The good news is that the man with the ability to launch nuclear missiles is probably raving mad with rage to the degree that his public statements can't be taken literally.
This from Eschaton is good: https://www.eschatonblog.com/2020/11/it-is-unconstitutional-to-criticize.html
I'm nutpicking by posting a link to Vox Dey but I think America is chock full.
https://voxday.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-statistical-storm.html
I will correct typos and repost my Sam Alito speech comment from the Exit Polls thread.
Sam Alito worried that Amy Barret was going to beat him out for worst justice* gave one hell of a speech to the Federalist society. Partisan, bitter, railing against science, mischaracterizing cases and other facts, laughable definition of free speech. A complete steaming pile of shit.
*My undying take is that Harriet Miers would have been a less bad justice than Alito. (And she would have most assuredly sucked.)
2.1: And a big law firm pulled out of one of the PA suits.
The Trumpistas of various brand families are trying for a big DC march tomorrow.
I suppose this makes sense: a full ten percent of the Secret Service is infected.
One consequence of the great red wave is that our legislature, meeting beginning in January, is going to be a great superspreader. We're already at 4% of the population has tested positive. I don't see any reason we can't get to 8-10 by the end of the year, and maybe 20% by the March break in the legislative session, when they all go home to brag about the austerity they're imposing. (We know that the economic downturn is caused by our tax rates being too high. There couldn't be any other reason, right?)
Not enough for herd immunity, right?
https://twitter.com/TheBradBlog/status/1327092125893181440?s=20
After so many yrs being called a libtard, sore loser, leftist, conspiracy theorist by rightwingers, it sure is fun to see them finding http://BradBlog.com this week and linking to so many of our years-old stories. :-) Welcome, guys! Wait till you hear what Bush did in Iraq!
The Youtube algorithm decided for reasons of its own that I wanted to hear "Edge of Seventeen" (I have no idea why). This reminded me of when Fleetwood Mac played "Don't Stop" at the Clinton inauguration. Isn't it sad that Biden can't have a normal inauguration, with musical performances by people who don't actively hate America and everything it stands for?
Counterpoint: Everybody should hear "Edge of Seventeen" from time to time.
The older I get the more I realize the Fleetwood Mac was really good.
The playlist refuting 12 has at least 50 songs on it, probably more.
But I'll save my WTF for the observation that "the US COVID-19 curve is VERTICAL", because given this serious emergency and the fact that we essentially do not have a federal government right now... I am not sure what to do. SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING.
I mean, not everything they did was great. But they had their moments.
But, yes, huge numbers of people are going to die in the next couple of months, most of them needlessly. I don't know what to do about it either.
Fleetwood Mac was one of the top 10 most wildly inconsistent bands in rock: that I would probably endorse. (Who else goes on that list?)
Do. Stop. Thinking About Tomorrow.
16 Holy shit. Trump was right when he said we were rounding the corner. Just wrong about which corner.
16: That was a sobering, well written piece. Thanks for linking it!
I noticed that somehow liking Fleetwood Mac is respectable now. When Clinton ran on "Don't Stop", it was shitty boomer music. When "The Americans" used Fleetwood Mac on their soundtrack, I expected similar complaining, but people were talking about it in respectful tones.
Last year, the last WW2 veteran in my family died. Today Covid got his widow.
Direct quote from Trump just now: "Ideally we won't go to a lockdown - I will not go, this administration will not be going to a lockdown, hopefully the, the, whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell..."
Has anyone posted NNM to Matt Yglesias writing for Vox yet?
Did he get a better offer to come back here as a FPP?
Did he get a better offer to come back here as a FPP?
That would be bad for MY, and bad for unfogged.
[I actually like Yglesias' writing, and have appreciate reading him over the years, but I'm a little worried what this latest move will mean, and what his fanbase looks like these days.]
I hope he calls the new thing "Better than Ezra's."
27 is good and much better than the actual name. "Boring slowly"? Or "Slowly Boring"?
His intro post is pretty good. I don't really get how Substack is supposed to be just like blogging the way lots of people claim, though.
I'm excited to see the typos come back now that he'll no longer have editors.
"Don't Stop" is like Fleetwood Macs worst song, though. Most of their catalog is great, but that song, specifically, is boomer trash.
|| So, Trump has new lawyers for his Williamsport case. In the deeply red middle district -- he's winning Lyoming county by 40 points! -- they couldn't find anyone willing to represent the President of the United States. So he's hired a couple of Texas lawyers to come up and slander county elections officials in 7 counties. I'm sure they'll do great. |>
Thanks to Barry's harassment on Twitter, the Democrats cancelled their Capitol Dinner - switched it to take out in any case. Good work, Barry!
So he's hired a couple of Texas lawyers to come up and slander county elections officials in 7 counties.
Now approaching 'Better Call Saul' levels of the con, with its sheer bravado ...
The 70s had bad music, but not in a way we can understand.
Clearly, no one here has been curious enough to venture deep into the Fleetwood Mac catalog. It gets so much worse than "Don't Stop." (Lindsay Buckingham, in particular, is inventive enough as a songwriter to have reached a new and uncharted abyssal plane of terribleness, and I say this as someone who kind of likes "Tusk" the song.)
Maybe I mostly just like Stevie Nicks.
Oh but wait, there is more WTFuckery. WTF? I have roughly 1,000 questions.
Well worth reading "The Story of How 'Saturday Night Live' Made the "Stevie Nicks' Fajita Roundup" Sketch"
I was like forty before I figured out Lindsay Buckingham isn't the woman in the group.
The woman other than Stevie Nicks, that is.
34, 37: This Politico article is actually a pretty good sampler of some of the lowlights. And now NYT says Rudy has been put "in charge!"
President Trump has put his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in charge of his campaign lawsuits related to the outcome of the election, as well as all public communications related to them, four people familiar with the move said on Friday.
four people familiar with the move said....
That's works best if you picture a Greek chorus of older white guys in suits.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, President Biden should keep the vaccine from going to New York until Cuomo apologizes to Trump.
In the fall of 1975, when it was new and maybe not quite yet a monster, I found a cassette of Fleetwood Mac by the side of the road. I'm not going to say it was life changing, but it was certainly a part of the soundtrack for hs senior year, and imo those songs have help up pretty well. I'm sure I could sing along with them all, and everything on Rumours, 40+ years on. Awful lot of artists don't create anything like that.
Boomer trash? Maybe so. dreams unwind, love's a state of mind
I probably still have the Buckingham Nicks record. AIHMHB, I didn't know to be mad at Buckingham about the album cover until recently.
So, uh, I just proposed and she said yes. Very happy.
I've been intrigued in recent years how many young women artists are influenced heavily by both 90s alternative rock, with its numerous prominent women, and classic Stevie Nicks. Back in the 90s, the two wouldn't go together, at least not openly. Whatever may have been in the back of their record collection, 90s artists wouldn't try to emulate Nicks, she was too recent, someone to react against. It's impossible to think of, say, Liz Phair in 1994 doing a song that sounded like her. But in the last decade I've heard so many younger artists try on Nicks as her style becomes something that's historical and available. A good example is Lydia Loveless, but there's many more:
Congratulations! Unfogged gets to take credit for your entire romantic life, yes?
65:. I was thinking that too. Did you tell us first, teo?
I guess I'm old fashioned, but I think she should have asked us for permission before saying yes.
Congrats Teo! I think Moby is angling for a role in the wedding party. Or at least the bachelor party.
Teo getting married makes me reflect fondly on how long we've been commenting here. Teo, am I right that you were in high school when you started commenting? Or were you already in college?
Teo was young enough to discuss the most prurient details of his life. And look how well he turned out.
Crap! Teo, what were our nicknames for each other again?
The most important thing in a marriage is that when you go to the bar by yourself, you offer to bring home onion rings. After that, next most important is something about mutual respect or whatever.
Teo! That's terrific! I'm so happy for you. I wish you many years of joy and comfort. At least there's something good coming out of this awful, awful year - may it auger better things to come.
~~
We really have been commenting here a long, long time, haven't we?
Congratulations!
Unfogged gets to take credit for your entire romantic life, yes?
Only for the successful parts. If anything goes wrong, it's obviously despite the impeccable relationship advice the blog provides.
Teo, congratulations! So happy for you both. What wonderful news.
Teo has been here so long he used to be accurately referred to as young teo or young teofilo.
Congrats, teo!
Congratulations Teo!
I'm sure there is much in the archives that can be potentially embarrassing (e.g., "[Teo should] Put on his ranger hat and put out that sweet mix of Smokey The Bear meets God's Chosen People.")
If anybody is working on wedding toasts and needs material, send them to us.
New case record here today, and now positivity record: 1660 new cases on 3150 tests.
Yeah. I've been reading Ed Yong and stressing.
The main thing is that activities you've been doing safely during the summer could now be very risky because the base rate is so very high.
I got a free COVID test even though I wasn't planning to. I took the youngest for a flu shot at the city drive through clinic and they offered free tests for everyone at the same time. The whole thing was quite a production, taking up four stories of the city mall parking garage- three check in stations on the first level, then 18 drive up stations spread across levels 2-4, all coordinated by police, fire, public health officials, doctors and nurses.
Don't know how long it will take to get results emailed back to us.
Teo, am I right that you were in high school when you started commenting? Or were you already in college?
Already in college. One of my first comments was on my 21st birthday.
Teo, what were our nicknames for each other again?
I called you SnackyCakes. I don't remember if you had a nickname for me.
Belated congratulations, Teo! Best wishes going forward.
Yes, Biohazard! Hope you're staying safe.
Congrats!!
Way back at 60: of course Hole covered Gold Dust Woman in the mid-90s. (This is one of the good Stevie songs, of course.)
Speaking of Courtney Love, she deserves credit for the following from 2005 when asked about advice for young women trying to make it in Hollywood. :
"If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party in his Four Seasons [hotel room], don't go,"
Also congrats to teo. Go to Alaska and find a life partner is not the statistically best bet for hetero young men. But here you are.
98: good point, though a cover for a movie soundtrack is more of a gimmick or (to put it more charitably) a move specific to someone else's project than incorporating the Nicks style into one's own work.
Hooray, Teo! So happy for you. May this be the continuation of many years of joy, good health, and delight in each other's company.
My mom can't remember anything from two minutes ago and can barely walk, but if you say "Are you doing good?" she will always reply with "I'm doing well."
103 is deeply sad and also in its own way endearing. If my father ever gets to that point (he's pretty hale and hearty right now at 76), it will be 'cakes are done, people are finished.' He's got all six of the grandchildren on board with it and I'm sure he'll have the seventh, pre-verbal one inculcated too before long.
Did he also teach elementary school back in the day?
My father did something odd in his last years as his brain failed him. He became humble and kind, neither of which were his strong suits in life. After I was age 25 or so, I got along with him well, but my fondest memories of him are pretty much all from the last 10 years of his life, and really from the last two. As I get older and mentally slower -- and, paradoxically, as my responsibilities increase in my personal and professional life -- I hope to handle my own decline with as much grace and humility as he did.
I'm going to be an impatient asshole. I'm constantly stopping myself from being shitty to people.
Wait. Since I am still shitty to people on occasion, I think I should have said 'frequently' instead of 'constantly'.
My paternal grandmother was pure poison for her whole life. (Put my Dad's young dog down while he was at daycamp. Sued a lifelong friend for not clearing the snow when she fell at her friend's house.) A few years before her death, her doctor asked her how she was. She said she was miserable, that her children hated her and she had no friends, that there was no one left who cared about her. The doctor told her that she was depressed; my father thought that she was exactly right. Anyway, the doctor prescribed her an anti-depressant and she became, eighty years too late, sweet and pleasant. It is heartbreaking to think of the misery that could have been averted if she'd gotten those in her youth.
(My Dad had no interest in reconciliation, but my twenty-years-younger half siblings don't remember her as viciously mean so at least there's that.)
60: I'll see your Lydia Loveless and raise you... Haim: covering (a) Dreams (b) Hold Me, which I've just found out wasn't sung by Stevie Nicks but by Christine McVie (who is, according to YouTube comments, the 'George Harrison of Fleetwood Mac') and (c) Oh Well which I include, even though the Fleetwood Mac original wasn't sung by Nicks or any other woman, because it does rather rock.
To be honest, I do sometimes wonder why we even bothered to fight the Punk Wars.
What was it all for, if it was going to come to this in the end?
112: Death or glory, just another story.
113: After I wrote that comment, I thought maybe I should look up the lyrics. It turns out that first hit for "Death or Glory" is a restaurant in Delray Beach, Florida. Also I've been leaving out a word from the chorus of this song for 30+ years.
Death or glory, the Shareef don't like it.
114: The more I think about it the more disturbing I find that as a name for a restaurant.
Certainly stay away from the fish course.
114, 115: The problem with googling is that not only do you find you're doing the lyrics wrong, you also always find that that funny idea/phrase ("Omar Sharif don't like it") which you wanted to turn into a joke, but which was probably too obvious not to have been thought of before, was too obvious not to have been thought of before.
The problem with not googling is my first thought was that it was from Les Miserables.
I don't think Omar Sharif was in that.
110: oh yeah, my basic point is there's a whole lot of this kind of thing out there the last several years or so, though I had more the idea of employing the Nicks style than covers per se. Also, Haim's "I've Been Down" is like the best Rolling Stones song in decades:
121: I take your point. (Sorry that the poker lingo made it sound like I was taking issue btw - was just reaching too mechanically for a segue.) And hadn't seen that clip before - thanks!