Linky Friday: Troubles, Tribulations, and Totally Nuts

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast.

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17 Responses

  1. Saul Degraw says:

    LF1: You can’t solve a problem like Majorie. Rather, solving the problem of QANON infecting good chunks of the Republican Party is going to be a lot harder than people want to admit. QANON and Trumpist authoritarianism are not going to disappear over night. The GOP is now a party of white government and resentments whether people want to admit it or not.

    LF4/LF7: We will see what November will be like in the United States. Trump and his goons are fucking with mail in ballots as much as possible. There are currently two lawsuits in Iowa counties and a state wide one in PA trying to gunk up mail ballots. Trump’s postmaster general increased the prices of mailing ballots, is removing mail sorters, and also removing mail boxes in Portland and Eugene, Oregon.

    LF6: Maybe the Yang side should think long and hard that they were not paying employees enough? There are possibly some businesses that were paying the best they could but I am convinced that there are lots of managers and bosses out there who simply thing “Job X does not deserve pay above Y” regardless of anything on tight labor markets. You saw this a lot pre-pandemic, countless articles with managers complaining about not having enough applicants or the right applicants but also refusing to do things like offer more pay which might attract more/right applicants.Report

  2. DensityDuck says:

    [LF8] The thing to remember is that it’s not just Playin’ F-Ball, it’s the fact that college football is a significant income source for these schools and the towns around them.

    Like, “college-branded gear sold in the store” isn’t something that shows up on the athetics-program balance sheet but that brings in more revenue from the game-day tickets. Parking concessions and R/V passes as well–a family friend mentioned how much he was paying to set up his tailgate spot each weekend, and it wasn’t too far off from my California-condo mortgage payment. And then you have all the hotels and restaurants doing business the day before the game, all the McDonalds’ and gas stations in town filling up the weekend crowd as they head out. It’s probably not too pessimistic to say that when people come back to these towns they’ll find that about half of them dried up and blew away over the past year…Report

  3. Saul Degraw says:

    Response in moderation again?Report

  4. Chip Daniels says:

    LF6:
    Isn’t paying people to stay home exactly what we should be doing to prevent the spread of the virus?Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      To be perfectly honest, I think that Americans have been exploiting other countries enough.

      We’ve all heard jokes about people going to Paris and trying to order a hamburger at a Parisian restaurant, like they expect to be catered to.

      Maybe Americans will learn humility.

      (I doubt it.)Report

      • LeeEsq in reply to Jaybird says:

        Actually, Americans generally rate favorably among tourists. The general impression is that we are clueless but polite and friendly. Other countries like the United Kingdom or Israel have a much more negative impression for demanding behavior.Report

  5. Oscar Gordon says:

    LF3: There go Christians, only thinking of themselves. What about those of us who don’t attend church, cut off from our social networks?Report

  6. Slade the Leveller says:

    The SEC decision to go ahead with the fall sports seasons (read football) was as certain as the sun rising in the east. I’m going to bet college presidents got a few phone calls from some wealthy alums before making the decision to plow ahead.Report

    • So, are the alums going to cover the awards from the lawsuits when some of the players die or suffer long-term damage from Covid-19? Or will the SEC and Big-12 leave the NCAA and require the players to sign waivers? Will a waiver stand up in court, given that so many other conferences/sports have decided it’s too dangerous for the athletes to play? Lots of state schools in those conferences; given the current condition of state budgets, how are the legislatures going to feel about the university putting them at risk of such lawsuits?Report

  7. Pinky says:

    LF5 – I’ve been to the Post Pub. As the article points out, high rent, low prices, a shrinking local customer base, and a rat problem. This isn’t a coronavirus story.Report

  8. LF1: Greene won the primary handily and is going to win the election handily. It doesn’t matter that she’s a lunatic; that might even be an advantage these days.Report

  9. Chip Daniels says:

    LF7:(And tangential to LF4):

    Trump’s strategy now is clear;

    He is destroying the ability to vote by mail, primarily in swing states by shutting down the Postal Service.
    This way when the vote tally on Election Night is close or leaning in his favor he can declare a win and.create enough chaos to hold on to power.

    The dog that isn’t barking here is the Republican Party, which is signalling it will support him.Report