We're going to need a MASSIVE investigation. A combination of the 9/11 Commission (to investigate and fix the security failures), the Kefauver Crime Committee (to expose the extent of the Q-Anon / Proud Boys / MAGAnaut cult, and the Watergate hearings (to find out just how far the rot infests the government). It won't be quick, and it won't be easy. But we MUST do it.
They know. They just STILL think the smart move is to sit quietly and wait for it to go away. Biden won because he stayed off Twitter! The adult in the room! Soon everyone will forget all about this and things will go back to normal, where you have golf with the Senator from MO and agree to build a Navy harbour in Joplin, and in return they stop supporting terrorism!
What's even scarier is how in a few election cycles, the people at the insurrection will be police chiefs, military generals, work for the DoJ.
Schumer isn't in the line of succession so he's not going to get a massive upgrade like the President Pro Tem (who I think will be Leahy of Vermont IIRC) ... I'm sure they'll improve his detail but he doesn't get whisked by Secret Service into the "hard room" like the VP, Speaker and PPT.
I honestly don't expect the MAGA crowd to understand the line of succession. They'll see Schumer as the leader of the Senate, the guy who's pushing through all of Biden's SOCIALIST! agenda - and punishing the schmucks like Hawley and Cruz - so they'll target him.
When a mob wearing tshirts that say "6 million wasn't enough" and asks to be directed specifically to the office of the highest-ranking Jew in Congress, he should get some sort of security upgrade.
Not to rain on your parade, but "completely protected" is really only about 95% as far as what the vaccine producers are saying. And if you are now indeed immune, you can still be a carrier, can't you?
Agreed. The fact that there were only a handful of re-infections (generally from people with mild symptoms the first time) should have made people very optimistic that immunity was strong and vaccination would work well.
"The media and medical community have not done a very effective job of putting these things in context, or putting out a message that makes sense to the average person."
This phrase can be used to describe many, many, many other current and historical events as well.
I had an epic Facebook fight with someone the other day re how we should talk about what immunity does and does not mean.
*Disease* immunity means that the individual should not be able to get the disease in any meaningful way - they have a pool of antibodies that will respond to the presence of the viral particles; when they muster that response there might be transitory symptoms (a fever, perhaps) that indicate that the immune system is kicking into gear, but because of the antibody response there is no real viral multiplication in their (most of) their bodies, so they don't get the disease.
*Sterilizing* immunity means that the individual has disease immunity *and* they are not able to pass it on. There is unfortunately some evidence (from animal studies and from preliminary human data) that fully vaccinated individuals can have a reservoir of the virus *not taken out by their antibodies* multiplying in the upper respiratory tract mucosal membranes (interior of the nasal passages in particular) - which means they might be protected from the disease but could still potentially pass it on.
From a practical point of view, what this really means is that even once you're vaccinated you should continue mask wearing - to protect others. Cover your noses in particular.
Of course we have to worry about immune "escape" mutants, but I'm optimistic that we can readily identify those variants and incorporate them into future vaccines. I'm imagining that similar to flu, we'll be looking at yearly COVID shots in the future.
I'm going with a soft no. Right now delivery is mismatched, and I think there's going to inertia to either convert the flu vaccine to RNA or COVID to inactivated virus. Also, because COVID is far less likely to affect young children than flu, I think public health officials will worry about the negative effects of combined vaccine hesitancy by parents.
When I read your intro I thought maybe Steve Trachsel came out of retirement...but then I remembered he was still in the stretch waiting to throw a pitch from a game that started in September 2006
I think a lot of it is tied to athletes now being taught to visualize a successful result of how they want a pitch or play to go. It may work, but it sure slows things down.
This is like a twisted version of the argument about whether Babe Ruth would still be the best player ever if he grew up in today’s society. How you feel about that would determine whether you think Trachsel would still be the “best” at what he does.
Not that this should have had any impact on the decision to impeach, but I wonder if enough Republicans generally consider the impeachments to be just a Democrat political ploy and will respond in kind the next time they control the House and there is a Democrat president? Which could happen during the Biden presidency. Maybe they just impeach Biden on some highly dubious grounds just to make him look bad, because they perceive that as being what the Democrats did to Trump.
Dennis Kucinich has devolved into a nutjob, but his impeachment initiatives against Bush and Cheney were entirely reasonable. They were and are war criminals.
I'm sure this is motivated reasoning on my part, but does the GOP really want Trump pissing in their Cheerios next election? What's worse, his MAGA voters stay home in 2024 or Trump runs again? If I were a GOP I'd have to be thinking that voters have short memories but Trump doesn't and will screw you hard.
I understand the concern but luckily I don't think they have anywhere near the votes to do that. Maybe if Biden completely shits the bed the first 18 months (I wouldn't rule it out), there could be a midterm swing, but... I'm not sure after this.
Probably. Honestly, every victory they've ever had was torching norms. We talk about Trump, but McConnell's open plan to make Obama one term (failed) and leave Scalia's seat open (succeeded) is the blueprint. Just Trump without the theatrics. And with brains.
Ben Shapiro seems completely dispassionate about baseball. He is just doing a job as efficiently and effectively as possible. The concerns of the fans never enter his mind. The financial interests of his boss does, of course.
I wonder how many MLB executives actually have a love and passion for the game. Alex Anthopoulos seems like he does -- he worked his way up from the bottom of MLB. That might explain why he made a push to help the Blue Jays get over the hump.
TBH I would have been surprised if POTUS paid Giuliani‘s bills at all… Even if he won! He has a pretty well-established track record of stiffing everybody but himself. Can’t wait to see the contortions used to tap his last round of “Stop the Steal” donations for personal use.
I am not that kind of lawyer. Never done any civil stuff in my life, but it seems to me that Guiliani has to be paid something. It would be a campaign violation to do that much in kind work for "Trump for President" for free. Am I missing something?
Maybe a lifetime of stiffing people meant he couldn't get the good lawyers to return his calls.
One thing I've been wondering about all this is, if the GOP were coordinated, they probably could have stolen the election. Think FL in 2000, but in all the contested states. most of which were run by GOP. Sow massive chaos. Lawsuits. Confusion. Have "questions" about the ballots in "certain" counties. It works its way up the courts, they vote on strict party lines, like last time. Would it have worked? Would the GOP have risked it if RBG were still alive?
Is it the general consensus that Lizzie did the murders? I've read a lot about that case and the Man From The Train murders and I can't see how she could have done it, but then again it will be forever impossible to know for sure.
The Bed and Breakfast IS the murder house, and is the one for sale. I spent a night there once. The tour guide was fantastic. Total bullshit storytelling, and ghost stories that didn't make sense, but it was exactly what we paid for. Then they told us to go out on the town, and gave the 8 groups 2 keys, total, that we had to coordinate with after drinking for hours in Fall River. Good times.
She did, and it looks like I misread. BOTH houses are for sale. The 800k one is the non-B&B, and the green one in the lead photo is the B&B which is for sale for $2mil.
I haven't read "Other Stuff" yet, but I have one baseball thing that bothers me--help me out if you know the answer. My beloved Seattle Mariners--it doesn't seem like they are unwilling to spend money, and follow the "profit before wins" standard. Someone tell me why we can't buy a stupid WC playoff spot??? Help me find where I should deposit my sports-frustration.
By the way, we need a word for this. It isn't about actually being upset--just mad at your team enough that you have to shake your head for a minute after a terrible game before you sit down for dinner while you tell your non-sports-loving family things like, "They LEFT HIM IN!!??! MAN. That sucked."
Did anyone else watch all ~7min of Trump's speech yesterday? It is actually very calming. Six months of this rather than tweets would have allowed him to grift eternally and given him four more years despite pandemic results. I realize this isn't news (I've seen the "Trump wouldn't be Trump if he could have done this), but it still shocks me how easily we are calmed by a "respectable" image to give things legitimacy.
That's the big fear, and the big question. Do people want a normal politician Trump? Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, Taylor Greene, Boebert, Noem, Haley, several others are betting yes, they do. Trump's ideology but smart and disciplined and works for the good of the GOP, rather than shiny objects and ass kissing.
Or maybe they don't want that. Maybe the appeal of Trump was he genuinely didn't care about anything besides money and power. Not sure which. But there's no one else doing what Trump did. No one else who wants to be President so they can charge elevated fees for their golf course and get rubes to cheer them at a rally.
We're going to need a MASSIVE investigation. A combination of the 9/11 Commission (to investigate and fix the security failures), the Kefauver Crime Committee (to expose the extent of the Q-Anon / Proud Boys / MAGAnaut cult, and the Watergate hearings (to find out just how far the rot infests the government). It won't be quick, and it won't be easy. But we MUST do it.
They know. They just STILL think the smart move is to sit quietly and wait for it to go away. Biden won because he stayed off Twitter! The adult in the room! Soon everyone will forget all about this and things will go back to normal, where you have golf with the Senator from MO and agree to build a Navy harbour in Joplin, and in return they stop supporting terrorism!
What's even scarier is how in a few election cycles, the people at the insurrection will be police chiefs, military generals, work for the DoJ.
Schumer isn't in the line of succession so he's not going to get a massive upgrade like the President Pro Tem (who I think will be Leahy of Vermont IIRC) ... I'm sure they'll improve his detail but he doesn't get whisked by Secret Service into the "hard room" like the VP, Speaker and PPT.
It will be Leahy: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2021/01/08/leahy-3rd-line-presidency-after-ga-runoff-senate-democrats/6595014002/
I honestly don't expect the MAGA crowd to understand the line of succession. They'll see Schumer as the leader of the Senate, the guy who's pushing through all of Biden's SOCIALIST! agenda - and punishing the schmucks like Hawley and Cruz - so they'll target him.
When a mob wearing tshirts that say "6 million wasn't enough" and asks to be directed specifically to the office of the highest-ranking Jew in Congress, he should get some sort of security upgrade.
Not to rain on your parade, but "completely protected" is really only about 95% as far as what the vaccine producers are saying. And if you are now indeed immune, you can still be a carrier, can't you?
Agreed. The fact that there were only a handful of re-infections (generally from people with mild symptoms the first time) should have made people very optimistic that immunity was strong and vaccination would work well.
"The media and medical community have not done a very effective job of putting these things in context, or putting out a message that makes sense to the average person."
This phrase can be used to describe many, many, many other current and historical events as well.
I had an epic Facebook fight with someone the other day re how we should talk about what immunity does and does not mean.
*Disease* immunity means that the individual should not be able to get the disease in any meaningful way - they have a pool of antibodies that will respond to the presence of the viral particles; when they muster that response there might be transitory symptoms (a fever, perhaps) that indicate that the immune system is kicking into gear, but because of the antibody response there is no real viral multiplication in their (most of) their bodies, so they don't get the disease.
*Sterilizing* immunity means that the individual has disease immunity *and* they are not able to pass it on. There is unfortunately some evidence (from animal studies and from preliminary human data) that fully vaccinated individuals can have a reservoir of the virus *not taken out by their antibodies* multiplying in the upper respiratory tract mucosal membranes (interior of the nasal passages in particular) - which means they might be protected from the disease but could still potentially pass it on.
From a practical point of view, what this really means is that even once you're vaccinated you should continue mask wearing - to protect others. Cover your noses in particular.
Of course we have to worry about immune "escape" mutants, but I'm optimistic that we can readily identify those variants and incorporate them into future vaccines. I'm imagining that similar to flu, we'll be looking at yearly COVID shots in the future.
I'm going with a soft no. Right now delivery is mismatched, and I think there's going to inertia to either convert the flu vaccine to RNA or COVID to inactivated virus. Also, because COVID is far less likely to affect young children than flu, I think public health officials will worry about the negative effects of combined vaccine hesitancy by parents.
“Impeachment of Donald Trump” now has a disambiguation page on Wikipedia.
It continues to amuse me how the insurrectionists are discovering exactly why their fathers, uncles, uncle-daddies, and grandfathers wore hoods.
When I read your intro I thought maybe Steve Trachsel came out of retirement...but then I remembered he was still in the stretch waiting to throw a pitch from a game that started in September 2006
He once took 63 seconds between pitches.
I think a lot of it is tied to athletes now being taught to visualize a successful result of how they want a pitch or play to go. It may work, but it sure slows things down.
This is like a twisted version of the argument about whether Babe Ruth would still be the best player ever if he grew up in today’s society. How you feel about that would determine whether you think Trachsel would still be the “best” at what he does.
The other side of that is how normal an AB from Mike "The Human Raid Delay" Hargrove now looks.
I view that as a good signing because Astros fan deserve more aggravation in their lives.
(Actually, that's not fair. The fans aren't the one who cheated. But am I expected to give up an easy cheap shot just because it's unfair?)
The Astros fans who won't stfu about how they actually didn't cheat are definitely the ones who deserve it
Not that this should have had any impact on the decision to impeach, but I wonder if enough Republicans generally consider the impeachments to be just a Democrat political ploy and will respond in kind the next time they control the House and there is a Democrat president? Which could happen during the Biden presidency. Maybe they just impeach Biden on some highly dubious grounds just to make him look bad, because they perceive that as being what the Democrats did to Trump.
I did just see this on CNN's website:
"QAnon-promoting congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Newsmax that she will file articles of impeachment against Biden on January 21."
She is of course a nutjob, and it won't go anywhere, but the idea has apparently occurred to them already.
Sit right back and let me tell you a story about a congressman named "Dennis Kucinich."
Dennis Kucinich has devolved into a nutjob, but his impeachment initiatives against Bush and Cheney were entirely reasonable. They were and are war criminals.
Very true, and one got substantial support.
Point is it's an exercise in futility.
And yet time -- and Trump -- have white-washed Shrub's legacy and people now think he wasn't so bad. War criminal is correct.
You’re really expecting them to be logically consistent from one week to the next?
I'm sure this is motivated reasoning on my part, but does the GOP really want Trump pissing in their Cheerios next election? What's worse, his MAGA voters stay home in 2024 or Trump runs again? If I were a GOP I'd have to be thinking that voters have short memories but Trump doesn't and will screw you hard.
I understand the concern but luckily I don't think they have anywhere near the votes to do that. Maybe if Biden completely shits the bed the first 18 months (I wouldn't rule it out), there could be a midterm swing, but... I'm not sure after this.
Probably. Honestly, every victory they've ever had was torching norms. We talk about Trump, but McConnell's open plan to make Obama one term (failed) and leave Scalia's seat open (succeeded) is the blueprint. Just Trump without the theatrics. And with brains.
Ben Shapiro seems completely dispassionate about baseball. He is just doing a job as efficiently and effectively as possible. The concerns of the fans never enter his mind. The financial interests of his boss does, of course.
I wonder how many MLB executives actually have a love and passion for the game. Alex Anthopoulos seems like he does -- he worked his way up from the bottom of MLB. That might explain why he made a push to help the Blue Jays get over the hump.
Somehow Ben would be EVEN WORSE than his brother-by-another-mother Mark
TBH I would have been surprised if POTUS paid Giuliani‘s bills at all… Even if he won! He has a pretty well-established track record of stiffing everybody but himself. Can’t wait to see the contortions used to tap his last round of “Stop the Steal” donations for personal use.
Roodles Ghouliani has bigger problems than not getting paid:
"Giuliani may get kicked out of New York State Bar Association for allegation he helped incite Capitol riot."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/11/rudolph-giuliani-donald-trump-capitol-chaos/6625335002/
How do they evaluate that? Using the regular standard?
I am not that kind of lawyer. Never done any civil stuff in my life, but it seems to me that Guiliani has to be paid something. It would be a campaign violation to do that much in kind work for "Trump for President" for free. Am I missing something?
Trump doesn't pay anyone who works for him. Why start now?
Maybe a lifetime of stiffing people meant he couldn't get the good lawyers to return his calls.
One thing I've been wondering about all this is, if the GOP were coordinated, they probably could have stolen the election. Think FL in 2000, but in all the contested states. most of which were run by GOP. Sow massive chaos. Lawsuits. Confusion. Have "questions" about the ballots in "certain" counties. It works its way up the courts, they vote on strict party lines, like last time. Would it have worked? Would the GOP have risked it if RBG were still alive?
Is it the general consensus that Lizzie did the murders? I've read a lot about that case and the Man From The Train murders and I can't see how she could have done it, but then again it will be forever impossible to know for sure.
The Bed and Breakfast IS the murder house, and is the one for sale. I spent a night there once. The tour guide was fantastic. Total bullshit storytelling, and ghost stories that didn't make sense, but it was exactly what we paid for. Then they told us to go out on the town, and gave the 8 groups 2 keys, total, that we had to coordinate with after drinking for hours in Fall River. Good times.
Ah, I misunderstood! I thought Lizzie had moved. My bad.
She did, and it looks like I misread. BOTH houses are for sale. The 800k one is the non-B&B, and the green one in the lead photo is the B&B which is for sale for $2mil.
I'd never read the piece about your family that you linked to, Craig. That is a tremendous piece of writing. Wow.
Thanks!
I'm mildly relieved that Todd Ricketts may not be the most reactionary owner in MLB.
Has Stefan Thomas tried "12345"? I've got the same combination on my luggage!
I'm honestly not sure where you go from here. 2 left? Maybe wait for technology to get powerful enough to hack the password?
I haven't read "Other Stuff" yet, but I have one baseball thing that bothers me--help me out if you know the answer. My beloved Seattle Mariners--it doesn't seem like they are unwilling to spend money, and follow the "profit before wins" standard. Someone tell me why we can't buy a stupid WC playoff spot??? Help me find where I should deposit my sports-frustration.
By the way, we need a word for this. It isn't about actually being upset--just mad at your team enough that you have to shake your head for a minute after a terrible game before you sit down for dinner while you tell your non-sports-loving family things like, "They LEFT HIM IN!!??! MAN. That sucked."
Did anyone else watch all ~7min of Trump's speech yesterday? It is actually very calming. Six months of this rather than tweets would have allowed him to grift eternally and given him four more years despite pandemic results. I realize this isn't news (I've seen the "Trump wouldn't be Trump if he could have done this), but it still shocks me how easily we are calmed by a "respectable" image to give things legitimacy.
That's the big fear, and the big question. Do people want a normal politician Trump? Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, Taylor Greene, Boebert, Noem, Haley, several others are betting yes, they do. Trump's ideology but smart and disciplined and works for the good of the GOP, rather than shiny objects and ass kissing.
Or maybe they don't want that. Maybe the appeal of Trump was he genuinely didn't care about anything besides money and power. Not sure which. But there's no one else doing what Trump did. No one else who wants to be President so they can charge elevated fees for their golf course and get rubes to cheer them at a rally.