I said I was going to let the universe decide whether I’d be taking the Badger home, and the universe said: No. The ship was sold out for cars, although I could have hopped aboard as a plain old human being. Unwilling to tow my Subaru across Lake Michigan in a dinghy, however, I had to drive home, but that is fine. It meant two hours or so of WXRT on the radio, and I defied Google’s suggestion that I take I-294 through the west suburbs, opting instead for I-94 through the city. It meant some delays, but nothing head-hurting. The Chicago skyline is my very favorite, and definitely worth a few minutes sitting in sludge.
Then a stop at Redamak’s in New Buffalo for a greasy-burger lunch, and another in west Michigan for fruit, and it was a very tolerable 6.5 hours behind the wheel.
It was great to see old friends; we’ve been separated too long. I only wish it hadn’t been so dang humid.
And now I’m back home, living in chaos, as we wait for the floor-refinishers to get here. In the interim Alan has been doing work in the room, so it’s not like we’re sitting here like lumps. But Alan hates the guest-room bed and I hate the fact that some of my clothes are here and some are there and some are god-knows-where. The dressers are crammed into my office room, and everything behind them is unreachable. I have two pairs of earrings to wear — a tragedy, I know — but one of the consolations of being, um, older is that you know where all your shit is, and you generally have it together. Not now.
OK, so while I consider how I want to spend the rest of the day, have some bloggage:
Say what you will about Beto, but he knows how to seize the moment.
I imagine the Trump inner circle these days being something like the last third of “The Departed,” where Leo DiCaprio is essentially shitting himself from stress over being a rat.
I read little nonfiction in book form, because I spend all day in a firehose of nonfiction in my work life, but this book sounds like it might be worth a visit to the library, whenever it arrives:
“Thank You for Your Servitude” concentrates less on the MAGA true believers — the likes of Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene — than on the twisted and tormented souls in the Republican establishment who could have prevented Trump’s hostile takeover of the party but didn’t. Such Republicans, in Leibovich’s assessment, “made Trump possible” and they “refused to stop him even after the U.S. Capitol fell under the control of some madman in a Viking hat. It was always rationalization followed by capitulation and then full surrender. The routine was always numbingly the same, and so was the sad truth at the heart of it: They all knew better.”
So why did they go along? The usual Washington factors of greed, ambition and opportunism, for starters. Kevin McCarthy, who unwisely spoke to Leibovich at length and with considerable candor, made clear he would endure any humiliation at Trump’s hands and sacrifice any principle in pursuit of becoming House speaker. “Once McCarthy wins,” in Leibovich’s view, “nothing else matters: He will have made it.” Senator Lindsey Graham turned from Trump critic to lapdog out of a desire “to try to be relevant,” he told Leibovich, as well as a pragmatic understanding that his re-election depended upon Trump’s blessing and his base. Others submitted out of both fear and fascination; Leibovich notes the mystique that Trump, as “a pure and feral rascal,” held for rule-bound, easily shamed politicians.
Oy, these people.
OK, half of Thursday, Friday and the weekend await. Enjoy yours, and I’ll be back Sunday-ish.
jcburns said on August 11, 2022 at 11:11 am
I think the universe was right on the ferry thing. I remember that Sammy and I checked once, and holy moly, that was a lot of money to cross Lake Michigan.
(Especially since we’re used to reasonably priced ferries in Washington state and New England.)
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susan said on August 11, 2022 at 11:19 am
Al Franken interviewed Mark Leibovich for his last Sunday’s podcast. Made me want to read that book, too! Better, I think, would be to listen to him read it, if that is an option.
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Julie Robinson said on August 11, 2022 at 11:25 am
The last two days have been spent in a deep dive on the candidates on our ballot, and it’s been quite an eye opener. Not only did I research the Democrats, but helped my mom on the Republican side, and so have also accomplished my research for the general election. (Spoiler: I can’t vote for any of the R’s.)
Mom registered R despite her unhappiness with the national party; somehow she thought the locals would be more like the party of her youth? She reads the paper every day but was still shocked when she learned their individual platforms. (Second spoiler: they are ALL awful.)
So on and on we went, digging further when we saw something we didn’t know about, for example a judge candidate who formerly worked for what I call a fake Christian insurance company. They take money from pastors and church workers for medical needs, then say they will cover large medical bills. Only they don’t. The complaints run for page after page after page.
Then there was the gubernatorial candidate who seemed the best of four choices on the D side, until I found her Facebook page and her proposal for putting the state’s savings into cryptocurrency. Aieeeee!!!
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jcburns said on August 11, 2022 at 11:28 am
Didn’t you say that at the end of the last post, Julie?
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Jeff Borden said on August 11, 2022 at 12:00 pm
The S.S. Badger is a charming nod to yesteryear, but environmentalists would like to see it scuttled. It’s the last coal-burning ship operating in the Great Lakes and until a few years ago, it was dumping all its coal ash into lovely Lake Michigan. The ash is now saved and deposited in a landfill for use in cement. Only special legislation by Michigan and Wisconsin keeps it legal while still producing black coal smoke. The owners say they are compliant with environmental laws and have no plans to convert to a cleaner form of fuel.
Regarding the tRumpanzees and their fetish for a civil war, I think it’s fair to expect occasional terrorist acts committed by the MAGAts in their zeal to defend their orange idol. Another truck bombing outside a federal court or FBI facility, for example, as we saw used in Oklahoma City by a disgruntled white supremacist whose bible was “The Turner Diaries.” But the idea these goobers would give up the comforts of home, hearth and Cracker Barrel for an extended war against their fellow citizens seems unlikely. It wouldn’t be like “Red Dawn” in their masturbatory dreams, but a hard, trying and frustrating life on the run for those wannabe Meal Team Six fighters.
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LAMary said on August 11, 2022 at 12:27 pm
Pre driver’s license days I used to ride my bike to Greenport, NY, near the end of the north fork of Long Island. From there I could take the Shelter Island Ferry to the very quaint and old school posh island between the two forks. If I felt very energetic I’d take the Montauk ferry to the south fork and go to the beach there. Much bigger waves there then at the Peconic Bay beach I was accustomed to.
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Suzanne said on August 11, 2022 at 12:37 pm
Someone already tried to attack the Cincinnati FBI office. Took what? 48 hours of Fox & buddies & sitting members of Congress screaming that the FBI was corrupt and needed to be closed down.
https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/gun-wielding-suspect-makes-threats-at-fbi-building-in-cincinnati-reports-say-ohio-interstate-71-clinton-warren-county-state-road-emergency-management-agency-transportation-waynesville
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Julie Robinson said on August 11, 2022 at 12:43 pm
jc, I did repeat myself, since I posted two minutes before Nance.
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jcburns said on August 11, 2022 at 12:48 pm
but you can read the first posting just fine…
Just my opinion, but you don’t have to “move it up.”
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Bitter Scribe said on August 11, 2022 at 1:55 pm
I’ve been rereading Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men,” a thinly disguised novel about Huey Long. Willie Stark, the book’s Long stand-in, is unlike Trump in important ways: he’s smart and not personally corrupt. But, like Trump, he assumes that all the politicians he deals with are corrupt, power-mad or both, and like Trump, he’s seldom wrong.
That description of DiCaprio in “The Departed” also fits his role in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
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Deborah said on August 11, 2022 at 2:02 pm
Tajalli, from the last thread, LB is a huge Gaiman fan. We listened to Neverwhere on one of our road trips, which I enjoyed. She had not read the graphic novels but every book he’s written she has read. Also she met him once when he was in Santa Fe and got a selfie with him.
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Jeff Gill said on August 11, 2022 at 4:29 pm
JC, I get the efficiency argument, but I’m with Julie on Satchel Paige grounds: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
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jcburns said on August 11, 2022 at 4:44 pm
I’m not making an efficiency argument, I’m making a “if you posted it last night and Nancy does a new entry minutes later, BE OK WITH THAT!!” argument.
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Jeff Gill said on August 11, 2022 at 4:46 pm
Posted with a smile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGDBExKA3jA
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tajalli said on August 11, 2022 at 5:36 pm
Deborah, what a treat it would be to meet him.
Jeff, the only acceptable waffles are for breakfast. 🙂
I didn’t mind Julie redoing her post – it could be viewed as a courtesy so that if someone wished to comment, we can all stay on the same page to reference it – the corrollary to Page’s never look back is the KISS method – keep it simple stupid.
Julie, you would have been horrified by the lack of qualifications and general wackiness of the absolute plethora of Democratic hopefuls for the Governor Newsom recall vote. I figured out the way to go was to just write Newsom in as my choice at the bottom, instead of voting for a wacko of any stripe. That way, he could replace himself. 😉
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Julie Robinson said on August 11, 2022 at 9:37 pm
My mom threatened to write in our daughter for several of the Republican candidates as a protest.
Just got home from a candidate meeting that our niece was sponsoring. We are just out of the district but we were supporting her, plus she needed some help providing food. And our daughter ended up educating the candidate about a law she’s pushing for as part of her advocacy work with Bread for the World. It’s to allow men and women in prison to apply for SNAP (used to be called food stamps) so they can get food their first day out. Right now they have to get out, establish an address, then apply. There’s a 6-8 week lag time, so if you don’t have a job and you don’t have family/friends who can feed you, you have to find a food bank or maybe commit another crime. It should be a no-brainer, but…
We took three food items over–some fruit, some pita and hummus, and a crock pot of meatballs. The family is vegan, all except grandpa who lives with them, and I think he ate half of them. There were five left in the crockpot when we left, and he asked if he could have them for lunch tomorrow. Our meat brought him joy.
Nothing against vegans, by the way. I am mostly vegetarian but you will have to pry cheese out of my cold, dead hands.
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jcburns said on August 11, 2022 at 10:07 pm
I don’t think of it as a courtesy.
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alex said on August 11, 2022 at 10:19 pm
Entertaining out-of-town company this weekend and it’s quickly morphing into a major party which is fine because we love entertaining and the weather promises to be perfect. Paella on the menu.
My brother was in town to visit Dad and took him out for breakfast with one of Dad’s former colleagues, a University of Michigan law grad, who’s now a Trumper, election denier and Born Again Christian much to the shock and dismay of both my brother and dad. The guy foisted some religious/political literature on them that was so foul I wanted to bathe after merely being in its presence.
Dad was complaining that most of his friends are dead, but he hasn’t said how many are simply dead to him.
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brian stouder said on August 11, 2022 at 11:30 pm
My God. Truly – no exaggeration – My God!!!…..the BREAKING NEWS of this moment is about what the FBI was looking for at Trump’s residence…………and what that treasonous disgraceful shit-for-brains idiot was rat-holing for his Russian friends
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A. Riley said on August 12, 2022 at 12:15 am
brian stouder — I know. It’s the most horrifying thing. I thought the boxes of stuff he took were probably souvenirs, silverware, and pictures of himself, etc., etc. Shoplifting and vanity items. But ultra-top-secret nuclear files?!?!?!
I cannot imagine how the magas will deal with what their goblin king has actually done.
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MarkH said on August 12, 2022 at 12:34 am
tajalli’s post got me wondering – with our former president finally, truly teetering, eventually unraveling, will the Dems have someone really ready next year for the White House in 2024. Sorry, folks, despite recent ‘victories’, Biden shouldn’t run and I believe he won’t. For someone non-polarizing, not named Newsom and age-appropriate, may I submit Deval Patrick. I have no idea of his interest in this, have not seen his name put out anywhere, but he tried (kinda sorta) in ‘20 and got my attention. Check out this CV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deval_Patrick
Pipe dream?
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tajalli said on August 12, 2022 at 3:46 am
Thanks for the link to Deval Patrick, who seems quite solid. That Biden were younger and could go another 4 years, but it’s not wise.
My concentration is for steadying our democracy, which apparently needs decades of re-education and reassurance for the deeply fearful right wingers that they will still have a full meal and a slice of pie available when everyone else has been seated and served. Their crazy is deep and saddening.
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David C said on August 12, 2022 at 6:40 am
Deval Patrick? $80 billion worth of subprime mortgages Deval Patrick? Bain Capital Deval Patrick? No thanks. We can do better than that.
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alex said on August 12, 2022 at 7:18 am
Trump selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. Guess you could call the raid a “fission expedition.”
Ba-dump-ump.
(I stole that.)
I can totally see it though. Probably sealed the deal years ago and delivered on it too. And if so, that motherfucker won’t be lying in state after they fry his ass.
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JodiP said on August 12, 2022 at 8:43 am
It’s *always* about the money with Trump. Those docs are incredibly valuable and he would have no scruples selling to the highest bidder. He’s had since taking office in 2017 to sell information. How could we ever find out what’s already gone to market?
Speaking of grifters, don’t get me started on Jared and the sweet deal with the Saudis. From the opening paragraph of a Vanity Fair article: “Kushner’s four years of Saudi ass-kissing and murder-excusing had paid off in the form of a $2 billion investment from the kingdom‘s sovereign wealth fund to his newly formed private equity firm.”
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Mark P said on August 12, 2022 at 8:59 am
I read the CNN report on the MaL search, and the key point was not that the FBI was looking for nuclear weapons information, but that the National Archives had already seen such materials there and told the FBI about it. If the report is accurate, then we don’t have to wait for release of the search warrant and list of materials the FBI recovered, it’s already known that he had them. If the report is true, there is a five-year sentence waiting for Trump, and potentially life in prison.
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jcburns said on August 12, 2022 at 10:02 am
I think the Vice-President would make a fine President.
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Jeff Borden said on August 12, 2022 at 10:16 am
Everything about tRump is transactional. I figured he’s steal everything from official documents to the White House linens because he’s always grifting, stealing, conning. But word these are nuclear documents –so highly classified and top secret that government officials can’t even vaguely describe them– puts him squarely into traitor territory. We know he enjoys playing the big shot, giving away Israeli intelligence to the Russian foreign minister and American ambassador in the Oval Office within weeks of his taking office. We’ve seen him accept the word of a murderous tyrant like Putin over his own intelligence services. Why wouldn’t he peddle a few nuclear secrets or, perhaps, the names of American intelligence operatives in sensitive parts of the world if he can make a buck? He absolutely is the absolute worst president in the history of our country. His depravity is bottomless.
Tajalli is absolutely correct. Way too many people in this country have no idea what it means to be a citizen, what their responsibilities to their nation and fellow citizens are, why our laws are written and should be followed, what an active democracy looks like. Fuck CRT and “woke” teachers and all the other bullshit that infuriates rightwingers . What we ought to be concentrating on is return to civics lessons starting in elementary school and built on through high school. We are desperately in need of Americans who actually understand how things work.
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Jeff Gill said on August 12, 2022 at 10:28 am
Meanwhile, I think of Jimmy & Rosalynn in their Plains, Georgia home eating egg salad off of paper plates (to simplify cleaning up), and asking the Secret Service outside if they need some water. 97 & 94, frail, but appreciating sunrises & sunsets & conversations with their neighbors. God bless them both.
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David C said on August 12, 2022 at 10:53 am
Agree, the VP would make a fine President. Even better jcburns, President Harris would make the right people shit bricks.
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Jeff Borden said on August 12, 2022 at 11:49 am
Elizabeth Warren was my choice in the primaries. Smart, focused, solution driven. Now, I’d judge her as too old. Kamala Harris would be a fine candidate, but is ‘Murica going to vote for a black woman?
Pete Buttieg has been the administration’s standout secretary. Extremely intelligent. Excellent speaker. Combat veteran. Young. Photogenic. Articulate. But, at this time, I don’t think ‘Murica will embrace a gay candidate for the highest office.
But Joe should know it’s time to go. Ruth Bader Ginsburg clung to her SCOTUS seat and look how that turned out. . .replaced by a priggish religious zealot for sees “The Handmaid’s Tale” as an
instructional manual.
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Deborah said on August 12, 2022 at 12:23 pm
OK, try this: Biden/Harris runs again in 2024 after a spectacular second half of his first term with high approvals, wins 2024, then in a year or less he resigns for health reasons and Kamela Harris becomes President. Then she does so well during the rest of that term, she gets elected for a second term. Not that Harris couldn’t win on her own in 2024, but that could perhaps make it a little easier. Of course the Republicans will be going apeshit all along the way, but they would be doing that no matter what.
Also, I think there’s going to be more rightwing inspired violence and it’s going to knock the Republicans out if there is. I certainly hope there’s no violence but if there is it could have consequences for the Republicans and they should be worried about it and try to quash it instead of encouraging it.
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Heather said on August 12, 2022 at 12:46 pm
I am back from a trip near Bar Harbor, Maine, where I stayed in a house that was near Leonard Leo’s, who is credited with helping to create the current population of the Supreme Court. There were protesters outside his place occasionally. Dude has 7 kids and a flag of the Virgin Mary flying alongside the American one. Not creepy at all.
Despite his presence, Maine is amazing and I highly recommend it. Where we stayed was incredibly idyllic, although with a definite undercurrent of white supremacy, as will happen in very wealthy old-money areas.
Deborah, I went to see Neil Gaiman speak this year at the Chicago Theatre. He was very charming. I loved the Sandman comic series and the book “The Ocean at the End of the World.”
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David C said on August 12, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Sounds good to me Deborah. Joe can resign on January 21, 2027 so Kamala can run for two full terms after serving out the the rest of Joe’s term.
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Suzanne said on August 12, 2022 at 1:29 pm
The only Neil Gaiman I have ever read was American Gods and I absolutely hated it. Maybe I need to try a different title of his.
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Jim said on August 12, 2022 at 2:17 pm
Alexandra Petri on tRump’s innocent reasons to have nuclear documents:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/12/trump-nuclear-documents-mar-a-lago-satire/
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Julie Robinson said on August 12, 2022 at 2:40 pm
Gaiman is not for everyone. I remember being enchanted by one of his early movies but couldn’t finish the book I tried later. I’ve seen a five minute segment of one Sandman episode, and could see that Netflix throw a crap ton of money at it.
Joe resigning in his second term would be a fine scenario, but it assumes he can get himself reelected. I still like Sherrod Brown.
Last night a friend told me she’s cut herself off from most of her family because they became MAGAts. Sounds like Alex’s dad will be doing that with his old pal too, and I bet every one of us has a similar story.
But for every democracy threatened story I’ll refer you to the high number of candidates in our upcoming primary. I am quite heartened by it.
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Jeff Borden said on August 12, 2022 at 3:16 pm
Julie R.—
It’s sad to see people you liked and admired go down the wormhole. I had a pal in Charlotte who became one of my best friends, one I stayed in touch with after my move to Chicago in 1989. He was a huge Bernie Sanders fan and was furious when the old dude didn’t wind up with the nomination. Next thing I know, his Facebook is filling up with tRumpanzee poop and, after that, QAnon ravings. College graduate. Small businessman. Married. Sensible. For me, he’s the ultimate WTF? How can you go from rooting for an old Socialist from Vermont to believing Hillary Clinton is in a coven?
As the doctor says at the end of “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” as he surveys the numerous dead bodies and wreckage of the bridge, “Madness. Madness.”
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Icarus said on August 12, 2022 at 3:17 pm
I know we are waxing philosophical here, but I recall from high school civics that one can only be president for a max of 10 years: 2 or fewer years of someone else’s term, and two of your own.
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Little Bird said on August 12, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Suzanne, try Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, or Stardust. The last one was made into a movie with a pretty good cast. Gaiman probably isn’t for everyone. His sense of humor is pretty warped. I found Neverwhere somewhere years ago and fell in love with his storytelling style.
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Peter said on August 12, 2022 at 9:31 pm
Nancy, I wish I had known you were coming down I-94 – I’m. a couple of blocks away from one of the exits.
Then again, you were driving through Thursday morning, and I tested positive for Covid on Monday, and was told to take Paxlovid but to be VERY careful, as I have a heart condition, and they were right – I was on the phone to my doctor Thursday morning saying that I felt a bit dizzy when my heart skipped a beat.
My wife got me back up, and we went to the hospital, and I’m back home. The good thing about the Mar A Lago purloined letters is that it was the only good thing on the hospital TV.
I have to ask a dumb question – he’s had this material for almost two years. They knew the feds were on to them for over a year. Don’t they have a Xerox machine? If some papers are encrypted so you can’t copy them, they have a scanner. If they can’t scan, someone can photo them. If they can’t take a picture, Vlad could have sent a typist from the Miami consulate to type them out. How hard is that? How lazy can you be?
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Sherri said on August 12, 2022 at 10:15 pm
Trump has been a lesson in civics, day after day. I mean, how much did you know about the Emoluments Clause before he was elected? The details of exactly how the 25th Amendment could be invoked have been brought to our attention now. That the number of Supreme Court justices isn’t set in the Constitution was not something I realized before.
And now we’re going to learn more about the Espionage Act!
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jcburns said on August 12, 2022 at 10:22 pm
The Espionage Act! That’s waffle butt.
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Mark P said on August 12, 2022 at 11:38 pm
I used to have easy, regular access to classified information. If I had done half of what Trump has done, I would have gone to jail, no question. There is no way he can justify taking TS/SCI material and storing it in a closet at his residence. There simply is no excuse. In fact, any other person in the same situation would be in jail right now awaiting trial. The next few weeks and months will tell us whether laws actually do apply to everyone.
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Dexter Friend said on August 13, 2022 at 3:08 am
Biden’s remarkable recovery in the polls due to a string of massive victories lately has quelled the talk of replacing him on the ticket. I am a big fan of ‘Mayor Pete’ but his ship is taking on water as the airline industry near-collapse on Pete’s watch would be used against him if he sought the nomination. Harris was my last possible choice amongst the pool of women Biden could have chosen; I was pulling so hard for Stacey that I was disappointed. Well, she swung Georgia for the nation, so sometimes things just have to be. Harris has basically been silenced and shuffled off to her office, her vice presidency is nothing like what Bush assigned Cheney to do or how Obama had Joe so involved in so much.
I have been watching news all day with a few hours off to watch baseball. I am not surprised. I was screaming that Trump was and is a seditionist Russian full-on agent and a Putin poodle for years. I have always contended that Reagan’s amnesia over Iran-Contra and his hatred for unions and working people in general cemented him as the worst POTUS ever, worse than Harding even, but this guy Trump takes the crown. Have you seen these reports? Katyal, the lawyer who has worked with top-secret stuff in 2 administrations said documents like the FBI removed from Trump’s club+house could only be read in a secure room where everyone was searched, phones confiscated, and searched again as they left the room. On rare occasions when a secret doc was accidentally taken out of that room, the person had better have immediately reported it and been debriefed and had themselves investigated, to avoid a ten year stretch in a federal prison. For ONE piece of copied paper. Ten years minimum. Trump stole crates of this stuff. And he could not have waved his hand and declassified all this intel. Congress has to be informed and every printed word analyzed for the security of the Madisonian government.
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David C said on August 13, 2022 at 5:47 am
I’m security clearance adjacent. I work for a department that works with armor, a few in the department have security clearances but I don’t have one myself. Once though, on a package of drawings I was working on, we described the armor a little bit too clearly and all hell broke loose. There were feds crawling around the place for about a week. They took my computer away for a thorough scrubbing and I had to raise my right hand and swear to forget anything I might have seen. So whatever the multiplier is for nuclear secrets is how much trouble TFG is in. Quite a lot, I imagine.
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basset said on August 13, 2022 at 5:27 pm
Another example of how life can keep you humble: awhile back a British publisher contacted me looking for photos of Gentle Giant, an English prog band from the 70s; a shooter I shared a darkroom with back in the day had some and told the publisher I might have more. The pics would be for a big presentation-level box set, and while he wasn’t paying, we’d each have a credit in the finished product and would get a copy.
I did have a few pics from the one time I’d seen the band, and after a lot of negative scanning and talk back and forth I sent the publisher some files and forgot about it for awhile.
Yesterday, the package showed up and it was really something – ten LPs and a book in a big slipcase, pictures all over the place and I was honestly impressed. You can see where this is going, though… got down into the fine print and there was a credit for my friend but not for me. Publisher said it was an oversight and apologized several times, no big deal for me but I appreciated him saying that and figured it was just another one of those things. At least I didn’t get stiffed on a check; maybe they’ll change it in the second printing.
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Deborah said on August 13, 2022 at 6:37 pm
David C, what does it mean to work with armor? Does that mean armored vehicles?
Peter, I took paxlovid and had no problems, LB had a horrible rash on the fourth day of taking it, it took about a week and some prednisone for it to clear up. I’m still having issues with tiring easily still, after my second bout with Covid and that was over a month ago.
One of the architecture firms I worked for designed a US embassy, I don’t remember where, it was super hush hush, the architects who worked on it were sworn to silence and all kinds of security protocols. They also designed some retrofitted security solutions for some government buildings to keep terrorist vehicles from ramming into the them.
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David C said on August 13, 2022 at 8:06 pm
That’s correct, Deborah. I work on military trucks although most of my time now is devoted to the new postal truck. I once in a while get loaned out to the armor side but I usually work on interiors.
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Deborah said on August 13, 2022 at 8:50 pm
David C, I read somewhere that the new members of the board of USPS were gonna ditch the postal trucks that DeJoy ordered and are gonna purchase electric vehicles instead. True?
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David C said on August 13, 2022 at 9:12 pm
They’ve increased the percentage of EVs to 50% from 10%. We can produce 100% EVs if that’s what they order. There are a lot of people out there still carrying a torch for Workhorse, who proposed a 100% electric fleet but is a hot mess of a company. There’s a lot of nonsense flying around by people who don’t know how government contracts work.
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ROGirl said on August 14, 2022 at 8:03 am
If the product/part you design and/or produce is on the United States Munitions List (USML), it’s subject to export control known as ITAR (Int’l Traffic in Arms Regulations). The USML includes defense and space-related items. My company makes parts for the aerospace industry (we aren’t design responsible), so we have to register with the government annually and have a program to manage all the security requirements internally. There is also a new government cyber-security program for which companies will have to get certified.
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David C said on August 14, 2022 at 8:29 am
Yes, I have to take ITAR training every year. Probably 95% of what I work on is EAR (Export Administration Regulations which is administered by the Commerce Department instead of the State Department). The Obama Administration revised the regulations so fewer items need to be labeled as ITAR but it’s still a minefield because if you pick the wrong category you’re in for a world of hurt.
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MarkH said on August 14, 2022 at 2:40 pm
David C. @23 – Just curious, what research led you to equate Bain Capital and Deval Patrick to subprime mortgages? I’ve been looking and found nothing. Much perhaps to criticize about Bain and its investing activities, but no obvious evidence they participated in bundling mortgage-backed securities, and certainly no evidence Patrick participated in such activity. If I’ve missed something, please post. Patrick deserves props for his efforts in ‘impact investing’ through Bain Capital, though all did not go necessarily well. In any case, the positives in his CV outweigh anything else. Here’s one breakdown from Politico in 2019:
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/12/deval-patrick-bain-083986
And, given the tepidness here in some of the endorsements of other Democratic candidates, Patrick is still a viable option, imho. Pete’s time may come, but who knows when.
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David C said on August 14, 2022 at 4:39 pm
Mark, I didn’t remember exactly what it was before his name came up. I thought he was involved with Bain or some other vulture capital company but I didn’t know with what company and in exactly what capacity. I was looking at that when I saw his involvement in the company that owned Ameriquest. He defended his work there as helping to “reach the folks that had been unreached in getting access to capital, so that they could also own homes.”. That’s what they all said at the time but so many people never recovered financially after getting mortgages the company knew they couldn’t afford. That’s why he’s a hard no for me.
https://www.insider.com/deval-patrick-defends-work-for-subprime-mortgage-lender-2019-11
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Deborah said on August 14, 2022 at 4:51 pm
Wordle was impossible for LB and me today. Anyone else have problems?
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annie said on August 14, 2022 at 8:25 pm
yes, Deborah–for only the second time since I’ve been doing wordle, I never got the answer. Even tho I had the middle three letters by the third try.
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Suzanne said on August 14, 2022 at 9:18 pm
I, too, failed at Wordle. I had three of the letters but still couldn’t make sense of it. And it let me guess “ghazi”. Is that even a word??
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