The view toward the Short Shute between turns 3 and 4.
The morning of the race starts a whole other round of traditions. The “bomb” goes off at 6am (they set off a cannon to signal the opening of the track on race morning). We wake up. Check into the port-o-potty’s for our morning constitutional. You’ve never seen how disgusting one can be until you’ve seen what happens to them the night before the race at the Coke Lot in Indy. We make bacon and eggs. We make coffee in the percolator. It’s time to start packing the coolers. Seat cushions, check. Beer, check. Scanner and earbuds, check. Ticket, check. A water to make my wife happy I’m not only drinking beer, check. Sandwiches to munch on, check. Sunblock, check. We’re off to the race.
We roll into the track somewhere around 9. Several hours before the race. We enter near the turn 4 entrance. There they are. My cousins Bill and Christine, and her family. They have sat in the same seats, in Section 1 of the NW Vista, 1 row from the top, under the camera, of turn 4 since my uncle got the tickets from the mayor of Terre Haute the year after the stand was built (1968?). They were willed to him, and then passed to my cousin Bill before my uncle passed. We have a morning beer with them. Usually my first these days, but, in my younger years my tradition was to crack a beer as soon as I woke up (I’m too old for that now).
After a bit, we head to our seats in turn 3. The NE Vista. We’re 3 rows from the top near the turn 3 camera (for those that don’t know, at a race track higher seats are better as you can see more). We know many of the people that sit around us, they’ve sat near us since we started. The couple behind us has seen us go from immature, beer guzzling, chain smoking, rebellious teens to immature, beer guzzling, non smoking, rebellious adults. The large gentlemen in front of us uses the same Jimmie Johnson ticket lanyard every year. The bald gentleman hand out lineups and spotter guides to tell drivers apart. The guy I’m not sure I like very much runs a pool. $10 a car (random draw), winner take all. For many, many years an old couple sat next to us. Probably in their mid 80’s the last time I saw them. They’d come 15 laps after the race started and leave 15 laps before it was over. But they still made it. It’s probably been about 10 years since they last came and we have new folks in their seats every year. I can only imagine they’ve passed by now, but I still think of them every year and love that they made it for so long. These people are our once a year friends. It’s a small community we’ve built in the stands.
Then the race pomp and circumstance begins. Some things will never be the same. Losing Jim Nabors for “Back Home Again in Indiana” was hard. The new guy is good, and I still love it, but I’ll always miss Jim. I’ll always miss Tom Carnegie calling the race. I’ll always miss Mary Hulman, and then Mary Hulman-George, giving the command (I’m too young for Tony Hulman). But there are a few things that keep me coming back each year. “Taps” over the PA, with 300,000 people silent is a truly somber moment. I know that when the national anthem is about to end, to look over my shoulder, that’s where the jets from the flyover always come from. With almost every flyover, I get my first chill up my spine for the day.
My view towards Turn 2 before the Race.
Then, we’re set for the race itself. I get another chill up my spine the first time the cars come around the tack. The first parade lap they are still 3 abreast. It’s a beautiful site. After a few more parade laps, they line up 3 wide again, ready to start. The start is always exciting. Watching them enter turn 1 on the TV monitors, I’m always amazed that they almost never wreck these days. Then I turn my attention away from the monitor and stare down the track towards turn 2. I know I’ll soon see them appear at the exit. Once they come into view is the real action. There is so much passing into turn 3 on the first lap. Cars are moving everywhere. Action is everywhere. I get another chill up my spine as they go by for the first time at speed. It’s always a truly awesome moment. The next few laps stay exciting. Lots of passing, positioning, looking for a spot. After a while they settle into a rhythm. It stays fun to watch, but nothing will beat those first few laps.
At some point during the race, I go down to use the restroom. Unlike many, I don’t wait for a yellow. I like to be near the track, at the bottom of the stands, while the cars are at speed. It’s truly impressive when a car goes within 10 yards of you at almost 220mph. Back up in the stands, I love watching all of the racing. I’m good at picking out battles throughout the track, keeping track of different strategies, and watching people move up and down the field. As the race comes to a close, I get a sense of excitement again. But it’s also mixed with a bit of sadness that another year has passed.
After the checkers fly, we wait around the stands for a while. There’s a bottleneck right at the bottom of our stands and nobody is going anywhere fast. I usually look around for beer coozies and seat cushions people left behind. It’s how I stock up for the next year, somehow while we’re drunk the night before the race, we loose a lot of coozies. When we do head down, we make it back to camp. We finish packing up and get in line to battle traffic. We’re off for another tradition.
Crazy Infield drunks.
Multiple groups of people, my group, my cousins, my dad’s friends, all go back to my parents’ house after the race for a meal. My mom cooks something for the party every year. About 15 people usually end up there. I visit family. We discuss the race. We compare notes on what happened in turn 3 versus turn 4. We fill in each other’s questions about what happened to car “x” and why it dropped back. We also just catch up about life. The party goes until relatively late. Most are staying nearby, if not at my parents’ house. We usually turn on the TV broadcast of the race (in Indy, they show the race at night, it’s still blacked out during). We all casually watch to see things we missed in person. Or to watch a crash that we couldn’t see well from our seats. It’s just a good time with a good group of people.
Many think the magic of Indy is dead. And while many things have come and gone, many changes haven’t been for the better, I can’t let Indy go. It’s not its traditions want or need. It’s my traditions. As my kids get older, I hope they may make it their tradition.
So, if you’re bored today. Go ahead and share a little bit of my tradition, turn the race on. You might even see me on TV. I’m the guy in turn 3 with a baseball cap and a beer. I stick out like a sore thumb, can’t miss me.
Oh, right we’re not doing links because holiday?
Correct. This was announced in the comments of the Saturday morning links. We had some time-critical articles come in last week and decided to give our brave AM linksters a day off. Tomorrow morning you’ll get an article about Trump and the LP convention in lieu of links. We will return to our normal schedule on Tuesday morning.
OK, I waited the 30 minutes.
Speaking of the site, some of the fonts are huge, and there seems to be a massive amount of extra space.
Okay, I’m going to need a screenshot of that, and what OS and browser you’re using. You can email me at my handle at this domain. Please use Website Question as the subject.
I can’t even fit it on one page to take a screenshot. Aren’t you seeing the same thing?
Nope. It looks like it has since the revamp to me.
Right, I meant since the revamp.
Tomorrow morning you’ll get an article about Trump and the LP convention in lieu of links.
I’m going to go out on a limb here in predicting the comments will be a shitshow.
** looks around **
** blinks**
thanks to all who did whatever needed to be done for whatever reason I’m sure this gearhead would never understand in a 1×10^9 years
I think NA is the only one putting up his usual content today, the rest written and scheduled in advance.
Yes, IFLA will appear at the normal timeslot today.
If you mean the site’s obvious design changes (rather than the special holiday weekend content,) this was the long warned-of upgrade made absolutely necessary by changes to/at WordPress, if I understand and recall correctly. It was first mentioned weeks (months?) ago, but didn’t materialize until this past week or so. WebDom did a magnificent job!
Yes this was the Big Website Upgrade(tm) we’ve been needing and talking about for literally years. We were using a heavily customized WordPress template that was no longer supported by WordPress. Using that template was causing site reliability issues.
The special holiday weekend schedule is mere coincidence. We had articles come in last week about things that were happening this weekend and scrambled to get those scheduled so they wouldn’t be too stale when published.
I’ve noted a lack of squirrel activity since the upgrade 👍👍👍
I’ve still had the 500? error trying to post a link.
I just wanted to mention, Tonio, that I support our new website overlords.
Seriously, better in every way, I say!
WebDom did a magnificent job!
Yes, the upgrade is good.
Nice, Indy is on my bucket list. Gots to love a porta-potty at any multi day event.
“These people are our once a year friends. It’s a small community we’ve built in the stands.”
That’s awesome.
I used to have twice a year friends. A week in June in Canada fishing, then a week of deer hunting in November. Mostly are all gone now but still have the videos and memories. Thanks, Bangin’
I may watch the race highlights, looking for the guy with the red hat and beer. Oh, what brand of beer, in case there are than One Red Hatter?
Thanks likewise, banginglc1…I wasn’t a racing fan, but then I had an uncle and aunt move to Indianapolis for work (1990.) Since that left them far removed from family, they tried to turn it into an opportunity to host relatives. I didn’t go their first year down there, but in 1991 I was ready to make the trip.
Since my uncle had a decent position at a larger Indianapolis company, he and his wife had parking in the infield plus seats in what I think were called “Tower Suites” on the home stretch. He was also able to buy extras, so I was with my cousins in the NW Vista, I believe section 3. We had that area all through the 90s. Being a newbie I didn’t have a favorite to cheer for in the race, but I knew who the main drivers were. The first of my wake-up call moments was the first time the cars went by at racing speed. I also made it a point to watch the early stages from multiple elevations (I believe we were about 20 rows up) to appreciate that.
The races I’ve attended since blur together for the most part, and even for this one I needed to go to reference materials to make sure I’m remembering the race correctly. But the Mears/Michael Andretti late duel still resonates, as does the fact that only 11 cars were still running at the end. That’s not a record low, but I don’t think any races have had fewer since then. And one other memory, after mentioning the perceived vs. actual speeds–there was one car that did not amaze me that day. Hiro Matsushita was still running at the finish, 51 laps down, and I don’t believe he had any extended pit stops. It’s like he spent the entire race in a different gear, as his car had a distinct sound every time he went by. It almost looked like slightly elevated highway speed, but he still averaged a little over 130 mph.
The first trip ended with just a little sunburn and our own mechanical as my uncle’s car stopped on the way home. Thankfully we had cleared some of the traffic so my uncle gave us the go-ahead to walk back to their house and start preparing for the dinner party while he and my aunt waited for a tow. In future years we learned to park about halfway between their house and the speedway (they lived just 4 miles from the track) and walk the remainder. And I was hooked for the remaining 9 years of their time in Indianapolis. Unfortunately I’ve not been there since, although my uncle and cousins (aunt has passed away) still talk about trying to make one last trip. It’s great that your group’s aging has not impacted you still getting there and having a great time.
“Libertarians hold strong beliefs about individual and civil liberties and free choice. They believe in even smaller government than Republicans, but are less focused on lower taxes than the GOP.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13460243/trump-booed-screamed-libertarian-convention.html
“…because the Libertarians want to vote for me and most of them will…”
Pure Trumpism, pure bullshit.
Woah, Republicans (well, professional Republicans) believe in smaller government? I had no idea, since they keep passing laws expanding the government.
And Republican voters keep re-electing, donating, etc. It’s almost like nobody really wants smaller government. Stated v revealed, etc.
less focused on lower taxes than the GOP
Huh.
even smaller government than Republicans
Huh. Huh.
It is the Daily Fail, so take anything they say with a very large pinch of salt.
Example – this caption from the article linked “A homemade ‘MAGA + Socialist’ sign…” when the picture clearly depicts a sign reading “MAGA = Socialist.” Also, no mention of the lower half of the sign which reads “FREE ROSS, presumably referring to Ross Ulbricht who created the Silk Road website.
“Public schools in Washington State specify that all students who participate in physical education and athletics are able to take part in the category that corresponds to their gender identity without the need to provide evidence of a medical transition.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13460429/Trans-runner-wins-400m-race-second-ahead-rivals-booed-podium.html
So the most retarded policy possible.
I hope we’ve reached the end and these things will reverse into normality. Lying to one’s self is bad enough but expecting others to go along with the charade is stupidity. Sorry to say but the parents really did a poor job at child rearing. The promulgators of these policies should find it hard to look in the mirror every morning. They also should be fired and have a notation on their permanent record.
People are scared shitless to tell the truth. The fact that it can ruin your life will do that.
It doesn’t even seem like these runners are trans, just cheaters.
If they honestly wanted to be seen as a girls, then why would they do this big public thing showing they aren’t?
I deal mostly with useful people who build useful things. They don’t get paid to take wild positions and write outrageous editorials, and all this hot garbage isn’t part of their lives. I suspect they remain the majority. The immutable laws of physics don’t play, so industry requires at least a modest core of people who embrace and understand the universe as it is, not the universe of insane social orders such as some might wish. In the realm of the real and the necessary, the nonsense hasn’t taken hold anywhere I’ve noticed.
For me today’s weirdness isn’t that some minority is loud and over-represented in pop culture but rather that they aren’t shouted down when they try to upend necessary institutions. How can the tiny number of guys who want to win girls’ track meets amount to anything….or gain popularity….and then topple common sense? To the extent that public education is necessary, how can it be that the 90% (the parents trapped in that market) let an insane minority ever gain a foothold much less take over?
how can it be that the 90% (the parents trapped in that market) let an insane minority ever gain a foothold much less take over?
If you really want to read about the dynamics of how this happens: Lorenzo Warby is writing the book, serialized pre-production here.
In short, this is an all but predictable outcome of the Enlightenment, particularly its death throes. I’d throw in myself some of Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction, since that is the economic engine. I say all but predictable only because history is provisional and contingent – but Nietzsche was pretty damn close to seeing this outcome.
That would be an interesting book… If anyone other than Lorenzo Warby was writing it. That dude is the blowhards blowhard.
Seriously JI, you should take a crack at it, you are a much better writer than he is.
Gosh, thanks. [my natural defense mechanism to praise kicks in]
Yeah, he does need an editor – I imagine the book version will be more streamlined. And obviously I have had some differences, mostly minor.
The more this happens the more injuries will occur in contact sports. Rugby, basketball, soccer, field hockey, etc will be unsafe for women when there is a male competitor.
Injuries have already occurred in basketball. The male playing on the girls team had facial hair. So not even trans.
Thanks, bang! That’s a great description of the day!
I’d just point out that seats in higher rows also puts you further from any debris that might somehow make it through or over the catch fence. Just sayin’. I can relate to the camaraderie with the folks sitting right around you that you see year after year – we get that with our seatmates at the local minor league baseball team, though we see them up to 16 times a year, not just once.
We watch NASCAR more than IRL, but have never been to a track (other than Indy, still a bit of a “newbie” to the circuit with the Brickyard 400.) I would like to go to a NASCAR race, but I’m not sure which one. I’m sorry we never took the opportunity to attend the Prelude to the Dream to watch all those hot shot drivers tear around on dirt! 😄
Also, please be safe out there today, bang! Weather forecast is currently calling for a heavy thunderstorm to begin in Indy around 12:15! It’s set to end at 2:00, but after a lull, there could be “scattered strong storms” again starting around 4:00 and not letting up all evening. Hope all that turns out to be wrong! 😟
…first chill up my spine for the day.
Dumb sort of guy I can be, it took me years to learn and appreciate the power of ritual. I guess because my own life was so bereft of it. Even Burning Man has never really settled into that for me. [Oh and speaking of the horrors of porto potties… My body has learned to respond to a clean one.]
Is that true? A clean port-a-potty exists? I thought that was a myth.
For maybe 15 minutes after the cleaning crew has finished – it won’t even be fully dry, but it’s clean.
“The legislation, sponsored by Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas (D-Queens) and Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), would mandate state agencies and other entities use separate categories for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) New Yorkers when collecting demographics data – rather than relying on the US Census, which classifies them under one “white” umbrella….
Both pols argue “MENA” individuals don’t benefit from so-called “white privilege” – and instead face discrimination daily by falsely being associated with the 9/11 terror attacks.
They and other supporters also insist the current system shuts MENA individuals out of qualifying for minority-owned business grants, language programs and other critical government aid and services by labeling them white.”
https://nypost.com/2024/05/25/us-news/bill-gaining-steam-would-shrink-new-yorks-white-population/
How about ignoring race entirely?
Those racist Republicans are at it again. SMDH.
That’s crazy talk.
O/T – this morning I’ve had the “privilege” of sharing the futon at Tranq Base with the neighbors’ cat, Silas. He’s been a polite seatmate, but I think he just realized that there are a lot of birds chirping nearby, so maybe he should pretend he’s going to do something about that.
That’s sweet.
Bravo.
*raises coffee mug*
nice read, thank you. I’m not into the motor sports, but am envious of the community and ritual.
This used to be the Longest race day.
I watched Monaco f1
Then Indy 500.
Race to the store for beer.
Then the Coke 600,
That’s a lot of TV.
Back when racing was real and some sprint race.
/ looking at you NASCAR
I just don’t get the hate for the stages in NASCAR races.*shrugs*
I seem to remember a lot of hate for the double file restarts when they were introduced, too.
I like to refer to NASCAR as the Calvinball of motor sports…but (so far, at least) I still watch it.
It’s a 500 mile race, not three 160 mile sprints with a potty break in between, back in the day
As often as NASCAR changes shit up, I don’t think I’ve seen them do it mid-race.
That’s probably only because Ross Chastain didn’t pull his video game stunt until the end of a race! 😄
– “It’s a 500 mile race, not three 160 mile sprints”
I used to watch the Tour de France every July. That’s a 2,000 mile race. But it’s spread over multiple days. And each day has several intermediate sprint finishes and king of the mountain peaks where points can be earned. I’m not a fan of the caution after every NASCAR stage but I don’t mind the stages. It can add some strategy.
The Chastain thing was awesome.
It actually took them a little while to outlaw it.
I don’t follow F1, but I have the impression they screw around with their rules as much as NASCAR.
stages were the final straw for this OG guy who grew up wrenching on small-blocks; I loved 1950’s technology, but imanotgonna watch this crap
The point of a race is that it is an extended drama of natural tensions: the fight between risk, durability, power, and strategy. Stages erase most of the value of having earned some advantage early; it eliminates the very point of achieving anything early and turns a race into something of the typical NBA game: a long slog of mild back and forth until a winner is made of the mess on the last possession.
Tour de France does not make this mistake: every effort in every stage is recorded and preserved. Indeed, the race is usually won in the Mountains, at least a few days and stages before end: the advantage of earlier achievement at some point can not be reeled in with the miles left. Ultimately, the ride into Paris is gentle and respectful, the natural tensions of the month-long effort having dispatched some, reduced others, and, most importantly, already decided the winner.
For libertarian benchmarks in economics, I give you the Federal Reserve, fiat currency, and free markets. Savers are penalized by the government’s constant printing of currency: savers’ decency in earning and saving early are thrown away by a changing of the rules and a manipulation of the fuel; as we Glibs would complain: picking winners and losers; it’s obviously wrong and indecent. Similarly, free markets pit products against each other: the best mousetrap as deemed by dollar votes wins; the market works best when the natural tensions are left to work themselves out, and all artificial interference is easily seen as understood as perverse and delivering suboptimum results.
The best sport preserve and honor natural tension; the worst sports and government policies provide unnecessary interferences that result in perverse outcomes.
When Tony George brought Leo Mehl in to “run” the IRL, Leo brought a bunch of stupid NASCAR shit with him. Closing the pits under yellow was the worst. Guys diving into the pits when something happened was a big wild card.
Also- I was pretty much oblivious to all those people in the stands. Once in a while, I might look around and think,
Don’t they have anything better to do?”
You were channeling Rufus even back then?
Slutty Sunday tempting you to Onanism.
https://archive.is/qxJw7
And enjoy the vroom vrooms!
Oh my, one and done!
I see headlines about Trump getting booed off the stage by the so-called libertarians at their weenie roast.
How do those retards at CNN and MSNBC think Joe would be treated?
A Gallagher show in reverse?
He wouldn’t bother to show up, because he’d figure like everyone else that the LP is irrelevant.
Might be the first time in his life he was right.
Unfortunately. Honestly it’s why I stopped hoping that the Libertarian Party would ever amount to anything more than a fringe political group.
The way politics typically operates is that you work with people who don’t share all of your values to get your big policy priorities accomplished. Most Western countries have a multiparty system where different groups work as a coalition, though they don’t agree on everything. That’s the only way to get things done.
All the LP cares about is winning the presidency. Even if a genie popped out of a bottle and granted their wish, what then? There are no LP senators or reps, no justices on the court. And we know how the agencies would act. What do they think could get done? Really, what the hell is the point?
Well, we* are certainly working to make it so. I would say, at this point, we don’t want to do the hard work to make liberty and freedom increase. But would, instead, rather maintain ideological purity, while our rights are being eroded.
*registered Libertarian here who is very unhappy with the idiots running the show. By the way, I read what you wrote yesterday, and agree 100% with you.
I think there are enough realists who know that the LP will *NEVER* win the presidency. They go through the motions of running a presidential candidate to preserve down-ticket ballot access. Unfortunately the party as a whole sucks at getting anyone elected to anything.
at getting anyone elected to anything
I would venture anyone in the LP is a person that doesn’t actually like politics. The perfect LP world is one with hardly any political decision making. Tough sledding to build a constituency and effective party for that.
Which is sad, as they/we could be a serious voting block, which, in turn, could be used to both get concessions re liberty, and get political appointees placed.
imagine, a Libertarian in charge of the ATF, or in charge of the EPA, Labor…. But, alas.
That’s the thing. At this point Trump needs all the votes he can get to push him to victory. If you can deliver those votes (or if he just thinks you can), that gives you a hell of a lot of leverage.
100% to both your comments.
I just don’t get the hate for the stages in NASCAR races.*shrugs*
The least they could do is send the top ten to the back.
No true libertarian
The Libertarian split over Trump was reflected by Peter Goettler, president and chief executive of the libertarian Cato Institute, who suggested in a Washington Post column that the former president’s appearance violated the gathering’s core values and that “the political party pretending to be libertarian has transitioned to a different identity.”
The world according to NPR.
The same party that nominated “we must be anti-racist” Jo Jorgensen? That principled party?
Exactly. I voted for Johnson (what’s a leppo?) in ’16, but, took a serious look at what I want (liberty) and how we can get it (throwing support behind the most liberty curious party at any time). And right now that means listening to Trump, to both see what concessions we could get from him, and see how the party can rally to support liberty.
I think the intractable conflict between big-L folk and Trump is that he wouldn’t know a principle if it kicked him in the balls.
Considering the last two candidates, JoJo and ‘leppo, the party doesn’t have any principles OR brains.
You can be principled or you can get shit done. I’d rather see a 25% improvement in liberty versus zero.
If the LP had given Trump something, if he wins they can come to him and said “hey, some of our people helped get you elected and we’d like you to nominate one of our respectable prominent party members to a prominent post and listen to their input on relevant policy matters”.
You’re right, Trump isn’t super principled, but that means you can get him to change his mind and do what you want if you convince him. Of course to do that you actually have to be there.
Trump told the party the hard truth last night. You can win or you can keep getting your paltry 3% every four years and get nothing.
the party doesn’t have any principles OR brains
Libertarian Moment! Poised for the big time!!!
If the Libertarians had someone on his inner council, he might have pardoned a few people they wanted pardoned!
You can be principled or you can get shit done
I think this is correct.
But you can’t get shit done anyway, so it doesn’t matter, so you might as well be principled.
My libertarian principles can’t be bought for a promise of a fraction of a fraction; I don’t need Trumps magic beans which showed not to produce the magic stalk the first time we planted them.
I would be content for the LP to prosecute elections ceremonially. My view is that a life well-led is the most attractive tact. I don’t believe smart-ass, tribal tweets convert anyone. But a national party that simply points out that the uni-party is garbage, none of their programs work, and they have no moral right to our property is 9/10 of the value.
Meanwhile, I cannot endorse lying with dogs; I would rather take my hemlock and know that I was right and never dishonored myself.
That’s the one.
And right now that means listening to Trump, to both see what concessions we could get from him, and see how the party can rally to support liberty.
There are legislative elections too.
“violated the gathering’s core values” of being ignored?
This is the first time I’ve seen anything about the LP convention in the mainstream press.
Trump is a former POTUS, and one of the most famous people in the world. Why wouldn’t you let him speak?
Cato stopped being libertarian.
Oh. NPR. No wonder.
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing the Libertarian Party National Convention on Saturday night, with many in the crowd shouting insults and decrying him for things like his COVID-19 policies, running up towering federal deficits and lying about his political record.
NPR writer doesn’t think it necessary to mention what, specifically they objected to about those policies. That’s left to the reader.
It’s funny (har dee fucking har) that, among the NPR prime demographic, Trump’s “botched” response to the plague is an unshakeable article of faith.
I guess we should have copied Australia and New Zealand.
I, too, think Trump botched the response to the Plague.
Does anyone even know how the plague played out in most other countries? The media seemed uninterested in looking.
Sweden, who did none of the right things(tm) has had the lowest excess death rate across all of Europe, during and since.
Yeah, we’ve heard a thing or two about Sweden.
What about, say, India? China? Any country in Africa? Or South America? If there was narrative to further, I would have thought the MSM would have done so.
American media only really cares about the civilized world – Europe and our two coasts.
In answer to your question, Rhywun, if I remember right, the “global south” didn’t really have a covid problem, outside of Australia.
Developed world issue, it was.
What about, say, India? China? Any country in Africa? Or South America? If there was narrative to further, I would have thought the MSM would have done so.
I have some vague memories of the media pumping up number from India. Mentions of Bolsonaro in Brazil taking a more relaxed approach (i.e. fewer restrictions) leading to more deaths. I remember some talk of deplorables in Peru revolting against Peru’s restrictive lockdowns, lockdowns which saved the country.
In other words, if they could use it bash folks that opposed the lockdowns and vax mandates, they used it.
I, too, think Trump botched the response to the Plague.
So do I, but not for the same reasons as the denizens of NPRland. That’s the point.
I wasn’t happy with his response to covid either, but that’s a once in a century (or more) event.
I had to stop and ask myself “how would any other candidate that won or almost won the office have responded given the same circumstances?” Would Carter, Obama, Bush(s), McCain, Clinton, Romney, or Kerry (even Reagan) have been better? What about Richard “wage and price controls” Nixon? Hell no. They would have been worse, in a lot of cases much worse.
Who wants to authenticate this?
Napoleon’s one-and-a-half inch long penis last known to be in the possession of NJ urologist’s daughter
I am guessing that any research on it would only cock it up, and would only find the glans jar it was stored in.
Little known fact – as Napoleon’s empire grew, he gave the shaft to the rest of Europe.
But Russia had the blue balls to stop him!
Does anyone even know how the plague played out in most other countries? The media seemed uninterested in looking.
There is a remarkable lack of curiosity in how things went in Sweden.
This is why I started using Twitter during the shutdown. It was the only way to get some on the ground reporting and experts like Martin Kuldorff and Jay Battacharya.
There was some tut-tutting of Sweden and expectations of mass death there. Also, twisting around the numbers to make Sweden look bad.
My two big take-aways from Trump’s address are: According to the Daily Mail article linked above he explicitly promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht (presumably to time served). He also said, “I will put a Libertarian in my Cabinet and also Libertarians in senior posts.”
That is the scariest thing to Libertarians; they might have to make good on promises, or at least admit that the whole thing is more difficult than they say.
He has also said if he wins he’ll bring Navarro back. If he actually followed through on picking Libertarians, you’ll get someone “in charge” of some govt thing that the person wants to eliminate, but can’t. The bureaucracy would gaslight the poor mf-er to suicide.
It is outrageous that people running a bureaucracy can’t clean house.
It is outrageous that people running a bureaucracy can’t clean house.
indeed; reminds my of a conversation that keeps happening to me
Friend: voting Trump2024 so he can drain the swamp
Me: Trump 2016 didn’t drain the swamp
Friend: CAUZ U CANTTTT! IT UNPSSIBUL.1!11!!!! DEEEEEEEEEEEEP STATE!!
Me: well okay then
Navarro was awful. But Ron Swanson running the Labor Department would be far better than Julie Su. *spits*
You ever met a real life Ron Swanson?
I’m that guy in Home Depot who bluntly says, “I know more than you”.
Does that count?
Color me skeptical.
#metoo
he explicitly promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht
That’s “Notorious Drug Kingpin” Ross Ulbricht, to you.
Let’s ask Assange and Snowden about Trump’s executive mercy.
I think the intractable conflict between big-L folk and Trump is that he wouldn’t know a principle if it kicked him in the balls.
“Every man for himself” doesn’t count?
I think, in the very beginning of the plague hysteria, Trump was in favor of a “wait and gather info” policy, but was outgunned by the panicking do-something-ers. The very worst thing a politician can do is Not Enough.
*I could be proven wrong.
“The great and powerful Oz has spoken”
I agree. But that doesn’t explain why he didn’t grow a pair when we were six months into it.
Oh, you didn’t know, the man is basically a coward?
Jeffrey Tucker on the lockdowns.
“Gaza camp protests predominantly occurring at elite colleges, report finds
The report found more pro-Palestine protests at colleges primarily attended by students from higher-income families.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/gaza-camp-protests-predominantly-occurring-at-elite-colleges-report-finds
The whole thing is a bunch of very privileged rich kids and outside agitators.
And relatively speaking, a tiny number of them at that*.
It’s like a tiny cohort grabbing all the attention (and power) is a repeating theme in current year.
*With the possible exception of Columbia, which seems to be in a class by itself, and a lost cause.
It’s tiny numbers all the way down.
A tiny number of LGBT pushing trans shit, a tiny number of blacks asking for reparations, etc.
“”We believe the job of the United States military is not to wage endless regime change wars around the globe,” Trump said during his speech. “The job of the United States military is to defend America from attack and invasion here at home.””
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/trump-slams-endless-wars-libertarian-national-convention
That’s the main reason the Uniparty doesn’t want him to be President.
Apostates and heretics of the Glorious Wilsonian Cause need not apply.
I want Trump to get elected and let the libertarians offer up a candidate for head of Homeland Security.
I also want a pony.
It should be me as head of the ATF. We’ll drink, smoke, and shoot guns. It’ll be fun.
Since the bureau also covers explosives I think the nod has to go to HE.
You have my vote.
“Racism Can Kill Black People Even When a Black Finger Pulls the Trigger”
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/deborah-cotton-racism-new-orleans/
Long rambling article worth nothing. I just like the headline.
I won’t cotton to any cotton-picking nonsense from Cotton!
Tapped out before it got to the point.
I stick out like a sore thumb, can’t miss me.
🙂
Ominous
Abraham George is about to take the helm of the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) at a time with the influential state-level political organization is casting aside its longstanding alliance with corporate America.
In its place, the RPT is embracing an anti-corporate, anti-elite populist agenda that is on the rise among Republicans across the country in the Trump era.
——-
Veteran Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak was among the group of candidates vying to be the next state GOP chair. In a memo declaring his candidacy, Mackowiak lamented that the “party’s corporate fundraising is virtually nonexistent.”
Griffin Perry, a Texas businessman and son of Republican former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said earlier this week that it’s time for the party to shift back to working with corporations.
“The next chair needs work with our corporations,” Perry told CNBC. “There’s no reason the Republican Party of Texas should not have corporate support.”
Oh, no. Who will stand up for the Chamber of Commerce Republicans?
As the party continues to move further to the right, some companies who used to be regular supporters of the Texas Republican Party are now holding back their money, according to state campaign finance records.
These one-time corporate sponsors are put off, political operatives and fundraisers in the state tell CNBC, by Texas Republicans’ increasingly anti-corporate rhetoric, their vicious infighting and a number of policy positions that are increasingly conservative.
For example, a law enacted in 2022 bars all abortions in Texas except in rare, extreme cases, and it allows for the prosecution of doctors and medical professionals. In 2023, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill banning gender-affirming medical care for minors.
The place is overrun with racist bigots.
I agree. But that doesn’t explain why he didn’t grow a pair when we were six months into it.
No, it doesn’t. As I have said on multiple occasions, the whole panic was based on models which were shown to be egregiously wrong. If they had been wrong by accident, they would have been corrected, or discarded entirely.
Too many people and institutions were burrowed in like ticks.
When your authority is based around what you model, you don’t care if reality disagrees. In fact, you discourage any consideration of that.
Hello, to all those who’ve come to Indiana for the race! I don’t understand the “Welcome to Race Day!” signs people put on their own property. “Welcome” to where? The Speedway? I’m not even in Indy. I assume your house! And reasonable food/drinks are available from my host. Otherwise, why welcome me in?
Hope all ’round enjoy the festivities! Qualifying was certainly entertaining. I ish-remember going to the museum way back, but this is my first active memory of the Speedway. It is predictably massive. I’m not entirely sure how much of the 2 miles I could see from my perch. Very little, was my realized discovery.
I just got a text (thanks to following Tucker Carlson) saying that “Danica Patrick is entering the political arena.”
Heaven help us all. 🤦♀️
I wonder who will be GoDaddy for her…
You’re saying she is no threat to win?