The whole point of the Fauci business today is Republicans trying to gin up their base with the classic MAGA hits before the midterms because they have absolutely nothing other than failure after failure to run on otherwise.
Oldcoach
@oldcoach.bsky.social
Old man, retired statistics teacher, athletics coach, home cook, bad pop music aficionado.
Didn’t expect that a Garrett Crochet start against the Twins of all teams would tank my ratios for months but here we are.
RIP Tracy Kidder, terrific writer and wonderful guy. Came to my school some years ago to speak on his book Mountains Beyond Mountains, really engaged with the students. He will be missed.
I attended a local vigil for Renee Good in Hingham MA this afternoon. It triggered some thoughts, as follows: in August 1988 I arrived in Prague on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet invasion. I was just an American traveling in Eastern Europe, unaware of the significance of the day. /1
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. You might guess which birthday this is today.
Boston turns out - it’s so crowded it’s hard to get a good view of the whole crowd! Boston Common is packed!
I stand with President Trump that we should do everything to destroy the hate-filled organizations which radicalized the shooter of Charlie Kirk. Wait, I’m getting an update …
My one take on the discourse today: it is interesting that our “elites” believe that in a historically violent country, awash in guns, allowing or indeed providing content that degrades and dehumanizes people will NOT result in violence. /1
Here’s an old Soviet joke: every day a man walks past a newsstand on his way to work. He stops, looks at the front pages, then continues on his way. After a few weeks of this, the news dealer stops him one day and asks, “why don’t you ever buy the paper?” “Oh, I don’t really want the paper,” /1
Actually, my main reaction to the Times hit piece on Mamdani is, “if that’s all they’ve got the man must have lived a life as pure as the driven snow.” Quite a contrast to his rivals!
Hey @willbunch.bsky.social , I know you are a big Philly booster so I wanted to let you know that I had a great time in your hometown last weekend! I was there with some of my HS athletes for the New Balance Nationals at Franklin Field. We stayed downtown, it was lively, public transit was good /1
It seems to me that Trump’s asserted effort to balance the trade in goods with every other nation is a modern equivalent of bringing back the barter economy, at least as it applies to international trade. “We’ll swap our goods for your goods.” I wonder why we stopped doing that in ancient times?
Listening to Patrick Wyman’s Tides of History on the middle Roman Republic while doing chores this morning. A couple of lines hit me like a brick: “Nothing was more dangerous for a state in the ancient world than elites who wanted to seize that state for themselves.”
podcasts.apple.com
Apologies for the long thread but I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I had a great teacher at MIT, the economist Rudi Dornbusch. When discussing currency crises, which occur when confidence in a currency collapses and its value plummets, he would always say, /1
if rahm wants to run he is even more delusional than i thought www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Rahm Emanuel Is Gearing Up to Run for President
The former Chicago mayor is already on the hustings, finding new ways to attack Trumpism from the center.
politico.com
MSPB (Merit Systems Protection Board) rules this AM that the firing of 6 probationary employees in the Dept of Energy was an illegal reduction in force. Employees reinstated. Logic applies to all fired probationary employees.
Just returned from a rally at the West Roxbury MA Veterans Admin hospital supporting laid off federal workers. Several hundred in attendance. Focus was on veterans services but support for all federal workers was expressed by the speakers. /1
Even though Republicans were the drivers of the trade policies which helped drive manufacturing out of the Midwest in the 90’s, Democrats got most of the blame. Why? Because workers thought that the Democrats were there to protect them and they didn’t. 1/
There’s much to be afraid of in the US today. Musk is employing his “move fast and break things” mantra, but he and his youth corps don’t understand what they are dealing with and will certainly break many things. If they crash the economy, as seems possible if or even likely, things get ugly. /1
As we watch corruption overtake our government in real time, let’s not lose sight of one of the prime villains here: John Roberts. Roberts has done more than any other player to institutionalize corruption, starting with Citizens United. 1/2
Willie Mays, Polo Grounds (as a SF Giant vs. the Mets, not as a NY Giant).
High Heat Stats@highheatstats.bsky.social · 2y agoQuote this with the player name and ballpark of the first player you ever saw in person hit an MLB home run. Mine was Johnny Bench at Shea Stadium.
RFK Jr. potentially wanting to pull polio vaccine FDA approval deserves considerably more handwringing and consternation than Luigi Mangione killing that insurance CEO