Monday, January 31, 2022
The Jury's Sleepless
Former Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short has testified before the @January6thCmte, pursuant to a subpoena, a source familiar tells me.
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) January 31, 2022
He's one of the most senior Trump administration officials to do so yet. (h/t to @jamiegangel - who reported it first)
White Savior Nick Kristof
One of my theories about our increasingly useless upper classes goes something like this:
The father ran the business and made the money.
The son knew enough to hire smart people to run the business after taking over.
The useless grandson then took over and hired his useless buddies and things did not go well from then on!
Or, alternatively, you don't actually know how to do anything, but you have to be smart enough to hire the people who do.
I don't think this precisely describes Nick's biography, because instead of running the family business he went off to New York to start a career of (checks archives) buying prostitutes in Cambodia.
But the basic idea applies.
America's Worst Former (Living) New York Times Columnists
Some dead ones provide some competition!
Still A Lot Of Hospitalizations
Whatever one thinks the reponse should be, "pretending it doesn't exist and yelling at people to clap louder and go back to the face licking parties" doesn't change the fact that this is an ongoing crisis. The people in power have decided to do... (almost) nothing.NEW: our big story as trailed on Friday is a detailed analysis of the critical importance of vaccination in beating Covid
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) January 31, 2022
Top-line: if US had matched vaccination coverage of leading European countries, it would have *halved* its Covid hospitalisationshttps://t.co/ysnwhKMUSf pic.twitter.com/3sgkKz1C28
Aside from the fantasy "Covid just disappears" scenario, which is possible, the "new normal" is significantly increased disruption and the elite plan to deal with this is to pretend it isn't there.
People respond to this kind of statmement as if one is demanding lockdowns and, no, I'm demanding a recognition that the "new normal" is likely to be significantly more difficult than the old normal, and that this burden falls on the people least able to deal with it practically or financially, and their concerns are not the ones the mirror those of highly paid Hot Take generators.
The concerns of those Hot Take generators primarily being, "the people who serve me should continue to do it happily for no additional compensation and shut the fuck up about it." From an electoral perspective, which isn't the only one of course, whatever precise reasons people give to pollster questions which are themselves shaped by the elite consensus, "generally being anxious and unhappy" leads to incumbents being chucked out!
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Not All Observed Price Increases Are Inflation
The paper from Borio, Disyatat, Xia and Zakrajsek is, perhaps, even more challenging. It starts from the premise that the spiking prices we are currently witnessing across the advanced economies are not really inflation at all, or at least not in a conventional macroeconomic sense.Inflation as understood from a monetary police perspetive is that it is a sustained increase in *the price level,* while headline "inflation" measures focus heavily on the Consumer Price Index or similar measures focusing on "what things cost to an imagined typical person."True inflation, in macroeconomic theory, is a generalised rise in the price level. And a generalised rise in the price level is distinct from a series of idiosyncratic changes in relative prices. To give a concentrate example: a world in which energy prices quadruple is a world in which the headline rate of measured consumer price inflation would certainly rise sharply, but what would be happening would be the price of energy – relative to other goods and services – increasing rather than a generalised rise in prices.
The CPI and similar matter to people as an indicator of lived experience, of course, but most people who know better (because they are bad people* and want to make sure workers never get a raise again) are obscuring the fact that this is currently a change in relative prices, and that designing policy to reduce "inflation" when we don't actually have inflation would likely be, if effective, catastrophic.
Basically, driving the economy into a recession probably wouldn't even help! And, you know, would hurt!
*A giant problem in The Discourse is everyone is forced to pretend to assume good faith even among people whose job description is literally "paid by Evil Corp to lie whenever necessary." It's very frustrating! Only truly independent, and very intelligent (and perhaps sexy) bloggers like myself do not have to do this.
Nothing Really Matters, Anyone Can See
Of course this is silly as even if true it applies to a tiny number of people who deserve it, but our objectitudinal journalists sure do find ways to make things that are important to them (THE SALT CAP) seem like the most important issues facing the country, and occasionally it would be nice if the things that mattered to them actually did matter to more of the country.
COVID Sucks
Missing from the COVID IS OVER discourse is most people just can't afford to be out of commission for a month! They can't afford to miss work! They don't have sick days! They can't just write hot takes at home while being a little under the weather! They can't afford it spreading through their families!
Just this bizarre insistence that either you go to the hospital or it's not big deal when for many people it's a big deal, especially as all the support has been pulled largely because the people in and out of the administration insisting on "back to normal" demanded it!
As I've said, I've hardly lived in isolation throughout this, but I do things like "wear masks indoors" and "avoid, somewhat, large gatherings of people" so that I can, actually, live normally! And I am one of those people who isn't going to lose my job/income if I get sick.
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Sir, Thouest Art A Fucking Asshole
But What About MEEEEE
Just an example, I'm not making a specific point about public transit discourse. Yes sometimes things are unlikely to *directly affect you personally* but also could be good or bad anyway!
A Bunch Of Political Reporters Named "Trip" Nod In Agreement
It is painfully obvious that much of our elite commentariat class (of which 'political journalists' are a part, despite their absurd pretense of 'objective journalism') basically agrees with the idea that a big problem facing America is the unfair advantages that women and minorities get.NEW: The first Black woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court will be a "beneficiary" of affirmative action and she will "probably not get a single Republican vote," U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, said today.https://t.co/meUDUNVTU4
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) January 29, 2022
Probably the median view is somewhat better than it used to be, but...
Friday, January 28, 2022
Covid Is Over
You remember how in the second act Tinkerbell drinks some poison that Peter is about to drink in order to save him? And then Peter turns to the audience and he says, “Tinkerbell is going to die because not enough people believe in fairies. But if all of you clap your hands real hard to show that you do believe in fairies, maybe she won’t die.”So, we all started to clap. I clapped so long and so hard that my palms hurt and they even started to bleed I clapped so hard. Then suddenly the actress playing Peter Pan turned to the audience and she said, “That wasn’t enough. You did not clap hard enough. Tinkerbell is dead.” And then we all started to cry. The actress stomped off stage and refused to continue with the production. They finally had to lower the curtain. The ushers had to come help us out of the aisles and into the street.
Your Liberal Media
Iraq war promoting bullshit-peddler, author of The Connection [between Saddam and al Qaeda/9/11]..@thedispatch's @stephenfhayes joins @NBCNews as a Contributor & Political Analyst.
— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) January 28, 2022
He will appear regularly across all NBC News platforms including @TODAYshow, @MeetThePress & @NBCNewsNow, and contribute to the network's special political and election coverage. pic.twitter.com/PpwkHvYeG2
SUPERTRAINS
Good inter-city rail routes, even with the admittedly somewhat greater distance between a lot of US city pairs, don't really require the fanciest HIGH SPEED RAIL, and high speed rail itself doesn't really require super fancy technology. Really it's electrified straightish continuously welded dedicated track with its own right of way and few stops. Nothing magical, no MAGLEV required. Just have to spend the money and probably build some tunnels (depending on where).
Sure top speed 180mph trains are amazing, but so are *average speed* 90 mph trains. Well, not amazing, really, but 90mph gives you about 3.5 hours from Chicago to St. Louis. Not a revolution, but certainly better than driving if you have good frequency and reliability.
But having said that, while an improved inter-city train network is nice and perfectly feasible, if I ran the zoo I'd spend all the money on intra-city transit. That'd be the true revolution for daily lives.
Not that it has to be a choice.
More Reaping
Better late than never (way too late, really).
The White House is exploring a push for a coronavirus-related paid leave program akin to that enacted in an earlier round of pandemic relief, three people familiar with the conversations said Thursday.Substackers, podcasters, and New York Times newsletter writers don't have to worry about sick pay the way normal people do, of course (nor me, I'm just not sociopath and I get it!).
This was just 3 weeks ago. Just absolute "fuck you, serfs, get back to work" energy.
And a senior Biden administration official poured cold water on any further stimulus at this time, leaving the possibility open to some relief for restaurants."No. There might be something small for restaurants. But the economy is booming, there are millions of open jobs, and we do not believe people should be sitting at home if they are vaccinated and boosted, as most adults are," the senior official said when asked if additional stimulus legislation was being taken seriously.
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Mild
I share the impulse to say "fuck'em" to the defiantly unvaxxed, but we do, actually, live in society and the consequences of illness and death go beyond the individual they directly impact.
Poisoning
As we realized when they all flipped out because Biden insulted Doocy the Younger (added nepotism angle, they love that too!), no, no there isn't.
2022
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
More than that, the Highly Paid Advanced Politics Knowers have made it clear they exist on a political diet of racism and vibes, even as they insist, repeatedly, that they are wonky Vulcans who just think we need to cater to the Ohio diner guys for The Cause.*
*Cause unspecified.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
...and the growth number is huge, though all the very serious people are desperate to put a stop to that (stopping 'inflation'* means raising interest rates *a lot* to drive up unemployment and kill growth).
*I put inflation in quotes because not all "increases in prices" are, really, inflation.WASHINGTON (AP) — US economy grew 6.9% last quarter and 5.7% for all of 2021 in sharp rebound from pandemic recession of 2020.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 27, 2022
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
The Year We Make Contact
Astronomers have discovered a mysterious object emitting a radio wave beam that pulsed every 20 minutes.(no it probably isn't aliens)The team behind the discovery believe the object could be a new class of slowly rotating neutron star with an ultra-powerful magnetic field. The repeating signals were detected during the first three months of 2018, but then disappeared, suggesting they were linked to a dramatic, one-off event, such as a starquake.
Don't See How These Guys Wriggle Out Of This One
(CNN)Federal prosecutors are reviewing fake Electoral College certifications that declared former President Donald Trump the winner of states that he lost, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday.Someone turn on the lights, so they can see them better!"We've received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can't say anything more on ongoing investigations," Monaco said in an exclusive interview.
Living With Covid
"We" were too generous in 2020, and we should never repeat it. The people who work for "us" need to fucking get back to it, sick or not. All the Very Serious People agree.
That's the "living with Covid" debate. And they don't like the result, which is that their happy fun time places aren't as fun as they should be, that sick people can't actually clean their bedpans, that even many in their peer group can't afford this shit, but that, too, is just the fault of the lunatics who aren't expressing happiness adequately for them.
The cost of getting sick is pretty high for people who can't afford it! It is not surprising that this is mysterious to these pampered assholes.
Just a bunch of sociopaths for whom the world is just a stage for other humans to perform on for their entertainment or otherwise serve them.
WINTER FUNDRAISING DAY 6
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Are We The Baddies?
Perhaps the most galling are the "the LEFT are the real anti-Semites" pieces even as the entire right from Q/MAGA to Tucker Carlson is just a recapitulation of the history of anti-semitic conspiracy theories, encompassing blood libel and the secret plot of rich Jews to control the world. Just full Nazi shit all around (including the attacks on transgender people). And, yes, yes, you are the baddies.
Who isn't on my shitlist at this point? They're all buddies.
PizzaGaetz
“Big Joe” Ellicott, a former Florida shock jock with potentially key information about the sex trafficking ring involving Rep. Matt Gaetz, has pleaded guilty in federal court, The Daily Beast has learned....
Ellicott’s plea agreement requires him to cooperate with the government in other prosecutions, including possibly testimony before the grand jury and in court. In exchange, Ellicott will not be formally charged by the grand jury, and has a shot at significantly reducing his sentence. He will also enjoy immunity from “any other federal offenses known to the U.S. Attorney’s Office” relating to the two crimes.
Free To Be Just Like Me
Confessing your love for bourbon.
Fondness for the confederacy, also a good one.
This is actual covid constrained "freedom." Some people choose not to go out as much.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
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.
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Life Goes On
You did this you assholes!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
Schools
These Assholes Are Trying To Kill Your Kids
(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.")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
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Just Give People Money
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
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.
Monday, January 24, 2022
I Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
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.
The Excluded Perspective
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
(click the link above for the whole thing)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
The centrists get exactly what they want, don't like the results, and then blame people who have no money and power!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
And at the moment, who they are blaming are "black people for daring to exist in public." Not very good!
All They Know
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 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.
Callback To The Prequel
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!!!
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?
...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).
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Centrism Can Only Be Failed
It is true that voters might be reacting to things other than the candidate himself. Maybe some voters are really fucking mad at wokeness, that thing people keep talking about on TV! Quite possible. But it isn't some meteor that showed up the day before election day. Gotta figure out how to win with the electorate you have, not the one you want.
WINTER FUNDRAISING DAY 3
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I regulary get people pitching ad companies to me, but they're invariably like "We can improve your ad revenue 27% with some [coded language which means auto-on video ads, or some other horrors crawling across your screen]!"
This blog is ugly, but still mostly functional unlike most of the rest of the internet.
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We're Never Going To Fix Any Of This
Fanatical devotion to the status quo is, sadly, considered to be the height of seriousness in The Discourse. I'd even be more accepting of this if it was merely, "the status quo, but a bit more convenient," but often it is impossible to stare down even the trivial forces that impose large burdens on the rest of us.
I mean, "we" can't even fix spam calls. There are also the related cycles of, "YOUNG PEOPLE AND PEOPLE OF COLOR WILL SAVE US," followed immediately by, "oh no, not like that."
Back To Work, Serfs
As the omicron variant of the coronavirus drives record staff shortages at nursing homes nationwide, Francis has increasingly found herself alone on her 12-hour overnight shifts at Bridgepoint Healthcare’s skilled nursing facility in Southwest Washington, fighting off panic attacks as she tries to feed, clean and rotate more bed-bound residents than she can handle. Some nights, she retreats to a corner of the facility, where she calls her partner and sobs. Other nights, all she can feel is anger.I know our system is bad, two senators are horrible, and the president doesn't have a magic wand. But I also *know*, because the most ghoulish people in government love to give anonymous quotes to the press explaining how the they are fucking smart and the hippies are wrong about everything, that there is absolutely no interest in even thinking about problems like this in a constructive fashion.“I’ve never, ever felt this disrespected,” Francis said.
Frustration is surging among the low-wage workers who make up the backbone of the nursing home industry, as tens of thousands of their colleagues call out sick with covid-19, inflaming shortages that already were at crisis levels. Hailed as “heroes” during the early months of the pandemic, these workers, most of whom are women and people of color, say they’re facing untenable levels of pressure.
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Don't Get Strung Out By The Way I Look
Curry had a stroke a few years ago, which had long term consequences, though he does spend time on Twitter hurling (joking) abuse at people who suggest that he is dead.
Mild
Some people think skydiving is worth the risk because it sounds awesome, some people don't. Some people think going to work in a meatpacking plant in the middle of a pandemic is worth the risk, BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ANY FUCKING CHOICE IF THEY WANT TO EAT, and some don't. I don't like to drive, in part because I think it's dangerous (it is!), but I've also arranged my life so I largely don't have to. Rarely driving is not especially costly for me, unlike many people. Do any of us have perfect measures of these costs and benefits? Of course not.
It is a funny thing how economist-types begin with the premise that people are rational decision makers with perfect information, and then love to come up with examples of people who are, to them, behaving stupidly. Sometimes in the same Econ 101 class! There were over 3500 covid deaths in in the US yesterday. No one knows their own personal risk, or the precise benefit of things like mask wearing, so it's hardly crazy that some people are a bit wary and hardly crazy that people think a bit of mask wearing might be the non-asshole thing to do.
Of course it isn't just the risk of death. Getting covid sucks for many even if there are no serious long term consequences! Extra bad if you have no or shitty health insurance and no sick pay! Extra bad if you have kids to take care of!
Winter Fundraising Day 2!
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"The blogs" are gone, but largely so are the communities that were built around them.
Wishing Covid Away
This is why I find the tenor of discussion around Covid-19 restrictions genuinely bewildering. There basically aren’t any. The United States is powering through the Omicron wave with its usual enforced individualism. The hard restrictions on our activities are, for the most part, not mandated or enforced by the state, acting at the behest of liberals who refuse to go back to normal because they are addicted to panic and quarantine; the limits are imposed by the virus that isn’t going away. My kid’s school class went remote for a while because people had Covid-19. He’s back in school now even though his principal has Covid-19. As usual in the United States, the people who won the political argument are now complaining the loudest that they’re dissatisfied with the results, and, apparently, it’s all the fault of the losers.Anyone else remember "we're losing the Iraq war because the hippies aren't clapping loudly enough"? Similar vibes.
Friday, January 21, 2022
Rudy!
NEW YORK — The retired federal judge assigned to review the contents of 18 electronic devices seized from Rudolph W. Giuliani’s home and offices in Manhattan last spring has withheld about half of what former president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer argued should be kept out of the hands of investigators because it was privileged.
Who Are We Fighting
They've been less explicit about telling activists to shut the fuck as the Obama administration was, but they've hardly enabled them.Psaki on voting rights bills failing: "My advice to everyone out there who's frustrated, sad, angry, pissed off, feel those emotions, go to a kickboxing class, have a margarita, do whatever you need to do this weekend, and then wake up on Monday morning, we gotta keep fighting." pic.twitter.com/WkW4dJz0PB
— The Recount (@therecount) January 21, 2022
Might be rude, might turn off "normal" America. Might have some inappropriate signs, or come up with some destructive slogans!
Ah, I know, she means give some money to your favorite blog, Atrios dot blogspot dot com! Thanks for the push, Jen!
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America For Sale
The FBI on Wednesday raided Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar's home and campaign office in Texas as part of a wide-ranging federal probe relating to the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan and several U.S. businessmen, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
What If We Multiply A Much Larger Number By A Slightly Smaller Number
"We must live with Covid" became "we must do absolutely nothing, and the real monsters are the people who are pretending it still exists and are trying to adjust their precarious lives accordingly."
It should have been, "here's your sick pay, here's your guaranteed health care, here's your financial cushion, here's a real plan to keep the kids in school, here's the real plan to make sure the hospital system doesn't collapse, here's the hazard pay for those workers we once called necessary."
Instead wealthy work-from-home pundits, pissed off about mask wearing at Whole Foods, for who the fuck knows what reason, decided the real enemy was people who worried a bit more about the impact of a serious disease on their lives than they had to. And, as always, decided this was the opinion of AMERICA despite what the polls said.
Life's hard right now, for a variety of reasons! Covid sucks! Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't help!
Admirable Restraint
Remember when Tucker had a PBS show! Good times.
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Give me your fun money, not your "need to pay the bills" money.
The Plot Against America
Some fancy lawyers and asshole billionaires have a lot more chance of bringing the country down than some plane hijackers, and while we perhaps overreacted to the latter it certainly did deserve some reaction!
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Another Fine Graduate Of Yale Law School
NEW: Oath Keeper Edward Vallejo is ordered detained until trial by Magistrate Judge John Z. Boyle.
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) January 20, 2022
The conspiracy alleged by the government threatens the very fabric of democracy, Boyle said. Judge also said he saw no evidence of remorse, and his incendiary language continued.
Ain't That Grand
(CNN)A district attorney in Georgia investigating former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn election results in the state is requesting a special grand jury in an effort to gather information relevant to the probe, according to a letter sent to the court.
That's A Shame
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Wednesday evening that it is doing a "court-authorized" search of the Texas home of Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate Democrat."moderate"
If Not That, Then This
Similarly, if BBB isn't going to happen, and it basically isn't, all that withdrawal of money from the economy, not to mention pockets, is going to hurt! Better figure out how to replace it! There are one or two obvious things.
If compromising with assholes in Congress doesn't work, then compromising with reality might. Threatening to, also, too.
But I'm A Moderate White Man
Broken Government
It is a horrible system of government!!!
Dumb online hippies told them to deal with this back when they had a very large majority! Those dumb hippies were told that they were making things up with the whole "it only takes a majority to change the rules that are passed by a majority" crazy talk.
The fever will break soon, just gotta vote harder, folks.
Top Symptom: Hangovers Worse Than When I Was Younger
In a new intelligence assessment, the CIA has ruled out that the mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome are the result of a sustained global campaign by a hostile power aimed at hundreds of U.S. diplomats and spies, six people briefed on the matter told NBC News.Yah you guys all drank too much during Covid, we get it.
Either that, or the CIA's doing it to our own dudes.
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Lawyers Be Lawyering
I don't know why Sotomayor agreed to this statement in attempt to make Gorsuch look like less of an asshole, as gullible media people would run with it at the expense of their own notional colleague, Nina Totenberg, but Totenberg didn't report that Sotomayor asked Gorsuch to wear a mask, she reported that Roberts asked him.NEW: A statement from Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch:
— Adam Liptak (@adamliptak) January 19, 2022
"Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends."
...and a late development!NPR makes it clear that they stand behind @NinaTotenberg's reporting. They point out, correctly, that the justices' joint statement doesn't contradict their story https://t.co/hnFMv1TsKG pic.twitter.com/ryoRk7IN5a
— Brent D. Griffiths (@BrentGriffiths) January 19, 2022
Probably didn't say "on the bench" precisely... Other people who attend have to wear N95 masks, so, interepret all this how you wish!MORE JUST IN on Maskgate, this time from the Chief Justice: “I did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other Justice to wear a mask on the bench.”
— Robert Barnes (@scotusreporter) January 19, 2022
Civilitude
These aren't nice people, and they have no problem using their power to do literal violence to millions of people, and then tut tutting when people speak up.
Confused Don Jr. Face
Washington (CNN)The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol has subpoenaed and obtained records of phone numbers associated with one of former President Donald Trump's children, Eric Trump, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., sources tell CNN.
Lock'em Up
- Misstated objective facts, like the size of Mr. Trump’s Trump Tower penthouse;
- Miscategorized assets outside Mr. Trump’s or the Trump Organization’s control as “cash,” thereby overstating his liquidity;
- Misstated the process by which Mr. Trump or his associates reached valuations, including deviations from generally accepted accounting principles in ways that the statements did not disclose;
- Failed to use fundamental techniques of valuation, like discounting future revenues and expenses to their present value, or choosing as “comparables” only similar properties in order to impute valuations from public sales data;
- Misstated the purported involvement of “outside professionals” in reaching the valuations; and
- Failed to advise that certain valuation amounts were inflated by an undisclosed amount for brand value.
Identifying The Problem
Oh no what will they do if they've lost Josh "My Dad, Robert, is also an asshole" Barro.
Politics is 100% vibes for Rubin and Brooks, and Barro is an incoherent glibertarian.
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Rudy!
Committee, not DOJ, sadly.BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani, three other Trump allies subpoenaed in January 6 riot probe https://t.co/b9W3cXsw49
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 18, 2022
Wax Off
The University of Pennsylvania’s law school dean Tuesday announced he would initiate a process that could lead to sanctions against long-time law professor Amy Wax for her racist comments.In a noon email to the law school community. Dean Ted Ruger said he would invoke a faculty review process, which must occur before any action, major or minor, could be taken. The process spelled out in Penn’s faculty handbook will include convening a faculty hearing board to review charges and sets out detailed procedures that could culminate in sanctions including a letter of reprimand, suspension or termination of employment.
An Oral History Of The Insurance Company Covid Test Reimbursement Program Plan
*narrator: they have already touched plenty of things.
Boiling Their Brains In Bill O'Reilly's Piss
An important thing to understand if you're wondering, why, someone like Chuck Grassley, who you, a savvy reporter, once thought of as being a very sensible Republican, acts just like every other MAGA dipshist.
We All Know Who Is To Blame
Mysteries
Covid illness rates are huge, death rates are high and climbing, life is in no way "normal." A lot of uncertainty, no cushion, and no sense that any help is on the way.
You can blame who you want for this, or perhaps no one at all, but if things suck the guy in the White House generally gets the blame.
PizzaGaetz
Prosecutors granted immunity to an ex-girlfriend of Representative Matt Gaetz before she testified last week in front of a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the investigation of the congressman, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Monday, January 17, 2022
Trumpy
The agency’s director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, has sometimes skipped much of the traditional scientific review process, most recently in shortening the isolation period for infected Americans.These types of stories are ass covering by interested parties and it probably isn't fair to blame JUST the White House or JUST Walensky or JUST the rest of the CDC (but perhaps all 3).... In recent interviews, some officials at the C.D.C. privately described the decisions as demoralizing, and worried about Dr. Walensky’s increasing reliance on a small group of advisers and what they saw as the White House’s heavy political influence on her actions.
Yet others outside the agency commended Dr. Walensky for short-circuiting a laborious process and taking a pragmatic approach to managing a national emergency, saying she was right to move ahead even when the data was unclear and agency researchers remained unsure.
But if you're going to feed some workers into the wood chipper FOR SOCIETY, you should figure out how to compensate them, just not hide behind bullshit to do it.
But the recommendation had an important advantage: It could help keep hospitals, businesses and schools afloat through the worst of the Omicron surge.
JUST THE SCIENCE.
*There is an obvious answer to this question, but it's an exercise left to the reader.
Bullied
The reward will also be blaming The Left for doing as they were told but somehow fucking everything up anyway. Every single time.the left said BIF and BBB needed to be passed together or Manchin/Sinema would kill BBB. Biden bullied them into passing BIF only, promising that they had Senate votes in the bag. you'll never guess what happened next https://t.co/qJd8KFyPIz
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) January 17, 2022
The Project For A New American Century
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
"No. There might be something small for restaurants. But the economy is booming, there are millions of open jobs, and we do not believe people should be sitting at home if they are vaccinated and boosted, as most adults are," the senior official said when asked if additional stimulus legislation was being taken seriously.Stern daddy is back, baby!
As COVID-19 cases have climbed, public health experts have urged people to dump their cloth masks in favor of higher-quality options — especially the disposable N95 or KN95 masks — and to test more frequently to curb the virus.For some, the added financial burden is an irritation, but still affordable. To others, the prospect of paying $1 for a single disposable mask or $24 for a test kit is an economic impossibility, raising the specter that the pandemic will continue to exacerbate inequalities.
Many answers, but one is:Growing up in the northeast I will never understand the closing of stores and restaurants when there is barely an inch of snow on the ground yet.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) January 16, 2022
So the people who are at work can get home safely before it's too late.
Anti-Vaxxers
Ronco, 66, knows some people who have relented, including a fellow musician with three kids and a mortgage. He knows others who are scrambling for hard-to-get medical exemptions. But Ronco — an Orthodox Jew and a specialist in 18th-century music who tends to distrust the trends of the masses — figures this is an instance when he can try to withstand the mounting pressure. His savings are thinning, but not gone. His children are grown. His wife, Emanuela Vozza, a fellow cellist, also unvaccinated, feels as he does. So day after day, his resistance has continued: A musician who once played at Milan’s famed La Scala has been instead working alongside Vozza, editing recordings they’ve made in their countryside living room, unable for the foreseeable future to perform for a crowd.Had dinner in their apartment (in Venice, not that one), once!
Lunch Thread
We Got This
It is quite impressive how quickly and easily movements and causes that begin from below are co-opted by powerful people and turned into a protection racket for other powerful people, career opportunities for their friends, and probably an annual Fancy Ball.
It is also quite impressive how at the top circles of power, this is just seen as how things are supposed to be, that no one says, "what the fuck, stop this!"
Even LIBERAL BLOGGING, a somewhat different beast, basically followed this path. Both individuals and (more than that) the concept was largely co-opted by people who were less likely to say, "fuck you," (symbolically if not literally) to a sitting senator. I'm not even saying everyone involved in doing that was bad, but it was fascinating to watch, once upon a time.
Got Quiet Didn't They
I am no in way unsympathetic to the difficulties parents have faced throughout all of this, but as is often the case, The Takes Industry attempted to direct anger at the people - teachers - least responsible for the poor situation, along with the smartest boys on the internet ignoring, again, the basic point that you can't run a school if everyone is out sick. Sorry your pizza might not be delivered either.
Covid sucks and the people in power have quite often failed to reduce the level of suck, but the people in power include influential people the White House Chief of Staff reads, and they are responsible, also, too. Teachers don't run school districts.
But good job angering teachers and achieving nothing. Popularism!
Insert That Spider Man Quote Here
You don't always have to listen, of course, as "can" does not equal "should" in all cases, but "oh, well, nothing we can do" is almost never the right response!
Ditto the Senate deferring to the parliamentarian. Maybe they should, but stop pretending you have to.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
The Best Possible Defense
Social Insurance
We've been stingy with both, both in terms of resources allocated and our willingness to see the need for such approaches.
Living With Covid
"Here are your vaccines you ungrateful serfs, now fuck off" is "Living with Covid," I suppose, but don't expect people to like it.
I suppose if I were in charge of the Covid response, declaring victory and going on vacation would be tempting, but that's why I shouldn't be in charge of it.
*I do believe there are many more people who could be reached with adequte vaccine outreach measures which may be lacking in their communities. So, no, I don't think fuck all the unavaccinated, but the defiant ones.
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Arcane Knowledge
Institutions of course have rules and precedents, and The Law, ass that it is, can't be entirely waved way, but much of constitutional law is just inventing some bullshit and then very selectively taking that bullshit to some logical ends (but not others), and then when desired, throwing in some more bullshit.
What If We Multiply A Much Larger Number By A Slightly Smaller Number
It is not a joke to say I've forgotten more about math/statistics than these guys ever knew. I knew a lot and forgot it all! But I just laugh at all the people who think knowing 3 weeks of a probability/stats class and the ability to make a graph in excel means they are data guys, or whatever.
Tangentially, my long very simplistic model of a good liberal arts education is that you gotta teach people a bunch of dots (information, facts) but also teach them to learn how to connect the dots (why the dots matter, how they exist in relation to each other), and not in a wall of weird way. Now we have a bunch of nerds going "look, my dots!"
Also like every dumb asshole who thinks he's really smart, when they're proved fucking wrong they just move on to the next nonsense like it never happened.
We Want You To Like Us
2) Is it better that The Supreme Court and its clerks go through the motions of constructing elaborate legal theories that encourage their army of elite law sycophants to take to the op-eds and explain how brilliant it is and how, suck it libs, you may disagree, but Their Brilliant Reasoning Cannot Be Questioned? Or is it better that they barely bother to try, making it harder for their army of intellectual lickspittles to construct ridiculous defenses.
Again, the former might provide some minor check on the kinds of rulings they come up with, but the latter does tear down the facade of respectability that elite lawyers trying to get prestigious clerkships for their kids and jobs for themselves have been peddling for decades.
Friday, January 14, 2022
But What If The People Find Out
Also, too, Yale graduates against Yalies. Asymmetric warfare, as always.
Glenn Beck Is Sorry About All That
As they do with basically every right wing character.
Guessing The Answer To This One Is "No, You Don't Have To"
I don't have kids, but I have purchased children's books and, you know, most of them are awful, some of them are awful and your children will love them anyway (making them perhaps not awful after all), some of them are awful in the way described in this column, some of them are designed to appeal to parents and not their children which is good marketing but also bad, and, most importantly, there are 87 billion of them and probably you can choose some other ones.
Nobody Who Went To Yale Law Can Be Bad
Maybe that's an exaggeration. Maybe.
Thursday, January 13, 2022
That's More Like It
(CNN)The Justice Department has charged 11 defendants with seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes.More here.
What Could Go Wrong
BREAKING: Kansas Board of Education votes unanimously to lower requirements for substitute teachers. Beginning tomorrow and through June 1, the state will allow anyone 18+ with a high school diploma (and background check) to work as a substitute. #ksed
— SuzannePerez (@SuzPerezICT) January 12, 2022
Florida Man
Tl;dr: guy hits Prius with his BMW, Prius driver gets mad, guy who hit the Prius pulls gun and shoots at Prius, Prius driver puts one in his melon.
Guy is former chief of state of Republican state senator, and had previously been arrested in a road rage incident at the exact same intersection.
Bonus is his wife claiming he had been assassinated.
Look Outside It's Fucking Raining
One of the big things of the past year was the need to normalize being normal, that ripping off your masks to celebrate freedom was the way to encourage people to get vaccinated. There was this idea that the whole country was being run by the whims of scaredy cat Covid Zero shutins in Brooklyn, and we needed to get out there and party to show everybody that WE'RE BACK, BABY.
As if the vaccine rejectors weren't living their lives basically normally the whole time, as if actual restrictions, aside from mask mandates some times in some places, had been an ongoing issue most places instead of the exception.
All the smartest people in the room always double down when reality intrudes, because they aren't actually very smart and because being told they are wrong is more unbearable than the consequences of being wrong. A lot of Trumps in elite positions, just most of them have the filter that Trump lacked. They don't just tweet it out, but they're coming from the same place.
Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, or at least the worse, was the obvious thing to do but the rich guy in the nice suit can't be wrong about anything. Having the feds in place to backstop any developments, including incompetent and/or under-resourced state and local governments, should have been a big part of the job of the Covid taskforce guy. Instead, "we did the vaccines, now fuck off" was basically it.
I guarantee the policy and comm response right now is 100% devoted to attempting to preserve the illusion that Zients is doing a good job. That's how they roll. Doesn't matter how many people die.
Blaming teachers and The Left was another excellent plan. Good job, everybody.
Why Don't The People Who Serve Me Understand It Is Time To Get Back To Normal
I am SO OVER covid, why won't the help do as they are told!!!!!
The focus on supposedly impertinent teachers, instead of the failure of government - federal, state, local - to even attempt to step in to provide the necessary resources has been amazing.
And by amazing, I mean, "I hope all of you lose your fucking highly paid jobs writing for elite publications." I am not a brain genius, but my "take" since Omicron hit, was, well, sure, maybe the schools should be open, but if you're a principal, good luck with that! The obvious point being that staffing shortages would make that very difficult! The companion point being that maybe, just maybe, if your concern is maintaining a stable learning environment for children, closing for a couple of weeks might actually be a better plan than what seems to be happening now across the country!
"Mild" doesn't mean not sick, but all the wealthy Take Merchants just pretended that if you're not intubated, you can just go in and take care of their kids.