Yup, It’s Monday. [DOT 25/1/21]

25/1/21 MegMegMcGee 35

I hope you all had a super weekend. If you are looking for things to watch, don’t forget to check out this weekend’s Brain Drain.
Otherwise, let’s see what else is going on, shall we?

You know, I thought with Trump gone I’d be less likely to stroke out on a daily basis, but WTF people?!?!?

A teacher died of covid. Asked to wear masks in his honor, school board members silently refused.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/01/24/georgia-teachers-deaths/

Brave fellow!

Firefighter who nearly died of covid begs front-line workers: ‘Please, get the shots’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/firefighter-who-nearly-died-of-covid-begs-front-line-workers-please-get-the-shots/2021/01/22/6771edbc-55d5-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

If you’re behind the paywall, here’s his message which is worth the watch:

Hey Chuck, whatever Mitch would do, you do it times 10.

Fight over the rules grinds the Senate to a halt, imperiling Biden’s legislative agenda
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-gridlock-threatens-biden-agenda/2021/01/23/6119e512-5cf3-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html

Sprots!

Tom Brady gives Tampa Bay a Super Bowl home game with 31-26 win over Packers in NFC championship
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/01/24/packers-buccaneers-nfc-championship-score-live-updates/

More Sprots!

Have a great day!

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35 Comments

    • I think what is going on is the Dems are trying to figure out a way to put the filibuster fight into the context of a specific issue, like Covid relief, that lets the argument be about something besides abstract procedures untethered to something the public wants.
       
      If the fight is purely abstract, the GOP wins. If the GOP uses the filibuster to block local aid or the minimum wage, it is a lot easier for the Dems to win.
       
      McConnell didn’t blow up the Supreme Court nominee filibuster until he had Gorsuch publicly making the rounds, so he could turn the issue personal.
       
      The challenge is that it will be awkward to make a connection to real issues until they have legislation ready to move. I think McConnell is trying to string things out rather than hope for a victory on the filibuster, with the goal of jamming up the calendar on the back end and leave the Democrats with a lot of half fulfilled promises.
       
      I think the Democrats have a little more time, but only a little.

      • That’s my understanding too. Right now, very little of the public even understands the filibuster. So Democrats want to tie the fight to something real. For example, “Mitch McConnell and his Republican stooges are using the filibuster to stop your COVID checks.” That’s powerful. 
         
        It’s also worth noting that the filibuster is NOT part of the Constitution. It’s just a Senate rule. It’s been around for a while, but it’s not part of the Founding Fathers’ vision for the Senate. And as bluedogcollar notes, McConnell has chosen to ignore it when it suits his purposes in the past. 
         
        The real issue is that it helps the minority party have some say in new legislation, even if they don’t have the votes. If it was me, however, I’d blow the whole thing up, gambling on the voter reform measures to improve Democratic access to the polls and keeping Republicans in the minority until they die off. 
        https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-democrats-voting-reform-bill/

  2. I am not sprots-minded at all but I love trivia. This will be Tom Brady’s 10th trip to the Super Bowl. This is, by far, a record. The runner-up is Stephen Gostkowski, who went six times, all while playing for the Patriots. Then there are a few who went five times. 
     
    Brady’s first appearance at a Super Bowl was at XXVI, which was in 2002. Super Bowl LV will be 18 Super Bowls later, so of the 19 he will have appeared in slightly over half of them. Even I can appreciate how amazing this is. And yet he is the ninth highest paid QB in the NFL and, for reasons I don’t quite understand, this year he will be the fifth or sixth. Number 1 is Patrick Mahomes, who plays for the Chiefs and gets $45 million a year. He is 25 years old.
     
    I’m starting to see the allure of fantasy football leagues and some people’s encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of sprots statistics.

    • As a fan of the only team that owns Brady eternally — the New York Giants — I feel like I have a pretty objective take on him, so I’ll say that a) part of the salary thing is that he’s 43 years old (that’s about 137 years old on the football years to life span converter) b) he has routinely taken slightly less money to allow his teams to spend more in other areas, which ultimately helps him because he’s already rich and it allows his teams to throw more money at other positions under salary cap rules c) yes the Pats cheated and they were treated like a white-collar criminal and outrageously under-punished for Spygate (which was really bad) but to be fair, were treated like a poor Black kid and hiiiiiilariously over-punished for Deflategate (which wasn’t bad at all) and c) he is a dumb MAGA shithead and also the greatest of all time without question. 

      I don’t like Brady, but his numbers are otherworldly.

      • I don’t like Brady at all and refuse to call him the greatest.  Yes, his numbers are “otherworldly” but much of that is situational and some because he has taken less money to allow for more skill players around him.  I had hoped he would fail in Tampa but they built the Patriots south with a bunch of guys that took less money to play with him.  As a Lakers fan, I know how this works.  Last year, a bunch of hall of fame players took less money to win a ring with LeBron.  If you look at the years the 49ers & Cowboys dominated the league this happened on all the Super Bowl teams.  At one point in yesterdays game Brady had almost as many interceptions as completions!  My prediction is the Chiefs will destroy the Bucs in a game that will have better commercials than football.

        • I mean, sure, but those teams made 3 or 4 Super Bowls in a decade; he’s been to *10* in his career. That’s somewhere beyond ridiculous and in the realm of unfathomable. He has 33 playoff wins … if you hate him enough not to call him the greatest, that’s fine, but the numbers are really inarguable.

          Also a Lakers fan turning their nose up at someone else’s success as being “situational” is hilarious 🙂

          • Are the number inarguable?  I’ll give him longevity and being on a bunch of great teams but because football is more of a team sport than any other I don’t think I have to give him best QB all time.  Brees has more yards, higher completion percentage, higher QB rating and has 10 less touchdowns but played  way less games.  I’m not saying Tom Brady is not a great QB but if you put him on the Bucs for his whole career do you think he would still be as great? 
            https://www.footballdb.com/leaders/career-passing-completionpct
            As for the Lakers jab, yes, we have been blessed with many of the greatest players of all time but even I won’t argue that Michael Jordan wasn’t the best player of all time.

            • And Brees played in a dome, with an offensive-minded coach who designed a system to pass a lot, plus a slew of good receivers over the years. Brady put up numbers with scrubs, won three rings … and then got Moss and shattered the TD record. I agree with you that in football it is harder to measure an individual, but I’m still positing that Brady’s numbers and wins are so absurd to make it inarguable. And I hate Brady! Beating him in the Super Bowl in 2008 is one of the more enjoy

              able sports moments of my lifetime! But I don’t see the other side on this one.

              You mentioned Jordan, but the real comp here is LeBron — who has surpassed Jordan in every category other than scoring (for now) and has fewer rings but has been a guaranteed Finals appearance for more than a decade. Yet people who aren’t in their 20s tend to get real angsty if you dare say anyone is better than Jordan and have a lot of side reasons as to why he can’t be it.

  3. This Monday is not getting off to a good start. I loathe both mitch and tom. Living in MA the cult of tom is strong and he is such a douche. Don’t get me started on football, is what I’m saying.
    I’ve been watching the circus on showtime, George Will was on last night, he made an interesting point on how cheeto’s nickname for Biden, sleepy joe, backfired, because the nation craved that calm. 
     

  5. Trump loyalists run into job market buzzsaw:
     
    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/25/donald-trump-post-presidency-462018
     
    I think this is one more piece of evidence that money is not the biggest motivation behind Trumpism. It’s denialism — it’s a self reinforcing denial of reality that tells believers that failure is proof of ultimate success.
     
    The questions that get asked of the GOP need to stop focusing solely on the past but start asking about the future — how does your loyalty affect your job prospects? How many more people will die from the virus? What exactly about what you are doing will stop Trump from committing more crimes?.
     
    They already survived the past. It’s a lot harder to keep riding the car with no brakes when you have to look ahead to what you may crash into than it is to look out the back window at what you’ve already missed.

    • It’s not going to change unless they face their own issues.  In the many years I have watched US politics, that is not going to change.  See the ‘patriots’ of the Confederacy who still cling to the myth of “wah of nothrun aggresshun.”

      • When I lived in the South and would hear some redneck utter that phrase about the war of northern aggression, I would ask them, “remind me again:  who fired the first shots of the war?”  They would inevitably sputter into a bunch of unrelated shit and yell things like “states rights!” or “it wasn’t about slavery!”, but never actually admit they were the ones who started the war so they could keep owning human beings.

        • One of the best responses I heard to “state’s rights!!!” was when a friend rebutted immediately with basically “I’m all for state’s rights! And there’s some rights states don’t get to have, like owning people.”

    • I think you’re right. It’s a very odd mindset. I can understand why ignorant MAGAs still believe in Trump. But the Trump staff should have more education and experience, and be better grounded, at least in crime and grifting. I can barely understand sticking with it until the election was called (barely because anyone who worked for Trump is, let’s face it, evil). You want to keep the scam running and keep lining your pockets, I get that. But at the point where the election was called for Biden, RUN. You’re all self-absorbed assholes, so can’t you read the writing on the wall? Cut your losses and bolt. Trump gives no fucks about you. You’re just hanging around a crime scene while the mob boss flies away. 
       
      It’s like they truly believed Trump could overturn the election, which is denialism at its height. Unless they truly believed Trump had a plan to declare martial law and make himself dictator. Which is still denialism. 

    • One guy looked like Mark Walberg?
      I scanned the faces out of curiosity to see the variety of people (ie: non white) in the crowd.
      The only folks that stood are a few black males.  I didn’t see anyone Asian till page 11-12.  Lots of pasty chubby near nerdy guys with glasses, angry beardy young incel looking types and “Karens”.
      I feel kind of bad because I almost look the part as I’m a bit pasty, kind of chubby in part thanks to CoVID, unshaven in part because I’m lazy and I have glasses. 
       

    • @Loveshaq I’m both relieved and disappointed that I don’t recognize any of these faces. Glad because I don’t want to know people like that, but it would have been fun to turn them in if I did.

  9. Amersfoort, Den Bosch, Haarlem, Geleen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Helmond and Zwolle (oh hey…thats like 2 stops away by train..lol)
    thems the places where riots are happening at mo
    after curfew too
    naughty!
    and here i figured my newsfeed would be boring once cheetolini fucked off

  10. Yet ANOTHER reason why Alan Page is one of the BEST goddamned DT’s the Minnesota Vikings have EVER had, and why the man is seriously one of the BEST  men to have EVER lived in this state!;
     
    Not only was he a HELL of a jurist for our stare Supreme Court (I DEARLY wished that he’d have been nominated for the USSC!), and the best damn tuba player the Minneapolis Marathon has ever seen, the man started the Page foundation, and now–in his retirement!!!!!–he’s working with Governor Walz on this;
     
     https://kstp.com/minnesota-news/gov-tim-walz-education-plan-in-person-learning-ongoing-covid-19-pandemic-racial-disparities-due-north-minnesota/5989450/
     
    It has every possibility of being the new version of The Minnesota Miracle.
     
    No, NOT the sprotz ones y’all heard about over on the old DS (The Miracle on Ice, or the Vikes one a few years ago).
     
    The 1970’s Minnesota Miracle was the one that made us what we are today. The one that completely overhauled ed funding for those of us in Gen X and the older Millenials. 
    It evened out funding across the state, so that city schools, the ‘burbs, AND rural kids all got the same amount per pupil, and it allowed tiny little towns like mine to GET 12 computers to have an actual computer lab in the mid 80’s…. making US just as able to get jobs as our urban & suburban compatriots–because we had access to, and could USE modern tech.
     
    This initiative has SO much potential to fix what Jesse and T-Paw broke, when they busted the stare budget a couple decades ago, and fucked over the funding formulas–“un-pooling” property tax $$, and allowing the rich ‘burbs to hold on to ALL their money, shorting kids everywhere else in the state.
     
    I am SO excited by this announcement–even though we don’t have the deets yet, simply because WALZ was a teacher for YEARS Before he became a congressman–and Page wouldn’t be on board, if this WASN’T going to do what they’re setting out to do. Page wouldn’t risk the reputation of his foundation in that way. So it’s GONNA be good, and it’s gonna make our schools SO much BETTER!!!😃😁🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
     
    Because we’re GOOD for white kids who are neurotypical. But we NEED to get good for everyone.
     

  11. I really enjoy collegiate gymnastics compared to elite competitions (like National championships and Olympics) because despite it still being just one gymnast performing at a time, it feels more like a team event because of how active their teammates are on the sidelines. I love watching them mark the choreography with the gymnast as she performs. 

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