Fruit from the poison tree.

I guess we’ve known who the heirs to Trumpism are for a while now, but with the fat man out of the way, they’re starting to come into their own.

Politico dropped a major profile of Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday. If you didn’t read it, I recommend it, but please — remove all razors, sleeping pills, firearms and hanging rope from your immediate area. Here’s the passage that jumped out at me:

Greene declined to comment for this article, but Nick Dyer, her communications director, responded in a terse email: “You are a scumbag, Michael.”

This is the way these people talk to the media, of course. When I tried to tell Mellissa Carone that there was zero proof of the assertions she made about the Michigan absentee count, and pointed out that even one of the more notorious county canvassers admitted she’d seen no evidence of fraud, she replied with, “You are lying.” (Reader, I was not lying.) I believe there was a line about the fake news media, etc., too. But then, why should they care what the so-called MSM thinks of them? They have their own alternate reality media ecosystem that will present them as the heroes they consider themselves to be.

Anyway, the Politico piece is long, but good. It’ll make you yearn for the days when a term in Congress was preceded by an apprenticeship in a state legislature, or even a city council. And yeah, AOC skipped this step, too, but at least she’s not aggressively stupid or a liar, like so many of these people. Liiiiike, for instance, this guy:

Madison Cawthorn was a 21-year-old freshman at a conservative Christian college when he spoke at chapel, testifying about his relationship with God. He talked emotionally about the day a car accident left him partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair.

Cawthorn said a close friend had crashed the car in which he was a passenger and fled the scene, leaving him to die “in a fiery tomb.” Cawthorn was “declared dead,” he said in the 2017 speech at Patrick Henry College. He said he told doctors that he expected to recover and that he would “be at the Naval Academy by Christmas.”

Key parts of Cawthorn’s talk, however, were not true. The friend, Bradley Ledford, who has not previously spoken publicly about the chapel speech, said in an interview that Cawthorn’s account was false and that he pulled Cawthorn from the wreckage. An accident report obtained by The Washington Post said Cawthorn was “incapacitated,” not that he was declared dead. Cawthorn himself said in a lawsuit deposition, first reported by the news outlet AVL Watchdog, that he had been rejected by the Naval Academy before the crash.

Big, big Trumper, I don’t need to tell you. Also, like his role model, quite the handsy guy with the ladies. That story’s been breaking of late, too.

And so we begin to see the rotten fruit of the worst president in the country’s history. Add to that the shenanigans the party is pulling with quote election integrity unquote oh god what a joke, and you can see this is wreckage we’ll be cleaning up for quite some time.

Hope you all had a good weekend. We were kissed by the promise of spring, but by the time many of you read this, it’ll have been beaten back by more winter. Still, it was nice to go for a walk in a light jacket. Beyond that, not much happened; with new strains, we’re just waiting on our vaccines and the chance to walk in the sun again and not be quite so tuned in with what’s streaming this weekend.

So we don’t leave you with nothing but bummers to start the week, here’s some pretty-pretty: The recent cold snap came down pretty quickly and froze off a few areas of the upper Midwest quickly. As these are usually “severe clear” cold fronts, i.e., without precipitation, we had some places with clear, open ice with no snow atop. which made for near-ideal ice skating. Here’s Marquette, in the U.P., where the whole community had room to do their thing, and here’s a solitary speed skater working out on the ice off downtown Milwaukee. Nice video, won’t take up much of your time. Enjoy.

So. Monday. Bring it on.

Posted at 7:18 pm in Current events |
 

80 responses to “Fruit from the poison tree.”

  1. Deborah said on February 28, 2021 at 8:14 pm

    Both of those ice skating video links are fantastic, thanks for that.

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  2. Dorothy said on February 28, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    Thank you to everyone who shared experiences, advice, etc. in the previous comment thread. I won’t need to use this information for quite some time yet, but I read each one and it gave me lots to think about.

    A year ago: at work, one of our choral groups had been booked for months to perform in Puerto Rico over spring break. I told my boss by at least mid-February that they probably would not be going. It’s not that she didn’t believe me, but I think she was just more optimistic than I was. She wasn’t the director of the choral group but she was planning to book a trip to the same destination with her husband and child. Then as the pandemic became more of a real thing, she worried that the group would leave Ohio, and then be unable to come back from Puerto Rico. Of course they did not go. Getting all of the refunds done was quite the undertaking for our budget admin assistant.

    Our granddaughter’s birthday is the 9th of March, so the weekend just before that was her party. Our daughter had flown in for it, but she saw several people wearing masks on the plane and in the airports. We paid attention to the news extra carefully that weekend. When she flew back to Reagan airport on Sunday evening, we were all extremely aware that the world was about to shift. I worked in my office for three days that week, and then come Thursday, we were told to work from home. And here we still are.

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  3. LAMary said on February 28, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    I grew up across the road from a pond that would freeze over and from our kitchen window I could see the sign saying the ice was safe for skating. Almost every day after school my friends and I would skate, in my case badly, for hours until it got dark. Pick up hockey games would happen at one end of the pond. Goofing around, snapping the whip, just skating around at the other end.
    My Netherlands relatives whom I found on Facebook posted videos of the family skating in Groningen, the city where they live, for the first time in years. It hasn’t been cold enough in recent years. There were guys in their fifties and sixties, one who had knee replacement surgery last year, skating around like 20 year olds. These family members not only live in the same city my grandfather was from, they come from the same neighborhood. There they were, mostly bald or at least grey haired guys, getting all fancy with their skating moves. Very cool; no pun intended.

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  4. A. Riley said on March 1, 2021 at 12:00 am

    My mom grew up in the UP — Escanaba, a port for lumber & ore back then — and she remembered the icebreaker coming to open the bay and everyone going down to the dock to see it. I’d love to see (and hear!) that myself, wouldn’t you?

    She also said that the paper mill in town would change the thick wool rollers about this time each year and the moms would go wait by the gate to get some of the wool to make nice warm white wool coats for their kids.

    A long time ago — Mom left Escanaba in 1933 or so to go to nursing school near Chicago. (She said she liked the weather here better .)

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  5. beb said on March 1, 2021 at 1:27 am

    These Trumpers seem certifiably insane. They not only live in their own closed universe but are incredibly hostile to anyone trying to correct them. And unless and until Trump is sent to prison there were always be the chance he will run again (and probably win in the electoral college — again.

    But we had a day in the 50s. Most of the snow that I could not remove has melted away. I can live with the cold but I hate the snow (over 2 inches at least.

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  6. Dexter Friend said on March 1, 2021 at 3:25 am

    Trump is your 2024 candidate. Down in Orlando he proclaimed he will beat the Democrats “for a third time.” Yes, he’s still riling his base of sycophants with lies about winning in 2020 in a landslide, and the 2020 election was rigged, and those fucking morons believe it and cheer him on.
    It keeps crossing my mind why only one insurgent seditionist was shot at at the entrance to The Capitol. That shot killed the woman who loved Trump and died for him. Why weren’t more shots fired, considering the chaos. Only one conclusion: the fix was really in, the reconnaissance was done by members of Congress assisting rioters the day before with special (unsanctioned) tours , so the criminals would know where certain offices were, are…such as Jim Clyburn’s hidden offices (he has 2). If the National Guard outfits would have been in place, and their commanders would have issued rifles and live rounds, we would have seen justified massive seditionists dead in a river of blood. I am not a super patriot, I have written that before, but when enemies attack The Capitol, having erected a gallows and were there to kill Pelosi and AOC and actually hang Mike Pence, ALL this at Trump’s direct marching order… there should have been withering fire outward from The Capitol right into that crowd of traitors and murderous white supremacists. I am not being facetious .

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  7. Jim said on March 1, 2021 at 7:01 am

    Being nasty, it would be interesting to see if Madison *could* walk away from his wheelchair .

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  8. David C said on March 1, 2021 at 8:44 am

    How does a journalist approach interviewing someone like MTG or Mellissa Carone when they know it’s going to go through the looking glass? The journalist can prepare and have all of the facts down pat and the person says “that’s a lie”. Does the journalist know if the person is doing crazy performance art for the rubes or if they believe their own nonsense? If they give the person enough rope to hang themselves the rubes love it. Interviewing them them seems so necessary but so impossible.

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  9. Suzanne said on March 1, 2021 at 9:04 am

    Here in middle America, the Trump fever has not lessened. Trump flags still fly, people still claim the election was stolen. I found out yesterday that a cousin of mine refuses to get the COVID vaccine even though his sister-in-law died of the disease & my husband was told by a well educated person with a position of leadership that the vaccine changes a person’s DNA. My husband was told this weekend that the COVID mutations that are being discovered are manufactured by Democrats in order to continue to control people because isn’t it a coincidence that they started showing up only after the election.
    Trump will run in 2024 and he will win. Republican state legislatures are enacting voter suppression laws all over the place.

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  10. Mark P said on March 1, 2021 at 9:45 am

    I’m not sure people like MTG should be interviewed as if they were normal politicians. That’s the way the media covered the Biggest Loser during his first campaign, and I think it legitimized and normalized him. They love being given national coverage because their fellow cultists see what they want to see and not the crazy. Just do a few features and show us normals what a crazy looks like. TV “news” is the worst about giving these nut jobs too much air.

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  11. Jeff Borden said on March 1, 2021 at 10:04 am

    I hate watched about 20 minutes of tRump before I felt the bitter vomit rising in my throat and bailed out. He looked and sounded horrible to me. He’s not a well man.

    He’ll be 78 in 2024, right? Biden will be 82? I think Biden will choose not to run in ’24, ceding the field to Kamala Harris, but that’s just my gut talking.

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  12. Heather said on March 1, 2021 at 10:12 am

    Some years ago a big puddle in the park near me froze over to make a perfect little skating pond. I felt like Hans Brinker. That’s never happened again–either the conditions were just right or a big landscaping project they did improved the drainage.

    I agree that people like Marjorie TG (I refuse to give her the RBG/AOC treatment) and Melissa Carone shouldn’t be covered like they are normal politicians. They aren’t operating in reality or in good faith.

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  13. Alan Stamm said on March 1, 2021 at 10:18 am

    Didn’t expect that folks doing their own thing on Marquette’s harbor would include a bicyclist (fat tires, presumably), but winter is a season for all activities in the U.P. Pure Michigan, indeed.

    Thanks for linking to two delightful videos.

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  14. basset said on March 1, 2021 at 10:35 am

    Never learned to skate, on ice or wheels, but I still have a pair of Bauer hockey skates from about 1978 that Mrs. B gave me when we lived in Cadillac. One trip to the outdoor public rink was enough.

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  15. Bruce Fields said on March 1, 2021 at 10:36 am

    “They not only live in their own closed universe but are incredibly hostile to anyone trying to correct them.”

    When you’re ego’s so wrapped up in believing something nuts, exposure to people outside your bubble is scary. Better to push those scary people away, I guess. Your leaders will help by modeling the behavior you need.

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  16. basset said on March 1, 2021 at 10:44 am

    Trying really hard to think of something different… how about the Rolling Stones and Rice Krispies:

    https://youtu.be/jGKVQNtkdzw

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  17. Julie Robinson said on March 1, 2021 at 11:12 am

    Jeff B, you have a much higher tolerance than me. I couldn’t even read the story about CPAC, much less watch.

    I also have a gut feeling Biden won’t run again in 2024.

    Did anyone watch the Golden Globes? We weren’t going to, but bailed on a movie so ended up tuning in for a bit. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler spent most of their time talking about how horrible the Hollywood Foreign Press was and it wasn’t all that funny.

    Then they handed out the first award sans sound. Zoom strikes again! We turned it off after that.

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  18. susan said on March 1, 2021 at 11:22 am

    This is the only part of CPAC I watched. OMG. It’s so perfect. And the comments are even better.

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  19. Icarus said on March 1, 2021 at 11:28 am

    Heather @ 12: That sounds so familiar. I think you live in Chicago, like me and a few others here.

    can you share your neighborhood or nearest big cross streets?

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  20. Scout said on March 1, 2021 at 11:36 am

    @susan – that was so funny. Thank you for starting my day off with a good laugh. This comment sums it all up nicely:
    ‘I don’t want to hear another damned word about how Kaepernick kneeling is disrespectful to the National Anthem.’

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  21. Jeff Borden said on March 1, 2021 at 11:54 am

    My gawd, that anthem rendition! Why didn’t the poor singer choose one key and stay on it? You’d think given all the cash sloshing around the conservative universe they could’ve hired a competent vocalist. Then again, people CHEERED for this. (Maybe they were just glad it was over.)

    I was listening to a discussion on the radio this morning about how CPAC used to be a place where conservative ideas and theories were discussed but this year was solely about the past and the need for tRump vengeance. No fresh thinking. The same old tired “‘Murika Furst” and anti-immigration baloney.

    So. . .it will fall to the ground game in 2022 as one Republican led state after another creates obstacles to easy voting in the name of integrity. It’s going to take a mammoth effort not to lose the House and the Senate since the party not holding the White House usually does very well in the first midterms. It’s why I want to see Biden and the Dems go balls to the wall for the $15 hourly wage. Dems need to signal that while the other side frets about Mr. Potatohead and unisex bathrooms and face masks and cancel culture they are the ones doing things for the American people.

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  22. Suzanne said on March 1, 2021 at 12:35 pm

    Watch this for an audio comment on the horrible anthem singer #NoKeyLeftBehind

    https://youtu.be/hf0dcMH4N5U

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  23. Jakash said on March 1, 2021 at 1:37 pm

    Favorite comment: “Singing in the key of Q”

    This makes me wonder, again, how these people make decisions about non-political things in their lives. Your grip on reality is such that you find Gym Jordan to be an intelligent and patriotic public servant, you think an election that was lost by 7 million votes was “stolen,” you think climate change is a hoax, you think the twice-impeached big-time loser is a Macho Man, you think that this person is a good choice to sing the national anthem. How do you decide what kind of car to buy? What doctor to go to? Whether or not to wear a coat when it’s cold outside? I suppose you just guess WWTQSD? What would the Q Shaman do?

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  24. Sherri said on March 1, 2021 at 2:22 pm

    That’s easy, Jakash. You buy the car that car dealer from your church is selling, because he’s a good Christian and he wouldn’t steer your wrong, right? You see the doctor from your church, or if there’s not a doctor at your church, you see the doctor someone from your church recommended.

    A friend was telling me that her sister-in-law was upset with her (the SIL’s) sisters, because they won’t get the vaccine. They believe the Gate vaccine conspiracy theory, because their pastor told them it was true.

    They aren’t crazy. They aren’t stupid. They need to believe all this to remain part of the group.

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  25. Deborah said on March 1, 2021 at 2:34 pm

    March is in like a lion in Chicago, 30 degrees and windy, feels like 19. Choppy white caps on the lake, big waves crashing on the lakeshore trail, by us. It’s clearing the ice and snow off the trail right now but it’s going to be like glass in the morning. We moved to Chicago on this day 18 years ago, and I was not ready for March in the Windy City. One of my first purchases here was a down coat that came to my knees, I had to get a man’s coat because I couldn’t find anything like that for women then. Maybe everything was just picked over. I’m glad we got through February finally.

    March 4, is the day we get our first shots. I keep reading about that date being significant for Qs. Hopefully it will all just blow over.

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  26. basset said on March 1, 2021 at 3:09 pm

    Wasn’t that the day for the real inauguration?

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  27. susan said on March 1, 2021 at 3:31 pm

    March 4th is also ἐξελαύνω day for Boston Latin.

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  28. LAMary said on March 1, 2021 at 3:55 pm

    March 4 was the previous inauguration day. I saw some women CPAC fans being interviewed on CNN yesterday and they both agreed that on March 4 trump would become the 19th legitimate president. The first one since Grant, since the rest of them were inaugurated on January 20 and that goes against the original Constitution.They were both nuts. I saw them when I was tuning in for Stanley Tucci’s program, which is wonderful.

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  29. Suzanne said on March 1, 2021 at 4:10 pm

    Stanley Tucci’s program inspired me to make Pasta all’Amatriciana and it was superb! We had gotten half a hog a couple of years ago and included was smoked jowl. I had no clue what to do with it but kept it in the freezer anyway. We watched Tucci’s program on Rome and there it was! Pasta using guanciale which is basically smoked jowl meat!

    Here is the recipe I used.
    https://thetakeout.com/recipe-pasta-all-amatriciana-italian-1830624046

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  30. Sherri said on March 1, 2021 at 4:13 pm

    Fred Clark adds some helpful context to both the Madison Cawthorn story and to the discussion about why people believe crazy shit.

    https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2021/03/01/when-madison-cawthorn-sort-of-went-to-a-sort-of-college/

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  31. Deborah said on March 1, 2021 at 4:44 pm

    From Sherri’s link about Cawthorn:

    “Harvest Prude is a political reporter for WORLD’s Washington Bureau. She is a World Journalism Institute and Patrick Henry College graduate. Harvest resides in Washington, D.C.”

    Now that’s quite a name.

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  32. Heather said on March 1, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    Icarus @19–yeah, I live in Chicago. That was in Horner Park. I live a bit west of there.

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  33. Dave said on March 1, 2021 at 5:12 pm

    Inauguration Day became January 20 starting in 1937 so it makes perfect sense that those two had no idea what they were talking about.

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  34. LAMary said on March 1, 2021 at 5:50 pm

    They were Q believers too.

    I just had leftover Amatriciana for lunch. There wasn’t much leftover but it made a nice lunch.

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  35. alex said on March 1, 2021 at 6:22 pm

    Amatriciana was my fave dish at the old Angelina’s on Broadway and Addison. I sure miss that place.

    That Star-Spangled Banner rendition was like a klaxon at the volunteer fire department, the kind they play before a tornado or something. Fitting that it portended the natural disaster that is CPAC.

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  36. Deborah said on March 1, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    My first watching/listening to the CPAC anthem made me think that the young woman had a disability of some kind and when I read about people mocking her I thought it was rude and cruel, but I’m not sure now that she had/has a disability, that they just thought she was talented. Which of course says a lot about their judgment. Who the heck is she?

    We’ve had a nice sunset sitting in our perch next to the lake.

    All the comments about Italian food is making me hungry.

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  37. Dexter Friend said on March 1, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    Suzanne, that video cracked me up, so much fun the dude Kevon brought to it.

    I just had an early dinner of steamed pork pot stickers and vegetable fried rice from the local Chinese place. It’s never outstanding but it ain’t too awful bad.

    I am so used to just jumping into Hulu, HBOMax, Prime, Netflix and never having to search long to find a good movie, I forgot all about The Globies. I did remember to watch “Family Guy”. “The Simpsons” was pretttty lame.

    OK…so the GOP has Trump for life; Trump says a new Trump party was all fake news, and the GOP is staunchly against the recovery act, and any future aid to people in need. When I was a 14 year-old “Young Democrats” member and handing out LBJ campaign literature in summer-’64, and when Barry Goldwater and Extremism were slaughtered at the ballot box , Goldwater retreated and never acted like Trump is doing. Most Democrats ridiculed Goldwater’s rants and nonsense, then moved on when Goldwater conceded very, very early on election night. Man, I actually believed that was the way it was going to be… was I ever wrong.

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  38. Deborah said on March 1, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    I googled it, her name is Sailor Sabol (another interesting name). She lives in Orlando and is available to sing at weddings and such. It was reported by some that she was Ted Cruz’s dog walker but Snopes says that’s false.

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  39. susan said on March 1, 2021 at 6:50 pm

    Suzanne @22, that guy is good! and hilarious.

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  40. Julie Robinson said on March 1, 2021 at 6:52 pm

    If you live in Orlando, my kids are available to sing at weddings too. My daughter can even perform the ceremony.

    I would argue that someone with such bad pitch does have a disability.

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  41. LAMary said on March 1, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    Alex, Amatriciana is really easy. I use pancetta instead of guanciale. There may be a place in LA that sells guanciale but I haven’t found it. Pancetta I can get at Sprouts or Whole Paycheck. The local Italian bakery/deli has it too, as well as some unusual pasta cuts and good olives.

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  42. Dexter Friend said on March 2, 2021 at 12:47 am

    I thought Prince Harry & Meghan lived in Canada but actually they are now in Santa Barbara, and this video is just nice. James Corden and “Hares” tour L.A. and finish with an obstacle course. Harry is in great physical shape. Fun stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oxlCKMlpZw

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  43. Sherri said on March 2, 2021 at 2:45 am

    I read Donald (don’t call me Don) McNeil’s entire 4-part 20,000+ word rationalization for why it wasn’t at all racist for him to have used the n-word. Mike Pesca also wants to have long discussions about when he can use the n-word legitimately.

    The answer is so simple for both of them, as Margaret Sullivan lays out: don’t. You’re white men, that word is not for you. Don’t let it leave your lips. If you feel overcome by an urge to say it, restrain yourself. I know this is confusing to you, because, as white men, you’re not used to being told something is off limits, but it’s just one word. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/mike-pesca-donald-mcneil-n-word-media/2021/02/24/fe89d010-76a1-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html)

    It’s not like we’re asking you to talk less and make room for other voices or anything (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/18/men-interrupt-women-tokyo-olympics/

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  44. Dorothy said on March 2, 2021 at 7:35 am

    My son texted me a screen shot yesterday afternoon about the Ohio governor announcing that ages 60+ are eligible to be vaccinated as of this Thursday. I jumped on my computer so fast and was able to snag a double appointment this Thursday for my husband and I. It was pure luck and being on the right website at the right time I have an idea these might be J&J shots so wouldn’t that be great to have one and done? I didn’t get very emotional yesterday because I had some guys here for our seasonal check up on the heating and A/C units. I held myself together so those guys wouldn’t think I was nuts. But this morning I guess it caught up with me. I just melted into teariness when I said out loud “I feel like I’m dreaming that we’re going to get our shots in a couple of days!”

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  45. nancy said on March 2, 2021 at 8:37 am

    I’d disagree with you on Donald McNeil, Sherri. I too waded through that piece, and let me just say: For a guy who spends many paragraphs complaining about editors, it could have used one. But the outcome of that case — McNeil forced to resign — was insane. He is an incredibly talented journalist, and his work on Covid in the past year was absolutely Pulitzer-worthy. For his career to crash and burn like this seems a spectacular waste of talent.

    Leaving aside when and whether it is ever OK for a white person to say that word, in any context, anywhere — can you speak it in court testimony? can it be written in a historical text? — it seems the NYT management has utterly lost control of their own newsroom.

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  46. Deborah said on March 2, 2021 at 9:03 am

    Me too Dorothy, I get choked up every time I think about getting our shots Thursday. I don’t care which brand, I just want it in my arm.

    Have any of you watched The Bureau? I keep hearing how good it is, it’s 5 seasons so it will be a commitment.

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  47. Icarus said on March 2, 2021 at 9:56 am

    Leaving aside when and whether it is ever OK for a white person to say that word, in any context, anywhere…

    what about a white kid growing up in the hood, decades before the Age of Wokeness? Asking for me. One summer I recall we threw the phrase “N—– are you high” around back and forth, black to Puerto Rican, PR to White boy, etc. a bunch of 11 yr olds playing pickup baseball in a parking lot.

    Heather, I had a condo at Montrose and Kimball from 2003 – 2014, so that is probably where I heard about the impromptu ice skating rink

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  48. Suzanne said on March 2, 2021 at 10:09 am

    I never knew that Vernon Jordan earned his undergrad degree from DePauw U. So many odd connections to my life. When he was shot in Fort Wayne, the daughter of the woman who was driving the car he was in went to my high school and I delivered the good old Fort Wayne newspaper to Dr Jeff Towles who helped save his life. I collected the newspaper money from him many times back then when you had to go door to door for it. His house was in a housing addition across the street from my home; it was a big deal when a black family moved in. As I recall, they were very nice to the paper carrier.

    Life has so many strange intersections.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/vernon-jordan-dead/2021/03/02/b633fb82-4b79-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html

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  49. LAMary said on March 2, 2021 at 10:21 am

    Andrew Rosenthal, son of Abe, agrees about the NYT newsroom. He was the opinion page editor and a reporter at the Times before that and he regularly rips the Times on facebook. He likes Maggie Haberman. At least I haven’t seen anything bad he’s written about her.

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  50. alex said on March 2, 2021 at 11:19 am

    What I’ll always remember about Vernon Jordan was Katharine Graham and Mike Wallace using the word “pussy” on national television. They were quoting Vernon Jordan’s response when he was asked what he and Bill Clinton talk about on the golf course.

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  51. alex said on March 2, 2021 at 11:44 am

    Indiana just lowered the vaccination age to 55. I’m gonna get mine ASAP.

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  52. Mark P said on March 2, 2021 at 11:53 am

    CPAC’s use of the Nazi odal or othala rune shape for their speaker’s platform cannot possibly have been anything but intentional by someone in the organization. The wiki says this:

    “In November 2016, the leadership of the National Socialist Movement announced their intention to replace the Nazi-pattern swastika with the Odal rune on their uniforms and party regalia in an attempt to enter mainstream politics.”

    Looks like they made it.

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  53. Scout said on March 2, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    My congressman, Greg Stanton, sent out an email last night informing that AZ has opened up to 55+ for vaccines now. The appointments will be available online at noon today. I’m betting the system will be quickly overloaded but I’m going to try.

    My spouse got her first shot last week and has, so far, been unable to schedule her second dose. Supposedly the site where she got the first jab will have appointments available to book starting tomorrow.

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  54. Sherri said on March 2, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    Donald McNeil is an outstanding science reporter. I didn’t get the sense that his career crashed and burned over saying the n-word, but over an accumulation of incidents of being an asshole and never thinking he was ever in the wrong. It wasn’t that he said the n-word, it’s that he wouldn’t just apologize for it without a lengthy rationalization to make clear he had done nothing wrong.

    Having dealt with many asshole geniuses, I shed no tears for their demise.

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  55. ROGirl said on March 2, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    And assholes who think they’re geniuses.

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  56. alex said on March 2, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    Well, I couldn’t get scheduled until March 26 at the earliest.

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  57. Julie Robinson said on March 2, 2021 at 1:33 pm

    Alex, my appointment is for March 16, and I made it a week ago when they opened up to 60 & above. Scout, here they are scheduling the second appointment while you’re getting your first. So simple it’s brilliant, and frees up the appointment system overload.

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  58. Scout said on March 2, 2021 at 1:51 pm

    Julie – Most of the POD locations here also schedule the second appt immediately while you’re getting the first shot, but the place my wife went to didn’t do it that way. Not sure why. There is no consistency to how this is being done here. It’s wildly all over the place.

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  59. Sherri said on March 2, 2021 at 2:00 pm

    Even had Donald McNeil been fired just for saying the n-word, well, welcome to the real world, white man. The outrage always seems so much greater over white men getting fired than when it’s a black woman getting fired. There have been more words spilled over James Damore being fired at Google than over Google firing the people who organized walkouts at Google, or over Google firing Timnit Gebru, a leading AI Ethics researcher who was critical of Google.

    I have a lot of problems with Dean Baquet and have questioned how he has kept his job at the Times, but I’m not sure what “control over the newsroom” means.

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  60. Scout said on March 2, 2021 at 2:13 pm

    Got an appointment! This coming Sunday night at 10:45PM.

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  61. David C said on March 2, 2021 at 2:30 pm

    Wisconsin hasn’t opened up for 60 year olds let alone 55 year olds and seem determined not to any time soon. Now the Rs in the legislature are trying to pass a bill requiring it. The lege hasn’t even bothered to meet in the past year but now they are. The Governor’s administration is sniffing that they’re not going to play politics with it. I’m thinking are they trying to lose elections. People my age are hearing other states opening up to our age group and they’re getting angry about it. So the Rs are going to pass a law so either Gov. Evers signs it and they’ll take credit or vetoes it and takes the blame. It’s typical Democratic own goals.

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  62. Colleen said on March 2, 2021 at 2:51 pm

    Husband has finally managed to get an appointment for the vaccine thru CVS. He has to drive to Plant City to get it, however.

    I think I was in middle school when Jordan was shot. The man across the street from us was the attorney for the woman he was with that evening…he even kept her car secreted away at his house for a few days.

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  63. LAMary said on March 2, 2021 at 2:55 pm

    When I got my first shot they gave me a date for the second but not a time. I was told they would contact me with the time and a confirmation, which they did. Considering the volume done at that site they are incredibly efficient. https://tinyurl.com/47rr766s

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  64. Dave said on March 2, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    We have appointments for our first and second shot, tomorrow and again on the 24th. We have to drive to Largo, about 15 miles south of us but a good half hour drive. 11 AM.

    Meanwhile, a friend who lives in Virginia Beach got his second shot today.

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  65. Dorothy said on March 2, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    How many days after the first shot do they schedule the second one? I’m asking because if it’s three weeks, I might have to ask for a time slot in the morning. I have three afternoons of training three weeks after my first shot, and I can’t miss the training. I need to learn this new system for the summer months when I’m the only secretary in the office. I hope I’ll have that option – to request a morning appointment rather than an afternoon one.

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  66. LAMary said on March 2, 2021 at 7:15 pm

    It’s different depending on if you get pfizer or moderna. Pfizer was four weeks judging by the appointments they set up for me.
    I think Moderna is shorter.

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  67. Jeff Borden said on March 2, 2021 at 7:25 pm

    I see Texass is going all in. No restrictions on anything. Yeehaw! Freedumb! The Lone Star state is edging ahead of Floriduh for the looniest of our states.

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  68. Deborah said on March 2, 2021 at 7:29 pm

    Yay! Lots of us are getting our shots. This is fantastic.

    I’m all in already on “The Bureau” it’s really good.

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  69. Julie Robinson said on March 2, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    Pfizer is three weeks, Moderna is four. Mom got Pfizer and her appointments were three weeks apart.

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  70. Mark P said on March 2, 2021 at 9:42 pm

    We got an email from the hospital where my wife had surgery in December. They’re setting up a vaccination clinic for employees and people over 65. They apparently are emailing anyone who has had treatment at the hospital. They set up 15-minute blocks from around 8 am though noon for this Friday and next Friday. They’re taking 25 people at a time. I signed us up for Friday.

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  71. alex said on March 2, 2021 at 10:13 pm

    Might not have to wait until March 26. Some of the nearby rural counties have no wait at all.

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  72. susan said on March 2, 2021 at 10:55 pm

    Yep, I had both the Pfizer shots, three weeks apart; and Moderna shots are four.

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  73. LAMary said on March 3, 2021 at 12:06 am

    My pfizer shots were on January 30 and February 27. Four weeks. Maybe there were no available slots on the 20th.

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  74. Sherri said on March 3, 2021 at 12:10 am

    Getting some serious vaccine envy here. Still 65 and above here.

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  75. Diane said on March 3, 2021 at 12:12 am

    Colorado just opened up for 60+ year olds and my husband and I just got appointments for the J&J shot this Friday. It is a drive-thru appointment 7 minutes from my office.

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  76. Dexter Friend said on March 3, 2021 at 2:05 am

    It’s still sketchy, so if you can find a slot for your shot, drop everything, cancel everything, and make sure you get the shot. I had a great experience, no frustration, all caring and professional, just a breeze. I was told it was all set up by one woman in the county health department. Whoever she is, I’ll give her an A+.

    Cuomo. Well, not much to say. I thought of Al Franken, who immediately resigned from the US Senate after his accuser complained and Franken admitted wrongdoing, then later wished he would have apologized and then tried to hang onto his Senate seat. Man, the dogs are on Cuomo. I was surprised at the vitriol from De Blasio. He wants Cuomo gone. It is bad.

    “Nomadland”(Hulu) , so thought-provoking I watched it again, 4 days after the first time. A different indie for sure. First movie I watched twice in a row since “The Irishman”.

    I’ve been paying off debts since Carla Lee passed in January and just wondered, have any of you known a friend or someone you knew who hit a big lotto prize? The lottos have been around for about 50 years and I knew and have known many people who hit large lottery payouts. Yeah, I am a player and I never won more than $250 a few times, years and years ago. 47 years ago a woman at work hit $2M and left Fort Wayne for Phoenix, forever. A friend’s brother hit $6M , 20 years ago, and a woman I worked with for 28 years scratched a $1M instant ticket in the Waterloo, IN liquor store about 10 years ago. I know many more…it’s now clear that for most , the lotto games are for suckers; to wit: I have been a sucker since Gerald Ford was President. Ha, jokes on me.

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  77. David C said on March 3, 2021 at 6:03 am

    My niece’s in-laws hit the lotto for 10 million or thereabouts. It broke up their marriage. He’s a spender and she’s a saver and his burn rate became intolerable to her. So he’s skint. She’s doing fine.

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  78. Connie said on March 3, 2021 at 6:59 am

    My husband had his second Pfizer shot yesterday at the Ann Arbor VA and is feeling the aches and pains this morning. My first appointment is at a RiteAid next week. I have been on the county seniors list, the local hospital list and a Meijer list, but finally went out and found my own appointment. Riteaid was consistently filled up around here, so I tried Flint and got an apptment halfway there where my SIL lives. Lunch date! We haven’t seen each other since a porch get together the day before Thanksgiving.

    And my daughter has a new job! She is leaving the marijuana testing lab and taking her MSES to a national environmental testing and hazardous waste company.

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  79. alex said on March 3, 2021 at 7:22 am

    Al Franken was an honorable man. He also wasn’t guilty of wanton sexual aggression. He was a victim of a right-wing bomb-thrower who didn’t give a shit about Franken’s gesticulations on an old Polaroid until she saw an opportunity to exploit it.

    Marijuana testing? Sounds like a dream job. I didn’t know one needed a science degree to be a connoisseur.

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  80. Connie said on March 3, 2021 at 8:58 am

    Alex, legal marijuana in Michigan must be inspected by a state licensed lab. She has never been a connoisseur. She thinks pot makes people stupid.

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