The scene that struck me most in the Woodward/Costa tome, “Peril,” occurs on a plane. On a trip from DC to Seattle on January 7, Adam Smith, a 55-year-old centrist Democrat, finds himself surrounded by participants in the previous day’s violent assault on the Capitol. His ears prick up . https://andrewsullivan.
Thank god I live in California.
Not only does California have the lowest covid infection rate in the country: https://wapo.st/3klHYZk starting October 7th you’ve got to be vaccinated or show a negative test to attend an event with 10,000 people or more: https://lat.ms/2VXPeBy That’s another reason Newsom won by such a large margin, COVID!
Schools all over America can’t find enough warm bodies to staff their classrooms. They’re having to lower their hiring standards. They’re recruiting people off the street, and training them on the job.
It’s not just teachers, either.
It’s bus drivers. It’s cafeteria workers.
It was impossible to mistake the tone of Joe Biden’s announcement of a vaccine mandate last week. It was an angry speech, which started by explaining that “many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated,” and went on to announce that “our patience is wearing thin,” and “your refusal has cost all of us.” Biden, not normally one for oratorial effects, even conveyed a sense of barely contained rage by muttering, “Get vaccinated!” as he walked off the stage.
Among this last group, a common refrain I’ve heard to justify their renewed vigilance is that “vaccinated people are just as likely to spread the coronavirus.”
https://medium.com/the-
Is there a whole class of men who no longer fit into the social order?
A decade ago, Marianne Bertrand and Jessica Pan, economists at the University of Chicago and the National University of Singapore, concluded in their paper “The Trouble With Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior”
So you can’t convince the unvaccinated to get the shot, the only thing you can do is force them to, make it so they can’t go into public places without being vaccinated. Is there enough political will in the U.S?
I don’t think so. Which is just plain sad.
Umair Haque wrote last week:
“Brexit is Destroying Britain – And Britain Still Can’t Face It – Where Can’t You Get Gas, Milk, Bread, and Beer? Welcome to Soviet Britain”: https://bit.ly/3CRBtE5
There are no truck drivers to deliver goods. They just broke their own rules, they’re allowing foreigners to come in and do this job, those they wanted gone. But the irony is it’s still not enough, and most foreigners won’t come, the pay is too low. And you can’t get beer because the CO2 to make it comes from the Continent!
But what really got my attention in the Haque article was the put-downs of America.
“She was right. Britain’s turning Soviet. Even America – for all its folly and self-inflicted ruin, guns and theocracy and whole nine yards – isn’t as badly off as Britain.”
But the conclusion is even worse, you don’t want to turn into AMERICA!
“Eventually, Britain will probably find ways to get a little more bread and beer and so on. But they won’t be European. They’ll come from America, probably, and if you like American beer and bread, my friend, I feel a little sorry for you. Britain will eventually end up something like America’s 51st state – it’s NHS and BBC owned by American hedge funds, its people eating American diets, their minds poisoned by American junk culture.
America’s a vastly poorer society than Europe. Americans live worse lives in every possible way — from health to wealth to trust to intimacy to stability and safety to basic decency and thoughtfulness. Britain’s only real destiny left at this point is to be Americanized. That was always the endgame of Brexit – to sell Britain off to American capital. But American capital has made paupers – literally, they’re lifelong debtors, without a penny to their names, most of them – of Americans.”
The problem is this all rings true. The hedge funds buy the parking meters and therefore you’ve got to pay to park 24/7, there are no holidays. And the hedge fund buys the trailer park upon which your rust bucket sits and raises the price of rent on your little square of property, after all their investors have to see a return, and you lose your POS residence, forget YOUR investment, it’s history.
I mean we have no national health care, no mandated vacations, no government funds for child care…we’re working like dogs to try and keep our heads afloat. Is this really the best we can do?
America is no longer the country I grew up in. It slid while I wasn’t even realizing it. In the rest of the world our status has fallen to the level of…theirs. Haque posits the EU is more powerful than America, it fights bad actors like the tech companies while the FTC is paralyzed, if member countries get out of hand they stop sending them money, they freeze them out. But we’re supposed to believe the federal government has no power over Texas and Florida.
Now the truth is Britain got Brexit because a lot of sentimental oldsters and rural folk wanted to return to a country that no longer squares with the modern world, just like those on the right in America want to go back to an era totally out of date with today’s trade and mores, it’s a fantasy. The Britons with money, the educated, they understood what was at risk, they overwhelmingly voted to stay in the EU, but they were defeated by the votes of the idiots told falsehoods. It’s no different in the U.S. Mexico was gonna pay for the wall. China was going to pay the tariffs. Say it enough and people believe it, after all they’re not exposed to the truth, and they wouldn’t believe it if they saw it.
I am from a place where it is impossible not to have the idea of climate disaster circling about my head. My family is from the rural part of eastern North Carolina. Environmental justice, as a term, emerges from the sit-ins that happened in Warren County, N.C., when Ben Chavis interjected environmentalism
- First things first: Leave the car running in the driveway.
- Begin any counterpoint by irately screaming “I respectfully disagree!” inches from your loved one’s face.
- Don’t languish in a circular argument. The quicker you can draw parallels between your friend’s opinion and militant fascism, the quicker you’ll win.
- Be considerate when your views differ from those of close family members. You’ll find they’re more receptive to your opinions if you preface them with a long, wet raspberry.
- Listen twice as much as you talk, and talk twice as much as you wave a gun in the air.
- Your grandmother has lived a lot more life than you have. Who knows? Maybe gays really were godless filth in the ’40s.
- Wait until the perfect moment to deploy your ace in the hole: that you read about this very topic somewhere just recently.
- Always remain open to the possibility that you’re wrong about how much you respect your father.
- Regularly remind yourself not to let political differences affect your personal relationship with your family. That’s the job of your grandfather’s estate.
Gynecologist's Office: "Dr. Jones, at your cervix." In a Podiatrist's office: "Time wounds all heels." On a Septic Tank Truck: Yesterday's Meals on Wheels At an Optometrist's Office: "If you don't see what you're looking for, On a Plumber's truckyou've come to the right place." "We repair what your husband fixed." On another Plumber's truck: "Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber." At a Tire Shop in Milwaukee : "Invite us to your next blowout." On an Electrician's truck: "Let us remove your shorts." In a Non-smoking Area: "If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action." On a Maternity Room door: "Push. Push. Push." At a Car Dealership: "The best way to get back on your feet - miss a car payment." Outside a Muffler Shop: "No appointment necessary. We hear you coming." In a Veterinarian's waiting room: "Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!" At the Electric Company "We would be delighted if you send in your payment. However, if you don't, you will be." In a Restaurant window: "Don't stand there and be hungry; come on in and get fed up." In the front yard of a Funeral Home: "Drive carefully. We'll wait." At a Propane Filling Station: "Thank heaven for little grills." And don't forget the sign at a CHICAGO RADIATOR SHOP: "Best place in town to take a leak." And the best one for last............ Sign on the back of another Septic Tank Truck: "Caution - This Truck is full of Political Promises " |
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