We’re Rounding The Corner [DOT 10/12/20]

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10/12/20 Hannibal 50

Oh, you thought I meant on Covid?

USA #1!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/09/covid-world-map-which-countries-have-the-most-coronavirus-cases-and-deaths

At least the vaccine is on it’s way…for some of us.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/9/poor-countries-seen-missing-out-as-rich-nations-hoard-covid-vacci

Or the safety of American democracy?

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/08/gop-blocks-biden-president-elect-443673

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/2020-election-money-campaign-finance

Or the right-wing lunatic fringe disappearing after trump leaves office?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/09/oath-keepers-far-right-group-infiltrate-local-government-texas-443773

68% FFS

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/09/trump-voters-dont-really-believe-biden-stole-the-election—but-they-do-want-a-coup/

But don’t despair Deadsplinters.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/09/states-ftc-suing-facebook-for-alleged-antitrust-abuses-443957

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/attorney-general/

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50 Comments

  1. Hi Hannibal, nice to see this morning, after last evening’s very nice NOT. The 68% figure is horrifying. That means that (pulls out calculator) 50,471,660 people among the 74,223,030 who voted for Trump think the election was rigged. 50 million people…mind boggling.

    • More horrifying to me is the number of folks who currently say they’ve going to avoid The Vaccine, or at least are taking a wait-and-see attitude. People in the medical community seem to be eager to get their shots, but a stunning number of front-line people, at least locally, have been polled and they seem resistant. Two that I can remember are firefighters and EMTs. EMTs! Lots of parents of school-age kids. Ah, for the good old days, when on the first day of kindergarten every child, no exception, was lined up outside the small elementary school gym and a doctor and nurse would vaccinate every child, no exceptions, and with no dissent from any parent. I’m sure my town could not have been alone in doing this. Like everything related to the public schools it was paid for by property taxes so no one got a bill for it or anything.

      • This is what where we are – medical professionals not respecting the science behind vaccines. It’s insane. We’ve gone mad as a nation! I can sort of understand the mistrust from the left because of Operation Warp Speed. But I feel like Fauci was so consistent in his messaging about the virus, in spite of push back from trump, that if he say’s it’s safe I’ll get it. 

         

      • That’s how it was done where I was, too. It was simply a given. And I’m old enough that there were still polio victims around (my great-uncle was crippled by it and he was alive until I was in high school or college) so people were confronted with regular evidence of the importance of vaccines. 
         
        Actually that scumbag Mitch McConnell had polio. I hate the fucker, but he has spoken up in defense of vaccines.  Stopped clocks and all. 

            • I REALLY wouldn’t mind seeing a Senator  Porter, with her taking over Feinstein’s spot…
               
              Between the slipping apparent during the Coney-Barret** fiasco, and other things both before & since (ironically, this article just dropped yesterday, apparently!), and some REALLY legit claims about senatorial ages in general–the article mentions that many men have even been worse…
              I’d really like to see Feinstein step aside, for Porter to step UP, into that “Bastion & Defender of The Public Good” spot.
               
              Because, the OLD Senator Feinstein also wouldn’t have gotten accused/ questioned about possible insider-trading… she was TOO damn smart to share the kind of info which could lead to that–she was also too much of a stickler to allow that sort of impropriety…
              Buuuut, if the reports of her husband stepping up, to help guide/care for her are accurate, you could see how HE may act on info, AND how she wouldn’t be quite cogentenough to remind him that it was NOT ok/demand that he NOT act, because it would come back to bite her politically.
              Annnnnd, you could imagine, that as an investment banker, and NOT a Senator–just the spouse of one, it may be extremely tempting to act on info one now has access to, as one of the most “trusted advisors,” to a slowly-slipping spouse.🙃
               
              (**did i spell that right? Tbh, I really DON’T care enough, or respect her enough to google her, eventually, I suppose I’ll know how it’s spelled, but for now, she’s at Bart-levels of disrespect from here🤢🤮🤬)

          • McConnell, here….
            He’s the Rasputin/Cromwell to Trump’s Nicholas/Henry…
            The man who KNOWS the power he can wield, by staying “just a bit to the side”/”slightly shadowed,” and who will & DOES use that power to enrich himself, his cronies, and to thwart both his perceived enemies, and any possible threats to his power.
             
            He’s used Trump like a pawn… he’ll go along to get what he wants–amd he doesn’t mind alllllll the distractions Trump is constantly bringing–ESPECIALLY lately… 
            But as soon as Trump finally loses power/turns too toxic McConnell WILL try to find as many ways as he can, to keep Trump’s wealthiest supporters within the R-party, while letting Trumpco twist in the wind.

    • Thank you @Elliecoo. 68% is terrifying. Even more so because they don’t really believe he won, they’d rather live under a trump dictatorship with all of it’s deadly failings than the democracy they claim to love. SMDH

      • It’s about the fear/traumas,and brains being primed/re-wired to find opposing thoughts/contradictory evidence as bad as a literal deadly threat (basically fight-flight-or-freeze set to 11😕)
        This article i ran across yesterday staaaaarted to get into the psych of it, and was really, sadly, fascinating.
         
        Especially interesting, imo, was the woman who’d been abused, yet worked with the immigrant population and *did not (could not?) see* that there was ANY cognitive dissonance in the idea that what she was doing–and the people & work which were SO important to her, were being directly harmed by her own, personal, beliefs, action, and political support.
         
        The bit about the panic & shutdown in one’s brain, then digging in harder on your views, when faced with a directly opposing fact/viewpoint, is…
        Worrisome, troubling, and EXTREMELY concerning–especially in light of the Cult of Trumpism…
         
        These people will quite literally need to be deprogrammed…. 
         
        But 1. There AREN’T enough Mental Health experts to do so, 2. One needs to WANT to get better, when it comes to MH stuff, because a LOT of it (as you’re VERY aware!💖) rests within the client/patient’s hands, and 3. We’re also going to be LOSING plenty of the MH capacity we do have in the next few years, because of the multi-pronged issues of the pandemic–Covid killing practitioners/disabling them, Burnout & compassion fatigue, from working in the field & losing patients & from caring for the caregivers–and just the BASIC demands of the job *before* Covid meaning burnout & compassion fatigue were rampant.🙃

  2. That Salon article is fascinating. I hadn’t really considered the Trumpers in that light — I mostly just assumed they are stupid, since the arguments they put forth are clearly idiotic. 
     
    It hadn’t occurred to me that their conspiracy nonsense was an elaborate misdirection to justify their unacceptable beliefs — or maybe it has but I’ve never seen it phrased that way before. I mean, you operate from that assumption with white supremacists and Nazis and the like, but I hadn’t considered that the rank-and-file Trumpers were just basically bad actors themselves. I always assumed that the majority were fundamentally decent and essentially stupid. Hell, that’s what we get told all the time, right? 
     
    It’s a pretty sweeping indictment, and I have to say it goes a long way toward explaining Trump’s election performance. I kept wondering how people could be so stupid. No, just like we were voting against Trump, they were voting for racism, misogyny, corruption, voter suppression, and all the other “planks” in Trump’s platform. They’re just bad people. 

    • I think some of them are genuinely mentally ill and believe the new Satanic Panic bullshit of QAnon. But most of them are as HRC famously said a basket of deplorables.

    • From where I stand in GA surrounded by lots of actually good people who vote Republican – I think it’s more identity politics and watching Foxnews and looking at Facebook and not really looking at anything else. They live in a bubble of white priviledge and they’ve been indoctrinated into the cult. Trust me – it’s very hard to call any republican “good” people these days – but when I look at my neighbors and family who I know to actually be good people  or used to be – it’s such a hard pill to swallow that they call themselves republicans. 
       
      My aunt, who has a doctorate –  taught and was a Vice Principal in all black schools almost her entire career – legitimately believes that Biden molests little girls. She showed me the youtube video of him kissing a couple of heads and one where his hand slipped down on the chest of a girl who’s father was getting confirmed in the Senate. It doesn’t look like anything other than Biden had his hand on her shoulder and he moved and his hand slipped down. He’s not trying to cop a feel. But, no matter what I said – she is convinced by crap on Foxbook that Biden is worse than Trump because Biden goes after little girls. She’s not stupid – she can be catty and judgey but she’s also someone that would give the shirt off her back to someone in need. She even has a big group of black teacher friends that meet every couple of months(not right now) for dinner and to catch up. She held a huge luncheon for one of her black students who was drafted into the NFL. She never said anything that triggered my racist  radar growing up. But, she’s been retired now for about 15 years and is on facebook all the damn time. 
       
      We got into an argument about Antifa – because she was all up in arms about antifa shooting a police horse. I kept telling her that there is not an organized group called antifa, but she saw on FB that antifa shot a police horse and so it must be true. 
       
       
      I guess my point is – although, I think there are a lot of just shitty cruel people, I do think a lot of normal people have been brainwashed by republican messaging. Biden really needs to set up a Cult Deprogramming Dept. when he takes office in January.
       

      • You’re right, there is a cult aspect. Fox and right-wing radio are largely responsible for the indoctrination. But I think even they know trump didn’t actually win the election. They think they’re justified in stealing it because their side is better than the libs. I don’t know how we combat that kind of thinking.

        • I think a lot of it is just political theater to weaken dem policy positions. They also know they didn’t actually win but have the senate and even though we all hope Ossoff and Warnock win  – that’s probably not going to happen so they’ll still be in a position of extreme power.
          They also just want to control the narrative even if they didn’t win the presidency. They’re going to do everything they can to screw Dems this upcoming four years. We better buckle up and settle in for a fight. 
           

          • @Lymond, I apologize to you and everyone who has family and friends who are trump supporters for the overly generalized statement about them being deplorable. You know a side of them that I do not, you still love them, and it’s probably very painful for you to hear some of what they are saying. My calling them names isn’t helpful. It’s wrong and I am sorry.

            • @Hannibal – Thanks but you don’t have to apologize. Trust me – I’ve called them worse. I’ve been in big discussions lately with my siblings about how to deal with our aunt. As I’ve said before, my sibs and I are a very small Dem bubble in a very large republican family who thinks they are the good kind of christians. We grew up that way – our mother was very progressive, and she was very good at shutting their shit down before they got crazy – so I think we may have been protected from it a little bit and didn’t really see how every one was. We knew it was there, but they didn’t get too crazy so as not to piss off our mom. But, now she’s gone and being the oldest I have to really deal with the rest of the fam. We’ve actually cut some of our cousins off – because they would always kind of make fun of us for living in the big city and not having their views. We just shrugged it off, but now with trump and all the shit the repubs have pulled – we’re not so forgiving. We used to have a lot of fun with them – but now I don’t even call them when we’re in town. One of my cousins husband has just been appointed some kind of big wig judge in SC. He’s incredibly smart and funny and loves to talk about the movie industry with me – but I don’t want to even see them because he’s such a die hard repub.
               
              The only reason I got into the post like this is that I don’t want everyone to think that it’s the crazy shitheads that are leading the charge – it’s also a lot of regular people that are smart, and are mostly nice and fun, but they’ve drunk the fucking fascist kool aid. And, even though it seems like I’m defending them, I’m not really – I just haven’t found a really good way to deal with them. You tell them the truth, but to them – it’s not their truth and I’m just the offspring of the crazy hippie one that left the family and went rogue. 

              • I knew you weren’t defending them. But I still don’t want to add to your already heavy load dealing with them by seeming like I’m demanding something of you in the way you feel about them. Does that make sense? I have one sister who’s a trumper. But I never liked her anyway so I don’t speak to her. That probably would have happened even without trump. I’d be devastated if the sister I am close to started spouting fascist nonsense. Cutting her out of my life would be hard.

              • I’m there too. My sisters and brother are all onboard with Trump, and most of their children are too. And these are college-educated people. I will say that two sisters and my brother are retired and suck up the Fox News bullshit for hours on end. 
                 
                But I have had to admit to myself that they are not necessarily good people. They are all okay with racism and sexism and all the other crap. I give them a pass on economics — I’m the only one who studied business so I understand they don’t have the tools to process the effects of massive corporate welfare at the expense of people. 
                 
                And I don’t think they’d engage in racism on an individual level, but I do believe they support it in the aggregate — “those people are like this” or “those people are like that.” They don’t connect or care how broad policy impacts individuals, because they are fine with classifying people and acting accordingly. 
                 
                Worse, I’ve had to admit to my daughter than her aunts and uncle aren’t the people she thought they were, either. I don’t want her thinking their behavior is justified or right. 

                • What makes someone good? It’s easy to be kind and generous with people you know and love. It’s easy to treat Black, Brown, and LGBTQ friends and family members with courtesy. But if you refuse to see the dignity of all humans regardless of ethnicity, color, nationality, creed, gender or who they love , and treat them with respect, can you be considered good?  Or Christian as so many of his supporters claim to be. A lot of blame is rightfully placed on Fox News but I think it should be shared with the churches and pastors who are teaching hate in the name of the man whose birth they are getting ready to celebrate. 

                  • I agree. My brother is a member of a fundamentalist Baptist church, and his son tells me that they constantly reinforce all the worst “conservative” talking points. So when he’s not sucking up Fox News or staring at Facebook, he’s “worshipping” with these cretins. 
                     
                    And since I brought it up, social media has a share of the blame, too. These horrible people wouldn’t be able to connect and reinforce each other’s viewpoints without it. It’s created a massive echo chamber on a national scale, where you can promote the most ridiculous nonsense and have others transmit it far beyond what it deserves. I read a horrible statistic the other day about misinformation getting shared 8 times more often on Facebook than facts (if memory serves – heck, might have been in the DOT here). 

                  • How can they believe he cares about the people? He’s showed nothing but disdain for his base. I don’t understand anything about the way they think. 

                    • I think that’s become my problem  too – I just don’t get the delusion and lack of empathy.  

      • On the one hand,I GET Frey’s upset…. he’s really stuck in a tough spot, between;
        the budgetary shortfalls,
        Chief Arrandondo,
        the racists who ARE on the MPD,
        the yammering of outstate Minnesotans–PLENTY of whom literally seem to think my city is a war zone, where feral groups of crime-committers hunt those of us who live here for sport (much like THEY hunt animals & fish at all seasons of the year!🤔),
        the Governor/House/Senate–where some of those rural/outstate folks get to SAY how much of our money we get to keep & how we can spend it(🙄🙃🤬), 
        The corporations who USED to bring lots of $$$$ into the city–but who are now starting to realize because of the pandemic that they can both save rents, AND tax $$$$, by letting folks WFH, 
        And residents on both sides of the issue–the vocal asshats who really SHOULD just move to the fucking ‘burbs they so idolize, and the folks who have SO much less power, but who are FINALLY getting heard, who want shit FIXED, and their lives to not be made harder everyday…
        And then there are ALSO the residents of the North Side–who WANT more police presence, because our goddamned suburban-living force has seemingly abdicated their authority & jobs to certain gangs & groups of criminals, claiming “mental health” difficulties after the riots, because they got their goddamn “fee-fees hurt” when they realized that… what, probably at least half of us  see them as racists, assholes, and jerks, because they won’t root the corruption out of their own goddamned department, and they keep ON electing bigots like Bob Troll Kroll to their Union Leadership🤨🤨🤨
         
        I KNOW that there really ARE some folks in the department who ARE truly suffering from some MH stuff. Because that CAN be pretty rampant in groups of first-respinders & front-line workers (ESPECIALLY in a pandemic)…. but the sheer NUMBERS we’re talking about here, seem to ME anyway, to mean that we simply have a LOT of malingerers, who are mad at the city council, mad Chief Arrandondo being their Chief (AND mad that he sued the Department for racism years ago and WON!🤨), AND mad that the residents of our city–INCLUDING us white folks!–are sick and tired of them harassing, hunting, and MURDERING our fellow residents.

  5. A bit of good, and light, in the shitstorm that is the world right now;
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/us/pay-it-forward-dairy-queen-trnd/index.html
    I’ll let you in on a WELL-known secret– “Minnesota Nice” is often passive-aggressive bullshittery, wrapped in a facade of “kindness”….
    To paraphrase something I once heard, “In the South, they’ll treat you to a WARM Hostility, but at least you know where you stand.” In Minnesota & the Northern States, you could freeze to death, from the Icy ‘Kindness’ you’re shown.”
    But, in light of that VERY accurate statement, occasionally we really ARE kind & good at paying things along & forward, and doing the right thing to help out our neighbors…. it’s getting less common, but it DOES still happen sometimes–and in this case, helps out a small business** 💖💞💗
    **most of the DQ’s are Franchisee-owned stores, AND–at least here in MN, DQ stores all support Gillette Children’s hospital.
    I don’t know how they “do” Children’s hospitals where y’all are… but I DO know a bit about ours here in MN, from getting my Child Life Assistant degree;
    Directly in MSP (NOT Mayo down in Rochester, or the stuff up in St. Cloud & Duluth), We have Children’s Minneapolis, Children’s St. Paul, Gillette, Shriners, University of MN Masonic (formerly U of MN Amplatz Children’s Hospital***), and Hennepin Healthcare (formerly Hennepin County Medical Center/HCMC)…
     
    And each of those children’s hospitals has their own group of kids they specialize in.
     
    Children’s Minneapolis does most of the Cancer, Heart, and peds blood-borne disorders (think things like Sickle-cell).
    Children’s St. Paul has things like Eating Disorders (The Emily Program is based out of there).
    Gillette does Rett’s, Cerebral Palsy (CP), and Epilepsy as their specialities.
    Shriners Minneapolis is an Ortho hospital, specializing in bone/skeletal issues.
    Masonic does EB, transplants, gastric surgeries & specialities (full disclosure, my cousins’ little boy, who just had a “months” birthday is being treated here, and I KNOW he’s getting excellent care, because I KNOW their specialities!💖), and Autism Spectrum Disorder research (more disclosure–my former company was part of the team on ASD’s)
    And Hennepin Health takes cases like burns, lead poisoning, and drownings, because they have the Hyperbaric Chamber here in town and can also offer actual chelation therapy…
    We have an INCREDIBLY diverse set of specialists & specialities–that’s WHY we can care for kiddos from states like ND, SD, NE, and WI, in addition to our MN kiddos… in some of those specialities, we literally get kids from around the world.
     
    And DQ, and McDonald’s franchisees HELP the families of the kiddos who need that care.💖💞💗
    We have FOUR  Ronald McDonald House locations now–one each *in hospital* at Gilette, Children’s Mpls, and Children’s St. Paul. AND we have the massive building/complex that takes up most of a city block, at Oak Street.
    And DQ franchisees help pick up the tab over at Gilette–through year-round donations, and ESPECIALLY by fundraising on “Miracle Treat Day”
     
    So that DQ story is pretty awesome, in the “WOW, folks are paying it forward!) way. 
    But it’s ALSO pretty great, when you realize what those franchisees do, for the kids around the state, too💖
     
     
    ***a few years back, the Amplatz family went to the U, with a request–that they sell the naming rights of the hospital to the highest bidder they could–removing the Amplatz’s own name from the building… NOT because they don’t want to be associated with the hospital, but because they understand the money marketing/ branding could bring in for the hospital. It was mind-bending, to think of a family doing something like that… but once you wrap your brain around it, it’s INCREDIBLY cool, generous, and an example of what the very best of MN has traditionally been like, when we DO live up to our values😉😁💞 
     
    ***

  6. welp…this is just sad
    light bulb died in the shower..and i cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the cover off the ceiling
    well…i have a pretty good idea how to get it off permanently..but thats not the plan really
    stupid glass thing has no latches or anything on the outside…and will not be twisted (and i was trying with enough force that i had some concern about the stupid fucking thing shattering in my hands and really fucking them up) 
    swearing at it didnt help either
    its a fucking light cover…..this shouldnt be difficult
    i think ill go try swearing at it again…..

    • thanks 🙂
      unfortunately mines a different type solid glass not recessed 
      nothing holding it in place on the outside…so it must be mounted on the inside somehow
      tho….tbh….in this house it wouldnt surprise me if the previous tennant hoisted the damn thing up cover n all and then bolted it into place from the attic

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