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Sunday’s Forum
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59 responses to “Sunday’s Forum”
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A recent cross-sectional study in two states, Ohio and Florida, showed that the rate of death in those states was strongly associated with political-party affiliation. After May 2021, when vaccines were freely available to all adults, the death rate for Republican voters was 43 percent higher than for Democratic voters.
The author doesn’t address in enough detail (for me, anyway) the political pressure to ignore the misinformation coming from the Trump White House. I think that was the biggest hindrance to national health officials getting out proper and timely information. Trying to placate an idiot holding a match and a leaky gasoline can.
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I have been hearing Springfield Ohio* described as a small town. 50,000 plus people live there. That’s not a small town in my book.
For 30 years I lived in Lantana Florida. Lantana has a population of 12 or so thousand. I wouldn’t consider it a small town either.
What is a small town? I have driven across the country multiple times. Much of Kansas, West Texas, Montana, etc etc are full of what I’d define as small towns.
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@Bobert:
Both the mayor of the city and the governor of the state have said there is no such pet-eating activity going on and it’s all a fantasy. The police have several times said the same thing.
I posted something in yesterday’s comments from the woman who started the whole clusterf*ck by putting something on her facebook page; she regrets the whole thing and now denies it happened.
Only Vance and Trump are claiming it happened. How much more denial is needed?
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What is a small town?
Easy: any town with less than double the number of people I pass driving across Mexico City. I estimate this means a town of less than 2 million people.
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We often discuss, here in the comments, the need for solid news in place of the slushy mixture of some news, op-eds, lifestyle articles, and other non-news that the big name news outlets provide. If you share that sentiment, I’d recommend becoming a regular reader of the Associated Press, which does focus on actual news. The AP also provides a lot of international news, which has faded a bit in the electronic pages of the NYT and WP.
For example, here are five stories in a row from the AP that I just read:
Congo court sentences 3 Americans and 34 others to death in coup attempt
Kenyan evangelical leader accused of murder in the deaths of over 400 church members
Residents of a Mexico City suburb have been living with sewage-filled floodwaters for a month
More women in Iran are going out in public without hijabs
The Russification of Belarus continuesIt was a nice cadence of one piece of one actual news after another, on important topics that get downplayed or not covered at all in the informational murk of the prestige press, so I thought I’d share.
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@Bill Jempty:
If you’re a reporter based in New York City, Washington DC or Atlanta, GA, everything else is small. -
@Not the IT Dept.: LGM had a post with this tweet:
JD Vance acknowledges the cat and dog stories are urban legends and then rationalizes it (via CNN): “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
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@Monala:
He’s achieved what everyone thought was the unachievable: he’s made Trump look like the rational half of the ticket. The only real news churn Trump made in the last couple of days was speculation about whether or not he’s boffing Laura Loomer.
This is going to turn out very very badly for Springfield and when you consider that Vance is a senator for Ohio it’s really incredible.
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@Bill Jempty: I was raised in ND in a town of 3,000, literally one stop light. The big city for us was more than an hour’s drive to Minot, population now smaller than Springfield, and even smaller then.
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Interview with a cat (from Houston Chronicle)
I’m a cat. Stop politicizing us. We don’t care about you humans.
Thanks for doing this interview. Do you consider yourself a political animal?
No. People bore me unless they bear gifts. Tuna would work.
Sorry: Chronicle policy doesn’t allow me to bribe interviewees.
Yawn.
Still, as a feline, would you tell me what you think of recent events? After JD Vance was picked to be the Republican vice presidential nominee, cats and other animals frequently dominate political news.
Yes, I believe Vance likened Democrats to “cat ladies.” He cast that as an insult.
It was adorable: Such a big boy! So free and independent! Utterly unaware of who pulls the world’s strings.
In response to Vance, when Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo traveled to the Democratic National Convention, she took her cat, Meiloorun, with her.
She’s a monster, that Judge Hidalgo. In her X post, I saw poor Meiloorun in a cat carrier on an airplane. Can you imagine? I get chills just thinking about it.
Third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we learned, makes a habit of eating roadkill.
Fresh kills, right? They’re delicious.
In this week’s presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed that undocumented immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating the city’s cats and dogs.
I heard that’s untrue. But hey, if anyone wants to eat dogs, go for it.
Last one: Taylor Swift just endorsed Kamala Harris. She signed herself “Childless Cat Lady,” and accompanied the social media post with a photo of herself and her cat Benjamin Button.
A good-looking longhair. He resembles me. Ms. Swift is lucky to serve him.
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Where are all the NYT, WaPo, LA Times, Chicago Tribune articles titled “Deranged old man peddles nonsense while threatening violent deportation of immigrants” ?
Funny how that stopped once Biden left the race.
It’s almost like the press supports Trump.
And of course.. when one of the few sane NYT employees [Jamelle Bouie] puts out an article correctly calling out the Republican “Blood and Soil” rhetoric… the NYT editors change the listed article title from properly referencing that Blood and Soil.
Because if there’s one sane political party in the US [the Democrats]…. by the transitive property, there must be an equal and opposite one somewhere! And if there isn’t one, the press will fantasy them into existence in their head because the two just have to be equal because I said so!
Whatever you do, though, don’t call the press conservative. That hurts their feelings, and they need a safe space. -
Jd Vance is on Face the Nation and doubling down on crazy. He’s expanding his targets to include Dayton and “Africans” and dead geese. He basically called the gop mayor of Springfield a liar.
Vance has embraced the “Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness” mindset with gusto.The host had a hard time hiding her contempt for him. He is a facile liar, unlike trump, but just as vile. -
I currently live in a town with no stoplights, around 5k people. That said, I went to college in Springfield OH, and compared to Columbus, Cincinnati, or even Dayton, it’s small. It’s been decades since I have been back, but I have to imagine that the small, private, and rather expensive liberal arts college there is not enjoying this type of attention.
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@Paul L.:
I’ll bite: what is Orwellian about our commenting policies?Also, please include your definition of what Orwellian means. I mean, other than saying anyone cannot say whatever they want without consequence. Which, for the record, isn’t Orwellian.
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@Kathy: Indeed! While I taught at Luther University, I lived in Yong-in. A small farming community between Seoul and Suwon. Population: 675,000. (And only 4 universities of which Luther was the smallest at roughly 2,000 students.)
Everything IS relative. (And in its own way, too.)
ETA: @Not the IT Dept.: Nope. That’s where I draw the line. There IS no RATIONAL HALF of that ticket. Only completely crazy and completely crazier.
AETA: And check out pictures of Loomer and tell me that she doesn’t resemble both Melania AND Ivanka. Temu Melania is spot on! I can totally believe he’d boff her. But I do wonder why she would. That’s just icky.
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what is Orwellian about our commenting policies?
Orwellian = anything that hurts the fragile wittle feefees of the racists who are screaming about black people eating cats and dogs.
MAGA cultists have followed felon Trump’s lead in taking responsibility for nothing while whining and playing the victim, all day, every day. That the Trump right is now widely viewed as unlikeable, unpopular, extremist bigots and weirdos is everybody else’s fault.
When your preferred Republican candidate has lost Dick Cheney, the most prominent living Reagan staffers, and almost all of his own former White House officials — it might clue you in that the problem is your shitstain candidate. But that kind of thinking is only for normal people. For deranged far right nutjobs is just another excuse to whine, cry, and boo hoo about how they and Trump are all innocent, blameless martyrs.
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H/T to Balloon Juice for sharing the “Project 2025 Song,” a Schoolhouse Rock-esque breakdown.
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Well, I did say “look like the rational half of the ticket.” That’s not saying he is.
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Surely, by now, Satan has added another level to Hell for trolls who waste people’s time. Perhaps the punishment for them is to struggle their way through an endless jungle, never finding someone willing to listen to their spurious nonsense.
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@Kingdaddy: one of the troubles I place at the feet of the Industrial Revolution.
If people like JD Vance would actually have to spend most of their days grubbing in the dirt in order to grow enough foot to eat, they wouldn’t be spending their days making up stories about their fellow humans in attempts to gain power.
I’m starting to think that trolls who deliberately make up stories just for mischief should be thrown into a valley with a fence around it and no technology more recent than 1776. They can’t be trusted to behave properly.
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@Monala: I do hope that Tim Walz asks him about this during their debate: “You’ve admitted you’re lying to the American public to get the press to do your bidding — will you continue to lie to us if you’re elected as long as you think it will get you results?”
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@Scott: What Alexandra Petri does is really hard and those without her talent should think long and hard before trying it in public…
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@Paul L.: “I miss the great feminist blogs of Pandagon/Feministe/Feministing/Shakesville that inspired the Orwellian comment policies here at OTB.”
Hey, look — our little friend Paul thinks it’s now been long enough since the debate that he can show up here without being asked to defend his leader’s performance or to defend the outrageous lies about immigrants.
No soap, chuckles.
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If people like JD Vance would actually have to spend most of their days grubbing in the dirt in order to grow enough foot to eat
This morning’s bit on CNN would indicate he has more than enough foot to eat.
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@Paul L.:
I miss the great feminist blogs
You should probably pay more attention to self-owns: Whining about feminism = Can’t get laid.
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@Matt Bernius: Do you really want to agitate the guy who has a disturbing fixation on rape?
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@CSK: In my experience if you hear the bangs of the gun you’re not the target. If you hear the zipping of the bullets though….
This has to be playing havoc with Trump’s psyche. I bet he’s dealing with some PTSD from the whole original incident and he’s probably too stubborn to seek help.
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@Not the IT Dept.: There’s no rational half. He barely even looks less insane. But yeah, some will mistake FG for being the “mature elder statesman” of the team. That’s how bad the system is broken. 🙁
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@Matt:
Now CNN is reporting that Trump WAS the target. Fox is calling it an “assassination attempt.”
One man is in custody.
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WaPo is reporting:
There was an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks filled with ceramic tile and a GoPro camera in the bushes where the suspect was spotted, law enforcement officials said during a briefing.
Does anyone who speaks lunatic know what the ceramic tiles are about?
The GoPro makes sense — you want to capture treasured memories. I think the advice of “don’t record yourself doing crimes” doesn’t apply when you’re doing something there is no way you won’t get caught for.
@Kathy: I don’t think you can just stir up the crazy people you want to stir up.
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@Gustopher: An AK-47 style rifle with a scope made me laugh pretty hard. AK-103s (updated ak-47) come from Izhmash with sights that don’t adjust past 300 meters because the 7.62×39 round drops into the dirt pretty quickly past 200 yards. 200 yards is well within iron sights or red dot territory. At 300 yards you’re looking at 20 inches of drop and it increases rapidly past that. Also in my experience at 300 yards the bullets are at the mercy of winds. Max hunting range for me was under 200 yards due to the issues with the round past that. According to CNN the shooter was “300-500 yards away”. Trump is incredibly lucky that this one was amateur hour.
I have no idea what the ceramic tiles would be about though. I’d like to know what crazy thoughts resulted in the tiles being brought. Maybe they thought it would work as improvised body armor?
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If you get presented very early on with an “investment” opportunity that is quite obviously a Ponzi scheme, shouldn’t you nevertheless “invest” in it? The payoff would be pretty much guaranteed, if the term is short enough, even though the scheme is certain to collapse later on.
The answer is no for various obvious ethical reasons.
But given today’s ethics, or lack thereof, in finance, it may be justified as “smart,” getting a great return with little risk, even if you know you’re getting money stolen from other people.
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Does anyone who speaks lunatic know what the ceramic tiles are about?
I suppose if you’re trying to blow someone’s brains out, a tasteful backsplash might keep things tidy?
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@Gustopher: A backpack full of ceramic tiles would be in the range of 100lbs. My only guess is he thought he was going to sink some evidence in a pond.
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@CSK:
I thought the MAGAs would make a big deal of this, but so far, nothing really.
We joke about it, but they do seem to need to wait for their talking points, and it takes FOX et al time to write up and approve the spin. They have stories up now, but they seem to be just the facts. One new item I see is a statement the shooter hadn’t fired, the shooting was security at him.
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@Matt:
Unless the ceramic tiles were inserts designed for body armor. -
The guy who brought an AK to Trump’s golf outing is Ryan Wesley Routh, a 60-year-old white man who is registered as an unaffiliated voter in NC but (drum roll) voted for Trump in 2016.
He seems to have become disillusioned with Trump and was pushing for a Haley/Ramaswamy GOP ticket this time around.
He’s also a crazy anti-vaxxer and back in 2002 barricaded himself in a Greensboro business with a gun.
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Some musings on the possibility that the pet eating lies will provide a pretext for paramilitary violence:
https://open.substack.com/pub/othermeans/p/rallying-the-paramilitary-right
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@Mikey:
The gunman also went to Kyiv in 2022 to offer to fight, but was apparently turned down and then tried to recruit others to fight. There’s a video of him on YouTube giving an interview to Newsweek Romania… didn’t watch, but scanned the transcript–I don’t care to know more about the guy right now. -
@gVOR10:
Ever visited Hatton? Rumor has it that the (Lutheran) church that great-grandfather was involved in building is still standing.
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In one of their many gun myths, the Mythbusters tested the bulletproof qualities of various objects and materials. This included ceramic floor tiles. as I recall, mixed with cement on a layer at least two tiles deep, they were somewhat effective at stopping or slowing the less powerful handgun rounds. They’d be useless against an AR-15 round, or even a higher caliber handgun round like a .38 or .45
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@Eusebio: Body armor inserts was what I thought first. ETA: Wishful thinking that any ceramic would work was my second thought.
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@Slugger: It’s Florida, they’re not going to come down hard on him. There’s not even any dead people involved. Even with dead people, Florida DOES. NOT. GIVE. A. FUCK.
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Regarding the ceramic tiles found in the suspect’s backpack, there’s this tidbit from a source I wouldn’t normally think to check:
former FBI Senior Executive Joshua Skulke told NewsNation… “I think it looks a lot like those are ceramic plates usually used for protection against high-powered rifles. A lot of military and law enforcement wear them in a high-risk operation… It allows them better protection than the flak jacket or bulletproof vest they’re wearing. That’s what it looks like to me.”
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