#StayatHome pic.twitter.com/iXe4w5IUVs
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) March 22, 2020
As of Tuesday noon, the Boston-area ‘strongly suggested’ shelter-in-place becomes a state-wide ‘this is an ORDER, idiots’ shelter-in-place. Which changes life around here hardly at all, since everything but food, gas, hardware & liquor stores are already closed, and from the look of things people who don’t have the good sense to stay home are at least being surreptitious about it. How’s conditions in your neighborhoods?
Minor programming note: YouTube has decided to stop supporting ‘my browser’ — PaleMoon, a FireFox derivative. If you get a ‘broken link’ message, hit the YouTube logo (‘play on YouTube’) at the bottom right of the box, and the video should pop up in a new tab for you. Anybody knows a more elegant workaround, I would be more than happy to try it!
Guest Post by Suzanne: Hospitals Are Not Like Other Buildings
Princess
My neighbourhood, everyone will be happy to hear, is completely dead. It is so quiet and there is almost no one walking around. I don’t even hear sirens. Part of it is probably because the university is closed and a lot of people are gone, but it is much quieter now that say over Xmas break. We’re under a flight path and I think some of the silence is because there are way fewer flights. I don’t notice them normally at all, but I remember after 9/11 noticing they were gone, and it feels the same now.
dmsilev
Quiet.
I now am very familiar with the view of at least one wall in all of my coworkers’ homes.
Mowgli
We are on the far northeastern edge of the Atlanta metro area near Lake Lanier. Too many people here just don’t get it yet, we have a lot of “freedumb” types that seem to be going along as if nothing is happening. The Home Depot was packed on Saturday, Target was light versus a normal weekend. Public schools are closed and most restaurant chains are takeout only, but a lot of independents are still open for sit-down. We hear Gov. Kemp may lock things down, but nothing yet. Bootstraps!
joel hanes
There’s a pair of wrens building a nest in our teapot-shaped birdhouse — first pair we’ve had, although the house has been there for several years.
They’re very cheerful, and great singers, and I remember from childhood how the Jenny can scold when you come near the nest after she’s laid eggs.
Crashman06
Just west of Boston, noticeably less traffic down our semi-busy side street. We’ve been working from home with two young kiddos for a week and a day… so, um, things can get a little tense at times? Hanging in there though.
Geoduck
The governor here in Washington state finally upped the “stay at home” level as well, after stalling for a long time and taking a lot of flack for doing so; dunno if he was right to wait or not. (All the government stuff was shut down already, and groups banned.) I guess the local downtown is deserted, but kids are still out playing together in the street in front of my hermit hovel. Lots of idiots going hiking on trails too close together, or heading out to the various beaches. I guess the hospitals are about to get clobbered with the surge, if they haven’t already.
dmsilev
@Mowgli: At least you’re not in Texas, where apparently the Lt. Gov. just suggested that old folks would gladly sacrifice themselves so that the economy might live.
LivinginExile
testing to see if I can post from my computer.
Yutsano
Well the kids in my apartment complex are still running around like crazy, so that’s a thing. I drop my car off at the shop tomorrow running the risk of it sitting there for an indeterminate amount of time until I can rescue it. This will be grand for a bit. At least I’m still in a paid status.
Kilgore Trout
@dmsilev:
J R in WV
We’re so rural I’ve only heard a siren once on a bone-chiling cold winter afternoon. So it can’t be more quiet than usual. I’m planning to go to town tomorrow for Rx refills and groceries etc. I hope it isn’t too strange at Krogers in the morning… I’ll let you guys know how it works out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Brian Williams just used the word “bickering” to describe the debate over the $500B slushfund with no accountability. I am thinking un-christian thought about Mr Williams pulmonary health at the moment.
Punchy
@Mowgli: Red state gubbnahs in red states aint gunna do shit. Their Fox News-watching, COVID-aint-nuthin electorate wont allow it.
Adam L Silverman
The House COVID-19 stimulus response and relief bill is posted!
eddie blake
i’m in brooklyn, on ocean parkway.
it’s SOOOO quiet.
catie cat is sleeping on my lap.
these are strange times.
dmsilev
@Kilgore Trout: As a bonus, you get to claim all of their toilet paper for yourself.
ziggy
From Washington State also–this is a big deal for me. We’ve got two days to work our butts off, then our work is shut down. This is the busy season, and it’s going to be pretty frustrating. I really wish people hadn’t acted so irresponsibly this weekend, maybe we could have avoided this, but perhaps not.
A drive-through testing site opened up near my favorite lunch spot (not good for the business!), it was just packed with cars today. It’s really good to see that lots of local cases will be discovered and quarantined, and will keep levels down in our community hopefully. A bit disconcerting to think that all those cars probably had fairly ill people in them though.
Hummus Where The Heart Is
How is it supposed to work if the Trump “Red States” (read: seriously dumb fuckers) re-open and the Blue States (read: smart people) stay closed? OK, short answer is, it won’t, I get that, but it sounds like even a bigger CF than we have now. If that were possible.
I get why Trump is concerned; he only had the economy to run on and that went to the shitter. Too bad, asshole.
dmsilev
@Punchy: I read that WV just issued a statewide lockdown. It is slowly starting to sink in.
joel hanes
@J R in WV:
I’m going into Walgreen’s and maybe Safeway tomorrow morning (also prescriptions to pick up).
I’ll try to do a Silicon Valley scouting report if I’m not too freaked out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
More Italian mayor yelling at citizens– this guy’s riff on sudden fitness enthusiasts is particularly amusing to me.
Amir Khalid
If anyone’s curious, here’s a Japanese expatriate’s take on KL in coronavirus times. I was intrigued by what he has to say about the differences in how Japanese people and Malaysians have reacted.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: This appears to now be a coordinated talking point on the right intended to backstop the President’s decision to “reopen” the country and the economy in week. The Federalist (who funds them?) ran a piece justifying it with a cost-benefit analysis today, First Things ran a piece arguing it was bioethically and theologically appropriate in regard to Christianity (it isn’t), and now the idiot Lt. Governor Dan Patrick interview to a very credulous Tucker on the Fox News Revanchist White Power Glower Hour of Power Glower Brought To You By Swanson Frozen Dinners. This doesn’t happen by accident. Someone has decided this is the messaging and is starting to work the influence operation.
Adam L Silverman
@Hummus Where The Heart Is: With the exceptions of Ohio and Louisiana, no red states have actually done what NY, NJ, PA, CT, MD, MA, CA, WA, and MI have done.
CaseyL
The Department Chair had a teleconference town hall this morning, and it was the first time I’ve seen my coworkers in over a week. Certainly the first time I spoke to more than two people in over a week!
All quiet up here in north Seattle. Not much traffic, but this part of the city’s been shut down for days. I mentioned to a friend of mine that people are taking the distancing thing seriously; she said, “You haven’t seen Alki Beach.” Lots of people crowded onto the beach, apparently.
@Geoduck: Huh. I didn’t hear that Inslee did that; good for him. Hard to understand why his response started out so strong, but then he balked at going for a mandated shut-down.
@Adam L Silverman: Oh goody. A real-time real-life laboratory experiment on “The Range of Responses to a Pandemic, and the Associated Resultant Mortality and Disability, in a Population Stratified by Socio-Economic Factors.”
satby
I’ve stayed home for 10 days other than running solo drop offs to the post office, but I thought I would swing by a local grocery story just to pick up a couple of things, and the lot was as busy as any random day before this all started. No one particularly keeping distances from each other outside. I didn’t go in. Red states suck.
joel hanes
@Hummus Where The Heart Is:
How is it supposed to work if the Trump “Red States” (read: seriously dumb fuckers) re-open and the Blue States (read: smart people) stay closed?
Less awfully for the blue states than it might first seem.
Isolation doesn’t work by making sure that no one is infected; it works by slowing transmission.
Let’s say you’re an asymptomatic carrier, and you flee plague-stricken Idaho for Washington State. What do you find when you get there ? Almost all businesses closed, people staying indoors. No bars or dine-in restaurants, no crowd events.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
This is very catchy. It needs to be the name of a real TV show.
chris
@Adam L Silverman:Part of a long thread.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman:So, the right wing has gone from using 1984 as an instruction manual to Logan’s Run? Also, too, death panels?
Hummus Where The Heart Is
@Adam L Silverman:
The Real Money (meaning, not Trump, who is such a poser) must have gloved up and given Donnie the Charlie McCarthy treatment, burying it to the elbow. “Look, I can make Donnie talk while I drink this glass of water.”
For Trump, this smells of complete desperation regarding November; somebody must have come to the conclusion that postponing the election wasn’t possible.
joel hanes
@Adam L Silverman:
Someone has decided this is the messaging
I have a pretty good idea who that someone might be
satby
@Adam L Silverman: News reports saying Trump is more worried about the economy than people, and if old people die, well less SS and Medicare payouts, so it’s all good.
I’m now actively lighting candles in the hope that Trump gets it and croaks.
Punchy
@dmsilev: OK…if so….wow. Here in NE KS, Dem KS gov ordered strict rules. New cases show low/moderate growth. MO GOP gov wont announce anything…shits double/tripling every 2 days. If only those fuckers would be forbidden to cross state lines, I would chalk it up to Darwin and go have a beer.
West of the Rockies
I’m in a red county, bluish town in NorCal. Streets have probably 75% less traffic. Overall, people are staying in. In a pharmacy though last week, as workers put down tape marks to indicate safe social distance, at least 2 mouth breathers whined and passed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Quiet here in Glendale, the city and county have closed off the beaches, city golf courses, and trails since folk couldn’t maintain social distancing. I was going to hike to Beacon Hill Saturday, but the parking lot was full, then thought of going up the baseball field up above Glenoaks canyon, but the access road was closed there(I thought it’d be open cause there’s a golf course up there). I’m debating on whether to go to Costco tomorrow morning(they have early hours for 60+ on Tuesday and Thursday).
Timurid
@Adam L Silverman:
So how do we stop this guy? He’s openly planning something orders of magnitude deadlier than 9/11. But unlike bin Laden, he has the Constitution on his side. Are we really getting into Seven Days In May territory?
dmsilev
@Punchy: There’s a plot floating around comparing the growth of infections and countermeasures taken in KY and TN, which are fairly similar except that one has a Democratic gov and one a Republican. The difference is …notable.
CaseyL
@West of the Rockies: Whined and passed? What, they whined and then dropped dead? Or they passed on shopping at that pharmacy?
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: I’m sure it will be painted as just a big gubmint spending spree by the demonrats, but it’s a good bill and covers lots of things that are badly needed RIGHT NOW.
I hope that it, or something very much like it, passes quickly.
Cheers,
Scott.
Hummus Where The Heart Is
@Punchy:
Well, that’s it, isn’t it; are we going to have to put police on the borders like the Great Depression and say Okie, stay home. Because if they want to stay home and play Naked Twister just to piss off the libs, well, hey, I say go for it, just stay the fuck away from me.
And I’d join you for that beer as long as you stayed 6 feet away.
Tenar Arha
It’s really quiet. I’m in the burbs in MA, but off a main road. The school closed & that cut traffic a lot, this is cutting more. Lots of things are closed, or closing. I’m driving back & forth doing clean out stuff. Anyway, so last week rte 128 was easy driving & merging no matter what time I drove on it, like it felt like less traffic than a Sunday. Yesterday I did a quick trip and on my way back at 7-ish & I don’t think I’ve ever seen so few cars on that road. (Traffic on that highway is notorious, it’s a real shock).
ETA typos
satby
As of the 25th, two days (well one day in 1/2 an hour) from now, shelter in place will be the rule in IN. Not sure why the delay. IL, MI, OH all already on lockdown.
NotMax
Spoke to Mom, who is ordering takeout meals delivered (spare ribs last night, which will last her “for four days”). Says her freezer is packed with food but she doesn’t want to touch any of it as “I might need it later if things really go downhill.” Neighbor whose son was going marketing called to ask if she wanted anything. Bread was her only request. Turned out there was none to be had at the supermarket. However, local bagel shop doing deliveries.
Also said has promised to keep paying the housekeeper who normally comes weekly the regular amount while she’s forced to stay at home and not working, same as if she had shown up.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: At least yesterday morning, the Arroyo Seco trail was fairly sparsely populated. I stayed south of the bridge, so no idea what the Rose Bowl loop was like.
Another Scott
@satby: Someone on Twitter said that Donnie wants to open things up now because many of his hotels have been shut down so it’s hurting his wallet.
It’s always about dollars coming to him…
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
ziggy
This is going to be a very interesting sociological experiment, 50 different states, each with a somewhat different population and covid policy. Too bad it isn’t been run with rats instead of people.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: From the pic I saw, they all went to Eaton Falls.
Mary G
My neighborhood is usually pretty quiet in the winter and starts revving up with beach rentals around now. This week it is dead. I hear probably one car go by an hour. Even the parade of dog walkers we used to have is missing. Some dickweed down the block is having remodeling of an empty house done, but the wingnuts are breaking out the tar and feathers for him because brown people are doing the work, so I think it’ll be buttoned up soon.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@satby:
Probably because Indiana is run by a Republican. As a group, they tend to be taking this crisis a lot less seriously then Democratic governors, with the exception of DeWine in Ohio
Adam L Silverman
@CaseyL:
via GIPHY
Adam L Silverman
@chris: I’m tracking.
debbie
@satby:
Trump’s attitude is infuriating me, but not quite as much as the GOP Senate. I trust Mnuchin being in charge of dispensing $3 billion half as far as I can throw his stupid wife.
Mary G
West of the Rockies
I don’t think that the Hey, Olds, Take One for the Team strategy will work. The aged won’t dig it, people with aged parents or grandparents won’t dig it. Maybe greedy bankers who are 50-year-old orphans will sign on.
The Dangerman
It’s actually NOT that quiet here. A lot of people out exercising, the grocery stores aren’t packed but are brisk. I wonder if it is a function of this being a College town and basically the beach? Poly is on Spring break now I hear.
Only thing I’ve noticed when I am out that is a bit different is I’ve seen more people driving impaired or at least distracted; are those Folks “self-medicating”, getting loaded like there is no tomorrow (hmmm, another saying that isn’t funny anymore)? No idea. Bars are closed but all that does is drive someone to go buy a full bottle.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev:
Adam L Silverman
@Hummus Where The Heart Is: It goes beyond that. It is actually stupidity. Aside from the fact that it puts a lot of his base at risk in states like Florida, it would also mean that we’d be headed into the last quarter of the campaign, such as it might be given the SARS-CoV2 outbreak, where the death rate is climbing and he once again is in way over his head in responding.
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies:
Passed by? Passed out? Passed on?
Yutsano
@CaseyL: The timing sucks a bit for me. I’m taking my car to the shop tomorrow and I have no idea if they’ll be open to even fix it, let alone allow me to recover it. It’s going to be very fluid here for a few days. Ah well. I can still (hopefully) get grocery delivery.
Punchy
@Timurid: I know many companies are going soley by CDC guidelines. Unless Trump can force them to say stupid shit, his declarations wont affect a vast majority of companies’ WFH mandates. But some will, and needless people will likely die.
Soprano2
Feel for those of us in the stupid red states; we are so fucked. I’m in Springfield, MO, where the mayor and county commission ordered all bars, restaurants and entertainment venues closed except for food takeout and delivery a week ago. There’s noticeably less traffic on the streets in the evening. However, I just saw an ad on TV that made my blood run cold – Indian River Casino in OK is advertising that they are reopening to the public on April 2nd with “enhanced safety measures”. Good God, don’t they know there aren’t enough enhanced safety measures in the world to make a casino atmosphere safe right now? We.Are.Doomed. I swear, I have written or said the word “fuck” more times in the past 3 weeks than I have in my whole previous life. I told my husband that if these people had to fight WWII, they would give up after 3 weeks and surrender to the Nazis just so life could go “back to normal”.
Adam L Silverman
@Timurid: The governors will stop him. He can say whatever he wants about it being safe to go back to work, but he can’t actually make the governors lift the mandatory shelter in place and shutdown of everything not deemed emergency essential. Or, rather, all the Democratic governors will, plus the Republican governors of MA, MD, and OH.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Oh but you’re being political if you criticize Trump in any way! An actual human being said this to me in a comment today (paraphrasing):
I can’t fucking even with these people. I replied and demolished this entire “argument”. I pointed out how Trump had knowledge of this virus in January, did nothing to prepare and downplayed until last week, had done simulations with Obama officials in 2017 for a pandemic similar to this one, disbanded the pandemic response team at the WH. Of course hours later and still crickets
debbie
@Hummus Where The Heart Is:
Which is why this part of Pelosi’s bill is my favorite:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
just saw DeSantis talking about the mandatory self-quarantine for traveller from states like NY and NJ to that they don’t “re-introduce” the virus to Florida.
Is he really trying to tell The Villages that the virus isn’t there?
ETA : @debbie: me too– I was very happy to see that
bluehill
Wish repubs would fight as hard for the elderly as they do for unborn fetuses.
hitchhiker
Sigh. For almost 2 years we’ve been working towards getting a little house built on Whidbey Island. It was supposed to be ready to move in, finally, at the end of July. Now I think the lockdown over all of WA means the builders all have to go home until further notice.
Poor us.
On the bright side, nobody in our family has lost their job. Everyone is either good to work from home or in an essential industry. And all of us are still healthy, which is what I care about most. (I really, really want to go live in our new house, though … )
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: I can throw her a long way…//
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
I bet you can! Me with my upper body strength, probably not even a few inches.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
So you’re saying you trust her a lot? /s
NotMax
@Another Scott
Saw it mentioned in passing the other day in an article somewhere or other that the occupancy rate at his D.C. hotel is now 5%.
And I suspect even that figure is inflated. $250,000 per month rent on the property; will the business default on payments to the lessor – the General Services Administration of the federal government?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He is. But it is. Along with a variety of STDs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Soprano2: Don’t know if I mentioned this, but my dad grew up in your fair city.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No, just that between the martial arts and the weight training, I can go for both altitude and distance.
debbie
@NotMax:
Now that is happy news to end the day with! Thanks!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Could Trump order the GSA to overlook the loan payments? I doubt they would comply or at least I’d hope they wouldn’t
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
Maybe I’m just sensitive, but Quinn the Quarantine Fox’s message makes me want to cry.
West of the Rockies
@CaseyL:
Damn Autocorrect! Should’ve been pissed.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
LOL. Are you going the distance, are going for speed?
oldgold
The casual news consumer taking their cues from POTUS must be confused as to what Coronavirus represents – a hoax, a war or a 2 week inconvenience.
What a shit-show.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
We’re well into it now, just look at the virus maps. It’s quite notable the growth differences between states.
Shades of the Spanish Flue were Wilson’s policy was “not give a shit”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Major Major Major Major
If this were in a book it would be a really outlandish detail.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Passed gas? Passed … on second thought, I’m not going there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@oldgold:
It’s a floor was and a dessert topping!
Soprano2
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes. I remember you mentioning that. Be glad you’re there rather than here right now. Sadly, Trump’s “let’s reopen things soon” crap will play pretty good around here. It’s still fair, but it’s full of crazy Trump worshippers. I work with several of them, and there’s no talking to them about this. So far the actual local authorities are taking it seriously; I hope that continues, because our governor is AWOL.
West of the Rockies
@Soprano2:
Maybe payback for the Smallpox-infected blankets?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’s already an accessory in one death.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Soprano2: Dad left to join the Navy in ’37 and never went back.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Wow, real life is turning into a (bad) John Hughes movie. All it needed was to take place in a Chicago suburb
Amir Khalid
@oldgold:
It is whichever fits the lie that Trump is telling at any given moment.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
No idea if this woman was a Trump supporter, but if she was hey, all it took was nearly dying because of his advice to snap her out of the cult
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Do we have to wait until Greenwald chimes in before we decide if this is a good or a bad development?
Break!
Also, you lurking shitstain of an American who has facilitated the betrayal of the Republic in order to line your own pockets through repeatedly shifting your ideological and ethical positions to whatever will get you the most airtime and deliver to you the most profit, if you even think of uttering a peep here, it will not end well.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
This is so fucking disappointing. Mammon demands a mountain of skulls. From another thread,
Do you have any suspects in mind? (i.e. names?)
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): real life has being a weird-ass science fiction movie for a while now, kid.
West of the Rockies
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
At least you tried. Horses can be led to water, but… You know the rest.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): She and her husband were.
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
I suppose it means that in Brazil right now, the hoodlums are more on the ball* and better organised than the government.
*Football pun not intended.
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I sure hope you didn’t have that long conversation with a stranger in person.
West of the Rockies
@hitchhiker:
I feel you about the house. Similar situation for us. But count your blessings: health and employment.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: reminds me of the time a Vegas cabbie told me how much safer it was when “the boys” ran the town
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think I’ve seen most John Hughes movies, but I missed the one where Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy were vigilantes….
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: I have a loose list of suspects. There are almost too many possibilities.
Geoduck
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Nearly dying and losing her husband.
Aziz, light!
If the bill ensures nationwide voting by mail, how are Republicans supposed to win elections?
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: oh, god, I hadn’t even thought of that, shiiit we are fucked.
terry chay
@Hummus Where The Heart Is: Yep!
@Adam L Silverman: I think you need to add Indiana to the red state list (but I suspect it’s only because every state that borders them has a shelter-in-place order)
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid:
I honestly believe in the hooligans more right now.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Well, since one of Bolsonaro’s earliest statements intimated that the favelas are a hoax….
Rio’s current governor Wilson Witzel is another nasty, far right piece of work.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: That’s why I’m here, to spread joy and sunshine into everyone’s life.
Break
Just to make sure everyone is tracking, especially you, everything under the “Break” in my previous reply to you is directed at GG, who has, in the past lurked here and then tried to chime in via sock puppet.
Adam L Silverman
@terry chay: I just hadn’t seen that the governor had issued the order yet. I will add it to my mental inventory.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Ya think GG is lurking here? I know he knows about us, so it’s possible.
opiejeanne
My neighborhood, semi-rural King County/Wodinville, Washington, is dead. Kind of an eerie stillness, reminding me of the second night of the Rodney King riots, when we lived in Riverside, California. I went outside at midnight and again around 2, and there weren’t even any dogs barking. It was so quiet I could hear a lone truck on the freeway shifting gears, some distance away. I stayed up two nights in a row, waiting. Nothing happened, thank goodness.
This is like that, but we’ll probably hear coyotes later, yipping like crazed chihuahuas, saying grace over their supper.
NickM
@Another Scott: Even if he opens the hotels, who is going to come? That’s what I don’t get. Is he going to force people to go out shopping, traveling and dining? Demand (except for groceries and apparently guns) is fucked because of fear of getting sick, not because of shutdowns.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Define “a while”?
@West of the Rockies:
Yeah, I know. People like that just piss me off so fucking bad, to the point where I just want to throttle them. I hate craven cowards who run away when you challenge them and their arguments
@Adam L Silverman:
Wow, I didn’t know that. This pandemic is hopefully going to open up a lot of people’s eyes. Sadly, friends and family dying is what often breaks through the propaganda
@Major Major Major Major:
Nope on the interwebs
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’ve only seen a handful: The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Home Alone movies.
@Geoduck:
Yikes. Get the fuck off the Trump train
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: yeah, I caught that, but good to have the clarification out there.
Yutsano
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh yeah. He’s even commented here in the past. It wouldn’t shock me in the slightest.
NotMax
@NickM
“Business is so dire that Red Hen served Sarah Huckabee.”
//
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NickM: The faithful will obey the god-emperor, just like that lady and her late husband.
opiejeanne
My youngest got an email from her company that they are an essential service, shipping food to southwestern Alaska twice a week, and they told her to print out a certificate, a hall pass if you will, to show the police tomorrow if they stop her on her way to work. Without her company, that part of Alaska would starve. There are a couple of other companies shipping once a week, but their barges are smaller.
Yutsano
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Unpossible. Who else is going to validate her racism and white supremacy?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: I remember him mixing it up with ABL when she was frontpager, that’s why I knew he knows about us.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Glenn Greenwald commented here under his own name a time or two. While this technically makes him a jackal, he was generally greeted with scepticism and disdain. I wonder, does he still lurk here and curse us whenever he sees himself mentioned?
hueyplong
@NotMax: I initially read “served Sarah Huckabee” to mean something different.
That’s where we are, I guess.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
during an interview with the Vice President of these United States
Another Scott
@NickM: Supposedly KSA or some other oil-rich state would reserve blocks of rooms in his DC hotel, pay for them, and nobody would show up.
It’s hard to do things like that, in a half-way plausible way, if the hotel is closed.
IOW, follow the money…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott:
I think they did the same in Chicago
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It has happened in the past. I have a high level clearance, so my official opinion is that Reality Winner should have gone through proper channels and what she did, while well intentioned was naive and stupid. Naive that she did it the way she did because she’s an idealist and stupid because she trusted Greenwald. But he burned her. And I cannot believe after he handled Manning and Snowden that he didn’t know that he was burning her because what she had brought him completely contradicts his narrative that Russian interference in the 2016 election and its ongoing interference in US politics and society through an ongoing influence operation as part of an undeclared war is all a hoax made up as an excuse because HRC is a terrible candidate and person. He didn’t burn her by accident. And even if I could set aside his betraying his country as part of the Snowden op, what he didn’t to Winner is inexcusable.
NotMax
Ooh. Becket available on Prime.
O’Toole, Burton, Gielgud. Haven’t seen it for close onto 50 years. Settling in for some first class scenery chomping.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The dead cannot see. Nor can they learn.
gwangung
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He’s bringing down property prices.
Kelly
Oregon joined the shut down states today. Industrial sites like the plywood mill nearby can remain open as long as distancing and sanitation is adequate. I expect our mill will run as long as they can staff a shift. Weed shops are allowed to transact curbside.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I just wanted to make it explicit. I figured you got it from the context, but it is late, everyone is stressed, and this is Balloon Juice…
frosty
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): and Hogan in Maryland
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: I have no idea if he still does, but I just wanted to be explicit.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Anybody who has any knowledge about how novel diseases are identified, I’d like your take on this:
So let’s say you have a virus of alien origin that makes a zoonotic leap to humans. In the non-human characters, the virus only manifests as a cold or mild flu, but in humans it eventually causes severe respiratory distress, high fever, and multiple organ failure. Further, it is as contagious as measles and as lethal as ebola with an incubation period similar to the novel coronavirus.
Let’s say that a 20-something stumbles into a hospital, exhibiting the above symptoms and dies days later even with extensive ICU interventions. Would the CDC be called in immediately? What are the steps in the public health chain? How long would it take to recognize what is being dealt with? And would it be kept under wraps as long as possible? Would you hear about it on the evening news?
Adam L Silverman
@hueyplong: It’s the Red Hen, not The Donner Family Style Buffet!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Pretty amazing, Trump almost had that War Time Presidency going for a moment there last week and just had to go back to being a total worthless douche.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Stop crowdsourcing your novel!//
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mary G
Dow futures up nearly 600, Twitler will be off to the races.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
If you decide to tease some names, I’ll be surprised if there isn’t a tight overlap with people pushing for global heating gigacide (4-6x) because that fossil carbon is just squandered short-term wealth if it’s in the ground. (They’re also pretty shadowy.)
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That news is now old and out of date. Someone showed the President or, at least, Dan Scavino, an NRO article panning what has leaked out and he’s just pulled the rug out from under Mnuchin.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The other bit to the hotels is business travel, a lot of companies are taking a close look at it realizing they can do the same thing by video conferencing. That’s not coming back.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I feel so much better now!!1
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Koch, Thiel, Mercer, Butowsky (he’s the guy behind the Seth Rich conspiracy and appears to be the guy funding Devin Nunes’ lawsuits) just for a start. There are rumors that Thiel, Butowsky, and/or Mercer may be the funders for The Federalist, but that’s all they are.
Mary G
Alexandra Petri’s column in the WaPo about company emails about their response to COVD19 is funny:
I’ve gotten so many of these.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman:
Cheers,
Scott.
joel hanes
@Another Scott:
reserve blocks of rooms in his DC hotel, pay for them, and nobody would show up
Tactics like this are what I imagine Trump asks (plausibly deniably, in mobspeak, or through intermediaries) from the companies that he has agreed not to compel to produce masks, PPE, ventilators, and other pandemic equipment, and rather to let the magic of the free market set the prices for those desperately-needed goods.
“No, I won’t invoke the Defense Production Act. But I may ask you to do me a favor in return — talk to Jared’s people about the arrangments for your executive sales conference sometime next year”
Adam L Silverman
How many people comprise a holler of people? Are we talking 50? 100? 1,000?
hueyplong
Ill-Chosen Emojis would be a good band name.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott:
That’s just SCIENCE!
joel hanes
@NotMax:
Watched A Lion In Winter with my mom, back in November. It was even better than I remembered.
Sebastian
@satby:
Donnie is worried because 6 of his 7 resorts have closed (per David Farenthold). Only the DC Hotel is open, although the restaurant is closed I believe or the restaurant is open but the hotel is closed.
Either way, Donnie’s Ponzi Scheme Operation is about to turn into Bankruptcy #7 and that’s why he is panicking. He is going to sacrifice millions of Americans to avoid this. This, my friend, is the ultimate act of treason and I am not going to write what should be done to him because I don’t want the Secret Service visiting me
Redshift
My neighborhood is pretty quiet. Just the occasional car or person out for a walk. Heard lots of neighborhood kids running and screaming yesterday, so they probably weren’t keeping away from each other, but what can you do? Didn’t hear them today, though.
We ran a couple of errands in the afternoon. There were plenty of cars on the road, but nowhere near normal levels. There were lots of cars in the parking lot of the post office, but few people inside, so I guess they were employees who normally park somewhere less convenient. CVS had more people than I would have liked, but there was lots of signage about keeping apart, and people were mostly following except for the non-automated checkout, where they were right up behind each other like normal, but the automated checkout was okay.
I had hoped to grab a few things from the local computer/electronics store, but I forgot that they had instituted (good) procedures for limiting the number of people in the store at once, and it was a half hour wait to get in.
We’re at non-essential businesses closed in VA, but not lockdown yet.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Yet another example of the autocratic cult-like hold he has over the GOP
@Adam L Silverman:
I am genuinely interested in how pandemic surveillance works and what steps would be taken in the above scenario. It’s not exactly an accessible subject
I’ll probably just read this book
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Isn’t that second “Power Glower” redundanty repetitive? Still… very accurate and on point, everyone ~!!~ I have insomnia tonight, I wonder if it’s not knowing what going to town will be like. We’ve been holed up for 13 days this time.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@joel hanes:
I thought the Defense Production Act had already been invoked?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sebastian:
They’re providing protection to a monster who doesn’t deserve it. I wonder how some of them deal with that
The Pale Scot
@Punchy:
In another 10 days the states taking action are going to have to start blocking roads, if only to protect the medical capacity they have been husbanding from being overrun.
Skepticat
The Bahamas, with only four confirmed cases in the whole country, just went on total lockdown with a 24-hour curfew until March 31. Cargo flights and ships are allowed in, construction workers trying to rebuild in the Dorian emergency zone (where I am) can continue work, and the one grocery store on the big island can be open limited hours. We’re trying to find out whether they’ll allow us to leave our tiny desert island to get to the store. Businesses that can’t have their employees work remotely are ordered to cease operations, outdoor exercise is limited to an hour and a half a day, and nonessential road traffic is prohibited. This going to take some getting used to.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I was teasing, hence the sarc tags.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: That’s the joke.
smike
@West of the Rockies: tRump needs to set a good example on that one first. He’s a natural leader, you know…
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
And WV, right? right….
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It has been invoked, but the President refuses to issue any orders under its authority because American companies are “volunteering” to help.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh I know. You’re good dude. I was just saying I was genuinely curious
@Adam L Silverman
Oh for fuck’s sake. Fuck that asshole piece of shit
Redshift
@Adam L Silverman:
Maybe, but sometimes “whoever talked to him last” works in our favor. There have been negotiations in the past where he declared his opposition and ended up giving in. A little talk perhaps, about how if he makes it his fault people aren’t getting their survival checks it’ll mess up their “blame the Democrats playing politics” narrative and tank his reelection.
Adam L Silverman
@J R in WV: I have now seen one reference that WV is issuing a similar order.
Ruckus
@Geoduck:
I walk every non raining day. 2-3 miles a day. I walk out of the way to avoid others and most of them do the same. More people walking now, less traffic. SoCal, San Gabriel Valley. Fun times.
Redshift
@Adam L Silverman:
Louisiana has a Democratic governor.
James E Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
I read the list of Outrages! and quick-checked them in the text of the bill. They are, no surprise, gross mischaracterizations. The ones about airplane emissions seem to be grants to airlines to keep doing what they are already doing w/r/t reducing emissions. The one about “Gives unprecedented collective bargaining power to unions” is just a complete fabrication.
I am kind of surprised that used a photo of Schumer instead of Pelosi.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
I suggested that after every republican old and every republican politician have volunteered, have been accounted for and buried, I might consider it. Otherwise he can go fuck himself.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
I think that’s baked in at this point, honestly
Adam L Silverman
I’m gonna go rub the doggie’s bellies and then rack out. Catch everyone on the flip!
Anne Laurie
April 2nd is ten (well, 9) days from now. Things are so fluid, I wouldn’t worry about any ‘we’ll reopen’ statements more than maybe 48 hours in advance, because nobody knows where things will stand on April 2nd.
Remember the wise mantra: When everything is said and done, much more will have been said than done!
Ruckus
@Hummus Where The Heart Is:
He fucked the economy pretty good any way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
Hope you avoid this Ruckus.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
LOL
J R in WV
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, it’s been on as a request for a week, official order as of tomorrow. I would be able to hit krogers anyway, and I hear tell from Health Dept Inspector next door that things are really quiet.
Hell, my last trip into town was 13 days ago, and it was pretty quiet then too.
Mary G
This seems concerning:
Anne Laurie
I am informed by reliable sources that Greenwald obsessively searches for any mention of his name on social media — if one understands the protocols, apparently there are ways to be alerted every time some rando on FaceBook or Twitter or Instagram mentions you.
Unlike, for example, David Sirota, Greenwald has the (minimal) self-restraint not to respond immediately to every ‘slur’. So, he’s probably still getting notifications when he’s mentioned here… but there are so many more deserving (higher-traffic) targets that all he can do is Keep the Receipts. Man’s only got so many hours in a day!
joel hanes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The words have been mouthed, but Trump has (criminally) not actually used the provisions of the DPA to compel production of pandemic materiel at fixed prices. He said he talked to the companies, and they didn’t want it, so he won’t do that.
Dahlia
@opiejeanne: I would guess the Pipeline trail is still busy during the day. Easy enough to maintain a 6 foot separation there.
smike
@hueyplong:
Upvoted!
Sebastian
@Mary G:
Just because they were able to find RNA doesn’t mean the virus is still alive/active.
Don’t panic please.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
A holler is > 10 passels. So if ten families each has a passel of kids, they comprise 1 holler.
You might could look it up, but trust me.
trollhattan
Oh, why the hell not?
Not gonna park my Gulfstream, nosiree, I got plenty of gas and a bartender just for me. Wait, will they still staff the towers?
JaySinWA
@trollhattan: I thought a holler was anywhere in earshot of someone hollering.
Martin
@joel hanes: They don’t want it because they’re making fucking bank off the perfectly inelastic market that is selling products that keep others alive during a shortage.
The Defense Production Act is as much about stopping price gouging than it is about activating new production. And yet he hauls Barr out there to threaten to prosecute your neighborhood bodega for selling Purell for an extra $1, while they are knowingly throwing money hand over fist at 3M for face masks.
Martin
I like the look of the House bill.
cain
@Hummus Where The Heart Is:
If he was stupid to open the country back up, every country will ban travel to and from the U.S. If their solution is to just ignore the virus and let it do its thing, it also means that testing isn’t needed either.
The fool forgets that this is a global economy. Those bans are going to happen and Trump is going to have a melt down – most likely threaten the world and the blue states. He’s really fucked if he tries to go this way.
Meanwhile, the rich will die because the poors live amongst them and they can carry teh virus, the rich goes and hobnob with their rich friends and they carry the virus. Morons all.
cain
@Amir Khalid:
I believe he and John were friends at one point, and I think they still exchange ghost stories
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
Coming very late to the thread. I like the Pelosi bill.
HeartlandLiberal
Ahoy, Anne Laurie, just a link you should read about why you should maybe reconsider and not use FireFox forks like Palemoon.
Main concern is they tend to be based on older code base, and because of lack of critical input by developers often lag really badly in security.
https://www.howtogeek.com/335712/update-why-you-shouldnt-use-waterfox-pale-moon-or-basilisk/
FWIW, I still use FireFox, and always update to keep most recent version in place. You do not have to use the stuff they are pushing, like in the cloud access from anywhere to your links, data, etc. You do not have to use Pocket. And you can still use many useful addons for security and functionality.
We are about to buy a new iMac for my wife, her older Apple Pro is so old I have been unable to upgrade browsers, FireFox or Chrome (Safari, hack, spit) for her in a couple years, so she is unable to use addons e.g. AdBlockPlus, so she constantly complains about the crazy web sites that will not hold still when she visits them because of the intrusive ads. Plus the security is really becoming a serious issue. Technically, one could install the latest Apple OS on her old machine, but it would have the speed of a brick in subzero temperature, so really not an option. I wanted to order immediately, but she wants to wait a few weeks to see if the pandemic economy puts them on sale. She always wants a bargain. Can’t blame her.
WaterGirl
@LivinginExile: I approved this one. Please try again from this device so we can see if your second one from your computer will go through automatically.
opiejeanne
@Dahlia: Yes, and there was a pack of kids on mountain bikes crossing 168th on the Tolt Trail the last time I went out. There was an adult with them. This was last Thursday, when I went out and had A Very Bad Day trying to avoid close contact with people.
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: my family had ten surviving kids, and they were one of five large families living in their holler. It was a very small holler.
opiejeanne
@JaySinWA: No. A hillbilly holler is spelled “hollow”. My family lived in Kolb Hollow, according to the sign at the corner of Route J and Kolb Hollow, where their house sits. Kolb Hollow road continues past their farm to Bannister Hollow.
The Pale Scot
@HeartlandLiberal:
Hey, re-animating old Macs is a hobby of mine. you can put more ram and and a SSD into one for a couple of hundred bucks. I just put an SSD into my my sister’s 2009 MBP. It runs El Capitan 10.11 and Photoshop CS3 just fine with 8gigs of ram. FF will run on anything past 10.8 Tell me what year it is or go to OWC and take a look
Old Macs don’t die, they get repurposed.
I’ve found good value for preowned Macs here
No need to by a new one. the current models are pricy and I think they’re becoming toys