I don’t have much to report. In the next few days, we’re going to have a burst of new cases acquired in the last couple weeks, so we need to wait a few more weeks to see if what we’re doing today is working. I’ve been going through my email deleting notices for plays, dinners and other events that I was thinking about attending but won’t happen now.
That said, fuck Amazon:
At a New York delivery center, Jonathan Bailey, a sortation associate, said pressure from Amazon to meet the rate at which it wants workers to fulfill orders could lead workers to ignore safe sanitary practices. If Bailey and his colleagues don’t “make rate,” managers can write that up, a blemish on their record that can make it difficult to advance at the company and can even lead to firings, Bailey said.
So even though Amazon is encouraging workers to wash their hands, it’s not giving them enough time to do so, Bailey said. The nearest bathroom is a two- to three-minute walk in each direction, reducing the amount of time he and his colleagues have to meet company shipping expectations, he said.
Trump is blathering at a press conference if you care to watch. I don’t. Open thread.
Fair Economist
Just heard a big WHOMP here in OC CA. Everybody in the neighborhood was out trying to find out what happened. One woman out walking said it made her ears ring.
Elizabelle
Kevin Drum spotlights a Cheryl Rofer tweet. Yea to both of you! Stay healthy.
Kevin:
Purell Finally Exposes TSA’s Great 3.4 Ounce Liquid Sham
Cheryl’s tweet:
Lacuna Synecdoche
Nah, I’ll skip it. Trump’s blathering reminds me of all the times he’s bitched about not being Time Magazine’s Person of the Year – particularly because I’m pretty sure, even 9 months out, that Time’s Person of this Year is going to be: CoVid-19.
Betty Cracker
Mnuchin was at the press conference earlier talking about giving money away like a common Andrew Yang! I’m sure this admin will find a way to funnel it into their own pockets.
L85NJGT
French are claiming half of their ICU beds are under age 60. Whether that reflects a different triage prioritization, or a flattening of the curve, or what…
A Ghost to Most
@L85NJGT: smoking?
L85NJGT
@Elizabelle:
I always assumed it was a sop to the terminal concessionaires.
lee
Amazon is hiring more people to meet demand.
Which begs the question: Why didn’t they hire more staff earlier instead of working the ones they had so hard?
My wife and I have been avoiding buying stuff on Amazon for awhile now.
satby
Nope, I’ll watch a real President instead.
Martin
@Fair Economist: I just slipped getting out of the shower, but I don’t think I’m fat enough for you to hear it over there.
Didn’t hear anything over here.
MazeDancer
@Elizabelle:
Cheered outloud when I saw Chris Hayes retweet Cheryl, yesterday.
Get even more famous, Cheryl, you deserve it!
Meanwhile wondering who’ll be first up with “Quarantine Kitchen” – 450 Creative Things to do with Rice & Beans”
HGTV? Food Network? Netflix? TaMara on YouTube?
lee
@L85NJGT: I read the French have a warning about anti-inflammatories
MattF
@L85NJGT: So, maybe getting to the point where there’s enough data that it’s inconsistent with current common assumptions. Progress.
joel hanes
This is a first report, but I’m looking for any ray of hope:
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1239697605606682626
via the tweet stream of the estimable hilzoy, who sometimes reads and has on rare occasion actually commented on Balloon Juice
IMHO, if you just read @hilzoy without logging into twitter, and ignore all the rest of the twitterverse, you’ll be better informed.
MazeDancer
FYI, folks, John Legend is giving an at-home streaming concert at 1PM today on Instagram.
Here is his Instagram account, theoretically it will be there: https://www.instagram.com/johnlegend/
Martin
@L85NJGT: The misconception out of China was that people under 60 don’t need serious care – they do, they just generally don’t die from it. They’re less likely to need ICU beds, and less likely to need ventilators, and much more likely to recover.
Willing to bet that France and Italy have a fuckton of middle age smokers in their ICUs. Should be less of a problem in much of the US.
joel hanes
@lee:
Why
$$$$$
cckids
Amazon is not the only place paying lip service to hand washing. I can guarantee, even though your local grocery store is putting up flyers and telling people they’re having cashiers wash their hands often, it ain’t happening. Looking at you, Kroger.
The rush of customers is unending; we can wash hands when we get our 10-minute break, or at lunch. Never any other time. We do have hand sanitizer at the checkstands, but it’s running low; customers keep stealing it. Same for the disinfectant wipes to wipe down the carts; people have just opened the tower and stolen the roll. Repeatedly.
And, here in Seattle/Bellevue, the crowds have taken John’s advice to heart and started clearing out the produce area daily. Potatoes, onions, celery, carrots, tomatoes and garlic are always gone by 8 p.m. And bananas. For whatever reason, always so so many bananas.
GC
I find these briefings worth watching at the moment.
Warning: if you’re playing the drinking game with “this has never been done before” you should set some sort of limit in advance, short of blackout.
Martin
@lee: I think we’re getting some real action out of some companies. Amazon is also refusing to receive products that are not household goods, medical supplies, etc.
I mean, part of what the feds are supposed to do is logistics during something like this, and well, they aren’t. Amazon can, though. They operate at that scale. For now, let’s be thankful. If they go back to SOP after this is over, we can be critical again.
Sometimes it takes a crisis.
joel hanes
@lee:
I read the French have a warning about anti-inflammatories
One very prominent French doctor.
and I read a US doctor saying that the French doctor’s opinion was based on too little evidence, and that as far as is known, US doctors are not seeing such an effect.
That said, I have carefully checked that my household has adequate acetaminophen, and am awaiting later evidence.
MattF
@lee: I had to stop taking ibuprofen several months ago because of kidney problems. Ibuprofen works, but it’s not harmless, particularly when taken regularly.
Martin
@joel hanes: Italian doctors were saying the same thing a week ago.
We grabbed a bottle of Tylenol just in case. If it’s true, there won’t be any Tylenol to be found by the time we know it’s true.
Fair Economist
@Martin: Where are you?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Fauci just praised Cuomo. You can almost read trump’s mind: “Is he going to say I’m doing a terrific job?”
NeenerNeener
Just out of curiosity, why is there no “Pupcake” icon to go with Catcake in the pie filter?
Marcopolo
@L85NJGT: Here’s an article which discusses the demographics of various countries & tries to explain why different countries are having different experiences in terms of COVID-19 infections & death rates. Worth a read. Keep in mind, the US is a country with an older pop.
Coronavirus: Why it’s so deadly in ItalyDemographics and why they are a warning to other countries
Fair Economist
@Marcopolo: A lot of the reason Italy has a high rate is that it’s mostly only testing the symptomatic. S Korea is low for the opposite reason. There is also some real effect from Italians being so old, the second oldest nation.
Mandalay
So Trump was hogging the limelight at the press conference with the softball questions, and then a nasty and disrespectful reporter asked him about bailouts: “I’ll let Mike take this one…“. So willing to delegate when the going gets rough.
And while the Administration correctly talks about social distancing, at the press conference there are six or seven people permanently on camera, within six feet of each other. A real bummer, because they really could have used the conference itself to visually demonstrate that people should avoid getting unnecessarily close to each other right now.
Feathers
@MazeDancer: The YouTuber doing Instant Pot recipes I threw into my feed coz I liked her intro videos did a “food storage” video. Note: She talks about how to cook everything in the IP, as if it were your only way to cook (RV, dorm, hotel) She also makes everything kid friendly (sweetened condensed milk in the yogurt?). I am recommending, but with caveats.
31 CHEAP + EASY INSTANT POT FOOD STORAGE MEALS:
https://youtu.be/bZq-_4_skSc
La Nonna
New cases in our nearest villages in the news today, as well as a round up of the number of local people stopped/fined for breaking quarantine by leaving home without a critical reason. 206 eu a pop, that mames an impression, we hope. We have mail piling up at the posta privata, but it is 2 villages away and we are not supposed to leave ours, those magazines, letters, packages will just have to wait, no home delivery of post in the countryside. Planning next trip out for groceries on Friday, busy with homemade facemasks today, they turned out great, and beautiful too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and there’s the headline on my muted TV: Trump: I’ve always known this is a pandemic.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mandalay:
Yup.
Mandalay
Trump on February 29:
Trump just now in the press conference:
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pharaoh Trump, King of Denial.
different-church-lady
The only guy who’s going to make money during the temporary end of the world is the guy who already has more money than everyone else.
different-church-lady
@Mandalay: If we don’t pound him into sand with this, I don’t know what will: “Donald Trump lies about everything, but now he’s lying about our very lives.”
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Included in the package will be bailouts for every business and corp that wants it, starting with trump’s own property.
different-church-lady
@JPL: I will get a check for $1000.
Jeff Bezos will get a check for $1000.
I’ll end up giving my $1000 to Jeff Bezos, because it’s the only way I’ll be able to get food.
trollhattan
@Martin:
I’ll pound Amazon along with everybody, but thank goodness for their infrastructure because it’s going to make this much more manageable than if it did not exist and we were instead all queuing up at fooking Walmart.
Kelly
We could have been spinning up ventilator production 5x before the virus escaped China and we still haven’t.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/03/14/ventilator-maker-we-can-ramp-up-production-five-fold/#1d64d2055e9a
Cheryl Rofer
@Elizabelle: Thanks! I’m juggling many things, missed this one.
Mandalay
Trump: “The admiral has been incredible…“.
Either Trump can’t remember Admiral Giroir’s name, or he’s scared to pronounce it.
Cheryl Rofer
@MazeDancer: Yikes, I did not see that either! Thanks!
Elizabelle
@La Nonna:
Now that would be an OTR thread. Will you share?
cmorenc
@joel hanes:
@MattF:
For some folks (e.g me) acetaminophen is utterly ineffective – it does absolutely nothing; no pain relief, no fever relief. Ibuprofen, OTOH is *very* effective at those objectives, and at least in me, doesn’t cause the side effects (e.g. GI distress) it does in others. And *both* acetaminophen and ibuprofen potentially can, with high enough dosage over long enough time, deleterious effects on organs such as kidneys, etc.
During my hospitalization and recovery for knee joint replacement three years ago, the hospital and Drs kept trying to push acetaminophen on me, which I refused because for me, it carries zero benefits but all the potential side effects.
Matt McIrvin
I have to stop myself from getting into fights with people blaming Republican idiocy on Nancy Pelosi. Which seems to be every fucking person on Twitter.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Don’t they watch Andrew Cuomo’s news conferences?
Isn’t he the one who has the presenters and the journalists separated at a healthy distance?
Martin
@Marcopolo: That description isn’t quite correct. They’re describing the preliminary CFR, which is deaths/cases for a given period of time. The final CFR is only calculated after everyone has either died or recovered.
Final CFR during the growing part of an outbreak is generally quite a bit higher than the preliminary because you’re counting people who are sick who haven’t advanced to recovery or death. IOW, you’re assuming they’ll recover when you put all of them in the denominator. In the US, our true CFR right now is 94/(94+74) = 56% because only 74 people are confirmed recovered. But our preliminary is 94/5260 = 2%. We don’t yet know what’s going to happen with the roughly 5100 cases that are still sick. The preliminary CFR should go up since we’ll move some of those denominator people into the numerator. But at the same time, because we’re shit at testing, we have no idea what the denominator actually is.
As we move to the backend of this, the preliminary and final CFRs come into more and more agreement.
In short, we know 94 people have died, and this isn’t getting better yet, and the president is an incompetent asshole. And that’s about it.
Matt McIrvin
@joel hanes: There are battling citations going around and around on Twitter over this. I don’t know what to think.
JPL
@MazeDancer: Quarantine kitchen.. ????
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He is such a lying motherfucker. November cannot come soon enough.
Even the Foxbots, who have woken to the virus threat, might wonder how that could be and meanwhile Hannity and everyone else is scoffing at the idea. Because they are nothing if not cheerleaders and brownnoses over at Fox. It’s their business model for Republicans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Matt McIrvin: Just as Obama was supposed to be able to yell at Mark Pryor and Mary Landrieu till they voted for single payer, Nancy Pelosi is a failure for not running the country through one half of the two branches that make policy.
Mandalay
Trump is waffling on almost everything, but not this: “We’re going to help Boeing. Yeah.”
And this…. “We’ve done a great job, but we’ve done a poor job in terms of press relationships.“
MattF
@cmorenc: Me too. Comes the day when I have to deal (again) with chronic pain, it’s going to be a big problem.
hueyplong
I don’t understand the “this hasn’t ever happened before” shit.
By my count, this is the 7th or 8th “hoax” he’s complained about during his squatiture in the White House.
Surely he’s not reversing himself on whether this is a hoax.
Martin
@cmorenc: Neither works for me. They work for fever reduction but not pain relief. I’m one of those lucky duckies that anesthetics are generally ineffective (which I didn’t discover until my mid-40s, btw – I just thought I was a wuss).
What does work for pain relief, and better on us than the general population is opioids. I can take half the dose of an opioid based medicine, but I need double or more of non-opioid. We’re not more susceptible to addiction, it just works better for pain.
Elizabelle
@MazeDancer: It’s 1 pm Pacific time. And thanks for the head’s up.
NotMax
@cckids
Obliigatory?
:)
MattF
@Elizabelle: And it’s so obvious that Trump is the reason for the lack of test kits. You can just picture him ‘deciding’ against virus testing because it would produce bad numbers.
Elizabelle
@MattF: I wish he could be punished for that.
Along with every other awful thing he has done. This one’s gonna have a body count, though.
Betting pool on who he will blame for not accepting the WHO kits?
Elizabelle
Oh gawd. Now there is a confirmed COVID-19 case in one of the biggest retirement communities in Richmond VA.
LeeM
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was driving back to work listening to the NPR coverage when the OrangeShitgibbon said that. The adjacent car heard me yelling “you fkn moron” through the closed windows.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Obama.
MazeDancer
Update: John Legend concert is at 1 Pacific Time, 4 Eastern
SiubhanDuinne
@satby: Loved that so hard I just posted the video to my FB page. Thanks!
dimmsdale
@lee: Yeah, I’ve gotten into the habit of shopping for stuff on Amazon, finding the item I need, and then searching for it from other sellers. Amazon is a shit company and Bezos runs it like he’s a shit human being, and there’s plenty of alternatives out there.
jonas
Republicans have no problem showering government largess on people — as long as they’re already rich, thereby proving they deserve it.
mrmoshpotato
Did anyone watch Putin’s bitch, the mobster manchild, blather on about being tremendous?
Elizabelle
Oh boy. Breaking from the WaPost. This is a good time to get accurate news out of China. But — Trump.
eric
Here is an interesting (and correct take, I believe) from one of the “voting-rights” criminals in the GOP saying that only Congress and not the President can move the election day. On fox news website….surprising that this is out there so early and with such conviction.
Also read Tucker Carlson’s prescription for helping workers…..very through the looking glass.
SiubhanDuinne
@Martin: Luckily, I still have a big supply of extra-super-duper-turbo-kapowie Tylenol left over from when I broke me arm last fall. Haven’t taken one since mid-November, but I’m glad it’s there if necessary.
Soprano2
I just overheard a guy in the lunchroom going on and on about how this isn’t any worse than the flu, lots more people died of the flu, and this is all just because people want to take two weeks off work and get a check! And yeah, Trumpie to the core. They’re handing out bottle of hospital-type disinfectant for us to clean our desks with, so I don’t think our office is going to be closing – at least not this week. I did tell the Trumpie guy that if I had symptoms I would try to get tested, if I could, because of my husband. That did kind of shut him up. That gives you some idea of the kind of disinformation that’s going around, though.
Barbara
@different-church-lady: Said before: Look at how much energy he used to devise a plot to extort Ukraine so he could goose his reelection chances and look at how lazy and inept he is when it comes to the health of the American people. And the only thing that ties them together is that he’s lying about both of them throughout.
PST
Nothing to do with viruses, but I just read that China will expel reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal will be expelled in retaliation for Trump limiting the number of Chinese journalists in the United States working for certain state-controlled media outlets. That’s really hitting Trump where it hurts!
Mel
@joel hanes: My suspicion is that most people who are already taking or have been taking regular or large daily doses of ibuprofen, etc. are using it because they are already managing a chronic illness (esp. autoimmune or inflammatory illnesses), or recovering from an injury or a surgery. That automatically would put them at higher risk for a more serious course of illness if they contract Covid-19.
Additionally, in treating autoimmune conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, various types of arteritis, etc., ibuprofen is often used in conjunction with other medicines such as corticosteroids, methotrexate, cellcept, or biologics, all of which serve the purpose of intentionally reducing the body’s immune response.
The French doctor’s comment is so vague as it stands as to essentially be worthless, in my opinion. We don’t have any actual data which we can use to evaluate his statement. I would want specific, data-driven answers to the following questions before I would put any faith in his comment:
1. How many patients were supposedly impacted, and were there any patterns found in the patients’ background data (i.e. were most of the affected patients in a certain age range? was there a certain illness or condition common to the supposedly ibuprofen affected patients [like a history of smoking, or of asthma, or a history of clotting disorders, etc.], but not to Covid-19 patients in general)?
2. were the patients already on ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatories? If so, for what reason(s)? Were the affected payients also on immunosuppressants, biologics, or immune modulators?
3. Were there specific, measurable effects seen only, or at a significantly higher rate, in patients taking ibuprofen versus patients of similar age and medical history who were not taking ibuprofen?
That’s not to say that it isn’t possible that anti-inflammatories might impact the body’s response to a new virus that we still know relatively little about in terms of its complex interaction with the human immune system. It is to say that I think a lot more concrete, fact-driven information is needed to say one way or the other, and that encouraging people to avoid a medicine that in some cases is essential to managing their health care, and in other cases might be the only medicine readily available to manage fever, etc., is not a wise move on the French doctor’s part.
So far, I haven’t seen any confirmatory data coming out of France or any mention of a suspected similar trend in other affected countries. I’m keeping my eyes open for any, as ibuprofen is part of the management plan for both a loved one’s and my autoimmune conditions. But until I see some facts and data, I’m not convinced.
Feathers
@Kelly: There was an article about a US mask maker. They’ve massively ramped up, are only selling to hospitals, and only to hospitals that agree to a five-year contract. Apparently, they invested in new equipment and busted ass to make all the masks needed for SARS and then had to lay off a ton of people because everybody went back to buying the cheaper masks from China.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mandalay: You’d think a reporter would ask about that.
Barbara
@Soprano2: I think the proper response is, “Hey, you first. Why don’t you go out and try to get the CV so you can prove how harmless it is?”
Shalimar
@Mandalay: Staging on-camera events is supposedly Trump’s area of expertise, what with the successful television show and salesman personality. These press conferences prove yet again that it isn’t. He had nothing to do with production of The Apprentice. He was just a very erratic actor.
SiubhanDuinne
@La Nonna:
Oooh! Please say more about these. And if you can, please take some photos and forward them to one of the FPs so we can all enjoy them!
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He spelled “hoax” wrong again, didn’t he?
MattF
@Barbara: From a Haberman-bylined NYT article:
My emphasis.
Shalimar
@PST: If China were as vindictive as Trump, they would revoke one of Ivanka’s trademarks every time Trump calls it China Virus.
schrodingers_cat
@La Nonna:But will they actually protect you from the virus though. Viruses are invisible to the naked eye. So the weave has to be smaller than the size of the virus.
schrodingers_cat
@MattF: She is such a fucking enabler. MAGA Haberman writing for the MAGA Times.
SiubhanDuinne
@hueyplong:
This is very fine.
WaterGirl
@Martin: I saw that information last week, so I ordered some Tylenol from Amazon and shared the link here on BJ.
I was hoping to share the links again, but I just checked and both the items are currently unavailable on Amazon.
NotMax
@dimmsdale
While I don’t use Amazon for stuff which have any reasonable expectation of finding locally at a competitive price, it’s a boon for those of us out in the sticks. As for other online sources, the shipping costs to Hawaii range from eyebrow arching to ridonkulous to outright prohibitive. “Free shipping to the 48 contiguous states” offered on other sites may even be a worse encounter, an instant signal to click elsewhere.
WaterGirl
@NeenerNeener: I was so thrilled when I found CatCake, that I looked long and hard for a corresponding PupCake, but I was not successful in that endeavor.
If anyone finds a PupCake anywhere, please let me know.
I ?CatCake.
Feathers
@schrodingers_cat: The homemade masks are not intended to protect you from close up encounter with the virus. They are meant to keep you from touching your mouth or nose and to provide a bit of extra protection while taking all the other recommended precautions.
ETA: They hopefully remind others to stand back a bit, too.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
The way I remember it was that whenever the W administration was failing in the polls, they’d post a threat warning based on intel and raise the terrorist level. As I recall, this was one of those and like the others, the supposed threat warning was a year or more old. They were banking these to trot out whenever they needed to encourage the “W is keeping you poor babies safe” narrative, and I did much gnashing of teeth at how well it seemed to work.
But underneath it all was some sort of actual intel that terrorists were looking into methods of creating in-flight bombs with carry-on liquids. No intel on whether such a method actually existed. At any rate, nobody thought it was enough of a threat to change procedures until the dog needed wagging.
cckids
@NotMax: Not bad :)
Though I was almost expecting “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Did they all shake hands again at this one???
James E Powell
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m seeing an inordinate number of posts condemning Perez and the DNC though I am not sure for what. There is a small but loud group that have yet to accept the demise of the Sanders campaign.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle:
“We have always been at war with East Asia.”
“We have always been at war with Oceania.”
-1984
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Timely reminder (not solely for you) that drinking alcohol while using Tylenol is bad juju.
Ksmiami
@MazeDancer: Actually I was thinking of writing a cookbook- eating well at the end of the world- or The Pandemic Cookbook- recipes to Stay Alive…
WaterGirl
@cmorenc: They would not let me take ibuprofen during the 6 weeks my broken ankle was healing – some research shows that it inhibits bone healing.
I hate tylenol but was a good girl and did what they said. Very glad to get my Advil back after that, but yeah, I read about this a week or more ago so I did order some Tylenol while it was still available.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Pretty sure I typed “my,” not “me.” If I want to affect a folksy dialect, I’ll give plenty of warning.
Feathers
@NotMax: I worked at an organ bank and we got the Tylenol lecture from the head doc periodically. It was mostly about the painful deaths of people who we did not find organ donors for in time.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Re Amazon, I’d already heard the report on how unsafe their warehouses were for the workers, so I’ve been avoiding their delivery services as much as possible.
Unfortunately I may end up using them for some things. We are doing hand-washing, but it’s with regular cheapo hand soap, not the 60% alcohol that health professionals recommend. I’m thinking we need latex gloves, alcohol, wipes, and the alcohol-based cleaner. All the stuff which has been cleared off the shelves. And I’m not sure where to get it. CVS has online ordering, but those things all say “available in-store only”. Why would they do that? Why have ANYTHING that’s in-store only?
What’s behind this is that we’re starting to create a process for handling incoming packages. We’ve heard that the virus can last 72 hours on surfaces, so all deliveries now get date-stamped and go into quarantine for 3 days, except groceries that need to be refrigerated. And to do that right, we ought to be handling with gloves and wiping surfaces down.
rp
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: IIRC, there was an actual attempt to bring down a plane by some yahoos who planned on using some chemicals they’d brought on board, causing TSA to quickly restrict liquids. But many experts immediately pointed out that the plan couldn’t have worked, and that any attempt to destroy a plane or build a bomb by mixing a few chemicals while on board was basically doomed to fail. It’s as if someone claimed they were going to destroy the plane with magic and TSA immediately banned all toy Harry Potter wands.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
https://balloon-juice.com/2020/01/13/tomorrows-debate-will-be-lit/#comment-7543989
It’s just a line drawing though. There must be something better out there!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
Have you been in a Wal-Mart lately? We may not have as many smokers, but we have a fuckton of middle-aged obsese diabetics who can barely walk without losing their breath.
Don’t assume the US is ahead of the world on any public fitness measure.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Mob enforcers perfectly within their rights to speak like Popeye.
:)
SiubhanDuinne
@Feathers: I was picturing some of those magnificent ballo in maschera-type face masks, as in the medieval Venetian carnivals.
Ksmiami
@James E Powell: I can no longer rationally discuss Bernie Sanders- what a selfish fucktard
hitchhiker
@Soprano2:
The NYT has a short podcast every morning called The Daily. Today it was an extended interview with an Italian doctor, at home for the first time in 3 weeks — the 3 weeks during which his life went from normal to utterly out of control.
He weeps a few times during the conversation, apologizes and then carries on.
The moment that got me was when he described how they cannot let families in to see even the dying patients (20 of them at his hospital, yesterday) because they’d have to give them masks. And there are no extra masks — there are not enough masks for doctors and nurses.
And so, people are dying alone.
He also said that even in other parts of Italy, his colleagues (not to mention the general public) can’t grasp the enormity of it. They simply can’t take it in.
Of course your trumpy co-worker doesn’t get it. His reasons for not getting it (fealty to the idiot, general stupidity) are just different from the Italian doctor’s colleagues. I just hope we don’t all get a first-hand lesson, because … damn.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Thanks. I think you had posted him once before, so I will confess that his face is a little creepy for me, so I haven’t used him.
But if you find another one, please be sure to let me know! You and Steep are much better at finding things than I am.
germy
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
“I’m strong to the finich
’Cause I eats me spinach”
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Coming soon to bookshelves – The Scarlet C.
;)
germy
Nice! Quarantine Taught This Woman That Her Apartment is Uninhabitable
trollhattan
@MattF:
“Win the Day” becomes Olympic event. Video at 10.
Lapassionara
@germy: This is the Onion, right?
I managed a CostCo run this am. I was greeted by a sign listing the items they did not have: toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, etc.
the store was a madhouse. We were asked to practice “social distancing,” but how we were supposed to do that I do not know. The checkout line was full of people standing close to one another.
the good news is that there were plenty of avocados and other items I get when I go there.
Kelly
@SiubhanDuinne: Gonna make me a Black Death Plague Doctor mask
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor_costume#/media/File:Medico_peste.jpg
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@NotMax:
Its also bad to do it while using the oral toenail fungus medication.
That shit is hard on you.
Shalimar
@Feathers: Others are not standing back in Florida Trumpland. Fucking assholes intentionally get as close as they can and touch to show that the virus is a joke people shouldn’t take seriously.
mrmoshpotato
@Soprano2:
Fucking slap his dumb ass with a rotten fish.
The Dangerman
@Mandalay:
Translation: The press hasn’t sucked my dick enough and I haven’t fucked the hot one at FOX.
Seriously, is it a FOX rule that all the women on the couch have to wear short skirts/dresses. I haven’t really noticed until now (and I’m not complaining, just observing).
trollhattan
@germy:
Uh, what’s the bailout industry?
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Tis from the Onion.
Although they called it. Trump’s minions can only think top down.
Feathers
@SiubhanDuinne: How about the moretta masks? Those are the ones that are black and cover the center of the face, showing skin on all sides, no apparent ties. It had a button that you would bite onto to keep it on your face. Apparently, very sexy.
Link: https://www.camacana.com/en-UK/moretta-venetian-mask.php
Kelly
@trollhattan: the onion;-)
germy
@trollhattan: that was an Onion humor piece. I should have been more clear.
NotMax
@the Dangerman
Yes, yes it is.
Elizabelle
@Kelly: Yeah. That would help greatly with social distancing.
Always meant to read up on why precisely doctors costumed up that way. Seeing that would give me nightmares, if it wasn’t bad enough that you were already in the midst of the Black Death.
Feathers
@Kelly: Those had medicinal herbs meant to protect the doctor in the tip of the beak. Mainly, it was to hide the stench.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: The end result here might work (12:18)
HTH!
Thanks for all you do.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@SiubhanDuinne: I figured you were just getting your Irish on.
Speaking of Irish, I wanted to put in a plug for one of our favorite Irish-American musicians, John Byrne. He’s fantastic as a soloist, with his fiddler, or with his whole band. He does a lot of his own stuff but we have a weakness for his versions of the traditional Irish stuff.
As a musician living on gigs, he’s lost his income for the foreseeable future. He’s announced he’s going to do a couple concerts from home today via Facebook Live, mostly focusing on the traditional stuff (yay!) in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
Elizabelle
@Feathers: Ah. Thank you. Makes sense.
germy
@Another Scott:
I second that emotion.
Shalimar
@germy: I clicked on the link, but all I get is the headline of the article at the top and endlessly generating ads beneath it regardless of how far down I scroll.
MomSense
@LeeM:
I have a habit of screaming at NPR on my car radio when we’re not in the middle of a global pandemic.
germy
@Shalimar: It’s a humor site with amusing articles, but some (like the one I linked) are just a funny title and accompanying photo.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
I’m a
Dapper Dannaproxin man, myself. Too many bad liver and kidney stores related to ibuprofen and acetaminophen.trollhattan
@MomSense:
Another listener benefit: yoga deep-breathing practice. Always yell from the belly.
germy
Shalimar
@James E Powell: If turnout is extremely low today with Sanders voters more likely to vote, and primaries over the next 2 months are postponed, the inevitable might take a long time.
I voted in Florida a week ago. I hope most other people did too.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@germy: Can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked on one of those, knowing that the headline and picture were the whole joke but hoping they had an article underneath it anyway.
The Onion is a national treasure.
trollhattan
@Kelly: @germy:
D’oh!
Everything seems possible and impossible, simultaneously.
germy
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’ve always been intensely curious about the people used in the “American Voices” photos. I read somewhere that one of guys was a delivery driver. I’m not sure about the others. I’ve seen the same photos for years and years now.
MomSense
@Fair Economist:
Wondering if you have a link to the shared anecdata from Singapore about the difference between those with nasal symptoms and those who do not in terms of spreading the COVID virus.
Shalimar
@germy: Ok, good that I didn’t miss anything, but I wanted to read the article.
germy
@Shalimar: It’s an excellent premise. The writers are young people who have absorbed all the cheerful-sounding fashion and lifestyle magazines, and are now spitting out hilarious parodies.
NotMax
Full on escapist mode yesterday and so far today, selectively running through the large library of B and C films in the free area of the Pub-D-Hub channel on Roku.
(If you’ve never used it, scroll horizontally past all the blurbs promoting their Gold service to reveal the free selections by category.)
mrmoshpotato
@Lapassionara: the store was a madhouse
Kent
Most college students are probably nowhere near their registered polling places anymore. That isn’t going to help the Sanders vote.
germy
@trollhattan:
The best written humor starts with a believable premise and then takes it to its absurd conclusion.
Like Mitch McConnell bailing out corporations, and then bailing out the “bailout” industry. While the rest of us scramble to survive.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Management has been taking staff’s temp when they come in. Today they started sending someone around to take the temp of all residents too. Mr DAW and I both had temps in the 96 point something range, which is turns out is normal for older adults. I did not know that.
Soprano2
@mrmoshpotato: I wanted to, but I have to continue to work with him. If I slapped everyone around here who supports Trump with a fish, that’s all I’d be doing all day.
Gin & Tonic
@The Dangerman:
Yes.
I’m serious. This was a Roger Ailes requirement.
mrmoshpotato
@The Dangerman:
Yes. Driftglass and Bluegal call it the “crotch couch.” It’s so men can ogle their legs while Fox shits into their skulls.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Shalimar: One of the things they do best is write about (fictional) ordinary home and work situations but in the style of news coverage of major events. Here’s one of my all-time favorites, “Report: Mom just Locked her Door.”
“Speculation continued to mount that the evening’s developments might somehow affect the status of dessert, or possibly even this weekend’s planned trip to the beach.”
I think if you read that you’ll get a pretty good feeling for what the Onion is all about.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
By this point, even Keith.
:)
germy
@Gin & Tonic: He’d make them “twirl” for him in his office.
There was a roundtable discussion of former Ailes employees, and Megyn Kelly admitted she did the twirl. Some of them refused.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: LOL
germy
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The Reductress does the same “Lifestyle/Fashion magazine” thing:
REPORT: Woman Taking High Shower Just Lives There Now
Litlebritdifrnt
UK Govt just announced new measures to help people/small businesses.
1) 3 Month mortgage holiday for people/small businesses.
2) Suspension of business rates (property taxes)
3) Low/no interest loans for small businesses.
Another Scott
@trollhattan: (That’s such a great movie! But those poor digital bovines!)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mandalay
This approach in Britain seems like a sensible idea worth considering…
mrmoshpotato
@Shalimar: I look forward to Fidel-humping Sanders getting an ass whooping in Florida.
germy
@Litlebritdifrnt:
What about rent?
Elizabelle
WaPost:
BREAKING: North Carolina’s Outer Banks will begin restricting tourists and visitors in an effort to reduce travel and limit permanent residents’ exposure to the coronavirus, officials in Dare County announced Tuesday.
schrodingers_cat
Social distancing antidote
MattF
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: My understanding is that Onion headlines get written first. And then, if the headline is funny enough, an article is written to accompany it.
WaterGirl
@germy: There appeared to be no article to accompany the headline?
mrmoshpotato
@germy:
And then Moscow Mitch the Kremlin’s bitch not being a complete sack of shit.
BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
PenAndKey
@WaterGirl: They would not let me take ibuprofen during the 6 weeks my broken ankle was healing – some research shows that it inhibits bone healing.
Also fun fact: COX-1 (aspirin) and COX-2 pain killers (naproxen sodium [Aleve], acetaminophen [Tylenol], and ibuprofen [Advil]) are also all implicated in an up to 50% reduction in muscle hypertrophy potential after exercising. So if you’re in physical therapy or otherwise trying to build muscle they actively inhibit the muscle growth you’re working toward.
Which is a real fun thing to be told when you start back up in the gym after not doing any formal weight lifting or running for over a decade. Ask me how I know…
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Elsewhere, sunrise has been canceled.
germy
@WaterGirl: Sometimes The Reductress will run a humorous essay, and sometimes just an amusing title.
Kent
So….this is the topic of discussion on some conservative religious forums.
Liberty University, the flagship MAGA university sent all of its 20,000 students off on Spring Break last Friday in defiance of any sort of shut-down that other universities were doing, saying they were going to be back in session next Monday. Falwell was all over Fox News and twitter talking about how it was a north Korean fake news conspiracy or some such. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/liberty-university-president-jerry-falwell-jr-says-in-person-classes-to-continue/2020/03/13/70b23a58-654e-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html
So their 20,000 students scattered to the winds, leaving all their possessions, computers, textbooks, etc. behind. Now they are under state order to shut down and the university is closed. But instead of having actually moved out of the dorms with their important possessions, ready to do online learning LIKE EVERY OTHER UNIVERSITY IN THE COUNTRY they are scattered about with their carry-on bags full of swim suits and sun screen. And no way to get back in to get their stuff.
Parents and students are severely pissed. They were all following Trump’s cue until he changed gears on them mid-Spring Break. Is it bad of me to find that a bit funny?
Robert Sneddon
One of the noticeable things about the daily briefings by PM Johnson here in the UK is that there are only three people “on stage” and they are at podiums separated by over a metre in distance. Also noticeable is that the podiums aren’t labelled “Downing Street” or “Prime Minister”, instead they’ve got a URL for the NHS’s webpage, “nhs.uk/coronavirus”.
VeniceRiley
My fiancé just heard that a 19yo boy she is close to has a cancer that is both widespread and incurable. He went in for a persistent sore throat and some symptoms. So, that’s devastating. I wish I was there to support her emotionally. It’s going to be a rough time in the prison service for the forseeable future.
Elizabelle
@Kent: I am laughing.
Liberty U, you be you.
mrmoshpotato
@Soprano2: That actually sounds fun and liberating. :)
3:04
NotMax
@Kent
Well, it’s not as if much useful learning goes on there under normal circumstances. Lack of access to online attendance could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
MattF
@Kent: Cognitive dissonance. Voice of Jesus made a boo-boo.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: A quote Byrne passed along in his email. No idea what the original context was:
rikyrah
FelonyGovt
Our local supermarket chain Gelson’s announced a special shopping hour from 7-8 AM for shoppers age 65 and over only. “You may be asked for ID”. You can bet I will be taking advantage.
NotMax
@MattF
Jesus: “PSYCH!”
Gin & Tonic
@PenAndKey: I was on a variety of painkillers and anti-inflammatories after my arm thing (three years ago yesterday, in fact – huzzah!) and don’t recall anything about inhibition of bone growth nor hypertrophy. I did, in fact, have problems with bone re-growth, but that’s a different story.
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
Multiply by 50 states ??
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Good find. I grabbed a screen capture from the video. His background is now transparent, and he has been added to the pie filter images. Thank you. We’ll see what people think! :-)
Gin & Tonic
@FelonyGovt: A good idea in general, but how many people that age *want* to be up and at the market at 0700?
mrmoshpotato
@Kent: @Elizabelle:
Can’t all the shitheads agree on what country’s conspiracy this is?
They can come to a consensus while throwing themselves into a volcano.
Easy peasy throw themselves into a volcano heezy.
zhena gogolia
@Mandalay:
Does that mean you get four items from the whole store, or you can only buy four of one thing?
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Ours is going to be 6-7:30.
Kelly
@FelonyGovt: Our local supermarket chain Roth’s has curb service. Create an account, submit a list and schedule a pickup.
Patricia Kayden
Wow. That’s rough but you do what you need to do.
bluehill
@Kent: Perhaps they will learn a lesson about consequences. They have a right to ignore experts, but also have to accept the consequences.
NotMax
@Mandalay
“Attention shoppers. There is now no limit on haggis.”
;)
Litlebritdifrnt
@germy: No word on rent yet but they say it is coming.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Just had someone – potential new work, something sorely needed at the moment – cancel an appointment this afternoon. Says he’s snotty and congested with a fever.
Told him I appreciated the call, and urged him to seek medical attention now and not wait to see if it gets worse. Frankly, he sounded awful.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gin & Tonic:
I tend to wake up at 4:30-5:00 am, and I’m a whippersnapping 58.
WaterGirl
@PenAndKey: Interesting! And by interesting, I mean that sucks.
PenAndKey
@Gin & Tonic: The research is conflicted. Some show, for example, that cox-2 inhibitors increase muscle mass in geriatric male patients whereas other research show the exact opposite in young adults during weight training.
I figure I will follow the cautionary principle as much as possible since the COX pathway is directly tied into protein synthesis capability so inhibiting it, to me, makes intuitive sense that it would also inhibit the synthesis of skeletal muscle fiber. Still, pain is pain and if it’s absolutely necessary to take pain killers to function I’d take a slower recovery over misery and day.
I haven’t seen anything indicating bone issues, just protein, for what it’s worth.
cain
@Shalimar:
Still plenty of time for that.
YES! Comment 200!
Anotherlurker
Day 5 of self quarantine : I have always talked to my houseplants. Now they are answering me. Last night’s conversation was about Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as a comedy.
Interesting times.
SiubhanDuinne
@Feathers: How fascinating! Thanks for this.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: Fresh Market is 8 – 9 Monday thru Friday. Truthfully I could use a few things including wine. GA restricts wine sales until after 8:30 cuz why not.
NotMax
@Anotherlurker
Variation on a hoary punch line.
“The ficus lies!”
:)
Gravenstone
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Probably late to replying, but hand soap is perfect for washing your hands. The alcohol based sanitizers are really only meant for use in locations where you don’t have ready access to soap and water.
WereBear
You mean it’s not? I always have a hard time taking that one seriously.
Aleta
Amazon:
JPL
@Anotherlurker: Geez.. I talk to the trees
But they don’t listen to me
jeffreyw
Swung by Kroger after voting to see if a mid-morning trip would be less hectic than the Friday afternoon trial. Not very crowded but the shelves were bare in the expected spots. Nearly all the canned veggies were gone, some poultry was on offer but limited selection, hamburger was rationed, I nabbed the last dozen eggs they had out. No TP, hand san, spray cleaners, paper towels, etc.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@PenAndKey:
When I shredded my Achilles tendon last year because of the now dead raccoons, I made it through the initial undiagnosed phases by various combinations of ibuprofen, naproxen, whiskey and weed gummies (use was heaviest on the latter).
I still feel bad about the raccoons, but the pair was way too smart for its own good. They wouldn’t go into the no-kill traps, and we gave them something like 40 days before putting out the sure things.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@jeffreyw:
I may take a spin down to my local Vietnamese markets in a bit, see what they have.
jeffreyw
Mrs J got a call from her dentist. Public Health is shutting them down for all save emergencies. Not clear if it was the county or state office.
A Ghost to Most
@Kent: A mindvirus is a terrible thing to catch. It makes you susceptible to other mindviruses.
satby
@Gravenstone: Yeah, regular old hand soap for 20 seconds is superior to the hand sanitizer for most people because they can get it under the fingernails and around the nail beds better. Plus sanitizer only disinfects, it doesn’t clean off dirt. All soap works, does not have to be labeled antibacterial.
PenAndKey
@jeffreyw: My wife and son had a dental visit this morning and found out that the dentist they were at was shutting down for all save emergencies at noon. Apparently the American Dental Association send out a memorandum advising such.
Martin
Why are republicans filibustering the coronavirus bill? McConnell just said it would need 60 votes. Dems aren’t filibustering it, so the GOP must be.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw: Hmmm. I have an appointment with the orthopædic NP this Friday — routine follow-up visit. There’s nothing at all invasive, but I’m now thinking I should check with them and see whether they’re still seeing non-emergency patients.
International Mikey
@Mandalay: – he’s just an ignorant fkuc.
Ramalama
@MattF: Have you tried pot butter? I normally don’t advocate for pot since the science isn’t in yet. Or not so much yet. But it worked for my dog when he had bone cancer. It works for the wife with a few bad bruises from a tumble on ice.
Gravenstone
@Martin: My moron senator (Johnson) is on actual fucking record being afraid the bill will encourage people not to go to work! Yes, he is exactly that fucking stupid.
stinger
@SiubhanDuinne: I just thought it was authentically appropriate for St. Paddy’s Day.
evodevo
@MomSense: Yes, so do I…I have to keep it down ’cause the hubby likes it for some reason…I find it mostly annoying in the extreme, and maddening in that they both-sides to the max…
dmsilev
@Martin: It only takes one asshole (Rand Paul, for instance) to break unanimous consent and require a 60 vote threshold. Now, whether McTurtle can/will garner enough votes to meet that threshold is all on him and his team of lunatics.
Martin
Italy announced their fatalities – 345, but it continues to pull them off their trendline. That’s 3 days in a row. Not sure how much of an inflection point this is but it appears to be one.
Another Scott
Nobody could have predicted this, also too. BBC News:
This is my shocked, shocked face.
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Do you mean it’s getting better?
Betty
@NotMax: it will destroy your liver. Nearly did my husband in when Christmas celebrating coincided with the flu.
Martin
Oh, forgot to mention – last night California banned all in-building dining. So, restaurants can do take out and delivery, but no eat-in. Not sure if that came up in an earlier thread.
Ken
@Kent: Falwell can at least console himself with the thought that in a properly run 1984-ish state, such a failure to keep up with a “We have always been at war with Eurasia” moment would have resulted in his becoming an unperson.
Brachiator
@Gravenstone:
I can’t even. It is almost laughable.
Senator Moron Dude, the government is telling people to stay home and not go to work!
Ken
@Another Scott: That’s the one established by the Hobby Lobby guy, isn’t it? They’ve already had several scandals involving smuggled artifacts.
delk
Just got a message from my husband who is an election judge in Chicago. Slow but steady. Around 150 voters so far and no drama.
Eunicecycle
@jeffreyw: I received a call today, too, cancelling my appointment next month. They said it was the Ohio Board of Dentistry that was shutting them down.
Gin & Tonic
My wife’s hospital had a presumed COVID patient, 29-yo male in critical condition. He went to another hospital in the area Saturday where they said it was the flu and sent him home. Has now been transferred to a regional teaching hospital.
Let’s have that boomer v. millennial argument again, that was productive.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: Sorry, yes. On their old trendline they would have had ~100 more deaths today. So, their numbers are still going up, but they’re going up more slowly than they would have been.
I don’t think it’s a reporting delay for non-hospital fatalities, not after 3 days. Now, it could mean they’ve just gone to a slower exponential curve which would be only slightly less bad (R0 still above 1), or it could mean they’ve turned it downward but we won’t be able to see that for 2 weeks or so (R0 < 1).
Another thing people need to consider is that these strains mutate constantly. The one running around Washington is different than the one running around NYC. These tend to be very slight differences with no affect on the virus, but sometimes they are a bit more substantial, so it could be that Europe has a slightly more virulent strain than the US, or the reverse.
But it’ll be interesting to see what the benefit of being able to do realtime sequencing of a disease does for how we handle this.
Martin
@Another Scott: What would make it better is if they were forged entirely using materials from Hobby Lobby.
chris
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve been visiting this black hole of kittens all day. Want!
Brachiator
@Martin:
I think this is a strong recommendation, not a mandate.
ETA: Is there a primary site you visit to check for the latest California news related to the virus? I am re-thinking my go-to list of sites.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@satby:
So I’m a “fuckhead” for buying a few 10 ct boxes of surgical masks to protect my family (and others!) in case we get sick from this thing, huh? Oh and so I bought a single box of 10 N95 masks out of panic? I’d gladly donate them if given the chance. And anyway, they’re valved painter’s N95 masks; hardly useful for medical staff. Everything I did, I did out of concern for my parents
My father has hypertension and had stents placed ten years ago. Excuse me for trying to protect my older parents. I work at a supermarket so I’m at increased risk of contracting SARS-cov-2 and spreading it to them
I hate to break this to you, but any shortages of PPE aren’t because of me. The kind of masks they wear they get from particular manufacturers and hospitals get first dibs anyway.
I can’t begin to tell you how much what you have said has hurt me
anarchoRex
@delk: this is so dumb, I can’t understand why these states didn’t just extend the election date and go to universal mail-in ballots.
different-church-lady
So, are we going to have to pay income tax on that thousand bucks?
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat: Any mask will help *some* because many droplets are rather large. You need something pretty sophisticated for near-100% protections, but every bit helps. And they all reduce face-touching.
zhena gogolia
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Calm down, we’re all on edge. I understand your situation perfectly.
MisterForkbeard
This thread seems a little dead, but I have an interesting data point: I stopped by our local Farmer’s Market in the North Bay (California) to drop off something quickly with one of the vendors and pick up a bunch of frozen beef from our butcher.
A Shelter-In-Place Order is coming: Local Health Dep rep says they’ll likely expand the shelter in place order to include all the bay area counties. Likely coming tonight.
Farmer’s Markets will remain open: This is decided on a county level, but right now they’re classed as essential grocery services and some experts believe they’re safer than grocery stores due to the open space, sun, shorter supply chain, and a few others. The vendors I spoke to (6 or so) also say they’re planning on remaining as long as the county allows it.
Farmer’s Market Changes: However, some counties (such as Marin) may shut down their markets or stop them from serving hot food. All Farmer’s Markets are encouraged to move to a “remove all seating, get everyone through as fast as possible” model. Sanitizer and gloves are required at all stalls.
YMMV
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Doubt there’s a single go-to source. Here’s the CA Dept of Health Twitter link.
ETA summaries like this seem helpful:
Martin
@Brachiator: Ah perhaps. Not always clear when the dept of health issues a ‘guideline’ whether that should be read as ‘rule’ or not.
I don’t really have a go-to site. A lot is coming off of Twitter searching hashtags and then following up to primary sources. I jump around SacBee, SFGate, reddit, etc. It’s just a mess.
trollhattan
@anarchoRex:
All-mail ballot systems make voter suppression harder. We can’t have that!
Soprano2
Well, it’s almost time to go home and so far we haven’t heard anything from City Hall about what they’re going to do. Our front desk woman says she heard that it’s mostly business as usual, which would go with them handing out bottles of disinfectant spray. Hoo boy, I don’t know what I’m going to do, because as long as the crews keep working I can’t afford to take a bunch of time off, plus if I did that it would burden the other woman who does the same job I do, because she’d have to do my work orders too. Sheesh……
different-church-lady
@Litlebritdifrnt: Perhaps fanciful, but what we really need is a sort of overall “pause” button — we just suspend nearly everything for a couple of months, figure out how to cover necessities in the interim, and hit “play” again when this all blows over. It would probably keep a lot of small businesses from going under, but I also bet it would be a lot harder to accomplish than I’m saying.
anarchoRex
@trollhattan: lmao, our political season is so messed up I have no clue which position this snark is coming from.
Fair Economist
@MomSense: The paper with the anecdata showing nasal symptoms+COVID producing extensive contamination is published here:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762692
Only 1 nasal symptoms patient and two without, so I’m a little surprised it got published but it is plausible. Perhaps it was intended to push some more research.
Martin
I’m going to agree with the unions here – no bailout money for companies that have done stock buybacks in the last x years.
TerryC
@MattF: Overusing Ibu likely contributed to my congestive heart failure.
mad citizen
@Martin: I’ve also been following the numbers (worldometer)
Italy’s last 9 days, number of deaths is: 133, 97, 168, 196, 189, 250, 175, 368, 349. Before that the highest number of deaths was 49.
I don’t see any trendline around 100 here.
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady: France is trying a pause. Rent, taxes, utilities, etc. not due for 2 months IIRC.
We’re all going to be in socialist societies by next year at this rate.
dmsilev
@MisterForkbeard: LA County is keeping farmer markets open, but with some restrictions (no prepared on-site food, limited number of people in the market at any time, etc.). Seems reasonable to me. I’m planning on stopping by the local one Saturday morning, and hopefully that will still be an option by then…
different-church-lady
@Fair Economist: Nothing like being in free-fall to make people understand what a safety net is for, eh?
Duane
@rikyrah: The state service’s in Missouri can’t possible handle the demand it’s facing. Years of Republican ideology has worked to deny people a safety net. Providing one is beyond them
dimmsdale
@NotMax: True enough, I’m sure, and frankly it’s a low-pain “gesture of defiance” for me, EVERYBODY ships to here relatively cheaply. Speed I don’t care about, and nearly everyone’s more expensive than Amazon, but I’m happy to pay the difference so Bezos doesn’t get it.
mrmoshpotato
@delk: I stopped at the post office about 30 minutes ago. Ballot mailed! Go Joe! Go Bill!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@zhena gogolia:
I appreciate that. Thank you.
different-church-lady
@Fair Economist: So, thinking this through just a tiny bit (and a hell of a lot less than one needs to…): the problem with suspending things like utilities is that the providers still have to deliver during the pause. So maybe this puts things in a position where individuals are protected, but companies will need financial assistance, rather than the other way around.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Yeah, I was looking at the SacBee. Very ironic that they may go out of business.
Since I am in Southern California, I just signed up for a free virus related newsletter offered by the LA Times.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, let’s! No no. :)
WaterGirl
The University of Illinois just canceled commencement in May.
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne:
As if I couldn’t love you any more… <3
mrmoshpotato
@chris: LOL well done.
Anotherlurker
@WereBear: Check out “Upstart Crow” streaming on Britbox. If you love Shakespeare and also enjoy lampooning The Bard, this is the show for you.
Season 3, episode 2 deals with the very subject of my post.
Fair Economist
@Martin: Fatalities lag hospitalizations (which in Italy tracks the same as cases since that’s what they’re testing) so if the indications of a hospitalization leveling starting a few days ago are good there’s probably another few days of increasing deaths.
Possible good caveat – both China and S Korea have had later deaths below expectations so maybe there are some treatment improvements happening with experience.
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: May is six weeks away. What’s the hurry?
Ken
That’s never been a problem.
cckids
@zhena gogolia: That’s going to really suck for the people who need to stop by on their way to work or heading home from night shift. Plus you put the most vulnerable group all together in one space at the same time. There isn’t a great answer to this.
And, of course, the stockers/cashiers aren’t in that age group, and are way more likely to have been exposed already. Having someone else shop for the elderly makes more sense. Instacart has never been so busy.
NeenerNeener
Drat! I found a pupcake picture but I can’t embed it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WaterGirl:
Not surprised. My pinning ceremony originally on May 3, has been canceled
JeanneT
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The quote is from this webpage, by a living Kitty O’Meara:
https://the-daily-round.com/2020/03/16/in-the-time-of-pandemic/
mrmoshpotato
@anarchoRex: Someone’s not from Illinois. We have mail-in ballots (no excuse needed). I just mailed mine 30 minutes ago.
Stop being an assclown.
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady: Yes, and I expect France will step in with support for the utility companies, landlords, etc. if that becomes an issue (they tend to have more slack than ordinary people). That’s just another step towards socialism, with the government essentially paying for everything.
artem1s
@Mandalay:
great. so the Narcissistic Orange Asshole has discovered that even plague failure attention is better than no attention at all. Just what we need.
Martin
@mad citizen: It’s exponential, so you need to track the log of the numbers. You can then plot the slope of that data, and the coefficient of determination.
It’s still a small divergence, but it’s a divergence. And today was just enough of a divergence to start to move the trendline a little flatter. That was not happening before.
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: I think they are being wise. Anyone who thinks this is over by may is overly optimistic
Also, some Michigan schools made the same decision last week.
WereBear
@Anotherlurker: Thanks! We just got it. For the duration.
cain
I’m not sure if a mask helps, but it definitely helps in stop touching your face. I have two N95 masks, one I am going to send to my girlfriend – the other with me – but optionally can send it to my dad who is definitely in the at risk stage. My gf had leukemia before so she might be immune deficient, not sure.
WaterGirl
@NeenerNeener: Send it to me by email, please.
trollhattan
@anarchoRex:
True dat.
When all else fails, look at what blue states do–voting process in this instance–and presume red states will do the opposite, at least those red states trending purple due to accumulating too many of the “wrong sort of person.” Wyoming can probably safely make voting easy-peasy.
Our (CA) voting process is stupid-simple, and I dropped off my primary ballot directly into the box in a matter of a scant few seconds. The county had dozens of places to do this and a couple weeks for the task.
Kent
Take equity in the companies dollar for dollar at current stock prices. If American Airlines needs a $1 billion infusion, the taxpayers get $1 billion in American Airlines stock at today’s price.
I also want to know how many billions they got in tax breaks since 2017 and what they did with those billions in public dollars. Claw that back first too.
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady: The *speed* of the changes is leaving me in shock. Center-rightist Macron supporting a national rent strike? Neofascist Trump supporting even a temporary UBI? A month ago I was thinking SARS2 might get us M4All by next year. Now I am wondering if profound alterations to society are possible.
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: What’s the harm in waiting two, three weeks before pulling the trigger?
I dunno — maybe it has to do with making advance payments and such.
But I think it’s really dumb to say, “Let’s just assume the worst and shut everything down for months and months right this second.” If we’re bending the curve, we’re bending it today, not six weeks from now.
cain
@Duane:
The worst part is that their mentality when watching other states take care of their situation better – but rather why can’t they be dragged to their level. Their resentment is going to be annoying going forward.
mrmoshpotato
@Martin:
It might be shortsighted. (I’m not an economist.) But I agree about telling the companies to suck donkey ass who used the GOP tax scam windfall to buy back their own stock.
Martin
@Fair Economist: Maybe as much as 2 weeks. Fatalities tend to spike between days 17 and 22 after symptoms. Not sure where hospital admittance falls on that timeline.
There should be some treatment improvements, yes.
trollhattan
@cain:
Gloves may stop face-touching too, you just look like a double-Michael Jackson wearing them.
I’m repurposing my winter cycling gloves for public forays. They have good dexterity and can be washed. Some are colorful!
artem1s
@Elizabelle:
Dense is taking the fall for that one. that’s why he was put in charge in the first place.
Kent
Probably. You owe income tax on unemployment compensation. The federal tax rate is low enough at the bottom end that poor people are unlikely to owe much if any tax on their $1000 while rich people will. As it should be. But you won’t owe it until April 2021
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
it’s not hoarding if you’re using every single one. It’s hoarding if you bought a shit ton and then selling it on ebay to fleece people or buying more than is reasonable. I don’t think what you’ve stated is a hoarding situation and nor does anybody else think that.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
Yep. Yep.
Another way of saying this is that the economy is undergoing a deliberate contraction. Businesses and individuals must be helped.
The crazy thing is that a lot of people, including government officials, are having a hard time changing their conventional way of thinking. This includes Republicans who just want to help business and some Democrats who concentrate on helping workers and families.
Ya gotta do both and more.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
Yeah, jerb creators vacuuming up their own stock following the Republican Gift of the Century was kinda the opposite of what they’d all promised. Grrrr.
cain
@trollhattan:
Doesn’t the glove have left over germs on it? It’s hard to figure out what’s real and what is not, but I was reading that the virus can stay on surfaces longer. In which case, you’d be rubbing covid on your face.
trollhattan
@Kent:
Agreed, it will be treated as income and there will be no withholding. I doubt it will be subject to FICA, though.
NotMax
@dimmsdale
Can’t recall right at the moment what the specific item was but a while back had nothing better to do so spent some time comparison shopping online for it. Prices varied for whatever it was somewhat (although not drastically) from retailer to retailer – average was about $11. The least expensive charge found for shipping to Hawaii offered from places which charge for that? $39.
Martin
@mrmoshpotato: Fuck em. Moral hazard. A necessary component of capitalism is that companies go out of business, and new companies replace them. Maybe the new companies will insure themselves.
And for anyone who was bitching about why Apple had $200B in cash sloshing around in US Treasuries – this is why. They can keep paying everyone for years with no income coming in (which they’re doing). There’s no scenario in which they should ever need a bailout. They built themselves an endowment.
cain
@trollhattan:
That’s how it is in Oregon. I’ve never not voted by mail. I don’t know any other way to vote.
mrmoshpotato
@artem1s: Fucking hell. What a shitbag who sucks the Kremlin’s ass.
trollhattan
@cain:
I hate touching my face wearing gloves so it would be one way to stop my unconsciously doing it. Maybe others won’t find it helpful.
Definitely agree it’s a pathway unless you’re wearing disposables straight from the box.
Fair Economist
@Kent:
No. I laughed too. Total Karma. And it’s a university for evil; messing up its students is a good thing.
Ken
@trollhattan: Great, now you’ll start a run on the sporting goods stores.
cain
@Martin:
These guys can’t seem to have an urgency for anything. It’s always about them and their stupid ideology. Then they turn around and blame it on the rest of us for not doing anything. I hate this timeline.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gin & Tonic:
A hospital in Houston apparently has told the sister of my (now former, as of 10 minutes ago) assistant that she “probably has a nasty case of strep”, and sent her home to await those test results. Apparently, the girl’s in-laws are back and forth from Vietnam constantly.
I really like my assistant and think she does a great job, but I literally have zero substantive work for her to do for at least a month and a half (assuming they reopen the courts by then). Given that we’ve lost the entirety of my wife’s income and have three unemployed daughters, every bit of cash counts.
Yutsano
Sooooooo….Tbogg?
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I don’t know. You may not be protecting anyone, and preventing professionals from being able to do their job effectively.
I understand what you are doing. These are tough times. We all want to be safe and for our families to be safe.
cain
@trollhattan:
my gf wears a mask and gloves and keeps a social distance.. but otherwise she goes where she wants to go. She doesnt’ let the virus stop her movements but she tries to be careful. I think she is hunkering down for 3 weeks at home now in Denver.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Yup. Though I still call “kinda the opposite of what they’d all promised” lying. :)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@cckids:
“We don’t want the elderly to feel less than fully independent…”
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
Just boarded my flight in Las Vegas for Dulles. Not many passengers, terminal traffic sparse.
ETA: Checking that my travelin’ nym works.
Martin
@different-church-lady: I don’t quite get the point of suspending utilities. If you’re closed, you aren’t paying much in utilities. This is where a 0% lending rate comes in handy. And as you note, they do have marginal costs to cover.
But rents/loans are a much bigger problem. You do pay those when you’re closed, and they’re a lot. And at the end, they’re just banks and bond funds at the end of that chain, and the job of the Fed is to backstop them, so just do that. And they generally don’t have marginal costs. It tends to be straight-up rent seeking, so they aren’t losing money, they just aren’t making any (welcome to the party!)
anarchoRex
@mrmoshpotato: so why didn’t they shut down polling places and just extend the election by two weeks? How many unnecessary coronavirus deaths are going to result from a failure to do that?
NotMax
@Mister Forkbeard
Seems on its face like a tilt into panicland. It’s the droplets expelled by people which need to be guarded against, meaning properly attired prep staff. AFAIK there is as yet no evidence of food-borne transmission. Plus hot food would be safer than room temp food.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi): It does, but ‘Steeplejack’s Sexytime at 35000 feet’ is not what we needed to know.
Safe flight (and safe sex)
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
mad citizen
@Martin: Sorry I misread your earlier post. I thought you were saying their trendline was 100 deaths/day, but you were saying the old trend would have meant an additional 100 deaths today, which we didn’t see. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Keep an eye peeled for people with emotional support cobras. Or honey badgers.
mrmoshpotato
@anarchoRex: Ask the governor’s office.
“Why is Vladimir from Stalingrad asking about the Illinois primary?”
Hoodie
@Brachiator: The reason CDC doesn’t recommend for protection is that it’s pretty hard to use a face mask effectively because most people have not had hospital-grade aseptic technique burned into their skulls. My mom ran an OR for 30 years and said it’s really hard to do it right, even if you’re a professional. She was constantly bitching about docs who would contaminate the sterile field by carelessness. Not much different here, you could wear a mask and still likely get infected from touching something if you spend much time in a contaminated area. I really feel for health care workers who are having to treat these patients.
FelonyGovt
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As an older person whose 30-something daughter is really concerned about my health (to the point of order zinc tablets for me), I think you’re a wonderful person for taking such good care of your parents.
Yutsano
@mrmoshpotato: HEY! Balloon Juice After Dark is scheduled for 2100 Pacific Time TYVM!!! :P
Kent
So my kids finished their schoolwork by noon. Not all their teachers have work posted up yet to google classroom. Some are totally on top of it.
They now have group chats set up for their different classes so their phones are blowing up with friends who have questions about online assignments. Teachers should just assume that every assignment they give is going to be a “collaborative” assignment unless the child is a total recluse. But they are making the best of it.
Now they are on Discord chatting with their various friends around the world. They have a whole online life of which I’m only partially aware. One wonders about creeps slipping in. But they seem pretty sophisticated about screening out those types. And Discord seems to have monitors.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m not going to berate you for doing what you need to protect your parents.
However, anyone in such a situation should buy these and put them in their emergency kit when they aren’t in short supply. A lot of this is due to people realizing way too late that they care enough about their parents to buy stuff and not a month ago, 6 months ago, 2 years ago. It’s not about caring or not caring, it’s about caring enough to plan ahead. My wife had masks in our kits 2 years ago. Same with hand sanitizer, first aid kits including a thermometer, 2 weeks of food, we have water purification and all that. We always have a months worth of toilet paper in the house, and carriers/emergency food for the pets, and all of that. It’s all packed up in backpacks and other grabbable forms so that we can haul it out of the house in a few minutes.
When this is over, everyone needs to think through all of the scenarios that might hit, consider what the run on stores looked like recently, and clear some space for a proper emergency kit. We don’t have basements here, but could still find a closet to dedicate to this kind of stuff. If it’s important, I’m sure there’s a closet in your place full of stuff you can better live without.
Facemasks are cheap, small, light. They don’t take up much space at all.
Emergency kits are as much for the instantaneous events like earthquakes as they are for the forecastable events that empty the stores like this one.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi): I hope you have an uneventful journey. Good luck with Mission Mom’s recipes. How is she holding up?
Soprano2
@Duane: Yeah, I’m worried about what would happen to our employees at Schultz if we closed. We can’t close unless the state forces us to, otherwise I don’t think the employees would be able to get any help, plus the customers would just go somewhere else!
Yutsano
@Kent: My experience is most Discord chatrooms are very good at self-policing. You have to be invited to join in the first place, and even then if something seems off the owner of the room can boot them out. So it’s possible but it’s fortunately a rare thing.
Martin
@mad citizen: Yeah, my model shows they should have been just under 500 deaths. So 350 is better, despite the fact that it’s still more than we want it to be.
Peale
@trollhattan: Or waiting for social services to deliver food. I have a office mate from China who wasn’t stocking up because she thought that it would work like the lockdown in China where the authorities would deliver boxes of food to the entry gates of buildings and then people would divide it up. Please talk to the poor about how our social services are designed to deliver door to door to people in need.
mrmoshpotato
I’m watching a DVD of old Hannah-Barbera cartoons.
First up Quick Draw McGraw, and I fully support naming the outlaw Dynamite Kaboom.
Martin
@Peale: I thought the poor were the ones delivering door to door to people in need (of a latte).
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Hahaha
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
I bought the surgical masks for in case any one of us gets sick
Brachiator
@Hoodie:
And the average person is not going to be in close contact with a person they know has the virus.
And thanks for the insights about your mom. This helps me understand the use of masks, helps clarify things greatly.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@FelonyGovt:
Thank you
Origuy
If you’re missing St Patrick’s Day celebration like I am, Dropkick Murphys are streaming live from Boston starting at 7PM EST.
hueyplong
I wouldn’t mind hearing about any follow-up to the Liberty U story. It’s off to a fantastic, Karmic start, though it seems a little short on pool boys.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Well, I did buy them 2 or 3 weeks ago and urged my parents to start stockpiling food. I saw this coming then and tried to act accordingly. I think most people like myself have never had much reason to worry. I don’t live in a diaster-prone area like you do. We don’t even really get tornadoes. But yes, it is important to have extra supplies in case of emergencies like these. I think I’m better prepared now thankfully then I was even a few weeks ago
Kent
Since this is St. Patrick’s Day.
During the mid-1990s I spent a couple of years working in Washington DC for NOAA. During that time I caught a singer named Eva Cassidy who was playing in Georgetown pubs at that time (around 1994-1995). Eva Cassidy died of an aggressive melanoma in 1996 at age of 33 before she really had a chance to get famous. But she did record the best and most haunting version of Danny Boy that I have ever heard. https://youtu.be/oSKM0YiU8LU
More on Eva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Cassidy
anarchoRex
@mrmoshpotato: not everyone is as cravenly political as you. If they’re your governor, maybe you should be asking them? How many coronavirus deaths are acceptable collateral to own Bernie Bros?
mrmoshpotato
@Origuy: Oh boy.
mrmoshpotato
@anarchoRex: What’s that about Soviet Sanders, Vlad?
Kent
I’ll stay on the story. Someone has to! I got extended family there. MAGA cousin of mine from rural PA has a kid there.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Elizabelle: Yep. They’ve closed the bridges to non-residents.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Totally understandable. Hopefully, medical professionals in your area who are dealing with the sick right now, have not had problems getting masks.
different-church-lady
@MattF: Sometimes they don’t bother with the article at all.
cain
See, that’s what’s so interesting. The virus knows that, and so it has asymptomatic carriers to spread itself. Amazing stuff.
A Ghost to Most
@Martin:
The back of my 4×4 is always loaded with our emergency kit. My RN wife has assembled a formidable first aid kit. We’re better prepared for a bug out than a hunker down.
different-church-lady
@Martin: I still gotta heat my house. It’s no warmer here just because some folks have a really bad fever.
anarchoRex
@mrmoshpotato: so you don’t care about people getting infected with coronavirus, got it.
different-church-lady
It’s at times like this when we should pause and be thankful that every single scrap of any moving image ever recorded in the history of mankind is available for viewing by talking into a hockey puck.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Like I said, they get these masks from specific suppliers probably sourced out of China and would probably have first priority for any orders. I bought blue-cupped masks in the first-aid aisle at my store.
I know Medline is the manufacturer for isolation masks (similar to what I have) that are at my hospital. If they run out, it will not be because of me, it will be because of the surge of COVID-19 patients in a week or two. These types of masks, while better than nothing as demonstrated in several studies, are not going to serve as great protection for medical staff. They’re not N95 masks. They are primarily intended to protect against larger droplets and protect others from the wearer
Suzanne
I am having a rough day. We are still showing our house but we are also trying to do work and the kids are home and we just had some people show up early so we didn’t have the pets out of the house, and our realtor didn’t tell us that they don’t like dogs, and AAAAAHHHHHH someone just buy my house already.
Brachiator
@cain:
RE: And the average person is not going to be in close contact with a person they know has the virus.
And the social distancing and self-quarantine are attempts to account for this, and to prioritize the use of masks by medical staff who are in direct contact with known victims for long stretches of time.
Suzanne
BTW, if anyone is looking for masks, the art supply stores have plenty.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
??
hueyplong
@Kent: Good deal. You’re doing it for all of us.
I prefer my wingnut bullshit filtered through this site so as to make it less toxic to consume.
mrmoshpotato
@anarchoRex: It’s late for you broskovich. Go to bed to troll another day.
MisterForkbeard
@dmsilev: Yep. They just announced that they’re going to announce a shelter-in-place for Sonoma County tonight.
And I think we’re still seeing some new restrictions coming on the Farmer’s Markets. My butcher says she’ll likely be moving to a “order online and they’ll drop the meat into a cooler at the end of the driveway” model, as well as keeping their stall open at the market if they can.
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
Okay, Steep mon got de (overpriced) United wi-fi working, so I’m set. The Prosecco is flowing, and the pilot is drivin’ it like he stole it (h/t Silverman). He just said we should hit IAD about 8:50 EDT, well ahead of the scheduled 9:20.
This is shaping up like a regular Tuesday night, except no housecat sideboard and I’m wearing tactical gear (pants!).
anarchoRex
@mrmoshpotato: this is sad, man. The republican governor of Ohio has more care for possible victims of the coronavirus than you do. You can’t squeeze any empathy out of your little heart at all?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@NotMax: It’s not the food, it’s the congregating. If it’s like other markets I’ve been in, lines form at the hot food vendors.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: That actually makes sense. Gives people a chance to pick up what they need beforehand.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi): I’ll be glad when you get home. Do you need to try to shop for stuff on the way home from the airport?
Auntie Anne
@Kent: I run a discord chat room (I am a gamer, and have had child players in my groups occasionally). Chat rooms are invite-only, and we’ve set up security measures to ensure no unsavory types slip in. Discord makes security easy to set up and maintain. And, in my experience, adult gamers are very aware that children are common on discord and behave accordingly. Just as a silly example, we’re really big on the emojis for crab and fish, rather than using expletives.
If you have concerns, you can look at your kids’ chat by accessing their accounts through their devices. Discord stores all chat.
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: I think the idea is to move the markets from being all-purpose markets (and restaurants) to being a ‘store’: People get in, buy their stuff and get out.
trollhattan
@Kent:
Eva possessed a remarkable voice and wide range of delivery and styles. What a loss. Lucky man, having seen her in person.
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
Stay clear of the Dada line.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: Fuck cancer. Really.
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
@WaterGirl:
I don’t think so. Will have to go out (early) tomorrow to check my two nearby supermarkets and gauge the general chaos level.
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
@schrodingers_cat:
I posted a couple of times over the weekend, but I can’t readily find them now.
She is doing all right, in an assisted-living facility that just went into full lockdown yesterday.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
+1 Cancer is a shameless and cruel thief.
EthylEster
@NotMax: This reminds me of something that’s making my social distancing a lot easier: audiobooks on my phone from the public library. If you have a library card, download the Libby reader and enter the card number and your PIN. Then use Libby to browse the collection of eBooks and audiobooks.
No need to go to the library. I have read (well, listened to) more books in the last year than in any other year of my adult life. A great use of smartphones
NotMax
@EthylEster
And if your library subscribes to Kanopy and /or Hoopla, you can use your library card at those services to stream movies and other videos, gratis.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi): It would have been kind if brutal, but sometimes waiting a day means the shelves are empty. I will feel better once you are home. Life is hard.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: This truly is a full-service blog!
Looks great. :-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@different-church-lady: I’m assuming there will be some kind of stimulus on top of this to cover your utilities. But most people pay a lot more for rent than they do for heat. If you can take rent off the table, you stand a much better chance to help most people with food/utilities.
Put another way, if we don’t do this, we’ll have to add the 2008 housing crisis on top of everything else.
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
This is not accurate. Regular soap and running water is best, according to health folks, and 66%+ alcohol sanitizer is adequate if you can’t wash with soap and water until you get to a sink where you can wash.
Was I clear? Soap and water is best, with a scrub-brush for your nails, high proof alcohol sanitizer will work until you get to a sink!!
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
@WaterGirl:
I’m glad I made the trip and saw my mom, given that we don’t know what the future holds. My problems don’t seem so big.
But get back to me next week when I’m subsisting on green olives and Vienna sausages.
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
@Soprano2:
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Another Scott
@mrmoshpotato: When the economy is imploding, “lend freely, at a penalty rate.” – Bagehot.
We need functioning airlines. It’s not their fault that their ridership fell off a cliff – for the whole world-wide industry – in about 2 weeks.
But the public’s interest must be respected. There must be lots of conditions on the bail-out, because they have shown that they will not plan ahead and only look at the short term (and rewarding their C-suite management).
Grr…
Things like nationalizing them for 5-10 years might make sense (but I don’t expect it).
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Kent:
Just saw this. It’s unfortunate that these people cannot put two and two together and admit how Trump and nutcase religious leaders are lying to them. They are intent on believing their bullshit even if it hurts them and their children.
James E Powell
@WaterGirl:
My district, Los Angeles, is still talking like we will be back on March 30th.
J R in WV
@anarchoRex:
That is what deWine and the Sec of State did in Ohio, although it isn’t being reported very well. Sounded like a good thing to me!
J R in WV
@anarchoRex:
And this is the reason I have you pied and have to toggle your posts to see them. You are mean-spirited to your fellows when there is no reason for that. You have no logic, no compassion, no reason. You will be staying in the Pie Safe!
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Yay!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi): Glad you saw your mom, too. We won’t let you starve.
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: It will be a near miracle if that is so.