Pink supermoon over Mount Diablo. pic.twitter.com/L6XijnO9iW
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 8, 2020
The weeks ahead will be some of the toughest we’ve ever experienced as a nation. We need to face them with the same spirit and resolve that have guided us through previous crises. Because out of every trial and tribulation, America has always emerged stronger — and we will again.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 8, 2020
Let's be clear. Trump does not have the power to cancel or postpone the November election. https://t.co/OKQyAq5g80
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 6, 2020
November 3 https://t.co/b4llLf9Iyp
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 6, 2020
TOMORROW: Sen. @KamalaHarris joins us live to discuss the latest headlines on the COVID-19 crisis. pic.twitter.com/EMSwJSIPuC
— The View (@TheView) April 7, 2020
BREAKING: Due to financial duress, the @NRA is laying off a significant number of it’s 800 employees.
As our organization prepares to spend $60M in 2020, I offer NRA leaders my thoughts and prayers as we prepare to outspend and outwork them yet again. https://t.co/GmQndU9B54
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 7, 2020
and nothing of value was lost. https://t.co/pSmRkz8mTE
— Galar Regional Medical Director (@weedlewobble) April 8, 2020
Baud
Even the Russian spies?
OzarkHillbilly
Can we please retire the phrase “super moon”?
OzarkHillbilly
John Prine, RiP.
low-tech cyclist
Someday, I want to be proud to be a Democrat for more than a few minutes at a time.
It still seems to me that the party’s response is timid and insufficient to the needs of the moment.
OzarkHillbilly
Hello in There.
Baud
@low-tech cyclist: Can’t please everybody.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh no! My heart goes out to his wife.
WereBear
@low-tech cyclist:
Actual epidemiologists point out that in times like this, OVERREACTION is the right choice.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
The news was no surprise, but it still knocked me back when I heard it last night.
OzarkHillbilly
@low-tech cyclist: I’m proud of Democrats every damn day. They aren’t perfect but they are always trying.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Angel from Montgomery, especially this version.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: @debbie: Another piece of my heart…
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: A nameless STL singer songwriter referred to it as “the greatest song ever written”. Every time I hear Bonnie do it I think he might not have been right, but he sure as hell wasn’t wrong.
WereBear
This only confirms my feeling that normal is a long ways off.
My peripatetic career, based on my talents and the needs of the moment and periodic disasters not of my own making, may be coasting to a halt. At my age and random skill levels, I just hope I can hang on long enough to collect some kind of pathetic retirement income.
Real consolation comes from one great idea I pursued and accomplished: I’m not doing this in Florida. I’m doing it in New York. That might just save my life.
Seeing how the Florida government response is handling this crisis, discovering they disabled the Unemployment Insurance website in 2015, and now can’t even put up a PDF for people to fill out online like with a smartphone: something I am capable of doing…
Well, they would let me die. Without even the kindness of shooting me like a horse with a broken leg.
debbie
@WereBear:
Maybe it seems like underreaction because the opposition is still insisting this is no big deal.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: On top of the wreckage Trump is leaving in his wake, we’ll be dealing with the fallout from this gigantic public health/economic clusterfuck for a long time. It can be an opportunity to fundamentally change the game, but that’s going to be a heavy lift.
It was always going to be a heavy lift, but IMO, it’s important to push for progress in times like these. There are Democrats who recognize this and will fight for us, Senator Warren, Senator Murphy and Rep. Katie Porter among them. They make me proud.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I cannot imagine only one greatest song ever. Like Fritos: You can’t eat just one!
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
Me too.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Repeating my plea to not expect the Dems to fix everything perfectly in two years.
Betty Cracker
@WereBear: The unemployment website debacle is being covered as a huge scandal down here, and rightly so. People are PISSED. Florida is a GOP-dominated hellscape, but it isn’t Mississippi (or at least most of the peninsular portion of the state is not).
That makes me hopeful that an enormous scandal with clearly identifiable Republican villains who have hurt so many people in such a material way may actually carry electoral consequences. What can I say, I’m a Floridian AND an optimist! :)
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Most of those pissed-off people are Trump supporters. Just sayin’.
WereBear
I’m also seeing it from the outside, with — in the words of the anti-terrorism expert the Bush Administration ignored — “my hair on fire.”
9/11 was a tragedy too, and all it accomplished was more police-state clampdowns, further militarization of the police, erosion of human rights, ignoring the victims except as props in a photo op; and general mockery of the valiant efforts of actually heroic citizens.
It led to actual accomplishments in the Obama administration, and we’re all grateful for that. But I don’t think we can manage too many of these out of control pendulum swings. We’re like parents who lose the retirement account and the house sending a child to rehab, over and over again, to no avail.
All so Republican fans can continue living in their fantasy world, where they can preen about their superiority. Held in the dead hand of the Confederacy.
That’s the real enemy, and has been since the founding of the nation. We have to kill it stone dead, once and for all.
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Not sure that’s accurate. It’s a purple state that Trump won with less than 50% of the vote. High unemployment in a service and tourism-dependent economy falls heavily on pretty much everyone, even if it hits lower-income people first. If the majority of the pissed off people are Trump supporters, it’s a SMALL majority.
Mary G
@low-tech cyclist: I think the president and the Republicans are screwing up so badly all the Democrats need to do is stay out of the way.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Mississippi is 100% about race. If we could win as low as 20% of white voters there, it would be a blue state.
Betty Cracker
@WereBear:
That’s a great analogy!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Yep.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It is. But therein lies the dilemma. How do you create major structural change without causing more swinging of the pendulum?
WereBear
@Betty Cracker:
I hope with you. You are one of the people I care about down there, and there are many more; some with deep roots in the state. It is on a knife edge of flipping to blue, and I long to see it tipped over.
Tourism/hospitality economies are going to be hard hard hit; and I’ve been employed in one for the last 20 years.
On the considerable other hand, this current administration is generating — quite unwittingly, as it does everything — a corresponding backlash that will only grow as the pandemic does.
In irony worth of a Bond villain, it’s going to target the Fox News crowd, who was constantly reassured that it’s “only the flu” and they should go out and lick doorknobs to “own the libs.” Fox News has changed its tune, but far far too late.
Live by the Spite, and perhaps die by it.
Mary G
@debbie: YouTube still has upcoming concert dates listed and all the songs that I am playing and it makes me so sad.
Jeffro
I see Hugh Hewitt has taken to the barricades (or at least, today’s WaPo op-ed pages) in defense of…Jared Kushner. Yes, really.
You almost have to feel sorry for Hugh. Can you imagine having to do something that revolting, just for a paycheck? Yeesh.
On a side note, we have started getting the Richmond Times-Dispatch here and this means that we are treated to the musings of Victor Davis Hanson. I think the last two columns of his I saw were about how America is still a global leader in all kinds of leadery ways (LOL) and whether or not trumpov would have the ‘strategic foresight’ to deal with the coronavirus and all its impacts (LOLOL)
WereBear
@Baud:
And it points up the ridiculous centrality of White Supremacy. They choose to live in the most backward and hellish of all the states, where their schools are dominated by creationism, not science; where their universities are known for their frats and football, not scholarship; and they dwell on the edge of a cliff of patchwork public health care during a pandemic.
All to inflict suffering on someone else in exchange for their leaders being the only ones living well. Now that is one messed up mindset.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I’m confident Hewitt doesn’t feel revolted by what he does.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: The pendulum is always going to swing, but it seems like major structural change that truly sticks arises from crises.
debbie
@Mary G:
One of my local NPR stations will have a tribute to him this afternoon. I’m sure I’ll be listening while working, but I sure hope I can keep my tears from short-circuiting my laptop.
Truly the end of an era.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks for the correction. Perhaps I’ve been too swayed by the Many Tales of the Floriduh Man/Woman. ??♀️
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Good point. Despite the best efforts of Republicans, Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, while weakened, are still kicking.
Jeffro
Me too! (and great way to put it).
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Social Security and Medicare! One thing shitheads like Ronald Reagan understood: programs that broadly deliver significant benefits to citizens are almost impossible to eradicate, which is why Republicans oppose them with maximum hysteria.
WereBear
@Baud: Republican voters don’t believe in “things getting better.” They see everything as a zero-sum game called Entropy. They will get theirs, even if they have to destroy the village to save it.
Fox News shifted the goalposts to literally no more than “owning the libs.” That’s all these assholes have got, and they are going to embrace it.
All the way down the line.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m gonna go drown my sorrows in a plethora of morels. If I’m lucky. Y’all have a good day.
ETA to fix frown to drown. The gods play their little jokes on us.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly:
?
Thanks, AL, for the Rodney Crowell to get us started.
Stay well, BJ peeps. ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
That’s a great metaphor.
ETA: I see Betty beat me to it.
low-tech cyclist
I don’t want the Democrats to stay out of the way while thousands of Americans die as a result of their screwups.
I want fewer Americans to needlessly die.
Obviously the Democrats can’t do anything about this by themselves. But they can present the Senate Republicans with one last opportunity to replace Donald Trump with Mike Pence. They surely won’t take it, but their refusal to do so will look worse every week.
And then one could honestly say that the Democrats did what they could to prevent needless deaths. But until then, no, I can’t say that. So I cannot be proud.
lofgren
Democrats are not toddlers trying to make a giraffe out of straws. They’ve been “trying” for decades now, and they’ve only lost ground. And yes, that includes the Obama administration. A very brief, very slight slight uptick in a graph doesn’t undo 40 years of downsloping. “Trying” stops counting for much if you repeatedly fail to learn from your previous failures.
Not that I have a solution, mind. But I’m not impressed enough to be proud of the Democratic leadership’s efforts, either.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Well, I see you didn’t even give the rest of us a chance at mocking the weak, sad poop that is the NRA.
You win.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I take it we don’t have any results from Wisconsin yet? Is there news on that front?
Re Fox: I see pictures of the morning fools still sitting on the curvy couch. Are those old or is Fox and Friends still shooting in a studio?
ETA: I’m proud to be a Democrat. That doesn’t mean I think our leaders or policies are perfect. It means I believe we’re striving for the right things. As far as I can tell, in politics “striving” never stops because there’s always push back. But we keep on.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: Fine. “Big Ass Fucking Moon” it is.
low-tech cyclist
So where are the House Democrats now? On an extended recess, I believe.
I realize they don’t want to congregate due to safety concerns. But before they left, did they vote to be able to conduct their business virtually, without having to be physically present in the Capitol?
How is that “always trying”? There’s plenty of things they could be doing, but they’ve locked themselves into not being able to do anything.
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
I remember 2009. Rush was doing it first, and Fox got it from their viewers throwing a screaming phone harassment fit at any Republican (Rove and McConnell!) who dared say that merely obstructing the Hell out of Obama was enough, and you didn’t need to say crazy shit like ‘death panels.’ Fox may be part of a feedback loop, but it exists because racists, angry and confused that they’ve been told to respect the Other, went looking for whoever will tell them their problems are the Other’s fault. They weren’t first and half their positions come from chain emails.
Frankensteinbeck
Also, you know it’s an election year when every thread making us enthusiastic about Democrats is derailed arguing with people saying Democrats suck.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: They’re working on another coronavirus relief package even as we speak. Pelosi has said it will include another direct payment to Americans plus more assistance for small businesses. I’m hoping they’ll tie election security to its passage.
A general observation, so if the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t feel obligated to wear it. Too many people on the left (and by “left,” I mean “not Republicans,” from progressives to center-left) seem to either reflexively blame Democrats for everything that happens (they didn’t do enough!) or excuse practically anything any Democrat does or does not do (of course he rakes in millions from Big Pharma — he’d be stupid not to!).
We’re supposed to be the “nuance people” who are capable of abstract thought. We should act like it.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie:
Probably already pointed out, but that was Lay’s potato chips. Now part of Frito-Lay, of course, but it was the potato chip and not the corn chip that you allegedly couldn’t eat only one of.
John S.
@low-tech cyclist: You’re entitled to your opinion, but just do us all a favor and vote for the Democrat in November.
Save the purity until after the election and pandemic have passed and the Republicans have lost control of nearly everything.
zhena gogolia
@lofgren:
Well aren’t you special.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
Are you serious, or has your common sense not woken up yet? :)
Also –
MattF
@Jeffro: Yes, Hewitt really is a White House sock puppet.
SFAW
@Baud:
Unfortunately, the people that need to hear that probably don’t read blogs like this.
Gin & Tonic
@lofgren: The good guys suck and I have no concrete ideas for making them not suck.
Thanks for that, it’s helpful.
Mousebumples
Re Wisconsin results – ballots could be postmarked by yesterday and still count , so no results have been reported yet. Per my dad (local poll worker), results aren’t due until Monday so his precinct will start tallying absentee ballots this afternoon.
Don’t expect results until next week.
Betty Cracker
@MattF: His son is a Trump admin flunky. I think that should be inserted as an editor’s note in every Hewitt column published by The Post. Well, what I really think is that Hewitt should be punted into the sun by every respected media outlet and be forced to peddle his garbage at The Gateway Pundit and Breitbart tier. But failing that, an editor’s note would be appropriate. He’s not a disinterested observer.
WereBear
True, and that’s a good point. Until tRump their most inflammatory touchpoints always came from the lowest of barrels; themselves.
mrmoshpotato
@lofgren: So Democrats not being able to gain ground is their own fault? No blame on the giant fucking boulder chained to them called the Russthuglicans? I suppose they should also blame themselves for the GOP punching Obama for 8 years.
Gin & Tonic
@low-tech cyclist: My Rep, a Democrat, is holding regular telephone “town halls” to explain to his constituents the health factors and the logistical issues surrounding the new government programs. He is actively working with State agencies both in terms of unemployment compensation and small-business assistance. If you have a D rep, I’d suspect s/he is doing similar. If you have an R rep, then I’m sure you’re working actively to change that, right?
“Doing nothing” and “not being in DC” are not congruent.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I googled for it. The story I read said results are not expected for another week. I’m not sure why the delay. Might have to do with shortage of employees.
I haven’t yet seen any stories either on how voting went in a state with hardly any poll workers.
I am in serious danger of rage / hate burnout. I need to keep the rage tempered and just channel it into determination and hope.
mrmoshpotato
@Frankensteinbeck: “Why won’t Obummer lead?” whined a (checks notes) Democrat.
OzarkHillbilly
Seeing as Mama decided she needed a little nap after all, I’m back until 8.
via TPM: Possible Developments in the Treatment of Acute COVID-19
OzarkHillbilly
@low-tech cyclist: If you’re looking for an argument, you came to the wrong place. I’ve said all that needs to be said.
germy
@Gin & Tonic: Sometimes what is perceived as “doing nothing” is really MSM not reporting what is being done.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Didn’t know that. Hewitt’s attempt to ratfuck the D primary backfired so badly that I actually felt a shred of affection for him, for a nanosecond.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, but I came here for an argument!!
OH! Oh! I’m sorry! This is abuse!
Oh! Oh I see!
Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.
Oh…Sorry…
Not at all!
germy
Meanwhile…
mrmoshpotato
@Mousebumples: Thanks. I won’t bother incessantly refreshing the The USA Today page for a week then.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Right up there with the Dead Parrot and Cheese Shop skits.
mad citizen
@OzarkHillbilly: This is very interesting, thanks for posting it. I’ve been wondering why doctors–or are they–trying various drugs to see what works. But this is a whole new theory.
catclub
wtf is going on with reporting on Wisconsin primary election results?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The problem is the same is true for us when it comes to tax cuts and the emphasis on the stock market (and people’s retirement).
Baud
@catclub:
They have to wait for mail in ballots to come in. Another week.
Mousebumples
@mrmoshpotato: happy to help. ??
In the meantime, I suggest everyone who has the option to request an absentee ballot for elections later this year do so now before you forget. Even if the covid scare has passed by then, i realized how nice it was to be able to have references readily available as I filled out my ballot. (and another fall Covid spike is not out of the realm of possibility)
OzarkHillbilly
Time again for me to go. I leave you with this: ‘In life’s saddest winter moments, when you’ve been under a cloud for weeks, suddenly a glimpse of something wonderful can change the whole complexion of things, your entire feeling.’
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: No it isn’t.
mrmoshpotato
OT – anyone else confused last night that Cole’s walkway lights only came on during the lightning. (See his Twitter video.)
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Radiation levels are much higher than normal in the surrounding areas now. Note that Kyiv, the country’s capital, with a population nearing 3 million, is about 90 miles away.
MattF
@OzarkHillbilly: Also, from Derek Lowe, some news on the ACE inhibitor front. The medication may make it easier to be infected, but the infection is less severe. Choose your poison.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic:
And have left all the wildlife as impotent as a Nevada boxing commissioner.
Immanentize
@MattF: Don’t people take ACE inhibitors for hypertension? So, lowering high blood pressure is also important. I don’t see much of an advantage in stopping the ACE inhibitors now, is there?
Gin & Tonic
@mrmoshpotato: I suspect you’ve had that joke saved up for a while, but it’s completely untrue. Wildlife in the exclusion zone is flourishing.
Cheryl Rofer
@OzarkHillbilly: I would be VERY cautious about that one, and I’m disappointed that Josh chose to feature it.
There is a collection of ideas going around that COVID-19 has something to do with red blood cells. I have NO IDEA how accurate it is, but I haven’t seen it connected to any scientific studies. Yes, people get hypoxic with pneumonia and lung damage. Yes, this might be something that a lung expert might follow up. If you start a post with “I’m not an expert in this, but” it should probably be deleted. Josh should know better.
MattF
@Immanentize: I think that’s right. Treating hypertension lowers risk both generally and specifically, at least to some degree. It’s all rather hazy, but I’m going to keep taking my daily lisinopril.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Murc’s Law is as valid and timeless as Cleek’s Law, you know.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Sigh. Go to 2:25
rikyrah
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Yes, channel that rage
Cheryl Rofer
Ah, the edit box vanished as I was adding to my comment.
I see that Josh has added a scientific paper to the videos. Like Josh, I don’t know enough to put this all together. I would expect that keying the oxygen to the patient’s specifics would make sense, but that’s just a general observation, with no clinical or theoretical physiological basis. Unlike Josh, I’m a lot more cautious about claims that everyone’s been doing it wrong all along.
We’re still learning about COVID-19. Treatment protocols may change. But I’m willing to let the experts figure that out.
And yes, I didn’t initially read past Josh’s “I’m not an expert, but.” Annoys the heck out of me.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: Conjecture of an explanation: MS is intensely rural. The largest city (Jackson) is only 170K. People in search of a more urban/urbane lifestyle have to leave the state as well. That specifically includes the kind of white people most likely to adopt an expansive worldview – & vote Democratic. The remaining “wypipo” stay in “The Sticks” & continue to marinate in antebellum (& antediluvian) prejudice.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I’m sorry, is this a five-comment argument, or a full-post one?
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wisconsin isn’t expected to tabulate any results until Monday, April 13. That’s the date by which all absentee ballots must be received.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Immanentize
@SFAW: Every post is both open and NOT!
Immanentize
I just saw this at Emotywheel re: Wisconsin:
p.a.
Kleptocracy, kakistocracy, is there a word for rule by the stupidest people? trumpism. MAGAtocracy?
danielx
@germy:
Do we suspect vodka involvement?
No, why do you ask?
SFAW
Completely OT, but:
NPR noted the request of town officials in Arlington, MA, to honor the passing of resident Mary Foley, a veteran of Korea and Vietnam. Arlington officials said that Ms. Foley had no living relatives or family, and so asked residents to line Mass Ave (the main street in Arlington) at 10:30 this morning, when her funeral procession passed by. It sounded like a military funeral was out, due to COVID-19 concerns.
Not sure why this item affected me as much as it did.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Omnes Omnibus: Preview of November then, where despite Republican efforts to shut down mail-in voting, there’s going to be a massive amount.
CindyH
@OzarkHillbilly: I get the STAT newsletter every day and it led with rethinking the use of ventilators in this morning’s edition.
Gin & Tonic
@mrmoshpotato: Since I have literally never watched an episode of The Simpsons, references to that show are meaningless to me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes, I said last night that I think that the WI GOP overplayed their hand here. Everyone now knows that they can and should request an absentee ballot ahead of the election. You can always drop it off at the polling place if you like voting on Election Day itself.
germy
germy
I’m not sure what Trump can do if he refuses to accept defeat. Call in the Navy?
Betty Cracker
@germy: Pretty sure the Secret Service will deposit Trump’s ass on Pennsylvania Avenue at 12:01 PM Eastern time on January 20, 2021, regardless of his level of loss acceptance.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: My impression from afar is that Ben Wikler is doing a darn good job.
A Ghost to Most
@Omnes Omnibus: This should be the default everywhere. We get our ballots in the mail, and typically drop them in a drop box election day.
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: that video of Robin Vos declaring all is well from behind his PPE should be a career-ender, but after all the times I thought “OK, now they’ll get it” with trump… I don’t fucking know anything anymore
Fair Economist
@Cheryl Rofer: I was also very suspicious about “it’s not pneumonia, it’s hypoxia”. Hypoxia is how pneumonia kills! Plus we know COVID patients do have pneumonia, sometimes to extraordinarily damaging levels.
Emma from FL
@Betty Cracker: I have given up on these people. They are the mirror image of Fox News addicts. At this moment in time, I can’t handle the stress.
zhena gogolia
Up to now I’ve been able to get groceries delivered. I just checked and that is no longer possible. I’ll have to go to the store for the first time since 3/13.
A Ghost to Most
@germy:
Said every pyro, ever.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: This didn’t need to happen. The legislature could have agreed to common sense safety measure, but they refused. I am proud of the Wisconsin voters, especially those in Milwaukee, for getting out and making sure that there voices are heard. Also, just as a note, a number of white voters were seen wearing BLM t-shirts as a gesture of solidarity.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yeah, that happened to me last week, too. If you don’t have much of your 5-minute edit time left when you start editing, it goes poof when you get to the end of the original 5 minutes.
But if you click to edit, then type an “x” or anything else and press update, then you get a brand new 5-minute window for your edit.
SFAW
@germy:
Kick it over to the SCOTUS shills, who will say “Can’t change horses in mid-stream during the … uh … rhinovirus pandemic. Election results suspended until the entire universe is rhinovirus free.”
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: That is very useful info!!!!
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m proud of Wisconsin voters too, while remaining incandescent with rage at the GOP and Supreme Court majority (plus every leftist ever who couldn’t vote for Killary because…reasons). It didn’t have to happen this way
ETA: If voters and pollworkers start dying a few weeks from now, can we charge the Wisconsin GOP with murder?
Omnes Omnibus
On the good news and the kids are alright front, my 18 y/o nephew voted for the first time yesterday. He is, oddly enough, a big Biden supporter and has been since the beginning. All I can say is my family are doing their bit.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus: Hooray for your nephew and your family!
Omnes Omnibus
No, but we can vote the fuckers out.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m working on it in my corner of the world. Voting the fuckers out, that is.
germy
Can anyone tell me how the 2020 Wisconsin voter totals compare with previous Wisconsin elections?
Ruckus
@debbie:
There may not be just one.
But this one comes damn close to being it.
We will always lose the great ones, it’s the scourge of life, it ends.
We will always act like it’s such a surprise because it always hurts to lose a great example.
Simple songs that tell you exactly what they mean.
That’s a tough act for anyone. John Prine did it extremely well.
A story teller for all times. What would the world be like if we could all be anywhere close to that good in our own ways?
Omnes Omnibus
@O. Felix Culpa: There was a chant in WI during the 2011 protests, “This is what Democracy looks like.” Let’s all show them in November.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: Check back on Monday.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m all in. We’re doing postcards and calls to voters now. Our primary is June 2nd and we’re encouraging people to apply for absentee ballots. Fortunately we have a great Secretary of State in New Mexico and no-excuse-required absentee balloting.
Just One More Canuck
@mrmoshpotato:
with a healthy green glow? Excellent!
WaterGirl
@Immanentize:
That was such partisan ruling; I am livid. There’s not even any justification or even cover, other than partisanship.
Can one of you legal eagles tell me I’m wrong?
Ksmiami
@low-tech cyclist: We need stronger messaging/ Trump is literally killing us – how hard is that
Ruckus
@WereBear:
I think that until trump you would be absolutely correct.
But. He is so bad and so obviously bad that even some republicans are noticing. They may not change their tune that you can hear but when that curtain closes behind them in the voting booth, that will be the tell, do they back the shit stain or do they save their own lives. Being the selfish fucks that they are, my guess is enough of them change their tune to make change happen. Maybe I’m a cockeyed optimist because if this doesn’t do it there isn’t any thing other than total destruction of our ideals of a country left.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: @O. Felix Culpa:
A good friend of mine was a poll worker in Illinois on March 17. They got one tiny little pocket sized bottle of purely to share between all the poll workers, and half a dozen wipes.
They were there for 12 hours. She even drove the ballots from wherever they were to wherever they needed to be.
She knew exactly what the risk were, and she did it anyway.
She came home, and then next day started updating her will.
Happily, 14 days has come and gone and all are well, but it was a long 11 days, at least. Very much hoping for the same good outcome for every poll worker and voter in Wisconsin.
And fuck the fucking Supreme Court for their obviously partisan and completely corrupt decision. Fuck these fucking people, what the hell is wrong with them?
mad citizen
@Fair Economist: In the sense of the definition, yes: “Pneumonia is a common lung infection caused by germs, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. It can be a complication of the flu, but other viruses, bacteria and even fungi can cause pneumonia.”
But it seems like a new virus causes different things and so the “standard” treatment ladder might not be the most effective thing to do. It’s interesting that some COVID patients have blood oxygen levels that suggest they should be dead, yet their bodies are not shutting down. https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/08/doctors-say-ventilators-overused-for-covid-19/
germy
@WaterGirl: And then the conservatives on the court had the nerve to lecture RBG on civility.
Zinsky
@germy: Americans should be horrified that we are in a place where the President of the United States is going to be forced to declare bankruptcy if he doesn’t get funding from legislation he signed into law but the majority party in Congress intentionally didn’t want him to have!
If this series of events doesn’t drive a stake through the heart of the idiotic notion that “the United States should be run like a business”, I don’t know what will!
O. Felix Culpa
@WaterGirl:
They’re straight-up evil. That’s all I got.
Fair Economist
@zhena gogolia: Why can’t you get groceries delivered? Are they overloaded or did theu stop delivery altogether?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ksmiami: the trouble with the calls for “stronger messaging” and the like is that it assumes a neutral audience hungry for facts and information. Non-college whites and Xian fundies don’t think trump is killing them, they think he’s protecting them.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: The courts have some cover in that Evers was acting unilaterally using executive powers. The real culprits here are the Republicans in the legislature who, when called into emergency session to deal with the situation, brought the legislature into session and then immediately adjourned without doing anything. THEN the fuckers filed the lawsuits to stop Evers’s actions. They didn’t even have the courage to have their own fingerprints on the knife.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Does anyone have any information on the Instacart strike? I stopped ordering from the store they service when I read about the workers’ demands for a simple living wage and basic safety precautions, and management’s pure-evil response.
I saw something a few days ago that management had made some very minimal concessions but hadn’t really provided basic safety yet. So is the strike still going on? I can’t find anything from the union’s POV. Maybe if I knew what union it was.
PST
There is a very interesting column by Thomas Edsall in the Times this morning about the factions within the Democratic Party. The headline makes it look like an anti-Bernie screed, which it isn’t. It is a review of recent literature. What I found enlightening was the last third, which really rang true (and in some ways made me uncomfortable):
He talks about the demographics of this group, which skews white, male, and well educated. He then compared the mere hobbyists to those who spend the same amount of time but also do grassroots work:
I identify with the mainstream party, the center-left, rather than the progressive wing, but I can sure see myself in that description. A few days of volunteer work spread over the decades does not a grassroots activist make. The final point that Edsall cites Hersh for is how hobbyists do damage.
I would go further and say that more than the progressive wing is weakened. It reduces the influence of the mainstream as against powerful financial interest, and at the same time, renders the mainstream more vulnerable to charges from those more to the left that we are letting oligarchs run the show.
Anyway, it is a good piece by one of the better columnists that I found well worth reading in full.
germy
Barbara
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: My own view is that if you are truly at high risk then using delivery makes sense. But if you are not really at any higher risk than the Instacart employees who are fulfilling your order, you are basically transferring your risk to them. I am not denigrating anyone individually. This is the calculus I have made for myself and my own actions. I have become annoyed, in particular at the under 35 people in my own office crowing about using delivery for everything without regard to any of these issues. It smolders inside.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PST:
that’s been my sense for years, even in those pre-2015 days when Bernie Sanders’ biggest audience was Thom Hartmann’s radio show. Before there was Bernie, there was Alan Grayson and Anthony Wiener and to some extent Howard Dean. White Guys Who Shout.
Barbara
@PST: Tom Edsall frequently drives me nuts but I will make a point of reading this. It also reminds me, and hopefully all of us, to become and stay engaged even if we don’t necessarily devote hours and hours each week. Self-examinaton is good. I anticipate that many people would say that the time required for in person engagement is substantially higher than kvetching on the Internet. Me included.
NotMax
Report from the not quite so great outdoors.
Necessary Tuesday to go to post office and also do some banking which involved going separately to two different banks. First bank (in strip mall): easy in, easy out, tellers masked and gloved. Also a notice posted announcing their first business hour of each day is reserved for seniors.
Second one (freestanding structure) isn’t letting anyone in until a teller station is free, otherwise you have to queue up outside and wait. People in line maintaining distancing. Must admit it was, incongruously, more than a bit amusing to exit the car in the parking lot, walk over and encounter a line of folks stretching around the building ,which included multiple people with faces concealed behind bandanas. Butch and Sundance would have collapsed with guffaws.
No roof or awning of any kind over the area marked out for the exterior line. Hope they’re not stupid enough to maintain that protocol when it rains. Tellers there gloved but not masked.
Post office now sports thick clear plastic sheeting hung from ceiling to floor in front of the counter, with flaps cut into it to slide mail or money through.
Oh, also walked past a Subway sandwich shop with this sign plastered on the front door: “Due to supply issues we are out of lettuce and spinach.”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Barbara: We are in our 60s and concerned personally but also concerned for the economic impact on younger people, and contributing to delivery is one way I have of pumping money into the economy. Delivery and shopping services (IMHO) are going to be a key growing part of the economy and its recovery. But the people providing that service need to be protected and compensated because of how key they are to all of us.
Baud
@PST:
The problem isn’t hobbyists per se. It’s destructive hobbyists — people who enjoy feeling good about themselves because they talk about people doing the work are doing it wrong. People who leisurely follow politics but don’t undermine the people trying to do good work aren’t really an issue IMHO.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Happy to have more information. But even with that, my rage has not abated.
raven
Bernie out.
HRA
Bernie has dropped out of the race -CNN
satby
@raven: Woo-hoo!!!
Baud
@raven: Nice. Wonderful news.
Gin & Tonic
Alerts coming across my phone to the effect that St. Bernard has “suspended” his campaign. Waiting for a mourning thread so we can all express our condolences.
rikyrah
@A Ghost to Most:
Our mail Ballots have to be postmarked by Election Day, and get 2 weeks to come back post Elections.
The only place where you can drop off the ballot in person is our downtown headquarters.
Baud
New thread up on Bernie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@raven: nothing became his campaign like the ending of it
someone floated the theory yesterday that he stayed in through WI to get his supporters engaged in that state court race…. who knows?
I hope he’s able to manage his self-righteousness enough to be, if not a unifier, at least not a divisive figure
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Interestingly it was on the Thom Hartman Show in 2011 that Sanders talked about how Obama should be primaried, thereby throwing a boomerang that came spinning around to hit him in the head on primary day in South Carolina.
Barbara
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: In my experience, regular grocery store workers are treated better than those employed by Instacart or comparable operations. Again, I am not criticizing anyone’s individual decision making here but it’s good to consider all the potentially relevant factors.
Barbara
@Geminid: I lived in the South for a long time (I don’t consider Northern Virginia to be the South over the last few decades I have lived here) and I find Sanders’ not so subtle belittling and criticism of Obama to be baffling from the perspective of someone who wanted to take control of the Democratic Party (which is kind of what being the Democratic nominee for president signals). Lots of other white politicians, like most Democrats, have an intuitive grasp that at some level piling on Obama would be seen as a kind of latent prejudice by African Americans. This doesn’t seem even remotely to require a lot of deep thinking about race. Seriously, I don’t get it.
Gvg
@debbie: yeah, you know, I have lived all but 1 year of my life, and I have never encountered anyone who acted like those Florida man stories. Most people I know seem rather ordinary. In a population of 22 million you can always find plenty of kooks and stories about them get read while stories about respectable accountants or restraint owners, don’t.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gvg: I think it’s the alligators. You have drunk people doing stupid things in other states, and people trying to smuggle drugs in comically stupid ways in Chicago and Montana and Little Rock and Maine. But they’re less likely to involve alligators.
CarolPW
@Barbara: The two markets I use both have parking lot pickup. You put in your order and select a pickup time (at this point their only slots are about a week out). You show up in the parking lot, call in your name, and they bring the stuff out, put it in your car, and you are done (it is pre-paid). They are store employees (which unfortunately means they do not take tips). For both stores there is no charge, when in the past it was just under $5. First used it when I broke my hip in October and have restarted now that we are locked down.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara: Sanders and Warren both very late in the game released ads attempting to tie them to Obama, which was further proof to me that 1) Warren lacks political judgment and 2) the relentless praise of Bernie Sanders as “authentic” and “consistent” was somewhat exaggerated.
J R in WV
@germy:
I too thought that those voters waiting in line to vote in spite of a lethal epidemic of Trump’s Plague showed great bravery and a dedication to Democracy above and beyond. I got shivers seeing that bravery acted upon~!!~
Also, they put the fear of Democracy in the Republicans, who no doubt wanted no one to show up to vote, which is the only way Trump can win in November.
zhena gogolia
@Fair Economist:
They seem to be overloaded. I’m hoping it’s just Passover and Easter converging, but I doubt it.
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
This is what I found.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-instacart-is-giving-its-shoppers-health-and-safety-kids.html
I give humongous tips, but still feel guilty. But I guess now that it doesn’t seem to be available, I can swallow my guilt and go risk my life at the store.