Bobstandard
Bobstandard's JournalI need a June 6 hearing drinking game!
I need a drinking game to go along with first prime time committe hearing. If I don’t have a game to play I worry I’ll just continuously guzzle until my vision turns cloudy and the TV starts responding to my shouting.
"Fox is Grooming Republicans!"
I think I have my new Magat brain exploding bumper sticker! Turning their memes against them is both fun and effective.
I think this is better than my current one “Brandon is fixing Trumps disasters.” (Which got me a free car wash in Palm Desert, California, a wealthy white Republican bastion except for all the people who actually work there.)
Pipeline surf contest today
If you’re jonesing for sports today you can watch the final day of a pro surf contest at the Pipeline that goes live pretty soon. It’s big and getting bigger, great conditions, really pretty. Mai Tai weather
You can watch by navigating to the World Surf League’s website. They have water cameras, drones, the whole bit.
I don’t work for those guys or anything but I ve been a surfer for a long time and love this particular event because it’s so heavy. There will be carnage and incredible tube rides!
The most incredible sporting event of the weekend wasn't football or tennis
On Saturday a surf contest was held at Pipeline, perhaps the worlds most famous surfspot, located on the north shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii
The sun was out, the surf was huge, the conditions were perfect, and some of the best surfers in the world were there to compete. When that surf spot is good there are usually 40-60 surfers out in an area where the hot spot is about the size of a basketball half court.
Even the best surfers in those circumstances think getting two or three good waves in an entire day to be a big win. For the contest there we’re just three competitors. They were stoked to be in this prestigious contest but even more to get a shot at these waves with so few in the water
Pipeline is a wave of consequence. Surfers get sent to the hospital every day when the waves are good. Even during this contest competitors got hurt. But for the most part they made it look easy
The contest was put on by the World Surf League. Their website is worldsurfleague.com. They have replays available of the whole day and of individual heats. Check it out!
If you only check heats look for the ones with John John Florence, Jack Robinson, and Kelly Slater. If nothing else you’ll love the colors and beauty of the waves.
I think the sporting performances at the Pipeline on Saturday eclipse those of the NFL and of pro tennis this weekend. Face it, nobody risked death by drowning at any of those events but everyone stroking into a big wave at Pipe did.
It's just a wicked cold! (Dammit!)
On the Jan 1, I got a scratchy throat.
The next day it was worse and I had body aches.
On the third day the body aches were gone but but now I had headaches—and a tickle in my chest.
I decided that these were the same symptoms that I’ve heard described for Covid. I’ve also heard that you need to get Remidesivir prescribed early in the onset of Covid, so I went looking for tests.
I was able to schedule a PCR test from the local health agency, but not for four days out.
I got in my car and hit every pharmacy near me and got the last two tests that a nearby CVS had. I took it. Negative.
In the next few days the symptoms got worse. Very sore throat. Heavily congested nasal passages with lots of snot (where does all that stuff come from). A developing cough.
By the time my appointment for a PCR test came up I was as bad off as I’d been in a long time and convinced it was Covid. I had to tell the test folks that I was experiencing Covid symptoms and got sent to the special handling line. (The testing folks were great).
It took three more days for the results to show up on the provider’s dashboard. In the meantime I’d only gotten worse. In fact, it wasn’t just the worst bout of cold-like symptoms that I’d had since the start of Covid times, it was the worst cold I could remember in many years.
The test came back negative. And I was kind of pissed.
People say that Omicron covid has symptoms similar to a severe cold. Well, that sure is shit what I had. If I had to go through that I figured I may as well get some immunity out it. But noooo. I only have a common—if severe—cold.
I’m now 18 days into this cold. My primary care doctor says to just ride it out. Sometimes cold last three weeks and he’s seeing folks with colds who’s coughs have lasted for 6 weeks!
Apparently I may still have to go through Omicron covid despite the shots, the booster, careful masking (Korean KF95 masks which are way better than the KN95’s I’d been using), avoiding crowds, close gatherings, all the soul draining shit you have to go through to be careful.
So I have this to say: If Omicron Covid is like a severe common cold, do your best to avoid it. I’d forgotten just how bad a cold can be. And if Omicron Covid is worse, none of us want to go through that.
Alta, Utah ski area can't run lift due to Covid
Alta Ski Area outside Salt Lake City Utah can’t run it’s Wildcat lift due to an outbreak of Covid among their staff.
Many ift operators and other employees live in employee housing at the ski area in dormitory style accommodations, with two or more to a room, and shared shower and lavatory facilities. A quickly spreading Covid outbreak has affected so many employees that they are unable to staff the Wildcat Lift, one of two main lifts that take skiers from the base of the ski area up the mountain.
Tickets at alta are $179.00 per day. No discount is being offered. The parking lot ($25 for day skiers, reservations required) is full. Lift lines are long.
Tickets at Aspen Snowmass in Colorado are $204.00. Tickets at Deer Valley, near Park City, Utah are $249 per day.
He seeks money to insulate from the future
Let’s face it. The future looks grim. Climate catastrophe, the break down of civil order, vigilante terrorism in towns across this country and hot wars breaking out in Eastern Europe and Asia. Money, big money, and favors from powerful friends may insulate The very wealthy from a lot of that. Joe is wealthy but not thousand-acre-ranch in Montana wealthy. Not owns-most-of a Hawaiian island wealthy. He wants to get as close to that as he can and this is his way of doing it.
Democratic message? We're for the little guy!
Here’s a message to pound again and again: we’re for the little guy!
Which means we’ve got to be for the little guy. Me, for instance. You.
I used to be a middle class guy. Lots of us are in the same boat. But lately we’re just hanging on.
Which makes us fodder for a populist message
Unfortunately, tfg was the last guy to go there. It worked. His handlers took the message from FDR, the last American populist who harnessed that energy, slightly repurposed it, then sold it to the disgruntled.
FDR called out the powers that be, bankers, oil barrons, steel , transportation barron’s. He called them enemies of the little guy. Every little guy who heard that knew was telling their truth, knew that he understood and was validating their reality.
All Biden and company need to do is stand for the little guy and point to/attack the big guy.
Less than 1% of Americans possess 90% of the wealth. Say it again and again. That imbalance is visceral. People get it!
FDR called out the oil companies and the oligarchs of the time. The little guy rallied to him
Should Biden follow FDRs blueprint we win. Follow some moderate path and we get our asses kicked by the rights ass kicking brand of populism.
We're not the only ones calling out garland
Some of us get called out here for our impatience with Garland moving slowly-or not at all-on tfg and his cronies. Turns out we’ve got good company.
Raw Story has the full lowdown. The basics, though, are what we’ve been saying. If Garland won’t act, he should get out of the way
Maybe pressure in the House will help get Garland to move—or get gone.
CA Gov recall: which Dem alternative?
In the California Governor recall election voters have two choices. One is a yes or no question: Should Gavin Newsome be recalled. I’m voting no, of course. But voters can also vote for a replacement candidate no matter how they vote on the first question.
The California Democratic Party urges Dems to vote “No” on the question of recall. But in an incredible act of hubris, they have not put forward or endorsed a Democratic alternative candidate should the recall pass.
In fact, if I understand the situation correctly, they suggest that Dems select no replacement candidate, thus leaving the selection up to Republicans if the recall succeeds. How f’ing stupid is that? Go to the CA Democratic Party website to see how lame their action there is.
But that’s not the point of my post.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonable Democratic replacement candidate to vote for? The apparently front runner, Kevin Paffrath, seems to be an equivocating, lightweight. But, I dunno? Is he the best we can do? I d rather have a lightweight Dem than any of the front running Republicans
Who should we rally round?
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