143 Comments
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DBD AV Club

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The Boys on Prime. Season 2 has let 4 eps so far, and it is just as nuts as season 1, though a marginally better world than the current one.

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Mmmmm, Starlite, star-bright

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I’m still beating my Raised by Wolves drum!! Watch this series now!

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Better holidays movie selection: Halloween or Christmas?

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Maldalorian S2 trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW7Twd85m2g

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Looks promising!

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AQI

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Dropped below 300 for the first time in a week, to 295 this morning, after being below 400 for only the second time yesterday. Down to 260 this evening. We might improve to Unhealthy tomorrow, or else Thursday if the forecasted rains actually materialize.

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225 today about 11mi west of the Bobcat Fire, though I think it's dropped off enough for dog walks with a KN95 mask now.

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No air quality issues in DC, but the smoke rode the jet stream across the country so our otherwise blue sky day is hazy.

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Yellow! 90! Yay! I can workout today!

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My brother in the Sierra foothills said he's back to taking walks but it's still too bad to go for a bike ride.

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Falling, 68 @ 2:00

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Green! 47!

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it was 120-ish before 8 am this morning. 134 now.

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Much better today!

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Looks like 69 in my neighborhood right now. Nice.

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Down to 25 in the city tonight. Have windows open all over the place. Feels good.

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Chris Evan's accidentally (?) shares a dick pic on Twitter. No, I'm not linking that.

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It was a perfectly reasonable dick.

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On a 19 point scale?

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Oh I don't know, maybe 14 or 15?

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Former Fraternity & Sorority members: Memorizing the Greek alphabet FINALLY pays off. Tropical Storm Vicky forms, which leaves only one name left on the 2020 list.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

Then it's Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta... uh... Gyro?

https://www.obxtoday.com/top-stories/what-happens-if-we-run-out-of-hurricane-names-this-season/

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I wasn't able to beat my grandpa in much before he lost cognitive function late in life (he kicked my ass in ping pong, golf and about every card game imaginable), but I was able to beat him in reciting the greek alphabet after joining my fraternity freshman year.

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BLM

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City of L'ville settles with Breonna Taylor's family

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/us/breonna-taylor-louisville-settlement/index.html

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@Does the settlement include charging the officers?@

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We admit to no wrong doing, but here's a shit-ton of money.

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I think in this sort of a case I would hold out to keep the 'we admit to no wrongdoing' out of the settlement agreement. 'that paragraph costs you $2M more'

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Artichoke Pizza

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Has anyone tried this?

https://www.artichokepizza.com/location/artichoke-basille-pizza-berkeley/

It came up on a Twitter poll as a late-night place to go and it barely missed as the #1 place to visit late night. I had never heard of it because I haven't been to Berkeley in a while.

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I tried it. It was OK. Not in the league of Zachary's but who is?

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it's always crowded on game days so I've never been. Then again, I don't really like any of the food near campus. Some of it's OK, but nothing I crave or have to have if I'm on campus.

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I think this is the one up the street from Top Dog on the corner. I've thought about stopping by to get a slice on gameday and it's always PACKED. Maybe the next time I go I'll stop off and get a slice. Their pizzas look really good.

Maybe it's time to go for a drive...though with the top up.

I did find a new condition tonneau cover for the convertible top. I was on facebook marketplace for a car for No 3 (ended up getting a 2012 Accord with only 45K for 12K from a 90 year old lady) and someone was selling it. his 96 M edition was totaled so he was parting some of it out. He had a hardtop so he never used the tonneau cover.

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One of are go to pizzas at Zachery's Artichoke hearts & Pepperoni.

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Mine is spinach and Chicken.

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solid choice.

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OUR! damn it.

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Pass.

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PLENTY of better choices.

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I love pesto pizza with chicken, sun dried tomato. Usually they also put in artichoke but I pick those off. When I make this I just leave out the artichoke.

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Tried it once, need to try it again.

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Halloween & Christmas: will people go all-in or opt out because of Covid?

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We'll go all in on Christmas like we usually do, but that's just immediate family. Nothing happens in our neighborhood on Halloween; when the kids were young, we would take them to Rockridge to go trick or treating (where most of the their classmates lived).

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We were in between homes this past Christmas, so I anticipate us going really big in terms of decorations and tree. Halloween is all but canceled for us, I will probably ask our neighbors how many trick or treaters they usually get and buy enough for a bowl to leave out. I have a feeling it'll be slim to none though since L.A. is really trying to push for no trick or treating.

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Halloween is actually the one holiday that is structured to do well during Covid. Halloween means dressing up in costumes and often includes wearing some sort of mask so kids/adults will be wearing some sort of mask already to go with their costumes or they could customize their Covid face mask into their costume design.

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As my agreement with Clapdoc suggests, I have no plans for Halloween ever. I hand out candy to placate my wife.

Christmas is typically a quiet affair under normal circumstances. We went to Portland last year so at most we might have hosted my father in law and his wife. My wife draws the line at driving 2-ish hours each way to have an awkward “Christmas” dinner with her mother and her mother’s husband.

On the plus side it’ll be nice to have my older daughter home from college starting the week of thanksgiving.

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My in-laws are pushing to have Christmas dinner at our house, but my wife is not excited by the idea, purely for Covid reasons. Depending on the results in November, I may or may not be interested in hosting the almost entirely conservative crowd.

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the idea of having to feed a bunch of right wing in-laws crowing about the election is unsettling to put it mildly

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Vandy's doing the same thing. Back for Thanksgiving until the New Year.

I wish they would keep it up because then I wouldn't have to spend $600+ round trip to get him back after Thanksgiving and Christmas. Although I'm sure they'd rather have them take finals there instead of online.

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We don't get Trick or Treaters, so that's kind of a moot point. Have a few decorations, black cat cutout, ghosts I hang in a tree in the front yard, ghost lights to hang in the front window, and will put those out anyway, just because we need something to be happy about.

Not yet sure what Christmas will look like, but I'm already expecting it to be without at least some of the family interactions. Which will be another on a more than a year long (by the time we are done) list of disappointments.

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Depending on how busy/lazy I am, I may just turn off my lights this year. Boooo!

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I bought candy for a couple of years but we don't get trick or treaters anymore. At least on our street we don't get kids walking around like we used to. I don't think there are as many kids on our street anymore.

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Not many kids in my neighborhood but I've gotten to know some of the ones that are here during the virus since the families have spent time in the park across the street while playgrounds were closed. One of the girls had a Wonder Woman costume on the other day and I said something about Halloween. Her mom said they were going to do a kind of Easter egg hunt type of hiding candy around their townhouse complex instead of any door to door trick or treating.

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I'll just buy a bag of candy that I like and put some out in a bowl. Good excuse to buy fun-size candy I like.

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Halloween doesn't exist, except for bags of fun sized Snickers on sale. I'm all in on Christmas this year because I'm already sad we won't be able to do our big family celebration, so my home had better look damn festive to make up for it.

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Hot take: Halloween has always been a horrible holiday and should be cancelled.

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Halloween is actually one of the better holidays we have.

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we need these holidays to get back to what they started as. excuses for people to get drunk and have sex outdoors with someone other than your spouse.

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Heh, Mirk deeds

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It's only horrible because we don't get the day off.

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Or the day after to help recover from the night's festivities.

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Boooooooooooo! Candy! Fancy dress! Booze for adults! Undead-themed food!

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All solid points in favor.

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3 of 4 seem as points against, and booze is year-long.

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I’m with you

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It's a hot take until you have kids.

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Rushing to Michael's at 4:30 pm on Oct 31 because the kid changed his mind from wanting to be Batman to now wanting to be a fairy octopus does not seem like something that would be enjoyable.

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Halloween is great with and without kids.

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Scorching Hot, and BOOOOOO!

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Not sure. No one ever comes to the house. In my old house two doors down from Willie Mays' digs a throng of kids always showed up from all over the Peninsula to get a free autographed baseball.

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I had a friend's mom that lived on the corner lot almost right across the street from Willie Mays' house. She must have almost been your next door neighbor. We did go over for a couple of years when No 1 was 1 or 2. The one year we did go to his house No 1 was a baseball, my ex had a Nomo Jersey, and I was dressed up as Mike Brito, complete with a fake Juggs gun. He wasn't there but his wife did hand out an autographed baseball. I don't think it was his though.

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The house across the street was owned by a guy who owned a chain of supermarkets. Used to get his mail sometimes, stuff like "the international beef journal". Not sure if it was the same neighbor but it could have been. The folks next to them were dotcom people.

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I think it was the dotcom couple. Corner lot with the half circle driveway and a huge tree right in front. Though it was more late 80s when the company she worked for was sold. I remember they had a Porsche 911 and a large Mercedes 600 and then a Boxster.

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*roommate's mom

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We seem to be in a pattern where there's a surge in cases after every major holiday (Memorial Day, 4th of July, soon to be Labor Day), and I don't expect that pattern to change.

I personally plan to set a bowl of candy at the end of the driveway while sitting at the top of the driveway with a beer and/or some other festive beverage. We only get about 20 trick-or-treaters per year because it's a pretty small, somewhat isolated neighborhood.

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Yep, I expect to see a sharp rise in California after Labor Day due to the heat wave we had.

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The beaches were PACKED and there were lots of yacht parties in the 10-30 person range Fri-Mon in Marina del Rey. I would not be surprised to see a spike soon.

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not sure about Halloween. we have an entire basement full of seasonal decorations that i think is ridiculous, but if it is going to take up that much space it is even more ridiculous not to put it out.

as for travel, we are still trying to plan a Xmas ski trip to Steamboat. i expect that there is a 75% it doesnt happen

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Mercedes fined $1.5b for subverting diesel emissions accuracy via software

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mercedes-benz-emissions-cheating-1-5-billion-fine-daimler/#app

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Another nail in the coffin for diesels as passenger vehicles...(certainly in the US, at least)

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I'm ok with that as long as it remains the fuel of choice on the water until solar and battery technology catches up enough to make switching to electric a plausible option.

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Audi seems to be betting on diesel still being viable for larger cars used to go long distances, which, given the growing stringency of city-specific restrictions and outright bans on internal combustion engine cars, probably makes sense

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The more that code controls all the systems, the easier it is to circumvent published testing standards 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Canadian band/singer

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Alanis Morrissette

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Vile Creature

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Ooh - No Means No!

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Death From Above 1979

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3 Inches of Blood. God I miss these guys

Blood Ceremony

Indian Handcrafts

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

I'm sure there's a lot more bands I listen to that are from Canada

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White Tiger

Snow

Brian Adams

Carly Rae Jepsen

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Loverboy

TIL: The bassist Scott Smith was sailing his 36 foot yacht outside the Golden Gate Bridge in 2000. He was hit by a wave, fell overboard, and is now presumed dead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Smith_(musician)

TIL: Loverboy had six top-10 us hits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loverboy_discography

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You may also learn today that a vessel must be at least 40ft in length to be considered a yacht in the US ;-)

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The Tragically Hip. The Barenaked Ladies. Sarah McLachlan.

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Celin Dion, Bieber

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Wolf Parade

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The Motors

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Rush

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Your pet's superpower

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Be it pool or lake, the old red dog circles swimmers like a shark

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If the cat has one, she’s hiding her light under a bushel.

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one cat can tell if there is a towel on the floor and will pee on it within seconds.

one cat is such a smooth jumper that she looks to levitate.

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I have a cat who does that with burlap-type materials. She also can tell immediately if there is a loose plastic bag in the house so she can chew on it.

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👀: That first one. Oof.

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Is it just towels and not clothes/rags? Which I guess is a good thing.

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yes, just towels.

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Can meow for hours if she wants in the house or wants someone to come pet her.

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Same. Except then she won't be sure if she wants in/out or be petted.

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If I open the door and stand aside Stormy will come in. if I stand there she'll walk around like, ok feel free to pet me now.

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2020: this little piggy...

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has stayed aaalllllll the way home.

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grabbed her by the pork loin.

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Lied about a confrontation.

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has swine flu

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Elsewhere in college

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This explains a lot why Texas Tech struggled against Houston Baptist

https://sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/75-texas-tech-players-have-tested-positive-for-covid-19-024922621.html

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They have 123 players and 40 staff. That is a very high percentage.

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I wonder if coaches have thought about "chicken pox parties" with their players early during training.

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Today in CV19

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LSU coach Ed Orgeron: 'Most' of team has contracted coronavirus

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29892180/lsu-coach-ed-orgeron-most-team-contracted-coronavirus

LSU coach Ed Orgeron said on Tuesday that most of his team has contracted COVID-19.

"Not all of our players but most of our players have caught it," Orgeron told reporters. "I think that hopefully they won't catch it again and hopefully they're not out for games."

Asked later for further clarification, Orgeron said he didn't know the exact percentage of players who have had the coronavirus.

"Hopefully that once you catch you don't get it again," he said."I'm not a doctor. I think they have that 90-day window, so most of the players that have caught we do feel like they'll be eligible games."

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So basically it's OK for players to contract it provided they heal in time for the games to start.

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Typical SEC sports mentality. I drove thru the LSU campus on the road trip last month and saw very few masks on students...

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jfc. this is going to go on for years at this rate.

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...Sigh...

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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The stunning ineptitude of this administration know no bounds.

"Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar led an escalating pressure campaign against his own Food and Drug Administration this spring and summer, urging the agency to abandon its responsibility for ensuring the safety and accuracy of a range of coronavirus tests as the pandemic raged.

Then in late August, Azar took matters into his own hands. Overriding objections from FDA chief Stephen Hahn, Azar revoked the agency’s ability to check the quality of tests developed by individual labs for their own use, according to seven current and former administration officials with knowledge of the decision.

The unilateral policy change — which applies to “lab-developed” tests for a wide range of diseases, including Covid-19 — had been long sought by commercial, university and public health labs in the name of greater flexibility. But Hahn viewed the move as inappropriate and ill-timed because it removed safeguards designed to prevent inaccurate tests from flooding the market during a public health crisis."

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/15/hhs-alex-azar-overrode-fda-testing-rules-415400

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And that is why so many folks won't be getting a vaccine early on.

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Trump show his true colors yet again:

"A digital ad released by a fundraising arm of the Trump campaign on Sept. 11 calling on people to “support our troops” uses a stock photo of Russian-made fighter jets and Russian models dressed as soldiers.

The ad, which was made by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, features silhouettes of three soldiers walking as a fighter jet flies over them. The ad first appeared on Sept. 8 and ran until Sept. 12.

“That’s definitely a MiG-29,” said Pierre Sprey, who helped design both the F-16 and A-10 planes for the U.S. Air Force. “I’m glad to see it’s supporting our troops.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/14/trump-ad-asks-people-to-support-the-troops-but-it-uses-a-picture-of-russian-jets-414883

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Whistleblower: American Eugenics. Are we the baddies?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/14/ice-detainees-hysterectomies-medical-neglect-irwin-georgia

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This cadre of buffoons masquerading as an administration has been an absolute unmitigated disaster.

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To the extent that the restraints are off the genuine lunatics, yes. But I think it’s a question of degree.

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PRO

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Giants' games tonight and tomorrow in Seattle have been postponed due to smoky conditions, this after the Mariners and As played a DH yesterday in which it was hard to see the players in the tv feed. Tonights game to be made up in SF later in the week.

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Oakland A’s Game #47: A’s blow early lead, fall 6-5 in opener of doubleheader

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2020/9/14/21437143/oakland-as-game-47-seattle-mariners-score-result-doubleheader

This was almost a really good game.

The Oakland A’s built a five-run lead in the early innings, but the Seattle Mariners chipped away with six unanswered runs to stun the green and gold in a 6-5 A’s loss. The two teams meet again in a few minutes for the second half of a doubleheader.

This one seemed like it was in the bag midway through. The A’s plated an early run in the 2nd inning, then put up a four-spot in the 4th thanks to dingers by Sean Murphy and Marcus Semien. With rookie phenom Jesús Luzardo dealing on the mound, and only seven innings to get through in the abbreviated doubleheader game, it was easy to assume it was over and look ahead to the nightcap.

Murphy’s was his fourth in his last seven games.

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Oakland A’s Game #48: Mike Minor shuts out Mariners 9-0, A’s salvage doubleheader split

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2020/9/14/21437409/oakland-as-game-48-seattle-mariners-score-result-mike-minor-shutout

After earning an All-Star berth and Cy Young votes in 2019, Mike Minor has struggled this summer, with his velocity down and his ERA way up. His first two appearances for the Oakland A’s this month were more of the same, but on Monday he finally showed the upside they were hoping for when they acquired him at the trade deadline.

Minor went the distance in the second game of the day’s doubleheader, spinning a seven-inning, two-hit shutout against the Seattle Mariners and helping the A’s win 9-0 and salvage a split after dropping the first half earlier in the day. In the opening contest they got off to a 5-0 lead and watched the Mariners sail back in for a comeback win, but they didn’t repeat that bad fortune in the nightcap, once again building a 5-0 advantage and this time taking it to the house — with help from all three of their newest veteran additions.

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Still 6.5 games ahead with 12 left...

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Sloppy defense costs Dodgers late in game

https://www.truebluela.com/2020/9/14/21437473/los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-recap-san-diego-padres-clayton-kershaw-fernando-tatis

An absolute gem of a game from Clayton Kershaw was wasted as the Dodgers’ defense imploded in the seventh inning. They allowed the Padres to score five runs, as it was the dagger in their 7-2 victory. San Diego now trails the Dodgers by only 1.5 games for first place in the NL West.

The game was tied at one and Kershaw went back out there for the seventh. He allowed two singles and was removed from the game with one out and runners on first and second. With 99 pitches already thrown, Kershaw’s night was done and the game was turned over to the bullpen.

That’s when things took a turn for the worse. Lightly hit balls and sloppy defense put the game out of hand quickly. Like, check out the exit velocity on these hits. For those unfamiliar with exit velocity, these balls weren’t hit hard at all.

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Lamet is filthy

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I'm just glad the Dodgers can't play them in a 3-game series. Clevinger, Lamet. They've got some tough pitchers.

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Yes...with Paddack too. Solid squad, tho I don’t trust Mini Machado...

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CAL

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GO BEARS!

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