Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Good lord, these people are nuts.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Dominoes

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Dominoes

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Apologies for being ‘off schedule’ — the Spousal Unit is still adjusting to life under (voluntary) lockdown, and that is disrupting both my routine and that of the two rescue dogs. Most dogs, per twitter, are grateful that their people are home all the time now. But our guys hate change even worse than I do, so they alternate whining at whichever of their persons is closer and trying to start stuff with the cats (who are as large, or slightly larger, than the dogs). First world problems, as the youngs phrase it…

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  4. 4.

    debbie

    Colbert played clips last night of Trump insisting he has been calling this a pandemic all along. It was the closest I’ve ever come to punching out the television. ? ?

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie: I’m luxurious at pandemic!

    (Yeah, I know.  I don’t watch Seth Myers’ A Closer Look segments until YouTube subtitles them, because Dump’s voice makes me want to break things.  Oh to have Hillary managing these times…)

    Even Colbert is too “hahaha” at times for my blood.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    No, I hadn’t already seen the cats and dominoes video. Thank you very much, Anne.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    The governor means business: A restaurant in Cincinnati that defied orders to close has been padlocked.

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’ve seen some reports that people with Type O blood could be immune. Anyone else seen anything about that?

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    I think that today is my last day at work for 2 weeks. We will find out today. The commuter train that I take is a ghost town ???

  17. 17.

    germy

    CAPITAL REGION — Some members of the Chinese community are seeking to arm themselves as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout the Capital Region, citing a loss of faith in government and hate-fueled rhetoric.

    A man who identified himself only as “Michael” paced back and forth at Upstate Guns and Ammo on State Street in Schenectady on Tuesday.

    “The government is supposed to protect us, but I feel like I need to protect my family,” he said, clutching a scrap of paper with the phases “Remington” and “Mossburg” scrawled on it, referring to firearms manufacturers.

    Also written: “12 gauge”, “20 gauge” and “buckshot slug.”

    Michael, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he emigrated from China and works at a restaurant in Albany.

    “I don’t want a gun, but I’m afraid for my family,” he said.

  19. 19.

    Ohio Mom

    Yesterday I got an email from the Ohio Democratic Party announcing they were going to court over yesterday’s “postponed” election.”

    It turns out that legally, if you are the governor, you can’t just reschedule an election like it’s a garden tea party that got rained out. Only the state legislature or a court can do that.

    I’m reasonably certain that I will eventually get to vote but there is an interesting question about how the momentum of local campaigns will be effected (I am not worried about Biden getting enough votes anymore).

    Of course that can’t be known, but we have some very close Democratic primary races here in Hamilton County, plus a critical transportation levy.

    Is the mailbox about to fill up with campaign flyers again? We’ll soon find out who still has money left in their campaign coffer.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    Repost from a dead thread:

    We’re in a time of great and unexpected Angst. Our access to our daily routine, our work, our leisure, so much of our lives, is being constricted before our eyes. We’re all having to make big adjustments for, well, we don’t know how long. And all this on top of the concerns we already had going on.

    The conversation at Balloon Juice right now is capturing all this Angst, and for some of us it’s getting a little too intense. Of late I’ve seen people get disheartened by the grimness, or get unhappy with each other over something, and sometimes they decide they need a break from Balloon Juice. It seems there’s more of that happening than usual — people taking refuge, from what is meant to be a refuge from the Crazy Out There. Some of the Crazy Out There has managed to seep in; it was probably inevitable in these times.

    I don’t even know where I’m going with this comment. At first I was going to say, ease off on the “please don’t go” replies, don’t inadvertently guilt people out of doing what’s best for their own tranquillity. But that felt like me lecturing you guys, a job I don’t feel all that qualified for. So I’ll just put this out there: this is what I’m seeing here.

  21. 21.

    Mallard Filmore

    Gin & Tonic @ 13:
    O+ is 38%
    O- is 7%
    If this many were immune, it should have been noticed by now.

  25. 25.

    germy

    Did anyone here take Uncle Cosmo’s bet that Biden would choose a white male for VP, because “now isn’t the time to play with identity politics” ?

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: No. Seeing as Type O is the most common blood type and this is a highly infectious disease I find it unlikely. But considering I am A Neg (the 2nd rarest type) it would make perfect sense because I can never catch a break.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic: no one is immune.  Sorry.

    But some indication that A blood folks might get it more than O blood folks. But that is preliminary studies from Wuhan reported in pretty sketchy press sites. All with one story only, the same one.

    I take it you are type O? I hope it proves true if you are.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ohio Mom:

    It turns out that legally, if you are the governor, you can’t just reschedule an election like it’s a garden tea party that got rained out. Only the state legislature or a court can do that. 

    Good.  I hope the court slaps their faces off.

  34. 34.

    germy

    It seems voters have dismantled the Lipinski family business.

    Tuesday’s results were a major upset for the congressman, whose family has represented Illinois’ third district, in the Chicago suburbs, for nearly four decades. Mr. Lipinski’s father, Bill Lipinski, first won the seat in 1982 and held it until 2005, when Mr. Lipinski succeeded him.

  35. 35.

    satby

    @rikyrah: you probably take the same line as my daughter-in-law, and her business had them go to working from home last week. Plus all the CBOT and Merc traders were sent home to work remotely last week too. Hope you get to stay home.

  39. 39.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I read in the middle of the night (ugh) that the only thing that kept lipinski’s primary from being a route was that, in his open primary yesterday, 19% of the people who voted for him were Trump supporters.   Hmmmm….

  40. 40.

    Soprano2

    I feel crazy, because while my hair is on fire about this, many of the people around me are going on as if this will all be over in a couple of weeks because “we’re more isolated” or “we’re not a really big city”, or some other such crap.  Our manager thinks we’ll be open in two weeks.  When I say it’s going to be more like one or two months, they all pooh-pooh me.  My husband thinks that in a week there will be a lot of pressure from people to re-open things.  I told him it all depends on how many more people are diagnosed in the next week.  They announced their 4th case in Springfield yesterday, which is what I think triggered the bar/restaurant closure order. The biggest problem now is people’s ignorance of how widespread the disease actually is.  I’m lucky – I’ve got enough money in the bank that I can pay the bills our pub will need to pay until we can re-open, but I know a lot of small business owners aren’t that lucky.  The healthcare people understand what’s coming, but few other people do.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @Baud: that news sparked much joy, but not just for progressives. Moderates in my old neighborhood have been trying to unload that guy for years.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @satby: I just hope the voters give Dems more than 2 years to fix things this time.  The demand for instant utopia is destroying this country.

  49. 49.

    Ohio Mom

    Mrmoshpotato: Governor Dewine asked a court on Monday if he could postpone the election and the court said, No, You can’t do that, Get outta here, Permission denied (IANAL, if you can’t tell by my choice of words).

    Then he ignored that and had the State Board of Health close it all down.

    I don’t think he’s being malicious, in that he wants to shut democracy down. He’s not too smart and he wants to look decisive. But apparently he did not immediately take the required legal next steps to reschedule the election. Because he’s not too smart.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    @Soprano2: When it is safe to travel and you re-open, I want to come and have a pint at your place

    My quirky neighborhood Ramen place (closed Sunday, Monday, Thursday and only had take out on Tuesday night and Friday lunch) of course has gone to take out only.  They had a very loyal dine-in clientele many Japanese, many from the Tufts community.  I got take out last night just trying to help them stay open during this crap.

    ETA. It was hot and yummy!

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    Our States Attorney, Kim Foxx won last night. I am very happy about this. The police union union has wanted her gone, and they didn’t get their way.???

  52. 52.

    TS (the original)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I saw similar, I don’t think it said immune, I think it was less likely to get the virus.  The same article said people with type A were more likely to get the virus – but I think I read the paper had not been peer reviewed. This is probably it

    coronavirus and blood type

    And I am type A & the spouse is type O

  54. 54.

    satby

    @Baud: if you look at a map of IL-03, you can see how gerrymandered it is. The tiny part of it inside Chicago city limits was always outvoted by the white flight suburban part, and there were always too many candidates splitting the opposition. This time they mostly coalesced around Newman and were able to oust him. I’m only sad that I wasn’t able to continue my record of voting against him in every election he’s ever run in.

  55. 55.

    germy

    NEW: Effective immediately, @NewYorkStateAG & I are suspending state debt collection.

    NYers with student debt, medical debt & other state-referred debt will have payments frozen for at least 30 days.

    We’re doing all we can to support those suffering financially due to #COVID19.

    — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 17, 2020

  57. 57.

    Immanentize

    @Ohio Mom: My understanding is the Ohio Supreme Court overruled the lower Court and supported Dewine’s proclamation?  But then again, Dewine’s son is on the Ohio Supreme Court.

  60. 60.

    germy

    OMG I would pay LARGE chunks of cash to see the woman VP candidate lurk around behind Pence the way trump did to Clinton.
    — Minxy 24 (@Minxy2424) March 16, 2020

  62. 62.

    jonas

    @Soprano2:The biggest problem now is people’s ignorance of how widespread the disease actually is.

    I think this is it — we’re flying blind because so little testing has actually been done at this point. We’re not going to really get a handle on this thing until virtually everyone in the country with so much as a sniffle gets tested and either cleared or quarantined. Testing is ramping up, but it’s going to take many weeks I think before a clear picture emerges of where we actually are and until the past few days, too many people weren’t taking the social distancing thing seriously.

  67. 67.

    PST

    @rikyrah:

    The commuter train that I take is a ghost town

    Every time I walk the dog I cross the busy main Metra tracks heading for the western and northwestern Chicago suburbs. We often have to wait for a train or two to go by, so I’m used to seeing the morning crowds on trains coming into the city and empty trains heading back for more commuters. The transformation is remarkable, but then so are all the other transformations. My neighborhood is basically tech companies, where everyone can work from home, and restaurants, which are now all closed. The streets at night are now as deserted as they used to be when I first moved here before the tech companies and restaurants arrived.

  68. 68.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ohio Mom:

    This story in The New Straits Times pretty much has that covered. The mosque in the photo that’s closed to tourists? It’s closed to worshippers too, like every mosque in the country. Friday prayers have been suspended by royal decree*; the same applies to any prayers in congregation. Incidentally, the mosque gets tourists because it was built in 1909 on the “muddy confluence” that gives Kuala Lumpur its name.

    *It takes a royal decree because the King is the titular head of Islam in Malaysia.

  69. 69.

    TS (the original)

    @Immanentize:

    Business Today, although an anodyne name, is an Indian fortnightly.  Same article appeared in the NY Post.

    Google returned many similar articles – I didn’t know which one to choose, nor which one I first saw – thanks for the clarification

  72. 72.

    germy

    Two years after he barely fended off a primary challenge from progressive Marie Newman, Illinois Democrat Dan Lipinski will leave Congress, after he was defeated by Newman in Tuesday’s primary. Her victory was a lone bright spot for progressives, who saw their hopes for a Bernie Sanders presidency fade amidst a slew of victories for Joe Biden. Since Lipinski’s district is reliably Democratic, Newman will almost certainly enter Congress in November.

    To get there, she didn’t just defeat the anti-abortion Lipinski, but also party leadership. House leadership had endorsed Lipinski over Newman, just as they did in 2016, when he defeated her by 2.2 points. To protect Lipinski and other incumbents, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee formalized a blacklist of vendors who worked for the insurgent Newman, resulting in the departure of several vendors from her campaign last year.

    Newman’s candidacy thus divided House leadership — namely, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and DCCC chairwoman Cheri Bustos — from a number of their allies in the labor and reproductive rights movement.

  73. 73.

    PenAndKey

    @germy: NYers with student debt, medical debt & other state-referred debt will have payments frozen for at least 30 days.

    Good. This has been something I’ve been calling for since this started. Governments can’t demand that business shut their doors and also not do anything to alleviate the necessity of working to pay debt obligations in this country. I honestly don’t even care how “economically unsound” or “irresponsible” it is to pause these sorts of payments by any legal means necessary, as some here have claimed; it’s a necessary evil to prevent a massive percentage of workers and businesses from losing their homes or business entirely. If that needs to be followed by support to the affected utilities so be it, but the banks can eat the interest loss for all I care

    @jonas:I think this is it — we’re flying blind because so little testing has actually been done at this point. We’re not going to really get a handle on this thing until virtually everyone in the country with so much as a sniffle gets tested and either cleared or quarantined.

    Back in late December before this had announced widespread coverage everyone in my office came down with a nasty RSV-like “cold” one after another. It lasted about two weeks for everyone and included lethargy, a short-lived fever, deep chest cough, and runny nose. We all recovered. Thinking back on it I’d bet decent money that if you tested our antibody titers you’d find anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in all of us. Still, we’re treating this as if that wasn’t the case, but if we all appear to be unaffected or never come down with symptoms we’ll never know since we will likely never be tested for it. But if it’s the case that that is what we had? That’s massive community spreading under the radar.

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    @TS (the original): I am, yes, O-, so very popular with my area blood center (O- is the universal donor.) I have a large collection of their coffee mugs – they give you one every gallon, which is 8 donations.

  77. 77.

    Dadadadadadada

    I’m in the Bronx. My kids’ schools were canceled last week (one on Wednesday the 11, the other, a public school, starting Monday the 16). My wife was sent home from work and told to stay away indefinitely as soon as they heard about the Wednesday school cancelation, and my job went skeleton crew starting yesterday, so I’ll only be working about one shift every two weeks for the foreseeable future. I still get paid my normal salary, plus overtime for any time I actually work (hurray for public-sector unions!), so we should be pretty much okay financially.

    There was a bit of drama yesterday; all I really know is that the cops roped off a section of my building’s driveway and called it a crime scene. They did that while I was out running, so I was unable to get back in for a good long time. The news doesn’t seem to have anything on it, but the rumor mill has it that a depressed 30-something man jumped off the roof of the building next to mine.

  79. 79.

    PST

    @O. Felix Culpa

    West Loop? Used to be my old ‘hood.

    Yes. The changes are remarkable, aren’t they? For the last six months I’ve been watching the rather seedy building across the street from me, which occupies a block of Fulton Market, get rehabbed as a shiny new WeWork. That was already looking a bit dubious three months ago. Now the whole idea of WeWork just seems quaint.

  80. 80.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @PST: Probably dead thread – but yes, the area has changed mightily. I remember when it was a near-wasteland. I miss the restaurant supply stores that used to populate Madison St. I moved away a few years ago, when the quickie condo building boom started after the Great Recession, with no consideration to the character of the area. That’s what happens when a neighborhood is divided among three aldermanic wards. No one is responsible for managing growth. Nevertheless I loved the area. Hope it’s still a good place for you.

  81. 81.

    Bill Arnold

    Concise roundup (with links) of emerging (potential) treatments:
    Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – Emerging treatments
    The biggest wildcard would be if the “Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine” trials show effectiveness; they are cheap and already stockpiled and manufacturing could be ramped up quickly.
    ETA this is interesting too:
    Japanese flu drug ‘clearly effective’ in treating coronavirus, says China (Justin McCurry, 18 Mar 2020)

    Medical authorities in China have said a drug used in Japan to treat new strains of influenza appeared to be effective in coronavirus patients, Japanese media said on Wednesday.
    Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, said favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm, had produced encouraging outcomes in clinical trials in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.
    “It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang told reporters on Tuesday.

  83. 83.

    Robert Sneddon

    @jonas:

    I think this is it — we’re flying blind because so little testing has actually been done at this point. We’re not going to really get a handle on this thing until virtually everyone in the country with so much as a sniffle gets tested and either cleared or quarantined.

    Testing is not a magic bullet — for one thing people can be infected and become infectious before the first cough or sniffle. Of course once someone is tested that’s not an all-clear, there’s no real numbers about false negatives in the testing procedures. There’s also the problem of being tested on Monday and receiving an all-clear on Wednesday while having been infected on Monday night.

    Front-line medical personnel facing suspected and proven coronavirus sufferers should be getting tested daily with their tests prioritised in the labs for a quick turnaround. That’s several hundred thousand tests a day, millions every week. For the rest of us it’s self-isolate, perform stringent hygiene and only if you start to suffer symptoms then contact the health services and get in line for a test if they’re available.

  85. 85.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: Man, if this white chick could get at him, she’d be under arrest right now for slapping the crap out of that selfish alte kocher.

  86. 86.

    Uncle Omar

    I followed the Sen. Warren link to her Twitter statement about what will and will not be in any bailout.  Please elect a Democratic Senate that will make her Senate Majority Leader.

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