DL Open Thread: Saturday, August 21, 2021
U-Va: No Vaccine, No School For You. Dis-enrolls 49 students who didn’t follow mandatory policy. Oh, well, there’s always Falwell U.
Krugman: ‘The Quiet Rage Of The Responsible’:
Also, it’s striking how quickly supposed conservative principles have been abandoned wherever honoring those principles would help rather than hurt attempts to contain the pandemic.
For decades, conservatives have insisted that business owners should have the right to do as they please — to hire and fire at will, to deny service to whomever they choose. Yet here we have Abbott threatening to pull the liquor licenses of restaurants that ask for proof of vaccination, even as Texas runs out of I.C.U. beds.
Conservatives have also championed local control of education — except, it turns out, when school districts want to protect children with mask rules, in which case MAGA governors want to seize control and cut off their funding.
Minnesota Rethuglican Party Implodes. Not even Politico can find a reason why Democrats should be in a state of panic:
The proximate cause of Carnahan’s departure was a firestorm that engulfed the party in recent days, after a GOP donor she was close to, Anton “Tony” Lazzaro, was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges. A pile-on ensued, with Carnahan, the wife of Republican U.S.Rep. Jim Hagedorn, accused by party officials and former staffers of running a toxic, retaliatory workplace, mismanaging party finances and, through the use of non-disclosure agreements, squashing transparency.
He added, “I don’t know if the party has hit rock bottom yet.”
There are reasons to think the party might not have. Even with Carnahan gone, Republicans are confronting what will likely be a monthslong slog of internal reviews and ongoing headlines about the saga — a drag on the party just over a year ahead of the midterm elections. In addition to the charges against Lazzaro, the chairwoman of the University of St. Thomas College Republicans was arrested on charges she assisted him in trafficking minors for sex, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Massachusetts Is Just Like Delaware When It Comes To Cops Just Stealing Stuff. In Delaware, AG Jennings says the policy is wrong, and that she’s directed her office to not participate in it. But the law is on the books–who is gonna step forward and get it taken off the books? The police who enforce this policy and who exclusively benefit from it will scream like stuffed pigs. C’mon, folks, this shouldn’t be that tough. Just. Do. It.
Man, Jeopardy Really Screwed Up This So-Called Search For Alex Trebek’s Successor:
And so Jeopardy, which will interrupt its own proceedings to correct a fact, failed to do basic research about the most elemental question before it. When it came to Richards, reporters did the work Sony itself should have done. The remaining second-string host, Bialik, has supported COVID-19 vaccines but also has a well-known history of vaccine skepticism. On the show, she will arbitrate scientific facts while having publicly doubted the workings of science. For another series, those disconnects might read as errors in casting. For Jeopardy, they read as betrayals of confidence. The show, this deeply nerdy little trivia game, is also a suggestion of the country’s fondest myths. In its world, one’s race, one’s gender, one’s class, one’s age, one’s appearance, one’s sexual orientation, one’s sense of personal style—these are all effectively irrelevant. All that matters, on Jeopardy’s stage, is what you know, and how willing you are to share that knowledge. Facts are stubborn things. Jeopardy understood that, until it didn’t.
What do you want to talk about?
I have always viewed Civil Forfeiture as legalized theft, a truly bizarre legal concept designed to fleece the weak, and then put up near insurmountable obstacles to get it back. That your money or property is charged and not you should be banned unto itself. I think the anti maskers are headed for a big fall in Texas and Florida, and all it’s going to take is sick or dying little kids and furious parent out for revenge. You know it’s going to happen as kids remain kids, we adults are their protectors, and that’s no what’s happening. Finally predict Mike Lindell winds up in the nut hut, jail, rehab or All three at some point. Sometimes you really can see it coming.
More Sadness. Anti-Masker Rethug Congress Critter Gets COVID:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/alabama-rep-barry-moore-who-boasted-about-defying-pelosis-mask-rule-gets-covid