But It Feels Like It [DOT 25/11/20]

25/11/20 MegMegMcGee 31

So it’s not technically Friday, but hopefully you have tomorrow off, and possibly Friday as well so it might as well feel like a Friday. (With apologies to our friends across the pond.)

Speaking of our friends across the pond, kudos to Scotland today:

Sharing for the headline:

Lame duck pardons turkey: Trump confronts reality at muted Thanksgiving event
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/24/trump-turkey-thanksgiving-white-house-ceremony

And in case you were wondering…

An Ornithologist Explains What Trump Has in Common With an Actual Lame Duck
https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/ornithology-of-lame-duck-president-trump.html

Corona Updates (these are free from WaPo, BTW)

Nearly 2,100 died of covid-19 in U.S. on Tuesday, deadliest day since early summer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/24/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/

Stonks!

The Dow just hit 30,000. It was a long road to get there
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/24/investing/dow-path-to-30000/index.html

Meanwhile…

Texas food bank doubles amount of people it serves amid coronavirus pandemic
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/24/texas-food-bank-doubles-amount-of-people-it-serves-amid-covid.html

When I agree with Jeb Bush on something?!? That thing is that Roomrater is a shill.

Room Rater was a beloved pandemic distraction. But the backlash has arrived, courtesy of Jeb Bush.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/24/room-rater-twitter-jeb-bush/

I have a feeling some people around here might want to catch this new flick…

‘He was a radical’: John Belushi remembered by his wife and fellow comics
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/nov/24/he-was-a-radical-john-belushi-remembered-by-his-wife-and-fellow-comics

Have a great day!

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31 Comments

  1. Welp over here as of the first of December face masks will be mandatory in all public spaces
    Which is to say everywhere…..cept church as courtesy of some legalese church is not in fact a public space
    Good thing hardly anyone feels the need to go to church this time of year

  2. The “Guardian” article mentions that the two turkeys pardoned by the lame duck* mentioned that they part of the official presidential flock of 30. I never knew such a thing existed. This must go way back.
     
    *Let’s all be thankful for his lame-duckness tomorrow, the weirdest Thanksgiving since WWII, with so many away or dead. Or maybe 1963, since Kennedy was assassinated the Friday before Thanksgiving.
     
    In the Stonks! news, I remember stumbling across a “Life” magazine from the 1950s. The cover story, complete with a glorious photo of frenzied traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, was a breathless account of how the Dow had climbed back to the level it was in 1929, and Was a Second Depression Coming?
     
    No, but the equities world was much different then. There was more regulation and transparency, thanks to Roosevelt reforms, for one thing. For retirement people had Social Security and most jobs offered pensions, even non-union jobs, and the number of people in unions hit its peak in the 1950s, with the full co-operation of private employers. In fact unionization in the public sector was unknown. Some states and municipalities started allowing it in the late 1950s but it wasn’t until 1962, under Kennedy and under considerable pressure from organized labor, that federal employees were allowed to unionize. At this point few private-sector companies are unionized, the entertainment field is one notable exception, and some media, like G/O, formerly Gawker, but that seems to be mostly notional.
     
    It was also a much more conservative time–most Americans owned no stocks at all (so scarred were they by the Crash). Corporate and other bonds were really popular. If you read something written in the past about “coupon clippers” it doesn’t refer to people looking for Wal-Mart deals. What you did was you would clip off pieces of your bond and turn them in at intervals and get the cash as dividends.
     
    For most people regulated savings accounts were the norm, with the interest rates set to keep up with or surpass the mild inflation of the era. There was an old saying about bankers that went something like 3-5-3. Pay 3% interest to depositors, lend at 5%, and leave the office by 3 PM. Regulated interest rates were done away with under Carter to keep up with the unprecedented inflation (money was hemorrhaging out of savings accounts and put into tangible assets, like real estate, which is when the run-up in housing prices really took off. Gone were the days when a working adult could buy a small house and raise a family on one income.)
     
    It was under a later Democratic president, Bill Clinton, that the Glass-Steagall Act was gotten rid of, which was by far the biggest cause of the financial crisis of 2008–2009. This is interesting because it’s always assumed that it is Republicans who ride roughshod over the financial system and incite chaos, but the Democrats did and do their fair share.
     
    I am so, so bored. For the first time in my long, long life (the last four years have seemed like four centuries) I have no Thanksgiving plans. I’m not even cooking this year, we’re going to have take-out. 99% of the world’s population would gladly trade places with me, and for that I am thankful, but still. Pandemic fatigue is starting to sink in but here’s to a brighter 2021, with sane, competent leadership at the top and vaccines on the horizon.

    • “here’s to a brighter 2021”
       
      And that’s it, really, isn’t it? At last we finally have the chance for things to get better. I’m not sure I can shake my general and low-level depression until Jan. 20, but every single time I read about Biden’s sane and normal presidential decisions I get a little bit happier:
      https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/24/politics/biden-cabinet-picks/index.html

      • The right-wing carping has already begun. This is a return to the “failed” policies of the Obama Administration (because these people actually have experience and served near the top of the organizations they are proposed to lead) and a turn away from Trump’s successful effort to put America first/China/Iran/Dow at historical highs/Paris Climate Accord/& etc. John Kerry is really getting under their skin but he requires no Senate confirmation, which is very clever of Biden: Kerry could theoretically become one of the most powerful of all; climate change and national security are pretty big briefs. We’ll see where this goes. Kerry turns 77 in a couple of weeks, which astonishes me. I always think of him as being much younger, but then I realize I’m thinking back to the 80s, and to his 2004 presidential run. Kerry actually came very close, and 2004 was the only time in the 21st century that a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote, despite the fact that we’ve had three Republican terms of office. 

        • Kerry spoke at my step daughter’s commencement.  I was really impressed with his public speaking skills.  On TV, he was always so stilted, but he let ‘er rip in that live environment.

      • I cannot tell you how much I relate to this!  I have so much to be thankful for but still feel more of the weight of depression from this year.  A good bedtime story is crucial to even getting to sleep (along with large quantities of alcohol!)
         


         

      • Every time I realize I’m not terrified about what Joe Biden is saying or doing or thinking, I feel a little bit weird and then quite grateful. 

    • “At this point few private-sector companies are unionized, the entertainment field is one notable exception, and some media, like G/O, formerly Gawker, but that seems to be mostly notional.”

      One of the other, rare, sectors I can think of is the grocery industry (full disclosure–that’s the sector my part-time gig is in, and I AM a member of UFCW 663!).
      Most of the grocery stores in the MSP metro region are Union shops.

      I don’t quite know HOW we managed to hold on to the sector so well–and especiallyhow we’ve been able to expand it to the Co-op sector so strongly in the last few years, but I suspect the fact that SuperValu was headquartered here until the UNFI buyout a couple years ago was a HUGE factor…

      The formerly SuperValu (now UNFI) warehouses over in Hopkins are HUGE. And they provide grocery goods of ALL sorts to EVERY major chain in our region… not just MSP, the entire state of MN, and into WI, SD, ND, IA, and i think even into Nebraska, iirc.

      And frankly, that “warehouse” (in fact MANY warehouses, but all owned by UNFI, unionized, and with MANY regional stores/chains renting out their own space there!) serves such a LARGE portion of the upper midwest, that the Union has incredible amounts of influence & a great deal of strength that regular folks might not realize…

      As was seen LAST winter, when the Brotherhood/Sisterhood at the warehouse decided to strike in solidarity with the workers outiat the UNFI warehouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
      The Indiana warehouse’s teamsters (yes, they’re IFT, and we at the store level are UFCW!), had been working w/o a contract since September of last year, after negotiations broke down between UNFI and the Union… and things were getting tough by last December for the picketing Fort Wayne workers… so the Teamsters in Hopkins and over in Green Bay,  WI decided to… help their brothers and sisters out a bit, and they picketed in solidarity.
      The strike was OVER in two days!!!😈😉🤗 

      Because between the Green Bay warehouse, and ours over here in MN, there were literally NO groceries being sent to grocery stores in most of the upper Midwest–The week before Christmas!😳😬😜

      Busiest shopping period of the year, and NO groceries getting shipped to ANY grocery stores…
      Target and Wal-Mart were getting hit, TOO, because *their* goods either pass through, or get fulfilled by that Hopkins UNFI warehouse, too…

      We had some upset customers, complaining about bare shelves, out at my then-store in the exurb.
      When I was able to explain to them, that “that strike you heard about on the news?”, and how warehouse workers had been busting ass for months without contracts–some out there getting hurt, because Indiana labor laws aren’t as sturdy as ours here in MN, and that our folks here in Hopkins were striking to get the brothers & sisters in IN back under protections like they had–folks were REALLY understanding, and to a person, they went, “Oh, wow, I didn’t realize that! Ok… hmmm.”

      And folks were also understanding because,  with the pressure from the various stores/merchants/chains SERVED by the Hopkins & Green Bay warehouses,the strike only lasted those *two* days.😉
       

      The Union KNEW what it was doing, by applying that pressure sparingly, but at exactly  the right time…
      Too soon, and there wouldn’tve been enough pressure to negotiate a good deal for the workers.
      But too late, and either the opportunity would’ve been lost, or there would’ve been TONS of public goodwill & support lost, because folks wouldn’tve been able to get the food for their holiday feasts…
       

      The *two* day strike meant that there were shortages from the 17th until about the 20th/21st, but PLENTY of food available for sale in those last few days running up to Christmas😉
      In all honesty, too, with the Covid-related shortages that’s gone on *since* last December’s strike, I’m a little glad it all happened back then. Because it’s been a GREAT tool to help explain our supply chains, when customers get upset about the store not having a product in that day… I can remind them of “remember last Dec, when things were short all over?” and then use that to help explain why at various points during the pandemic, WE run short now, too.
       

      It also helps set customer minds at ease, that I can remind them, we’re single-digit miles away from that giant warehouse complex where *most* of the store’s goods are shipping from😉 It helps folks to grok that–even if we’re short THAT day, chances ARE, we’ll have it back in, in just a day of two…. ESPECIALLY products like Milk/Dairy, Meats, and Breads–because the Bread factory is in St. Louis Park (between Mpls and Hopkins); Hormel (Pork), JBS (Beef) and Jennie-O (Turkeys) all have plants/headquarters within an hour or so of the metro–if not plants IN the metro(!); and that we also have MULTIPLE dairy processing companies–including Kemps and Old Home *also* headquartered out of the MSP region😉
       

      Between those companies, and then giant suppliers like Cargill ALL being here (along with Pillsbury, General Mills, and then Malt-o-Meal being down in Northfield, and Hormel in Austin), folks calm pretty quickly, when they realize how & why MN is such a solid state to live in, supply-chain wise.

      (Especially when you remind them, too, that we have a STRONG papermaking sector, with Liberty Carton being based here, and U-line being based out of WI with warehouses in the Metro here… so that there are supplies AND the packaging to get them OUT, too!😉)

  3. I am honestly surprised the *one* convention/norm/tradition of presidency Trump didn’t do away with was pardoning turkeys. I would not have been surprised if he had just been like “Ok let’s eat” and meant it. 
     
    I am having Thanksgiving for one tomorrow. Got a rotisserie chicken breast, some easy sides, and made myself some cranberry sauce from scratch. I’ll probably put the tree up this weekend, too. And I took Monday off so super long weekend.

  4. Heck yeah, Scotland! What a great clip–both the content and her accent were an absolute joy.
     
    I’m so checked out today, which is annoying because I very much have to get things done at work. I’ll do things, but I’ll be thinking about tomorrow’s sweet potato pie while doing them. 

  5. Happy long weekend, Ms. Meg!

    • Unless he’s hosting from inside his jail cell, neither.

      • …a thing devoutly to be wished…both parts, come to that

  7. If we do not listen to Keith, we are doomed to repeat this shit in four years!
     


     

  9. Sad and confused old man is sad and confused:
     
    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/trump-was-reportedly-baffled-that-republicans-won-all-over-while-he-lost-im-the-only-guy-that-loses/
     
    Seriously, Trump’s not able to process the fact that most people hate him. I mean, he can’t do it. I think he can barely comprehend that some people might not like him all the time, but beyond that, he’s completely delusional.

    • He’s really NOT able to grok it.
      He’d so entirely surrounded himself with yes-folks & toadies, that he’s bought into his own press…
      The psychology of Donald J. Trump Sr. is–on a certain level–INCREDIBLY fascinating, and he’s gonna be studied for DECADES…
      He’s a sad, pathetic, and ENTIRELY broken human being. And that is a tiny bit of the multitude of reasons the man had NO business being handed all the incredible powers he was given–not the LEAST of which was the presidency of the US.
       
      But he is a PATHETIC, sad, sniveling, and just completely WRECKED excuse for a human being.

    • I hoped the buttons worked.  Most of Trump’s followers can’t read so would just donate to whatever beautiful genius put up this site!

      • …I’m also fond of the suggestion that because they didn’t bring him the electoral votes from Georgia his supporters shouldn’t vote for the GOP candidates in the senate run-off elections…if that vote were split far enough to hand both seats to the Dems it would be sort of perfect?

  12. I usually try to keep Olberman at arms length,  but goddamn I can get behind every last word of that rant.
    Happy turkey day all!

    • It’s a good rant. Hope somebody listens. Even if Biden publicly disavows prosecution, he needs to turn his people loose on these assholes. “No, we need to heal [wink, wink] and the best way to do that is to rise above partisan politics [wink, wink] and Vice-President Harris who has an extensive background in prosecution will work with government agencies to make sure that justice is delivered fairly [wink, wink, wink].”

      Let’s face it, NOBODY is going to stand up for Lindsay Graham.

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