Good Omens the book is 30. This is our present to all of you. It's to make people happy, because too many of us are sad. #GoodOmens30 https://t.co/3q4FVnj3tq
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) May 1, 2020
.
“Becoming,” debuting Wednesday on Netflix, is the fullest documentary portrait yet of Michelle Obama, @jakecoyleAP reports. The film captures the former first lady in settings both public and intimate, navigating her post-White House life.https://t.co/SRMLki1VZi
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 4, 2020
… “My life is starting to be mine again,” she says in the film. “There’s another chapter waiting for me out there.”…
The movie, itself, was a secret until last week when Netflix announced is upcoming premiere. Hallgren typically worked with small crews or just by herself. Much of “Becoming” takes place either in arenas crowded with cameras or in private settings — the back seat of an SUV, the childhood home of Obama — so few would have spotted her.
“I think if people saw me, it probably looked very unofficial,” chuckles Hallgren…
Unlike the interview-heavy Hulu doc-series “Hillary” on Hillary Clinton, Hallgren’s approach is mostly fly-on-the-wall, mixing glossy onstage footage of Obama’s talks with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Stephen Colbert with more personal scenes offstage. Obama reflects on her eight years in the White House and the often racist-tinged response they engendered. “You hope people were more ready for us than maybe they were,” she says.
Obama doesn’t analyze the 2016 election or the rise of Donald Trump except for one comment lamenting the turnout of African American voters. “That’s my trauma,” she says.
But the main trust of “Becoming” is not just Obama’s story but what she inspires — how one story begets others. Hallgren, drawing from the photography of Garry Winogrand, lingers on the faces in Obama’s crowds, and in some cases takes a moment to follow their lives. “Becoming” may be part concert film but it’s nearly as interested in the audience as it is in the showstopper on stage.
“Oftentimes when Mrs. Obama was on stage, I was not the main camera filming her,” says Hallgren. “So I had the opportunity to walk around. There was such an incredible energy in those arenas. The excitement that people had felt special. I thought: I want to capture this.”…
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A lot of us science writers realized at some point a while back that we were going to be full-time #covid19 writers for a while. Maybe a very long while. Still, this past week felt especially bizarre, story-wise. An ICYMI thread 1/8
— Carl Zimmer (@carlzimmer) May 3, 2020
We #covid19 writers all have an inexhaustible list of ideas for future stories. I wonder if this is what reporting in WW II felt like? Anyway, I’ll be doing a @NYTLive event on #covid19 on Tuesday. Here’s where you can register to listen & submit q's. https://t.co/426V606Bo0 8/8
— Carl Zimmer (@carlzimmer) May 3, 2020
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Ever cough so hard (HOW HARD WAS IT?) that you pull a muscle in your back?
Turns out it’s not as fun as it sounds.
japa21
Belch
Immanentize
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I have. And you are right. But how much are you coughing? Should we be worried? You did see Other Church Lady’s story, yes?
debbie
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Yep, a few times (pneumonia-related). A lidocaine patch over the area will take the edge off that pain during future coughing fits.
Immanentize
@japa21: Please excuse yourself, son.
Baud
It’ll be interesting to see if they can invent a more believable evil leader than Trump has been.
SFAW
I’m taking that as clear proof that FLOTUS is angling for the VP slot on Biden’s ticket.
Yes, I’m kidding/trolling.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Torn cartilage in my ribcage.
‘Scuse you!
SFAW
@Baud:
I was about to say that Adams already did that with the Vogons, but then realized that they weren’t actually evil; they were just petty (in both senses of the word) bureaucrats who had taken over large swaths of “outer space.”
Immanentize
@Baud: He compared it to writing during WWII, so maybe he already has?
japa21
Excuse me.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I didn’t — what’s up?
MattF
Grocery run this morning. Uneventful, generally found whatever I was looking for. Didn’t bother looking for TP.
Betty Cracker
Was just reading the local paper to see how our little town’s “phased reopening” went yesterday. Our favorite breakfast/lunch place reopened with limited seating. We’re not venturing out except for weekly supply runs for a few weeks yet, but I was glad to see the little mom-and-pop diner has survived so far.
SFAW
@MattF:
Next time you go, if I give you a list, can you pick up some stuff for me? It won’t be much, just a few items.
MattF
@SFAW: Note that I have retired-professional rates.
Rich Gardner
In Philadelphia, we tested out a new-fangled form of protest, a car caravan as opposed to people marching on foot. It worked okay. We certainly covered lots of area.
Immanentize
@SFAW: She fell grievously ill, without a fever, went to the hospital. The attendings were all certain she had Covid, but the test came back negative but they were still sure she had it. Oxygen for a few days because her uptake was very very low. Then, she got better and went home…. So very scary.
debbie
@MattF:
Impressive that you can be doing something like shopping so early in the morning.
Baud
Do we have a process for kicking Joseph Kennedy out of the party?
SFAW
@Immanentize:
Glad she’s OK. Yeah, “very scary” is right.
I’m starting to wonder about testing accuracy. Her situation is not the first I’ve encountered where “all signs point to yes” re: COVID-19, but the test comes back negative. Anecdotal, of course, but it still does not help instill confidence.
Baud
Don’t be fooled by a handful of protestors. The new Silent Majority is with us.
OzarkHillbilly
@Rich Gardner: I do that all the time around here. Unfortunately it’s just me by my lonesome and all the locals just shake their heads and say, “There goes that crazy Libtard again.”
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I went to Costco yesterday for my monthly run. Early afternoon. Not too busy (except at checkout…). TP 30 roll Charmin Jumbo’s! The Immp and I were not desperate, still had 5 back up rolls, but I bought it anyway and will give away 3 of the six packs. Got paper towels too.
But the meat section was pretty empty — no pork, no chicken, which was sad because I want to smoke a Boston butt if they had one which they usually do. Huge amounts of beef, though. So I’ll do a brisket. I also got a boneless leg of lamb to cube for kababs. Everything else was pretty good except less fresh produce, but nothing missing I needed.
The check out was a mess — they had created just one line and had a young man directing you to a line. But there was no consideration of the amount of stuff in anyone’s cart, so it was some lines going super slow. Others pretty swift. Guess which one I got….
But I lived to shop another day!
Mousebumples
@SFAW: I’ve heard reports of 20-25% false negatives , but I don’t have a source /citation handy . Probably one of the podcasts I’ve been listening to ? (This Week In Virology or Bill Nye, most likely ) Sampling error is also possible.
SFAW
@Baud:
I thought it was RFK Jr. Did I overlook Joe being mentioned in the article?
I was slightly heartened to see that Chief-Anti-Vaxxer-and-All-Around-Scumbag Andrew Wakefield lost his medical license. Not much, but every little bit can help.
bemused
A friend texted me a Frank Bruni interview, May 2, with Laurie Garrett from Saturday, “She Predicted the Coronavirus. What Does She Foresee Next?” Garrett wrote “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes”, 2017 and “The Coming Plague”, 2019.
Bruni asked Garrett what she saw coming next and reading her thoughts this morning sure isn’t a great way to start another day in pandemic world. Has this interview been discussed here yet in a thread I might have missed?
germy
That explains the press conferences where donald says “Next question: OAN. No, not you CNN. Shutup NBC. OAN, what’s your question?” [young woman lurking in back of room asks “what is it like being the greatest president in the world?”]
Baud
@SFAW:
Ugh. Brain cramp. It’s RFK, Jr.
MattF
@debbie: I’m an early riser. And never been good at the ‘sleep’ thing, anyhow.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize:
How do those poor babies stand up, even?
NotMax
Sitting here smirking over some music covers that were, um, questionable ideas. Like this.
And this.
:)
Meanwhile, moving kind of slow after a stupid mishap resulted in injury Sunday night. No blame; the stupidity was not mine (this time), it was the way the whole shebang occurred – something outdoors was lying in wait at the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing requiring medical attention, resulted in twisting not one but both knees plus a bonus of one ankle, all at the same time. Swollen, achy and twinge-y and stiff, however there’s aesthetic compensation in that areas of the legs are pretty colors.
SFAW
@Baud:
Hey, it’s early. Well, not too early for MattF, apparently, but …
Immanentize
@Baud: If it was young Joe, he would be dead in the water against Markey. I still can’t fathom his play. I think he still is hoping for a Warren appointment as Veep so he can switch his campaign effortlessly to that special. But who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
opiejeanne
@Immanentize: That is very scary. Thank you. I hope her recovery is smooth and complete.
satby
I can’t believe that the news could disclose that the murderer-in-chief’s own team had a briefing stating to expect 3k deaths a day without continued lockdowns and this country is so numb that it seems to have barely registered.
satby
@NotMax: oh no! Hope it gets a bit better soon.
OzarkHillbilly
Heh. #AskAGBarr
Priceless.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: I had been blissfully unaware of OANN (not to be confused with ONAN, which shows different programming) until some time in the winter a year-plus ago, when I ended up in an auto repair shop’s (not one I usually go to) waiting room, where the only TV was tuned to that. After about 5 minutes it dawned on me that something was seriously wrong. Since I was the only one in the waiting area, I took it on myself to put on a more-suitable channel. Boy, that’s some scary stuff.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Is it the covers? Or the music itself? For music, there is always the incomprehensible Bing and Bowie Little Drummer Boy.
satby
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I have too. Be sure to monitor how you’re doing and get medical care if you get worse.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Ha! Did you have a nice Date-aversary weekend?
SFAW
@NotMax:
Those two should be consider Crimes Against Humanity. Thank FSM you didn’t link to this — that would have been beyond the pale. [Or “pail,” in case it induces projectile upchucking.
ETA: Also: sorry to hear of your travails, I hope you heal ASAP.
WereBear
Apparently there is one element of showbiz tRump did absorb. Always top yourself.
artem1s
some interesting stuff I ran across this morning…
the .org domain may be safe for a little while longer
Sale of .Org Registry to Private Equity Firm Vetoed
weird facts about the 1890s Russian Flu
The Russian Flu of 1889:
Druggists throughout the country noted an unusually high demand for quinine, which some health authorities had suggested as a possible remedy—though medical journals warned against the dangers of self-medicating and urged people to simply let the disease run its course.
“Persons with weak lungs and those suffering from heart disease or kidney troubles are most seriously affected, and in many cases the influenza leads quickly to pneumonia,” the New-York Tribune reported.
opiejeanne
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I thought I cracked a rib when I had a nasty coughing fit. I hope you feel better soon.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Apparently IL has opened up enough that the mammogram center called me to reschedule the appointment they canceled in March. They told me I’d have my temperature taken and would have to wear a mask, which is fine. We’re supposed to wear them anyway.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: We did, thanks for asking. Can’t go out much, like to fancy places, so we explored. Sitting on a blanket with a cold meatball sandwich and a cocktail in a thermos can be as nice, in its own way, as a Michelin star.
NotMax
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Yes; can commiserate. Also, over the years, same thing from sneezing. And – once – yawning.
@Immanentize
satby
@Gin & Tonic: aw, that sounds sweet.
zhena gogolia
@bemused:
I made the mistake of reading it last night. I can’t take any more.
I haven’t seen it discussed here, but I tend to stay out of the corona threads.
Immanentize
@SFAW: Oh c’mon. That Shatner stuff is the BOMB! Try Mr. Tambourine man if you can. It has moved past bad into high cult camp.
Immanentize
@NotMax: I would gladly deliver to you. If we weren’t so twitchy about very long plane flights….
And please rest those knees. Kick back, smoke a stogie. It’s no fun stepping on a rake (figuratively).
NotMax
@<a href="https://www.balloon-juice.com/2020/05/05/tuesday-morning-open-thread-59/#comment-7695833"satby
Without going into boring detail, I was done in by a single wind blown flower. Years from now will look back on it and laugh. Maybe.
;)
germy
@Gin & Tonic: It’s the network for those who feel Fox has moved too far to the left.
Nicole
@Immanentize: I’m thinking about a Costco run this week, although I suspect it’ll have to be today, if at all, and I’m not sure I wanna. I’ll have to walk, because I don’t want to take mass transit, and there are times that, even with the sidewalks much more empty than usual, I still feel like I’m playing live-action Frogger. I went to the local store yesterday, and stood in a line long enough it rounded a corner (though it moved reasonably quickly) and wouldn’t you know, a senior Karen nearly ran straight into me because she was staring straight down at her phone, paying no attention to anyone near her. I shouted “PAY ATTENTION!” when she got within 3 feet and scared her. Good. Funny how nervous the idea of someone bumping into me made me.
Did anyone else catch John Oliver this week? (you can probably find it on Youtube if you don’t have HBO). The introduction, which included a brief mention of Tara Reade, left me scratching my head (not in a bad way). I think it was as close to “this allegation is likely bullshit” as I’ve seen from any news commentator so far, without actually saying that. Everything from the choice of photo of Reade, to the phrasing. It was interesting. I think a lot about bias and media manipulation of popular opinion so it stuck out. Again, not in a bad way; I’d just be curious to hear anyone else’s opinion if they saw it.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Finally, a reason to escape your confinement, but….
Sab
@Immanentize: We went to Costco yesterday for the first time since mid-March. It was scary in March. What a change with the new procedures. I almost felt safe.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
If by “the BOMB” you mean “an assault on your brain and eardrums, guaranteed to make them bleed” — then, yes, I agree.
BobS
@Immanentize: COVID19 can’t be categorically ruled out by a negative swab (we’re seeing a shitload of sick people who’ve tested negative).
If she was as sick as you indicate, her workup should have included chest imaging, as well as other labs, e.g. D-dimer (small protein fragments from dissolved blood clots), C-reactive protein (response to inflammation), procalcitonin ( marker for sepsis), etc.
NotMax
@Immanentize
The Shadow do.
(Ancient punch line.)
Immanentize
@Nicole: Pro tip at Costco — they won’t let you bring a bag into the store with you, but they will let you leave one by the entry…
Immanentize
@NotMax: I remember the joke. And was certain others here did too. How casual all that was not so very long ago….
VOR
@satby: Mainstream media hasn’t figured it out yet. Or doesn’t believe it. After all, other countries like South Korea and New Zealand seem to be hitting the other side. Even Italy is improving and clearly past peak. The idea that the US will keep killing 2-3k people a day for the next couple months just seems unpossible.
Conservatives still think this is all a huge overreaction by Libs and really isn’t any worse than the flu. They believe death totals are being manipulated with COVID falsely filled in as cause of death just to spite Trump.
Turning a legitimate pandemic and public health efforts into a partisan issue is one of the truly evil things Trump has done.
Immanentize
@SFAW: Your tastes are just too sensible. 🙂
Baud
Bay of Trump?
Soprano2
@MattF: Maybe you should look for TP now. In SWMO it’s been pretty much restored; I figure there are some people who won’t have to buy any for the next 6 months. It’s still hard to find cleaners here, though. Lucky for me I bought a refill bottle of 409 cleaner sometime last fall, so I’m fine for awhile. I’ll make my own if I have to.
Are any of the major networks doing anything to memorialize all of the people who have died of COVID since this started? If not, one of them should. I think it would help people grasp the enormity of the loss. When it’s so many, I think it’s easy for people to get numb.
Immanentize
@VOR: I always thought it was an initial mistake to compare the US to countries like Italy when the better comparison would be Italy to a State (like NY). Oh well.
The 3000/day deaths across our rather vast country is not like any other small nation. It is going to move around. New York now, Georgia tomorrow, Florida right after that. We will see regional peaks.
In good news in my neighborhood, yesterday was the first day since April 12 that Mass. had fewer than 100 deaths. Just one day. But fingers crossed.
Immanentize
@Soprano2: Big box DIY stores are soggy with cleaners. Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc. Even my local ACE has cleaning fluids a plenty.
Nicole
@Immanentize: Oh, that’s good to know. I bring a wheely cart, too, because it’s a mile-and-a-half walk from there back home; I wonder if they’ll let me bring that in. Maybe if I bring Clorox wipes and do a big show of wiping it down before I go in.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄
Dupe1970
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Yup. I have also sneezed so hard I tweaked a shoulder/back muscle.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Excuse the self-promotion, which I’ll repeat from time to time. Feel free to scroll on by.
My new book THE WYSMAN is available for preorder as a ppb. The ebook will be along sometime, I expect. I’m proud of this book.
A former street kid, now training to be the king’s advisor, can’t stop hunting whoever’s grabbing street kids–even after the king orders him to back off. And he can’t stop wondering why the king ordered that.
Back to your regularly scheduled juicing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Ever sneeze so hard that something else happens? Something really bad?
MomSense
I am not liking what opening the country despite 3,000 deaths per day says about us.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
satby
@Immanentize: Also, Staples has cleaners and TP / paper towels! I was at one yesterday for printer ink, and they were pretty well stocked. Limits on purchases of course, but I guess people never think of checking a Staples for products like that.
FelonyGovt
@WereBear: I wish Trump would top himself in the British sense.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Uh huh
Uh huh 😒🤨
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thanks 😊
Immanentize
@Nicole: They might allow the cart — I didn’t see anyone with those. They let in their own carts….
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I wonder if that means someone will call me for a reschedule.
That said, I received a text to fill out paperwork ahead of time for a specialist visit that was scheduled for Thursday. I emailed and asked if this visit was still a go given that no one had yet contacted me about March and April appts that had been cancelled (mammo, annual physical). Office replied that I should reschedule for June.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
😢😢😢😢🙏🙏
Mary G
@Immanentize: Do they have disinfectant wipes? We have everything but those, and I don’t really think we have to have them but the housemate is fretting. Amazon is prioritizing them to healthcare providers.
Nicole
@Immanentize: The Costco here stores the carts outside the store, so I can’t imagine the store seeing my own cart as any more risky. Less so, since, theoretically, I’m the only one touching it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: In public?
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Get better 🙏🙏😢😢🥺
Immanentize
@Mary G: I don’t know. I wasn’t looking for them…. Sorry. I just use a small spray bottle w/10% bleach solution around the house. I don’t take anything with me when I go out….
bemused
@zhena gogolia:
I know. Even if I have thought we’re in this struggle for a long time, a much longer time no thanks to the trump administration massive fuck ups, that was too much for me to process.
Sab
Our county metroparks has an annual event in the Fall called the Hiking Spree. If you hike on the requisite number of trails and then submit your form, they will issue you a five foot hiking staff the first year, and little medallions to attach to it in subsequent years. I have been doing the hiking spree for years but I never bothered to apply for the staff. I think I will this year: a tool to enforce social distancing.
Glidwrith
Not wishing to derail the thread but I want to inquire before contacting Congresscritter: many of you are seniors, have any of you actually received stimulus money?
Got a ranch full of seniors and not one of them has received anything, and yes they hit the IRS button.
Apologies if this has been covered, heading out to work and will check back later.
rikyrah
@VOR:
It’s growing in Red States, so we shall see 😒😒
FelonyGovt
@Glidwrith: My husband and I, both on Social Security, got our check (and it was a check, mailed to us) last week. My in-laws have not yet received theirs.
The Thin Black Duke
@MomSense: It’s awful. But it’s temporary. And the rest of us who pay attention will remember this in November.
rikyrah
@Glidwrith:
Not a Senior
Have not received it.😒😒
Mary G
@Immanentize: Lowe’s website is silent on whether or not they’re in stock, just says not available online. I’ll get her husband to swing by. One of his patients just died, not of Covid19, and he cried all Saturday.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Oh, I know what it says, and why they are doing it.
But, trying to be pleasant this morning 😒
Matt McIrvin
@VOR: Until recently, the United States pandemic was dominated by the horrific situation in New York. So we’ve seemed to be turning the corner “nationwide” but it was really just greater New York City turning the corner. I think that’s distorted people’s thinking. It’s led to calls to loosen restrictions in all these places where the pandemic hasn’t hit them really hard yet and is still on the upswing.
VOR
@rikyrah: I want to believe in karma, that these morons out protesting learn the hard way this is real. But I’m sure their governments will do everything they can to juke the stats, like DeSantis seems to be doing in FL (suppressing coroner reports, separating numbers into residents vs. non-residents, etc…)
MomSense
@Glidwrith:
My mom has not. I swear that orange motherfucker is going to send all the seniors letters with a check thinking they will vote for him if he does. Meanwhile my mom and her friends are furious because they already get their social security by direct deposit.
Matt McIrvin
@VOR: …My response to people who say “they died of something else” is to ask what all these people died of, then. They’re implying that there are no excess deaths, but there are obviously excess deaths. So what killed them? It seems to be some kind of infectious agent which, if it’s not COVID, is something just as bad as COVID and we ought to be sheltering in place until we know what’s going on!
OzarkHillbilly
@Glidwrith: Not sure I qualify as a senior, but yes.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Yesterday and today I feel sad. I’ll probably be back at fury by tomorrow.
bemused
I and a friend went to a local garden center on the weekend and it was so fun to be out and among plants galore and hardly any people to avoid. We got there at opening time and just a few other customers. The two female owners had a good system planned so we felt pretty comfortable shopping. The owners wore black masks with vents, maybe those activated carbon masks, looking pretty badass.
OzarkHillbilly
Complete and utter stupidity in the White House.
Patricia Kayden
Nelle
@Glidwrith: We are 76 and 69 in this house. Got our by direct deposit nearly two weeks ago. Almost all gone now to daughter’s medical bills, food bank, Doctors without Borders, and Mennonite Central Committe. Another case of those who aren’t desperate for it getting it immediately while others who do need it are hung out to dry.
NotMax
@Glidwrith
Landlady (age 92) received hers late last week. Only know that because mail person left it in my mailbox.
germy
NEW YORK (AP) – NBC News chief Andy Lack is out following a corporate restructuring announced Monday that places Telemundo executive Cesar Conde in charge of NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC.
Lack’s departure was revealed when Jeff Shell, new NBC Universal CEO, outlined a new corporate governance plan. Besides Conde’s elevation, Shell is giving broad new powers over NBC’s entertainment properties to Mark Lazarus, who has overseen NBC Sports.
The 72-year-old Lack has had two runs as head of NBC News, the first as NBC News president from 1993 to 2001, and he rejoined the company as news chairman in 2015.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Home, allegedly….
Tony Jay
The “Your Work Means My Freedom!” movement is picking up steam on this side of the Atlantic too. Unsurprising, since the same combination of toxic money worship, self-righteous racism and Media-funneled disinformation/propaganda vaulted both regimes into power, and the current management team installed to run-down and break-up the Little Brexitania franchise are uniformly desperate to impress the invisible hands cupping Orangiegoon’s spite-sack by proving how slavishly willing they are to sacrifice all of the proles on the altar of someone else’s enormous profit.
So despite the fact that the UK has a total to date deadscore of somewhere between 30 and 40 thousand, Flobalob the Fecund declares his handling of the pandemic a success admired around the globe. Despite the fact that our doctors, nurses and support staff are still being fed into the infection woodchipper shorn of basic PPE, his Government by Proxy want to be applauded for Protecting the NHS. Despite the fact that their Scientific Advisory Group has been exposed as including that bastard child of Stephen Miller and Clarence Boddicker better known as Dominic ‘The Man From GRU’ Cummings as Flobalob’s note-taking enforcer of the Population Reduction strategy, they still want to hide behind the catch-all excuse “We follow ‘The Science'”.
I could go on. It’s just been a litany of incompetence and failure barely reported on by a supine Media that will only use those words in respect of their friends and fellow Conservatives when they can bury the lede under some other feel-good fluff. Labour’s new ‘moderate, centrist’ leadership is basically invisible, other than when it’s agreeing with the Government, so is as much use to the nation as a filigree condom. The most generous slant I can put on it is they suspect that the Media would love to run with “Election losers exploit crisis” headlines and want to preserve their powder, but I’m pretty short on patient sympathy while I’m waiting for them to expel the Blairite shitsacks who spent the last four years helping to elect Tories, so fuckem.
Looks like we’re going to be bounced into a ‘partial return to normal’ in a couple of weeks, justified by a non-existent change in public opinion and a non-existent ‘leveling off’ of the death/infection numbers. More people will die, the scientists who have been co-opted into adopting the Government line will get the blame, and we’ll be bombarded with ‘common-sense’ calls for legislation to force everyone to sign up for intrusive tracking apps or else face being labelled ‘Spreaders’. All because the people who fund the Tory Party agree with Tang the Demented and want the lowborns whipped back to the fields.
But hey, Brexit will solve all of these ills, yeah?
These fucking people.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Something familiar about those dates…
rikyrah
😒😒😠😠😠
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MomSense:
It’s like the stages of grief or something.
SiubhanDuinne
@Glidwrith: Mine came last week. Direct deposit. Scared the bank, who sent me a concerned little message that my Social Security payment was smaller than usual 🤑
Betty Cracker
@bemused: If I have time, I’ll put up a post about this later. It’s a sobering interview for sure. I don’t think I’ve seen it discussed around here yet.
Sab
@Matt McIrvin: I know of at least one local young father who died of something else because he stayed home instead of going to the ER. The family isn’t sure why exactly, but they suspect it was either to avoid coronna exposure or to avoid the whopping big bill he’d get.
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
Besides Sweden, that is the other line that the right has attached themselves to
They had underlying conditions.
They are trying to minimize the number of COVID-19 DEATHS.
CALL them on their bullshyt 😠
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Exactly 😒😒
BobS
@Nelle: I didn’t understand the rationale for giving the money to people who hadn’t really ‘lost’ anything (myself included, who continues to work), i.e. retired people. While most people can certainly use a few extra bucks, the finite amount of money should have been more carefully targeted to people in more desperate straits instead of to people who continue to work, who continue to receive Social Security and pensions, etc.
MomSense
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Like those horribly grueling mountain stages of the Tour de France
Cameron
@Glidwrith: I got my check yesterday (I’m on Railroad Retirement).
FelonyGovt
@BobS: I’m on Social Security but it doesn’t cover my bills. I still have to work, and my work has dropped off due to the pandemic, so I’m happy for the small amount of cash.
Sab
@rikyrah: Apparently Rob Portman wants his family restaurant to reopen. He is all in for “safe reopening” when Ohio is 46th among the states in testing per capita (that means only 4 states do worse.)
DeWine and crew have gotten things organized to have in-state testing-swab production, so testing should improve, but we are nowhere near where we should be to even think about reopening. Yet Portman is chattering away on twitter to reopen.
SFAW
@germy:
Well, that’s some good news, for a change.
rikyrah
germy
@BobS: I think the logic was that carefully targeting would have caused even longer delays.
The people who need the $ would still be waiting while the gov. figures out who doesn’t need it.
BobS
@FelonyGovt: Yeah, I understand that- that’s why I wrote that most everyone can use a few extra dollars, and you are in fact losing something.
But most retired people are like my parents (who also think it’s wrong that they and people like them are getting money that they haven’t ‘lost’)- don’t work, both collect Social Security, both collect pensions- their situation is unchanged (other than the hit their investments took).
Baud
@BobS:
I don’t know if you’ve been following progressive blogs for the last few months/years, but targeted relief is out of vogue as a policy matter, and the modern push is for universal benefits. This predated the COVID crisis.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
There was a story on “Planet Money” on NPR this weekend. I wasn’t able to hear the whole thing, but they were discussing the whole “cost of death” thing. Apparently, for many years, the only factor considered by the government was lost wages. The guy they interviewed was the person they turned to in order to reassess that “metric.” I missed a lot of what he next discussed, but apparently he increased that metric by many multiples. I think the upshot was that spending $5T to keep people from exacerbating the pandemic was still a pretty good deal, relative to the costs if the death toll was at “X” thousands (or hundreds of thousands). If I get un-lazy, and find a link to the story, I’ll post it somewhere on this blog
ETA: OK, I un-lazied myself. Here is the transcript.
Baud
.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
From the Times article:
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Which in turn means that no major news outlet will mention this.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Happened to me on a jobsite. In my carpenter whites.
germy
@SFAW:
I remember Andy Lack from when he ordered Matt Lauer to divebomb HRC during the ridiculous “town hall debate” debacle.
It gave me the impression Andy and Matt wanted to show future president Hillary who was REALLY boss.
MomSense
@FelonyGovt: Since I’m in my 4th or 5th recession in my working career, I probably will never be able to retire. I keep thinking about what my grandma used to say about the Depression. If you had nothing before you didn’t miss it when it was gone.
zhena gogolia
@Glidwrith:
We haven’t received anything.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS: It’s economic stimulus too. More people with more money means more spending, or so the thinking goes. We’re hanging on to ours just in case there is a need.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Our church is organizing having people give their stimulus money to a central fund for helping others if they don’t need it themselves. But we haven’t gotten ours yet.
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: Right, young Joe is NOT the antivaxxer crank. I’m not sure why he’s primarying Markey but last I checked (which was a long time ago) he was heavily favored to win, because of the name Kennedy. Has that changed?
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Ugh. It hurts our ability to seriously debate real privacy issues associated with technology when we have to deal with conspiracy theorists nipping at our heels.
BobS
@OzarkHillbilly: People hanging onto money (which many people are doing) doesn’t stimulate the economy. It simulates tax cuts for the already wealthy.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: We really don’t hear enough news about good religious people these days.
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: You are arguing against the one sensible thing that the Trump admin is doing in response to the pandemic. When throwing money at a problem, there are two concerns. One is that some of it goes to people who don’t need it. The other is that it doesn’t get to everyone who needs it. I know which one I think is worse. Which do you think is worse?
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
Garrett seems to have journalistic creds so I’m a little freaked out by the interview.
PST
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Glad to hear about routine testing being back in Illinois. I have an unpleasant little screening procedure scheduled in June that I would love to skip but really shouldn’t. Cancer doesn’t pause for covid-19.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Fuck them. It’s really a hookers and blow fund. We all know what zhena gogolia is like.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Please tell me that it was early in the day and that no other workers were there – they’d talk about it even at your funeral….
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS:
Yes, I said that.
And I don’t know where you are pulling that from.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry to lol but you really should write a book about your life even if it’s only for your family and friends to enjoy.
Steeplejack
@artem1s:
From that Russian flu article:
I knew there was a reason I needed tonic water!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, I heard Katie Porter talking about this (maybe with the Obama bros?), and she said one problem with screening for who gets it is that it delays the money going out. That’s a big negative in the current situation.
scav
My mother doesn’t need the cash and so her only decision was which recovery-directed charity to donate the money to. Went with a local food bank.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@PST:
Good point! Get the test.
I have a phone appointment with my cardiologist today. We’re apparently not open enough for me to go to his office.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Nope about a half hour before lunch. About the only good thing about the whole episode was that the jobsite was less than 10 mins from my home, which allowed me to go and change my pants. After that I always kept an extra pair in the truck, just in case.
I was not alone in that. Apparently a lot of older carpenters have had that experience.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: Obviously the latter, but not entirely “sensible” either.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: Worlds shortest book.
BobS
@OzarkHillbilly: That they simply sack away the money?
(by the way, it may be what you meant, but it’s not exactly what you wrote”
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They do screen by income.
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Also, if it goes to everyone, there is no stigma attached to getting it. That matters more than one would think.
Immanentize
@Baud: Universal benefits prevents the stupidity of exactly what BobS is advocating — trying to figure out who the “worthy poor” are. How do you titrate that?
Is there some reason DeSantis is dividing death rates into citizens and non-citizens? It’s to single out the worthy from the unworthy. There is no screen subtle enough to do what BobS wants. It is racist, sexist, ageist and generally intended to save one’s own unworthy ass while killing others.
It also assumes the cruelty and greed of people. If folks don’t really need the money, they can donate it to someone who does. But greedy fucks don’t imagine anyone will act in any way other than a greedy fuck would act.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS: You said, It simulates tax cuts for the already wealthy.
Now you are saying, That they simply sack away the money?
One has nothing to do with the other.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Well then. I see that they have set high enough limits that the benefit goes out to many middle class people. That still covers the stigma side of things.
Baud
@Immanentize:
As I noted above, the stimulus benefits are not universal, but phase out at higher incomes.
In any event, I’m not opposed to universal benefits per se. But I am not at the point that every benefit program must be universal and every means-tested program is the devil.
debbie
@BobS:
You’re very, very lucky not to need it. I have a few friends who didn’t need theirs and they donated the funds to local nonprofits fighting COVID.
Sab
@Immanentize: Wouldn’t it make more sense to pay everyone now then claw it back from the wealthy next tax season?
BobS
@Baud: So there was some targeting applied (by the IRS, a government agency like the Social Security Administration)- I didn’t know that.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I am old. I can cross my eyes and sometimes something bad will happen.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: Call me a bad person, but I have no issue with sacrificing Chris Christie to benefit The Economy.
Sab
@Sab: Don’t have a linkable source, but my BIL says that folks on Social Security eligible but above a certain income level won’t be getting anything until July. Sort of works for me, although income this year has fallen off a cliff.
BobS
@OzarkHillbilly: Already wealthy people spend their tax cut money on more vacations, more expensive meals, more expensive colleges for their children, or other things that might “stimulate” the economy? Probably not- they park it someplace.
debbie
@Sab:
Portman is a p-word.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack: OK. As with all conspiracy nutjob shit, there is some truth to some of this. But it has nothing to do with injecting chips like in your pet.
I have a friend who works at Draper Labs and for a few years that place and others have been working on biomonitors, mostly at the request of the military. As my friend related, one General said, “If I got two or three boys sick in the field, I want to know if it’s the runs, some bug they could spread, or just a hangover.” One of their partners at a local University is working on something his lab is calling a “sick bit” (bad at PR that guy). It would take real time health measurements from a wrist band analyzed by your computer (or phone app.)
As he explained it to me — think about your car these days. If you have a tail light out or the air pressure in a tire is low, you get a warning signal. This is true in cars now for up to 100 functions. But what about your own health? Once a year you go to a Doc who asks you how you’re feeling. You say fine. Get a cursory prod and poke and are told to return in a year.
That is bad health protection and maintenance. So, yes, we are going to all have access to health bands in two or three years. I for one am eager and care less about the opportunities for abuse (and there will be many opportunities) than the advantages it will bring to my longevity.
Immanentize
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t think he is heavily favored, but yes, sadly, Favored.
MomSense
@bemused:
I found it comforting in the it really is as bad as I fear so that means I’m not crazy sense.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Will it be able to see under my tinfoil hat?
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
I happen to think it may be a short book but entertaining.
BobS
@Immanentize: What’s fucking stupid is not simply giving more money to the people who have actually suffered job losses, rather than people whose fixed incomes have been unaffected.
Immanentize
@Baud: I am not either, but means testing in the gross way of high earners versus low earners is way different than “people on social security shouldn’t get relief checks,” Yes? And so much means testing hurts the poor. Like stopping SS tax obligations at a certain income level.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: scrolling back through the thread, but just to clarify: The young Kennedy who decided it’s His Turn is leading Markey in the primary? If so, that’s a damn shame
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Keep the shiny side in. It reflects your brainwaves back in, so the gubmint can’t read them.
Immanentize
@BobS: You did not have a good relationship with your parents, did you.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: yes, but your hat will not allow you to see the results.
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: I’m sure Michelle Obama will fix that once she is vice president.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes and agree. Young Joe is a very good Democrat and kind and photogenic. But Mass. would be giving up huge Senate advantages of we lost Markey. As one pol I know put it — we would be trading Seniority and real power on climate change for Senator number 100.
Steeplejack
@Glidwrith:
I am a senior and received mine via direct deposit on April 29 (in Virginia).
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: Ha!
BobS
@Immanentize: That’s quite a persuasive argument.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize: I actually find it kind of nice that he is an all around crank and not a one trick pony.
PST
@Sab:
Indeed it would, especially since the federal government’s real cost of borrowing is about zero.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: We can only wish.
Kay
If you’re a small business employer and you want to bring some employees back, but don’t know if you’ll have work/revenue to support bringing them back full time, if you’re in a state with a “shared work” plan you can bring them back 1/2 time, pay half their wages, and they’ll be eligible for half the state unemployment share.
In addition, they will also be eligible for the federal UI “bump” (600) or they are in Ohio, so check your state. So that would look like this- employer pays half their wage (plus agrees not to cancel any benefits) state UI contributes half UI payment, and employee gets 600 federal UI bump. This solves the problem of employees wanting to stay on unemployment rather than go back w/reduced hours.
You can stack these programs.
I haven’t figured out if you can also include a paycheck protection loan/award PLUS UI, PLUS fed bump.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Yeah. There was another equally nutty guy quoted in the article (Post, not Times, my bad):
Yeah, right. Government overreach.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: good point. Always looking on the bright side of life, you are.
Immanentize
@Kay: I thought I read Ohio was pulling back on its shared work plan? Or was that another state because of the available unemployment extension?
Kay
@Immanentize:
We haven’t had any pull back.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
No, we don’t. The religious organizations I know are meeting virtually and working on ways to help the less fortunate.
BobS
@Kay: Programs like these, i.e. the government paying employers for employees to stay on payroll, are a lot smarter than the US approach, i.e. a stimulus check for everyone, regardless of job loss and/or need (of course, the Republican Party essentially precludes “smart” solutions for anything).
Ideally, the government contribution would be more in the range of 75%-90%.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I agree with the people who say “open it back up!”is the precurser to “thoughts and prayers” being the only economic response- that worries me. If there’s a second wave with no economic support for people it’s catastrophic. I saw this county w/16% unemployment in 2010. I don’t want to see what 25% looks like. Keep pumping money in.
Kay
@BobS:
I agree. The programs became popular in the last crash. You have to get away from the mindset that employees are apart from “business” though. They ARE the business. THEY make the money printer go whir. Support employees and you’ll support “the economy” because they are also, obviously, the customers.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess that explains all the old carpenters I see wearing brown pants.
Immanentize
@Kay: That’s good. Is DeWine slipping, or are people still loving his efforts? I have to say, I think he is better than Kasich would have been. DeWine doesn’t seem to calculate as much.
Kay
@Immanentize:
It’s so funny with DeWine because Republicans here are torn- they would LIKE to be enraged and storm the statehouse, but he’s their guy!
So instead they started an insane campaign against Dr Amy. I was told she is a Republican so I don’t have that much sympathy for her. These are her people! She can ask them for protection- I’m busy.
It has NOT escaped my notice that all of the Right wing rage is focused on the females giving them orders.
SFAW
@germy:
I have yet to see anything about Lack that indicated he was a paragon of ethical behavior.
Immanentize
@Kay: I actually have been sort of surprised in the opposite happening nationally. People HATE Fauci, but seem to be leaving Birx alone. Is that because she is just mewling vague things without challenging their powers?
Fair Economist
@Immanentize:
Splitting it up makes the numbers looks smaller, plus of course there are the psychos who think it’s good that brown people die.
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: Both are pretty shameless and nasty ways for a human to behave.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I don’t know- I don’t watch the Trump people. I need reliable information and I don’t have time or energy to sift thru the Trump people to find the rare credible, honest one. Hard pass. Next.
There should be a price paid for lying all the time. Credibility is earned. The Trump Administration hasn’t paid it. I don’t plan on paying it for them, with my time. Fucking deadbeats.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy:
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a real examination of overlapping circles of #metoo exposed men in the media and the Clinton campaign: Lauer, Halperin, Charlie Rose (in his bloviating-dullard way I believe he was big on “clouds” and “unanswered questions”), the fedora-affecting douche from the NYT (Glenn something?), Tweety….
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, considering that she’s “supremely qualified” — or so we’ve been told — you may just get your wish.
Immanentize
@Kay: agreed. By the way. Just wanted to say — everything you said about Bloomberg turned out to be true.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Glenn Thrush.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: thanks
Betty
@Tony Jay: Filigree condom – classic!
Miss Bianca
@Kay:
Nor mine
Tony Jay
@Betty: Available delivery free from Bezos Inc if you have Prime.
Gravenstone
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Been there, done that. Also coughed so aggressively for so long, I rendered myself voiceless for several days. Fun time, fun times…
Ladyraxterinok
@NotMax:
Freshman college French joke
Quite sait quel malheur se trouve dans les coers des hommes?
L’ombre le sait
Ladyraxterinok
@Ladyraxterinok:
Qui sait…….les coeurs
Ladyraxterinok
@Ladyraxterinok:
Qui sait…….les coeurs
jackmac
GOOD OMENS: LOCKDOWN — Brilliant!
J R in WV
@Steeplejack:
What if a wealthy person had a raging case of untreated paranoia and could afford to travel about making speeches about their feverish nightmares of stolen money, the police will not have to go to the beach (???) and then just take $!,000 out of your salary? Could a person get more disturbed that this rant without being put away for their own protection? Nope! This person is way past disturbed, and it his name was Smith or Jones and not Robert F Kennedy Jr.he would already be put away. That’s the least ordered rant I’ve heard from someone who doesn’t work for Trump!!!
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
When you say “Which do you think is worse?” you presuppose that BobS ever thinks about the random shit he spews into the internet-tubes. I doubt that premise totally. No offense to you, Omnes.
FM
@NotMax: My dad used to quote that Shadow punch line all the time. :)