AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas ends mask mandate after 8 months, becoming largest state to lift order intended to prevent spread of COVID-19.
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) March 2, 2021
Tuesday, March 02, 2021
Sure Why Not
We Had A Mixed Run
Because It's The Right Thing To Do
Yes it is absolutely true that a disgusting sex pest and likely serial rapist was president for 4 years and no Republicans cared, but supposedly "we" didn't care about that just because he was a Republican.
Busy Couple Of Decades
Other things, but those are the sort of (if not completely) random hit by a hurricane type events (we could add in some actual hurricanes, of course), not the things we chose to do (like Iraq). I was going to make another point, but as I teed this up it occurred to me that for people not directly affected by the worst of Trump's policies, and for people who aren't cursed with the hobby of paying attention to the horror that is The Politics Show, the 3 years of his administration before covid were a pretty good time. No I am not saying you have to hand it to him, I'm just saying that it's a reasonable explanation for how he almost won (the electoral college, at least).
The simplest lesson is... full employment is good, and the economists tasked with advising on how to achieve it instead fought it for decades (they tend to fight it more when Democrats are in charge). And they still are.
Why Aren't Some Schools Opening
Scientists and doctors who study infectious disease in children largely agreed, in a recent New York Times survey about school openings, that elementary school students should be able to attend in-person school now.Wow that's great! Continuing to the second sentence.
With safety measures like masking and opening windows, the benefits outweigh the risks, the majority of the 175 respondents said.All we need are "safety measures like masking and opening windows." Ah, yes, "windows that can open and provide adequate ventilation," a thing that every school has in the era of school shootings, totally, especially in winter.
I actually don't have strong opinions about or claim expert knowledge of school opening issues, I just know that there are lots of places with 30+ kids to a small class, inadequate-to-nonexistent circulating HVAC systems, and windows that open barely or not at all.
We constantly have journalism with this reasoning:
If I had some ham,And maybe there are some schools that could be opening safely that aren't! I have no idea. But there are plenty that cannot, quite obviously, if they have to meet these criteria.
I could make a ham sandwich,
if I had some bread
The only thing stopping me from eating this lovely ham sandwich is unions.
He Looked Competent On Teevee
People said the same about Giuliani on 911 for years. Drove me nuts, but it was real to them.
But with bit of distance... that's all it was.
Comforting when someone says, "I feel your pain," but even better when they do something about it.
Morning Thread
Monday, March 01, 2021
So, So, Cheerio, Yell, Scream Bravo
Your Moment Of Zen
Some Vogue Magazine coverage of Andrew Cuomo in 2020 pic.twitter.com/wuL0lwIeyX
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 1, 2021
More People Should Be Canceled
What's odd is that a large number of less elite people don't see this for what it is.
The Worst People
Hyatt added that "colleagues occasionally faced hostility from attendees" at the conference when attendees were reminded to wear masks and socially distance. Hyatt also said it was "extremely disappointed by the disrespect many individuals involved in the event showed to our colleagues".In its statement on Sunday, Hyatt said: "We take the concern raised about the prospect of symbols of hate being included in the stage design at CPAC 2021 very seriously as all such symbols are abhorrent and unequivocally counter to our values as a company."
Lunch Thread
Plenty of other countries fucked up, too, in not so dissimilar ways and for not so dissimilar reasons, but it didn't have to be this way.
I'm Not Bigger Than Life
There was a pretty similar phenomenon in the early Bush administration, especially with The War On Terra and Our Great Imperial Adventure in Iraq. A bunch of twentysomething Old New Republic types who were intoxicated by their role in history, or some bullshit. Great Men (and women) on a Great Mission.
Power. It's a hell of a drug.
Well, so what? What's wrong with being sexy?
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Blue Rudy
Libs, that's how we got Rudy.
Great Moments In Cold War History
During the Cold War, all kinds of autocrats -- Mobutu, Pinochet, apartheid South Africa, generals, monarchies in the Middle East, Suharto etc -- convinced us that we NEEDED them to contain the USSR. We did not. In trying to containing China, let's not repeat this mistake again.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 27, 2021
Vote By Mail
I don't think it should be ended, but it was very popular with Republicans before the peculiar circumstances of the 2020 election, and the subsequent need to latch onto any "fraud" lie, and I think it's fairly clear that ending it would not actually favor Republicans."Voting by mail should, generally, be ended," says Tom Fitton at #CPAC2021. Without an "emergency reason, the law should require you to vote in person.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 28, 2021
We're in Florida, where more than 4.5 million mail votes were cast in 2020.
The Governor of New York Is Totally Not A Sex Pest So Stop Saying That
Notable: The @timesunion began reaching out to female former @NYGovCuomo aides in December. His staff quickly became aware of that effort, and women who had never been contacted by the paper began calling up unbidden to offer favorable impressions of his workplace culture.
— Casey Seiler (@CaseySeiler) February 28, 2021