Happy Monday! [DOT 23/5/22]

23/5/22 MegMegMcGee 41

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. It was hot hot hot here in the DMV, but this week looks better, weather-wise. I’ve got a short week here since I get to drive to Cleveland on Friday.

Not now monkeypox!

UK to announce more monkeypox cases as efforts ramp up to contain outbreak
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/22/monkeypox-uk-health-security-agency-to-announce-more-cases

Fingers crossed!

He’s raised and spent millions running against Marjorie Taylor Greene
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/05/17/marcus-flowers-marjorie-taylor-greene-fundraising/

Sprots!

Trust, stability and breakfast chats: how Guardiola delivered another title
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/may/22/trust-stability-breakfast-chats-pep-guardiola-premier-league-title-manchester-city

Stonks!

Stock futures rise after Dow falls for 8th-straight week in relentless sell-off
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/22/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html

Not enough wine in the world.

Bears!

Couple say they killed bear who charged through window and attacked them
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/22/wisconsin-couple-kill-bear

Have a great day and watch out for bears!

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41 Comments

  1. I love how Callie Gingrich has already broken into the case and she hasn’t even left the parking lot. I, too, often arrange for private tastings in Aisle 6 before I commit to a purchase (screwtop wines are best for this.)

    And I guess we can assume that her favored winery (the pretentious wine store in my neighborhood has the word “winery” in its name) opens around 10 AM and she was first in the door, only realizing a few hours later that she should probably eat something, checked her phone, saw that her driver had taken this photo, and decided to send it along to her Twitter followers. For this we are grateful.

    • That store knows her. They opened the box to make sure she hadn’t tried to sneak out pricey wine that “accidentally” got mixed in with  that case of $12 bottles.

      “(Opens top) So that will be $1,079.96 plus tax..”

      “What kind of incompetent are you? That’s 12 x $11.99!”

      “No, 4 bottles at $11.99 and at 8 at $129 each for a total of…”

      “I don’t know how they got there. This box was sealed at the top. Clearly this is your fault!”

      “Ma’am, the bottom of the box has been opened. Would you like us to look at the security tape?”

      “Do you know who I am?”

      “Yes, we have your picture by the register.”

    • She is shopping at Total Wine which is the Walmart of wine buying.  They do have wine tastings there (pre-Covid) but it is much more of a place for discounted cheap wines, liquor, and beer stocked unrefrigerated (a no no for craft beer).

  3. And then there’s this gem:

    The Great Mustache Dines at the White House.

    There’s nothing wrong with what the Be-Bristled One is actually saying; it’s conventional wisdom and about as interesting and insightful as saying that when the temperatures reach into the 90s with high humidity a normal human will feel uncomfortable.

    No. A decent editor would have relegated this to a Social Diary column: Husband of shopping mall heiress spotted dining at the White House; sources report he had a tuna sandwich and a chocolate milkshake. And left out the rest, because that’s all the news or opinion (in this case, a dietary choice) in this whole thing.

    • The coverup doesn’t surprise me, although it does interest me that the report saw the light of day.

      There’s an undercurrent of members in fundamentalist churches who still take their faith seriously, but the press in general doesn’t understand any of it. They love the narrative of an undifferentiated mass persecuted by liberal elites. This narrative lets them act like wise men maintaining their Olympian status by beating up on liberals, while continuing to treat Southerners as second class citizens.

      If the national press did serious reporting on Southern Baptists none of what is in the report would surprise them — as you say, this kind of abuse is an open secret in the community, and there is a ton of resentment in the church over the way leadership gets away with it.

      But treating it seriously would mean the press would have to shift away from the stupid GOP v. Dems narrative they love, as well as admitting that liberal critics of the GOP-aligned Southern Baptist leadership have a valid point. And it would mean treating Southern Baptists as something more than an undifferentiated mass, and NY Times types would vastly prefer to just see them as a giant bloc of angry yokels.

      • The denomination has been splintering for decades now, as the more ‘liberal’ congregants realize they can’t stomach the racism, misogyny, homophobia, abuses, ignorance, and other associated ‘policies’ that many Southern Baptists espouse. There have been quite a few attempts to counter-program and launch more progressive Baptists congregations, but none seem to take root or gain much traction.

        At this point the prevailing theory (among the clear-headed, anyway) is that the Baptist ‘brand’ is so tarnished that it can’t be salvaged. They’ve spent a lot of money on consultants to try to figure out what they can do. More and more congregations just give themselves unusual names (like Action Church or Church on the Drive or whatever) and drop the ‘Baptist’ appellation.

        There is also a more radical extreme on the other side of the argument that also agrees the brand is tainted, but they double down on all of the racism, misogyny, homophobia, abuses, ignorance, and other associated ‘policies.’ I refer to these as hedgerow churches and you can find them in mostly (but not exclusively) rural areas recruiting amongst the MAGAs and their ilk. It seems to me to be a losing battle and that eventually the Baptist denomination will completely die out like Zoroastrians or Coptic Christians. One can only hope.

        • Part of what makes it so rough is there is a huge amount of capital tied up in the churches, schools, universities and hospitals. Nobody who is a part of that can easily leave it behind. But as far as Chuck Todd is concerned, it’s just snake handlers being persecuted by MeToo warriors.

          • Yeah, the capital is an issue. The Southern Baptist Convention is a fairly loose consortium, and has basically no oversight into member churches, financial or otherwise. That’s how a lot of this shit gets hidden. Not that highly organized churches don’t hide scandal (hello, Catholic Church!) but it’s even easier with no central governing body that has a managerial grip on the member churches.

            The financial scandals/elder abuse are probably MUCH more prevalent than the sexual abuses, but they’re even harder to detect and there’s zero reporting. Think little old ladies donating much more than they can afford (my sister and I had to lie to my mother to stop her from donating money she literally didn’t have), leaving everything they own to church pastors (my parents left 1/6 of their estate to the Southern Baptist Convention — fortunately it was 1/6 of zero), that sort of thing. The televangelists are who you hear about, but that sort of thing occurs in local congregations as well. The entire denomination is riddled with corruption.

  8. I’m sorry I can’t participate in today’s DOT because I’m at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  Just kidding, I’m right here, clearing brush.

    In the last 2 days, I caught 2 big black snakes (aka rat snakes) in my fucking house.  They’re not poisonous or anything, but really, they should not be in the house.  They’re as long as I am tall, and the first one, I wrangled outside, but he slithered away and was back in the same spot in my house a few hours later.  This time, I carried him way over to the other side of the field, holding him at arm’s length.  Next day, their mate showed up in the exact same spot inside my front door.  Same deal walked it way over yonder and flung him into the woods.  I’m going to have to buy some burlap sacks so I can drive them half a mile away before letting them go.  I’m trying to live harmoniously with nature, but these sonsabitches keep coming in my house I’m gonna be wearing a necklace of severed snake heads, feel me?

    It’s a good thing my wife is out of town.  I’m pretty sure she would have already moved out if she saw these things inside.  I mean, they’re good and all, and they kill mice, but goddamn…snakes…you know?

    • We could use them at our place.  For the first time ever, we saw a rat that has taken up residence under Mrs. Butcher’s studio in the back.  I’m hoping Butcher Dog will be able to…dispense with it, but it never goes more than a few inches out from under cover.

      • Yeah, we don’t have any rats, but there are mice around here.  I’ve pretty much cleared them out of the basement, and maybe that’s why the snakes are coming up to our house proper.  I’ve got a lot of work to do to try to fill any cracks and crevices around the place.  Also, I can see some daylight around where the drain pipe leads out of the house to the septic tank.

    • “in my fucking house” Oh my goodness. Are you also looking for their means of entry? To stop them from more incursions? Your lovely wife will be well within her rights to freak the f out.

      • Yeah, I’ve made a few passes around the house to see if I can figure how they’re getting in.  I see a few possibly entry spots (this house is from 1848 after all) so I’m going to try to pick up some materials at the tractor supply to plug holes.  Maybe some gravel to  make a little 4-inch border around the foundation.  Also, I’m going to have to go buy a new weedwhacker, because apparently the snakes like overgrown foliage to hang around.

        I think I may have gotten rid of a mating pair, and it’s still a few weeks before egg-laying season.  I’m hopeful, but if I see another one in the house I’m going medieval.

    • Ooof that’s rough. I was super excited to see a garter snake last fall outside, but I don’t think I would do well dealing with a snake indoors, even a friendly danger noodle and not a venomous one.

  9. My wife puts up with a lot of shit but snakes are a no go. Our oldest son, when he was younger, told her we (him and I) were going to get an apartment so we could have a snake, ha ha. I told him we wouldn’t last a week.

    • …there are a few arguments I’d probably go with in terms of not gifting tax exempt status to religious organizations…at least solely on the basis of the religious aspect…but

      “501c3 communism”

      …that’s…kinda hilariously dumb in a bunch of ways…I’m sure he knows his audience but if you have to pass up a potentially half-decent argument for something in favor of something that’s actively an insult to the intelligence of the people you’re talking to…I’m pretty sure that doesn’t put you on the side of the angels?

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