“Does it bother you when these threads get to 130-some comments,” J.C. just asked me.
“I guess so,” I said. “Probably time for a photo post.”
So…
This was night before last. I’ll have you know that as I was capturing this lovely Upper Peninsula moonrise, a pontoon was about to glide into the frame, playing “Smoke on the Water” with its occupants drunkenly singing along.
J.C. and Sammy’s cottage is notable for its peace and quiet, and this was the first real evidence of more commonplace U.P. summer pursuits going on around us. Which only goes to show that somewhere in the world, it is always 1973, and Deep Purple is playing.
So! New post! I’m heading home today/tomorrow, and on Tuesday will be working the Michigan primary election as a poll worker. That will be 14-plus hours in a mask, and I expect I will be wiped afterward, so this thread may well get to 130-some comments too, but at some point, lo I shall return.
A couple of sandhill cranes just serenaded us. Such a lovely, unearthly sound. Nothing at all like Deep Purple.
The only thing I have to recommend is the Politico piece about Fort Wayne, which I see you’ve already been discussing. Jesus, what a barking moron Jason Arp is.
OK, the sun is out here and raining downstate, which means, alas, mini-vacation is probably about over.
Deborah said on August 2, 2020 at 12:27 pm
Last time we got the COVID test it was on a Weds and surprisingly got our results on Sunday afternoon. So of course I expect that service again. I’ve tried the website, I plug in the info they ask for and then a half a second later it tells me my results aren’t in. It has me suspicious though like the site doesn’t think about it long enough to actually check, no twirling beach ball or anything like that appears. I have no option except to sit and wait, that’s all I can do,
We get sandhill cranes around here, flocks of them.
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basset said on August 2, 2020 at 12:32 pm
Worked the last few elections, not this one though… I’m high risk with some existing conditions and Mrs. B is super high risk with even more, not gonna chance it. Definitely ready for it to be over, too – turn on the tv and it’s one attack ad after another, the worst of em from two Republican Senate candidates. I expect one of em to accuse the other of sinking Noah’s Ark any minute now.
Mrs. B had a brief hospital stay weekend before last and her negative Covid test came back in maybe six or seven hours. Last time I gave blood the antibody results took about a week.
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beb said on August 2, 2020 at 5:52 pm
The family was driving along Jefferson where it meets Lake St. Clair and we saw the moon reflecting off the water like this. It’s such a beautiful and thrilling sight. Glad you were able to get this shot and share it with us.
We will always have
Paris1973 and assholes.The big news (for me) this Sunday was the safe return of two American astronauts in the first named flight of the Dragon2 spacecraft. This is the first time in nine years that American astronauts flew to the space station in an American spaceship.
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Joe Kobiela said on August 2, 2020 at 6:29 pm
I also watched the dragon return, held my breath until those 4 big chutes blossomed out and they landed safely. I also watched the launch, would love to see one live saw3 shuttle launches live including a 3am Night launch. Any idea how far off the coast they landed?
Pilot Joe
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David C said on August 2, 2020 at 7:10 pm
I heard 30 miles, Joe.
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Brian stouder said on August 2, 2020 at 9:08 pm
I thought it was tremendous to see a space ship return to Earth via splash-down! THAT’S the way it s’pose to be done, doggoneit!
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Julie Robinson said on August 2, 2020 at 9:10 pm
We watched it too. Dennis has been following the mission closely and is so thrilled by it, says it makes him feel like a kid again.
What amazes me is how we watched. One of the Orlando stations streamed the whole thing on Facebook, and I used the Chromecast to cast it on the TV. We watch almost everything streaming these days, even church, and all the casting devices* make it so easy. To me, this is just as incredible as the space program.
*There’s Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Firestick, the Apple one, and probably more? We have a Roku also but it’s pretty cranky, and it’s faster to use the Chromecast. The Roku comes with some channels of its one, nothing that great and the interface is clunky.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 2, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Loved watching the re-entry and splashdown. That’s a major turn of a new page.
As for photos, here’s one of the most awesome I’ve seen in the last few weeks:
https://twitter.com/ThierryLegault/status/1283092114990039042
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Suzanne said on August 2, 2020 at 9:42 pm
This is something I did not know about Peter Drucker, that he wrote a book about totalitarianism, The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism (1939). Am I the only one who did not know this?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/12/the-education-of-peter-drucker/304484/
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Indiana Jack said on August 2, 2020 at 9:44 pm
The next several days will be critical for Belarus, a chunk of the former Soviet Union. Getting little attention at the moment. Lukashenka has been in power 26 years but is facing a serious challenge. Three women whose husbands have been jailed to keep them from running for president are mounting their own campaign. The woman who actually made it onto the ballot is running on a platform that would call for free and fair elections once Lukashenka is gone.
The vote will be rigged, but the people are seriously pissed off and ready for change. Best reporting on it can be found at rfe/rl.org. Interesting country. Did some work there in 2005 and managed to be denounced as an enemy of the state.
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basset said on August 2, 2020 at 10:24 pm
Jack, how’d you manage that?
And I’ll repeat the question found below that wonderful photo – this is sign of the apocalypse number what?
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beb said on August 2, 2020 at 11:10 pm
“Michigan Republican who fought COVID-19 lockdown diagnosed with coronavirus”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/michigan-lawmaker-who-fought-19-lockdown-diagnosed-with/
This is State Senator Tom Barrett. I think someone ought to start up a database of all the people who have scoffed at the virus before catching it. The list would include Louis Gomert, Herman Cain, Rand Paul, and the several scoffers who had to confess they were wrong before dying from the virus. Maybe such a list would convince other scoffers to finally take this seriously.
Brian S @6 I beg to differ. There’s something elegant about the shuttle gliding into for a landing. We could have a repeat of that if NASA had decided to fund Sierra Nevada instead of Boeing. They are making a cargo carrier out of the Dream Chaser but I would love to see a manned version. Even better would have been SpaceX’s planned propulsive landing.
Thanksto Jeff I have a new background for my computer
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beb said on August 2, 2020 at 11:24 pm
This I hadn’t heard before and it fills me with anger…
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/boaters-with-trump-flag-accused-of-endangering-spacex-astronauts-after-splashdown/
There looks to be at least three civilian boats hovering around the floating Dragon capsule, getting in the way of the teams trying to secure the capsule. What assholes.
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Sherri said on August 3, 2020 at 1:45 am
We’re quietly having our normal vote by mail primary out here, but we do have 35 people challenging Inslee for governor. They are all nutcases, but I thought you might be entertained by some of them.
We have perpetual initiative filer and chair thief Tim Eyman. We have the corrupt former mayor of Bothell Josh Freed, whose big issue is opposition to safe injection sites. Phil Fortunato is a pro-gun state senator, and Loren Culp is the police chief of a town I’ve never heard of. The Republicans are trying to promote Raul Garcia, because he seems less nutty than those guys.
Then you get to the perennial candidates, Goodspaceguy (yes, that’s his name, enough said) and Bill Hirt, and always runs just to complain about light rail.
And now the real crazies. Like Alex Tsimerman, who prefers the StandupAmerica Party, and whose ballot statement consists of repeating “Stop Seattle/King Fascism with idiotic face!” 25 times. (He helpfully numbered them for us.) And Leon Aaron Lawson, who prefers the Trump Republican Party, and under professional experience, lists the QAnon slogan WWG1WGA.
Winston Wilkes prefers the Propertarianist Party, and lets us know in his statement that Epstein didn’t kill himself. Thor Amundson just recycled his candidate statement from a prior run for US Senate, not bothering to change the office. David Volta is an Uber and Lyft driver mad because “Jay Sleezee” shutdown the state.
At least none of them have enough money to be annoying…
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Dorothy said on August 3, 2020 at 8:06 am
Nancy did I miss your Covid test results? I’m guessing it was negative – OR you’re still waiting for results.
For anyone else who has been tested, can I ask if you had to pay for it? We were tested on July 25 and haven’t seen anything in email or snail mail about paying for it. They didn’t collect insurance info so they aren’t billing our insurance. Over the weekend I saw someone on Twitter shared her invoice – it was for a little over $2,000. For a drive up test with no doctor. She is fighting the charges, or should I say questioning them.
Beb I heard on the news this morning that the Coast Guard admitted it did not think about having more boats in the water to keep the public away from the splashdown site. Next time they’ll take that into account. Hmph. I bet they will.
So Dr. Birx said yesterday that if you’re in a multi-generational household you should consider wearing masks indoors. I think wearing masks when we were with our son on July 17 and 18 inside our house and theirs is a definite factor in the rest of us testing negative. We also ate in separate rooms and did not share serving utensils for the dinner we made on the 17th. So far he’s the only one who’s tested positive out of the six of us (counting the 3 year old and my daughter). He continues to feel okay for the most part, for which we are extremely grateful.
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nancy said on August 3, 2020 at 8:38 am
Yes, it finally arrived a full seven business days afterward: Negative. Functionally, a test that old is meaningless, but it’ll pass muster for working the election.
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Mark P said on August 3, 2020 at 8:19 am
My 82-year-old aunt’s grandson, who lives with her, was tested a couple of days ago because of some suspicious symptoms. She is OK so far, but exactly the person who doesn’t need to be infected. We have been meeting her for lunch for the last few weeks.
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Suzanne said on August 3, 2020 at 9:02 am
I recommend that anyone with a connection to Fort Wayne read the Politico piece that Nancy posted. It’s quite interesting. I remember hearing an interview with Arp in which he stated something to the effect that anyone who wasn’t interested in celebrating Anthony Wayne day was not a patriotic American.
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Mark P said on August 3, 2020 at 9:44 am
The Missile Defense Agency requires anyone who gets tested to quarantine for two weeks, no matter what the result is. Get tested, immediately go into quarantine.
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4dbirds said on August 3, 2020 at 10:01 am
Dorothy,
My daughter and I had tests done prior to medical procedures recently (both negative). They were billed to insurance but since my bout in the hospital with sepsis and my daughter’s embolization and neurosurgery procedures we have used up all of our out of pocket costs. We’re freerolling now. I am scheduling all my appointment for dermatology and anything else I can think of.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 10:15 am
Still waiting for our test results, since Weds. I was wrong about something I posted earlier, I thought we had been previously tested on a Weds and got our results Sunday but I looked it up and we actually tested on a Thursday and got our results that Sunday. This time we’re not as lucky I guess. Wearing a mask in your home is irritating to say the least. I have no idea if we’re being charged or how much they’re charging for our tests, they did ask for our insurance info so maybe we are?
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LAMary said on August 3, 2020 at 10:24 am
Both my sons have been tested twice. Both got their results in less than 24 hours and neither of them were ever billed. Everyone’s negative, btw.
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LAMary said on August 3, 2020 at 10:31 am
Sherri, at least those candidates for governor sound entertaining. The guy whose platform consists of hating light rail doesn’t seem like much fun, though. His speeches must be short.
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LAMary said on August 3, 2020 at 10:39 am
Crew members on a Norwegian cruise ship tested positive so the passengers are now in quarantine. You have to wonder why anyone would go on a cruise, even an arctic cruise sailing from Norway.
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JodiP said on August 3, 2020 at 11:33 am
I ran my eyes over a couple WaPo articles and found out Sturgis is still happening with 250,000 expected.
And a poor harbinger for what opening schools will result in:
“CHILDREN ARE not free of the novel coronavirus. Consider the outbreak at a Georgia overnight summer camp in June. Some 260 campers and staff tested positive out of 344 test results available. Among those ages 6-10, 51 percent got the virus; from 11-17 years old, 44 percent, and 18-21 years old, 33 percent. The campers did a lot of singing and shouting; did not wear face masks; windows were not opened for ventilation, although other precautions were taken. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the virus “spread efficiently in a youth-centric overnight setting, resulting in high attack rates among persons in all age groups,” many showing no symptoms.”
The photo with that article is parents in IL protesting about guidelines requiring masks for kids when they return to school.
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Suzanne said on August 3, 2020 at 11:43 am
My niece is a teacher. She and my sister & brother-in-law have a betting pool on how quickly schools will close again after opening. I my area, schools are supposed to open August 11, while virus infections continue to climb.
Seems like a plan for disaster.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 11:43 am
I just read an article that NM test results are running anywhere from 7 to 14 days, some 17-18 days because the labs are swamped. That makes the test completely irrelevant. If we haven’t gotten our results by Aug 10, our self quarantine time will be over, so what was the point? This is ridiculous. We are screwed.
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Deggjr said on August 3, 2020 at 11:47 am
“…parents in IL protesting about guidelines requiring masks …”
There isn’t a visible mask in that WaPo picture.
Our old area high school was an early adopter of all virtual education. The administration considered the parental mask reactions they received in their decision.
Not said out loud “we’re not arguing with idiots”.
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Sherri said on August 3, 2020 at 11:51 am
LAMary, they’re only entertaining from a distance. The Stop Seattle/King Fascism guy is a regular at Seattle city council meetings, for example.
Bill Hirt, the anti light rail guy, is more precisely the anti-expansion of light rail to the Eastside suburbs. He doesn’t give speeches, he just uses the candidate statement to direct people to his blog, Stopeastlinknow.blogspot.com. He started back in 2012 running for state legislator. Last year he ran for King County Council. He doesn’t campaign or raise money, because he doesn’t want to win, he just writes blog posts.
Goodspaceguy sounds like he’d be a hippy-dippy free spirit, but he’s actually a Trump Republican.
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Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2020 at 12:07 pm
Re the camp article that Jodi mentions: the YMCA running the camp made all the big noises about following protocols, with everyone entering getting their temperatures taken and staff wearing masks. And then they proceeded to fail all the protocols when it came to the campers. It should be considered conclusive proof that schools shouldn’t open in person, from preK to college.
And this WaPo article is heart breaking: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/01/schools-reopening-coronavirus-arizona-superintendent/?arc404=true. Arizona school superintendent will be forced by Governor to open schools in person despite a summer school teacher dying, and the certain knowledge more will follow. He is haunted by the choices he has to make, and says plans to reopen safely are a fantasy.
There were so many good stories yesterday; I really made the most of my subscription.
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Suzanne said on August 3, 2020 at 12:46 pm
“Despite its epochal effects, COVID‑19 is merely a harbinger of worse plagues to come. The U.S. cannot prepare for these inevitable crises if it returns to normal, as many of its people ache to do. Normal led to this. Normal was a world ever more prone to a pandemic but ever less ready for one. To avert another catastrophe, the U.S. needs to grapple with all the ways normal failed us. It needs a full accounting of every recent misstep and foundational sin, every unattended weakness and unheeded warning, every festering wound and reopened scar.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/coronavirus-american-failure/614191/
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Sherri said on August 3, 2020 at 1:02 pm
Another quote from the article Suzanne links, which I highly recommend:
“COVID‑19 is an assault on America’s body, and a referendum on the ideas that animate its culture. Recovery is possible, but it demands radical introspection. America would be wise to help reverse the ruination of the natural world, a process that continues to shunt animal diseases into human bodies. It should strive to prevent sickness instead of profiting from it. It should build a health-care system that prizes resilience over brittle efficiency, and an information system that favors light over heat. It should rebuild its international alliances, its social safety net, and its trust in empiricism. It should address the health inequities that flow from its history. Not least, it should elect leaders with sound judgment, high character, and respect for science, logic, and reason.”
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Michael said on August 3, 2020 at 1:21 pm
Wayne State University and Wayne County are named for the very same Mad Anthony.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 3, 2020 at 2:51 pm
Gave blood Friday 8 am, got antibody test results on my phone at noon today, negative hallelujah. Plus I got fruit snacks as I left on Friday!
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 3:03 pm
That Atlantic article that Suzanne linked to was the tipping point I needed to buy a paid subscription to the Atlantic. That was excellent.
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jcburns said on August 3, 2020 at 3:03 pm
Scoffing is a really good way to spread the virus, especially without a mask.
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Indiana Jack said on August 3, 2020 at 3:25 pm
The Politico piece on Arp is excellent and definitely worth a read.
Bassett@11: In 2005, I did some training for International Center for Journalists for a group of reporters and editors from Belarus when they were in Washington. That was followed by a week-long seminar in Warsaw. (They had to leave Belarus to take part in the training.) Then I took the train from Warsaw to Minsk with the group and visited their papers and worked with their staffs.
Like an idiot, at some point I agreed to an interview. My comments did not make the Lukashenka government happy.
When I returned to Belarus in the fall for a couple more weeks of work, I learned that I had been denounced by name on state TV as an enemy of the state based upon by comments.
I finished the project without a serious scrape, but all that put me on a blacklist.
As a result, when I went to Kyrgyzstan in 2009 on another ICFJ project I was deported on arrival as persona non grata. The reason: Belarus.
Another reason I’m watching that election closely.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 4:01 pm
I just transplanted some houseplants into different prettier pots. We had the pots already. Just trying to find things to do to keep from being furious about the botched virus situation in the US. I mean, I could maybe be in France right now. Thanks Trump.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 4:33 pm
More important than my being able to go to France of course is that people’s lives could have been saved, and we could have gone to some kind of “normalcy” if states didn’t listen to Trump about opening up… waaaayyyy to soon for the god damned stock market.
We ordered a pulse oximeter and it arrived today, to check our oxygen levels.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 4:43 pm
More important than my not being able to go to France of course, is that if Trump hadn’t botched the virus response people who didn’t have to die, wouldn’t have. And kids could go to school safely as they’ve done in other countries. It’s amazing to me how incredibly wrong the Republicans get everything, and I mean everything, from trickle down economy, to women’s reproductive healthcare, actually everyone’s healthcare, to the safety net for those that absolutely need it. Everything they do is wrong, wrong, wrong. Everything.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 4:45 pm
Obviously I’m so mad I can’t see straight. I thought my previous comment didn’t go through and I elaborated on it. Sorry about that.
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Scout said on August 3, 2020 at 4:53 pm
It is my understanding that the antibody test is not the same as the Covid viral
test. From the CDC:
“Except in instances in which viral testing is delayed, antibody tests should not be used to diagnose a current COVID-19 infection. An antibody test may not show if you have a current COVID-19 infection because it can take 1–3 weeks after infection for your body to make antibodies. To see if you are currently infected, you need a viral test. Viral tests identify the virus in samples from your respiratory system, such as a swab from the inside of your nose.
Having antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19 may provide protection from getting infected with the virus again. If it does, we do not know how much protection the antibodies may provide or how long this protection may last.”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/serology-overview.html
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 5:00 pm
Bad graphic design https://mobile.twitter.com/GRIFTSH0P/status/1290280557562089474 does anyone know where this is? What does it even say?
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beb said on August 3, 2020 at 5:21 pm
Deborah, it reads “‘something’ the blue”. Probably the usual symbols for cursing. (Is there a standard strong of symbols for cursing or is it any four keys you hit?)
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 5:26 pm
Somebody told me it’s supposed to say “back the blue” in support of police. Talk about a garbled message. Isn’t it PR 101, to make the message clear? And I still can’t figure out Where it is?
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jcburns said on August 3, 2020 at 5:27 pm
Just remember Deborah, your comment always goes through. It may be a bit delayed, but like the postal service, it always goes through.
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 5:29 pm
Ok google tells me it’s in Tampa out front of a police station.
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Jim Neill said on August 3, 2020 at 5:49 pm
Deborah…That street message is indeed supposed to say “Back the Blue.” It’s here in Tampa. The group who painted it couldn’t wait to secure the required permits so they blocked the street themselves on Saturday night and painted under cover of darkness. It’s a little ironic that they broke the law in order to voice support the police. (And the design is the butt of jokes on Twitter)
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Jim Neill said on August 3, 2020 at 5:57 pm
Added…Here’s a local link to the “street mural”
https://photos.cltampa.com/everyones-roasting-tampas-hilariously-bad-bock-the-blub-street-mural/?slide=1&screen-shot-2020-08-03-at-1-54-25-pm
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 6:26 pm
????????????
https://thewayofimprovement.com/2020/08/03/why-did-liberty-university-president-jerry-falwell-jr-post-a-picture-of-himself-with-his-pants-unbuckled-underwear-showing-a-glass-of-wine-in-his-hand-and-his-arm-around-a-woman
And another important question: why does this guy have a yacht?
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Suzanne said on August 3, 2020 at 6:53 pm
I saw that Falwell Jr thing earlier.
I’ve spent the last few hours putting beach laden drops in my eyes, but I simply cannot unsee it.
Let’s raise a glass and drop our pants to the Moral Majority!
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Deborah said on August 3, 2020 at 7:05 pm
Spot on https://mobile.twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/760657101404327936
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Sherri said on August 3, 2020 at 7:08 pm
I just finished watching Mrs. America. It almost makes you feel a little sorry for Phyllis Schlafly. Almost.
Also watched and enjoyed the new Go-Go’s documentary.
I’ve started listening to Nice White Parents, the latest Serial podcasts, and it’s really, really good. Also, Dahlia Lithwick tracked down and interviewed the other women who were in RBG’s class at Harvard Law: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/the-women-of-harvard-law-rbg-1959.html
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susan said on August 3, 2020 at 11:58 pm
Sherri @14 – You weren’t around in Warshington State in 1976 when the OWL Party ran a bunch of candidates for State positions:
I think it was Ruthie “Boom Boom” McInnis who included, in the voters’ guide, her recipe for Welfare Rolls. These people actually got votes.
After that election, the state Leg made it harder for minor parties to get on the ticket. Doesn’t seem to keep out the individual wackos, though. I sometimes wonder if this state is unusual in the realm of eccentric politics.
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Brian stouder said on August 4, 2020 at 12:25 pm
Sherri, thanks for the RBG link. I’m just finishing the marvelous Notorious RBG (by Irin Carmon & Shams Knizhnik), and she’s quite the impressive American hero!
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