Free To Be Just Like Me

"Covid is SO OVER" is your basic glibertarian position, from people who hoot about 'freedom,' but what freedom means is that people are free to be just like them, and any real deviation from conformity enrages them. The degree of tolerable nonconformity is being a style rebel by puckishly wearing a leather jacket to semi-formal events, or some similarly totally out there rebellion. Maybe wearing a hat all the time.

Confessing your love for bourbon.

Fondness for the confederacy, also a good one.

Are these people angry that....*other* people aren't dining out? Like they go out to a restaurant and get mad that it's not crowded? pic.twitter.com/gNECj9Q8KI

— Hemry, Local Bartender (@BartenderHemry) January 25, 2022

This is actual covid constrained "freedom." Some people choose not to go out as much.

Personally (not that it matters, because who cares), I've hardly been a super-safe Covid person. I've obeyed the rules that have been in place. I've basically lived my life. I've traveled. I've gone to fewer "large crowd events" than I probably would've, though not zero. I don't go out to eat as much, in part because I really got used to cooking and would rather do that than 'go out to eat because I'm too lazy to cook' most of the time.

My point is not "I'm doing the right thing," my point is that like everyone else other than these barking lunatics, I'm responding appropriately to the current state of the world. Not really curtailing my life, but living a bit differently than I did before. This is "living with covid," not, as it seems to be the case with these people, WHY ISN'T MY LIFE JUST LIKE IT WAS TWO YEARS AGO.

I suspect for many of them, the answer is, "because your few remaining friends finally noticed what a fucking asshole you are and are having parties without you."

Also, two years is a long time.  We're all two years older, now.

Morning Thread

Midweek madness.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

HAPPY HOUR

SO HAPPY

Life Goes On

I know I'm repeating myself, but "pretend Covid isn't happening" beat "Covid sucks, so let's figure out how to make things work as well as possible" and all the people who advocated the former are just lashing out absurdly. Just fucking broken brained people who can't entertain the notion that they are ever wrong about anything, and certainly not that they have any responsibility for the chaos they help to cause.

Guys, there is something wrong with David Leonhardt. For reference, the currently death average is 2,200 a day. pic.twitter.com/UKGUDWmZTG

— Will Stancil (@whstancil) January 25, 2022

You did this you assholes!

Schools

This is a good piece from Rachel Cohen. tl;dr political journalists focus solely on the stuff they agree with.

These Assholes Are Trying To Kill Your Kids

There are a few reasons, but we should all contemplate the fact that prominent elected Democrats are regularly responsible for "some guy with a sign" and the Republican party isn't even held responsible for the Republican party.

Legislation has been introduced in the Georgia Senate with to ban any public entity from requiring *any* vaccination as a precondition for services or facility access, wiping out the preexisting standards. #gapol https://t.co/uKg5Y85T71 pic.twitter.com/TsyljBC10x

— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 24, 2022

(the main reasons are 1) Reporters treat all actions of Republicans as the state of nature, a manifestation of Real America, and 2) Democrats don't get on teevee every day say, "holy shit they're trying to kill your kids," instead of, "hmm, well, people have deeply held beliefs about killing kids that we should respect, so as not to be too woke.")

WINTER FUNDRAISING DAY 5

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Just Give People Money

Sounds like a very interesting study, hopefully it inspires billions more in studies looking into whether giving poor people money is helpful.

WASHINGTON — A study that provided poor mothers with cash stipends for the first year of their children’s lives appears to have changed the babies’ brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development, a finding with potential implications for safety net policy.

Yes that's snarky, we do spend a lot of money studying solutions instead of just consistently doing the obvious.

The United States is not a country where you can "afford to be poor," and there are no medium term routes to escaping that given low wage jobs are what they are.

Cable News Brain

I don't know what it's like now, but related to this, back in the aughts when I would go to DC a bit and visit congressional offices, and when I was on some rapid response type email lists, (some) offices were absolutely transfixed by the cable news cycle. Especially, but not just, if the office boss (the member of Congress) was getting any kind of bad coverage, it was absolute panic mode. Generally if "Democrats" were "getting slammed" on some issue, no matter how much bullshit it was, they'd go into panic mode and feel the need to respond.

Responding generally meant abject apologies (exaggeration, but flight usually beat fight).

Not everybody was news cycle addicted, but the point is even the most advanced brains can't tune it out completely. Even if they can tune out CNN, they can't tune out THE NEW YORK TIMES which has the most serious most objective most perfect political coverage in the history of the multiverse.

When pack reporting (encouraged by well-funded PR interests, and the Republican "operatives" that are the sources journalists love most) tells everybody that inflation is killing Joe and Eileen Bailey, they listen.

On the inflation issue specifically, I see people who should know better thinking it's real. A few months of high measured inflation data, especially relative to pandemic depths, is not really hitting people where it hurts. They're responding to news coverage. Cost of living increase issues might be real, but not because the new CPI number hits CNBC. 

All the coverage is driven by the data release and the inflation-is-killing-us PR industry, not by the actual lived experience of people at the 35th percentile of the income distribution, because nobody  in elite political journalism gives a shit about these people or even pretends to most of the time.

Morning Thread

 Daytues.

Monday Night

Rock on.

I Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One

Not this time!

A panel of Fulton County judges on Monday cleared the way for a special grand jury to be used as part of District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation of former President Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

Happy Hour Thread

Once again!

The Excluded Perspective

I don't think the magnitude of the effect that excluding the perspectives of not just THE LEFT or people of color, but of even middle of the road white suburban democrats, from political coverage has on the people in power is appreciated enough. Senators open up their New York Times and all they see are puff pieces about Nazis, endless reports on "normal Americans," the views of Republican operatives pretending to be former Obama voters, etc.

I'm not even really exaggerating, here. "People mad at Democrats" because their 7600 gallons of milk per week costs $.87 more get constant coverage, and people benefitting from the child tax credit, or whatever, get none at all.

People angry about mild mask requirements, FRONT PAGE, people glad for them as they can leave the house a bit more comfortably, nowhere.

Fascists, lovable! People who don't like fascists, CANCEL CULTURE! 

Same Playbook For Decades

The same stuff is offered up every election cycle as fresh brilliant ideas, and whether they are good or bad ideas, the notion that they are not the ideas that have controlled Dem messaging and candidate choice for decades is ridiculous (twitter thread). 

For years, I sat in on meetings every other week with Senate leadership and consultants, plus DSCC meetings. Do you think the consultants in those meetings were telling candidates to embrace BLM and run to the left? Of course not! The opposite. Senators and candidates listened.

— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) January 24, 2022

(click the link above for the whole thing)

The downward spiral for Democrats is: Do you think the left is too Woke? Then come with me friend, and let me explain why we should be the party of Davos and the C-suite.

— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) January 24, 2022

The centrists get exactly what they want, don't like the results, and then blame people who have no money and power!

And at the moment, who they are blaming are "black people for daring to exist in public." Not very good!

All They Know

Related to this, when I see groups of the absolute most miserable, cruel, monstrous people who are apparently friendly with each other (like the greater Trump Cinematic Universe), or at least form little social bubbles, I think, wow, I guess this is what you know? That this is what human relationships are? Just a bunch of utter pricks who will kill you for a quarter, and these are your "friends"?

And you don't choose to just go live in a cave? Especially when a lot of these assholes are extremely rich, and they could go live in a really nice cave? Or just, I dunno, surround yourself with different people? Any other people will do.

Maybe that's why a lot of these rich weirdos become dedicated twitter posters, or spend their twilight years doing CNBC hits. 

Assholes

I don't have any conception of myself as a particular nice person. No handing out the shirts off my back on a regular basis. But I am just constantly amazed at the amount gratuitous cruelty, especially when it's cloaked in the transparently bullshit language of humanitarian concern.

I suppose I should stop being surprised after living through the era of, "the real racists are the people who don't want to bomb the shit out of Iraq," and "we need to plunge the Middle East into endless chaos because, um, George Bush is a big supporter of gay rights" and nonsense like that. The ability of the most obviously nasty, cruel people on the planet to declare that they are the true beacons of light and generosity, and have lots of people seem to genuinely agree with them, is quite stunning!

The real villains are bus drivers who don't want to work for $8/hour while they have covid. They hate children, you see. And we care so so deeply about the children, as we do any time there's an opportunity to use them as an excuse to crush other people.

Lunch Thread

Leftover Monday.

Callback To The Prequel

A bit too easy, B- to the writers for ths one.

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has tested positive for Covid, and is unvaccinated, a federal judge told a courtroom Monday just as a civil defamation trial involving the one-time-Alaska governor and the New York Times was set to begin.

Winter Fundraising Day 4!!!

One day only, limited edition Eschaton NFTs!!!

Kidding, but my curse is definitely not being grifty enough. I just got an email offering to buy this web site, and, you know, I don't even know what that means. They didn't say they wanted to buy the domain, which would be dumb but at least there can be some value to a domain name (if not this domain name), but the website. The website is me! What does it even mean?!

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Who?

Ann Coulter's career was aided by people in "the liberal media" supporting her with endless glowing profiles and "you have to admit she has a point" pieces, now that her era is over there's no need to help keep her grift going (there never was, but).

Not even going to read the piece, as I fear it's going to include the suggestion that we should miss the good old days when Coulter was Queen of the Right. Enough conservative assholes to pay attention to now, no need to exhume Ann's career.

...Christ, Michelle Cottle just can't quit Anne. Can't stop won't stop.

Appletini buddies, obviously, and Ann needs a career boost (again and again and again).