My failed TP run yesterday left me depressed and looking for diversion in escapist projects the rest of the day. I wasn’t sad and out of sorts because I didn’t acquire TP but rather because in my isolated swamp bubble, the magnitude of the disaster we’re experiencing together is ever-present but at a distance. Going into town, seeing the closed stores and the cops lurking in the grocery parking lots and the people lined up and visibly tense as they try to fulfill basic needs, etc., shatters the illusion.
So, among other things, I didn’t check my mail yesterday. This morning, I found this damp campaign mailer in the road in front of my mailbox:
Goddamn, that’s inappropriate. The information on the reverse side is fine — just common sense shit about washing your hands, blah blah blah, including stuff about social distancing that Trump is already ignoring and undermining.
But for the CDC to plaster Trump’s fucking name on the mailer like a campaign flyer is wrong and also a symbol of how politicized and fucked up the entire government response to this pandemic has been.
Dr. Birx is spinning false hopes, according to one of the epidemiologists whose data she referenced in the “Survivor: Coronavirus” reality TV episode she co-hosted along with Trump last night. An excerpt:
So the scenario Dr. Birx is “assuring” us about is one in which we somehow escape Italy’s problem of overloaded healthcare system despite the fact that social distancing is not really happening in large parts of the US.
That is unlikely. Then the rosy scenario assumes we get to minimal numbers of cases everywhere, develop and maintain testing and tracing capacity, execute well on it, don’t miss imported cases that spark new chains of transmission, and somehow maintain this delicate balance…
For the 12-18 months (best case under current models) till a vaccine. I desperately hope she is right, because much suffering will be avoided. But reassurance that this is likely, or even plausible, with the disorganized track record of the US response, is false reassurance.
We should work our hardest to create the conditions to make the scenarios being described here (one bad wave, contained by social distancing, and we’re down to a point of controllable spread) a reality. Doing so will make us better prepared, even if they don’t come to pass.
But it would be extremely naive to imagine that they are likely, and what do I know, but it seems like bad politics to “assure” the American people that they will come to pass when so many things could go wrong, any one of which leads to much worse outcomes.
Worse even than that, Trump is in fucking denial about the need for ventilators, as he apparently discussed on the fucking Sean Hannity show last night, and he put his smarmy fucking failed real estate developer son-in-law in charge of manufacturing them. Via TPM:
The information contained in this article is obscene. While Americans die in escalating numbers and hospitals around the country announce plans to deny care to those already seriously ill the White House is negotiating with various businesses and joint ventures over producing ventilators. Today a deal with GM and Ventec was put on hold because the White House was unsure whether it was paying too much or whether they’d be purchasing too many and left with extra ventilators there was no need for. The White House point man on this critical life and death effort is Jared Kushner. They’re trying to cut the best deal while people die. It will make you furious and it may make you cry.
Trump struts around calling himself a “wartime president.” Okay, then. Let’s have some war crimes trials when this shit is over.
But because I am an incurable optimist, here’s one hope I have: maybe this real-time demonstration of how government at every level can have a tangible and direct impact on our very lives will finally wake the apathetic up; maybe they’ll understand that hell to the fucking yes it matters who operates the levers of power and that voting is about hiring competent people to do that, not sending a goddamned message.
Open thread.
artem1s
I got one of those yesterday too. :P blech
the bragging on the front is bad enough but it’s also about 2-3 weeks too late IMO.
Mandalay
I guess I’m not up to speed, but what is “My failed TP run”
ETA: Never mind. :(
JPL
Mine arrived and it’s in the garbage. I didn’t even read the message.
Omnes Omnibus
FWIW I went to a grocery store yesterday, and it was well stocked with most things. Plenty of TP, bleach, vinegar, etc…
Elizabelle
11:30 today is Cuomo O’Clock. I suspect Andrew will have much to say about Trump & Cronies’ idiocy and malfeasance re insufficient ventilators.
You can tune in on C-Span.org or youtube and get it without interruptions.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wow, you must live in paradise.
Kristine
Mine arrived a week or so ago.
Just returned home from surgical strike shopping trip. Smaller chain store–Aldi–fully stocked. Scored tp and pt. I think I can lay off buying them for a while.
Also bought a couple of slices of turtle cheesecake because dammit.
zhena gogolia
We almost made it to the end of his first term, didn’t we? Almost.
Those fuckers could have gotten him OUT before the pandemic. Out. I know it’s fashionable around here to say “Pence is worse,” but Pence is not worse. I do not believe he would be behaving this way.
Ksmiami
@Omnes Omnibus: I want tribunals and executions – sorry
Bruce K
Vidkun Quisling was also a wartime president. (That may be unfair. But I’m not sure in which direction.)
Elizabelle
Ventured into a grocery store yesterday first time in 3 weeks. (Lidl, love them.) They seemed well supplied. Lots of fresh produce and most goods. I scored some chicken thighs and an 18-pack of eggs, along with cheese, hummus … lotta good stuff.
Don’t know if they had TP: think I saw paper towels. They were definitely out of canned tuna (did have some $9 fancy jarred Italian tuna, and some sardines; also had canned chicken). They had salmon, and red meat of many kinds, and lots of milk and dairy products.
Was pleasantly surprised to see it.
BR
I’m going to keep pounding the drum of what we (at least in blue states) need to be doing. We need to pound our governors on it.
Copy. South. Korea.
That means massive testing (drive-through ideally) for free, tracing and quarantine of positives (optionally away from their families in specially set up gyms or the like), and universal mask wearing.
Otherwise we’re wasting the shutdown for nothing, and when we open up again the spread will resume. I’m losing confidence that here in California we’re getting ready to do that, because getting universal mask wearing started requires public messaging — everyone’s been told not to wear a mask because of the shortage for HCW, but it is a very important part of stopping the spread:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html
If you live in CA as well, please join me in calling your assemblyperson/state senator/mayor/city council and the governor with that message: Copy. South. Korea. Masks. Testing. Tracing.
Elizabelle
@Ksmiami: I do too. Depraved indifference and criminal negligence. For starters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m gonna photograph that thing, and send to my R Senator asking if my tax dollars are paying for campaign literature. I am under no illusion it will do any good.
@Omnes Omnibus: I was surprised by the run on vinegar. I use it to clean, but I thought it was ineffective against this virus
zhena gogolia
@BR:
So where do you get the masks, and assuming you can find them, how do you justify using them when HCWs need them more?
Just One More Canuck
@Elizabelle:
At least when Gerald Ford told New York to drop dead, he didn’t mean it literally
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia:
And Pence doesn’t have his toxic charisma, or, as stupid and bigoted and bad as he may be, I don’t think he has the pathological desire for revenge
BR
@zhena gogolia:
In 2 months, when we’re ready to end the stay-at-home order, the HCW mask shortage will be resolved. (And even if it’s not, the hospital load will be lower than it is now.) China is pumping out hundreds of millions of masks a day right now. California’s GDP is almost twice that of Korea. We can find a way to produce 100 million masks in two months. Then we distribute them to residents of the state once a week or whatever, like Korea has been doing.
Fair Economist
Well, it’s striking near to me and mine. My sister-in-law-in-law, in SF, was just confirmed positive. She’s currently at home self-isolated in a room with a separate bathroom. She and my brother-in-law believe she got it from their 2 kids, who have been sick with nonspecific respiratory symptoms. She’s in a moderate risk group (near 50, average level of health issues) but the problem is my brother-in-law, who has severe asthma, is dependent on inhaled steroids, has past history of chronic lung disease, and had a lobe of his lung removed. He’s not symptomatic, but obviously he’s had lots of exposure.
The ironic part is she’s an extreme germaphobe, to the point that she won’t even let family members visit the house because they could bring germs.
Jerzy Russian
I got that postcard also, and I was pissed off. Normally I throw such things in the recycle bin without giving them much thought, but somehow this one was different.
Amir Khalid
@zhena gogolia:
Only because Pence lacks Trump’s boundless self-regard and sense of theatrics.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
From earlier thread – John Kerry tweeted this:
This was in response for Twitler turning the Firehose of Hate on babyface Thomas Massie, KY-04, which is one of the most geographically ridiculous districts in the country.
All of America, left and right (Trumpies and Berniebots included) finally found someone they can all hate together.
John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Charlie Manson had more fans….
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I agree with you that Pence would be better. I hate his guts. I believe he is fundamentally stupid. I do not doubt that he would use a public health crisis to cram his religious beliefs down our throats. But I think he’d be more likely to defer to experts and less inclined to bully the governors who are trying to do their jobs.
cleek
they forgot the colon after the second line
zhena gogolia
@BR:
Oh. Too bad I’m not in California.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
Right. But that’s huge. Pence is a zero. He would let the experts decide things.
Suzanne
I have shared here before my almost pathological abhorrence of Jared Kushner.
I hate him so much.
I hate him so much that I hope he is so shamed forever that no one ever names their children Jared ever again.
Sloane Ranger
I paid twice the pre plague price for 36 toilet rolls on Amazon Wednesday. They arrived today. Poor quality but at least they won’t bugger up my pipes. And the seller wasn’t the worst profiteer by any means, there were 12 packs of Andrex going for £54.99.
Went to do my weekly shop today. There were queues to get into the supermarket with crosses taped to the pavement indicating the safe distance from the person in front and behind you, plus staff constantly reminding you to keep away from other shoppers. Which is impossible, aisles weren’t designed with this in mind.
I used to feel sorry for Dr Birx. I thought that Trump had probably walked into a meeting where methods of relaxing the lockdown once the worst was over were being tossed around and he’d grasped the wrong end of the stick as usual. Now, I’m not so sure.
Still think Trump is deliberately ensuring there is a shortage of necessary equipment so he can limit it to “his” people.
Also nobody should be surprised about Trump’s sunny predictions, didn’t his family attend the church where the Guru of the power of positive thinking was the rector?
Elizabelle
@Just One More Canuck: You made me laugh. Sadly.
randy khan
I don’t know what ventilators normally cost, but I do know that when you’re in a rush things cost more.
I also know that these negotiations are happening several weeks later than they should have.
Obvious Russian Troll
@Betty Cracker: I have to agree. Pence is as stupid as Trump, but not as narcissistic, so he is capable of listening.
Fundamentalists can also put away their hatred of science if you focus on the practical aspects.
JMG
Went to the supermarket’s old people early bird shopping hour. They had a few 12-packs of TP left, plus paper napkins which we’ve been out of for awhile. So it’s back to stay at home for another week before having to go out. I checked this a. m. I have put 15 miles on my car in 10 days.
sdhays
At least you now have some backup TP, courtesy of the CDC.
MattF
Didn’t get the campaign literature, probably won’t here in MD, which demonstrates that it’s campaign literature. Did the online Census thing (very simple).
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Grim milestone coming. Yesterday we hit 85,000 cases with 17,000 new. So we’re set to go through 100,000 today.
sdhays
@randy khan: And are being handled by the stupidest, most incompetent of people.
Elizabelle
@Fair Economist: Frightening about your BIL’s risk. Please keep us posted.
@Suzanne: I know. Like the Subway spokesman guy didn’t do enough to harm the name.
I don’t think we are going to see a lot of Donalds anymore, either. At least not in the US, and the asshole might have ruined it for the UK too.
Lyrebird
If you have relatives believing the spin from Dr. Birx, I recommend this response thread from Dr. Lipsitch whose team provided some of the modeling data that got wrongly characterized.
@BR: I’m with you and with Sen. Prof. Warren, too!!!
NotMax
Dr. Birx is managing to send a part of her reputation to the corn field one day at a time.
MomSense
I just found out my step sister volunteered to do triage at Mass General. Her ex is doing triage in NYC. I’m scared for them and so fucking mad at our asshole president and everyone who has covered for him and enabled him.
It seems like the policy of making states compete for PPE and equipment plus the refusal to invoke the DPA are meant to drive up the prices and profits of the medical device manufacturers. What do we know about the ownership of those companies? Are they trump and/or GOP donors? Is the trump family invested in those companies.
I’d like to see Trump hanged for this – but I know I won’t get my wish. If we find out that he’s profiting or helping his donors to profit off of this, what can be done about it.
I’m ready to trade in my knitting needles for a pitchfork.
Mandalay
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves:
…but…
A crisis can be a golden opportunity to advance your agenda.
That said, the Mississippi State Department of Health has an impressive web page detailing cases and deaths by country, and listing who you should contact if you think you are developing symptoms.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Who does he think does that?
Betty Cracker
@Fair Economist: How scary. I hope they come through it okay.
Honus
@Kristine: aldi has good chocolate 🍫 too.
Elizabelle
Cuomo and staff not up yet. Audience is military members, seats are socially distanced. Maybe in the Javits Center??
Sloane Ranger
@Elizabelle: Donald hasn’t been popular in the UK outside of Scotland for some time. The only English Donald I can remember meeting was my father’s cousin.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Always a mess with Mary.”
Fuck Trump for his misogyny.
We need to get him out of there.
CUOMO UP!
germy
I also read that Dyson (of vacuum cleaner fame) has invented a new type of ventilator, and is going into production.
Ksmiami
@Elizabelle: profiteering, malicious withholding of aid, propaganda and oh yeah – murder in the second degree, crimes against humanity.
Geoboy
Republican Party delenda est.
NotMax
@MomeSense
Dipping your knitting needles in curare will suffice.
;)
Elizabelle
@Sloane Ranger: I met this wonderful gay couple in Bamberg, Germany. They were from the UK.
They told me it would be easy to remember their names because they’re Donald and Nigel. They were horrified at their name cohorts.
Calouste
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The good news is that the number of new confirmed cases is going to slow down soon. The bad news is it is because there simply isn’t the capacity to test that many cases.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: WTF? Is he bullying himself out of habit?
trollhattan
@Kristine:
Little known trivia: Aldi owns Trader Joe’s. Also, too, the original Trader Joe died last month, at 89.
Gremcat
@Suzanne: I know what you mean. I just saw an ad for Jared’s and had some really negative thoughts about the jewelry store just because of the name.
Ksmiami
@Suzanne: I want the family treated like Mussolini- all of them
germy
@Betty Cracker: Maybe one of the staff members who takes turn writing some of his tweets is bullying him.
Olivia
I got that propaganda card yesterday also and I cut out just the part that says PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CORONAVIRUS and stuck it on my fridge.
Geoboy
@zhena gogolia: Before concluding Pence wouldn’t be as bad, remember that when he was the governor of Indiana he was personally responsible for the largest outbreak of HIV in the state.
New Deal democrat
Reposting this from below:
With the exception of Louisiana, not a single State of the Confederacy or the Great Plains has gone to a lockdown.
By contrast, every State in the mountain West and Pacific West with the exception of Wyoming, Arizona, and parts of Utah *has* gone into lockdown, as have every State of the Union east of the Mississippi, plus Minnesota, except for Maine, Rhode Island, and Kentucky.
This sets up a ghastly natural experiment in how well, or more likely poorly, voluntary social distancing works as a strategy. Most likely, over the next two weeks the rate of increase in infections in the locked down regions will decrease, while the exponential rate of increase in the region not locked down will continue.
Since Washington under Trump is *never* going to help, the two super-regions in lockdown need to quarantine, if not prevent entirely, persons entering their States. They have the police power to do so, and so long as they do not interfere with cargo shipments, Trump cannot use federal authority to stop them.
mrmoshpotato
@Kristine:
Fixed. :)
germy
@Gremcat: I thought the fast food spokesman who lost all that weight and ended his career in jail would put a stop to Jared as a charming name for babies.
MomSense
@NotMax:
I like the way you think.
MattF
@trollhattan: The obits were interesting. He defined the TJ niche as ‘over-educated and underpaid‘.
Just One More Canuck
@Elizabelle:
You’ve got to laugh to prevent yourself from crying
Frankensteinbeck
@Obvious Russian Troll:
Bear in mind, Pence was kicked out of Indiana for being stupid and obsessively, destructively ideological, and Indiana is North Tennessee. He would do one shitty job of managing this virus outbreak. It would still be much, much better than Trump.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@randy khan:
The negotiation should go like this:
“We’re willing to pay you a bit of a premium to rapidly ramp up equipment, rush-train employees and get new production lines running. Call it 20 points over cost, and you’re going to provide accounting. If you decide to gouge, that’s fine – and when it is over, you’re going to be prosecuted, your profits disgorged, your returns audited back six years and your finances scrutinized by the nastiest, most OCD and on the spectrum batch of needledicked accountants and prosecutors we can find”.
Keith P
“I’m from the government, and I’m here to
hagglehelp.”joel hanes
Shamelessly lifted from Campos at LGM :
If you have a twitter account, please amplify this message.
kindness
What you want to bet Trump and his family have gone all in on bidet manufacturers stock?
Elizabelle
@Geoboy: Oh please. Zhena’s comment stands. Pence is in a way lower orbit than Trump is.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Ksmiami:
I like how you think, and would enjoy subscribing to your newsletter.
mrmoshpotato
@Ksmiami: Don’t be sorry. This shit that was basically and is basically not being managed just adds to the shit these fuckers should be charged with.
American Nuremberg trials as Cole says. (And that was before this outbreak!)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@mrmoshpotato: I mentioned yesterday that I was thinking it would be nice to have a glass of wine occasionally, but I don’t normally have any in the house. People suggested box wine, but it turns out that you can not get wine delivered or shipped in PA. Not in any shape or form.
We’re trying our damnedest to do everything remotely, and so far succeeding, and the odd glass of wine is not enough to make me break curfew. So, oh well.
But now I’m thinking about wine, and normally it doesn’t cross my mind for weeks at a time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan:
I did not know that. Aldi is the largest privately held company in the world, right? Still owned by the founder’s family?
@germy: I think that incoherent malevolence is The Beast itself
Frankensteinbeck
@New Deal democrat:
Kentucky is pretty damn close to in lock down. Bashear has taken this very seriously. Thank goodness, because Bevin would have been pulling a Mississippi.
jharp
Use your hand and a bowl of warm water and soap in lieu of toilet paper.
You will come out much cleaner and far far less wear and tear on the sphincter.
MomSense
@New Deal democrat:
Maine is physical distancing. The hot spot for us is Cumberland County – mostly around Portland which is our largest city. Portland is in lockdown. Brunswick, home of Bowdoin is in shelter in place mode.
So far we are doing really well at voluntary physical distancing and our trajectory is pretty good. We have an excellent governor and public health department and I don’t think the order is as necessary here.
If anyone wants to see a brilliant CDC Director you can check out the videos of Nirav Shah. He’s impressive.
Miss Bianca
@Geoboy: That was the point I was going to make.
Elizabelle
@New Deal democrat: We seem to be pretty much on lockdown in Virginia. We wuz the capitol of the Confederacy at one point.
germy
Elizabelle
@Miss Bianca: We’ll just all have to compromise and say —
President Nancy Pelosi!
For
God’sown own sake!trollhattan
@MattF:
Know your audience. ;-)
One of my college buddies was from Pasadena and he told tales of this amazing store they had there, back when there was but one. Finally made a pilgrimage and had to agree, I’d never seen anything like it.
When they began opening in our metroplex it was cause for celebration (and figuring out why there was never parking). The chain was still relatively small and could get amazing wine deals, e.g., 25 cents on the retail dollar price. Wine geeks had an informal network and the deals on quality wines would get scooped up very quickly.
Archon
I’ve been on a ventilator before and still have PTSD thinking about the agony I was in before being put on one.
America is not prepared for the human suffering coming our way and GOD help us if there aren’t enough ventilators to mitigate it.
burnspbesq
@Elizabelle:
New York’s Penal Law includes “criminally negligent homicide” as a separate offense. It’s a Class E felony, with max prison time of four years. But if there are 150,000 counts in the indictment …
Elizabelle
@germy: I take comfort that Kentucky has a Democratic governor. Maybe they can remove the insane gerrymander that’s made Massie’s district possible.
What? Did he take on the role of “designated main asshole from Kentucky [other than Mitch McConnell, who owns the role]” since Rand Paul is on injured waivers?
sdhays
@New Deal democrat: Both Virginia and North Carolina are under lockdown. But yes, this is going to be awful (as if it wasn’t already bad enough).
Jinchi
@Betty Cracker: Nobody is worse than than Trump on any issue.
Elizabelle
@burnspbesq: I like your thinking on that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Frankensteinbeck: He’s been doing a great job of being decisive while reassuring.
If you note with him, the positive things are described as great news, but he takes no credit, nor are their effusive statements of praise – just talks about what needs to be done.
New Deal democrat
@Elizabelle: I disagree about VA. It has three major metropolitan areas: NoVA, Hampton Roads, and Richmond. None of them are in formal lockdown. And the governor – who is a doctor! – has taken no action against Liberty University.
In re Maine and Kentucky: only parts of Maine are in lockdown. That won’t work. I suspect in KY the governor is treading carefully because of his legislature, but he needs to go the distance here.
jharp
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And both Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s pay there workers a living wage.
I will never forget my visit to Aldi’s to stock up on Friday the 13th, the day all hell broke loose.
Does everyone remember the I Love Lucy show when she was working on the assembly line packing chocolates and the chocolates just kept coming and coming and coming and Lucy couldn’t keep up?
That was the register at Aldi’s that day and the cashier did keep up. It was a sight to behold.
Elizabelle
@sdhays: Good to hear North Carolina is on lockdown. I was not sure.
They have a Democratic governor, too. The excellent Roy Cooper, formerly Attorney General for several terms.
Something about having Democrats and a few sane Republicans as state chief executives ….
oldgold
At my son-in-law’s medical clinic a staff member has tested positive for Coronavirus. The full implications of this are staggering for the local community. This is happening around the country.
A critical shortage of healthcare professionals is going to be the next big problem.
jackmac
Who paid for “President Trump’s Coronavirus” campaign postcard? Clearly we taxpayers did. Compare that to the comprehensive 42-page Coronavirus PDF that the congresswoman next door to me (Rep. Lauren Underwood) made available with exhaustive warnings, contacts and services.
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
Ugh. Possibly the world’s nastiest leader considers “nasty” to be the ultimate form of mistreatment he, Trump, can receive and simultaneously is his go-to putdown. “Nasty woman” should be president.
Good luck, Michigan.
Love, California
Kattails
I’m deliberately avoiding commenting on Trump, Kusher et al because anything I would say would be an order of magnitude more sarcastic than Betty Cracker, although she’s probably holding back. Monsters. But a huge f*ck you to everyone who voted for them, to those who didn’t vote because Hillary was just as bad, to those who voted for Jill F*ckingstein, and to the Republicans in the Senate who could have removed this incompetent blithering idiot but chose not to.
@Elizabelle: Went to my local Hannafords yesterday. Unfortunately, they had scheduled a store-reset before this happened, and so there’s some confusion as shelves are being rearranged and cleaned on top of any shortages–feel sorry for them, it was probably an unavoidable clash. Anyway, I couldn’t find kleenex but it may have been b/c being moved. Plenty of fresh veggies, seemingly enough pre-packaged meat, eggs, dairy. They were re-loading chicken as I grabbed some. Tuna not emptied. No flour, just a few dried fruits. I didn’t check the frozen stuff. Lots of beer :) The usual deli meats were pre-packaged in varying sized and neatly set up in the cases they’d normally use for the ready made other deli stuff. You were not allowed to bring in reusable bags. The clerk packed your stuff and then plopped the bag on the counter, you were not to take it from their hands.
My own sense? Probably going back tomorrow morning and stock up on another 3 or 4 pounds of various meats and other sundries. I want a month’s worth of stuff in the house. Kids are coming back from vacation, snowbirds will be arriving. I have plenty to keep me busy at home. Wish I had a few more $$ to buy some paint and underlayment paper, I could paint a couple of rooms and get the damned flooring down that’s been taking up my studio for too long–oak milled from trees I had taken down.
Amir Khalid
@jharp:
This is how Asians have done it for centuries.
Ella in New Mexico
The other day, when I watched Birx waving that flyer around and begging people to follow IT’s instructions during the presser when Trump began his “we’re all gonna be packing the pews by Easter” bullshit I realized something:
They named it “President Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America” not for those of us here.
It’s for the 48% of MAGAt’s. THEY’RE the ones who are the problem right now. Labeling it “President Trump’s” was a clever way to use him as a shoehorn to get the cultists to read the recommendations.
It was the sacrifice they had to make to accomplish what would otherwise be a completely a-political pandemic response.
Gin & Tonic
@New Deal democrat: Rhode Island is largely in lockdown mode. Interestingly, since we’re close to NY, yesterday the Governor issued an executive order requiring anyone coming into RI from NY to self-quarantine. State Police are authorized to stop anyone driving in with NY plates, and will be questioning arrivals at the bus and train stations.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Elizabelle:
Maybe they can remove the insane gerrymander that’s made Massie’s district possible.
I’m at the far west end of the district – at my end, the place is suburban/exurban Louisville. I have nothing economically or culturally in common with the right wing assholes of the NKY/Cincy burbs, nor with the hilljacks that spread to the WVA border a couple of hundred miles away.
At the time, they worked to maximize GOP distribution of the KY House delegation, and the geographic spread shows it. The prior boundaries were better – Louisville split in two with one heavy D district and one purple district that ran from the East End of the county up to NKY.
BC in Illinois
The “TP run” discussion reminds me of my High School days. We were talking about TP-ing people’s houses (it was a different time) and Mrs BC asked me if I had ever done so. The answer is yes.
In 1967, a few of us determined that our foreign exchange student — “Tiki” (I don’t remember her actual name, we all called her Tiki) from (I think) Venezuela — had not had a full American High School experience. She had never TP’d anyone’s house. So one night we took her to the Principal’s house [Mr. Moran — a fine man, good principal]. Halfway through the project, the door opened, Mr. Moran came out, we all scattered, and Tiki just stood there smiling. We got her away, Mr. Moran took it (I guess) in good humor, and there were no repercussions. Somewhere in Venezuela, there is a 70-year-old woman who can tell this story to her amazed grandchildren.
[ My other “Tiki” story]:
We were in the Maryland suburbs of DC, an hour-and-a-half from Gettysburg PA. My friend N_____ wanted to put the moves on B_____ , a cute classmate, so he decided that he and I would take B and Tiki to Gettysburg. (“N and BC’s Day Off”) On the way, we discovered that Tiki had no idea what Gettysburg was, and very little idea of the American Civil War. However. She had the good (or mis-) fortune to be seated in the back seat with someone who had spent the preceding years keeping up with the Civil War Centennial and playing Avalon-Hill war games of Gettysburg. So she was able to get a one-hour history of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of the Potomac, Lee and Meade, and who knows what else. It was one of her American High School experiences. [ “Of all my High School experiences, that was one of them.” ]
narya
@joel hanes: Pierce just put this up, too. I am beyond enraged. I was impressed w/ the head of the national governors’ association last night (on Hayes or Maddow), talking about how they’re working together, because they know that if they’re not in dire straits now, they will be soon. Sending good thoughts to everyone in the jackeltariat and their family and friends . . .
glc
I don’t think we’re on our own. If we were on our own the problem might have been dealt with a little more effectively in some important respects.
My university had a completely incompetent president for 12 years. He didn’t do very much and we managed – not brilliantly, but we managed. Every once in a while he had an idea. None of them were implemented. The Republican theory is that we would be better off without a national government, and oddly enough, when they are in power, there is some evidence for that.
trollhattan
@jharp:
Checker isn’t as hectic as it once was, but during crowded times is still a stressful jerb. I recall as a kid watching in wonder as checkers would look at an item for the price tag (kids: store items used to each have either little sticker, or ink stamp, or handwritten price on them) and key it on the register with the other hand, without looking. And it was not a classic 10-key but side-by-side columns of keys from 1 through 0. They could plow through a cart of food (family of five) in very short order. And you did not empty your cart onto the belt, they did. At the other end, a bagger…bagged.
–Not a Yorkshireman
germy
(wikipedia)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Always one eye on the electoral map, even in mid-meltdown
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
… then he should serve 150,000 times four years in jail. Did I get the answer right?
Peter
O/T (but in a good way, because this subject makes me livid): Anybody interested in info about that sourdough project my pal Andrew at Cook’s Illustrated is doing can see it here on their site. He’s the one who gave me my starter 15 years ago and there seemed to be a fair amount of interest in Alain’s sourdough thread.
Elizabelle
@Ella in New Mexico: That’s an interesting take on why Trump’s name is on it. I think that may be exactly what occurred to some at the CDC. Got to take into account that idiots may be looking at your materials …
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
The buses and trains are still running? Why?
MagdInBlack
Boss is in his office laying off people from this shop: My parts manager and one of my estimators. That leaves 3 of us as ” essential” , with my hours cut from the usual 47 down to 30. This company has 8700 employees in the US and Canada and we are busy cutting.
This is gonna be interesting.
RinaX
@Olivia: I should have done that. It pissed me off so bad that I immediately ripped it up and trashed the thing.
The Dangerman
@New Deal democrat:
I’ve been thinking this is the next big shoe to drop; Jim Bob and Mary Jane Bob from Shitforbrains, Kansas, are going to want to spend their stimulus money with the Kiddies at Disneyland and we are going to have to tell them to go the fuck away (besides, Disneyland sure the fuck isn’t going to be open any time soon).
mrmoshpotato
So fucking Alabama wants to kill its residents too apparently.
Suzanne
@Ksmiami: Oh, I want shaming. So much shaming. I want Ivanka to be embarrassed to ever show her face in New York ever again.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
Yup.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
over 200 MoC are out of DC? I don’t normally second-guess the people in the trenches, but how the hell did they not bring up some kind of remote voting under emergencies last week?
germy
Massie vs. Kerr
“Revenge of the Tea Party”
mrmoshpotato
@The Dangerman: And what about the people of Sisterfuck, Arkansas? (h/t Mr_Electrico)
Ksmiami
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: The funny thing is I arrived at this dark conclusion- awhile ago. The US citizenry has to decide if it wants to save itself by going medieval on the GOP or if we all want to be part of the death cult. I’m an atheist and I rather value life as we know it not some unproven heavenly delusion. In any case, the GOP must go the way of the Nazi party. They are unspeakably evil
catclub
@Mandalay: It is better than ‘My failed TP runs’
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A chance for CEOs and others with their own jets to do some good for a change.
Gin & Tonic
@BC in Illinois: But did N score with B? That’s what presumably everyone wants to know.
Kattails
Wait, Boris Johnson’s tested positive? Just saw this.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I frankly don’t know if they are, and I’m not going to go to the train station to see. But that was the text of the EO.
ETA: Checking the Web sites of Amtrak and Peter Pan Bus (the primary regional carrier) it appears both are operating, albeit on a reduced schedule.
PenAndKey
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: And, quite frankly, that line should immediately be followed with: “and you will do it because we are invoking federal authority to compel you to. This is not a negotiation where you get to set terms.”
But that, of course, would require having an executive branch run by someone sane.
Meanwhile a quick look at Google News shows that the usual suspects are, even as short as an hour ago, blasting Pelosi for delaying things. I’m pretty sure at this point they don’t know how to do anything but gaslight every situation they encounter. But hey, at least Glorious Orange is calling for Massie to be kicked out of the party for forcing in-person voting and getting in the way of his beautiful checks. So at least there’s that gaudy gold plated lining to enjoy right now.
schrodingers_cat
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Massey is not from Massachusetts. All our reps are Ds.
SiubhanDuinne
Cuomo was en fuego today! Best I’ve ever heard him.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat: Massey went to MIT. I think that’s the Masshole connection.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ksmiami: Very few grocery stores carry those.
catclub
@schrodingers_cat: yeah. actually Kentucky – who knew?
Dorothy A. Winsor
The Trumps so clearly have no experience with manufacturing. I suspect the phrase “tool and die maker” would still draw a blank stare. Of course the ventilators won’t be available for another month. This is why they should have started two months ago.
Ella in New Mexico
@Elizabelle: It’s what we do all the time with resistant populations in healthcare–tailor advice or instructions based on their weaknesses in terms of compliance. Find ways to get them to not only listen but actually find a concept that gets them to buy into it personally.
Elizabelle
Cuomo slamming Trump re the ventilators needed: re estimates for those needed at apex:
“Those are numbers. It’s not “I think” or “I believe” or “I want to believe …”
bemused
@Ksmiami:
And flat broke.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s a past connection. We didn’t elect him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: god bless Daniel Dale
Just Chuck
@trollhattan: No kidding, Trump can’t even manage being an asshole properly. I mean, he’s sure succeeded at it, but not with any kind of actual skill.
Obvious Russian Troll
@Geoboy: COVID-19 does not a sexual or moral aspect to transmission, so Pence’s fundamentalism is much less of an issue. That’s why he screwed up the response to the HIV crisis in Indiana.
No one thinks Pence is good–just slightly less fucking awful.
(Disclaimer being that yes, some fundamentalist preachers are blaming this on the gays and liberals, but nobody is paying any attention to them. At least not yet.)
eemom
Rude Pundit had a post yesterday to the effect of how EASY it would have been for Dump to do the right thing…..i.e., just STFU, made the appropriate orders, and let the appropriate people do their fucking jobs….and that if he had done that very barest of minimums he’d have been worshipped for it as a god. I thought that was an interesting point.
mrmoshpotato
@Kattails:
Never seen it put that way. I like it. :)
germy
Trump, jr. and then his dad.
And I thought republicans were good at staying on message.
tinare
I ran to Costco last night. They had some TP, and while I still have enough for a month, the panic buying made me think I should buy a pack when I see it, so I now have at least a six month supply of a brand I don’t usually use. I stopped at a grocery store after that. They also had TP, so I could have waited to get a more sensibly sized pack, but the stories of TP hoarders spooked me. Both places were pretty well stocked, quiet, reeked of bleach and now have plexiglass at the checkout between you and the cashier.
Ksmiami
@mrmoshpotato: Oh Im only sorry for the innocent lives that will be altered and afflicted by Trump’s and GOP malfeasance- I’m definitely at the front of the line to pass a judgement and sentence on the guilty
germy
@eemom: My neighbor’s dog could have gotten a PhD. If he’d gone to college, done the work and finished a dissertation.
Instead he wandered into my yard and left piles of poop.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: When were you in Bamberg? It is my old German stomping ground.
The Dangerman
@mrmoshpotato:
Isn’t that where the documentary Deliverance was filmed?
I’m figuring this will clean out a whole pile of riff raff in some of these holes (for lack of a more technical term, let’s call them barely brachiating bumblefucks). Darwin, assholes.
Gin & Tonic
@eemom: I think quite a few people have been saying for a couple of years, that if he were just 10% less of an asshole, he’d probably have approval ratings in the 70’s. But, you know, the scorpion fable.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@eemom:
That would not have resulted in his getting to be on TV several hours a day. A plus for us, but I suspect a deal breaker for him.
trollhattan
@germy:
Expanded for the benefit of Doctor Scruffy, PhD and pooper extrodinare. Who’s a good boy!
mrmoshpotato
@glc:
That’s because these shitheads are more concerned about using the government to give themselves tax cuts than to fucking govern every fucking time they’re in power.
schrodingers_cat
@catclub: Like the Senatortoise and Rand Paul, figures..
Kent
I’m late to the thread, but he represents Covington, KY, home of the MAGA boys. So about perfect.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Just a few months ago. Loved it! Why was it your stomping ground?
Was visiting a friend not far from Nurnberg for about 3 months, and Bamberg was an easy weekend trip. Would return in a heartbeat.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Good news.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Doesn’t he want to win Michigan?
MomSense
@New Deal democrat:
We are doing well in Maine. Look at our numbers. You don’t know what you are talking about.
mrmoshpotato
@Olivia: To hell with the “President” part. We’re saving that title for happier times as Keith Olbermann put it.
misterpuff
@New Deal democrat: Of course, Texas and Florida already started the Coronavirus War by demanding any travelers from NY Metro area flying in to their states be quarantined for 2 weeks.
Yup we are going to play those games.
Soon there will be reciprocal bans on travel and maybe roadblocks between the red and blue states. Un-fricking-believable .
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: we’ll see where the story goes
I’d be that that, as with Ukraine, he’s counting on his back-channel deal to stay secret, then blame the Democrat Governor for the problem
catclub
@germy: I wish them well. I hope they don’t end up learning crucial lessons in extra precautions one does for healthcare things by killing too many people. moving fast and breaking things.
(I am reminded of how the bitcoin crowd is slowly learning all the things the regular bankers have learned painfully over the years about finance)
BC in Illinois
@Gin & Tonic:
You know, I don’t think so. She was cute, fun, and very sharp.
It was a great day though.
Elizabelle
From an email message from Royal Caribbean Cruise line:
I wonder how optimistic that will prove. And like they had a choice on the “pause on global sailings.”
mrmoshpotato
@germy: This reply:
Just perfect.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The House Of Representives is speechifyin’
mrmoshpotato
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Never had boxed wine. How’s the box taste?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: @mrmoshpotato: My first thought: I bet Jared knew who Daddy was talking to
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: There was a piece today in, I think, The Grauniad, about some 10 cruise ships that are currently, as in today, at sea with all potential ports closed to them and the passengers confined to their rooms. That sounds like big fun.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
for me it’s pasta, I love pasta but avoid it because of carbs blah blah blah small steps et cetera. I successfully avoid it but ever since we all started staying home I’m craving pasta with three different kinds of cheese and tomato sauce and sausage and….
New Deal democrat
@misterpuff: Actually, I *hope* there will be roadblocks between the red (non-lockdown) and blue (lockdown) States. Today would be a good time to start. Yesterday would be better.
Because otherwise the lockdowns will be vitiated by outsiders evading the lockdown and re-seeding the State with new cases.
The States that are serious about tamping down this pandemic need to band together, enforce a mutual lockdown for long enough to bring the # of infected down, and ramp up testing and quarantine facilities in the meantime. Because Trump isn’t going to do it.
Those States who don’t want to take effective action can’t be allowed to undercut the efforts of those who do.
mrmoshpotato
@eemom: Yup. Give the governors what they need for their states and sail into a second term and continue kidnapping brown kids and carrying out other atrocities. But President Stupid couldn’t even manage that.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: I will read it.
WaPost had a nice story about how 3 big cruise lines will not be getting bailout money from this round. Because they’re registered in other countries, for tax avoidance and to avoid labor laws. Will go find it for you …
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: I was there in the army from ‘89-‘91. Our pub was the Eulen Spiegel on the footpath to the old Rathaus on the island in the river. Did you try the rauchbier?
artem1s
@zhena gogolia:
like he did in IN with needle exchange and the HIV and STD outbreak he caused? by NOT listening to experts but instead his Dominionist caretakers? Sorry, but no I don’t miss W yet either. Dence might be better at managing some parts of the Federal response. But he would still fuck up massively when it comes to the details if it involves exceptions for religious institutions. Hate to tell you but the “open for Easter weekend” message is getting whispered into Trumps asshole directly from Liberty University thru Dence
ThresherK
Jeebus, when Shrub took a pre-victory lap like this crap at least I got
$300a couple of crumbs out of it.Waiting for NPR to nod its head that this is good leadership and good politics.
Rand Careaga
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I risk drifting into old fartitude here, but I sighed to read that tweet of Kerry’s. Look, I’m a child of the late Truman era, meaning my sensibilities were largely formed by the sixties, and I don’t clutch my pearls and retire to the fucking fainting couch when rough language is employed. And I don’t doubt that Massie is an asshole. But…
I regret the vulgarization of our public discourse that has taken hold in recent years, and hate to see it manifested in a figure I respect as much as I do John Kerry. Because words can lead, by and by, to sticks and stones, and when you go far enough down that road you wake up one morning to find that every spot on the dial is Radio Rwanda.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m still stuck on Trump and GM. He’s demanding in all caps that GM reopen their “stupidly shut” Lordstown plant and start cranking out ventilators. Two things:
Kent
I spent a decade battling the big cruise lines for dumping garbage, sewage, and other pollution in the inside passage when I lived and worked in Juneau. Fuck all of them, they are an environmental plague.
And thanks to the Dems for excluding them from this bail-out. Let them go beg for subsidies from their home countries of Liberia and Panama.
germy
Elizabelle
Cruise lines, early source of coronavirus infections, out of bailout package
Top cruise companies don’t locate in America and won’t get piece of a $500 billion bailout fund, their industry group says.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: “During this pause, we’ll be trying to steal as many American taxpayer dollars as we can. Bailouts, baby!”
germy
Elizabelle
@Kent: And Bermuda! Bermuda will be an extensive source of funds to Norwegian. Right.
Yeah, the environmental and social downsides to the cruise industry are real.
Kent
There are no good or competent GOP politicians anymore. They chased the last one out of the party a decade ago with Arlen Specter. Romney might be the only one left and only because it seems that Mormons aren’t as crazy as Baptists.
artem1s
@eemom:
Cheney knew when to quietly pull the strings and when to asshole in public. Dump will never ever learn.
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He wants to be able to go to a swing state and puff out his chest at how he has forced GM to give them their jobs back. Indiana is not a swing state or has not been, so reopening a factory there doesn’t help him personally. There is no mystery here.
mad citizen
From upthread, I don’t think Pence was kicked out of Indiana for being stupid, etc. We’ll never know if he would have won re-election as governor, but given how red my state is, probably.
Re: Aldi’s and Trader Joes, it’s a little nuanced, there are two Aldi companies, because the German brothers split in 1961 on whether to sell cigarettes. https://www.mashed.com/171899/the-untold-truth-of-the-brothers-who-started-aldi/
From Google questions: “The two companies both own and operate various Aldi’s across Europe and the United States, but do so separately. … Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe’s in the States, but the Aldi stores that you see in the States are run by Aldi Süd, which is separate from Trader Joe’s. The chains are kind of like estranged cousins.”
sdhays
Does this mean when we all get our $1200 checks, they’re going to be “from President Dump to you”?
Immanentize
While working at home on this brief I am writing, I have used the opportunity to multi-task and continue to move my cd collection onto an external hard drive. I am getting close! over 1000 down, maybe 300 left?
In any case, I just ripped Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album: “Whipped Cream and Other Delights.” From my childhood memories, still true — best album cover evah!
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I love how their God is always going Old Testament on everyone whenever people “turn from God.”
Who’s fault is it this time, Louie? The gays, the lesbians, trans people, the blacks, have you gone back to the old saw of blaming the Jews yet?
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Affluent people who like to go on cruises will come back once this is over. They don’t need a current bail out. As someone who has been on cruises, I can tell you that cruise lines go out of business all the time, and their ships are bought by other lines.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Actually yes. It was delicious.
Also had some lovely white wine and sparkling — loved that you could get a glass of it and stand around the bridge to the Altes Rathaus at sunset.
Bamberg rocks. Were you at Vilseck??
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Ahhhh the “stuck on a ship” that I always thought cruises were.
LesGS
@Immanentize: I remember that one from my dad’s collection. :)
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Little-known fact – if you empty your ashtray into a regular pilsner, you get much the same flavor profile.
germy
@Immanentize: The comedian Pat Cooper had an album cover that parodied it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sa_steve/2882222885
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
That’s Herb’s wife.
artem1s
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
and the market drops another thousand. Dolt’s head is going to start spinning like Linda Blair if this vote doesn’t happen.
Fleeting Ex-istence
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I like the way you think. Is that from a movie? If not, you should make that movie.
Betty Cracker
@eemom: That’s absolutely true; if Trump had done even the most minimal, basic shit any random county commissioner in that situation would have done, our shit media would be lionizing him as America’s Churchill, and he’d sail to reelection.
But because Trump is a stupid, bullying, incompetent cock-waffle, that was never gonna happen. He’ll keep right on fucking up. The real struggle from the Republicans’ point of view is to cover up the scale of Trump’s fuck-ups.
trollhattan
@sdhays:
You know damn well Trump’s name will make it onto each. God, he’s going to love this (somehow it’s been signaled to him to assure he signs the bill).
I wasn’t always this cynical. No, really.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: No. Bamberg itself.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: There was a version of Electric Ladyland issued only in GB that had a cover that would have been, um, a tough sell in 1968 America.
Barbara
@Fair Economist: Wishing your sister, brother in law and family the best. I think when it’s all said and done, unfortunately, we will see that having underlying health problems is the biggest risk factor, more so than age, it’s just that older people tend to have the highest rate and the most serious co-morbidities. Fingers crossed.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato: Like Baud says, God is punishing Republicans for not voting to convict him in the Senate.
opiejeanne
BettyCracker, I hope you see this or that someone else has mentioned it, but you can get tp on Amazon and the prices are mostly reasonable.
mrmoshpotato
@sdhays: $1200 or 1200 rubles? With Dump being the Kremlin’s bitch and all…
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: The Immp and I are fortunately not on one of them.
lgerard
@Kent:
Sadly, one of the big cruise lines that runs Alaska cruises is registered in the US because it operates between two American ports
artem1s
@sdhays:
thank Jeebus for direct deposit!
Immanentize
@germy: That’s good!
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Also too, Nick Lowe’s “Jesus of Cool” which was not allowed to be sold in the US because, Jesus. Say what you will, the Brits aren’t completely stuck-up gits.
mad citizen
@trollhattan: I don’t think the model was Herb’s wife: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/features/7370623/herb-alpert-whipped-cream-other-delights-story-behind-album-cover-50-years-later
It was a goodwill store classic for many a year. I may have a few copies in my house.
A friend of mine has that prostitutes version of Electric Ladyland.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: Herb was a great musician and obviously a lover of — his wife?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Massie’s local congressional office door is locked and nobody is coming to it. They also don’t answer the phone.
Cowardly fucks.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: There was a record store, IIRC, somewhere on West 8th St, that sold the import version of Electric Ladyland.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
I had to look it up. Seems you can get the original on ebay for 170 bucks!
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
I own the UK import with just that cover.
Spanky
@Ksmiami: I’m ambivalent about the tribunals, myself.
sdhays
@artem1s: Dense wouldn’t be better, but he is less needy. He wouldn’t need to make up shit all the time in public or mindlessly jump on miracle cures that have no real evidence behind them
ETA: He also probably wouldn’t be delegating everything to Jared Kushner. Still a disaster, but less of a catastrophe.
FelonyGovt
I’m very sad today. Just sick of reading about all the misery and death and the federal government doing nothing.
I got one of those horrible CDC mailers too and took the time to comment on the CDC website about how outraged I was putting Trump’s name in gigantic letters on it while he’s doing less than nothing.
And not having baseball when yesterday should have been opening day is the final stab to the heart.
Chyron HR
The CDC campaign mailer is disgusting, but at least I can console myself knowing that as of today Trump probably hates having his name even printed next to the C-word, much less the implication that he’s responsible for saving the country from it.
germy
@Immanentize: Didn’t they change the name to “Pure Pop for Now People” for the U.S. release? I had that album, probably contained a few different tracks than the UK version.
TS (the original)
@Elizabelle:
Presumably there will be fools signing up for the first trip leaving town. May 12 is c. 6 weeks away. Who knows if the US will even be at the top of the curve by then.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kent:
Sadly, he represents me – his district runs from West Virginia to the Eastern burbs of Louisville.
His primary opponent is the lawyer for the MAGA kid.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Me too.
lgerard
@Immanentize:
I remember when “Dear God” had to be left off the original US version of XTC’s Skylarking
(goes to shelf, pulls it, cues it up)
raven
@Gin & Tonic: Like Blind Faith
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat: Well, maybe it’s a play on his name, then. I really don’t know.
chopper
@sdhays:
most of em i think are gonna be via direct deposit. checks are gonna go out to tax filers without account info on file.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker:
They’re putting his face on the TV anyway, and his numbers are up. Not stratospheric, but up. Coronavirus could reelect him yet.
Things may be different in a few months, but it’s dismaying for now.
sdhays
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s how I understood it.
Mai naem mobile
@Suzanne: did you sell the house?
As far as fucking Jared I strongly feel that Jared is going to turn out to be an evil corrupt incompetent POS when years from now all the emails,phone calls and meeting from notes come out and,trust me, the stuff will come out. Fucking Harvard has a lot to answer for for allowing the Kushners to buy his admission . The trope of people marrying their parents is right. Ivanka did marry a mini me of her daddy
caring & sensitive
@Immanentize: With Julie London’s Cry Me a River as a very close second
Immanentize
@germy: That’s the one. Good title, but not as good as “Jesus of Cool.”
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
Good news: Nick Lowe landed on the Yep Roc label who sell properly titled copies of “Jesus of Cool.”
My vinyl copy is “Pure Pop for Now People.”
Elizabelle
If we’re talking about cruise lines, I thought this was an interesting topic WRT coronavirus treatment in the US:
In mid-March, Holland America line cancelled a four-month around the world cruise that had begun January 4 and had reached Fremantle, Australia [Western shores; very near Perth]. (Ship was the Amsterdam.) The passengers were furious that they were being dumped ashore and forced to fly home. Some complained that some elderly passengers take cruises specifically because their health does not permit airline travel.
Holland America said they could not sail the ship back to the US, that they could not count on fuel and provisioning, and expected to encounter closed ports. They were grateful that Australia had allowed them to dock. (Perhaps because of the early January departure and no reported COVID cases on board.)
But I wondered if some of Holland America’s concern was actually for their crew. Hundreds upon hundreds of people who would arrive in Florida and have to rely on that state’s health system or being able to fly home themselves.
Australia might have been a safer place for them to be, for obtaining health care, and is definitely easier and closer for the crew to fly home from.
Here’s the article. Note the histrionic headline. From the Sun Sentinel:
Nightmare at sea: Cruise line forces elderly tourists to get off halfway across the globe.
Another Scott
@New Deal democrat: Reposting from below as well. ;-)
Virginia has been on lockdown since March 24. Schools have been closed state-wide since March 13.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Kinda had to to get your “cool guy” card stamped. It’s how we rolled. (Also, import pressings usually sounded better.)
Fair Economist
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Thanks for trying. You da man!
Ruckus
I got shitheads campaign mailer/virus instructions the other day. There is a trash can next to the complex mail boxes so that all the advertising BS you get in your mailbox doesn’t have to be carried back to your apt. I saw the front and in it went.
I’m at the point now (and been there for decades) that there is nothing — that there is nothing this flamming asshole can do like a normal human. And he doesn’t even attempt to do them in any normal way, he has to find a different way to do everything. And he has all the talent, intelligence and charm of a 4 yr old rutabaga, so he always does everything wrong.
Very few people will ever make a great president. And even great presidents will have moments and accomplishments that could be better/more and failures that should be less, that’s the job and the territory. But this one, this one is by far the worst of the 45. You used to have to pick from the bottom five and justify your decision why your choice was the worst. trump is now the bottom 5 all by himself. He’s that bad. Not only is he that bad, he demands that everyone around him is as bad as he is. And fires everyone who isn’t. He not only is the bottom five, by himself, he’s made the government in his image by hiring only the worst of the worst to assist him in doing so. Any one on this blog could do a much better job.
Immanentize
@raven: I do have the original Doors’ LA Woman album with the cellophane pane on front and the inside record jacket with Christ crucified on a telephone pole. Good times!
Kent
My sympathies. Although I can’t too high and mighty. I live in the last district on the entire Pacific Coast that is still in GOP hands. The WA-3rd which represents Vancouver WA and all the rural red racist logging areas of SE Washington between Vancouver and Olympia. Although our GOP Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler is mostly just useless in a performative GOP way. Not the utterly vile way yours is.
New Deal democrat
@Another Scott: According to the WSJ’s daily update today, here is VA’s status:
“Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order banned public and private gatherings larger than nine people, including at places of worship. The ban started Wednesday, March 25, and extends through April 23.
• Recreational and entertainment businesses must close to the public.
• Nonessential retail businesses must limit operations to 10 patrons or less with social distancing.
• Restaurants are limited to delivery and takeout services.”
That’s not a lockdown. There’s no “stay at home” order anywhere in the State.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
“Customers, we’ve made provisions to house you and then fly you home.”
“Crew, now that the customers are gone we have enough lifeboats for everybody left on board, so divide yourself by where you live and practice rowing. You have until Tuesday to pick your lifeboat.”
Immanentize
@trollhattan: 20 bucks for the vinyl is not bad! My version is the Pure Pop one too, although I do have the Brit versions of Elvis Costello’s, This Year’s Model.
And for Raven — one of your locals — I just saw my “Coolies” album.
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato:
Excuse me. That’s called cardbordeaux.
Elizabelle
@FelonyGovt: Hugs.
And hugs from jackals are the most socially distanced possible, no?
Jason
Betty,
longtime lurker, basically never really post. if you need tp I’d love to ship some to you. Just grab my email from this comment, we have some because my wife orders once a month for a family of 5.
best,
-J
Another Scott
@New Deal democrat:
Northam’s Executive Order 53 – https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/executive-actions/EO-53-Temporary-Restrictions-Due-To-Novel-Coronavirus-(COVID-19).pdf (4 page .pdf)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Ruckus: Someone pointed out that if you just cut out the first two lines, it says:
That’s what I’m doing with mine
James E Powell
@trollhattan:
That has to be urban legend. It’s a model name Dolores Erickson. Here’s the story.
Suzanne
@Mai naem mobile: We accepted an offer, yes. Please cross every digit that you have that the sale goes through uneventfully.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
That’s not nothing.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: I’m not too worried about those polls at this point. Might become worrisome if they don’t budge over the summer, but there’s always a “rally ’round the flag” effect. My biggest worry is that the Trump admin will successfully suppress the stories about how badly they’ve bungled this crisis, but it’s already coming out in lurid details, and I think that’s going to get worse. (For them.)
joel hanes
IANAL, but I suspect that mailer is a violation of the Hatch Act.
Possibly the smallest of the myriad crimes of the Trump maladministration.
catclub
or crazy in different ways, not yet evident
Kattails
@mrmoshpotato: Well she did help create a monster.
Eric U.
@misterpuff: I kinda wish there were roadblocks in the mountain gaps where people come into State College PA. I see the traffic from one of them, and it’s too much. They are ignoring the recommendations to stay at home.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: “We’ll spot you a thermos of tea and some biscuits.”
We will have to be on the lookout for stories about how the crews are faring.
joel hanes
@zhena gogolia:
Pence is not worse. I do not believe he would be behaving this way.
Pence insisted on Seema Verma at HHS. Until slapped down by the courts, she was still trying to kick hundreds of thousands of destitute Americans off Medicaid in February, when it was obvious that the pandemic would be bad.
Pence’s awfulness would be different in kind. He’s a genuine theocrat who genuinely believes that the end times are nigh.
Betty Cracker
@Jason: Awww, you are very sweet to make that offer. We’re not completely out yet (almost!), and hopefully the supply chain will catch up to us, but thank you. :)
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
Yep Roc is a pretty iconoclastic label, as their artist list can attest (Kim Richey and Los Straightjackets?) Have bought from them for several years and they’re always fast and everything is well packed. (The Amazon box I got yesterday from the UK was savaged, but luckily the LP box set inside survived.)
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
Agree. He can say the awful things with a straight face. Come to think of it, that’s his only face.
Ruckus
@Sloane Ranger:
Walked into a Sprouts the other day (a knockoff Whole Foods) and had to stand in line outside and be let in as others left. In one doorway – out the other. Very controlled, only 10-12 people total in the store at one time. lines on the floor to stand behind for checkout. Local supermarket aren’t doing that other than the line for the cashier. And if you brought your own bags, you had to pack them.
The Thin Black Duke
@Matt McIrvin: “Bad” is now. “Worse” is later, and it’s just around the corner.
New Deal democrat
@Another Scott: Yes, thank you, it is exactly what I said it was.
Just to make this easier, here is the full 50 State + DC and PR update I did at my own blog this morning. I have been updating this every day for a week:
Number of States (+DC and Puerto Rico) in total lockdown, business lockdown, and partial restrictions
*some local areas are under lockdowns
**some local areas with partial restrictions
MCA1
@Matt McIrvin: Any competent president who tried even the slightest bit to lead, instead of just shitposting and self-congratulating during this crisis, would be sitting in the low ’70s at absolute minimum right now. That Dotard still can’t break 50% approval even before we reach the top of our rollercoaster climb is not good news for him. The gaslighting is bumping up against the reality of the virus now that we have more confirmed cases than anyone else in the world. Sadly, I think people are going to be seeing up close and personal how they’ve been let down by the administration soon.
Not only that, but he’s actively throwing away Michigan from his November EC totals this week, by denying them supplies out of pique at Whitmer. And I have a feeling Florida is going to be a massive epicenter of disease in a week or two. Georgia is on pace for a crisis, too. This isn’t just hitting NYC and LA.
Kent
@catclub: At least the Mormons don’t seem to be quite as anti-science as the Baptist Fundies. And they tend to keep more to themselves. I’d personally rather live in Mormon Utah than say Baptist Alabama. If I had to make that choice. Thankfully I don’t.
MattF
It sez in some places (e.g., NYT) that the House has passed the stimulus bill.
Ruckus
@randy khan:
One company sells ventilators for $1350. That’s probably got a large markup in there. The owner also said he could ramp up production 5x but no one had asked. Hospitals aren’t going to spend/may not have the money to ramp up that much and our wonderful government is being run by a 4 yr old with help from his 10 yr old son in law.
misterpuff
@New Deal democrat: I’m not sure how I would feel about a road block quarantine. I work in the food industry, and most of the production is in those non-locked down states. Here in California, we have a large amount of agricultural production and food manufacturing but that is not true of many locked down states. But I could get behind stopping individual/non-essential travel between all states, cities and counties.
glc
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m trying to reduce daily consumption of briefings but based on your comment I watched Cuomo again.
And indeed, notably at: https://youtu.be/9Y-21SuoFNg?t=3724
(and for several minutes before that, in a different register)
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle:
This headline makes it sound like they pushed seniors overboard in the middle of the Pacific! Nightmare my ass.
Kent
My NYT alert ap just announced that the House passed the stimulus package on voice vote. Maybe Trump threatened to primary that dude’s ass.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: They probably hope Moscow Mitch will sneak something in to the Stage 4 (or 5) rescue bill.
Folks like that don’t give up.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eric U.
I lived in Utah for 6 years. The locals were very nice. Some people find it hard to tolerate being locked out of people’s lives, but we had plenty of non-Mormon friends. My first guess is the church elders would handle this okay and not follow Trump in public health matters. He still is going to win the state.
MCA1
I really wish Pelosi would gavel today and announce “The House will come to order. The first vote on our agenda today, after establishing a quorum, will be on the expulsion of Representative Massie of Kentucky.”
Another Scott
@Immanentize: And she was pregnant at the time!
Cheers,
Scott.
New Deal democrat
@misterpuff: Any roadblock, to pass US Constitutional muster, would almost certainly have to allow cargo through, so as not to be an impediment to interstate commerce. Passenger traffic is a whole ‘nother matter.
Kent
Of course not. But the 2nd and 3rd rounds are going to be harder passes. Dems have enormous leverage here if they decide to use it. Congress probably won’t be back in session until late April. This shit is changing daily.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: Massachusetts is technically not in lockdown, just a stay-at-home advisory with workplaces and schools shut down and gatherings banned. I don’t know if that counts.
lgerard
@trollhattan:
Which is perhaps why Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets tour together. It sounds like such an improvable combination, but they sound great together
Mai naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know if you’re a costco member and I know zip codes matter but for my zip code right now they have the charmin available online. Limit 1. You have to spend $75 for free delivery or pay $9 for delivery.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kent:
I’m wondering if he didn’t start getting “we know where you live, boy” messages from numbers he recognized
rikyrah
@Honus:
they really do.
all the way around.
good selection
Kent
This is sheer dumbfuckery. Any company that makes any of this critical medical equipment from masks to ventilators that isn’t ramping up to 24/7 hour production right now is criminally stupid. They will be able to sell them for whatever they want. Don’t wait to be asked. What kind of businessmen are these folks?
Martin
Defense Production Act means Trump can set the price. It’s not hard. I know the Chamber of Commerce is fighting hard against it because they do like the profits from an inelastic market, but fuck man.
I just checked and on 2/20 I sent an email to my leadership with the title “We’re on our own” that contained my first set of contingency plans for this.
On that, we just sent out word that Summer courses would be fully online. We’re not going to even try to get mitigation strategies to work in classrooms, even in June.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: LOL Excellent!
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: NYT:
‘Show of force’? WTF??
Another Scott
@New Deal democrat: You’re arguing semantics.
No governor has ordered the entire population to self-isolate.
It would be great if everyone would stay home for a month – that would break the back of transmission. But that’s impossible.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize:
Trump is Corona Virus
debbie
Charge the expense to his goddamn golfing account!
trollhattan
@lgerard:
I’ve seen them individually but not together, which I’m guessing would be a blast.
Nick was with Rockpile when I saw him, so a two-fer with Dave Edmunds.
Martin
@Kent: Exactly. I know I beat this point to death, but China builds factories before people ask for them – at least the physical infrastructure. They know the importance of time to market. For the Chinese, speed into opportunity = success. It’s not even socialism, it’s a worker up approach to capitalism, a recognition that the first product to market is the one that will be bought. For the US, efficiency of capital = success. It’s a finance down approach to capitalism. It’s the belief that if you don’t spend too much now, 30 years from now the Chinese approach won’t have completely kicked your ass. One of these approaches is failing us very badly right now.
Obvious Russian Troll
@zhena gogolia: He won Michigan last time around by about 10,000 votes so it is very literally a swing state. This makes no sense from a policy or electoral perspective.
I grew up in Michigan and I am very concerned about some of the people I still know in the state (many of whom are approaching the high-risk age).
trollhattan
@Eric U.:
You might appreciate this joke:
Q: how do you keep your Mormon fishing buddy from drinking all your beer?
A: bring a second Mormon.
lee
I’m sure I’m missing something.
So spending bills are supposed to originate in the House. So it seems that this one started in the Senate, then moved to the House.
or did I miss that it actually originated in the House. The Senate negotiated on it in the Senate (with all interested parties), now the House passed the revised bill.
I don’t remember it leaving the House.
New Deal democrat
@Another Scott: Some governors have only allowed trips for essentials.
To cut to the chase, limiting gatherings to “small” 10 person affairs isn’t going to cut it. We are at the moment when Gene Hackman or Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “Come with me if you want to live.”
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
India is on day 2 of a 21 day shutdown of the entire country.
misterpuff
@Immanentize: I love this.
God says: Smite the wayward Senate Goopers.
Old joke: Lord, why have you forsaken us?
God: I gave you the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and Impeachment.
mrmoshpotato
@Kattails: I’d argue she helped get the monster elected, but point taken.
Sab
@JPL: Mine arrived and it’ in the recycling bin. Does that make me better person than you?// ;)
Martin
@Another Scott: It’s still less than what states like CA have been doing for a week. If someone is doing more than you, you’re not doing enough. States have to do the maximum they could ever bear right now. The more we ease into this, the longer and deadlier it will be. Governors need to close their eyes and talk to their future selves and ask if they should have done more, and then do more because that answer will always be ‘yes’.
Shana
Lots of people have probably made this point already but: “Of course you’re going to end up with a lot of ventilators you don’t need on a regular basis when this is over. Thant’s the whole fucking point you soulless ghoul.”
lgerard
@trollhattan:
Saw Rockpile a few times myself. Also Los Jackets by themselves I have not seen Nick with the jackets, but I have a few live recordings.
Kristine
@Honus: They have a lot of good stuff. I like their whole bean coffee, goat cheese, and Neufchâtel. I bought ground bison there the other day.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
A hanging is too quick.
I think tied over an ant hill and covered in honey would be better than a hanging. It’s slower.
A firing squad, him without a blindfold and those things that hold your eyes open when you have eye surgery, so he has to watch the whole thing. A couple hundred million people lined up with loaded guns (we have enough for all….) all aimed at him. OK maybe a couple hundred, names pulled from a very large hat.
Just a thought…..
Josie
@MattF: A seldom used parliamentary rule requires 1/5 of the members to stand as a second to his motion. They evidently refused to stand and his motion failed.
dww44
@zhena gogolia: Thanks for this:
I’ve been saying this to myself for quite some time. I also do agree with you about Pence. He would not be as bad as Trump and perhaps with Trump gone, he wouldn’t feel so compelled to bow and scrape.
With every passing day and failure to lead, I get more and more angry with Trump voters and even more gobsmacked at those who continue to support him.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Uh, sombody should tell Trump GM doesn’t own the Lordstown plant anymore. Lordstown Motors does
Elizabelle
Yes, it’s Jen Rubin. WaPost: Trump made us No. 1 — in the spread of a deadly disease
And this: is Jen Rubin a jackal? Certainly an honorary one. I wonder if she scans this blog from time to time.
Mai naem mobile
I haven’t gotten the CDC mailer but surely we can be more creative with them than just putting them in the trash. Do an ice bucket challenge except it would be a destroy the mailer challenge. Burn them, use them as a pooper scooper, use them to clean a gutter out.
AliceBlue
@Betty Cracker: Two polls cited in DKos’ Abbreviated Pundit Roundup this morning (Public Policy Polling and Navigator Research) show Trump’s approval numbers on handling the coronavirus are slipping.
joel hanes
@mrmoshpotato:
Alabama
They’ve got the weight on their shoulders
That’s breaking their back
Another Scott
@Brachiator: But “essential services” are (rightly) exempt.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
Did anyone else catch that the virus mailer with shit for brains name on it was white and BLUE?
I wonder if there was any thought to that, by anyone………
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: Blind Faith sold just fine in America.
Another Scott
@Martin: Agreed.
More should have been done long ago. And everyone can and should do more.
But saying that Virginia isn’t (effectively) on lockdown is arguing semantics. That’s my only point.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@New Deal democrat: Can people stop calling it a fucking lockdown? Police aren’t patrolling the streets making sure no leaves their homes. We can still go to the grocery store as needed and doctor appointments, etc, plus we can go for a short walk outside for exercise and fresh air.
You just can’t congregate in large groups. Chicago’s lakefront bike path actually is locked down however since a bunch of morons decided the 53-degree day earlier this week was like any other day. “Let’s go play basketball and soccer in the parks!” and the Mayor was having none of that.
LivingInExile
Trying to post with a different device..
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@mrmoshpotato:
What a fucking idiot. “Y’all”.
You can do that by having takeout/delivery only and having some essential businesses staying open. All this will do is get more people killed and the economy will still fucking tank
Kristine
@trollhattan: It’s complicated. This article explains it.
I like both chains. I’ve found TJ’s to have better produce and meat selection, but Aldi’s often offers short-term finds that are really good, as well German frozen baked goods that aren’t too bad. As is usual with European pastries, not as sweet as US.
joel hanes
@Elizabelle:
Downtown Nurnberg is pretty nice, too.
From 1973 to 1975, I lived just five miles up the Strassenbahn line to the NW, in Furth, as a guest of the US government.
joel hanes
@Elizabelle:
And like they had a choice on the “pause on global sailings.”
Had they lowered the prices enough, MAGATs would be lining up to book cruises.
rikyrah
@Kattails:
That was so this morning…keep up…..
(trying to find droll humor where I can)
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I guess this is the new normal
At Vons, you wait outside. There are markings to designate social distance.
You cannot even pull a cart from the parking area. When you get near the entrance, they offer you hand sanitizer and then you can select a cart that has been wiped down just before you go in.
You cannot put your own bag on the belt that moves your groceries to the cashier. And if you brought your own bags, you bag your own. Or, as I did, you let them use the 10 cents plastic bags and have an employee bag your stuff.
And yep, you go out the other side, not the way you came in.
Far fewer people in the entire store.
And still no goddam toilet tissue. Fortunately, I still have some at home that I bought before the shelter at home orders.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
Heading for median LGM-level for number of comments on this thread, I see (if still far from a Tbogg Unit).
The Trump admin is all-in (with the notable exception of Dr. Fauci) on the actual severity (lethality) of this outbreak just happening to be far less than suspected earlier (Imperial College model) — this is where Birx is coming from — since their fumbling, bumbling, we-don’t-need-no-stinking-expertise approach would otherwise prove catastrophic. And the recent Oxford research provides a plausible theory that this much-lower severity may just be the case.
If that’s true (and I hope it is because that means way fewer people dying from COVID-19) then Trump’s asinine shit like, just for one small example, “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear” will be credited by much of the media that most people pay attention to as being essentially correct, instead of the world-class level of irresponsibility in the face of a novel-disease pandemic that it was.
Does that lead to his re-election? I don’t know, but I don’t think it hurts his chances.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It doesn’t anymore. Two brothers used to own TJs and Aldi. They have gone their separate ways, one brother owns Aldis and the other TJs. They are German IIRC.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
Stop doom and glooming. This virus will kill tens of thousands at the very least and people will fucking blame Trump for it because they will know at least one person in their lives who dies from it, directly or indirectly because hospitals will be overcrowded
joel hanes
@Kent:
I’d personally rather live in Mormon Utah than say Baptist Alabama.
Oh God yes. I got to know a fair number of LDS guys in the Army, and the first company I worked for out of college had a very large LDS contingent (the Chief Technical Officer was LDS, and the company recruited heavily at BYU, and then five or ten years of networking effects). Almost uniformly, in person they were some of most decent people you would ever want to meet.
My friend with the MSEE who went from college to work in Huntsville AL was so immediately and thoroughly miserable that within a few years he enrolled at Stanford to get his PhD, largely as a way to get the fuck out of Alabama.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Bye bye Alabama and Mississippi. Dying to own the libs.
mrmoshpotato
@joel hanes: Corona cruises? (Sorry not sorry)
Subsole
@mrmoshpotato: I always found it revealing that for all the many and varied laws in Leviticus, the only one anybody ever seemed to notice or remember was the one that told them who to kill.
Immanentize
@lee: They have a trick that is used whenever they want to use it —
The house takes the same bill, renumbers it as an original House Bill. Then they pass it with no changes from the Senate text. Then the Senate by unanimous consent passes its own bill again and bingo,
Bob’s your uncle.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Having started my working career as a mold maker – a tool and die maker who specializes in molds for plastic parts, I suggested to someone on twitter the other day, who was on a quest to find ventilators/mfg, that if the mfg were maxed or close to maxed out it would take months, even with massive overtime to get final product made and then there might be the question of approval of medical goods and I was told to basically shut up. This person went on to find one working and a couple for spare parts laying around. No idea of condition or even if any thing was actually usable.
People don’t know the work involved or how things are done, many suggested 3D printers. And that is a possibility but while 3D printing has advanced very, very dramatically in the last 3 decades, producing mass quantities with them is not a fast process.
Had this been prioritized 2 months, or even 3 months ago, we would be on the road and possibly at production now and ramping up. And one mfg stated to the person above that they could ramp up production 5x, but no one had asked or offered to purchase ventilators. So much of our working lives has focused on low cost that we’ve given up a lot of what should have been production increases to purchasing overseas.
Immanentize
@Mai naem mobile: well, use as toilet paper leaps to mind.
Elizabelle
@joel hanes:
Wonderful. I really liked Germany. Want to go back. Maybe next year. Time will tell.
SFBayAreaGal
@Immanentize: I have that album.
Immanentize
@Ruckus: my Dad was a mechanical engineer who ran a tool and die drafting company. Cool.
eemom
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
Fun question: has there ever been a TBU where people weren’t fighting with each other? My guess is no.
Robert Sneddon
As an outsider I looked at the flyer at the top of this entry and thought the CDC were being quite subtle — it reads:
“President Trump’s
Coronavirus”
Nicely played, CDC.
tokyokie
@Immanentize:
As I recall, the early versions of the British version of This Year’s Model included the single of “Stranger in the House” backed with a live version of “Neat Neat Neat.” I almost bought a copy, but I couldn’t remember the song order on the U.S. version, and by the time I ran home and checked (the store was out of the U.S. version), somebody else had bought it. I used to have the U.K. Jesus of Cool album; maybe I still do, I haven’t checked lately. And I bought a used copy of the British version of Two Virgins, which featured John and Yoko fully nude on the cover, for an acquaintance in the States who never paid me for the damn thing. Bastard.
As for the Trump campaign ad from the CDC, mine went straight into the recycling bin when I received it a few days ago.
ziggy
@Archon:
I think this is something that hasn’t gotten enough attention. I watched my mother as she struggled to breath and shear panic and pain built up. She had an advance directive to not ventilate, but that went out the window when staring death in the face. And the after affects from being on a ventilator made her wacko, she got better but was never the same again.
We better have a lot of morphine ready if there are not enough ventilators.
Ella in New Mexico
Holy shit this thread went from 50 to 350 in like an hour and it’s unreadable
Maybe we need one of those automatic shut down’s like the stock market?
I still say we need nested comments ;-) :-D
soga98
@misterpuff:
Then how long before we see a photo of a little girl crying hysterically because roadblock guards murdered her parents?
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
I read that out loud to wife, she was guffaw out loud !!!
Thanks! I appreciate the humor the Jackals are providing while we are all
stuckrelaxing at home.Another Scott
@Immanentize: I don’t think that’s quite right.
The Senate “$2T” bill was HR 748. It was a bill that originated in the House (months ago). Like with the final PPACA (“Introduced in the House as the “Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009″ (H.R. 3590) by Charles Rangel (D–NY) on September 17, 2009”), they stripped out the original language, substituted their 880 page bill, then passed that under the HR 748 name to meet the Constitutional requirement.
The Senate does things like quite frequently for important bills.
It’s sneaky, and not really “fair”, but it keeps the legislature and the government running.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ella in New Mexico: Fuck off.
The Lodger
@schrodingers_cat: I thought Kerry was referring to Massie’s last name.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t worry. The BlogLord is a nevernester.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: Or, the Senate takes an existing funding bill passed by the House(Moscow Mitch has a few of these on his desk), takes all the language out and puts in their own and sends it back to the House.
chrisanthemama
Your white-hot righteous rage gives me life.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@ziggy: need morphine or other drugs to keep people ON a vent. It’s hell a without them..
not_a_cylon
@Olivia: Funny that the first bullet point was something like “Follow Directions from your Local and State Governments”.
I went, “yup, been doing that. kthxbye” and tossed the rest.
Guess this was aimed at Trumpkins that took his earlier televised denials to heart, and needed something with his name on it to convince them that, no, this is serious now.
Mrearl
@Immanentize: Yeah, right after “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.”
sgrAstar
@BR: but there aren’t any masks. 🤔
🌑
sigyn
@cleek: Thank you! I knew this was a dead thread; I was just hoping someone would correct the punctuation.
President Trump’s Coronavirus: Guidelines for America
Betty Cracker
@cleek: Stolen for Twitter!