My limitless admiration for HCR's daily gift of concise and insightful perspective is rivaled (but not quite surpassed) by my gratitude for the raft of intelligent, civil, knowledgeable, and well-meaning posts by this grateful tribe of HCR devotees.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for recapping yesterday’s news. I watched a video of some of Representative Katie Porter’s questioning of DeJoy. She is masterful. He came across as a spoiled no-nothing, completely unfit for his job. As for the RNC convention, I will read your summaries. Just the facts, just the facts.
I, for one, am a big fan of Katie Porter and hope her political career goes all the way to the top. Smart, insightful, with a quick, incisive wit that reflects her intelligence, she's so refreshing!
DeJoy's contempt of Congress is a perfect reflection of Trump's own contempt of Congress and contempt of the Constitution. WashPo editorial on Sunday reprised their prescient rejection of Trump's candidacy in 2016 by noting that he had the brutal capacity to exploit the "fragility" of our democratic structure. How frighteningly insightful they were. If we survive Trump (conjectural), it will be imperative that the traditions of adherence become legal and enforceable laws, not just noble suggestions reliant upon voluntary compliance now shown to be unreliable.
I think yesterday's news day could be classified as a "you can't make this shit up" kind of day. Wow. I do hope that Republicans can see what their Party has sadly become and how it has affected this Country. Thanks for the civil recap of the day, Heather.
It's gotten to the point where Congressional hearings, where Republicans are being questioned, have turned into smug-fests where the witnesses are so disrespectful and condescending that in a court of law they'd be cited and fined for contempt. At some point this process, too, needs to be overhauled. Over the years, republicans have fostered an atmosphere of contempt for both the rule of law and civil discourse. I have a difficult time watching any of the hearings for an extended period of time because I get so angry.
I watched snippets of the convention, after the fact, and am still gob -smacked. The performances by politicians and hangers on were horrifying and manic; they will stop at nothing to maintain their base, including fascist theater.
We deserve better than what we've been handed. Thank you, Heather, for your tenacity and ability to sort through this mess day in and day out. We are better for it.
Well said, and I am in total agreement. Unlike you, I am unable to watch any more than 1 minute of their 'convention" at a time. I know I should watch to keep myself informed, but my reaction to the things said and done is so visceral, I just can't do it.
I also have great difficulty watching any of their spectacles, regardless of the context. It has occurred to me that I think there actually is such a thing as ‘contempt of Congress’ - I will have to check on this but, if so, Democrats have to take off the kid gloves and go after these people. Republicans would do no less. Time to give it right back to them.
We must remember that Trump and Putin are a single entity at this point, so that when Trump indicates that he will not acknowledge defeat, this is Putin using him to destabilize American democracy. It's unclear how this impacts what our response should be, but it feels like we're missing an important point if we ignore it.
Agree. Election legitimacy does not matter to him, so either way, it's very concerning. Scenario 1: He wins by cheating. Scenario 2: He wins legitimately, which means people actually want this as a future. Scenario 3: He loses and the militias will be called to rise up to "take back our freedom" or something insane. With the way the alt-R is trending, civil war is not out of the question. As a meal-crumb, Scenario 4: He loses by a landslide, and there's still uprising, but not all out civil war. Bug just because he's out of office, there are many others who are rising up, like Marjory Greene from Georgia and Laura (?) B. from Colorado, plus Don Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle and countless others. Greene will most likely make it to Congress.
Well, I have read this AM that Falwell has withdrawn his resignation, and now there's an emergency meeting of the board of Liberty U. Given the story of Falwell's sexual activities, I can't believe the board will accept the withdrawal and will ask him to resign or be fired.
And there is no way I could watch the shit show that is the repub convention. Instead, I write postcards to dem voters, and chuckle that Michael Steele has joined the Lincoln Project. I watched him on Nicole Wallace yesterday and I've never seen him so worked up. Glad to have him helping in the demise of tRump and his mafia.
I simply cannot watch it either. (I maintain that RNC stands for "Republican National Clusterf**k") It is too close to my bedtime, and if I get worked up, which is inevitable with this bunch, then I end up bereft of sleep. Ain't nobody got time for that...
I will not watch it live either. I'll watch taped excerpts. In no way do I want to be counted as one of Trump's adoring base. Not do I want him to have the greatest ratings in the universe.
BTW, I have Facebook friends who want HCR merch! One had a good suggestion for a shirt. I" ❤️ HCR " on the front and "Live chat is where it's at" on the back.
After all the depressing news from the republicans, it is entertaining to hear that these ‘religious’ figures are such hypocrites. I grew up in charlotte with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. We call it the Pass the Loot club and he defended his gold faucets in his house as God doesn’t like junk. He went to prison for selling more timeshares in his hotel than he had. He also had an affair with his secretary Jessica Hahn. Now he spouts his vile prophecies on TV
Becky, I moved to Charlotte from Miami in 1972 and had not heard of the PTL Club prior. I was both amused and bewildered. Remember the air conditioned dog houses? One DJ famously said, in the '80s, "I wonder if Tammy Faye removes that make-up nightly, or just has her face sand-blasted once a week?" Mean, yes, but funny, if you ever saw the layers of pancake and the tons of mascara that seemed to always be running down her face....
I lived very near the former PTL headquarters outside of Charlotte for almost 20 years. Most folks in the area treated it as hallowed ground. If I remember correctly there were still outdoor religious theatrical productions going on for quite some time at that location.
I grew up near Muskegon, MI. Hometown of Jim Baker. I had friends who worked some of his cousins. Evidently, they bragged about him all the time until the Jessica Hahn $hit hit the fan
"DeJoy seemed incensed that he had to answer to Congress; he rolled his eyes, laughed derisively at questions, and talked over the representatives. "
DeJoy had to know what questions he would be asked. Any normal administration would have briefed the executive in preparation for these appearances. It did not appear that DeJoy had any written materials for reference. Full disclosure: I don't know postcard rate, either.
I didn't have time to watch the proceedings, but it seems logical that questions focusing on annual volume of mail, both first class and bulk, as well as the seasonal fluctuations would be enlightening. I keep seeing claims (unverified by me) that 330M pieces of mail is only 75% of the average daily volume handled. That's not informative: What I want to know is how much excess capacity the system has to handle a short term 75% increase in mail volume while maintaining reasonable timeliness. Comparisons to Christmas card season would have been meaningful. Any differences in bulk versus first class delivery times?
Mail volume has been on the decline for a while, so I get the notion that some sorting machines or drop boxes may not be needed. A competent executive would have come to this hearing armed with that data to demonstrate that the hallmarks of the USPS delivery could and would be maintained with less infrastructure (a true cost-saving, efficiency purpose). A competent executive would have pointed out that the sorting machines being eliminated were at end of life or some other rationale for selecting which machines were removed. One doesn't simply willy-nilly toss a million dollar machine into a scrap bin in the parking lot. I know a master plan exists. Two years ago they eliminated a mail processing center in the town where I live. It was announced. People grumbled. Some jobs were lost. Now, even a letter going across town is collected, trucked about 40 miles to the closest processing center for sorting, and then trucked back for delivery. It added a day to the delivery time. The most interesting observation coming from that is that I started noticing a lot of XPO Logistics trucks on the highway between the main Post Office here and the distant sorting center. The truck have discrete markings indicating "US Mail".
So your local jobs were eliminated, your local service degraded, while money was spent on DeJoy’s company trucks - under Trump, even with the former Pistmast General.
I went back to check. This occurred in 2013-2014 timeframe. USPS was citing a 20% 4-year decrease in mail volume (tens of billions of pieces annually) and recognition that the USPS had too much capacity to be economical. From our local news at the time:
"In October 2011, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe appeared before Congress to ask for help.
Congress wanted Donahoe to reciprocate by streamlining the way the Postal Service does business, and many aspects of Donahoe's plan - which is endorsed by President Barack Obama - have been widely publicized: eliminating Saturday mail delivery; closing as many as 3,700 post office locations and distribution centers; and causing massive layoffs."
I have not dug into what ultimately happened, but our own local sorting facility was relocated/consolidate with another one ~40 miles away. It is also clear that the USPS also started exploring alternate revenue streams for its excess capacity. It now offers last mile delivery services for many of the other commercial carriers. The irony is that not only do we continue to get Saturday regular mail delivery, but it is not uncommon to see the USPS trucks making parcel deliveries on Sunday.
I guess my point here is that DeJoy could have come into the hearing prepared with facts to support some of the recent actions, or at least to give appearance that it is not solely to muck up the works right before election. But like so many of Trump's appointees, he has no appreciation or respect for the position and simply bluffs and bullies his way along.
Yes. There is also the underlying question of the purpose of the post office. It was founded to unify the nation by ensuring the spread of ideas and other communications. It has always been a service, not a business. That principle seems to have gotten lost, at least partly due to David Koch and the Movement Conservatives' campaign against it. I guess they hate any way that the government serves the people in general rather than their own narrow oligarchic interests.
When you look at the operating losses, it seems like such a small price for the government to subsidize to guarantee a Constitutionally established national service. That's less than 1% of the annual Pentagon budget.
I finished writing a batch of “get out the vote” postcards just before reading this post, and had a flash that slowing down the USPS now is also a way, given the zillions of similar postcards going out, to clog the works well in advance of the election. Not only is the timeliness of ballots being threatened, but the arrival of useful information on where to vote, how to vote early, and what procedures to follow.
It also slows down all the political junk mail. That impacts both (all) parties. And many seniors are not online. So a significant batch of voters will not be reached. Seems a bit short sighted.
Note, even though I'm 69 I don't consider myself senior. 😁
The more something is "forbidden", the more holier-then-thou folks seem obsessed with it. A colleague of mine from Australia swore he was going to do his dissertation on the history of the seemingly extreme fine line between zealous religious convictions and sexual improprieties. The two, religion & sex, do seem extraordinarily linked in some people. He swears there's something in the psyche that somehow somewhere seems to make the two sensibilities, extreme piety and sexual drive, exist very closely side by side. The more you have one, the more you have the other. A look at the history of the church viz. sexuality can almost confirm this. Just look at someone like Mediæval 12th century mystic Hildegard of Bingen and her "visions" and the resulting poetry and music--it is incredibly sensual and erotic. Practically verging on orgasmic. Fascinating.
Try Countryman"s "Dirt, Greed, and Sex." A doctoral dissertation, so a bit dry, but a good understanding of what is going on here. This is the ultimate patriarchal stupidity.
I had the pleasure of living outside Colorado Springs in 2006 when New Life Church founder, Ted Haggard, was disgraced and shunned by his members after he was caught doing crystal meth and having sex with a male prostitute in Denver. It turned out it was not a one time deal. Ted and his family were booted out of the church, they went to Arizona to redeem themselves but he was back in Colorado within a couple years and founding a brand new church. What I don't get is the hypocrisy of these people. I just don't get it.
I had the pleasure of living outside Colorado Springs in 2006 when New Life Church founder, Ted Haggard, was disgraced and shunned by his members after he was caught doing crystal meth and having sex with a male prostitute in Denver. It turned out it was not a one time deal. Ted and his family were booted out of the church, they went to Arizona to redeem themselves but he was back in Colorado within a couple years and founding a brand new church. What I don't get is the hypocrisy of these people. I just don't get it.
So, that’s why Falwell. As for Night 1, I watched to the end. It was full of lies, as expected. Nothing surprising there-except that the lies still have the power to astonish me. The couple from St. Louis were riveting horrors. The first responders in the White House made me the saddest. In the end, I was reminded of all the Trumpeters in my PA family who frustrate or alarm me with their views and whom I find profoundly boring to be with and to listen to for so many reasons. Their lives appear to me devoid of color, short on ideas, and fueled by fear. They watch Fox News and repeat Trump’s lies. More of the shit show tonight on RNC Night 2. ❤️🤍💙
I give you credit for watching their propaganda show. The best I could do was to read a couple of the speeches leaked by the Lincoln Project. Don Jr’s speech made me so angry I stopped at that. The lies are astounding. And yet, I know many people from when I lived down South that I am certain fully believe their BS and accept it as true without question. It breaks my heart. I have in-laws that fit the description of your family. My husband and I are no longer in contact. Especially since one of them made a credible threat against my husband’s life, although unrelated to politics. Unbelievable what these people will stoop to.
Treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma is a bit nuanced and perhaps deserves a bit more color. As a general approach, this method of treatment has a long history of success, based on well-established principles. There are many, many reasons to expect it to work, unlike the situation with, e.g., hydroxychloroquine. The concern with the FDA's announcement centers on a few different issues: efficacy (the lack of matched controls, although perhaps the greater concern focuses on logistical issues), exaggeration (it's hardly the major breakthrough their PR presents it as), and partisanship (claiming it as a victory for the administration, rather than for public health). For a more in-depth look, I recommend this piece: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/08/24/convalescent-plasma-the-science-and-the-politics
I admit that I wondered, when I heard that Cohen had been involved in the Falwell endorsement, if Falwell is trying to get ahead of something deeply embarrassing that is in Cohen's book.
My limitless admiration for HCR's daily gift of concise and insightful perspective is rivaled (but not quite surpassed) by my gratitude for the raft of intelligent, civil, knowledgeable, and well-meaning posts by this grateful tribe of HCR devotees.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for recapping yesterday’s news. I watched a video of some of Representative Katie Porter’s questioning of DeJoy. She is masterful. He came across as a spoiled no-nothing, completely unfit for his job. As for the RNC convention, I will read your summaries. Just the facts, just the facts.
I, for one, am a big fan of Katie Porter and hope her political career goes all the way to the top. Smart, insightful, with a quick, incisive wit that reflects her intelligence, she's so refreshing!
Maybe there's a Supreme Court seat in her future?
I'm hoping she'll get a couple of terms in the Senate, and then we'll see ... ;)
Maybe she can replace Kamala after January 20!
Agreed! Katie Porter is a master questioner. DeJoy came across as a condescending, smug jerk.
Yes he surely did
Suzette Ciancio, I love Katie Porter. She shows no mercy!
She’s so smart and clever!!
DeJoy's contempt of Congress is a perfect reflection of Trump's own contempt of Congress and contempt of the Constitution. WashPo editorial on Sunday reprised their prescient rejection of Trump's candidacy in 2016 by noting that he had the brutal capacity to exploit the "fragility" of our democratic structure. How frighteningly insightful they were. If we survive Trump (conjectural), it will be imperative that the traditions of adherence become legal and enforceable laws, not just noble suggestions reliant upon voluntary compliance now shown to be unreliable.
I think yesterday's news day could be classified as a "you can't make this shit up" kind of day. Wow. I do hope that Republicans can see what their Party has sadly become and how it has affected this Country. Thanks for the civil recap of the day, Heather.
Linda Bailey, I agree
It's gotten to the point where Congressional hearings, where Republicans are being questioned, have turned into smug-fests where the witnesses are so disrespectful and condescending that in a court of law they'd be cited and fined for contempt. At some point this process, too, needs to be overhauled. Over the years, republicans have fostered an atmosphere of contempt for both the rule of law and civil discourse. I have a difficult time watching any of the hearings for an extended period of time because I get so angry.
I watched snippets of the convention, after the fact, and am still gob -smacked. The performances by politicians and hangers on were horrifying and manic; they will stop at nothing to maintain their base, including fascist theater.
We deserve better than what we've been handed. Thank you, Heather, for your tenacity and ability to sort through this mess day in and day out. We are better for it.
Well said, and I am in total agreement. Unlike you, I am unable to watch any more than 1 minute of their 'convention" at a time. I know I should watch to keep myself informed, but my reaction to the things said and done is so visceral, I just can't do it.
Yeah, it's far easier for me to read a report and then watch the video referenced.
I also have great difficulty watching any of their spectacles, regardless of the context. It has occurred to me that I think there actually is such a thing as ‘contempt of Congress’ - I will have to check on this but, if so, Democrats have to take off the kid gloves and go after these people. Republicans would do no less. Time to give it right back to them.
Amen. I, too, will check on the contempt of Congress. I'm sure you're right. Why it hasn't been exercised is beyond me.
My quick research yielded this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/contempt_of_congress#:~:text=Contempt%20of%20Congress%20is%20defined%20in%20statute%2C%202,a%20maximum%20%241%2C000%20fine%20and%2012%20month%20imprisonment.
We must remember that Trump and Putin are a single entity at this point, so that when Trump indicates that he will not acknowledge defeat, this is Putin using him to destabilize American democracy. It's unclear how this impacts what our response should be, but it feels like we're missing an important point if we ignore it.
Agree. Election legitimacy does not matter to him, so either way, it's very concerning. Scenario 1: He wins by cheating. Scenario 2: He wins legitimately, which means people actually want this as a future. Scenario 3: He loses and the militias will be called to rise up to "take back our freedom" or something insane. With the way the alt-R is trending, civil war is not out of the question. As a meal-crumb, Scenario 4: He loses by a landslide, and there's still uprising, but not all out civil war. Bug just because he's out of office, there are many others who are rising up, like Marjory Greene from Georgia and Laura (?) B. from Colorado, plus Don Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle and countless others. Greene will most likely make it to Congress.
Well, I have read this AM that Falwell has withdrawn his resignation, and now there's an emergency meeting of the board of Liberty U. Given the story of Falwell's sexual activities, I can't believe the board will accept the withdrawal and will ask him to resign or be fired.
And there is no way I could watch the shit show that is the repub convention. Instead, I write postcards to dem voters, and chuckle that Michael Steele has joined the Lincoln Project. I watched him on Nicole Wallace yesterday and I've never seen him so worked up. Glad to have him helping in the demise of tRump and his mafia.
I simply cannot watch it either. (I maintain that RNC stands for "Republican National Clusterf**k") It is too close to my bedtime, and if I get worked up, which is inevitable with this bunch, then I end up bereft of sleep. Ain't nobody got time for that...
He is so well-spoken with a touch of humor. He was on Joe Lockhart’s and Katie Barlow’s podcast, Words Matter, yesterday, titled “Magic Dust.”
I will not watch it live either. I'll watch taped excerpts. In no way do I want to be counted as one of Trump's adoring base. Not do I want him to have the greatest ratings in the universe.
BTW, I have Facebook friends who want HCR merch! One had a good suggestion for a shirt. I" ❤️ HCR " on the front and "Live chat is where it's at" on the back.
I’d buy one. Unless it’s “unisex” because they’re not.
Make it a tote bag and I’m in, too!
After all the depressing news from the republicans, it is entertaining to hear that these ‘religious’ figures are such hypocrites. I grew up in charlotte with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. We call it the Pass the Loot club and he defended his gold faucets in his house as God doesn’t like junk. He went to prison for selling more timeshares in his hotel than he had. He also had an affair with his secretary Jessica Hahn. Now he spouts his vile prophecies on TV
Becky, I moved to Charlotte from Miami in 1972 and had not heard of the PTL Club prior. I was both amused and bewildered. Remember the air conditioned dog houses? One DJ famously said, in the '80s, "I wonder if Tammy Faye removes that make-up nightly, or just has her face sand-blasted once a week?" Mean, yes, but funny, if you ever saw the layers of pancake and the tons of mascara that seemed to always be running down her face....
For any young-uns here who don't know what PTL stood for it was "Pass The Loot." :)
I lived very near the former PTL headquarters outside of Charlotte for almost 20 years. Most folks in the area treated it as hallowed ground. If I remember correctly there were still outdoor religious theatrical productions going on for quite some time at that location.
Jim Bakker took pandemic bail out money, too.
I grew up near Muskegon, MI. Hometown of Jim Baker. I had friends who worked some of his cousins. Evidently, they bragged about him all the time until the Jessica Hahn $hit hit the fan
"DeJoy seemed incensed that he had to answer to Congress; he rolled his eyes, laughed derisively at questions, and talked over the representatives. "
DeJoy had to know what questions he would be asked. Any normal administration would have briefed the executive in preparation for these appearances. It did not appear that DeJoy had any written materials for reference. Full disclosure: I don't know postcard rate, either.
I didn't have time to watch the proceedings, but it seems logical that questions focusing on annual volume of mail, both first class and bulk, as well as the seasonal fluctuations would be enlightening. I keep seeing claims (unverified by me) that 330M pieces of mail is only 75% of the average daily volume handled. That's not informative: What I want to know is how much excess capacity the system has to handle a short term 75% increase in mail volume while maintaining reasonable timeliness. Comparisons to Christmas card season would have been meaningful. Any differences in bulk versus first class delivery times?
Mail volume has been on the decline for a while, so I get the notion that some sorting machines or drop boxes may not be needed. A competent executive would have come to this hearing armed with that data to demonstrate that the hallmarks of the USPS delivery could and would be maintained with less infrastructure (a true cost-saving, efficiency purpose). A competent executive would have pointed out that the sorting machines being eliminated were at end of life or some other rationale for selecting which machines were removed. One doesn't simply willy-nilly toss a million dollar machine into a scrap bin in the parking lot. I know a master plan exists. Two years ago they eliminated a mail processing center in the town where I live. It was announced. People grumbled. Some jobs were lost. Now, even a letter going across town is collected, trucked about 40 miles to the closest processing center for sorting, and then trucked back for delivery. It added a day to the delivery time. The most interesting observation coming from that is that I started noticing a lot of XPO Logistics trucks on the highway between the main Post Office here and the distant sorting center. The truck have discrete markings indicating "US Mail".
So your local jobs were eliminated, your local service degraded, while money was spent on DeJoy’s company trucks - under Trump, even with the former Pistmast General.
I went back to check. This occurred in 2013-2014 timeframe. USPS was citing a 20% 4-year decrease in mail volume (tens of billions of pieces annually) and recognition that the USPS had too much capacity to be economical. From our local news at the time:
"In October 2011, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe appeared before Congress to ask for help.
Congress wanted Donahoe to reciprocate by streamlining the way the Postal Service does business, and many aspects of Donahoe's plan - which is endorsed by President Barack Obama - have been widely publicized: eliminating Saturday mail delivery; closing as many as 3,700 post office locations and distribution centers; and causing massive layoffs."
I have not dug into what ultimately happened, but our own local sorting facility was relocated/consolidate with another one ~40 miles away. It is also clear that the USPS also started exploring alternate revenue streams for its excess capacity. It now offers last mile delivery services for many of the other commercial carriers. The irony is that not only do we continue to get Saturday regular mail delivery, but it is not uncommon to see the USPS trucks making parcel deliveries on Sunday.
I guess my point here is that DeJoy could have come into the hearing prepared with facts to support some of the recent actions, or at least to give appearance that it is not solely to muck up the works right before election. But like so many of Trump's appointees, he has no appreciation or respect for the position and simply bluffs and bullies his way along.
Yes. There is also the underlying question of the purpose of the post office. It was founded to unify the nation by ensuring the spread of ideas and other communications. It has always been a service, not a business. That principle seems to have gotten lost, at least partly due to David Koch and the Movement Conservatives' campaign against it. I guess they hate any way that the government serves the people in general rather than their own narrow oligarchic interests.
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2019/1114-usps-reports-fiscal-year-2019-results.htm
When you look at the operating losses, it seems like such a small price for the government to subsidize to guarantee a Constitutionally established national service. That's less than 1% of the annual Pentagon budget.
I finished writing a batch of “get out the vote” postcards just before reading this post, and had a flash that slowing down the USPS now is also a way, given the zillions of similar postcards going out, to clog the works well in advance of the election. Not only is the timeliness of ballots being threatened, but the arrival of useful information on where to vote, how to vote early, and what procedures to follow.
It also slows down all the political junk mail. That impacts both (all) parties. And many seniors are not online. So a significant batch of voters will not be reached. Seems a bit short sighted.
Note, even though I'm 69 I don't consider myself senior. 😁
My mother at 96 is a senior. At 72, I still feel a bit guilty using my senior parking pass.
Yes, that’s been on my mind too, as I write get out the vote letters.
Why is it always some kind of sexual conflagration that brings down purported religious icons?
The more something is "forbidden", the more holier-then-thou folks seem obsessed with it. A colleague of mine from Australia swore he was going to do his dissertation on the history of the seemingly extreme fine line between zealous religious convictions and sexual improprieties. The two, religion & sex, do seem extraordinarily linked in some people. He swears there's something in the psyche that somehow somewhere seems to make the two sensibilities, extreme piety and sexual drive, exist very closely side by side. The more you have one, the more you have the other. A look at the history of the church viz. sexuality can almost confirm this. Just look at someone like Mediæval 12th century mystic Hildegard of Bingen and her "visions" and the resulting poetry and music--it is incredibly sensual and erotic. Practically verging on orgasmic. Fascinating.
Try Countryman"s "Dirt, Greed, and Sex." A doctoral dissertation, so a bit dry, but a good understanding of what is going on here. This is the ultimate patriarchal stupidity.
I had the pleasure of living outside Colorado Springs in 2006 when New Life Church founder, Ted Haggard, was disgraced and shunned by his members after he was caught doing crystal meth and having sex with a male prostitute in Denver. It turned out it was not a one time deal. Ted and his family were booted out of the church, they went to Arizona to redeem themselves but he was back in Colorado within a couple years and founding a brand new church. What I don't get is the hypocrisy of these people. I just don't get it.
I had the pleasure of living outside Colorado Springs in 2006 when New Life Church founder, Ted Haggard, was disgraced and shunned by his members after he was caught doing crystal meth and having sex with a male prostitute in Denver. It turned out it was not a one time deal. Ted and his family were booted out of the church, they went to Arizona to redeem themselves but he was back in Colorado within a couple years and founding a brand new church. What I don't get is the hypocrisy of these people. I just don't get it.
How to see the entire RNC in 15 minutes: rent "Fantasia" and scroll through to the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment.
So, that’s why Falwell. As for Night 1, I watched to the end. It was full of lies, as expected. Nothing surprising there-except that the lies still have the power to astonish me. The couple from St. Louis were riveting horrors. The first responders in the White House made me the saddest. In the end, I was reminded of all the Trumpeters in my PA family who frustrate or alarm me with their views and whom I find profoundly boring to be with and to listen to for so many reasons. Their lives appear to me devoid of color, short on ideas, and fueled by fear. They watch Fox News and repeat Trump’s lies. More of the shit show tonight on RNC Night 2. ❤️🤍💙
I give you credit for watching their propaganda show. The best I could do was to read a couple of the speeches leaked by the Lincoln Project. Don Jr’s speech made me so angry I stopped at that. The lies are astounding. And yet, I know many people from when I lived down South that I am certain fully believe their BS and accept it as true without question. It breaks my heart. I have in-laws that fit the description of your family. My husband and I are no longer in contact. Especially since one of them made a credible threat against my husband’s life, although unrelated to politics. Unbelievable what these people will stoop to.
Treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma is a bit nuanced and perhaps deserves a bit more color. As a general approach, this method of treatment has a long history of success, based on well-established principles. There are many, many reasons to expect it to work, unlike the situation with, e.g., hydroxychloroquine. The concern with the FDA's announcement centers on a few different issues: efficacy (the lack of matched controls, although perhaps the greater concern focuses on logistical issues), exaggeration (it's hardly the major breakthrough their PR presents it as), and partisanship (claiming it as a victory for the administration, rather than for public health). For a more in-depth look, I recommend this piece: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/08/24/convalescent-plasma-the-science-and-the-politics
I admit that I wondered, when I heard that Cohen had been involved in the Falwell endorsement, if Falwell is trying to get ahead of something deeply embarrassing that is in Cohen's book.