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Dixie Chicks have changed their name to The Chicks and released a catchy call-to-action tune, "March March." Also, new album is called "Gaslighter". Nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBjF_VVFvE

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Confession: I didn't realize until now that Marion Barry was a man

https://twitter.com/EGonzaba/status/1276248731415801856?s=20

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As Chris Rock pointed out... smoked crack, got his job back. Kind of impressive in a way.

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He was smart as hell - the sad irony is that he made a real effort to raise up DC residents by increasing city services and a lot of those people moved out of DC. One of the reasons he was able to make a comeback to being in city government was that people in neighborhoods like anacostia knew he’d always have their backs

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For those following along at home:

-wine was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday (required an adult)

-yesterday, the delivery company tracking system listed the package as delivered, but my doorbell never rang, and I never received it

-I called the delivery company, and they checked in with their staff. They told me, "Our driver rang the doorbell, but no one answered, so he left the package and took a picture. When he circled back at the end of his route, the package was no longer there, so he figured it had been taken inside."

-They sent me the picture, but it was very obviously not my front door.

-The delivery company told me to contact the seller for a refund/another shipment, and to have the seller file a claim with the delivery company.

...

Enter: my boss, the super stalker

-She suggested using Google Street View to find the door where my package had been delivered

-Unfortunately, my complex and most nearby complexes don't have Street View because there aren't really public roads. I did think that perhaps someone had turned right instead of left from the main street, but I walked over to the nearby complex, and all the house numbers were three digits (in my complex, all the house numbers are two digits)

-My boss looked up street names, house numbers, checked out Google Street View, and then started looking at real estate listings. She found a real estate listing that showed the same doorway where my package had been delivered (including the distinct style of the house number).

She said, "I couldn’t wait for my son to go to bed so I could solve the mystery!!!!"

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You never know. My building has 25 units and three entrances, each with a different street number. About a week ago there was a package in my entrance for one of the other entrances. I took it to the right place but when setting it down noticed a package for the third entrance. Right building, wrong address.

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and? what now?

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Today, the driver is going to try to retrieve the package. The wine company says they'll help make things right if the delivery company can't get the package to me.

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So I was watching the Titan Games (the NBC show created and hosted by the Rock) and this week's episode included a former Stanford athlete. Former women's basketball player Michelle Harrison is now Mitch and is the first Trans athlete on the show. Got to say that this is one of the few times where I was rooting for a Stanford alum and [SPOILER ALERT] was bummed that he fell short in both events.

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that is the incorrect answer. The correct answer is "Fuck Furd. Always"

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Man, I never noticed before how much The Sisters of Mercy were influenced by Joy Division. This Peel session makes it really clear.

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which version of the Sisters of Mercy? Each of their albums are wildly different and their pre album music is pure gothic death rock

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Early eighties.

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This is the Peel session from 1984

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Good, I guess, but we really are going after the low hanging fruit of racial justice rather than re-plowing the terrain to build a more just system.

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Heh,

I realize I look like an aged Wimbledon ball boy, green shorts, deep blue-violet polo shirt.

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Weird. I just noticed the URL for today's DBD is different. The last 3 had the title with spaces/punctuation replaced with '-'. Today's is just dbd-6. SGBear, did you create it as "DBD-6" and then edit it?

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Government probe reveals slightly less than half of Pakistan Airlines' pilots had bogus airline licenses.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pakistan-international-airlines-grounds-150-pilots-bogus-licenses-deadly-crash-flight-8303-karachi/

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wow.

Jack Sparrow: What are you doing here? You look bloody awful.

Norrington: You hired me. I can’t help it if your standards are lax.

Jack Sparrow: You smell funny.

- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

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Well that’s terrifying

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That's a higher percentage of non-bogus credentials than I suspected.

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Tostada vs. Hard Taco

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Hard taco for me. I fry up my own corn tortillas, so they end up crunchy but still a little bit pliable so they don't shatter when you bite into them. Delicious.

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To be clear, I fry the tortillas, I do not make the tortillas. My time is worth something.

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Tostada, just because you can stack a lot more meat and salsa on top. If there is an ideal ratio taco served in hard shell, I have not had it - neither Taco Bell nor Tito's Taco in LA have a satisfying amount of meat, IMHO.

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On our Taco crawl, the hard tacos dorados at a place on Foothill were really, really tasty; it ain't a bit like Taco Bell.

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Tostada. The hard taco shell is an engineering embarrassment.

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You haven't had the good stuff.

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Tostada, if I must choose. Eating a hard taco is like an exercise in triage, desperately trying to take the right bites so the whole thing doesn't crack into pieces.

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When I was young, I had problems trying to heat up a hard taco shell. If you lay it down in the oven the top closes up. If you put it top down then the folded over section burns in a toaster oven.

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neither. Tacos with corn tortillas are the way to go. If I had to choose then I'd probably go Tostada.

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but man Tito's in Culver City brings back good hard shell memories

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I may have to try that the next time I'm in LA.

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MLB: You're creating the Red Ass team. Who is on this team besides Puig, Harper, Bumgarner?

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Jeff Kent

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Milton Bradley

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Yordano Ventura (RIP)

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Brian McCann

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Randy Johnson, legendary redass

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Who is a REAL dark horse for Cal FB 2020 (not someone who already was a decent contributor in 2019)?

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Ricky Walker III: The wide receiver with more special teams tackles than receptions. He has had nagging injury problems that kept him doing what he does best - be the stretch-the-field burner. I predict he'll torch somebody this season.

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Jake Tonges. I believe he was a walk-on. LB's have difficulty covering him and he actually averaged more receiving yards per catch than anyone else on the team.

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Interstate quarantine

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It's not interstate, but going from Santa Clara County down to Los Gatos and Monte Sereno feels like passing through states these days.

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I haven't left the state in over a year anyway.

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same. and when i do leave the state of california, most of the time it's to go to mexico and not another state.

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I don't think states can actually enforce this.

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It'll be tough for the NE states because they can't track people as they come in. I think Hawaii has had some success but they can track people easier with everyone flying in.

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We have no plans to travel en famille. The 15 y.o. has an invitation to join a friend’s family at a rental house in OBX in August, given that our friends who have a place there just came home, that’s going to be a game day decision.

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We have friends who bailed to their place in OBX as soon as schools closed and they came back here yesterday - I guess on the grounds that OBX is wide open for tourists and we’re steady state locally. I doubt they will quarantine but expect they will physically distance as appropriate

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Last Friday we left the state for the first time since quarantine and went to the beach in Delaware. It was sparsely crowded and Delaware has a low caseload, so I'm not concerned. Things seem to be mostly under control in the Mid-Atlantic. And people remain pretty good about wearing masks and distancing when appropriate.

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i still have plans to go camping in WV near Seneca Rocks and riding my bike in western NC near Asheville in late Jul.

i wonder what the rules will be by then about driving back into NY ...

as far as i can tell, the places i am going in those states have close to zero coronavirus cases, but i am not sure how it is going to work.

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No 1 is driving cross-country in a week or so. Picking his friends up in Louisville and driving back here. They live Fort Baker (one worked for the national Parks before getting laid off). I'll be driving back with him around the end of July and then flying back. They're staying at campgrounds on the drive here to sort of quarantine. I think we'll be doing the same thing going out. I'll need to be careful after flying back.

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I leave in mid-July on the 2020 Coast to COVID road trip - unfortunately, my pup is not the best camper in the world, as the hound dog nose causes her to roam rather than rest, so we’ve got La Quinta Inn stays dialed in. We got our travel blog up and running tho, which is nice.

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When I did the drive cross country 3 times, I ended up just getting a hotel on priceline as I got close to where I was going to stay. that allowed me to change how far I drove each day. For example, going westbound the 2nd time about 3 hours outside of KC, I decided I was fine going to Topeka so I got a hotel there instead of KC. Also I had my cat the 2nd time so I had to find a place that allowed cats that didn't charge an arm and a leg.

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A local bird

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Not unique to here but mockingbird. I've been going to a nearby park in the late afternoon to read because not many folks go to this park since it's kind of hidden behind a tall building. I noticed a couple mockingbirds go in and out of a bush near the bench I was sitting on. I later read that they make their nests in shrubs and bushes. Next time I was there I mistakenly sat on the bench in front of the bush. Got divebombed big time almost right away. Now I like to go there to read and watch people walk too close to the bush and get attacked.

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Blue Heron. There are hundreds of these on the lake and they are both goofy and majestic. They stand completely still at the shore on their long gangly legs, waiting for long periods for a fish dumb enough to wander near them. When they fly, they fold their necks up so their heads are near their body. They also live in trees, which is weird because they are big ass birds and they are conspicuous when sitting in one.

https://loudounwildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Dulles_Wetlands_July_17_2010_Great_Blue_Heron-39-240x300.jpg

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Common in this area. Moreso than their cousins the Grey Heron, but there are a fair number of them too. Always enjoy seeing them.

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There's a white egret or two that are sometimes around the area too. They are really elegant when you see them in flight.

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I often see those dinosaurs wandering around the ponds by my house.

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Speaking of, here is a picture of a baby blue heron. Dinosaur indeed.

https://preview.redd.it/3rjxly39slz11.jpg?auto=webp&s=ae54631a9a2fe220b41875411d4a0ace43a210d2

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I see a couple almost every time I run on the C&O canal towpath near Georgetown.

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They definitely cash in on the easy pickings in the canal. Often to be found on the quieter stretches on either side of Great Falls too.

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Tyler

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One of those Presidents nobody cares about.

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"Whoa! Okay, you are now firing a gun . . . at your imaginary friend . . . near 400 gallons or nitroglycerin!"

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Shatner. I’d fight William Shatner.

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Something Polish

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Wojtek the bear. Iranian by birth, but Polish by service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)

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Half of my wife. I made galumpkis (stuffed cabbage rolls) last month. The recipe called for a fancy sauce. She demanded ketchup because that's how her people by way of central Mass do it.

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I miss the Polish hot dogs from Costco.

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They were the best. The Polish dogs at Sam's Club are vastly inferior.

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The chap who runs the fencing club to which my daughter belongs

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Pierogi!!!

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love them

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The visiting math professor at Cal who I couldn't understand

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My childhood piano teacher

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Also my neighbor growing up (Polish-American anyway)

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Tweets about Polish airmen in WW2

https://twitter.com/markdudek1/status/1276201613535952896?s=21

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Few know that Polish pilots were undoubtably the difference in winning the Battle of Britain in 1940; made up 11% of the pilots flying (much easier to flee Poland if you're in an airplane)

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I wouldn’t say no to visiting Zakopane and walking around in the Tatra mountains

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Belgian beer

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A bit too sweet for me when done poorly, has to do with the yeast. I forget the name, but used to love the one with gnome.

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Was the primary reason why I didn't do as much sightseeing as I would have liked on my so-far only trip there a year ago.

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How much physics did you do???

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eh, y'all can have it all, I prefer American IPA's

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top pick - Rodenbach.

there are a lot of sour beers in the world but this one has the perfect balance of sour and robust flavor. there are a couple places nearby where i can get it on tap, but would love to go bike around the country drinking as i go.

they are a cycling obsessed nation as well. Eddy Merckx is considered the greatest cyclist ever, even more so that Jordan is to basketball, and basically a national hero.

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My favorite country for beer, narrowly edging out the US. I found a place in Utrecht with 100 beers on tap (mostly Belgians) and I was in heaven. I think I went there four times in my week there.

Top pick: Gulden Draak, a malty tripel ale that evokes the taste and texture of warm, chewy caramel.

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Berk97: Related question: do the Dutch have good beer or did they decide to stop beer making skills at the border?

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Based on my experience, they let the Belgians focus on getting everyone drunk while the Dutch make all the irresistible-while-drunk snacks and appetizers.

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Bing

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Throwing yourself off the 27th floor of a building is a pretty grizzly way to die.

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bong. Ahhh, Pixar.

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Jun 25, 2020Liked by SGBear

“Nooooooooooo Bing-bong!!!!” - a thing said by me, a functioning adult.

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I didn't need to cry today

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Cherries

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Crosby

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Does anyone use it deliberately? (Search engine that is)

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I thought it was primarily for adult searches

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It’s not called “bang” TBB

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no. but i correct people when they say "i googled it". i usually tell them 'i binged it"

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Tubing

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FYI: the picture of the tubing on the header is SGB Jr (left), his friend (right), and the friend's little brother. Junior accidentally did a "full scorpion" on Saturday.

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shrink tubing is something i used a lot in grad school. amazing stuff

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Which type of tubing is more your speed? Whipped around behind a boat or floating down a lazy river?

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I have only done the lazy way of tubing. While I have never wakeboard nor waterskied (and likely would be quite bad at it), I would be willing to try the speed tubing once.

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Lazy. Although I'll gladly watch the behind-the-boat variety when they catch the wake just right and get launched off the tube and 15ft in the air.

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I’ve never felt compelled to try either tbh 🤷🏼‍♂️

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lazy river with a case of beer

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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whoever has the better chance to beat McConnell needs to win.

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Pretty sure the polling says that's Booker. Also the fact that Booker is running so competitively with McGrath despite a 50-to-1 money disparity makes me think he's a much better candidate.

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Unfortunately the lead is only with live voting. The still have the absentee ballots, which is like 90% of the votes, which I think is her advantage.

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We'll see.... Depends on what areas they're coming from as well.

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This just in, watch Fox News is bad for your health:

"Another recent working paper, by economists at the University of Chicago and other institutions, similarly finds that Fox News viewers are less likely to comply with public health guidelines than consumers of other media. But their paper takes the analysis two steps further: It finds that Fox viewers aren’t a monolith, with fans of some media personalities acting distinctly from others. It also provides evidence that those behavioral differences are contributing to the spread and mortality rate of covid-19 in certain areas."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/25/fox-news-hannity-coronavirus-misinformation/

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HHS cutting support to 13 drive-through Covid-19 testing sites next week.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/24/trump-administration-drive-through-coronavirus-testing-338217

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I guess, unlike what Kayleigh McEnany said, Trump wasn't joking. Numbers can't go up if you don't test...

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"The federal government sent coronavirus stimulus payments to almost 1.1 million dead people totaling nearly $1.4 billion, Congress’ independent watchdog reported Thursday.

The Washington Post previously reported that the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service disbursed some payments of up to $1,200 each to dead people. But the astonishing scope of the problem had not been known.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent investigative agency that reports to Congress, issued the finding as part of a comprehensive report on the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus relief spending approved by Congress in March and April. It said it had received the information from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in an accounting as of April 30."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/06/25/irs-stimulus-checks-dead-people-gao/

Good job, guys.

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Eh, whatever. What is that, like a 1.5% error rate? How many people die in a quarter?

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It's not just people who died this year

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So what, though? It doesn't sound significant.

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In the big picture, it obviously is not, BUT these kind of things have an outsize effect on people's impressions of what's working properly, and effects their trust in government.

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Sensationalized coverage of this stuff has an outsized impact, certainly. Remember the Solyndra "scandal" that people were hyperventilating about under Obama? That loan program actually, turned a profit for the federal government: https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363572151/after-solyndra-loss-u-s-energy-loan-program-turning-a-profit

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Loeffler calls black gun owners doing open carry "unacceptable"

https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1275998299070185472

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Hmm, somebody replay for me the same discussion when the all, or at least mostly all, white protestors took guns into the Michigan state capitol building.

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Carly Fiorina says she plans to vote for Biden, not Trump. Both of her political followers say that they might consider doing that too.

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Where were these fucking Repubs in 2016? Could have made a difference, but no....

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Was watching the Bolton interview with Colbert, I guess he (and other GOPers) thought that Trump would not be that bad and would be manageable by his advisors.

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He was lying out of his ass when he said he was giving Trump the benefit of the doubt that he would learn and grow. What he did think was that Trump was an ignorant blank canvas that he could manipulate into supporting his policy goals.

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I don't think so. Trump was initially not taken seriously, a mistake in judgement made by all, and then I don't doubt that political veterans thought that any political relative newcomer would gradually fit at least somewhat into the system. Also a serious error in judgement.

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eh... he'd had two years to watch this insanity before taking the job, I agree with atoms.

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She was reviled at HP and a laughingstock of the Valley.

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I worked at HP with her when she joined. Yeah, she rubbed the old guard the wrong way, but she did make some positive changes (eg, sales people have to sell, working at HP doesn't mean permanent employment). Her nickname was Rockstar because she flew private planes, went first class everywhere (including having her treadmill brought everywhere on the road), and she acted as if she was too good to talk to mere peasant employees. I can confirm she's got a "V lizard person walking around with fake human skin" vibe about her.

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Another character is Meg Whitman, a repub whom I used to see walking around my then-idyllic neighborhood. Not too popular and Quibi, her new project with Jeffrey Katzenberg seems to have gone "poof" after raising $1 billion in private capital. Also, one of my good friends lived next door to Fiorina in Los Altos Hills. He had a few stories to tell.

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go on....

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... and?

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PRO

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I watched the highlights of Liverpool dismantling Crystal Palace. The second Liverpool goal (IIRC) was about as delightful a pass / control / shot sequence as you could hope to see.

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Pulisic might have won the league for Liverpool 🤷🏼‍♂️

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CAL

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Go Bears!

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