Big explosion about a mile from my house. Not clear what happened yet.
Governor says gas explosion; no local confirmation yet. Commercial building basically gone; fortunately nothing in it yet open. Seems like 3 taken to hospital. Scary days. When twitter and Facebook live have all the news updates.
"...the usual people tried to claim responsibility. First the IRA, then the PLO and the Gas Board."
New job is in the bag which is a relief...
Yes. I'm not allowed to work while drunk. Congratulations.
5. They made you work hard enough for it!
I dropped off my 220 letters for Votefwd!
Also, North Dakota and South Dakota have now exceeded New York City's peak COVID case rate per population and are still climbing. (NYC's max 7-day rolling average, if I have it right, was 63; per the Washington Post, ND is now 88, SD 77, MT and WI close behind at 56.)
There was a Republican superspreader concert event in Helena two weeks ago. Apparently we're getting a jolt from that.
I'm told that someone I serve on a board with is sick with it. Her husband has a subtenant in his office who had it and didn't tell anyone. Renting to Republicans is always a bad idea.
10: Not sure how ND and SD are doing with testing rates, but at NY's peak most people with symptoms were not being tested, because there was only enough capacity to test the really sick.
14: Good point. I don't have NYC-specific testing data, but NYS testing rates didn't hit 200 per day per 100,000 population until the last week of May (well after the peak). At their peak, 50% of tests were positive.
ND has done much better throughout, now up to 900 while NYS is just 600. Positivity rate 9% and climbing.
SD, by contrast, never broke 200 all year until September, briefly made it up to around 300 this month, then fell back down to 200 last week. Positivity broke 20% in September and after a dip is now up to 35% and climbing.
So ND might actually be better than NY at its peak - but SD might be comparable.
There was a Republican superspreader concert event in Helena
Wow, an outdoor event, no less. It takes some very strong disregard for basic safety practices to accomplish a superspreading event outdoors.
I tried canvassing for the first time. That was stressful.
No, but one young black man kept telling me he was going to vote Trump and then said he was kidding. Honestly, some of the streets I was on probably do not see many middle class white people and I encountered plenty of looks that seemed worried or actively trying to figure out if I was really doing what I said I was.
Possibly my canvassing hat looks ridiculous.
Gluing on all those Christmas ornaments may have been a mistake.
I'm working on looking like I'd never gentrify a house. Which should be easy since I have no desire to do so, but I'm not sure I'm pulling it off.
Drive-through flu shots were successful, and a pretty good idea. Go, city government!
Kids normally get flu shots at annual checkup but those were virtual this year so I had to take them for flu shots. None of the walk in pharmacies will do an eight year old. So it's either go to an urgent care which is also where everyone waits in line for Covid tests or wait until the city clinic in mid November.
I got my flu shot outdoors at the Giant grocery store mobile clinic. It took 2 minutes.
I was feeling really sad about not getting to vote in person this year for the first time ever, but when I went to drop off my mail-in ballot at the Official Ballot Dropbox Location today it was packed. I was there for three and a half minutes and in that time 27 people voted. Beautiful sunshiny 65-degree October day, everyone wearing masks, outdoors, six feet apart, marching quickly toward the little drop box and dropping it in.
We even got "I Voted" stickers. The boy in front of me was voting in his very first election and his mom snapped a photo. It was pretty adorable, and the whole scene felt much more sociable that I had been afraid it would be.
Some family in PA have received ballots, some have not. Family in NY have not. Fingers crossed!
I'm watching Moneyball and really miss chewing tobacco.
I feel like the drive to get everyone flu shots this year is kind of silly. Like, how is the flu really going to get around with all the social distancing and masks and shit?
I thought they thought it might help with Covid resistance.
I thought the fear was that any flu incidence (no matter how low) would be a terrible burden on hospitals given the expected upsurge in covid.
On the hospital front, I think Nebraska is about to stick its dick in the same sausage grinder Northern Italy experienced this spring, except Italy didn't have nearly as much warning.
Also it can be hard to tell the difference between COVID and flu symptoms early on, so if there's a big surge of flu cases they would have to take all the precautions required for COVID cases until they do the testing.
Like, how is the flu really going to get around with all the social distancing and masks and shit?
The same way that COVID-19 is going to get around, I guess (because too many people aren't going to wear masks, aren't going to do social distancing).
And I think they want to free up the health care system for COVID cases as much as possible? You don't want people with mild flu symptoms (who would, understandably, fear they had COVID symptoms) putting unnecessary strain on doctor's offices, clinics, ERs, and etc...
I remember the one time I got the real flu. I woke up feeling a bit sick, but got into the shower thinking it would warm me up enough that I'd feel good by the end. By the end of the shower, I was almost too exhausted to step out. I could barely call in sick before I was in bed for the rest of the day, usually shaking.
I don't know, based on the near-absence of flu southern hemisphere over the past season I think that going hard on flu shots is perhaps a less-than-optimal deployment of resources.
On the other hand, if they are treating it a practice run for deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine (are they?) that could actually be somewhat useful.
It's not clear how likely it is in the northern hemisphere yet, but getting the flu and COVID at the same time, or in rapid succession, is not expected to go very well for you.
Yeah that's why I'm staying in my bunker.
I don't know, based on the near-absence of flu southern hemisphere over the past season I think that going hard on flu shots is perhaps a less-than-optimal deployment of resources.
Well, that depends on how hard the southern hemisphere went on flu shots.
Well, I went and got a flu shot. I think for the first time ever, although I suppose I might be forgetting. I don't like needles, and a probably behind on everything.
26: They are supposed to do 3 and up under an emergency refs put out by HHS. If they're not, it's a corporate decision, not a regulatory one. I specifically asked at the Wegman's in Burlington, and they said they were doing 3 and up. I think if you needed to give a 4-5 year old a polio vaccine they would do that with a prescription from a pediatrician. Waiting at an urgent care may be more convenient. Also CVS Minute Clinics which have nurse practitioners will vaccinate 18 months and up; they aren't urgent care centers, though some offer covid testing. I know CVS will let you schedule an appt online to make it quick and to minimize waiting.
If your pediatrician is affiliated with a big health system, you might see if they have a walk in clinic.
In the before-time, my employer did on-site flu shots paid for by our health plan. This year I went to our PCP's practice; took about one minute at an outdoor tent. The nurse giving them was glad to see me; not many people showing up and she was bored.
37 and 40: Googling suggests that there was a big increase in the number of Australians getting vaccinated. In March 2020 it was 2.1 million compared to like 650,000 the year before. I think the rates have been increasing for more than a decade.
Further to 42, Costco is also vaccinating kids. You don't even have to be a member. I looked in to this got someone with diabetes who was navigating insurance changes after her husband lost his job; they are the cheapest, and you don't need to be a member. But if you are a member, you can get vaccinated and buy your family's groceries for a month at the same time.
Our latest surge just keeps on going strong.
I had a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes in my jaw last week, so I went to one of my state's drive-through testing sites, and received my (negative) result the next day. Frankly impressed with DE's testing capacity.
Still here. Just got a car. A gift from my parents. A car they didn't need so much any more, whereas we need one more than we did a year ago. Don't want to take public transportation so much these days, things like that. So a friend of ours drove us an hour to meet the friend of our parents who was borrowing the car and give us it, we did some quick grocery shopping nearby and had lunch with our friend afterwards outdoors at a nearby restaurant, and then we had to deal with parking a car of our own in our neighborhood for the first time.
Atossa has had a runny nose since last night and all through today. We brought her with us today through all that. I feel a bit bad about that. Chances are it's a random cold and not covid, we wore masks and used sanitizer a dozen times, we couldn't put off getting the car any longer and everyone would have been miserable if she and either parent had stayed home... but still, a bit bad.
46: Yikes. Our caseload is increasing, too. We're ready to switch back to only essential errands rather than normal errands. Of course, we both still have to go to work.
I'm trying to volunteer as a poll worker (since retirees who normally do this should stay home, really) but I'm having trouble getting responses. It shouldn't be this hard!
I volunteered as a poll worker and the coordinator was kind of overwhelmed - 400 applications or so when I contacted her, thanks to a tip from a friend who got trained before me and gave me the coordinator's email. But she was friendly (by email) and I'm signed up for training tomorrow.
I'm not sure what I'll do on election day. I should sign up for something GOTV-y.
I signed up to be a poll worker, even got time off so I could do all day all four days anywhere in the county, and no word. Twice I've called the county office and been told my application is in order and I should wait to be contacted by an "area recruiter". Time to be trained is dwindling.
49: I wanted to do that, but every town runs it; it's not at the county or state level. My town was not on the list of towns needing people. PDBS, where Knecht lives, was, but I'm not sure they want someone from another town.
I am back on us a poll worker (have done before but missed last year due to vacation and got dropped from their list). Training last week on new machines (optical scanner unlike previously) and some new procedures, some due to new laws. Not having much of an in-person primary means the new machines have not gotten as widespread a test as everyone would want. Hopefully high mail-in volume will reduce the load somewhat on e-day. I am happy to have a doom-scrolling alternative activity on the fateful day.
So my parents and my uncle and his partner are at a resort in eastern Pennsylvania. They just sent me pictures of them eating indoors and not a mask to be seen. I'm pissed by all I could find it in myself to do was say have a good time and stay safe.
Went for a hike in Yosemite on Friday; we took the Valley Loop Trail, which was beautiful and pretty level, though there was often some soft road noise. We found out that 8 miles is great, 10 miles is okay, but 12.5 miles was too much. The last two miles were better than shuffling, but didn't really involve striding, and the bench on the bridge was greatly appreciated.
The best day yet of home-schooling while working from home is still not that great.
Any Zoom call you can walk away from without having seen Jeffrey Toobin's penis is a good Zoom call.
No obvious thread for this, but this Wall Street Journal article on anti-government protests in Lagos appears not to be paywalled.
Groups of placard-waving protesters blocked major roads across Lagos, Nigeria's sprawling commercial capital and home to an estimated 20 million people. The city's Ibadan expressway, the country's busiest road, was blocked by groups chanting: "We want change." Protesters closed off the city's airport and stormed the terminal. In a city infamous for hourslong traffic jams, columns of Lagos residents could be seen walking along emptied streets and causeways.
The Lagos protests were the largest of a series of demonstrations on Monday across the West African nation of 206 million people that appeared to significantly raise the temperature between demonstrators and the government.
[. . .] The protests are being driven by the youth in Nigeria, a country with an average age of 18 and one of the world's fastest-growing populations, projected to overtake the U.S. to become the third-largest by 2050. The demonstrations fit into an emerging global pattern of youth-led calls for change from Hong Kong to Sudan and Chile.
Also, can I doomscroll about Brexit rather than the U.S.? How is it going?
Hmmm... scroll scroll... looks like everything's going super well! "Only people to prosper will be portaloo companies in Kent" -- no idea if that's an original turn of phrase, but nice.
Bolivia is kind of cheering, so far as it goes.
New Zealand even more so! But I guess it always gives U.S. liberals the opposite of schadenfreude... Glückschmerz?
How's Brexit going? Like the worst shitshow we predicted immediately after the vote. Johnson is probably planning to surrender, declare victory, and get the hell out -- but I suspect he has miscalculated. He's not in a position to declare another victory after his "world-beating" efforts against Covid. Half his party is still crazy. The polls show very clearly that people understand now that it was a mistake (38% think it wasn't). But it's too late and no one any longer can get their heads around the practical difficulties. The next four years are going to be horrible.
I am truly sorry. I bet your countryfolk could still scrounge up enough change for a pants-down statue of Boris inside a portaloo on the cliffs of Dover, raising his mighty fist in triumph, and that would be a kind of terrible beauty.
And one on Hadrian's wall in a few years.
I'm not sure what I'll do on election day.
Isn't the only real question whether it's the good stuff or the rawest, nastiest, highest-proof shit available?
Half his party is still crazy.
It's difficult for Americans to relate to a country with a conservative party that's only half-crazy.
The next four years are going to be horrible.
This, we can relate to.
I thought Boris Johnson's primary attribute was laziness. What happened to the option of just continuing to follow the EU rules despite not having any input into them?
The last I heard, they had gone back on the earlier commitment to prioritize the Irish peace over unionist sea-crossing-protection.
Johnson's primary attribute is indeed laziness, which is why he's been least in sight for the last 24 hours. Gove, however, is happy to step up when the boss can't be arsed, because he wants BJ's job- it's not clear why at this juncture but he evidently does. And Cummings, of course, is full of diabolical energy personally supplied by the actual devil.
So, somebody died of Covid on a plane in Texas. Not that they got covid while on the plane and then died. Then got on the plane and then died before it could take off.
I guess that was in July and just made the news now because it's better nobody knows.
The moral of the story is that if I want to see my mom, I think I have to drive 15 hours each way and hope that the local outbreak doesn't get bad enough while I'm on my way that they don't just shut all the nursing homes again.
Half his party is still crazy.
Prior to Brexit, I had no idea there were so many crazies in UK politics. Margaret Thatcher-style (let the rich eat the poor, and etc.) meanies? Yeah, of course. But an outright refusal to even recognize, much less conform to, the terms and conditions of our shared reality? This has been a sad, and surprising, revelation to me.
(As a Canadian, I used to see the UK system as something of an exemplar, and as a bulwark against American-style lunacy. Turns out I was wrong.)
So I didn't especially care about 58 until someone provided context (excellent, btw, and not a joke at all), and all I can think about is how much I want to see Masha playing Trump. It is completely upstaging the headline.
A local friend just died of complications from (regular) flu. 26yo, leaving a 4yo son and an unemployed husband. I am absurdly furious about it. Like, so mad that I haven't even approached being sad. Emotions are very weird.
That's horrible. I'm so sorry for them and you.
I posted 77 before reading the thread. Get your fucking flu shots, you lunatics.
the kid seems to be doing okay so far but it's very hard to tell how much he understands about what happened. He spent the morning giving me playdough cookies and being very pleased when I pretended to eat them, which seems like probably regression of some sort because he's 4, but children are very inscrutable.
Anyway what a shitty weekend.
(thanks Moby!)
77: I'm so sorry. That is just awful.
That seems pretty appropriate for four. But what a terrible thing to happen -- I'm so sorry for her family but glad they have you helping out.
Other local friends were much closer so I am not as personally devastated as everyone else in the deaf community. I'm sure I would feel better if I cried about it but instead I've just been lying around hating everything and playing stupid games on my phone. Here's a recommendation: Monument Valley.
Also my back hurts and I'm supposed to get surgery on it but I don't want to because of how this state has turned into a disease swamp. Hospitals are allowing interpreters which is better than a lot of places but the whole thing still seems overwhelming. I should probably not worry about it right now! But also my back hurts.
Not a good time for surgery, but also how knows how long it takes for the disease swamp to be drained.
The Washington Post has a covid-graph for the five worst states in covid per capita. Nebraska wasn't on the list, which confused me because the Nebraska papers said it was a top five state. It turns out the difference is that the WP counts Guam.
77: So sorry for your loss. How very sad.
77 Sorry to hear it. That's so young.
I'm SO MAD. It's so STUPID.
Thanks guys
I guess that's why my wife was asking me if I had a plan to get a flu shot? I thought she was just making fun of all the "do you have a plan to vote?" calls.
89: Seriously, lad: you need to get the shot.
Oh, Messily. That's so awful. I'm glad you're there for her family.
I'm so sorry, Messily. I'm always gutted thinking of little kids losing their moms. In a way it doesn't seem so surprising that rage would be crowding out grief after your many years of witnessing medical injustice and cruelty: it's almost like an inflammatory response to sorrow. But I hope you can grieve too.
lourdes and I got our flu shots. Maybe I'll take the kid to Costco.
So sorry to hear that Messily. Just awful.
Very sorry to hear that Messily. Peculiarly awful
From the obit of a former colleague's father:
Back in London by the early Seventies, Margetson worked in the cabinet secretariat briefing Edward Heath, the prime minister, on foreign affairs. One of his jobs involved taking minutes of meetings. This was made tricky by the habit of Alec Douglas-Home, the foreign secretary, of speaking with one or two ballpoint pens in his mouth while sliding farther and farther in his leather chair under the meeting table.
92: In MA, the flu shot is now required for anyone in school up to age 39.
Actually, that's 30. 6 months to 4, probably don't have to if they are at home and not enrolled in any school, but children in ZOOM school do.
I thought Boris Johnson's primary attribute was laziness. What happened to the option of just continuing to follow the EU rules despite not having any input into them?
Formally, it's not possible any more, though if there were political will I'm fairly confident it would be made to happen, though perhaps not in time for the December deadline. Politically though, there's zero chance of it happening. Boris would immediately be ousted if he even suggested it (not that he would), and no Tory leadership candidate in favour of it, if there were such a person, would have a chance of winning.
From the current LRB:
A few years later, in the Meatpacking district, the Mineshaft opened: a members-only BDSM leather bar and sex club whose patrons included Michel Foucault, Rock Hudson and Freddie Mercury. Gunn was a regular: 'At orgasm I notice something like seven pairs of hands at work on me.' The dress code was macho and fetish, strictly enforced. 'The Shaft is an amazing two-storey maze of rooms, stairways, toilets, closets, hallways, bathtubs, gloryholes and sex equipment,' wrote Jack Fritscher, then editor of the leather magazine Drummer.
It's nice that nobody was lazy enough to just use one hand even out of all seven.
You don't know -- maybe it was fourteen slackers.
I guess 14 hands from 14 people is indeed something like 7 pairs of hands.
Formally, it's not possible any more, though if there were political will I'm fairly confident it would be made to happen, though perhaps not in time for the December deadline. Politically though, there's zero chance of it happening. Boris would immediately be ousted if he even suggested it (not that he would), and no Tory leadership candidate in favour of it, if there were such a person, would have a chance of winning.
Regarding being "in favour of it", "suggesting it", etc - I was assuming those concepts wouldn't come into play, and this would be implemented by claiming to be doing something else, and then not doing that other thing because it's impossible or requires too much work, and defaulting to this.
|| Lots of engagement in my feeds about this -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-montana-escape-property-gold-rush/2020/10/20/9e36e858-0340-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html -- it's hard to think well of 'we're 98% Caucasian!' as a pitch, but that's Big Sky for you. Quick -- how many towns of 5,000 or less in the US have had social justice related unrest this year? Virtually none, you say? Even if they have people of color?
We're expected to get below 0F this weekend here, and it'll be plenty colder in Bozeman and Big Sky. |>
It's supposed to be over 70 here this week. I'll never get to try out my Filson.
105: We're long past the point where the default would be anything resembling the status quo. If they don't actively make and ratify an agreement by the end of the year, whether Canada style or EEA membership or somewhere in between, we become a third country, just like the US. Except with a suddenly devastated services sector, greatly reduced goods exports and a totally disrupted supply chain.
It's difficult to overestimate the scale of the fuckup awaiting us in January. Short of a complete surrender, and EEA membership, things are going to be acutely horrible for months and then chronically bad for years thereafter. The basic governmental competence needed to ensure any policy is properly carried out has gone -- and that's assuming any sane policy were available, which it is not. The only country to be half as badly fucked as a result will be Ireland. And even "half as badly fucked" is still plenty fucked.
re: 108 / 109
My wife and I have been discussing how to handle it. She's presumably going to apply for citizenship -- zero trust in the Tories not immediately throwing the EU 3 million under the bus -- but also, how to ensure that we aren't literally going hungry.
The basic governmental competence needed to ensure any policy is properly carried out has gone
David Cameron and Nick Clegg.The gift that keeps on giving. By rights no-one should ever let a fucking Etonian anywhere near the reins of power, ever again.
This is where I remain puzzled by how much people wanted to keep Corbyn out.
108: What does "Canada style" mean in terms of an arrangement?
It's just polyamory, but one party is a Mountie.
And another party is his horse: https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B1%2F7%2F2%2F6%2F0%2F17260367%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D
I deliberately steered away from the bestiality joke out of respect.
The documentation made it irresistible. As was the horse.