DL Open Thread Thursday, August 19, 2021

Why would a guy, a Florida governor let’s say, dissuade people from getting vaccines or wearing masks, but go all-out on a treatment for people once they come down with Covid? Why do you think? Um…could it be that his second-biggest political donor owns a big chunk of the treatment company? Didn’t have to turn over many stones on that one, did we?

We’ve probably passed peak Biden Lost Afghanistan, but the media whining will undoubtedly have a long tail — well into this century there were still dead-enders claiming we could have won in Vietnam, though what we would have won remains a mystery. As a counterweight to all the bullshit, Charlie Pierce strolls through the Graveyard of Empires admiring the headstones, while David Cay Johnston uses China to show how else we could have spent 20 years and $2 trillion.

Another nail in the coffin of Postwrecker General Louis DeJoy — a federal judge ruled the postal service must turn over documents regarding his conflicts of interest to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which requested them under FOIA.

Rehoboth Beach, the Nation’s Summer Capital, apparently is as polarized as the year-round one. The city is home to the Clear Space Theatre, which wants to build a new facility on Rehoboth Avenue out near the traffic circle. It acquired the land. It has a state grant in hand. Twice it had plans approved by the city’s planning commission, only to see the approval overturned by city commissioners, so now the whole matter is in court and the town council is in turmoil. Yet after reading several articles and dozens of letters to the editor, I couldn’t track down a clear complaint about the project, only endless wrangling about process. It’s an object lesson in the perils of democracy.

In the latest installment of Yes, Virginia, It’s an Insurrection, a web site featuring maps of the tunnels beneath the Capitol was flooded with traffic as Jan. 6 approached and alerted the FBI about it — before the insurrection. I can’t wait for the Quinn Martin Production.

Just a periodic reminder that we aren’t ruining the planet with greenhouse gases alone. We doing some of our best destructive work in killing off pollinators like bees with chemicals that go unregulated even after they’re shown to cause harm. Bitter living through chemistry.

Is Larry David trying out new material for another season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”? Yes, judging by what happened when he bumped into Alan Dershowitz in the grocery store on Martha’s Vineyard, as relayed to the New York Post by an eyewitness.

Dershowitz: “We can still talk, Larry.”

David: “No. No. We really can’t. I saw you. I saw you with your arm around [Former Trump Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo! It’s disgusting!”

Dersh: “He’s my former student [at Harvard Law]. I greet all of my former students that way. I can’t greet my former students?”

David: “It’s disgusting. Your whole enclave — it’s disgusting. You’re disgusting!”

Cue music. Dershowitz takes off his T-shirt to reveal another T-shirt beneath that says, “It’s The Constitution Stupid!” and drives off in an old, dirty Volvo…annnnd, scene!

The floor’s yours.