President Dotage is in over his geriatric head and can’t figure out if he should follow Science or follow the dollars from the teacher’s unions.
But as any science follower should know, schools are safe and science has shown that for some time. But we couldn’t send them back to school during Trump. We had to save that for Biden so he could take the credit. Those pesky teachers unions need to follow the playbook…
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:41 amI’m actually teaching our advanced lab for senior physics majors (remotely) right now.
Before the pandemic it involved doing various classic experiments from the 20th century, like the Millikan oil drop experiment (originally performed at the University of Chicago, you’ll be proud to know) that showed electric charge is quantized. Using real equipment in a real lab, of course.
To teach it remotely, we’re using educational/outreach data samples provided by one of my experiments at CERN to redo some classic experiments of the 21st century, like discovery of the Higgs boson. Using analysis software developed by the students.
While there are some challenges, the skills students are learning in this remote version of the course are arguably more valuable and relevant than the original. We’ll throw in some basic machine learning by the end of the quarter.
(For anyone interested, you can play around with the open data at home and re-discover the Higgs boson yourself…everything you need, including step by step instructions, are provided…)
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:48 amhttps://thenewamerican.com/illinois-teachers-told-to-adopt-progressive-ideology-or-be-fired/
Dave,
the problem is teachers are supposed to teach, not indoctrinate. But the unions and the left have decided that indoctrinating is preferable. So it’s become a socialized day care to allow parents to work 2 jobs to afford the American lifestyle.
https://thenewamerican.com/illinois-teachers-told-to-adopt-progressive-ideology-or-be-fired/
Here’s your marxist playbook for Illinois.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:52 amLooks like the federal murder case for Sicknick is running in problems with evidence.
Any guesses why the medical examiner’s report hasn’t been released or what it will say when it is?
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:01 amFrom Rob’s link, here’s the “progressive ideology”:
Rob, were black people enslaved in this country for almost a quarter of a millennium, and then denied basic civil and political rights, education and economic opportunities for another century?
And do you suppose we’ve wiped out every consequence of that in the (barely) fifty years since de jure discrimination and oppression were finally eliminated?
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:08 amHoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:41 am
I think the unions are shafting the kids and the teachers. The unions want more money but it sounds like in a lot of districts that money isn’t being turned into more PPE or helping to change class size or schedules.
In the long run the public will see this as teachers not wanting to teach, which I don’t think is fair, and the kids will get less from their time.
I don’t know why this isn’t a good argument for vouchers.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:10 amDave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:08 am
Eliminated? Is that what
means? Sounds a bit discriminatory.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:19 amThey don’t exist other than by the leftist party to ensure poorly run schools still employ lots of leftist activists Dave.
But that’s not what you’re implying, is it?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:30 amDave our country was born in 1776. I thought you knew that? What are you implying?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:31 amThat acknowledging historical reality is not marxism.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:35 amhttps://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/shocking-video-shows-attack-that-killed-84-year-old-man-in-san-francisco/
Random knockout game murders and more in leftist utopia.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:40 amYour math is off Dave.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:40 am5:33 —
Since you want us to consider whether prescience might be evidence of hanky-panky, here are a few other things to think about.
1. Trump claimed there was massive voter fraud in the 2016 election. He offered this as the reason why he did not get the popular vote. He even came up with a Commission to investigate the whole thing. The commission disbanded without issuing a report.
2. The hacking of election results was a concern from the left. It didn’t happen in 2016. Nevertheless, there was reason to believe it could. As we people following politics in Georgia know, these kind of suspicions can generate activity and legislation even if the feared thing did not happen. (The GA legislature has a whole bunch of bills tightening up absentee voting and using the voting drop boxes. Some of these are endorsed by Brad Raffensperger, our current one-term Secretary of State)
3. A common trope of people seeking to overthrow Democracy is to claim voter fraud loud and long. See Burma (I’ll follow the President on the naming of the country) for a recent example. The Left and some of these moderates strongly suspected Trump wants to be some sort of dictator. Claiming voter fraud would be a pathway. So this is why the leftist conspiring cabal might be concerned about it.
What you got is a network and no evidence of illegality and plenty of good Democratic reasons on why there might be a network.
Appalled (1a17de) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:51 amSo, the stimulus BUDGET bill passes in the Senate, 51-50 and in the House 219-209 — absolute party lines. If this continues, the midterms will be interesting. The Democrats’ best bet there will be that Trump leads the GOP.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:50 amThe commission disbanded without issuing a report.
Probably because there was no fraud. They were never serious about investigating it, either.
If you wanted to test for voter fraud in 2016, and especially for the asserted illegal-immigrants-voting fraud, you would pick a single county, like California’s Imperial County, with a small population and a high proportion of Mexican immigrants, legal and otherwise. If there was no voting by non-citizens there, it did not happen anywhere.
But, like most politicians and many lawyers, they preferred to talk and posture rather than finding some numerical facts.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:55 amAnd do you suppose we’ve wiped out every consequence of that in the (barely) fifty years since de jure discrimination and oppression were finally eliminated?
We have wiped out quite a bit. Not only is the difference between 1960 and 2020 obvious, but so is the difference between 1980 and 2020. Still, there is some and most of it is in perceptions and fear, based on objective realities. Even though we know that ascribing the behavior of some in a group to everyone in the group is fallacious and wrong, many of us still do it, if unconsciously. Hard racism is pretty much gone, but the soft racism of altered expectations is still with us.
I’m not sure how we get past that other than the normal process of time and generations, on all sides of the question.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:04 amOne thing I am certain of: laws that aim to make people like each other are unlikely to work, unless the goal is to prevent that reconciliation.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:06 amAs they say, a time-lapse animation tells a thousand words. Amazing.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:09 amWhat a coincidence, that all those folks who attended Trump’s little rally ended up in the Capitol Building. It’s as if they were incited or something.
@46:
FBI: We need to unlock the phones of al Qaeda killers who executed a room of teachers, to see if there are more threats out there.
Apple, Google: No can do. Privacy!
NYT: We need cellphone location data from the citizens who attended the Jan 6th rally.
Apple, Google. No can do. Privacy! But, hey, I’ve got to go to the DMV, we’ll talk when I get back. Please don’t look at the data on my computer while I’m gone.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:25 amThe money covered the cost of rent, airfare, lodging and other expenses
So, he used the Trump Organization’s plane, hotels and other services? Is there a requirement he put it up for bid? Or only use 3rd-party providers? I guess there would be a problem if there was an unusual markup, but as long as the rack rates were being paid, so the F what.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:44 amSummers, that anti-woman bigot that he is, moved not one single senator or congressthing. 51-50 and 219-209.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:46 amI read most of it. None of what those folks did was illegal.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:51 amIt remains that there is no legitimate evidence of serious fraud.
there is no reasonable expectation of privacy while attending a fascist political rally or attempting to overturn an election by terrorizing elected officials engaged in their constitutional duties mr kevin
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:53 ami looked it up
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:56 amRe: Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque:
What, no mention that painting is being sold by Angelina Jolie?
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:58 amhttps://www.lifenews.com/2021/02/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-gavin-newsoms-lockdown-ban-on-indoor-church-services/
I’ve said time and time again that Newsom was acting as an unconstitutional dictator with his bigoted actions. Glad to be proven right even if it was obvious.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:59 amDave, but there apparently is one while gunning down a roomful of teachers. Apple says so.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:01 amI think Biden was too heavy-handed here.
He should have made access to intel contingent on Trump’s passing a thorough background investigation and a comprehensive suite of psychiatric tests.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:04 amattending a fascist political rally
1. I will bring this up the next time you talk about the 1st Amendment, which you apparently don’t really believe in.
2. There is no expectation of privacy outdoors, but there is an expectation of privacy in your communications channels, and those are contractually listed in the user agreements. They may exclude participation in illegality, but Apple at least acts otherwise. The link you provide says the data was “leaked” which is how a company gets around it’s contracts if they want to. I will bet no one gets fired for the leak and doubt very much any investigation is done.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:07 amBiden Pulls Trump Picks For 1st Circ., Other Courts, Agencies
President Joe Biden on Thursday officially withdrew more than 30 nominees selected by former President Donald Trump but never confirmed, ending 17 candidacies for federal courts including the First Circuit along with positions at the Pentagon, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Reserve and other financial regulators.
The formality marks the end of the road for the pending Trump picks, although Biden could theoretically renominate them. Along with the First Circuit, the judicial picks were up for district courts in Alabama and Guam, the Court of International Trade, the Court of Federal Claims and Tax Court.
……..
The executive-branch nominees include several candidates for finance-related posts.
Conservative commentator Judy Shelton was a controversial pick for the Federal Reserve who failed because a few Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:08 am……..
That withstanding, it’s a very telling video.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:08 amIANAL, but I believe there is a difference between tracking the movement of someone’s phone while they are engaged in public activities, and extracting information stored inside the phone at some unknown time in the past when they may have had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:09 am@50:
Hey Paul, read my whole post and you will see I already covered that:
So I take it you are ok with Congress paying democrats to engineer an election?
ah-non-ee-mouse (b6adda) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:09 amHe should have made access to intel contingent on Trump’s passing a thorough background investigation and a comprehensive suite of psychiatric tests.
Whatever they do now for a TS clearance anyway. I would also do that for members of Congress before they join privy committees.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:10 amThere is no expectation of privacy while attending ANY political rally.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:11 amI have this picture of Trump on a lie detector. How do you evaluate something that is all lies?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:11 amThe NYT got this data from “a source”. Maybe the lesson here is that, if you’re going to commit federal crimes by rioting, turn off your bloody cell phone. And definitely don’t take selfies in the building you just stormed.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:12 amThat said, of course there are privacy concerns. If that particular “source” could get it, so could someone with worse intentions.
Apples and Androids. It’s one thing for Google maps and other GPS trackers to pick up clusters of cell phone locations anonymously (how do you think they give you real-time traffic conditions?), and totally another to personally identify the phone to you and track it to all the places you might have buried the body. They need probable cause and a warrant for the second one.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:14 amturn off your bloody cell phone.
Not good enough. The locator stays on. Leave it at home.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:16 amThere is no expectation of privacy while attending ANY political rally.
There is a contractual expectation when your provider promises it in writing. This was leaked in violation of contractual agreements.
The issue of location data is a touchy 1st Amendment issue. The Court has only ruled on GPS trackers, saying that a warrant is required for their placement on vehicles (and all data so collected), even if the vehicle is on public property. The 1st Amendment rights have greater scope than mere expectations of privacy. Your driveway may be open to view, but it is still your property and a warrant is required to gather evidence there, or so the court said.
It is not a great stretch to say that a warrant is required for cellphone location data. Of course “leaks” put the discretion at the hands of companies or some of their employees, almost all of which will fall a certain way politically.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:18 amNot good enough. The locator stays on. Leave it at home.
Taking the battery out (if you can) also works. But I am pretty sure that the data shown would be excluded from trial without a warrant, and the leak might make a subsequent warrant debatable.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:20 am“Engineer” is a loaded word, mouse. I’m okay with Americans following the law in their efforts to change voting law, provided those changes are Constitutional.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:21 amTIME was obviously playing a little game with words like “cabal” and “shadow conspiracy”, when it really was about ordinary machinations made by Democrats to make voting easier and more accessible (some of which I agree with and some I don’t) and by Republicans to put up roadblocks (some of which I agree with and some I don’t).
how do you think they give you real-time traffic conditions?
Of course. The data shown there is not “individual” but it is an identifiable group, not just “the people driving down I-405 at 5pm.” If used as evidence against that same group or its members, I think that a court might exclude it. Since it did not come officially from the company, there is no provenance, so it would be excluded anyway.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:24 amThe article indicates that data was collected by apps installed on the phones. Every app I install on my iPhone has to request (and receive) permission to get access to my location.
There’s no reason to think the phone manufacturer or the service provider had anything to do with the link.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:28 am*leak
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:29 amTIME was talking about networks of people with a political goal. We may quibble about what that goal was, but at least some of them were Biden’s partisans. As I’ve said before, if “Deep State” means networks of like-minded officials aimed at a political goal or even just shoring up their perks, then it’s a no-brainer that such things exist.
We’ve seen Journolist, the Strzok texts, as well as personal experience with groups of our own to know that other people engage technology similarly. Are these groupings sinister? Not usually, but they do exert influence and sometimes operate as a smoke-filled-room. When they devolve into collusion or conspiracy, they’re a problem.
But there are also “Deep Anti-State” groupings, too. As we saw Jan 6th.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:32 amEvery app I install on my iPhone has to request (and receive) permission to get access to my location.
Subject to an overall service agreement with the app provider. Apple and Google’s positions on that are well-known. Not so sure about Facebook or Tinder.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:33 amFlurry Of Judicial Retirements Opens Seats For Biden To Fill
After taking office with relatively few judicial vacancies, President Joe Biden has new opportunities to appoint federal judges after at least one circuit judge and 11 district judges, including three in California, announced retirement plans in the week since the inauguration.
Biden came into the presidency with the fewest court openings for a new president since 1989 after a concerted Republican effort to seat new judges. The slew of retirements in Biden’s first week in office pushed the vacancy count from 46 to about 60, and may augur more open seats on the way as observers debate whether it reflects strategic timing by jurists waiting for a change in administration.
….,,,,,
Another opening is expected after D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick B. Garland becomes attorney general. Court watchers also expect a number of departures on the Ninth Circuit, where nine of President Bill Clinton’s appointees are eligible for senior status.
……..
The tech-heavy Northern District of California will soon have three new openings. The Ninth Circuit reported this week that Chief U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton and U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White will assume senior status Feb. 1, following U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup’s transition last week. Combined with 12 inherited openings elsewhere in California, that means Biden could soon name at least 15 district judges there — fully a quarter of the Golden State’s federal trial bench.
……..
Twelve retirements in one week is an unusual pace. Because the federal judiciary has a patchwork reporting system for retirement plans, there could have been even more that were not announced publicly.
“They’re just dropping like flies,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks judicial nominations.
………
The flurry of transitions so soon after Biden took office suggests some judges may have been waiting out President Donald Trump: Nine of the 12 judges have been eligible for senior status since at least 2017.
………
The federal judiciary says senior judges typically handle about 15% of the workload.
Senior judges are eligible for continued salary increases if they maintain a certain caseload, and their salary becomes exempt from Social Security taxes, according to research by Duke University law professor Marin K. Levy published this month. While they face fewer limits on outside income from teaching, they may lose offices or support staff by leaving active status, although practices vary widely among courts.
………
Related:
U.S. judge in Flynn case takes senior status, joining wave of jurists allowing Biden to name successors
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:34 amI try not to give games or merchants permission to read my location. Apple(!) and Google(?) are now quite sensitive about that and require me to positively allow such access the first time an app seeks to get it. It would have to be a common app to get that much data.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:37 amU.S. judge in Flynn case takes senior status, joining wave of jurists allowing Biden to name successors
Nothing new here. It happened in 2017, too.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:38 am“They may exclude participation in illegality, but Apple at least acts otherwise. The link you provide says the data was “leaked” which is how a company gets around it’s contracts if they want to. I will bet no one gets fired for the leak and doubt very much any investigation is done.”
The data probably didn’t come from Apple (or Google). Ironically, here’s an article NYT wrote about location tracking back in 2019:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html
Basically, any time you allow an app to access your location data, you’re giving away this information.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:39 amtheir salary becomes exempt from Social Security taxes
Sweet deal. Titles of Nobility, some would say.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:40 am@70:
ah-non-ee-mouse (b6adda) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:40 amPaul, I agree with that but I’m tired of watching a football game where my side shows up with preschool rugby players and the other side has pro nfl players who came to the game ready to hit.
The article seems to suggest it was some kind of marketing data aggregator, receiving data from many clients.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:40 amIf you read the fine print, most “privacy” agreements give the company permission to share your data with “our partners” – code for “other companies who buy and sell your data like we do”.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:46 amDemocrats’ New Section 230 Bill Could ‘Devastate’ the Internet, Experts Say
………
The SAFE TECH Act, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner, Mazie Hirono, and Amy Klobuchar on Friday, seeks to reform several key provisions in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, long considered one of the most important laws protecting online speech. The proposed changes are meant to ensure the law doesn’t impair the enforcement of civil rights laws and others addressing the cyberstalking, harassment, or intimidation of protected classes online.
Across the political spectrum, Section 230, which allows judges to more easily dismiss lawsuits related to online content moderation, has become a scapegoat in the debate over online speech. …….
……..
“This legislation has some admirable goals,” (Sen. Ron) Wyden said. “Unfortunately, as written, it would devastate every part of the open internet, and cause massive collateral damage to online speech.”
The SAFE TECH Act’s authors say one proposed change is aimed at preventing companies like Facebook from profiting off advertisements that expose users to scams and fraud. But experts said the bill’s language is likely too broad; it would not simply exclude advertisements and paid content from Section 230’s liability protections, but virtually any service in which companies accept payment. In other words, web-hosting providers, such as AWS, could become liable for the user-created content on the websites or apps that they serve.
……….
“Creating liability for all commercial relationships would cause web hosts, cloud storage providers and even paid email services to purge their networks of any controversial speech,” Wyden added. “This bill would have the same effect as a full repeal of 230, but cause vastly more uncertainty and confusion, thanks to the tangle of new exceptions.”
Another potential issue arises from changes that could prevent judges from issuing summary judgements to dismiss frivolous lawsuits on Section 230 grounds, increasing legal costs for companies that get bombarded with civil suits.
………
Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University Law School, said that rather than carefully targeting one area of the law for change, the SAFE TECH Act tries to “stitch together” an array of “unrelated policy ideas that expose the drafters’ lack of clear understanding of how Section 230 actually works.”
“My question for the drafters is: what services do they think will still qualify for Section 230 if this reform goes through; how likely is it that those services will do what the members of Congress want; and will those services be able to afford to remain in business?” Goldman said. Without clear and convincing answers to those questions, he added, the bill only serves to create “potentially dire consequences for the Internet we know and love.”
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:47 am……….
‘thulhu:
Things have changed in the last year. The phone OS’s now insist that you give explicit, at the moment of use, permission at least once for each app, and you can reset them individually or all at once. There is no app that I give “always” permission too (if not just for battery drain reasons). At most I give permission “while using the app” to things where that makes sense (Home Depot, Walmart so that I can ask which shelf something is on, or a real estate app if I’m house-hunting). But not to “Angry Birds.” Only the phone itself needs to have that data always for tower selection. Traffic stuff from that same provider is expected. IF I was stupid, maybe I’d allow some third-party traffic app that access, but I don’t.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:47 am…[Lou Dobbs] television’s staunchest supporter of Donald Trump…
Actually, it’s ‘Mickelodeon’ Sean Hannity.
Dobbs’ position on immigration remains peculiar given the heritage of his spouse. But he does have one redeeming POV; he’s an avid spaceflight advocate; Space.com was founded by Lou Dobbs and Rich Zahradnik, in July 1999. Hence, in the Lou Dobbs Universe, “Go, baby, go!” has a dual meaning.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:48 amThen again, Google’s location history display is a bit Orwellian. You can clear the data though.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:49 amBetween 2009 and 2015, before Donald Trump crawled out of his sewer to “save” the GOP, Republicans gained over 1000 seats in state legislatures, governors’ mansions, and Congress.
It was Trump and his lickspittles who came into the game and blew the big lead.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:52 am#78-Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:38 am:
Another consequence of Trump losing the Senate. Had the Republicans retained control, McConnell could have blocked Biden’s judicial (and other) appointments.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:53 amRip–
Do you agree that any regulation of internet speech by government, and any required censorship in particular, must pass 1st Amendment strict scrutiny?
In fact, I am troubled by any conditions. I don’t think they can force a company to refrain from certain moderation any more than they can require it. I am worried not about this, but some other law that all the Democrats might agree to.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:55 amHad the Republicans retained control, McConnell could have blocked Biden’s judicial (and other) appointments.
Still can, just not as many. Even with 2 more votes, most appointees would be confirmed. Still true, except that it will take ONE Democrat to agree to block someone. So Manchin instead of Murkowski or Collins.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:57 amI’m tired of watching a football game where my side shows up with preschool rugby players and the other side has pro nfl players who came to the game ready to hit.
I am tired of watching a football game where my guys talk trash before the game, but when it happens they didn’t study the plays, bump into each other, drop the ball, or run the wrong way.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:00 pmApart from the fact that it’s a duly-enacted law.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:01 pmAfter the game, the QB complains the score was counted wrong, the refs were colluding with the other team and then he talks trash about their own players even though it was the QBs fault every time.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:02 pmApart from the fact that it’s a duly-enacted law.
As I said, sweet deal, and smacks of titles of nobility. Laws are not all valid.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:03 pm@7. ‘You know you’re a prole when … — You think football games are historical events.’
No kidding; it’ not like it’s “The World Series.” 😉
“What is this thing you Americans call the Super Bowl?” – Maj., David Kabakov [Robert Shaw] ‘Black Sunday’ 1977
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:05 pmHad the Republicans retained control, McConnell could have blocked Biden’s judicial (and other) appointments.
If the GOP had not changed the rules when the minority Democrats tried it, they could effectively block most appointees today, using the 30-hours of debate rule on every appointment that came up.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:06 pmFor those that are keeping score of “taking note”:
When Democrats say “Elections have consequences” they are enlightened champions of democracy. When Republicans say it they are despotic majoritarian fascists.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:09 pmWho could have imagined this dramatic turn of events?!?
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:12 pmActually receiving more votes tends to reinforce the legitimacy of the outcome.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:17 pm‘Thomas makes history as first female Super Bowl official’
Televising brain damage to peddle potato chips and pickup trucks: pure capitalism. Next thing you know they’ll broadcast cars just going in circles for hours on end to sell spark plugs nd tires, too. 😉
“The concussion! Beware the concussion!” – Oswald Cabal [Raymond Massey] ‘Things To Come’ 1936
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:21 pmpotato chips and pickup trucks are cool
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:24 pmI think it’s already happening, mouse. CNN is just reporting that there are more than 100 bills in 28 states moving through state legislatures that would restrict voting.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:26 pm@102. Chiefly to Trump voters, Dustin.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:26 pmFlashback, September 2020: An open declaration of fascism, and nearly ever elected Republican in Washington later backed him up on it.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:37 pmI see that NJRob has again managed to forget, again, that teachers unions are local, teachers are, in fact, working, and curriculum is controlled by the school board.
You want the kids back in the classroom, vaccinate all the teachers. Teachers have too much lived experience with school being a diseased-ridden petri-dish to believe that COVID isn’t going to spread virulently in schools. Because even if kids get it less when proper safety protocols are followed, they have very little ability to follow safety protocols. Our small group students (we have slightly less than 10% of our kids on campus in small groups) now have to take breaks either in outside spaces with painted boxes with Xs in the middle, or inside our multi, gym, or media center where the boxes and Xs are masking taped onto the floor because they COULD NOT MANAGE TO NOT HANG ALL OVER EACHOTHER (or NOT WRESTLE) during their 15 minute breaks.
When the teachers are vaccinated, they will still worry about the kids, but ultimately it is the parents who choose on the kids behalf and absent of worry about themselves and their families, the teachers will be more willing to accept the risk the parents are willing to take and just do their best to make sure that the kids follow the protocols (even though the kids will forget them all the d@mn time).
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:42 pmI guess we’ll defer to your first-hand knowledge here.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:45 pmI was wondering about this – what fraction of school districts have remote or in-person sessions going on, and what fraction (I imagine there must be some) are completely shut down?
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:51 pmhahahahaha
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:57 pmI agree with that. Mrs. Montagu is a teacher, and she has an underlying condition.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 1:11 pmHowever, Biden/Harris pledged that they would follow the science when it comes to the pandemic, and the science is pretty clear that schoolkids, especially elementary, are not spreaders, that it’s actually pretty safe, yet they’re hesitating.
It’s also true that teachers’ unions monolithically supported Biden/Harris, local level to national, and there’s no doubt that the Biden admin is getting political pressure, hence this nonsense from the CDC Director’s that reopening schools was her “personal opinion”.
Here in WA State, Gov Inslee is not going to move teachers closer to the front of the line, and he’s urging that they reopen ASAP.
Unfortunately, that is not true for all school districts. Local districts here have immensely powerful unions and they are balking at returning even if teachers are vaccinated. They also want the air filtration systems replaced, PPE disseminated to all employees, etc. etc.
And then there are things like this happening:
Dana (fd537d) — 2/6/2021 @ 1:26 pmI do wonder about this and I’m not sure it’s so cut-and-dried.
From what I’ve read the severity of an infection depends strongly on the amount of virus one is exposed to. It stands to reason that elementary school kids, being small, are incapable of carrying or transmitting a viral load as large as an adult.
So the risk is less, and further, young kids themselves seem to rarely develop severe infections with symptoms. Which is good because it means multiple factors are working together to keep the kids safe.
But I don’t understand how the risk could be zero for teachers, who might spend days in close proximity to one or more asymptomatic carriers.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 1:27 pm@Dave@108 I think everyone has at least distance learning. I haven’t heard of any that are completely shut down, but I supposed it’s possible that there might be some. (heard via grapevine, professional organizations, online communities, etc)
@Paul@110 I’d like to note that in that picture at the top of the article you linked, there are 4 people as the main focus. None of them are following proper safety protocols. The little girl isn’t masked and they are all well within 6 feet of eachother, including the teacher who is holding the little girl.
It isn’t that elementary kids aren’t spreaders, they are just less likely to spread it than adults. Most of the science shows that kids under abt ages 10-12 catch it at about half the rate as adults and spread it at about half the rate of adults. After ages 10-12 the rates become more and more equal to adult rates of transmission.
@111 In all fairness, do you have any idea when the last time the air filtration system was updated in any of your schools? I can tell you. It was most probably when air-conditioning was put in or when your school building was built, whichever is later. If your school building is 40 years old, they built it with AC, so that’s how old your filtration system is. For a direct example, the air filtration system on most of the buildings at my current school site cannot use modern filters or a modern filtration system. It’s based on the minimum required standards and minimum lowest acceptable technology level (cheapest legally permitted equipment) of when it was built (which was very much not recently).
Really there’s a question about prioritized wants. The vaccine is very very high on union want lists. PPE is pretty high. Changing over the entire air filtration system for the school is a want, but it’s almost more of a long-term want. Realistically it can’t happen in the course of a week. The big one is the vaccine.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 1:48 pmNic,
You took the job. Be at least as brave as a supermarket cashier.
NJRob (91a902) — 2/6/2021 @ 1:53 pm@114 NJRob, I go on campus every day knowing that I could be standing between one student attempting to harm another with anything from fists to guns. I go on campus knowing I may need to stand between a parent threatening a child who is not even their own child and that child. I go on campus knowing that I will be repeatedly exposed to any number of virulent illnesses. I go on campus knowing that I am likely to be screamed at and sometimes threatened by other adults. I work on site. I still work on site several days a week. What’s your risk factor?
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:01 pmNic,
I think a big part of the problem is that while teachers want the vaccine before returning to the classroom, the availability of every employee receiving one in the same window of time is not a reality. I have heard from principals that I know who have received their first, but still have no date set for their second. What happens if the appointed time for the second comes and goes? What if only 3 out of 30 teachers have had both vaccines? Do they wait to open, do they do a partial reopening? A large district I’m familiar with (3800 employees, 36,000 students) has even tried to set up their own clinic, but due to delays in vaccine availability and distribution, it’s been delayed. There is a myriad of issues involved with the reopening, it’s true. But it’s equally true that some California teachers unions are immensely powerful, and have been able to dictate to the districts what the standards for reopening will be. These are not negotiatiable. And if they don’t get what they demand, they will strike. See: Chicago.
Dana (fd537d) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:10 pmParadox:
Dana (fd537d) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:16 pmNic,
Either you live in Columbia or Mexico or are seriously exaggerating your risk.
How many times have you stopped 2 kids from shooting each other? You are the REAL hero.
NJRob (746ef9) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:20 pmUnsurprisingly, the Wyoming Republican Party voted to censure Liz Cheney. And more:
Cheney seemed unperturbed by the decision and reiterated the reasons for her vote to impeach:
Dana (fd537d) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:21 pmAs I understand WA State protocols, it’s okay to be within six feet if all parties are masked (but not more than X number of minutes), and all parties must be masked indoors.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:27 pmYou can see that the little girl has Down’s Syndrome, which is a whole new set of challenges. I have no doubt that that picture was intentional on Inslee’s part. It does send a message to the WEA.
@107/@109. “…pickup trucks, which have become the de facto automotive symbol of red states: In the survey, 15 percent of Republicans drive them, compared with just over 3 percent of Democrats.
Top 5 Signs Your Car is a Republican:
1. It’s any brand of pickup
2. It’s a Ford
3. It’s a Chevy
4. It’s a Porsche
5. It’s any brand of sports car
source- https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/is-your-car-a-republican-or-democrat
Ha. Ha. Ha.
“I pity the fool.” – Mr. T, TVLand, 2006
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:35 pm@Dana@116 I suspect that if you could get the first vaccine into their arms, resistance to returning would be a lot less.
@NJRob@118 So your risk factor is extremely low, then, I see. The number of guns that have been on-campus is a non-zero number. I personally haven’t had to step between a kid and a gun. I have at least 2 co-workers who taken visible guns from students who had made threats (they were fortunately not actively attempting to shoot anyone else at the time). I have been hit with other objects-used-as-weapons while standing between a student and their target. I work in a normal school district in NorCal, not gang-land and not Pleasantville, just a normal school district. YOU don’t hear about tragedies that don’t happen.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:36 pm@107. Ohhhh Mortimer…
https://www.thedrive.com/news/16712/trump-supporting-towns-more-likely-to-be-filled-with-pickup-trucks-study-claims
“I’ll be the dummy.” – Jim Layton [Marshall Thompson] ‘Battleground’ 1949
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:50 pmIt was Trump and his lickspittles who came into the game and blew the big lead.
Certain to stiff you on the rent– yet he’s still living in your head.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 3:05 pmNJRob (746ef9) — 2/6/2021 @ 2:20 pm
From my time reading Nic’s comments I don’t think he’s exaggerating. I think he makes a compelling case for not moving to CA. He also make a compelling case for people in CA to stay there. CA needs to do whatever it can to keep people from leaving.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 3:55 pmI would like to agree with you, Nic, but I really don’t know. Every district is different, and the teacher unions play a significant part in what is agreed to. So while individual teachers might be okay with it, it’s really the union’s call. I know teachers who want to get back into the classroom without a vaccine and teachers who are adamant about getting it first. Nothing is simple.
EdSource continues to update residents on the state’s current status.
Dana (fd537d) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:05 pm@125 In truth, Frosty, NorCal kids aren’t any different from any kids anywhere. What I’m describing can be seen in a rather large percentage of school districts across the country. Kids get angry or afraid and make bad decisions. Parents get angry or afraid for their kids and make bad decisions. Back in the day, in the midwest, a kid who had planned to bomb the HS my brother eventually attended, accidentally blew up his garage instead. In my experience (and I’ve lived a lot of places) people are pretty much people. There are good people, angry people, crazy people everywhere.
Though if I were 25 today, I probably wouldn’t stay in CA, not because of the people or the politics or the government, or whatever, but simply because the cost of living is just far too high. Apartment prices are terrible and real-estate is insane. If you don’t have a family who can hand you 40,000 or 100,000 (depending on where you are buying) for a down payment, buying a house is extremely difficult.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:10 pmFrom my time reading Nic’s comments I don’t think he’s exaggerating. I think he makes a compelling case for not moving to CA. He also make a compelling case for people in CA to stay there. CA needs to do whatever it can to keep people from leaving.
Having moved to CA from the East nearly 30 years ago, there has been a decidedly evident drop in the QoL. Some simple; others more complex. The climate has definitely shifted some; more arid, less rains- increased fire dangers. Rather than raise rates, insurance companies simply cancel coverage due the rise in risk in certain areas. Influx of illegals is climbing. Gas- hovers around more or less $4/gal., it’s life-blood in freeway-linked CA. 20 years ago in hovered around $1/gal.; count on power outages at least 4 times a year due to—- “wind” and “public service” as a preventative measure. It’s BS; the power companies won’t maintain their lines-cuts into profits. Little things like first banning plastic/paper shopping bags then stores charging a dime a piece for them. The roads are beat to hell. The schools lack character; they look alike -cement bunkers. LA schools were worse. Yet housing is astronomically priced. OTOH it is chiefly pockets of expensive, gated communities linked by areas of older, middle-class, stucco-and-roof tiled homes with trailer parks, faceless strip malls and a Costco or Walmart ever 12 miles or so. Unless you have a health reason to move here- and it is a dryer, no-rain climate to be sure– don’t.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:32 pmI’ll just leave this here:
The writer states:
Well, okay, then.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:49 pmI was thinking there might be some areas where having a computer and a sufficient internet connection can’t be taken for granted.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 4:53 pmI think that the Covid danger pales in comparison to the real danger of the subliminal messages that the Rothschilds and their fifth-dimensional purple-feathered space creature allies are implanting in the online lessons.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:08 pmThe #FAKENEWSBEZOSPOST tallies up the cost to taxpayers of President-Reject Trump and the QOP’s attempt to impose fascism on America:
$519 million, and counting.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:09 pm‘Cheney seemed unperturbed by the decision and reiterated the reasons for her vote to impeach:
“My vote to impeach was compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution. Wyoming citizens know that this oath does not bend or yield to politics or partisanship,” Cheney said in a statement Saturday.
“I will always fight for Wyoming values and stand up for our Western way of life. We have great challenges ahead of us as we move forward and combat the disastrous policies of the Biden Administration. I look forward to continuing to work with officials and citizens across Wyoming to be the most effective voice and advocate in defense of our families, industries and communities,” she added.’
LOL. Shorter: Darth Daddy said it better:
“So?”
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:12 pmnk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:08 pm
FIFY; the Rothschilds are in league with lizards. There are no feather people. The Vatican is in league with the gray space aliens. You’ve got to keep this stuff straight.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:16 pm@Dave@130 (also overlapping into the realm of how does google make money?)
So this is how my district has handled getting tech out to students, esp the ones in our Title 1 schools:
There’s been a big technology push over the last 10-15 that has resulted in a lot of chrome books and ipads/tablets in schools for students to use. My school district has had chrome carts in every academic classroom for at least the last 5 years. The oldest of those, from probably 7-10 years ago, were up for replacement anyway, so we sold them all to kids from our free/reduced lunch program for 40$ each if they wanted them. The rest we’ve checked out to students (though they are responsible for damages and replacement up to $300) like they were library books, and those have pretty much ALL been checked out. The new chromebooks we had coming in as replacements are the ones we are using for our on-site small groups. The district also used some of their distance learning funds to purchase hotspots for internet access for families that don’t have good internet access. And, when all else has failed, we do make the small groups available to students who simply can’t get on the net (or say they can’t, which is sometimes a different thing :P).
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:18 pmThanks, Nic.
The only data point I have is my friends’ daughter, and they live in (posh, to put it mildly) Laguna Beach.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:25 pmNic,
I can see why you and your colleagues wouldn’t want to work on site. It has nothing to do with the virus and everything to do with the people.
So the virus is just an excuse. Makes sense .
NJRob (ca777d) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:25 pmRIP Leon Spinks (67).
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:48 pm#90-Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:55 am:
Rip–
Do you agree that any regulation of internet speech by government, and any required censorship in particular, must pass 1st Amendment strict scrutiny?
Yes, however private companies can do as they wish.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:54 pm@NJRob@137 Oh for the love of God, just stop. I’m sorry you have very little comprehension of some of the challenges in the job that you like to take pot-shots at, but you will notice that we all generally come to school regardless, because we think it’s an important job and we generally like students, even in their idiot phases, and would very much like the kids to learn stuff and to survive to adulthood. There’s a calculated risk though and with COVID the risk got too high.
As far as I can tell, everything you know about the education process came from a list of talking points. School board meetings are public access. Negotiation reports are on the internet (your local teacher’s union probably has a website where it posts them). District budgets and meeting notes are on the net. Most schools need classroom volunteers, playground volunteers, and extracurricular volunteers. PTOs generally need people. If you want to have some idea of what things are like, instead of just having a favorite boogieman, maybe look into some of that and if you can pass the fingerprint process, maybe try volunteering where there are students.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:54 pmKM @91-
Had the Republicans retained control, McConnell could have blocked Biden’s judicial (and other) appointments.
Still can, just not as many……
Actually the Majority Leader controls the agenda and doesn’t need to bring any nominations to the floor at all.
A lost opportunity.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 5:58 pmIs why Merrick Garland not nominated for AG until after Georgia runoffs. Fool me once ….
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:02 pm#106 Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 12:42 pm:
….curriculum is controlled by the school board.
Not in California or Texas. I’m sure it’s controlled at the state level in most states.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:11 pmDisingenuous, Rob. You were questioning his manhood. Don’t be a douchebag.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:17 pmNic and Rob, my kids school district have had a similar approach to nic’s. The teachers are frustrated and doing every They can to help the students. None of the teachers I know are happy about the situation and they all want it to get back to normal. I read the same news stories about teacher unions but that doesn’t sound like what I’m seeing. Not saying it’s wrong. Just that there’s a lot of variation in the US.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:24 pmHere is a litte how MTG got electedL.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/us/marjorie-taylor-greene-georgia-district.html
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:27 pmNevada bill would allow tech companies to create governments
…….
Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a plan to launch so-called Innovation Zones in Nevada to jumpstart the state’s economy by attracting technology firms, Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday.
The zones would permit companies with large areas of land to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts and provide government services.
……..
Sisolak pitched the concept in his State of the State address delivered Jan. 19. The plan would bring in new businesses at the forefront of “groundbreaking technologies” without the use of tax abatements or other publicly funded incentive packages that previously helped Nevada attract companies like Tesla Inc.
Sisolak named Blockchains, LLC as a company that had committed to developing a “smart city” in an area east of Reno after the legislation has passed.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:27 pm……..
…….. [T]he zones, which would be limited to companies working in specific business areas including blockchain, autonomous technology, the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, wireless, biometrics and renewable resource technology.
……..
The zones would initially operate with the oversight of their location counties, but would eventually take over county duties and become independent governmental bodies.
……..
What could possibly go wrong?
@134. Your omissions of the reverse vampires is noted. I can only assume it’s be use you’re in league with them.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:28 pm145. Time123 (9f42ee) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:24 pm
The majority of teachers may not support what their union leaders are doing. This may not be coming from the bottom up.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:30 pm134. I think the people who spread these conspiracy theories don’t want too many people to believe them, so they make them more implausible. (So they can stay in control of the narrative)
Or possibly they only want followers who will believe anything. You know, maybe, like a Nigerian 409 scan, they need marks who won’t drop out in the middle.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get the right idea as to what the inventors of these lies are trying to do.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:39 pm@143 Yes in California (it’s where I am most familiar with.) Common Core is primarily skills based. Frex, one of the common core English skills is that students need to be able to compare and contrast. What they are comparing and contrasting is up to the curriculum the school board chooses. Even in history, the guidelines are broad topic areas- frex in 7th grade world history you have to cover the Roman empire or IIRC, you will learn to use primary sources. How you do that is determined by the curriculum your school board chooses. The state guidelines are generally pretty broad while school districts choose the actual curriculum (of which there are a very wide variety and viewpoints that fit within the guidelines).
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:44 pm134. I think you’re right on both counts, Sammy.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:44 pm@Sammy@149 Generally speaking when the media talks about “teacher’s unions” they are talking about national or state level organizations (though not always), which aren’t actually the teachers unions that do negotiations. Teacher’s unions are local, made up of local teachers, negotiating locally. The teacher’s union in my district runs surveys and such to determine what the teachers think is important or what to negotiate for. They also let the teachers know which things are Not Negotiable from the district’s viewpoint and aren’t going to be up for discussion in the contract negotiations. Most years it’s a relatively collaborative process. This year there is a lot of strife within the union (though school sites seem pretty unified) and between the Union and the district, though everyone is doing the California version of mid-west nice. There can be less direct individual participation in the big Unions though, so it’s possible that the big city districts have unions that are not as member responsive.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:54 pm@Rip@147. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.Nope.Nope nopenopenopenope.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:00 pmTime123 (9f42ee) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:28 pm
ixnay ethay ampirevay alktay . eythay onitormay ethay internetyay orfay isthay uffstay
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:10 pmPaul,
I’m questioning all teachers who make excuses and refuse to do their job. Yes. I’d fire every single one that wouldn’t report to work. If a supermarket attendant can do it for the past year, they can suck it up
NJRob (1e6085) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:10 pmAnd I’d ban federal and state unions.
NJRob (1e6085) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:12 pmI’m scrolling through Netflix and did anyone else know there was an extended cut of Hateful Eight? The original was 2h47m of crap. Why is there an extended cut? It’s 3h30m!
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:24 pmAny other unreasoning Trump cultist couldn’t have said it better, Rob.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:24 pmFlying car Department:
The first flying care may be operated by a special branch of Hatzolah, the free volunteer Jewish ambulance service. They ordered the first four from Urban Aeronautics, an Israeli company. The model is known as CityHawk. It still has to undergo testing and the approval by the FAA. Each step of the process could take a year or two. They may not be deployed until 2025.
Of the four, Hatzolah plans to station one in New York, one in Chicago, one in Los Angeles, and the fourth either in London or in Israel, they haven’t decided yet..
They would be used for quickly transporting people long distances, like for a organ transplant. Or maybe could be used for rescuing people off a high floor in a skyscraper fire. Or maybe there’s heavy traffic on 49 St. between 13th and 14th Avenue on a Friday afternoon and the flying car could land in the street, taking up no more than one parking space, and quickly get someone a few blocks to Maimonides Hospital. The ambulance would be able to accommodate only one patient (plus a healthy or uninjured companion, and 2 EMTs) but it has enclosed rotors so could take off just anywhere, even next to a wall, without risk of damage.
Artist’s conception:
https://bklyner.com/hatzolah-ems-service-could-land-flying-ambulances-on-city-streets
It looks a little like a flying saucer.
Another article with another picture or drawing in which it doesn’t look so much like a flying saucer, bit more like something from auto racing:
https://singularityhub.com/2021/01/08/these-futuristic-flying-ambulances-may-soon-be-zooming-around-new-york
The whole front half (and more) of the device is for the rotors which drive fans. Actually there are two of them – one in front and one in back. One idea is for it run on hydrogen. It is to be roomier and quieter than a typical helicopter.
Next,, flying taxis by Uber:
https://singularityhub.com/2019/08/28/youll-take-your-first-ride-in-a-flying-car-within-a-decade
The ambulance ride would have to cost about $20,000 per trip, most of which would not be paid for by insurance, but maybe could be subsidized by someone; but the Ubers need to be cheaper per ride. They wouldn’t have a driver – just the passenger(s) and could be considered drones, and will run on batteries that don’t exist yet and use autonomous flight software that probably hasn’t even been written yet. I think the CityHawk also wouldn’t have a on board pilot.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:25 pmJudge Orders OAN to Pay Rachel Maddow and MSNBC $250,000 in Attorney Fees For Filing Frivolous Defamation Lawsuit
A federal judge in California has ordered Herring Networks, the parent company of far-right conservative media organization One America News Network (OAN), to pay MSNBC and host Rachel Maddow $250,000 in attorney’s fees stemming from a defamation lawsuit that was dismissed last year.
Herring in July 2019 filed a lawsuit against Maddow which claimed the liberal host had defamed OAN when she discussed reports that one of the network’s contributors also worked for the Russia state news organization Sputnik. Maddow went on to state that OAN “literally is paid Russian propaganda,” which OAN’s parent company claimed was false and defamatory.
Herring, the parent company, then filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $10 million.
Attorneys representing Maddow and MSNBC responded by filing a special motion to strike the case under California’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (Anti-SLAPP) law. …..
……..
……..(U.S. District Judge Cynthia) Bashant reasoned that there was “no set of facts that could support a claim for defamation based on Maddow’s statement.”
………
The court calculated that Maddow’s team of high-priced attorneys from the law firm Gibson Dunn—including famed First Amendment attorney Ted Boutrous, Jr.—were entitled to collect on 363.1 hours of work totaling $247,667.50, plus an additional $10,724 for hours billed by paralegals.
In a statement to Law&Crime, Herring Networks President Charles Herring said he and his legal team plan to continue pursuing an appeal to the ruling…….
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:28 pm………
@156 ArmChair quarterbacking from a man who’s never seen a game and only rarely even listened to one on the radio.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:28 pmI’m scrolling through Netflix and did anyone else know there was an extended cut of Hateful Eight? The original was 2h47m of crap. Why is there an extended cut? It’s 3h30m!
Yeah, I saw it in the theater. Not enough blood in the original.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:31 pmextended cut of Hateful Eight
I couldn’t stand to watch more than five minutes of it and wish I hadn’t watched even that much. The Highwaymen, on the other hand, was a very enjoyable surprise.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:36 pm21. NJRob (0bf784) — 2/6/2021 @ 6:51 am
Here’s a joke column imagining how the book would start:
https://nypost.com/2021/02/04/exclusive-first-excerpt-from-hunter-bidens-new-memoir
Now one thing that bothers me about this is the same thing that bothers me about many of Stephen Colbert’s jokes. The joke assumes things that aren’t true.
Two things that bother me here are:
He didn’t forget. He didn’t need the laptop. And the laptop itself was useless. (although the FBI later took it)
What he left there was a laptop which could never be used again, with its internal hard drive. The hard drive could be connected to another computer. Hunter Biden arranged for the files to be recovered. On a second visit he brought in an external hard drive on which to put the recovered user created files on. That hard drive is what he never returned for a third time to pick up. (not a repaired laptop)
He probably never came back because he moved to California and because the laptop probably contained nothing more than re-downloads of his iCloud account and he had them. He was using these laptops principally or entirely as terminals and always synchronizing them with his iCloud account.
He also had brought in a totally destroyed laptop and another one which only needed a keyboard. He was lent a keyboard, and took that laptop home with him (and maybe the destroyed beyond repair one) but never returned or paid for the keyboard apparently or took back the external hard drive with his files. Both times he was there he came near closing. The computer repair person tried to contact him he didn’t answer his phone.
Also:
No, that was in 2017. Joe Biden might be seen as someone who might run for president, but it was right after he left office. That’s maybe how and why Ye Jianming had the Bidens all to himself. Kyle Smith does include the fact that Ye Jianming disapeared int the Chinese prison system in April 2018 but does not include the fact that his company went out of business in 2019
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:06 pmThe Wall Street Journal Misreads Section 230 and the First Amendment
………
In a new Wall Street Journal op-ed, Philip Hamburger argues that “the government, in working through private companies, is abridging the freedom of speech.” We’ve long respected Hamburger, a professor at Columbia Law School, as the staunchest critic of overreach by administrative agencies. ……. But the path proposed in Hamburger’s op-ed would lead to a regime for coercing private companies to carry speech that is hateful or even downright dangerous. The storming of the U.S. Capitol should make clear once and for all why all major tech services ban hate speech, misinformation and talk of violence: Words can have serious consequences—in this case, five deaths……..
……..Hamburger’s fundamental error is claiming that Section 230 gives websites a “license to censor with impunity.” Contrary to this popular misunderstanding, it is the First Amendment—not Section 230—which enables content moderation. Since 1998, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that digital media enjoy the First Amendment rights as newspapers. ……… The court has upheld “fairness” mandates only for one medium—broadcasting, in 1969—and only because the government licenses use of publicly owned airwaves, a form of “state action.”
Websites have the same constitutional right as newspapers to choose whether or not to carry, publish or withdraw the expression of others. Section 230 did not create or modify that right. ……..
Hamburger focuses on Section 230 c (2)(A), which states: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of … any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.” But nearly all lawsuits based on content moderation are resolved under Section 230 c (1), which protects websites and users from being held liable as the “publisher” of information provided by others. …….
……….
Hamburger makes another crucial error: He claims Section 230 “has privatized censorship” because 230(c)(2)(A) “makes explicit that it is immunizing companies from liability for speech restrictions that would be unconstitutional if lawmakers themselves imposed them.” But in February 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that YouTube was not a state actor and therefore could not possibly have violated the First Amendment rights of the conservative YouTube channel Prager University ……
…….. But in 2019, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for all five conservative justices, noted that in order to be transformed into a state actor, a private entity must be performing a function that is traditionally and exclusively performed by the government: “[M]erely hosting speech by others is not a traditional, exclusive public function and does not alone transform private entities into state actors subject to First Amendment constraints.” In fact, Marsh has been read very narrowly by the Supreme Court, which has declined to extend its holding on multiple occasions and certainly has never applied it to any media company.
Hamburger also claims that Big Tech companies are “akin to common carriers.” He’s right that “the law ordinarily obliges common carriers to serve all customers on terms that are fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory.” But simply being wildly popular does not transform something into a common carrier service……… Every social media service makes clear up front that access to the service is contingent on complying with community standards, and the website reserves the discretion to decide how to enforce those standards—as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit noted recently in upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit by far-right personality Laura Loomer over her Twitter ban. In other words, social media are inherently edited services.
…….. Section 230 doesn’t “regulat[e] speech.” In fact, it does the opposite: It says the government won’t get involved in online speech and won’t provide a means to sue websites for their refusal to host content.
Hamburger doubles down by claiming that Section 230 allows the government to “set the censorship agenda.” But neither immunity provision imposes any “agenda” at all; both leave it entirely to websites to decide what content to remove. ……..
…….
……. Ironically, Hamburger’s proposal would require the government take the side of those spreading hate and falsehoods online. Under his “narrow” interpretation of Section 230, the law would not protect the removal of Holocaust denial, use of racial epithets or the vast expanse of speech that—while constitutionally protected—isn’t anything Hamburger, or any decent person, would allow in his own living room…….
Perversely, the law would favor certain kinds of content moderation decisions over others, protecting websites from lawsuits over removing pornography or profanity, but not from litigation over moderating false claims about election results or vaccines or conspiracy theories about, say, Jewish space lasers or Satanist pedophile cannibal cults. But if Hamburger’s argument is that Section 230 unconstitutionally encourages private actors to do what the government could not, how does favoring moderation of some types of constitutionally protected speech over others address this complaint? …….
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:07 pm……….
Unfortunately the original op-ed is behind WSJ’s paywall.
It’s Superbowl 55 but the logo looks like LiV
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:08 pm#164 nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:36 pm:
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:09 pmIt’s five hours (including time standing in line) of my life I’ll never get back.
29. Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 7:41 am
He’s trying to do both. Or rather, give geysers of money to school districts so to enable them to put in more ventilation and whatever else they need to satisfy the teacher’s unions.
The contradiction is with the Green New Deal, which is all for making building more airtight. But he hasn’t gotten around to that yet.
Biden thinks he’ll get credit with the public by predicting more deaths in the next three months (unlike Trump who always gave the lowest possible projections) – however he is still predicting that all the Covid prevention measures will last for only a short time more and then it will be over.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:22 pm32. frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:01 am
Because the early reports are not true.
He had Covid-19 which caused a blood clot which killed him.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:27 pmRip Murdock (89b937) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:07 pm
This is always the tell. People might as well say they’re only in favor of free speech protection for things decent people would say.
Yes, and they wouldn’t lose that right if 230 were repealed.
By some types over others we’re talking about constitutionally protected and not protected. It’s not perverse that the law would favor moderating unprotected speech, e.g. explicit threats, pron, etc, over protected speech. As they say, that’s not a bug it’s a feature.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:28 pmNic, please listen to science, not to anecdotes. Science says it is safe to open schools. If you don’t listen to science, then you are a QAnon Republican.
Besides, my kids school, 500 kids strong, has been open every day since September, offering five days a week in-person learning as well as hybrid and virtual for the science deniers. Grand total of 11 COVID cases among the students. Two among the teachers.
Everyone turned out fine.
Send the kids back to school.
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:29 pmIt’s Superbowl 55 but the logo looks like LiV
Well, i signifies an imaginary number and imaginary numbers are used in computing so it could just be the graphic generator stuttering, Sammy, and they don’t know how or care to fix it.
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:30 pmHere’s the deal. Nobody believes the CDC. Nobody. Not even the people who like what is says. So people are taking advice from closer to home and forming their own opinions.
(And that’s as far down that road as I’ll go.)
nk (1d9030) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:35 pm42. Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:50 am
There was a vote-a-rama Thursday into the wee hours of Friday morning on the budget resolution in which approximately 800 amendments were offered. (things can pass by majority vote but one of the conditions is unlimited amendments)
An amendment to overrule President Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone pipeline passed with votes from Senators Manchin and Tester but later Senator Schumer got them to change their votes:
https://nypost.com/2021/02/05/joe-manchin-jon-tester-defy-biden-on-keystone-pipeline-vote
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:38 pm173. I think the “i” is not supposed to be an i – just a design element – after all it’s got a dot on top of it, like a small “i” – and not the Roman numeral I, so it’s really Superbowl LV.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:41 pmPaul Mntagu @46. Everyone knows alot of people at the Ellipse headed to the Capitol. Most did not break in because there were 8 times as many people maybe who did not as those who did. The assault was planned by people who went directly to the Capitol.
A key point is that Trump was scheduled to speak at the rally hat was scheduled at the Capitol (Trump said that he would there in his speech and Alex Jones at the Capitol spoke into a bullhorn and said people should go this way, not that way and they would hear Trump speak)
A key question is: Is that true?
And also if true: When was Trump’s trip to the Capitol cancelled and who was involved in that decision?
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/6/2021 @ 8:52 pmThat tells you all you need to know about their so called moderate temperament.
NJRob (15acd4) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:34 pm@Hoi@172 Science doesn’t say it’s “safe”. “Safe” is a value judgement. What the science says is that kids under the ages of 10-12 get infected at half the rate as adults and spread at half the rate of adults.
And in part nk is right. COVID has been very politicized and when you do check the science, you do see that kids transmit and it’s hard to believe it’s safe if you are seeing 170 students a day.
And when you do look at what districts are doing to stay open, you see the games they play. (One district that I know of has their students get up and change seats every 13 minutes, so that if someone gets sick, no one was “exposed” because they weren’t within six feet of that person for 15 minutes or more. Which is ridiculous.
And when the neighbors website and facebook page is full of people saying not to get your kids tested because they’ll be fine regardless and it just means the rates will go up and they will have to stay home, it’s hard to believe that parents aren’t deliberately endangering the teachers.
And when you zoom into board meetings where there are parents who don’t “fking care about the lazy fking teachers, those fcking cowards, my kid needs to be back in fking school.” (this is an actual quote, may she get lost at 2AM in the scuzziest part of SF.) It is extremely hard to believe that the parents fcking care if the teachers die or not. (I have many awesome parents who do really care, but the noisy non-carers are unfortunately often able to drown out those who do)
Put the vaccine in the arms of my staff. Then it doesn’t matter about disease politicization or stupid district manipulations or parent lies.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:59 pmNic (896fdf) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:59 pm
The vaccine isn’t “safe” according to your description either. It’s better than nothing, maybe. Of course the viruses effectiveness isn’t politicized and everything we know about it is free from manipulation because only antivax nut jobs are asking questions.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:49 pmhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/gun-control-rep-sheila-jackson-lee-national-firearm-registry-licensing
Just a reminder this bigoted lunatic still has all her committee positions and is considered a valued member of the House.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/6/2021 @ 10:53 pmMy wife is a teacher, and a liberal Democrat. She’s profoundly grateful that our kids went to school in a rural red state this year, as they’ve been doing hybrid learning this school year. Our middle child, who just started kindergarten, goes to school every day. She has thrived emotionally, being able to socialize with her peer group and make friends. Our oldest, who has juvenile arthritis and is on an immuno-suppressant, has maintained her mental and emotional well-being by being able to attend the after-school study program in the fall, and is now attending classes herself. We’re very lucky to have them in a school district that didn’t take Fauci’s “no new cases, no deaths” from a highly mutable common cold variant seriously, after the science (not Science!) showed that schools were very low-risk environments for spreading it.
Because I can’t imagine what it must be like for those parents in Vegas whose kids committed suicide due the never-ending goal-post shifting on ending the social isolation demanded by those who don’t have to worry about paying their bills whether they’re working from home or not. Or single parents who are struggling to make ends meet and can’t monitor their kids all day long, because they’re trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.
Your snotty comment about “non-carers” shows how disconnected you’ve actually become from your community during the past year. Parents are frustrated and emotional precisely because of the emotional and scholastic degradation to their kids your hyper-risk aversion has caused. You better wake up and start paying attention to what these people are telling you, because these are the ones paying your salaries. I guarantee they’ll remember this the next time you come to them, hat in hand, begging for an increase in the mill levy.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/6/2021 @ 11:35 pmStill living in Trump fantasy-land after almost half a million American deaths?
Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:44 amSNL cold open: “Hello! Welcome to the Super Bowl — four hours of television for 11 minutes of action”
Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:10 amhttps://www.npr.org/2013/05/17/184775928/when-great-scientists-got-it-wrong
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:28 amStill healthy as ever after a far smaller percentage of the population dying from this than from the 1968 flu.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:28 am@182 Interestingly, my compatriot’s kids, one of whom is a kindergartner, are doing distance learning and thriving.
FWO, how much sympathy do you have for people who say they are going to lie and endanger you or your coworkers? How much sympathy do you have for people who’s attitude to your health is “fck you?”
There are parents I have a great deal of sympathy for, but those deliberately making plans to choose to harm me and mine? Nope.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:30 amAnd by the way, Dave, my kids are happy, healthy, and not suffering from emotional stress or scholastic degradation due to the social isolation imposed in other states. If living in “Trump fantasy-land” means my kids are happy, I’ll take that over your flabby scold attempt any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:33 amAnd mine are going to school and thriving. Glad they aren’t being locked in their homes like criminals, and seeing their friends’ happy, smiling faces every day.
The same sympathy you clearly have towards parents whose kids are suffering due to your policies.
There are parents I have a great deal of sympathy for, but those deliberately making plans to choose to harm me and mine? Nope.
So you’re going to close the schools up from now on whenever there’s a cold outbreak, right? Because any parent that brings their kid to school who is sick with anything from now on is “deliberately making plans to choose to harm” you and yours, according to your reductive logic.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:40 am@189 Yes, because COVID is clearly the common cold. *world’s most epic eyeroll*
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:46 amYou’re the one advocating for maximum harm mitigation, at least own it. And don’t act so shocked that parents who are struggling to take care of their kids’ well-being due to that very policy might take out that frustration on the people who advocate for it.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:52 am@191 I am advocating that my staff get vaccinated for a disease that’s caused the deaths of almost 500,000 people in the US before they go back to interacting with more than 170 people a day. I’m reasonably certain you can tell the difference between that and closing schools due to the common cold.
And I’m not shocked by struggling parents taking out the frustration on schools, I deal with it all the time. If they threaten someone, though, we invite them to leave. And we aren’t always super sympathetic about it.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:09 amFactory Working Orphan
Deaths in the U.S. from 1968 flu – estimated – 100,000.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1968-pandemic.html#:~:text=It%20was%20first%20noted%20in,a%20seasonal%20influenza%20A%20virus.
Population of the U.S. in 1968 – 200,000,000
Death rate, 100,000 / 200,000,000 0r 1/2,000. One death for every 2,000 people.
# of deaths Covid so far in the U.S. officially 473,000 (Worldometer) but if you look at excess death numbers for the year, probably over 500,000. So let’s say 500,000.
Population of the U.S. today – 330,000,000
Death rate == 500,000/330,000,000 = approx. 1 death for every 700 or so people (feel free to check the math)
So I don’t see how you reach the conclusion that the 1968 flu killed a “far smaller” percentage of people.
And I don’t recall the flu causing some of those who survived to have long lasting health problems.
Victor (4959fb) — 2/7/2021 @ 3:10 amIf some people wanted a National Central Planning Policy For School Attendance, they should have elected someone capable of enacting and administering a National Central Planning Policy For School Attendance. Since they did not, they should mind their own melon patches and stay out of other people’s. If people wanted the Bug Tussle-Hooterville Unified School District of East Flyover to be running their schools, they would move to Bug Tussle and Hooterville.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:11 amThis isn’t about the schools and the kids. Like they have even heard of Englewood and Lawndale. It’s about the Orange Religion. Toeing the Orange Line. Affirming the murderous indifference and incompetence of a corrupt criminal traitor and his talk radio propagandists. Well, fine, they can do it where they’re at and good luck to them, but they don’t get to ride their high horse on our playgrounds.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:41 amI saw a SuperBowl logo again last night.
The dot over the i in LiV is a football, held at an angle, at least this time. The rest of the “i” looks like a tall, slightly tapering white cone, but not much of a cone. It’s close to cylinder, less of a cone than a traffic cone. And almost as tall (without the dot) as the “L” and the “V”
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:05 am178. NJRob (15acd4) — 2/6/2021 @ 9:34 pm
They vote differently than the lockstep Democrats when they get permission to do so.
Manchin did say he wouldn’t vote to eliminate the filibuster and that that goes for the next two years (no commitment beyond that) but there is another way that legislation can be passed with 51 votes: Budget reconciliation.
It can be used three times in the current Congress: Once a make-up for 2020, (fiscal 2021?) where it wasn’t used in the last Congress (the Covid relief bill is using that up) and once for 2021 and once for 2022.
Things can also be included in “must pass” legislation, like a continuing resolution or appropriation bill, debt limit raiser or tax extender.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:14 amIt’s the Super Bowl Trophy also known as the Vince Lombardi Trophy, Sammy.
Now, you might well ask why they would put it between the X and the V and make the 55 look like a 54 in Roman numerals, but then why would muscular young men put on tight spandex and grapple other muscular young men also in spandex, in public, with millions watching, in the first place? We’re not talking high culture in any sense.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:14 amFactory Working Orphan @180:
a highly mutable common cold variant seriously
183 Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:44 am
There are 4 versions of the coronavirus that have circulated that only cause the common cold, so it could be considered a common cold variant.
Approximately 40% of people worldwide should have some immunity to the coronovirus, (it’s difficult to get estimates) but you don’t hear about that anymore because everything different than what the CDC and the WHO say has been drowned out.
But here’s something from August:
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/immune-cells-common-cold-may-recognize-sars-cov-2
Something a little different along the lines of SARS=CoV-2 being the common cold:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/health/coronavirus-immunity-future.html
It’s been estimated that, by the end of December 83 million people in the U.S. had been infected – several tmes as many as diagnosed cases. That can’t be just people who had previous immunity. It has to be very low exposure that probably “vaccinated” them.
The problem with relying on that is that, with each iteration, the virus gets further along before it gets beaten back, so that the average initial dose of virus is higher, and after a few iterations that maybe don’t even come to medical attention, you get extremely serious cases and people dying.
Of course that problem could be taken care of by giving every person who is now put into quarantine a small amount of monoclonal antibodies, which will work for the standard and the UK variant but not the South African variant (but you could update it quickly – well you could if we had a different drug regulatory system.)
But using the antibodies for prophylaxis now would be too much of leap of faith for the FDA so hundreds of thousand of people have to die while they run clinical trials. The FDA and the CDC are going to compromise as little as possible on their standards of evidence, except, of course, when it comes to masks.
By midsummer they should approve the use of antibodies for prevention, and maybe, maybe, maybe approve some shortcuts for vaccine and antibody boosters and updates. Because Trump is no longer president. Bat – then there’s the problem of gearing up manufacturing.
The virus is not highly mutable – it’s not like the flu – but, given the number of infections worldwide, we’re seeing some mutations that make a clinical difference. They shouldn’t terribly affect the value of a vaccine or convalescent fluid or the protective effect of previous infection, but can affect the monoclonal antibodies because the companies involved, to maximize their chances of gaining government approval, decided to use only one or two antibodies. Had they used close to a dozen, it would work almost no matter what happens to the virus. But they wanted to minimize the chances of bad reactions, (that they might also attack something in the body) even though they were already small.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:56 amIs opiate of masses, comrade!
Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:34 am$20 an hour is poverty wages in San Francisco.
BillPasadena (5b0401) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:35 amParler CEO Says He Was Fired by Board After He Proposed Cracking Down on QAnon, Terrorists and Hate Speech
The chief executive of Parler said he was fired by the board of directors of the “free speech” social-media company — whose app was kicked off the internet for hosting violent content after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — after he advocated for stricter moderation policies.
…………
Matze, who once briefly worked for Amazon’s AWS division as a software developer before joining Parler in early 2018, said in a New York Times interview that he had told Mercer that for Parler to get back online the company needed to consider banning white supremacists, domestic terrorists and followers of the QAnon pro-Trump conspiracy movement. “I got dead silence as a response, and I took that dead silence as disagreement,” he told the Times.
In response to Matze’s claims, right-wing personality Dan Bongino, who also is an investor in Parler, posted a video on Facebook in which he said Matze had made “really bad decisions” that led to Parler’s deplatforming. “We could have been up in a week if we just would have bent the knee,” Bongino said, alluding to requirements from Apple, Google and Amazon that Parler remove hate speech and violent content from the app. “The vision of the company as a free-speech site and a stable product, immune and hardened to cancel culture, was ours,” Bongino said, adding that “John decided to make this public, not us.”
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:59 am……….
Missourians should heed Danforth’s warning. FrankenHawley is on the loose.
………
“My hope would be that maybe Josh himself would have a primary opponent,” as would every other Trumpian candidate, (former Missouri Sen. John) Danforth stated in a Bulwark podcast that aired Monday. Interviewer Jim Swift asked how Danforth would vote if there were a repeat of the 2018 race between former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, and Hawley.
………
Gross, blatant hypocrisy has been the key to the junior Missouri senator’s success. He seems capable of saying anything at any time to please the Trumpian masses with utter disregard to the consequences or how far his comments veer from traditional Republican values. The party of Lincoln, which during the Civil War stood for national healing and unification, became the party of division under Hawley and President Donald Trump. Hawley’s mission today is to keep exploiting those divisions for his own advancement.
“He adopted this populist line, which is a disease that’s infected the country, but particularly Republican politics,” Danforth said. Hawley tells members of Trump’s base that they are victims, that they’ve been mistreated by a “conspiracy of liberals and corporations. … They’re out to get you, and they’re out to get me,” Danforth stated. “It is the style of politics that appeals to grievance and creates division.”
Hawley might not have started the Jan. 6 insurrection, but “he was certainly lighting the match in the middle of the forest,” Danforth added.
How does it make Danforth feel, knowing that he helped create this monster? “I feel I guess a little like Dr. Frankenstein must’ve felt, a part of creating something that was really wrong.”
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:07 amRip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:07 am
Said by someone with a horribly inadequate knowledge of civil war era Missouri. The R party in Missouri, at least, did not stand for healing and unification.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:24 amHere’s the deal, Nic:
If you don’t feel safe sending your kids to school, then don’t.
If a teacher doesn’t feel safe teaching in-person, then quit.
But let the majority of children learn in-person instead of getting a half-rate education on Zoom. Isolated from their peers, not getting proper socialization.
There are plenty of people looking for work, so I’m sure superintendents can find candidates to take the place of teachers who quit.
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:45 amPolls polls polls:
Quinnipiac University:
Two weeks into the presidency of Joe Biden, a majority of Americans say, 61 – 34 percent, that they are generally optimistic about the next four years with Biden as president, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of 1,075 adults released (on 2/3/21). However, there are sharp divisions by party identification.
Democrats say 90 – 7 percent and independents say 62 – 35 percent that they are optimistic. Republicans say 65 – 27 percent that they are pessimistic.
……..
A majority (56 – 35 percent) say Biden is doing more to unite the country than to divide it.
……..
President Biden receives a positive job approval rating with Americans approving 49 – 36 percent of the way he’s handling his job. Sixteen percent didn’t offer an opinion.
……..
Nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the Biden administration’s proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus relief bill in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as 68 percent say they support it and 24 percent oppose it.
………
Nearly 8 in 10 Americans are in favor of $1,400 stimulus payments to Americans with 78 percent supporting and 18 percent opposing.
A majority also say 61 – 36 percent that they support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
………..
Yahoo News/YouGov poll: More than two-thirds of Americans side with Biden on COVID relief — and most support the rest of his agenda
When asked about the 20 policies that define President Biden’s agenda, more Americans support than oppose all 20 of them, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
The margins are decisive. The majority of Biden’s proposals garner at least twice as much support as opposition. Nearly half are favored by more than 60 percent of Americans.
……..
Of all 20 policies covered by the poll, the two most popular were the ones at the center of Biden’s current COVID proposal: $2,000 relief checks (74 percent favor vs. 13 percent oppose) and increased federal funding for vaccination (69 percent favor vs. 17 percent oppose). A full 58 percent of Americans also support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, another key element of Biden’s COVID-19 rescue package. That’s almost twice the share of Americans (31 percent) who oppose a wage hike. Nearly identical numbers favor (57 percent) and oppose (32 percent) a national mask mandate.
………
A full 59 percent of Americans agree with the president that the pandemic should be his top priority. The next closest issue was the economic recovery, at 24 percent.
……..
Meanwhile, opposition to most of the rest of Biden’s agenda stalls out below 35 percent, including “rejoining the Paris Climate Accords” (48 percent to 30 percent); “reversing the recent tax cut for corporations” (45 percent to 32 percent); and “eliminating tuition at public colleges and universities for families making up to $125,000” (47 percent to 33 percent).
………..
Monmouth University Poll
……….
Half (50%) of the public plans to get the Covid vaccine as soon as they are allowed. Those willing to be at the front of the line represent a majority of American adults when combined with the 6% who report already receiving the vaccine. Another 19% say they would prefer to let other people get it first to see how it goes. However, 24% say it is likely they will never get the vaccine if they can avoid it.
Democrats are most eager to get the vaccine as soon as possible (72% when combined with those who already got the vaccine) – much more so than independents (51%) and Republicans (39%). More than 4 in 10 Republicans (42%) say they will avoid ever getting the vaccine if they can, which is significantly higher than the number of independents (25%) and Democrats (10%) who feel the same.
……….
The age-based gap in attitudes toward the vaccine is enormous among Republicans and independents who lean toward the GOP, but it virtually disappears among Democrats and Democratic leaners. Specifically, 63% of Republican identifiers aged 65 and older have received or want to be first in line for the vaccine while just 18% say they will avoid getting it. Among Republicans under 65 years old, only 33% are willing to line up for the vaccine right away, while nearly half (45%) never want to get it. Among those who identify as Democrats, there are no significant age-based differences for willingness to get the vaccine as soon as possible (71% age 65+ and 70% age 18-64) or to avoid it if they can (13% age 65+ and 9% age 18-64).
………
FiveThirtyEight:
With former President Trump out of office, other Republican politicians, from Sen. Josh Hawley to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Rep. Liz Cheney, are taking their turns in the limelight. But it hasn’t exactly been an auspicious debut: New polls this week from Morning Consult/Politico, YouGov/The Economist and SurveyMonkey/Axios measured the national popularity of eight prominent congressional Republicans and found that all eight were more unpopular than popular with the general public.
POLITICIAN/FAVORABLE/UNFAVORABLE/NET
Ted Cruz 34% 45% -11
Mitch McConnell. 19 59 -39
Liz Cheney 27 31 -4
Josh Hawley 19. 38 -19
Kevin McCarthy 23 33 -11
Marjorie Taylor Greene 15 37 -22
Lauren Boebert 12 25 -13
Madison Cawthorn 11 16 -5
These eight members of Congress can be divided into three groups. First: the controversial freshmen.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:50 am(Greene, Cawthorn, Boebert)
……
The second category of Republican the polls asked about is better-known Trump allies.
(McCarthy, Cruz, Hawley)
…….
But the oddest favorability ratings belong to our third group: Republicans who have broken with Trump.
(Cheney, McConnell)……
………
Please post any contrary polling data.
A group of high school students from the Huntington Beach Union High School District has organized a strike after they say teachers aren’t being given the option to continue the second semester with distanced learning.
Some observations:
* Huntintong Beach is quite the conservative town.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:53 am* It’s also a big party town with it comes to surfers and drinking.
* There have been a number of anti-lockdown demonstrations there.
* My sister lives there, and her daughter, a recent graduate from this same high school district is a Bernie-voting AOC-loving vegan who thinks Republicans are monsters. She did not get this from her parents.
* That they got 700 signatures from 16,000 students is unremarkable, save in the paucity of the response.
I wish for an editing function once again.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:53 amActually receiving more votes tends to reinforce the legitimacy of the outcome.
Biden did, sure. IIRC, the GOP gained seats in the House and might have held the Senate until Trump
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 8:55 amnationalizedstupified the GA election.Woof, the strawman you burned here got so hot that military satellites picked up its heat signature.
No one from my kids red state, rural district is trying to force the schools in WeF*ckingLoveScience! Land and UrbaniteNeuroticVille to open up. I do love the fact it burns you so much that these people and my kids have stayed “safe and healthy” this whole time despite your clear animus towards them.
Yep, caring about our kids social, emotional, and scholastic well-being is one of the principle creeds of the Orange Religion. There was a brief schism regarding the question over how to spread the holy ketchup on to the sacred well-done steaks, but the heretics were quickly purged from the One True Religion. Our kindergartner just received her initiation into the Orange Priesthood a couple weeks ago; I couldn’t be prouder, although my liberal wife wasn’t all that keen on the ceremony where she was baptized with Diet Coke.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:00 amIsn’t it weird that those who muddied the waters the most about Trump, drawing false equivilancies or just lying without remorse, are the same people who crap on getting vaccinated or other common sense behavior? It’s as though the same avenues of outrage about defending Trump also have an interest in America failing to get ahead of the virus. I think a lot of that is Russian propaganda filtered through angry people with nothing better to do with their day.
We have that VPN-using troll here, who I would bet a lot of money weighs over 300 lbs and is intensely unhappy. However in Russia watched World of Warcraft’s success and figured out how to leverage the incels against America was a genius.
Part of the problem with the distrust in public education is most parents recall bad teachers, combine that with the great challenge it is when schools are closed/online, and there’s just no way to convince them of good faith.
Getting public educators (and other school staff) vaccinated, frankly terminating the employment of educators who decline an antibody test, and re-opening schools would be a profound improvement in the situation. Texas is up to 3 million vaccinated, about one in ten. It was a incredible gamble to roll it out (a good decision) but now we have a good sense that the vaccine is quite safe in the short term. I think we have a lot to be happy about actually. Very, very soon we hit that wall where they have parking lots full of volunteers and vaccines, but not enough arms asking for the shot, thanks largely to traitors injecting FUD into the conversation.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:12 am(whoever in russia, not however) Sorry… I went to public school.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:13 amDustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:12 am
Traitors? That’s some tough talk from behind a keyboard. What’s your suggestion for these traitors? You tend to repeat a lot of msnbc talking points so drone strikes?
frosty (f27e97) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:34 amYep! Traitors.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:42 amUnlike most of you guys, I would say this to your face.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:43 amAnd here I was thinking that, after 473,735 dead Americans from the virus in a year (and the killing didn’t really start until April), that downtalking CV19 was over, but alas.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:57 amThe virus is literally and easily our nation’s 3rd largest killer after heart disease and cancer. Our 4th largest killer, accidents, was only 173k.
BTW, the claim that the 1968 flu was more lethal is false. The CDC estimated 100,000 total deaths from that virus. With a population of 200.7 million at the time, works out to 498 deaths per million. We’re at 1,431 deaths per million after ten months, and IMHE is estimating that 631,000 Americans will be dead by June 1st from this “highly mutable cold variant”, or over 1,900 deaths per million.
1) Not everyone who catches COVID has long-term health issues.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:58 am2) Swine flu and bird flu caused long-term health problems in some who caught it.
R.I.P. George Shultz, 100.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/2288159/george-shultz-dead-secretary-state-under-ronald-reagan-100/
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:04 amThen the Sun goes on to write this howler:
Millenials!
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:08 amYou do realize the Spanish flu didn’t continue to kill 600,000 people a year after it emerged, right? I can see, with how severe the obesity epidemic is in this country, and how COVID tends to take down people who already die from heart disease and diabetes, you might be worried that this won’t stop for several years. But that’s not how coronaviruses have worked through millennia. They tend to start off really bad, and then evolve into less severe forms that can still be deadly to the immuno-compromised and elderly. That’s why 25K-65K still die from the flu every year, despite the presence of an annual flu shot that only became considered to be a public health necessity in the last decade or so.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:11 amRegarding Covid-19: While there are always some who think vaccines are the spawn of Satan, I will bet all comers that a wider percentage of people get a Covid vaccine than get an annual flu shot. The public knows they are different in kind, and different in degree.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:15 amIn my life:
I know one person who dies of the flu, or at least complications of the flu. He had been fighting HIV for 20 years at the time.
I know one person who died as the result of an auto accident.
I lost two friends last April to Covid. None since, but then most of my friends are not utter fools.
It is not the same thing.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:18 amRip, that story about OAN losing to Maddow in court reminds me of this thread last summer, which talked about the OAN “reporter” who spread the lie that Buffalo activist, Martin Gugino, was an “Antifa provocateur”.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:21 amThe “journalist”, Kristian Rouz, was literally working for both OAN and Kremlin-controlled Sputnik, so Maddow was speaking truth when she said that Rouz “literally is paid Russian propaganda”, and I’m saying this as no fan of Maddow.
They’re not only going to pay Maddow’s court costs, they’ll also pay dearly for airing Pillow Guy’s “Absolute Proof” video. Their ridiculous disclaimer won’t be enough.
So, after you were fact-checked on the ’68 flu, you’re switching over to Spanish Flu? A pandemic in an era with no real air travel and only around 5% automobile ownership? Noted.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:35 amThe best information I’ve seen has the virus at a 0.5% to 1.0% mortality rate, which is five to ten times more lethal than common flu, and you don’t know how the mortality rate will shake out with all the new variants, so your comparing it to regular flu or saying it’s a “highly mutable cold variant” is downtalking. With Trump out of office, I thought we were done with that. Disappointing.
A New Front in the Anti-Vaccine Fight Emerges in California
…….
For months, far-right activists across the country have been rallying against mask-wearing rules, business lockdowns, curfews and local public health officials, casting the government’s response to the virus as an intrusion on individual liberties. But as masks and lockdowns become an increasingly routine part of American life, some protesters have shifted the focus of their antigovernment anger to the Covid-19 vaccines.
Last week at Dodger Stadium, the same small but vocal band of demonstrators who previously staged anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests in the Los Angeles area disrupted a mass vaccination site that gives an average of 6,120 shots daily. About 50 protesters — some carrying signs reading “Don’t be a lab rat!” and “Covid = Scam” — marched to the entrance and caused the Los Angeles Fire Department to shut down the city-run site for about an hour.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:38 am……..
In the Covid-19 era in California, vaccine opponents have found themselves increasingly in alignment with pro-Trump, working-class people sometimes eager to embrace extreme tactics to express their beliefs.
…….
They assaulted a lawmaker in Sacramento and threw menstrual blood onto legislators in the Senate chambers at the State Capitol in 2019, and last spring helped pressure the chief health officer in Orange County to resign by publicly revealing the official’s home address. Last month, two weeks before the stadium vaccination protest, a group of women threatened lawmakers at a budget hearing at the Capitol, telling senators that they were “not taking your shot” and that they “didn’t buy guns for nothing.”
……..
Protesters who attended and helped organize the Dodger Stadium demonstration said they did not attempt to enter the site and did not block the entrance. They blamed firefighters for overreacting to their presence and shutting the gates, and said their goal was to educate those waiting for vaccinations but not prevent them from driving inside to get their shots.
……..
Paul ,
What’s common among bad faith disputants on threads is their immediate willingness to seize on some other point once they’ve been refuted on their initial one. Apologies or shame, or recognition of being wrong just aren’t in their wheelhouse.
Victor (4959fb) — 2/7/2021 @ 10:49 amTrump’s DC Hotel Is Jacking Up Rates For QAnon’s Next Special Date
For some QAnon conspiracy theorists, March 4, 2021 is a date circled in red Sharpie on the calendar. The truly devoted believe that, on this special date, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 19th president of the United States.
…….. The conspiracy theorists contend that the real inauguration will happen on March 4, the date on which presidents were sworn in prior to the 1933 passage of the 20th amendment. Still following? QAnon followers believe that Trump will return to power on March 4 as the 19th president of the United States. The last true president, the theory goes, was Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president, who was in office in 1871 when the United States turned into a corporation. Got it?
…….
At the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, the least expensive room option is the deluxe king, ranging in size from 350 to 475 square feet. At this time of year, it normally runs anywhere from $476 to $596 per night.
Interestingly, on March 3 and 4, the same room is selling for $1,331 per night. That’s 180% above the base rate and more than double what you’d pay any other night in February or March, according to the hotel’s website.
The March 4 rate hike appears to be exclusive to the Trump International, notes Zach Everson in his 1100 Pennsylvania newsletter, which has diligently tracked the comings and goings at Trump International since the early days of Trump’s presidency. When Everson surveyed other DC luxury hotels — Four Seasons, Hay Adams, and St. Regis — he found that those hotels’ rates remain close to the norm on March 3 and 4.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:02 am……..
The Trump International has a history of hiking prices around dates that are important to supporters of the former president. Consider that, just last month, on January 5 and 6, the lowest available room rates at Trump International topped $7,500 and $8,000 a night, respectively. That’s more than triple the $2,200 nightly rate the hotel was charging during the inauguration period a few weeks later.
………
Most of the deaths from the Spanish flu came after a more virulent strain was brought back from Europe by returning soldiers. Not sure how you think this “no one was moving around at the time!” is some kind of counter-argument.
If evolving into four different strains within a year isn’t “highly mutable,” what would be a sufficient number for you? 10? 20? Sure, we don’t know how the mortality rate will play out, but if the history of these is any indication, it certainly won’t become the 21st century Black Plague. For all the mitigation measures that people tried 100 years ago, with a less polarized population that was far more willing to trust the government, 600,000 still died–and a little over two years later, it had evolved into a less lethal variant.
For all the talk about the Orange Religion here, there seems to be a rather slavish devotion to the Precautionary Principle. One way other another, movements need their acolytes.
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:03 amYou mean like your claim that the flu didn’t cause long-term health effects for some people?
Factory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:06 amNic (896fdf) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:30 am
It’s a good thing their money still spends though right? Everything should be smooth sailing as long as enough taxpayers keep believing that system works for them.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:26 amHunter Biden got a 2 million dollar “advance” for his book. Bribery is alive and well when you’re a leftist.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:29 amEntertainment make-believe: in the 1988 American sports film ‘Eight Men Out’ – cardboard cut outs were used as a fake crowd to fill stadium seats.
Entertainment reality: for the 2021 American NFL Super Bowl – cardboard cut outs will be used as a fake crowd to fill stadium seats.
“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life” — Oscar Wilde
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:30 amOver this past year, I’ve been glad to live in an area that leans left, because I’ve never seen anyone complain about masking or distancing requirements. I haven’t been to Target either, but my usual Target store might show the same pattern.
It may be partly because of how the Trumpist right turned Covid into a partisan issue, so people are aligning with their side. But there must also be a widespread understanding among people that they could be spreading a dangerous pathogen to others without realizing it, and people are thinking “I need to submit to this inconvenience for the general good.”
That attitude should align with a properly conservative morality and a religious concern for other people, but the “Don’t tread on me” ethos has overwhelmed it in a large portion of the conservosphere — even among people who have said that libertarian influence in the GOP should be consigned to the dustbin.
My sister said that a relative in the Midwest thought she was being too extreme in her precautions against Covid. (Sister works in a paramedical field.) Then the relative’s son and daughter-in-law and their four children spent Christmas with DIL’s parents, and everyone there got Covid symptoms. Grandpa was in the hospital on a ventilator. (He may have pulled through, last I heard.) The mother and father lost their sense of taste. The children had milder symptoms, AFAIK. But it was a big “Oh, this could happen to us” moment for them all.
Radegunda (4b0480) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:32 amR.I.P. Patricia Rooney, 88
Steelers Matriarch.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:32 amDustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:43 am
Say it to who’s face? Who are you guys? You didn’t even want to direct your comment to a specific person.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:33 amFrom Shultz obit:
There’s a hint of future greatness here.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:38 amMarch 4th. Get it?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:40 amRadegunda (4b0480) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:32 am
I live in a deep red district. I haven’t heard much in the way of complaints about masks. I see people driving around in cars, by themselves, with masks on, which I think is a little silly. If I go to Target everyone is wearing one. Same for most stores including Walmart. All of the stores have 6′ markers and everyone generally uses them.
If it makes you feel better to live in a leans left area good for you.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:42 am@237. There’s a hint of future greatness here
Clearly; he was great enough to interact occasionally w/my late father in the mid-70’s when GS was at Bechtel; Saudi/petroleum projects/business.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:44 amIn a way, it’s actual nationalism. Not the Trump type, but an actual idea that we should do easy things that help the greater society. This is why Russia was so intensely spreading the idea that masks were slavery via its disinfo, while strictly enforcing masks at home. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/20/859814085/researchers-nearly-half-of-accounts-tweeting-about-coronavirus-are-likely-bots
It’s amazing. It has evolved now to people saying the vaccine is not safe, and it’s the same people pretending Russia and Trump weren’t working together. The idea of slowing America’s progress towards herd immunity is some cold war level coldness.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:50 amRadegunda,
I have a sibling who lives in a deep-red state and got Covid last month. Miserable headaches, body aches, and extreme fatigue. After eschewing mask-wearing, maintaining a vibrant social life with no social distancing, or attempts to stay out of doors, I think Covid was inevitable. Despite that, it was *not* a big “Oh, this could happen to us” moment. Rather, it was a meh moment, and referring to it as being little more than the flu. It’s how a lot of people think in the no-masks, no social distancing, it’s all a boogeyman. Thankfully, the sibling’s symptoms were short-lived, and with no damage done (as far as we know).
Dana (fd537d) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:55 amIt has evolved now to people saying the vaccine is not safe, and it’s the same people pretending Russia and Trump weren’t working together.
Guess you missed the Swine Flu vaccine fiasco of ’75/’76… comrade:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-shadow-1976-swine-flu-vaccine-fiasco-180961994/
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 11:59 amObviously I missed that as I wasn’t born yet, but the COVID vaccine was developed in 2020, not in 1974. The methods of testing and developing vaccines, these mRNA ones and others, are far superior to the best we could do in the 1970s. It’s an achievment that is superior to the Apollo space program. We will have more pandemics, more mutations, and we have to continue improving how we make and distribute vaccines. Though it has been full of frustration, there is much to be proud of.
It’s also important to exercise common sense. The risk vs reward in taking the vaccine (or getting COVID) is wildly different for someone your age versus someone who is 10 years old. That’s why the vaccine is not approved for some, yet heavily encouraged for others.
Skepticism of vaccine safety is natural, which is why the same folks who parrot Russia’s talking points every day are so powerful in limiting America reaching herd immunity. In a month if you see America’s death rate stay stubbornly high you might even through in a quip that Putin is smiling.
The truth is, if Biden has any hope of being effective at his job, something in Russia related to its internet activity needs to blow up.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:12 pmthrough = throw
🎓
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:13 pmNoted, that you left out “cold variant”, FWO, so I accept your acknowledgement that CV19 isn’t a cold. Like with comparing it to the flu, it’s not honest to compare a cold to Covid-19.
I really don’t know what you’re trying to say, FWO, that it’s going to just go away? Without or with vaccines? Without a vaccine, how many more deaths are acceptable to you? I don’t see a lot of utility in comparing the response present-day to something that happened a century ago.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:23 pmConservative writers don’t receive large advances, and are they “bribes” too?
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:25 pmI didn’t know Hunter was a “liberal writer.” I thought he was the son of the president, someone with a drug problem and knee-deep in questionable business deals in countries where his dad conducted politics as Vice President of the US.
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:30 pmI didn’t know Hunter was a “liberal writer.” …..
That’s NJRob’s characterization, not mine.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:35 pm@Frosy@231 Well, you see, Frosty, what I sell are my time and my skills in administration, organization, and education, not my opinions or my soul. The parents continue to get what they pay for, even under the current situation.
Nic (896fdf) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:37 pmOliver Sachs wrote a famous book about that.
https://interestingengineering.com/encephalitis-lethargica-disease-portrayed-in-the-movie-awakenings-accompanied-the-1918-spanish-flu
No, every virus is different, Covid does not infect the brain but it does infect the olfactory bulb (sense of smell)
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:49 pm201. BillPasadena (5b0401) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:35 am
Which is why many workers – and not all so low wage – commute from up to 100 miles away. Not very “green” especially when done by automobile but they’re not focusing on commuting distance at all.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:55 pmFrosty, are you denying that taking precautions against Covid has been made into a partisan issue?
All of the Covid resistance shenanigans I’ve seen were in red parts of the contrary, and often tied explicitly to partisan politics. That’s at least partly because of the message and example sent by the great populist hero and swamp-drainer and slayer of communists — a message amplified throughout the right-wing media.
The evidence indicates that masking and distancing rules are more likely to be respected in Democrat-voting parts of the country. So yes, there might be an advantage to living here at the moment, despite the population density.
Radegunda (4b0480) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:06 pmFactory Working Orphan (f916e7) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:00 am
It was the claim that closed schools would cause mothers to drop out of the labor force (which they have plausibly done) and thus reduce family incomes and make the economy worse and turn him into another Herbert Hoover and lose the election that probably caused Donald Trump to be in favor of school openings. His economic advisers considered open schools to be pretty important in getting the economy back to normal.
Joe Biden is also in favor of that, but for more prosaic political reasons.
Neither had any direct power to open or close schools – only Governors and local officials can do that. Trump did not want to get attacked too much for being against “science” and so didn’t push opening schools too much, and Biden is afraid to confront the big teacher’s unions and pretends sending federal money with no strings attached to every school district can solve the problem.
The CDC has gotten ahead of him. Jen Psaki doesn’t want the CDC saying too much.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:11 pmA recent George P. Shultz Op-ed:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/11/10-most-important-things-ive-learned-about-trust-over-my-100-years
Beginnimg of the same thing, not behind a paywall:
https://isd.georgetown.edu/2020/12/14/the-10-most-important-things-ive-learned-about-trust-over-my-100-years/
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:18 pmBiden: Wrong about the $15 minimum wage, right about calling out the Uigher cultural genocide by Xi and his Chinese Communist Party.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:22 pmJust put on CBS – you’ll see what looks, for all the world, like LiV, on the right bottom orner of your screen.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:25 pm258. Biden can been criticized for just saying words about the Uighers (and not being willing to wreck relations with China over it.)
Trump didn’t care, but since care about getting along with China any more, Mike Pompeo could label is genocide.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:28 pm220. Better, while preserving the intentions of the writer, would be:
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:34 pmDustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 9:43 am ‘Unlike most of you guys, I would say this to your face.’
The Liz Cheney Vote Credo
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:40 pm@244. You miss the point. Again.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:42 pmSo glad he said some words about it. I’m sure the Chinese will stop what they are doing posthaste.
Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:46 pmWhen I said I didn’t recall long term symptoms from the more common flu, I was being accurate. I probably should have researched the issue before tossing off the remark, but in any case I was wrong, it definitely can:
https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/flu-complications#1
It’s just not something commonly talked about. I don’t know if the incidence of long term symptoms with Covid is greater than the flu, or just the subject of greater attention, and so won’t claim anything more on that.
As for your original claim, that the 1968 flu was worse in mortality rates, though, that was really wrong and in several subsequent posts you’ve failed to own up to it.
Victor (4959fb) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:48 pm@244 It’s an achievment that is superior to the Apollo space program.
Except it’s not.
Bugs come and go over time. For starters, see the Black Death for details. Leaving the livable 3-to-5-mile-deep shell of gases life evolved and existed in for a few billion years to reach another world remains a singularly stellar, ‘superior’ achievement. There’s hope for us yet. Too bad you weren’t alive for that, either.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:48 pm@262. Don’t be surprised to see a cardboard out out of him in the stadium stands at the Super Bowl as well; and see if anybody can tell the difference.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:52 pm^cut out
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:52 pmBetter bio-engineering technology saves millions of lives. All you’ve got is to say ‘nuh uh, reaganomics!’ 5000 times, because you have no actual point.
And they are going to get worse. The scientists who created the Moderna vaccine are more important than the ex nazis in alabama who stacked some rockets.
Dustin (4237e0) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:10 pmhttps://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/02/07/pelosi-under-fire-for-breaking-her-own-rules-evading-metal-detectors-when-entering-house-chamber-n1423796
I’m shocked that leftists like Pelosi make rules and then ignore them determining they don’t apply to her. That’s so unlike our political class.
NJRob (701571) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:39 pmAnd I live in leftist NJ and people packed themselves into supermarkets like sardine cans last Sunday and yesterday due to the snow and Super Bowl. It’s almost like it’s not politics and just population density that decides the issue. But then that wouldn’t support your assessment.
NJRob (701571) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:43 pmNo it wasn’t. I said he was a leftist and it’s clear he’s being granted the money as a cut through to the President. But graft is fine when it’s for the leftist cause, right?
NJRob (701571) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:46 pm@267. =ding= You’re swinging after the bell, Dustin.
And Reaganomics is the point, Dustin; the wreckage of same is the world you’re now living in.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:52 pmRadegunda (4b0480) — 2/7/2021 @ 1:06 pm
To the degree, or in the way, you are trying to claim, no. I think you’re working from anecdote and the extreme. I think there’s also a little confirmation bias going on to.
frosty (f27e97) — 2/7/2021 @ 2:57 pmYour original post you described Hunter as a “leftist” but there no evidence to support that conclusion, unless you lump all those who don’t agree with you in that category. Actually it’s not clear the money is a pass through to the President. Short of your fevered imagination, what evidence exists that is true?
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 3:14 pmReaganoptics:
The Super Bowl will have 25,000 real fans in a stadium that holds three times that amount.
The NFL made 30,000 cardboard cutout fans to fill the empty seats and make the game look closer to capacity.
The cutouts cost $100 each.
The cardboard fans are also spread out in a way to keep real fans safe.
source – https://www.businessinsider.in/sports/news/the-super-bowl-will-have-30000-cardboard-fans-to-help-the-game-look-full-and-keep-real-fans-socially-distant/articleshow/80739413.cms
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 3:30 pmLawyers Call Trump’s First Amendment Defense ‘Legally Frivolous’
……
Taking aim at one of the key planks of Mr. Trump’s impeachment defense, the lawyers argued that the constitutional protections do not apply to an impeachment proceeding, were never meant to protect conduct like Mr. Trump’s anyway and would likely fail to shield him even in a criminal court.
“Although we differ from one another in our politics, disagree on many questions of constitutional law, and take different approaches to understanding the Constitution’s text, history, and context, we all agree that any First Amendment defense raised by President Trump’s attorneys would be legally frivolous,” the group wrote. “In other words, we all agree that the First Amendment does not prevent the Senate from convicting President Trump and disqualifying him from holding future office.”
Among the 144 lawyers, scholars and litigants who signed the letter, a copy of which was shared with The New York Times, were Floyd Abrams, who has fought marquee First Amendment cases in court; Steven G. Calabresi, a founder of the conservative Federalist Society; Charles Fried, a solicitor general under Ronald Reagan; and pre-eminent constitutional law scholars like Laurence Tribe, Richard Primus and Martha L. Minow.
…….. (Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Bruce L. Castor Jr. and David Schoen) argued in a written filing on Tuesday that the House’s “incitement of insurrection” charge “violates the 45th president’s right to free speech and thought” and that the First Amendment specifically protects Mr. Trump from being punished for his baseless claims about widespread election fraud.
…….
In their letter, the constitutional law scholars laid out three counterarguments to the president’s free-speech defense that the Democrats prosecuting the case are expected to embrace at trial.
First, they asserted that the First Amendment, which is meant to protect citizens from the government limiting their free speech and other rights, has no real place in an impeachment trial. Senators are not determining whether Mr. Trump’s conduct was criminal, but whether it sufficiently violated his oath of office to warrant conviction and potential disqualification from holding future office.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 3:57 pm……….
What is more, they argued, even if the First Amendment did apply to an impeachment trial, it would do nothing to bar conviction, which has to do with whether Mr. Trump violated his oath, not whether he should be allowed to say what he said.
………
Finally, they contended that there is an “extraordinarily strong argument” that the defense would even fail in a criminal trial, because the evidence against Mr. Trump is most likely strong enough to meet the Supreme Court’s high bar for punishing someone for inciting others to engage in unlawful conduct.
……..
Schultz deserves respect for his decades of service, no doubt.
In his final years, he was one of the big shots with trusted names who were used by Theranos to dupe small investors out of their life savings.
Schultz’s grandson worked for Theranos and was the one who finally blew the whistle. He reached out to his grandfather, who was on the Board of Directors, and appallingly, Schultz betrayed his own grandson to the Theranos lawyers and tried to force him to disavow his charges.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 3:57 pmBreaking With G.O.P., Top Conservative Lawyer Says Trump Can Stand Trial
……..
In an opinion piece posted on The Wall Street Journal’s website, the lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, who is closely allied with top Republicans in Congress, dismissed as illogical the claim that it is unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former president……
Since the rampage, Republicans have made little effort to excuse Mr. Trump’s conduct, but have coalesced behind the legal argument about constitutionality as their rationale for why he should not be tried, much less convicted. Their theory is that because the Constitution’s penalty for an impeachment conviction is removal from office, it was never intended to apply to a former president, who is no longer in office.
……
Mr. Cooper said they were misreading the Constitution.
“The provision cuts against their interpretation,” he wrote. He argued that because the Constitution allows the Senate to bar officials convicted of impeachable offenses from holding public office again in the future, “it defies logic to suggest that the Senate is prohibited from trying and convicting former officeholders.”
Mr. Cooper’s decision to take on the argument was particularly significant because of his standing in conservative legal circles. He was a close confidant and adviser to Senate Republicans, like Ted Cruz of Texas when he ran for president, and represented House Republicans — including the minority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California — in a lawsuit against Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He is also the lawyer for conservative stalwarts like John R. Bolton and Jeff Sessions, and over his career defended California’s same-sex marriage ban and had been a top outside lawyer for the National Rifle Association.
But Mr. Cooper, who is said to be dismayed by the unwillingness of House and Senate Republicans to hold Mr. Trump accountable, took on the main claim made by his own confidants and clients, offering a series of scholarly and technical arguments for why the Constitution allows for a former president to stand trial.
It was unclear whether Mr. Cooper’s opinion would have any influence on the outcome of the trial. It could provide cover to Republican senators open to convicting Mr. Trump who were caught off guard by last month’s vote, forced by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, to effectively dismiss the case as unconstitutional. Some Republicans have since said they did not necessarily mean to signal that they were opposed to hearing the case, or had made up their minds about Mr. Trump’s guilt.
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 4:27 pm………
Superbowl score at the end of the first quarter:
TB (stands for Tampa Bay or Tom Brady but that’s the same thing) 7; KC (Kansas City) 3. Three best quarterbacks there, one a Hall of Famer.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 4:28 pmDave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 3:57 pm
Shultz didn’t know whom not to trust.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 4:31 pm@278
Gronkowski: Large and in charge.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 4:31 pmPaul Montagu (77c694) — 2/7/2021 @ 12:23 pm
The strains are only slightly different all the vaccines, and previous infection, should prevent much from happening with more expssure.
On;y the monoclonal antibodies that cured Trump and Giuliani may not work with one strain because the antibodies used were limited to just one or two.
Not so.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/health/coronavirus-immunity-future.html
Comparing this to measles, in the sense that it might become a childhood disease and prevented in adults by vaccines, could be good.
I think, if they were the same, you;d see occasional very serious cases (unless you need someone with a very severe infection or a number of people n the same place with less serious infections, to create a serious case. And what about what happened when the first cases of the other coronaviruses first spread? Where was the epidemic then? So it must be different, unless you want to say they’ve all been around for over 120 years at least. (since before that nobody would have noticed)
Oh, look: Maybe a famous flu epidemic wasn’t the flu:
It is hard to believe that since 1890, the current version of OC-43 infected everyone in the world in childhood and I don’t think everybody has antibodies..
The usual theory about 1890 is that it conferred some immunity to the Spanish flu of 1918ff,
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 4:58 pmTheDonald’s owner speaks out on why he finally pulled plug on hate-filled site
Jody Williams knew things had gotten out of hand early last month, when a post on the pro-Trump message board TheDonald included a detailed diagram of how to tie a “hangman’s knot” on a noose.
Williams was a moderator for the board and owner of its Web address, so he removed the noose instructions. But within an hour, he said, another moderator quietly restored it near the top of the site. Three days later, on Jan. 6, a real noose was hung on makeshift gallows on the National Mall, amid a violent siege on the U.S. Capitol.
………
The story of TheDonald, a furiously pro-Trump forum that became an online staging ground for the Capitol assault, is a cautionary tale about the Internet’s dark side. What began on Reddit as an online political rally for an upstart presidential candidate turned increasingly foul as Williams fought — and often lost — against what he said were “nefarious forces” determined to advance the most extreme ideologies, including white supremacy.
The battle over the noose diagram was just one of many over a site so infested with racist, anti-Semitic and violent content that Williams, 41, an Army veteran who lost a leg in a noncombat accident, often recoiled at what his fellow Trump supporters said and did.
……..
Moderators at Patriots.win, where some of TheDonald community moved after it went dark, did not respond to requests for comment this week. On their new spinoff site, they have labeled Williams a “sellout” who “betrayed the community … [of] hundreds of thousands of loyal patriots.”
The schism that fractured TheDonald offers a potent symbol of the increasingly tense battles over free speech and extremism on the Web. Online communities that frame themselves as refuges for free expression often find themselves pulled to the fringes, forcing members to either confront the shift or tolerate increasingly radical ideas.
………
………[O]nline discussions of potential violence alarmed FBI officials, especially on TheDonald, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. Some of the violent and incendiary comments posted on the site were quoted in an internal FBI report issued a day before the riot, though the report, which was reviewed by The Washington Post, does not mention TheDonald by name, these people said.
One of the comments cited in the FBI memo declared Trump supporters should go to Washington and get “violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.”
……..
…….. “His site helped incite and facilitate one of the most egregious assaults on American democracy,” said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism. “He doesn’t get to pretend he wasn’t part of the problem.”
……..
Williams is no liberal, nor even a moderate.
In since-deleted tweets, he said that Democratic “communists” were screaming “for war,” and he defended a post on TheDonald showing a box of bullets as a response to the “rigged ballot box.” Days before Jan. 6, Williams tweeted that Trump supporters going to D.C. should “siege the corrupt Federal Apparatus that seeks to chain you all up,” including the hashtag “#DCMustFall.”
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:17 pm………
But Williams now recognizes, he says, that elements of the movement went too far. In tweets last month, he called on Trump to disown the “insane” “fringes of the ‘right,’ ” including QAnon followers and racists. He wrote, “They are costing us more than they could ever bring to the table. Worse, they are contagious.”
……..
Superbowl score at the end of the second quarter (halftime)
Tom Brady 21, Kansas City 6.
TB made an extra touchdown with just seconds to go (still with enough seconds to score the extra point.)
Tom Brady was maneuvering Kansas City into getting penalties – to stop Tampa Bay from doing some thing s that would not have enabled them to score had they not interfered.
The only way that Tampa Bay was able to make that last touchdown was with the help of penalties on Kansas City.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:22 pmBefore Trump made that speech on January 6.
Now the question is: Did he know, or should he have known, what some people were planning?
By the way, the “pipe bombs” outside or near the DNC and the RNC, it seems understood, were planted during the previous night.
Trump’s lawyers don’t seem to understand that there are real factual disputes here. This case could become an embarrassment.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:29 pmThe extra point try is allowed even if time expires, Sammy.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:32 pmBig Publishing Pushes Out Trump’s Last Fan
……… The Big Five publishing companies in New York, and even their dedicated conservative imprints, had become squeamish about the genre known as MAGA books, with its divisive politics and relaxed approach to facts. And small conservative publishers probably couldn’t afford you.
So if……..you found yourself rejected by most New York publishers, there was one last stop: a corner cubicle in the fifth-floor offices of the Hachette Book Group in Midtown Manhattan. There, Kate Hartson, the editorial director of the conservative Center Street imprint, was the one mainstream editor who would buy what no one else would — and make a tidy profit for her employer.
…….[S]he …….seemed to be that rarest of figures in New York media: a true believer in Donald J. Trump, people who worked with her said. She published “Triggered” by Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Lewandowski’s “Trump: America First: The President Succeeds Against All Odds” and the work of other Trump die-hards like the Fox News host Jeanine Pirro and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker.
……..
The official reasons for Ms. Hartson’s termination, two people familiar with it said, were mundane. But she told associates that she believed she’d been fired for her politics. ……. [T]he chief executive of Hachette Book Group, Michael Pietsch, and Daisy Hutton, the executive who oversees Center Street, didn’t mention Ms. Hartson. But they reassured employees that they had learned the lessons of the Capitol siege of Jan. 6: no hate speech, no incitement to violence, no false narratives. And they’ve separately made clear to both editors and agents that they’re shifting back toward think tank conservatives, and away from fire-breathing politicians……….
………
Hachette is hardly the only mainstream publisher steering away from MAGA books. Simon & Schuster invoked its “morals” clause to cancel the publication of a book by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican (Insurrectionist) of Missouri,…….(and) will also stop publishing the right-wing activist Candace Owens.
…… Thomas Spence, the president of the conservative publisher Regnery, said he regarded the shift by the Big Five (soon to be four, when Penguin Random House completes its acquisition of Simon & Schuster) as a “form of blacklisting.”
But when that word was used in 1950s Hollywood, the movie studios could silence a writer, director or actor because they exercised near total control over production and distribution. The New York publishers don’t have that power anymore. …….
Rip Murdock (89b937) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:46 pm………
The New York publishers’ newfound scruples mean two things in practice. First, that publishers like Regnery, the newly founded Bombardier Books and small nonprofit presses will have their pick of the MAGA litter.
……..
But the big publishers’ shift may have an impact on the writers’ incomes. MAGA writers will largely be left out of the bidding wars that make writing books so attractive to many political figures. None of the right-wing presses can compete with the well-capitalized multinationals on fat six- and seven-figure advances (much less the eight-figures that former President Trump will probably demand.
……….
TB is scoring only touchdowns; KC only field goals.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 5:59 pmYou see this LiV logo all over the place – even on a referee’s uniform. It’s 55 that looks like 54. What;s that big little “i” doing there?
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:09 pmFor crying out loud, Sammy! Click this link!
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:14 pmTampa Bay went for a field goal, after a missed pass I think.
Score: 31-9
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:15 pmIt’s not a big little “i”, it’s the Super Bowl trophy.
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:16 pm289. I missed the explanation.
It’s not between the X and the V but an L and a V of course.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:19 pmWhat did they do last year?
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:20 pmhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/SuperBowlXLIXLogo.png
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:31 pmWhich is what they should have done this year, too. Wanna bet that somebody complained that it was too phallic?
nk (1d9030) — 2/7/2021 @ 6:33 pmIn some of the depictions this year, the football was in the air, in color, so it really looked like an “i” And one common design motif is for something to do double duty, so even if UI knw, ot could have read 54.
54 was LIiV
https://news.sportslogos.net/2019/01/22/first-look-super-bowl-liv-logo/football/
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:01 pm53 was LiIII
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Bowl-LIII-53-Logo-Decal-/192797572722
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:10 pmThey say the Kansas City quarterback has never lost by double digits since a game in college in 2016 and KC hasn’t been confined to single digits (this season I think.)
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:12 pm“The game did not live up to the hype.” – CBS Sports
Never has; never will.
=mike-drop=
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/7/2021 @ 7:22 pmThere was one Superbowl, not long ago, which was decided in the last two minutes, I think, with scoring by both teams.
The hype ere was that you might see some records breaking, and there was record breaking for the game as a whole.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/8/2021 @ 8:04 amEven if the KC defense was flagged too many times, the fact remains that their offense couldn’t even score a TD. For that, the MVP should’ve been awarded to the D as a whole or the defensive captain, not Brady.
Paul Montagu (71691d) — 2/8/2021 @ 8:23 amIt was like watching a Seahawk game in the last six games of our season. Mahomes had to scramble all over the place, and there was scarcely anyone open downfield. Credit to Todd Bowles for his game plan.
And yes, any iota of doubt should be gone forever: Brady is the greatest QB in NFL history. He has more championship rings than any other team. His performance yesterday was near flawless. I’m surprised his passer rating was only 125.8.
And congrats to two former Huskies, Jaydon Mickens and Vita Vea.
Ron Wright, GOP congressman, dies following Covid diagnosis …
http://www.cnn.com/2021/02/08/politics/ron-wright...
Republican Rep. Ron Wright of Texas has died, his congressional office announced in a statement Monday, saying that he had been admitted to the hospital after contracting Covid-19.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/8/2021 @ 9:12 amhttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-kids-arent-alright
But our future generation doesn’t matter. It’s the present that counts. Destroy the kids, right?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/8/2021 @ 9:39 am@302 Another Republican (from Louisiana) died after being newly elected to Congress, but before he could be sworn in. Probably from a blood clot, IIRC.
@303. Missing a year or two of school is not really that serious. But you maybe have to recognize that in some places, no school is going on.
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/8/2021 @ 9:48 am@303, what a terrible story.
Time123 (f5cf77) — 2/8/2021 @ 9:54 am303. 305. Her school has basically ceased to exist, fir the time being. But that’s not a terrible story.
There are some included here – and the stories featured are by people somewhat more connected – who have health insurance or who know about convalescent fluid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/us/covid-los-angeles.html
Or this:
Sammy Finkelman (5b302e) — 2/8/2021 @ 1:43 pm“But our future generation doesn’t matter. It’s the present that counts. Destroy the kids, right?”
Imagine how much better off we’d be if Trump had taken Covid seriously.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 2/8/2021 @ 2:29 pmhttps://twitter.com/RepRonWright/status/1357771651027521548
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 2/8/2021 @ 3:10 pmIn unrelated news, RIP Ron Wright, dead of Covid.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 2/8/2021 @ 3:10 pm@303
Sounds like child neglect or abuse by the parents.
Why don’t they help their daughter instead of waiting for the government to do it for them?
Dave (1bb933) — 2/8/2021 @ 3:58 pmI see people driving around in cars, by themselves, with masks on, which I think is a little silly.
My wife does that after coming out of a store, and wears it continuously until she can take it off and wash her hands. It’s not worth arguing over though.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/8/2021 @ 4:44 pmThe other day I was standing in an entrance line outside of Sprouts, which takes occupancy control VERY seriously when about a dozen maskless yahoos rushed in the exit door and refused store personnel’s requests to don masks or leave. They stayed about a half hour, during which no one else was allowed to enter the store. The store people claimed to have called the police (and I DID call the police), but no police came. Eventually they exited, flipped everyone off and left.
Sadly, I’d not brought my molasses balloons.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/8/2021 @ 4:49 pmBut our future generation doesn’t matter. It’s the present that counts. Destroy the kids, right?
I will bet you if teachers were on UI, the vote would be different.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 2/8/2021 @ 4:56 pmKids? Grown-ups?
Did they expect to get service or were they just there to annoy/endanger everyone else in the store?
I still say cash bounties on the maskless are the way to go.
Doubles as an economic stimulus measure too.
Dave (1bb933) — 2/8/2021 @ 5:59 pmChicago Public Schools personnel are being vaccinated as we speak. The kids, parents and grandparents, 92% of who are in those demographics “disproportionately affected by the coronavirus”, will get ribbons for their sacrifice to future generations.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2021 @ 6:28 pmThe Democrat concedes in the NY-22 Congressional race:
So much for the “Pelosi will overturn the election and seat the loser” theory…
Dave (1bb933) — 2/8/2021 @ 6:31 pmHe just let her steal the sacred landslide like she was some kind of Indiana Jones. Shaking my head.
nk (1d9030) — 2/8/2021 @ 6:46 pm