…(yes, there were a few moments of levity) in that presidential "debate" the other day was Biden's: "Americans don't panic."
Yes, we do, In fact, we excel at it. Panic is practically a national pastime. Always has been, doubtless always will.
Still, it's probably a good idea to at least try not to.
…maybe we will run out of bad ideas, this:
A proposed rule could make it more difficult to renew J-1 exchange visitor visas, which allow scholars, doctors and others to live temporarily in the US while they study or receive training.
Kicking doctors out of the country? Now? Really?
…to recuperate from that debate last night and I only watched the first 15 minutes. I don't want to think about what might have happened if I'd watched more.
This faux news site has a strategic niche: pumping up moderate Democrats elected to Congress in 2018 in Republican-leaning districts.
“Dear cousins,” the letter starts. “We are quite well but mother has awful lame knees."
Robertson has twice before incorrectly predicted the world’s end, the report said.
"In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down
Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun.
The great—well, maybe you hadda be there but I say he's great—Tom Lehrer has released a substantial number of his songs into the public domain.
WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP/DESE) – The Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary education released their snow day guidelines. Giving school districts the option to go remote for snow days or not. Meaning snow days as many people remember them; no work, sledding all day, may be over.
…or a train or a plane in quite some time but somehow this seems so commonplace good sense I'm amazed it even qualifies as news. And now, CDC?
ATLANTA — The CDC is strongly recommending passengers on planes, trains and buses wear masks, but it’s stopping short of requiring it. (Associated Press)Maybe it's just I've been in the bubble for so long. We've been wearing masks in public spaces since March. And we've been a hotspot state for nearly that long, but in the rural part of the state, where I live, the virus seems pretty much under control, not an immediate threat.
…an absolutely perfect example of the Great Unicorn Prayer of the security services: oh Lord, grant us this day all the data, but keep it from the sight of the evil-doers. And if that's not possible, because it isn't, even for thou, oh Lord, force industry to give it to us by framing them as complicit in child sex abuse. Amen.
The always acerbic and normally spot-on English tech pub, The Register, gets it right here.
If you still think it's possible to keep super-secret government backdoors secret (and speaking of the Five Eyes) just repeat to yourself, C I A.
Seventeen states prohibit counting ballots cast by someone who subsequently dies before the election, but 10 states specifically allow it. The law is silent in the rest of the country, according to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
From the sports page of the Duluth Tribune:
In some states, the ballots can be accepted several days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked before polls closed. And while some states count the ballots as they come in, others — notably the critical battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — have laws that forbid processing mail ballots until Election Day, guaranteeing the count will extend well past that night.
From the Associated Press, here's a state-by-state breakdown of vote-by-mail and early voting laws.
[ED. NOTE: An unusually long counting time is not evidence of fraud. It's just evidence of big numbers. And it'll all get done in time. Stock up on popcorn and enjoy.]
"Holding a half-million-person rally in the midst of a pandemic is emblematic of a nation as a whole that maybe isn’t taking [the novel coronavirus] as seriously as we should.”
Bikers from every state participated, then went home. Here is a detailed—and grimly fascinating—study in how the virus survives and spreads.
