I did not watch the convention. Maybe I'd be feeling a little cheerier if I had?

a) That's not what CalFire said. b) The original tweet was posted by someone with a book to sell, which infuriates me. c) Despite a and b, convict labor is disgusting and wrong.

Here's the original tweet with the a link to the SacBee story. If you scroll down, you can see that the person is selling her book. She might be a great person. It might be a great book. But fuck a whole bunch of this kind of cross-platform synergy.

https://twitter.com/rachaelherron/status/1296103976262221824?s=21

3: That is weird as the SacBee story linked is from July. But I'm not seeing anything to suggest Rach / el Herr / en is doing this to sell her book (a novel, that doesn't appear to have anything to do with this).

Am I missing something?

4: https://twitter.com/RachaelHerron/status/1296185780235145216

In Ohio, prison labor makes office furniture.

The tweet linked in 5 appears in her feed immediately below the tweet linked in 3. She's saying, "Here's a story that generates clicks! It's connected to the day's news of massive human and non-human suffering! And oh! By the way! I have a book to sell! Buy it!"

Am I missing something?

vw, it's pretty common for someone to reply to an unexpectedly viral tweet with a plug for their own work. It doesn't necessarily mean the tweet was written toward that promotion.

That said, I read the SacBee article thought "30 of 77 inmate crews available - that tweet is not exaggerating too much." Then I kept reading and saw "Cal Fire has around 6,500 year-round employees -- a number that expands to around 9,000 during the fire season when seasonal firefighters are hired," and that there are 2,200 inmate firefighters. So now I think it tends toward an unwarranted despair. (Of course we need all the flex-up potential we can get, but yes, 2(c).)

4, 7: Oh! That is gross!

4, 7: Oh! That is gross!

9. 10: Double-posted to emphasize that I was wrong.

9. 10: Double-posted to emphasize that I was wrong.

I think we all need to be careful to exhibit only warranted despair.

Now I'm just getting carried away by my humility.

8: I'm well aware that people are crass and craven and that twitter is a place they congregate! I just thought maybe that a tweet about this kind of suffering might have been a moment that someone ostensibly concerned about injustice and suffering would have thought better of trying to sell her book. But hey, Hannah Arendt's heebie's post is about the way we become desensitized to the horrors around us all the time, so here we are.

Also, both you and peep seem to think that I was saying that the original tweet was composed to sell books. That's not what I wrote. I only know that, having composed the original tweet and having seen it get a bunch of attention, the author's reaction seems not to have been, "I'm so glad I've raised awareness of the horrors of convict labor and the dangers Californians face because the state massively underfunds public goods," but instead, "I have a book to sell! And this is the moment to share that information with my newfound audience!"

Canonically people who have tweets go viral link to their SoundCloud, or if they don't have one joke about not having one and instead ask for donations to a worthy cause. So this is a bit crass but not bizarre behavior.

Boy, someone is real sore he doesn't have a book out this year.

heh. I was just reading the archives last night because I am very good at avoidance and I was wondering "what happened to friday wtfuckery? I guess since it's wtfuckery 24/7 now that got retired without my noticing"

1 Watch some clips. The roll call, both Obamas, HRC, Sanders, Harris. Stuttering kid. Trump killed my dad woman. Biden grandkids. There's a ton of other stuff.

I did see the stuttering kid, which was a a lovely bit.

I am not actually opposed to having people who are incarcerated fight fires, since some find it rewarding work. But if incarcerated people do fight fires, they should be paid well for it (current wages are $3/day) and allowed to work as firefighters when they are released (which they aren't).

From what I've seen, there is no justification at all for how California managed COVID in the prisons and people at CDCR should be held responsible for reacting to COVID so slowly, moving sick prisoners, and killing incarcerated people.

This entire situation is my fault There were some small, passionate campaigns to release prisoners across the state when the pandemic began, but they didn't get much traction or press, and activists appealed to basic human decency rather than really banging the "who's going to save your dream house if all these people have Covid?" drum. A whole lot of Californians with economic and political clout are great at blocking the prisons out of our minds. I suspect that is continuing even now.

On preview: agree with everything Megan just said.

If people who are incarcerated had the vote... Man, that could really shake up politics in the Central Valley and in rural areas.

24: There was a citizen initiative going around trying for that, but it didn't qualify.

But would they vote where incarcerated or at their previous residence? For redistricting purposes, I'm pretty sure California picks the latter.

Yeah, my brother worked on that. He's working on Prop 17 now. Thanks to him, I wear an 'Abolish Prison' mask everywhere.

Yeah, my brother worked on that. He's working on Prop 17 now. Thanks to him, I wear an 'Abolish Prison' mask everywhere.

Back to the original post, I am glad we've stopped reacting to every stupid thing Trump throws out there. For one, I always hated the rebuttal stories. Trump says some shit about water conservation appliances and for a week I get earnest articles about how they actually are and those are boring so I'm glad we don't jump anymore when he says stupid shit. Also, I think he's cried wolf too many times and now when he screams that Dems are going to steal elections, no one pays attention anymore.

I do think that the reason everyone is falling apart is that we've had nearly four unrelenting years of his slime. The pandemic piles on the misery, but I suspect that even without it, everyone's mental health would be extremely fragile right now. I see people talking about how things will only ever get worse and that the Biden years will be disappointing, but I wonder if they're underestimating the relief we'd feel if the river of sludge stopped.

Jesus, people are talking about how the Biden years will be disappointing? Fuck them. It might be even more disappointing not to have Biden years in the first place.

Well sure. All the people who feel obligated to vote for him to get out Trump but want someone lefter. They understand the obligation, but expect to be disappointed. I'm disappointed too, relative to the Warren presidency I wanted.

I mean, I was disappointed that Biden got the nomination. And in four years, surely I'll be disappointed.

But somehow pre-feeling that disappointment during August 2020 seems insulting towards all the ways that lives will be gravely improved if Biden gets elected in the first place.

Despair from the jaws of victory, I tell ya.

Out of the crooked timber of the Democratic Party, no non-disappointing thing was ever made.

24: They had the vote in MA for most of my life, because the Supreme Judicial Court said it was required by the MA Constitution, but then there was a constitutional amendment when Romney was Governor.

I think there are other New England states where prisoners have the right to vote. I don't think I've seen a lot of evidence that they avail themselves of the franchise.

On the fires, I've been increasingly concerned the last few years that we've hit a climate tipping point and this is just what a normal fire season looks like now. So far this year has been consistent with that interpretation.

I would actually like to back some serious legislation that builds a fund to pay convicts $15/hour to fight fires, heavily discounts their sentences if they do, explicitly makes them eligible for EMT and Firefighting jobs, and provides them with some minimum amount of training and counseling to get those jobs. And funds this--and the greatly enlargened CalFire crew---with a cut of the taxes from a reformed Prop 13 that allows increases on vacation homes, as well as fees from fire insurance for properties that are more than 300% of the median value in their zipcode, as wel as an in-state carbon tax. And that crew would be tasked with clearing brush, cutting down eucalyptus, planting native trees, and helping seniors and disabled folks get ready for fire season when the fires weren't on.

I mean, I'm just making it up as I go, but I would fight for that program.

I would actually like to back some serious legislation that builds a fund to pay convicts $15/hour to fight fires, heavily discounts their sentences if they do, explicitly makes them eligible for EMT and Firefighting jobs, and provides them with some minimum amount of training and counseling to get those jobs. And funds this--and the greatly enlargened CalFire crew---with a cut of the taxes from a reformed Prop 13 that allows increases on vacation homes, as well as fees from fire insurance for properties that are more than 300% of the median value in their zipcode, as wel as an in-state carbon tax. And that crew would be tasked with clearing brush, cutting down eucalyptus, planting native trees, and helping seniors and disabled folks get ready for fire season when the fires weren't on.

I mean, I'm just making it up as I go, but I would fight for that program.

I would actually like to back some serious legislation that builds a fund to pay convicts $15/hour to fight fires, heavily discounts their sentences if they do, explicitly makes them eligible for EMT and Firefighting jobs, and provides them with some minimum amount of training and counseling to get those jobs. And funds this--and the greatly enlargened CalFire crew---with a cut of the taxes from a reformed Prop 13 that allows increases on vacation homes, as well as fees from fire insurance for properties that are more than 300% of the median value in their zipcode, as wel as an in-state carbon tax. And that crew would be tasked with clearing brush, cutting down eucalyptus, planting native trees, and helping seniors and disabled folks get ready for fire season when the fires weren't on.

I mean, I'm just making it up as I go, but I would fight for that program.

I think a slug of the despair right now -- on top of the economic collapse, the pandemic, the fascism, the racism -- is the realization that Trump could very well win. And the downside of that is every bit as bad, or worse, than what the principal speakers at the convention had to say. Teo, heebie, and I, among others of you, live in states that Trump is sure to win.

36, 37 38: Great ideas! Worthy of a triple post!

Honestly, I think people ought to tone the handwringing about Biden way way down for the next 3 months. It may be that your friends are smart enough to hold their noses, and actually vote. But every time we run the experiment, we find that a bunch of people -- enough to change the outcome is the messed up system we have -- get moved by a narrative that our candidate isn't enough better than the other one to give the imprimatur.

I'm suggesting gentle pushback.

Biden isn't just the best progressives can do right now -- although he is that -- he's also objectively pretty good. He understands who's put him into office -- it ain't the big money people -- and understands how to get shit done. He can be pushed, and his appointees in the various agencies are going to be people who listen to activists on our side.

(Staying in the coalition is an important part of this. OK, yes, he'll be president of everyone. But when it comes time to decide who should be the undersecretary of whatever, people who fought the fight are going to get a hearing from the transition.)

35: yes indeed. From the Chronicle live updates:

The Bay Area could see another round of dry lightning and thunderstorms beginning Sunday and lasting into Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service is likely to issue a red flag warning for Monterey and the San Francisco Bay Area, according to Drew Peterson, a meteorologist for the weather service.

My midwestern relatives politely point out that no one is talking about Iowa, where the situation is truly desperate.

38: You don't have to make it all up as you go along. The forestry side of things has some good work (the Forest Carbon Plan and the conservancies have extensive plans for their upper watersheds) already done. Integrating incarcerated people into the that part would be newer part.

Oh man https://twitter.com/4lisaguerrero/status/1296875893327933440?s=21

America has issues.

And the downside of that is every bit as bad, or worse, than what the principal speakers at the convention had to say.

Yeah, the speakers presented a dire image of a profound threat to American democracy in a manner that was ... somehow understated.

44: Wow is that affecting. I try and stay cold about even the candidates I support, and while I'm certainly voting for Biden and I have high hopes for his administration, I haven't had strong feelings about him before. But that's a hard clip to watch without feeling something.

44 and 47: Why did twitter tell me I can't see it because it's sensitive content, and I need to change my settings.

46: Sanders and Obama - especially Obama really nailed it. Warren was strong too, but the others didn't highlight the threat to our democracy in the same way, and Warren wasn't as focused on that.

There's nothing fake about it, just fundamentally decent and caring. Oh Jesus I hope this is still who we are.

50: The whole convention, what I saw of it, struck me that way. The Republicans can't do this at all any more. I can't envision a Braydon Harrington speech at the Republican convention, or anything like it. I mean, let's face it, the kid is a loser.

GW Bush was a genuinely horrible human being, but he could at least fake decency -- and felt the need to do so. The Republican convention is going to be really interesting this time.

44: Ooof. Got something in my eye, ahem.

I am very curious about how the Republican convention is going to go. They were still switching it up two weeks ago, weren't they? I can't see how they can pull off a well produced show.

I don't plan to watch it, but instead spend the time making calls for one of our state-wide candidates.

Yes, I thought Warren's speech was very good. And all the ordinary folks with stories about Biden.

Smoke: https://twitter.com/NWSMissoula/status/1296891437645066240

1.. And you know what? Watch Jill Biden too (and the promo on her). There's someone who's going to use her bully pulpit for good.

My brother-in-law stutters and so does my 6yo nephew. Biden isn't perfect, but damn.

They seem to be rerunning the 2016 campaign, try to appeal to moderate Republicans, and don't offer the left anything. It didn't work last time, but hey, maybe it will work this time. If it doesn't you can always blame the left, and they're fine with that outcome too.

They did let Bernie and his people on the committee that wrote the platform. It may not be enough, but it's not nothing.

58. The climate platform looks good. Are you familiar with linguist turned political analyst Noam Chomsky? He has thoughts about the broader topic also, different than yours.

I'm unclear on the connection between the Biden-Sanders Unity Platform (which was released as its own sort of thing) and the DNC platform, whether it was intended to be incorporated wholesale or if it was a bit of an aspirational red herring.

But I feel like a lot of those DNC platform voters must have been justifiably confused at the Twitter scrum about Medicare for All being rejected. "A candidate who wasn't for Medicare for All won the primary, and he worked out a public option compromise with the biggest runner-up who was, so why are people dragging us for not out of the blue making that part of the platform?"

Somewhere else, someone said basically: all Californians should be ready to evacuate. This kind of statement has a sort of telepathic beacon that goes out to my parents, who texted me at 6 in the morning yesterday asking if I have to evacuate.

Internal response: oh please, sweet Jesus, deliver me from California.

External response: it's way less severe than last year, subjectively.

Which is true. The air is less smoky, though very smoky, and the car was not coated in ash this morning. But mostly I just couldn't deal with the weight of my parents' worry on top of just all the other good times right now.

In other news, this is all manifesting as me being even quicker to anger than usual. I went in to the office for like an hour and threw a pen at my monitor when my computer was being annoying and it now has a sort of rainbow stripe I am hoping no one will notice.

62: I feel like our little corner is sufficiently coastal and built-up that if we're unsafe here, literally the whole state is burning and there's nowhere left to evacuate to. That said, I don't know what kind of extremes have yet to be reached.

And yes, it hasn't gotten near the darkness-at-noon we had last year.

62: I feel like our little corner is sufficiently coastal and built-up that if we're unsafe here, literally the whole state is burning and there's nowhere left to evacuate to. That said, I don't know what kind of extremes have yet to be reached.

And yes, it hasn't gotten near the darkness-at-noon we had last year.

Want to clarify something. The blame the left stuff is just at the level of rhetoric, I have no idea if "the left" turned out more for Obama than Hillary. When you look at the exit polls for 2012 and 2016 the big difference I see is in household income. Hillary won under 50,000 by about 10% and lost over 50k by a few percentage. Obama won under 50k by over 20% and lost over 50k by about 10 points. So the plan to appeal to wealthy people in 2016 did work, but it was met with a bigger erosion in support amongst the poor.

This pretty clearly doesn't have much to do with support amongst "the left".

61: I admit I haven't done a comparison, but there's news coverage saying that the Unity Task Force report largely made it into the DNC platform. I think it has to count as having input: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-17/dnc-bernie-sanders-delegates-biden

I seriously doubt we'll see very many Sanders/Trump voters in this cycle. People might not be in love with Joe Biden, but the kind of visceral hate people all across the spectrum had for Clinton is just not here.

I hope there won't be a material number of Sanders/No Vote in the key states: I think the stakes are clear enough, and certainly Sanders himself has been emphatic.

People too far left to be swayed by Sanders in 2020 are probably out of reach in any event.

IMO, the platform only matters at a level of generality that only barely matters. The transition, that's where the real stuff happens, or doesn't happen. Does 'the left' have people who can populate a decent share of the appointee positions at HHS and HUD, for example? Are those people already making themselves known to the people who are going to be making recommendations, as team players with passion?

There are not going to be 50 votes in the Senate for M4A* in 2021, but there may be a whole lot of things that can be done at HHS with rule-makings and the like.

* I mean Sanders-style M, not actually existing M. I doubt that moving the M age to 60 from 65, without other (hugely necessary) improvements to the system is going to be that difficult. Take it down to 50, and you've socialized, to a degree, a huge proportion of healthcare expenditure. Write it just vague enough, and HHS gets to do a bunch of the improvements itself.

42: Lurid,re: Iowa (living here in CA) it seems like the difference is simple: *both* Iowa and CA have been abandoned by the Federal Government, but California decided to do something about it, and to do so long enough in advance, that there was some sort of capacity to respond.

I'm sorry for Iowa, but geez, isn't this what they voted for? "Shrink the Federal Government down to the size where it can be drowned in a bathtub"? Shouldn't they be saying "Mission Accomplished!" ?

I wonder how many old white people heard the "let's just let old people die to save the economy" and switched to Biden? Because old white people did switch and it happened about the time.

68: If we could get a public option that people who have access to employer provided insurance could sign up for and even take some money from their employer AND, any provider or hospital that took a Medicare had to take it, I'd be pretty happy. Biden has supported a public option, but I'm not sure if all Medicare providers have to take it.

Hospital Arlen%to dumb and many are gearing up to oppose that. If COVID is bad enough and the econom6 tanks, some might find they prefer Medicare rates to a whole bunch of people on a Medicaid which pays even less.

39: I think a slug of the despair right now -- on top of the economic collapse, the pandemic, the fascism, the racism -- is the realization that Trump could very well win

Yes. I think this id the gumption trap I am currently struggling with. With all of the utter shiit he is still within striking distance. and lots of people looking for the permission structure to go Trump.

Need to be positive. need to be positive. Need to be positive. I will say that we are getting 3 to 4x the number of people participating in our local LWV voter service calls. (It is all "non-partisan" but very pro-voting so not really in today's world.)

(It is all "non-partisan" but very pro-voting so not really in today's world.)

Hahaha, today's world sucks!

Definitely at the point in the movie where the big bad is just about finished off, but then the heroes let their guards down and he reveals his final form--now with election invalidating action!

Five lions combine to form the biggest piece of shit the universe has ever seen.

I'm sorry for Iowa, but geez, isn't this what they voted for?

1.4 million Iowans voted in last election. That's under 50% of the state's residents. Of those who cast a ballot for president, more than 40% voted for Clinton. In short, no, this isn't what "they voted for."

Now I've seen everything. Iowa apologetics.

75: vw, no, actually, in the 2016 Iowa Presidential election, the voters of the State of Iowa selected Donald Trump. Please don't misunderstand me: I think it's a travesty that Iowa is being left to flap in the wind. I will think it's just as awful, when the Gulf States are left to do the same, in a few days or weeks. But this is what they all signed-up for. And they did it not merely by voting for Donald Trump, but by voting for low-tax regimes that produced State governments with no capacity to serve their citizens. These are the exact people who look at us in California and shake their damn heads, saying "oh lordy, I could never pay those taxes."

Well, GUESS WHAT? This is what you get by paying taxes. I'm *proud* that I pay my taxes, that California has some of the highest state taxes in the country. I was proud to pay New York State and New York City taxes when I lived there.

I -want- for Iowans to have the good things that we have in California. But we didn't get them by wishing for them. We got them by paying for them, and by electing responsible officials, not neofeudalist clowns. But don't worry, if we can win back our Federal Government, we'll give those Iowans all that good government they so badly, badly do NOT want. We'll give it to 'em good and hard, transgender bathrooms, women kissing each other in the streets (and men too!) and all. And yeah, hurricane, tornado, derecho, and covid relief, too.

Because we're the ones who believe in good government. Unlike Iowans.

Maybe they just want seed corn hats and low-grade horror?

Five lions combine to form the biggest piece of shit the universe has ever seen.

Your metaphor sucks. Trump is clearly the shitty Voltron, with the way-too-many cars and planes and boats.

The metaphor is supposed to suck because the writing airways has.

Martha McSally would like people to skip a meal and send the money saved to her campaign. Which is exactly what we did in high school, except assholes weren't perfected yet so we sent the money to Oxfam.

I think we did get soup too.

1.4 million Iowans voted in last election. That's under 50% of the state's residents. Of those who cast a ballot for president, more than 40% voted for Clinton.

So in other words, more than 75% of Iowans couldn't be bothered voting against Trump or actively voted for him. Fuck Iowa.

Some of them are children.

Some are probably convicted of felonies.

Some probably voted for Gary Johnson.

Some probably voted for Jill Stein.

These are in order of increasing blameworthiness.

And they did it not merely by voting for Donald Trump, but by voting for low-tax regimes that produced State governments with no capacity to serve their citizens. These are the exact people who look at us in California and shake their damn heads, saying "oh lordy, I could never pay those taxes."

Quickly googling, it looks like Iowa -- a far poorer state than either California or New York -- has one of the higher maximum income tax brackets in the country, 8.53%, which kicks in at (as of 2019) $73,710. California taxpayers pay slightly more, 9.3%, on the same income. California taxes higher earners at a higher rate, of course, and it has far more higher earners.

State Individual income Tax Rates and Brackets for 2020 - scroll down to the colorful map
Iowa income tax rates since 1934.

Regarding corporate income tax, again according to the Tax Foundation website: "Iowa levies the highest top statutory corporate tax rate at 12 percent" of all U.S. states. I'm inclined to think the problem is more that there's not that much revenue available, period, less that there's no will to fund government programs.

You can feel free to peruse these Iowa Quick Facts for more deets. If you feel inclined, kick in a contribution to J.D. Scholten's campaign to replace the disgraced Steve King in Congress (as everyone here probably knows, since Maciej Ceglowski was one of his boosters in 2018).

Please add "Got trapped in a grain bin" between 86 and 87.

Trump approved a portion of the requested disaster aid:

Gov. Kim Reynolds' request for $82.7 million to cover the 8,273 homes that were damaged or destroyed was not approved. Neither were her requests for $3.77 billion for agriculture damage to farm land, grain bins and buildings and $100 million for private utilities repair. . . . Reynolds submitted a request for $3.9 billion in federal aid on Sunday - about $45 million of which Trump approved Monday.

He must have been really flummoxed: there were no area CEOs or celebrities, no well-known landmarks, no key conservative figures to pat on the head, no obvious opportunities for graft and cronyism, just a woman governor with an R next to her name. Where the fuck is Iowa? It's full of rubes and poors, huh? Okay sure, give them a little bit of money, not too much, nothing in it for us. How many electoral votes? Six? Fuck Iowa.

89 reminds me that Pennsylvania has a flat 3% state income tax and the city has a wage tax, not an income tax.

I'm sure it's just a first step. Neither Grassley nor Ernst would let Trump fuck this up, and he has no incentive to do so. He's probably waiting to approve bigger money until he can go out there and do it in person.

Or make an announcement during the convention.

I really have no idea how "Arlen % and dumb" got typed. I think it was supposed to say "hospital administrators and health plans."

Our state ed dept announced yesterday that teachers should be in their classrooms to do remote teaching. I think most districts are going to ignore it.

I am 100% ready for President Biden. I have been feeling a mixture of excitement and terror about the 2020 election for, oh, at least a year, and Biden is, generally, a figure who minimizes my terror. The convention did make me feel more positively about him, and his acceptance speech was strong.

But I have some fear reading articles like these:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/13/epic-blandness-joe-biden-campaign-394593

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/20/joe-biden-altitude-398928

Those traits may make Biden a good fit for the current moment, but for an average presidential election that doesn't say, "electoral powerhouse."

On the other hand, vox makes me feel more encouraged: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/8/20/21394924/dnc-joe-biden-andrew-yang-magic

||

New territory in social horror: a mutual on Twitter had shared an interesting graph about energy consumption which had given him some new insight, I was zooming in and moving around on my phone to see how all the pieces fit together, apparently my finger had been grazing the small "reply" box at the bottom of the screen, and suddenly I saw "Tweet sent". What was my tweet? "Duh"

|>

You deleted it before I could see.

Sorry.

|| Some New Yorkers came to Montana: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/22/opinion/sunday/hiking-wilderness-montana.html |>

Over forty comments, so here is a nugget from the Corbyn campaign stories now leaking out. The background is that when the election campaign started last year, Corbyn threw a wobbly because the LIb Dems were campaigning from an electric bus and he had only a smelly old diesel-powered one.

His refusal to use the diesel bus, meanwhile, meant he was travelling the country on trains. It made communication near impossible. Corbyn frequently cut in and out of reception and was forced to borrow the phones of those around him. He made one Sunday morning call as he tended to the marrows on his allotment, buffeted by wind which rendered his voice inaudible. The man on whose shoulders the hopes of the left rested had been reduced to spending vital hours of the campaign bickering over his right to see his own schedule. "It was like he'd had a breakdown," said one aide. "He just wouldn't drop the stuff about the diary and dialling onto the calls. It was his way of trying to regain control."

I suppose there is a tenuous connection, in as much as this crew were the anti-Biden.

Bickering over his right to see his schedule is very strange. Who could he have been bickering with who thought he shouldn't be able to see his schedule?

102: the people who owned the phone he was borrowing, maybe?

Staffers who think they are in charge.

Also, I forget what a "marrow" is, but I think we've had that conversation before.

Zucchini? That's not even edible.

Is mobile reception known to be significantly less spotty on roadways than on train routes, or are people just bitching about travel-related communication problems?

Unless things have changed greatly since 1992, there's almost no mobile reception on trains in the U.K.

Also, I guess this is thread-appropriate, rising above the usual "oh my God he said something outrageous" noise, because it's a new height in stochastic terrorism, endorsing by name a movement that by its precepts demands violent action and has already inspired such.

Every time I try to figure out what the end game is for this path the Republican Party has been running on, it terrifies me. It's either going to destroy America or destroy the Republican Party and I don't think I get much input into which. If 30% to 35% of Americans decide they want to fuck over themselves to pwn the libs, they absolutely can. You can't run a county with what is quite accurately described above as "stochastic terrorism" being the policy goal of the second most popular political party without continually erosion of the institutions and trust that are required to government function in any way except as a police state.

Anyway, Trump's press conference tonight is going to be for using plasma from sick people as a treatment. I was expecting much worse.

I can't find on the front page which thread it was where people were wondering why the stock market was still doing well, but now here's someone saying the market priced in a second stimulus and the longer that doesn't happen the likelier a crash is.

I'm even less pro-market than usual because I watched "The Big Short" last night.

Anyway, a good 15% drop in the stock market would cause me to wonder less about the mid-term viability of capitalism.

106. To be fair, it's a zucchini that's 8 inches across and 20 inches long. I haven't seen one in a shop for thirty years and there's a reason for that.

112 makes perfect sense.

Yes. Small zucchini are bad, but not as bad.

But if Congress does come through with stimulus of around $2 trillion, the market could take off again, Ives suggests. "A stimulus of that magnitude [over $2 trillion] would tack on a 15% to 20% rally, especially in tech stocks," Ives estimates. But he adds: "This is a fork in the road moment: This market is either going to correct or go higher."

Any lessons from The Big Short to apply to that scenario, Moby? It's been a while since I watched it. It's weird calmly considering all of this from the center of the fucking apocalypse.

Other than the general idea that the wealthy are a danger to society, I can't think of any.

I've put off watching The Big Short because I know I will nitpick it to death.

Normally I know what's going on with the stock market, but I don't understand it at all anymore. The best I can figure is that it's a combination of that they think there will be another round of stimulus, and there's just no other place for the rich to put their money. If the demand for savings goes up, then you'd expect the price for assets to go up. I'm not really convinced, though.

I'm not convinced that you normally know what is going on with the stock market.

119: Bonds and government bills are also a place savings can go, so not sure how that averts a stock crash?

We had a video chat with a pgh friend last nigh. She told us that she and her mom are getting really smart about investing now, especially crypto. She also let us know that crypto has all kinds of complicated tax rules, like how it's treated differently if you hold it for more than a year. It was very depressing. (She's headstrong, so it doesn't really matter, but I did try to gently steer her towards instruments with underlying assets.)

120: You are now dead to me.

121: Prices of bonds and government bills are also up.

I looked at moving 401k savings out of stocks and the only option our fund manager offers has a 0.73% expense ratio for holding cash equivalents (vs 0.15% for a stock index fund). Negative nominal interest rates are already here apparently.

I will tell you how to put your money into a passbook savings account for only 0.65% of it.

There may be a tax cost to you for taking it out of the 401k, but thanks to Donald Trump, giving bad financial advice for money is legal.

Funny thing is I did have that option with the majority of the money in a rollover IRA but I moved it back into a 401k to allow a backdoor IRA.

So Moby, did the article linked in 100 make you more or less interested in hiking this trail?

I guess it's true that there's no place to put money other than (a) a few particular stocks and (b) Montana real estate.

I couldn't read it, but the headline reminded me of the goal. I haven't gotten out all summer.

I don't even have a bear canister because they aren't really needed here.

This summer was supposed to have been Go West summer, but the pandemic hit before we could decide where. Not hiking, but car-based tourism.

We spent a good chunk of the day on the river -- I rented a gigbob, which wasn't a bad way to do it. My arms are kind of sore, though. Different paddling motion.

Moby, use a different browser, and read that article. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3VuiUARSfg

O.K. When the power comes back on.

36, 37, and 38: excellent ideas, especially cutting down all those invasive eucalypti which poison the ground beneath them, are extremely flammable, and crowd out native vegetation. They were a big reason for the Oakland fire.

re CA prisoners used for fire crews - ironic, since they a) can't contribute to the firefighting and b) must be provided health services at taxpayer expense if they get covid19. If one of them winds up needing a double-lung transplant and gets it at the cost of millions of dollars that will be money that could have gone to fund...lots of other services CA taxpayers would prefer, like subsidized fire insurance for their vacation homes. (Have a friend who lost her cabin in Boulder Creek but is not whining about it, she knew the risks.)

110: the goal here is the destruction of American democracy. That's what Putin wants. Trump is just carrying out his program. If the GOP perishes in the process some other equally nasty political party - like the Quorum for American Normality, Organization, Active Non-Resistance - will arise from the bunker ashes.

It did make me want to hike the trail more, except that it reminded me that I usually hike alone and that's probably not good for grizzly country.

Also, I'm not big on heights.

41: Honestly, I think people ought to tone the handwringing about Biden way way down for the next 3 months. It may be that your friends are smart enough to hold their noses, and actually vote. But every time we run the experiment, we find that a bunch of people -- enough to change the outcome is the messed up system we have -- get moved by a narrative that our candidate isn't enough better than the other one to give the imprimatur.

I agree, but would extend it to handwringing about anyone (or group) in the broad coalition needed to support Democrats in this election. I think we are all somewhat more crazed and deranged about things in general and politics specifically to be putting much stock in our own responses. I find my gut emotional response to over half of *any* political news/opinions/whatnos is internal seething rage ("allies" included). My rage quotient may be abnormally high (started from a robust baseline) but I suspect everyone's is enhanced right now.

I do think there are some ( a vyra few) voters who are in fact moved by half-heard, subliminal narratives. For instance, I think the Gore/Bush, one is a liar the other is an idiot default framing was deleterious. I *know* it does matter to the vast majority of voters, and probably does not directly influence anyone, but sets a background context for their decision.

In conclusion, I hate everything and everybody. But I shouldn't say it so much!

137: Yes. That looked great. but have never been overly steady on my feet (and that has *not* improved with age) so the ridge line would probably be out.

NMM to Justin Townes Earle.(steve's son.)

Being named for Townes Van Zandt, what could possibly go wrong.

See 138.last.first.

I tried to change a light bulb with a 20' ladder and before I could reach the bulb I decided to buy a light bulb changing stick. It worked well enough.

140: That's very sad.

That ridgeline is an alternate route, btw.

138.1 Fair enough.

143: That's what I was assuming, then I thought maybe not, so I put up 137.

144: But I do agree most important for the presidential candidate.

144: But I do agree most important for the presidential candidate.

I am agreeable.

Giancarlo is in the news again, which I think means the asteroid will hit the Earth.

Knowing nothing whatsoever about the stock market, I continue to believe the person who said it represents nothing so much as an EKG of rich people's feelings.

In slightly happier news, I spent an hour phonebanking for "leans Democratic" voters in AZ today and came away mildly optimistic.

The Mon Valley was not cheerful in that way, though the city neighborhoods were.

150: That's a good analogy. The day-to-day fluctuations reflect variations in how the rich feel, but when the economy has a heart attack, it shows up in rich people's feelings. In 2008, when the Republicans failed to pass a stimulus because they are dumb-asses, the Dow dropped like a thousand points. Two days later, when the Repubicans were spooked and passed a stimulus, the Dow jumped up by a thousand points. Were these swings reasonable? Probably not, but you could least see why they happened.

Here it's like the patient had his head cut off, and his EKG has barely moved.

"Is mobile reception known to be significantly less spotty on roadways than on train routes"

Yes because a) trains go through tunnels and cuttings a lot more than roads do and b) the mobile base station net was specifically designed to cover roads very well because it was developed for car phones.

The domestic affairs of rats, various.

1) Kellyanne Conway leaving White House at end of month to spend time with family. George leaving Project Lincoln and taking Twitter hiatus.

2) Falwell goes to super hacky RW journo to say that his wife had an affair with the pool boy in which he was not involved. Apparently "pool boy" is dishing to some lamestream media types and this was preemptive. I am not up to speed but Josh Marshall has lots of context.

As Josh points out, "I admit I cheated on my spouse" is fairly common. "I admit my spouse cheated on me" is rather less common. "I admit my spouse cheated on me but would like to emphasise that I was not involved in the extramarital shagging in question, just in case anyone might have thought otherwise" is pretty much unprecedented.

155: Yes, that. I have not followed down the rat hole completely but he details the interesting timing of Falwell's critical endorsement of Trump. (Michael Cohen was involved somehow.)

It leads one to wonder what the default expectations are for playing away among Falwell's core audience.

Well, IIRC from Mike Pence and similar stookies, it's thought to be sinful (or at least an occasion of sin) to be alone in a room with a member of the opposite sex to whom one is not married. Therefore if a falwell wants to have an affair, they probably have to bring their spouse along as well. Otherwise it's morally wrong.

Adulterthree would be a good word to have now.

The funny thing is that AFAIT, no one did anything wrong (I mean, relationship-wise. I haven't kept track of the money aspects of it -- Falwell was paying off the other guy with money that wasn't exactly his own, maybe?) It all sounds consensual and above-board within the marriage from what's come out, although I guess you can't really tell. So, a scandal, but only to the kind of people who care about that kind of thing.

Ideally, you'd not send naked pictures of your wife to enough people that Michael Cohen has to get involved. Per Emily Post.

Reminds me of the old joke:

Do you have any naked pictures of your wife?

Sure. With the pool boy or the personal trainer?

Anyway, on the "every accusation is a confession" front, I will admit that I missed the application to cuckoldry.

I wonder if Larry Flynt has stopped laughing yet?

164: Haven't seen a "NMM to Larry Flynt (or his works)" post here yet, so I am guessing he hasn't.