A very Happy 64th birthday to you sir. Keep on keeping on! Love what the PS newspaper is becoming. Best thing to come out of tribune going to shit was you doing this and Mary continuing to share things like her annual rhyming assessment on fb ❤️ Raise a glass to 64 being younger and hipper than your nine year old self imagined, but also fuller and wiser and happier than we ever hoped at 9🥂
Happy Birthday! I will toast to your good health and fortune on this date, now and going forward. I was looking for something positive about today. So Cheers to you! I was wondering when stores changed their policies about not accepting returns for sale items. My sister's b-day is in January and I recall being unable to find clothes that were returnable back when we were teens.
If you want to see insurrection, look at the riots in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, etc. where some of the perpetrators and the organizations they were affiliated with actually expressed goals of overthrowing the government. Where insurrectionists actually laid siege to and destroyed a federal courthouse. Wish there was as much prosecutorial zeal and media attention placed on those much more serious "threats to democracy" that impacted the safety, livelihoods and well-being of ordinary citizens who didn't have bunkers to run to and "Capitol Police" to protect them.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, Jean. Would you call what happened in Portland et al insurrections and would you agree that the perpetrators of those events should be treated in the same fashion as the Jan. 6th perpetrators? If you do, then you and I have common ground.
I DO think for myself. But sometimes another person expresses my ideas/thoughts/opinions in such a way that sharing them from my own per/keyboard would be nothing but an exercise in contrived originality.
The whataboutism on display here is stunning. You're comparing a small band of violent agitators in remote cities carrying on in ways that were rebuked by people on both sides of the aisle with a violent incursion into the U.S. Capitol with the goal of overturning the free and fair and accurate national election. An attack that a huge proportion of Republicans -- probably you, Joe, I suspect -- continue to support and minimize; an attack that the Republicans in Congress refuses to help investigate and that Fox News sniffs was probably Antifa in disguise. Your failure to see the difference and to see what it sets the table for is truly alarming and yet representative of a very popular view among the Grand Old Seditionists. BLM et. al. are no threat to the democratic republic. You MAGA idiots are. I know you don't see the difference but it's very hard to care what you think given your impoverished powers of reasoning.
Thanks for the insults, Eric. When you don't like someone's point of view, just call him an idiot. The fact remains that I have seen the riots in the cities I've mentioned, experienced them firsthand in Chicago, and heard media miss-characterize them as "mostly peaceful", as if we should all believe what we are told as opposed to our own eyes. What I saw looked a lot like Kristallnacht. I will continue to characterize January 6th as a meaningless gesture by a bunch of miss-guided fools who gave power-hungry politicians and excuse to reach for more power. The events of Jan. 6th will pale in comparison to the lawlessness, destruction and divisiveness that proceeded from the events in those cities I mentioned, as well as in Chicago. It is much deeper than “what-aboutism” when threats to democracy manifest themselves in busting the filibuster, packing SCOTUS, freewheeling voting laws, decriminalization of crime and suppression of free speech. As you’ve seen, I have many more sources of news that I trust beyond your pejorative reference to Fox. All I can ask is that you broaden your perspective a bit.
I welcome anyone in this comments section to agree or disagree with me. Just don’t demean yourself by calling me an idiot and I won’t call you one either.
I didn't simply call you an idiot, I ended my argument with the only logical conclusion. You're a partisan fool. The violence and destruction in those street protests was deplorable yet plainly marginal, not a harbinger of anything major. Reforming and re-imagining the police is simply not comparable to an ongoing effort to rig elections by allowing partisan hacks to count or not count votes as they see fit. Anyone who sees things otherwise is ignorant. Anyone who trumpets those views is a fool. But maybe you'll begin to redeem yourself here by admitting that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States and that Trump is just a sore loser. Can you do it? If so, perhaps I will soften my assessment.
You don't know me, Eric. I am anything but partisan. I actually voted for Barack Obama. John Kerry too. I recognize foolishness when I see it, and Jan. 6th was foolishness and Trump's rhetoric to egg it on was dumb. Thank God for Mike Pence.. But some are following Rahm's advice to never let a crisis go to waste to achieve political outcomes. Those "street protests" were not marginal and they are having long term effects that you choose to ignore. If you could acknowledge that the BLM and Antifa protestors should be treated the same as the Jan. 6th fools then maybe we can find some common ground.
If you choose to respond, try not calling someone you have never met a fool because he disagrees with your point of view.
As a post script.....Biden is president till 2024. Disputing the 2020 election is a fools errand. But think about this:
If you believe in the integrity of mail-in voting then you should pay all your bills in cash via US Mail and write "Cash Enclosed" on the envelopes. When the money is stolen and the recipient says you didn't pay the bill, try and prove that you actually sent the cash.
Chain of custody and auditability do not exist in a mail-in process. You cannot prove integrity or lack thereof in such a process. In my view, the 2020 election result was at best suspect and it's integrity cannot be proven. But move on. As I said, a fools errand. And I am not a fool.
Eric, I'm not a fan of MAGA types, but you don't have to be one (or a Fox viewer) to believe that the January 6th riots and the others last summer are easily comparable and equally important. I hate to see you starting off your new venture with such hate-filled comments, but if your goal is to end up with your own echo chamber, then keep it up.
It's the complicity of those in power -- those in the White House and those high up in the Republican Party -- and the scope of the effort that makes the Jan 6 insurrection vastly more troubling and significant than street violence in the wake of George Floyd. This was not some isolated, marginal rampage by extremists ... it was OK'd and arguably orchestrated from within seats of power. But really, do take back the floor and explain why these two events are equally important and comparable.
And, by the way, I enjoy dialogue and reasoned discourse. I respect those with different opinions. But that doesn't mean I have to nod politely at nonsense.
My suspicion is that your mind is closed to any opposing argument, as you’ve already stooped to name-calling, indicating you’ve written off those with whom you disagree. Nevertheless, I’ll take the bait this time, as I really would like not to have to do the same with you. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t.
I contend the January 6th riots (yes, they were riots) are quite comparable to last year’s riots, which were in the wake of, but not necessarily solely related to the issues raised by the George Floyd incident. In both cases, people took to the streets for the purpose of calling attention to themselves and their grievances. Some wanted to do so peacefully, and others clearly did not. All of the riots resulted in property damage and assaults, and contributed to undermining the public’s sense of confidence in our constitutional system predicated on the rule of law. They all propagated the sense of a country in decay and seemed to show that we are quite alienated from one another. They all fostered a continuing and widespread feeling of dread among our citizens about our individual and collective futures.
You expressed concern that January 6th was “OK’d from within the seats of power”, and was not isolated. I’m not sure how prevalent the “OK” feeling was among Republicans in power. A number of them issued condemnations, including the second highest ranking one. I assume by saying that the rampage was not isolated or marginal, you are thinking of other rallies of Trump supporters. The difference was the attempt in Washington to use force to impede the congressional process of certifying the election. This, of course, is wrong and could not be tolerated.
The widespread and repeated incidents of lawlessness and violence associated with left-wing riots last summer are equally important. Just as with your strawman “OK” from the Republicans in the seats of power, there were widespread “OK’s” toward last year’s mobs from Democrats in power at all levels, including, now, the president. Kim Foxx’s picking and choosing which laws to enforce and Timothy Evans’ wholesale disregard for the law are at least as much a threat to our democracy (democratic republic, or whatever you want to call our system) as the break-ins at the Capitol. You have been right to criticize Foxx in the Smollett case. She deserves far more criticism and scrutiny for the way she mishandles her job in general. These dangerous people in power are also not marginal or isolated. Almost every major city has experienced the same lack of stewardship from their democratic public officials, who essentially thumb their noses at the constitution because they know better and have their own ideas of justice and equity, resulting in a very visible crumbling of society. Low expectations are dangerous. The attitude that “we’re just going to look the other way” and pretend your motives excuse your actions is not just nor is it constitutional. Such disdain for our system of laws and their enforcement from people who have been unwisely entrusted to preserve them may actually be more of a threat than the D. C. riots due to the pervasiveness of those views and actions within the seats of power.
For the D. C. riots, we get performative deep concern, application of the word “crisis” at every turn, and an indefatigable pursuit of the perceived bad actors. For the other riots, we get weak condemnations, followed by lack of follow through in bringing the lawbreakers to justice, total absence of support for the police and no hint of how future such problems will be prevented or better handled. One could argue that this lack of tangible concern among urban politicians is a much more important problem than the people who have a specific issue with Washington. It certainly does not instill confidence in a better future.
One thing we perhaps can agree on – there are large groups of misguided people. The pandemic has illustrated that people crave leadership and that both ends of the political spectrum are willing to follow terribly flawed people to when there’s a vacuum. That vacuum may be the biggest threat to democracy of all.
What I think you're missing is that an attack on a shoe store or even a police station is not analogous to an attack on a session of the U.S. Congress. And a sustained campaign -- now lasting more than a year -- to work from within to undermine voting rights and feed the lie that is election fraud claims is not analogous to efforts to reform policing. There have been quite a few prosecutions based on the vandalism and looting and arson in the streets, which has not, note, continued. Were there riots when Kyle RIttenhouse was acquitted? Those predictions fell flat. Have there been other campaigns of political violence on our streets since mid 2020? No. It's died down into routine protest and activism.
But are Republicans acting at nearly every level of government to erode voting rights and install partisan hacks on election boards? Yes. How close did we get last summer to any sort of true rebellion that would have changed anything? Answer, not very close at all. But how close did this crowd get to murdering lawmakers? Awfully close.
If Jan. 6 had been a one off eruption I might buy into your shrugging it off. If the street protests of 2020 had any logical connection to your oddly vague gripe about elected officials "thumbing their nose at the Constitution" regarding -- what? prosecution decisions? -- than I might begin to see some equivalence. I just don't.
Eric, you're very good at being glib and dismissive, but in so being, you miss a lot yourself. "How close did we get last summer to any sort of true rebellion that would have changed anything? Answer, not very close at all." You couldn't be wronger. (Yes, I said wronger.) I wouldn't call what happened last summer a rebellion, but it was certainly lawlessness and it caused a profound and lasting change in the way most people feel about their city, their elected officials, their safety and their decisions for the future on where to live.
There is no such thing as "routine protest and activism". Every such occurrence has the potential for more mayhem. There are a lot of people who do not share your confidence that we won't see repeats of last summer's mob violence. We're certainly seeing it in non-mob violence and crime.
As for erosion of voting rights, you've bought into fallacious, self-serving left wing talking points. What you're seeing is Republican resistance to Democrats' attempts to remove all reasonable efforts to ensure "one person, one vote" and that the people doing the voting are actually eligible to do so. It's a completely manufactured state of hysteria. Furthermore, its a push by Democrats to have the federal government usurp states' rights.
Oddly vague? You really need to have things spelled out, I guess. Yes, prosecutors have to make prosecution decisions all the time, but when they are ideologically based and when they are consistently skewed toward dismissing serious crimes, then they're thumbing their noses at the Constitution.
Happy Birthday! You’ve got a few years on me, but when we were kids most 64 year olds did look and act elderly! I don’t know if it was just a mindset or if the health of body and minds has improved somehow.
Happy Birthday EZ! With respect to the disclosure of vaccination status, I think you and Amy may be talking past each other and the poll doesn't allow for that nuance. In general, I don't have a problem disclosing my status. I did it at the gym this morning and will have to do so again if I go out to eat tonight. Amy seems to concede that. And I believe it's a matter of courtesy to disclose for those you may be socializing with for any extended period. But if, for instance, I'm watching a rally where a speaker is revving up a crowd and a stranger turns to me and asks "You're not one of those sheeple who's gotten a vaccine, are you?" or "You're not one of those idiots who refuses to get vaccinated, are you?" I will probably politely decline to answer. And believe me, I've been asked similar questions in the past.
I get it when someone says their birthday was ruined by some bad event; in your case, MAGA, the 1/6/21 insurrection. In my case, it was the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on a January 28th. I was lucky (not just in that I'm still alive) in that I was doing stuff that day and just heard about it by accident in the early afternoon. Until then, it was a fairly good birthday. I hope I will be enabled to do what I went to college for, eventually, so that someday strangers will note my birthday. So far, I share it with people including Artur Rubinstein (long gone to us), Alan Alda (still with us, thankfully, and no stranger), and others, one of whom I'm really not happy about. Of course, name any day of the year when something really dreadful happened - and tens of millions of people's birthdays are "ruined" by it because of the commemorations of those events.
You can read one article per month, PER DEVICE, for free at Epsilon Theory. Well worth the trouble; not yet for me worth the VERY steep subscription price for a "pro" subscription. But Ben & Rusty are awesome when it comes to the meta-story.
Happy birthday! Sixty-four does seem a whole lot younger than it used to.
As someone with a 9-11 birthday, I feel your pain. But as one of my friends told me in 2002, it's nice to have something positive to associate with a terrible day. (That said, my brother-in-law calls me every 9-11 to wish me a happy National Day of Mourning.)
Happy Birthday Eric. Isn't it time for a new party to emerge? It appears that the Republicans only have Trump so those who are Trumpers have no other choice and pundits don't feel Biden is strong enough to win in next election. How about a ticket with a more left leaning Republican and a conservative Democrat?
Happy birthday. Re: informing people involved in the I95 situation: I understand how authorities could let people involved in some form of public transport disaster. How do you do that to people in their individual vehicles? I suppose you could put helicopters in the air with public speakers, but even then, with windows closed, I doubt everyone would hear. What are your ideas for accomplishing this informing of the people?
Well, there are ways of sending out alerts by text, creating a web channel/radio channel for a flow of information. I honestly don't see this kind of communication as a priority, though, do you?
How did you manage to get a subscription rate of $12.87 for three months of the Tribune? I pay well over $100 for a shorter interval, and when I called to cancel the premium issues the operator told me the charge would remain the same but the interval would be stretched out an additional week.
My wife and I have used this method successfully with a number of vendors, like AT&T, but so far we’ve been unable to budge people at the Trib. Let’s hope persistence pays off.
I'm going to try that, because the price is kind of high. AND we haven't gotten the Trib (or the Herald; they're delivered by the same person) for four straight days. We're kind of peeved.
My solution, you tell the Tribune, as a relative of the subscriber, that person has passed away, end the subscription. With Comcast, I told them I was moving to Europe.
<< The CDC adds that “these findings strengthen the justification for relying on a symptom-based rather than test-based strategy for ending isolation of most patients,” >>
In my family, we have a positive case with no symptoms, therefore total exposure of the rest of us to it, and negative tests with minor symptoms. Despite thorough immersion in all COVID coverage, we aren’t clear on who should do what.
I learned a long time ago that when you can’t figure out which alternative is clearly better, it doesn’t pay to keep trying to. I suspect a majority is soon going to decide that all the specific actions beyond getting vaccinated don’t matter.
Happy birthday. I feel your pain. On my 15th birthday, President Kennedy was assassinated. Not everybody thinks of that or even remembers that, but I do. Every November 22 brings sadness because of that, but it also brings joy because I’m happy to be alive and healthy.
Happy Birthday! Bummer that you feel your day is now tainted. I do not share your angst. The date will be a historical footnote after we have a normal 2024 election cycle. Also, when I was a kid, Dia de los Reyes was a big deal with cakes and gifts.
A very Happy 64th birthday to you sir. Keep on keeping on! Love what the PS newspaper is becoming. Best thing to come out of tribune going to shit was you doing this and Mary continuing to share things like her annual rhyming assessment on fb ❤️ Raise a glass to 64 being younger and hipper than your nine year old self imagined, but also fuller and wiser and happier than we ever hoped at 9🥂
I’m sympathetic to your 1/6 birthday scenario. My dad turned 21 on Pearl Harbor Day, and my brother turned 50 on September 11th.
Happy Birthday! I will toast to your good health and fortune on this date, now and going forward. I was looking for something positive about today. So Cheers to you! I was wondering when stores changed their policies about not accepting returns for sale items. My sister's b-day is in January and I recall being unable to find clothes that were returnable back when we were teens.
Happy BIrthday to you, on your awful date. I taught 6th graders born on 9/11 and that sucked.
There was no "insurrection". Just stupid people rioting.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stop-calling-jan-6-an-insurrection-capitol-riot-civil-disorder-insurgency-protest-first-amendment-11641417543?mod=opinion_lead_pos6
If you want to see insurrection, look at the riots in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, etc. where some of the perpetrators and the organizations they were affiliated with actually expressed goals of overthrowing the government. Where insurrectionists actually laid siege to and destroyed a federal courthouse. Wish there was as much prosecutorial zeal and media attention placed on those much more serious "threats to democracy" that impacted the safety, livelihoods and well-being of ordinary citizens who didn't have bunkers to run to and "Capitol Police" to protect them.
I call it an insurrection because those people tried to overturn the incoming administration.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, Jean. Would you call what happened in Portland et al insurrections and would you agree that the perpetrators of those events should be treated in the same fashion as the Jan. 6th perpetrators? If you do, then you and I have common ground.
"What Eric Zorn said."
Think for yourself, Jean.
I DO think for myself. But sometimes another person expresses my ideas/thoughts/opinions in such a way that sharing them from my own per/keyboard would be nothing but an exercise in contrived originality.
Contrived originality. An oxymoron if I ever heard one.
And have the courage to give your own name.
That IS her name. She's of indigenous heritage.
Curious why she didn't tell me that.
The whataboutism on display here is stunning. You're comparing a small band of violent agitators in remote cities carrying on in ways that were rebuked by people on both sides of the aisle with a violent incursion into the U.S. Capitol with the goal of overturning the free and fair and accurate national election. An attack that a huge proportion of Republicans -- probably you, Joe, I suspect -- continue to support and minimize; an attack that the Republicans in Congress refuses to help investigate and that Fox News sniffs was probably Antifa in disguise. Your failure to see the difference and to see what it sets the table for is truly alarming and yet representative of a very popular view among the Grand Old Seditionists. BLM et. al. are no threat to the democratic republic. You MAGA idiots are. I know you don't see the difference but it's very hard to care what you think given your impoverished powers of reasoning.
Thanks for the insults, Eric. When you don't like someone's point of view, just call him an idiot. The fact remains that I have seen the riots in the cities I've mentioned, experienced them firsthand in Chicago, and heard media miss-characterize them as "mostly peaceful", as if we should all believe what we are told as opposed to our own eyes. What I saw looked a lot like Kristallnacht. I will continue to characterize January 6th as a meaningless gesture by a bunch of miss-guided fools who gave power-hungry politicians and excuse to reach for more power. The events of Jan. 6th will pale in comparison to the lawlessness, destruction and divisiveness that proceeded from the events in those cities I mentioned, as well as in Chicago. It is much deeper than “what-aboutism” when threats to democracy manifest themselves in busting the filibuster, packing SCOTUS, freewheeling voting laws, decriminalization of crime and suppression of free speech. As you’ve seen, I have many more sources of news that I trust beyond your pejorative reference to Fox. All I can ask is that you broaden your perspective a bit.
I welcome anyone in this comments section to agree or disagree with me. Just don’t demean yourself by calling me an idiot and I won’t call you one either.
Respsectfully.
I didn't simply call you an idiot, I ended my argument with the only logical conclusion. You're a partisan fool. The violence and destruction in those street protests was deplorable yet plainly marginal, not a harbinger of anything major. Reforming and re-imagining the police is simply not comparable to an ongoing effort to rig elections by allowing partisan hacks to count or not count votes as they see fit. Anyone who sees things otherwise is ignorant. Anyone who trumpets those views is a fool. But maybe you'll begin to redeem yourself here by admitting that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States and that Trump is just a sore loser. Can you do it? If so, perhaps I will soften my assessment.
You don't know me, Eric. I am anything but partisan. I actually voted for Barack Obama. John Kerry too. I recognize foolishness when I see it, and Jan. 6th was foolishness and Trump's rhetoric to egg it on was dumb. Thank God for Mike Pence.. But some are following Rahm's advice to never let a crisis go to waste to achieve political outcomes. Those "street protests" were not marginal and they are having long term effects that you choose to ignore. If you could acknowledge that the BLM and Antifa protestors should be treated the same as the Jan. 6th fools then maybe we can find some common ground.
If you choose to respond, try not calling someone you have never met a fool because he disagrees with your point of view.
As a post script.....Biden is president till 2024. Disputing the 2020 election is a fools errand. But think about this:
If you believe in the integrity of mail-in voting then you should pay all your bills in cash via US Mail and write "Cash Enclosed" on the envelopes. When the money is stolen and the recipient says you didn't pay the bill, try and prove that you actually sent the cash.
Chain of custody and auditability do not exist in a mail-in process. You cannot prove integrity or lack thereof in such a process. In my view, the 2020 election result was at best suspect and it's integrity cannot be proven. But move on. As I said, a fools errand. And I am not a fool.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/about-those-300-stolen-ballots-torrance-california-election-eduardo-mena-gavin-newsom-recall-11641424833?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
I assume you harbor similar doubts about the 2016 presidential election, where 24 percent of ballots were mailed in.
If your 24% figure is correct, I would say yes.
Any election, regardless of the winner, is suspect if chain of custody and auditability of ballots is undermined.
Eric, I'm not a fan of MAGA types, but you don't have to be one (or a Fox viewer) to believe that the January 6th riots and the others last summer are easily comparable and equally important. I hate to see you starting off your new venture with such hate-filled comments, but if your goal is to end up with your own echo chamber, then keep it up.
It's the complicity of those in power -- those in the White House and those high up in the Republican Party -- and the scope of the effort that makes the Jan 6 insurrection vastly more troubling and significant than street violence in the wake of George Floyd. This was not some isolated, marginal rampage by extremists ... it was OK'd and arguably orchestrated from within seats of power. But really, do take back the floor and explain why these two events are equally important and comparable.
And, by the way, I enjoy dialogue and reasoned discourse. I respect those with different opinions. But that doesn't mean I have to nod politely at nonsense.
Eric: These posts, alone, have made it worth the annual subscription fee.
Happy to help Eric earn a living. ;-)
My suspicion is that your mind is closed to any opposing argument, as you’ve already stooped to name-calling, indicating you’ve written off those with whom you disagree. Nevertheless, I’ll take the bait this time, as I really would like not to have to do the same with you. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t.
I contend the January 6th riots (yes, they were riots) are quite comparable to last year’s riots, which were in the wake of, but not necessarily solely related to the issues raised by the George Floyd incident. In both cases, people took to the streets for the purpose of calling attention to themselves and their grievances. Some wanted to do so peacefully, and others clearly did not. All of the riots resulted in property damage and assaults, and contributed to undermining the public’s sense of confidence in our constitutional system predicated on the rule of law. They all propagated the sense of a country in decay and seemed to show that we are quite alienated from one another. They all fostered a continuing and widespread feeling of dread among our citizens about our individual and collective futures.
You expressed concern that January 6th was “OK’d from within the seats of power”, and was not isolated. I’m not sure how prevalent the “OK” feeling was among Republicans in power. A number of them issued condemnations, including the second highest ranking one. I assume by saying that the rampage was not isolated or marginal, you are thinking of other rallies of Trump supporters. The difference was the attempt in Washington to use force to impede the congressional process of certifying the election. This, of course, is wrong and could not be tolerated.
The widespread and repeated incidents of lawlessness and violence associated with left-wing riots last summer are equally important. Just as with your strawman “OK” from the Republicans in the seats of power, there were widespread “OK’s” toward last year’s mobs from Democrats in power at all levels, including, now, the president. Kim Foxx’s picking and choosing which laws to enforce and Timothy Evans’ wholesale disregard for the law are at least as much a threat to our democracy (democratic republic, or whatever you want to call our system) as the break-ins at the Capitol. You have been right to criticize Foxx in the Smollett case. She deserves far more criticism and scrutiny for the way she mishandles her job in general. These dangerous people in power are also not marginal or isolated. Almost every major city has experienced the same lack of stewardship from their democratic public officials, who essentially thumb their noses at the constitution because they know better and have their own ideas of justice and equity, resulting in a very visible crumbling of society. Low expectations are dangerous. The attitude that “we’re just going to look the other way” and pretend your motives excuse your actions is not just nor is it constitutional. Such disdain for our system of laws and their enforcement from people who have been unwisely entrusted to preserve them may actually be more of a threat than the D. C. riots due to the pervasiveness of those views and actions within the seats of power.
For the D. C. riots, we get performative deep concern, application of the word “crisis” at every turn, and an indefatigable pursuit of the perceived bad actors. For the other riots, we get weak condemnations, followed by lack of follow through in bringing the lawbreakers to justice, total absence of support for the police and no hint of how future such problems will be prevented or better handled. One could argue that this lack of tangible concern among urban politicians is a much more important problem than the people who have a specific issue with Washington. It certainly does not instill confidence in a better future.
One thing we perhaps can agree on – there are large groups of misguided people. The pandemic has illustrated that people crave leadership and that both ends of the political spectrum are willing to follow terribly flawed people to when there’s a vacuum. That vacuum may be the biggest threat to democracy of all.
What I think you're missing is that an attack on a shoe store or even a police station is not analogous to an attack on a session of the U.S. Congress. And a sustained campaign -- now lasting more than a year -- to work from within to undermine voting rights and feed the lie that is election fraud claims is not analogous to efforts to reform policing. There have been quite a few prosecutions based on the vandalism and looting and arson in the streets, which has not, note, continued. Were there riots when Kyle RIttenhouse was acquitted? Those predictions fell flat. Have there been other campaigns of political violence on our streets since mid 2020? No. It's died down into routine protest and activism.
But are Republicans acting at nearly every level of government to erode voting rights and install partisan hacks on election boards? Yes. How close did we get last summer to any sort of true rebellion that would have changed anything? Answer, not very close at all. But how close did this crowd get to murdering lawmakers? Awfully close.
If Jan. 6 had been a one off eruption I might buy into your shrugging it off. If the street protests of 2020 had any logical connection to your oddly vague gripe about elected officials "thumbing their nose at the Constitution" regarding -- what? prosecution decisions? -- than I might begin to see some equivalence. I just don't.
Eric, you're very good at being glib and dismissive, but in so being, you miss a lot yourself. "How close did we get last summer to any sort of true rebellion that would have changed anything? Answer, not very close at all." You couldn't be wronger. (Yes, I said wronger.) I wouldn't call what happened last summer a rebellion, but it was certainly lawlessness and it caused a profound and lasting change in the way most people feel about their city, their elected officials, their safety and their decisions for the future on where to live.
There is no such thing as "routine protest and activism". Every such occurrence has the potential for more mayhem. There are a lot of people who do not share your confidence that we won't see repeats of last summer's mob violence. We're certainly seeing it in non-mob violence and crime.
As for erosion of voting rights, you've bought into fallacious, self-serving left wing talking points. What you're seeing is Republican resistance to Democrats' attempts to remove all reasonable efforts to ensure "one person, one vote" and that the people doing the voting are actually eligible to do so. It's a completely manufactured state of hysteria. Furthermore, its a push by Democrats to have the federal government usurp states' rights.
Oddly vague? You really need to have things spelled out, I guess. Yes, prosecutors have to make prosecution decisions all the time, but when they are ideologically based and when they are consistently skewed toward dismissing serious crimes, then they're thumbing their noses at the Constitution.
I see "whataboutism" as a form of stare decisis, a concept which drives justice and equality in America.
Happy Birthday! You’ve got a few years on me, but when we were kids most 64 year olds did look and act elderly! I don’t know if it was just a mindset or if the health of body and minds has improved somehow.
Happy Birthday EZ! With respect to the disclosure of vaccination status, I think you and Amy may be talking past each other and the poll doesn't allow for that nuance. In general, I don't have a problem disclosing my status. I did it at the gym this morning and will have to do so again if I go out to eat tonight. Amy seems to concede that. And I believe it's a matter of courtesy to disclose for those you may be socializing with for any extended period. But if, for instance, I'm watching a rally where a speaker is revving up a crowd and a stranger turns to me and asks "You're not one of those sheeple who's gotten a vaccine, are you?" or "You're not one of those idiots who refuses to get vaccinated, are you?" I will probably politely decline to answer. And believe me, I've been asked similar questions in the past.
I get it when someone says their birthday was ruined by some bad event; in your case, MAGA, the 1/6/21 insurrection. In my case, it was the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on a January 28th. I was lucky (not just in that I'm still alive) in that I was doing stuff that day and just heard about it by accident in the early afternoon. Until then, it was a fairly good birthday. I hope I will be enabled to do what I went to college for, eventually, so that someday strangers will note my birthday. So far, I share it with people including Artur Rubinstein (long gone to us), Alan Alda (still with us, thankfully, and no stranger), and others, one of whom I'm really not happy about. Of course, name any day of the year when something really dreadful happened - and tens of millions of people's birthdays are "ruined" by it because of the commemorations of those events.
On the subject of tribal divisions: This is the best thing I've read in a long time:
https://www.epsilontheory.com/an-inconvenient-truce/
You can read one article per month, PER DEVICE, for free at Epsilon Theory. Well worth the trouble; not yet for me worth the VERY steep subscription price for a "pro" subscription. But Ben & Rusty are awesome when it comes to the meta-story.
Happy birthday! Sixty-four does seem a whole lot younger than it used to.
As someone with a 9-11 birthday, I feel your pain. But as one of my friends told me in 2002, it's nice to have something positive to associate with a terrible day. (That said, my brother-in-law calls me every 9-11 to wish me a happy National Day of Mourning.)
I've had friends already today wishing me a happy coup day.
Happy Birthday Eric. Isn't it time for a new party to emerge? It appears that the Republicans only have Trump so those who are Trumpers have no other choice and pundits don't feel Biden is strong enough to win in next election. How about a ticket with a more left leaning Republican and a conservative Democrat?
Happy birthday. Re: informing people involved in the I95 situation: I understand how authorities could let people involved in some form of public transport disaster. How do you do that to people in their individual vehicles? I suppose you could put helicopters in the air with public speakers, but even then, with windows closed, I doubt everyone would hear. What are your ideas for accomplishing this informing of the people?
Well, there are ways of sending out alerts by text, creating a web channel/radio channel for a flow of information. I honestly don't see this kind of communication as a priority, though, do you?
Hm. That last line comes as a surprise after the entry in the Picayune. Guess I need to reread it...
How did you manage to get a subscription rate of $12.87 for three months of the Tribune? I pay well over $100 for a shorter interval, and when I called to cancel the premium issues the operator told me the charge would remain the same but the interval would be stretched out an additional week.
You call, you say you want to cancel, they start sweetening the deal until you get to one you want.
My wife and I have used this method successfully with a number of vendors, like AT&T, but so far we’ve been unable to budge people at the Trib. Let’s hope persistence pays off.
We've done it with Comcast, which reminds me it's time to whine again.
I'm going to try that, because the price is kind of high. AND we haven't gotten the Trib (or the Herald; they're delivered by the same person) for four straight days. We're kind of peeved.
My solution, you tell the Tribune, as a relative of the subscriber, that person has passed away, end the subscription. With Comcast, I told them I was moving to Europe.
Both worked.
Happy Birthday Eric!
<< The CDC adds that “these findings strengthen the justification for relying on a symptom-based rather than test-based strategy for ending isolation of most patients,” >>
In my family, we have a positive case with no symptoms, therefore total exposure of the rest of us to it, and negative tests with minor symptoms. Despite thorough immersion in all COVID coverage, we aren’t clear on who should do what.
I learned a long time ago that when you can’t figure out which alternative is clearly better, it doesn’t pay to keep trying to. I suspect a majority is soon going to decide that all the specific actions beyond getting vaccinated don’t matter.
Happy birthday. I feel your pain. On my 15th birthday, President Kennedy was assassinated. Not everybody thinks of that or even remembers that, but I do. Every November 22 brings sadness because of that, but it also brings joy because I’m happy to be alive and healthy.
Happy Birthday! Bummer that you feel your day is now tainted. I do not share your angst. The date will be a historical footnote after we have a normal 2024 election cycle. Also, when I was a kid, Dia de los Reyes was a big deal with cakes and gifts.