this is bad propaganda, it talks down and scorns its target audience – makes them feel childish and stupid. good propaganda makes people feel heroic for doing ordinary things. it's corny, not mean. https://t.co/V1N983b22V
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 23, 2020
I gotcha covered:https://t.co/MOQPMN80lw
— Christopher M Gross (@TheGrossChris) March 23, 2020
(Yeah, not my favorite song either, but just about the prettiest arrangement I’ve ever heard!)
We also need images of service. Lots of people are going to have to be out there taking risks in order to keep everything going. That needs to be valorized – both for the sake of morale, and to help get them their due, now and later. https://t.co/jRwoPUeIDA
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 22, 2020
To Palmer’s point: The local news person-on-the-mostly-deserted-street interviews covering Boston’s stay-at-home order are full of chirpy folk going After all, if my mother or my sister being treated for cancer should get this, it would be terrible, so this is the LEAST I can do!… so maybe positivity has its place, even in a mostly cynical area.
j'adooooooore https://t.co/D5ynj70qLH
— Maryn McKenna (@marynmck) March 23, 2020
Guest Post by Albatrossity: Haunted by Dark Hawks
NotMax
When do the White House Kool Aid conclaves start opening with Don’t Worry, Be Happy?
Oh, scratch that. It’s performed by a non-white man.
Wag
An excellent version of a fine song, based on a great arrangement by the mighty Iz. What’s not to like? Thanks for sharing!
Kelly
I liked the “You are being asked to sit on your couch” bit when it first came out. I feel embarrassed now. I have a secure retirement income. This is easy for me. Minimum wage folk, not so much.
Jay
dmsilev
Silver lining: This crisis has finally spurred my mom into joining the brave new world of the information superhighway. Up until now, if she’s needed to order something online or email someone or whatever, she’d get my dad to do it, or possible my brother or I. But now, she’s reading the newspaper on a tablet, ordering groceries over the web, and attending her temple study group via Zoom. It’s a start.
hitchhiker
This collection of musicians playing The Weight is making me happy right now.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/robbie-robertson-the-weight-ringo-starr-video-885980/
Jay
@Kelly:
yeah, most of what is being done by the stay at homes, is not heroic, it’s just common sense, social conscience and empathy. It’s the bare minimum for being classed as decent.
”Essential” workers, far too many of them minimum wage/no benifits/part time deserve kudos for keeping the bread stocked, Claritin in stock or having the parts to fix your toilet.
Lots of others, are actual goddamned heros, like Healthcare, Firsts responders, etc,
Jay
NotMax
@Jay
See the word Respite leading the headline in large font up top?
HumboldtBlue
@NotMax:
Here, have a 7-year-old playing Valenki balalaika
HumboldtBlue
@Jay:
Oh no.
SectionH
@NotMax: You’re upcountry Maui, right? Shouldn’t be a problem for you, but I hope the tsunami watch is just that, a watch.
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
She’s almost frighteningly adept. Good stuff.
Jackie
@NotMax: Based in the intro links – kind of a mixed bag of respite //
HumboldtBlue
@SectionH:
Let’s hope
Viva BrisVegas
I think that today’s essential services workers, not just health but food, retail, transport, should make use of this emergency.
Go on strike for a decent wage.
After all, that’s what Republicans and Wall Street would do. Squeeze the system for all it’s worth. Do you see corporations hesitating to make an easy buck out of misery?
$500 billion slush fund, will the workers on the front lines will see a penny of that? If only they could get together and tell Mnuchin that they want their cut of the loot.
Not that workers would actually create more misery in this emergency, because they have decency. Unlike the Repubs and Wall Street.
SectionH
@SectionH: OK, cancelled. Current Star-Ad
actual link
NotMax
@Jackie
Have to take your word for it, I don’t ever see things inside tweets.
Enough folks here have made a point of requesting threads which aren’t all doom all the time that keeping it to a dull and distant roar and holding back on the heart wrenching links until less generalized threads seems the best approach.
SectionH
Tried to post again, got the first 522 Error I’ve ever seen. Wut? Well, it has been that kind of day.
Post was basically:
@Wag: oh yes, IZ! Which reminds me of Amy and Na Leo and HAPA and – there’s my next respite music.
Jay
@NotMax:
the opening tweets, to paraphrase, was a theme of how “we need to praise people holding down couches in this time of Covid19 as hero’s, build them up, give them awards, medals”,…..
I get my respite from Video Conferencing Gone Wrong, Needy pets addicted to their owners being home all day, other pets wondering why their owners arn’t leaving the house so they can have their alone time, a dachshund who by Day 3, sprained his tail from wagging, a guy who found dead flies on a windowsill and turned them into cartoons, or the sock puppet street view,
Or the Nonna who visits our store regularly, who stood in line for an hour on Sunday, followed all the social distancing rules, so she could deliver 8 paper bags full of pre-cooked meals, labelled for some of our younger staff, because she knew they lived alone, off of microwaves, take out and fast food, just as a thank you for all the service they have provided her, ( and still provide).
Jackie
@NotMax: I know. It’s hard. I’m in a three-generation household in WA state. I’m the 65 yo grandma furloughed from my job taking care of the six and eight year olds while Mom and Dad work in retail jobs – potentially exposing themselves and bringing home any and all germs each and every day. My daughter and family live in Florida, and I’m worried to death about them.
I enjoy a respite thread as much as anyone else, but, it’d be nice to have current threads of both respite and current news at the same time. I see this is the third respite thread in a row without an alternative for those who want to vent – for lack of a better word.
cain
@Jay:
That shit scares me. I live alone here, and if I were to catch it, there is nobody to take me to the hospital if I end up getting some 102 fever or something.
I’ve been trying to work out what happens I have this kind of problem since at my age, usually there is someone around. So I’m building in some things in place…
Mai naem mobile
I am really impressed by Andrew Cuomo. I truly don’t think I paid attention to him before. I hate to admit this but I just bought into the ‘he’s too moderate for a blue state politician’ stuff and never bothered to look into it myself. Maybe people were comparing him to his dad and he didn’t measure up. I don’t know but,man, he’s really stepped up to the moment.
Also Newsom who I’ve always thought was a lightweight empty suit. His private life was messy. I also think him being Giulfoyle’s ex helps. BTW I didn’t know until very recently that Guilfoyle is half Puerto Rican. I don’t know how anybody with Puerto Rican heritage can date Trumpov’s son. It would be like a Jewish man dating Goebbels’ daughter or something.
Anya
Sorry to take us from music and positivity but lately I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries and I just finished Jonestown Massacre. Maybe I am reaching but it’s the only thing that finally made me understand MAGA. Since November 2016, I’ve been wondering about how we ended up with Trump as a president, and I think I might finally have an answer.
NotMax
@Jay
Ah, that justifies tramping on those seeking respite in other ways. Got it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jackie:
hear, hear
Mai naem mobile
@Viva BrisVegas: the rich will always get the better bigger piece of whatever legislation as long as the electoral college is set up the way it is and we have god knows how many red rural states. We will never see a good Dem majority in the Senate. It will always be at most a 54-46 majority and that’s is everything goes your way and then some. And Turtle packing the courts with wingnuts means we are fucked judicially as well. You would have to to have one of the conservative justices do a 180 and one drop dead during year 1 of a Dem presidents administration.
kindness
I’m really enjoying seeing how different folk are adapting to their new realities. There been some insightful stuff out there. Normally folk don’t have time to navel gaze.
LesGS
My 12 person a capella group Zoomed a few days ago, just to stay connected. We tried a couple songs, but it’s not able to handle 12 people making noise at once, so it was pretty horrible. But most of us are into theater as well, so maybe next we will do a reading of a light, language focused focused play, like _The Importance of Being Earnest_, for/with one another. Swap parts around each act, gender neutral casting. Could be fun.
Jay
@Jackie:
I would be fine with pure respite threads, those, if I comment, I try to stay “pure”, but there is a bunch of “demand for attaboys” on social media by people who are doing the bare minimum to be human in this day and age.
So the first couple of tweets set me off.
We had a POI spend Saturday scoping out our 50 people in the store maximum, the line up, the Social Distancing, the same entrance/same exit, two tills, staff sanitizing carts, baskets, tills, counters, pin pads,
and decided the best way to steal $5k was to fill a cart, return to the entrance/exit, then spray staff and customers with pepper spray and make a break for the parking lot and their waiting accomplice.
Mai naem mobile
@Anya: hahaha I was thinking about that today. I thought it was a joke when people referred to Trumpers as a cult but I seriously think that is what it is – a cult. I was going to look up literature on how you do about debrainwashing cult members.
Jay
@NotMax:
got it, like the first tweets, you want a medal for holding down the couch. I hear the Freedom Medal isn’t worth much these days.
Jay
@LesGS:
often, a problem with Zoom is the lag. Makes harmonies hard. Often too, when Zooming, other things happen.
Mary G
@Jackie: I agree. It seems like most threads when I have time to read aren’t talking about things I want to, like WTF is going on in the Senate and the big bill that’s always almost ready, then never is.
This intrigues me:
That suggests to me that Republicans can’t get their shit together and WH cliques are fighting amongst themselves between “let Grandma die” and “we’ve got to let Pelosi have something, because she’s got ovaries of steel and keeps shooting down our bullshit.”
Anya
@Mai naem mobile: Andrew Cuomo is doing a great job leading the state in this difficult time. I think this moment requires his controlling technocratic style. No one ever questioned his ability or his skills but Cuomo has always been a mixed bag. He made some awful decisions and some of them based on pure spite. IMO, his biggest crimes are: mismanaging New York’s railways, basically encouraging the ‘Independent Democratic Caucus’ to subvert the Dem majority in the legislator which gave republicans control, criminal justice reform, and campaign financing among others.
This is not to say he didn’t enact some progressive policies, for example, Cuomo pushed through a same-sex marriage law, he strengthened New York’s already strict gun control laws, paid family leave and probably things I am forgetting.
NotMax
@Jay
Chest thumping not my thing. Suffice to say your assumptions are faulty.
Mary G
@Mary G: Frankly. when I try to watch something non-related, I can’t pay enough attention to enjoy it beyond a tweet about a dog or cat. I tried to watch the Hillary series on Hulu this afternoon. It was fascinating for 15 minutes. She ran for student president of her high school, but everyone knew a boy would win, and he did. Five minutes later, he asked her to do all the work, and she agreed. At the 17 minute mark, they started in on the emails, and I had to turn it off and go into my bedroom to scream into the pillow.
Anya
@Mai naem mobile: Nothing else explains MAGAs complete devotion to Trump. I mean racism, but really why didn’t they choose someone who at least acts like a normal human. Trump is loathsome in every way imaginable, yet these people worship him.
Jay
@Mai naem mobile:
@nezumi_ningen is a researcher on cults, Aum Shiniro, QAnon, Trumpists, worth following on twitter because they are invested in the Cultists getting out alive.
Jay
@Mary G:
not a cat but funny
And a cat,
Jackie
@Jay:
@Mary G:
I agree. I’m constantly “wanting to know.” If I was still allowed to work, I’d have less time to speculate. But, due to my company’s concern for AARP members working during this crisis, l’m stuck with worrying about the two grankiddos I care for, and the two in Florida (one, a two months early preemie) I’m too far away from.
Anne Laurie
@Mary G: In my off-prime-time shifts, I keep starting posts about the various permutations of the relief bill. But things are moving so fast that by the time I think I’ve got a perspective… there’s a new, different argument going on. Or several of them!
So I figure I might as well focus on stuff that won’t be first-story, front-page leads on every professional media source, such as finally (and I hope SOON) passing a multi-trillion-dollar relief package…
Ruckus
@Anya:
Those people are loathsome in every way. They like trump because he’s one of them.
NotMax
@Jay
Shall add that your history of dropping the darkest, doomiest snippets, singly or in sequence, into threads of every sort (garden threads included) precedes you.
Jay
@NotMax:
you don’t like living in a shit hole country that has surrendered to the Taliban, you should either move, or stick to Faux and OAN.
NotMax
@Jay
Take long, shallow breaths. Air can be rarefied atop that high horse.
Jay
@Jackie:
part of the self care in the time of Dolt45 and Covid19 is to turn a bunch of the news off. Limit the “all doom, all the time, bothsides” clickfest.
If you need to “mine”, well, the world keeps spinning, and some places have not lost focus, like @NeverAgainIsNow or @ItsGoingDown
Jay
@NotMax:
enjoy the CatCake.
Mary G
@NotMax:
@Jay:
Knock it the fuck off, gentlemen.
Jay
@Anne Laurie:
it’s a moving target, hard to hit. Sadly, a bunch of “our” legislators are getting a crash course on “working at a time of End Stage Capitalism”, some are not.
Mary G
@Anne Laurie: You have been doing a stellar job, and my complaints are in no way directed at you. I can’t tell you how often I’ve refreshed waiting for the 1 a.m. PST or so coronavirus roundups you’ve been doing, because you always have things I haven’t seen despite my best efforts. ??⭐
Jackie
@Jay: Deep breath. Let it out slowly… Repeat. Repeat.
Jay
@Mary G:
yup, a “must read”, every day.
@Anne Laurie:
thank you so much.
Jay
@Jackie:
NotMax is pied, so no problem anymore. Trolls have to troll.
Mai naem mobile
@Mary G: rumor is that McKenna was the guy who was calling COVID19 KungFlu so I am guessing he’s the one who mentioned Kungflu to the Asian American reporter(sorry,I don’t remember her name.)
Jay
@Mai naem mobile:
funny how the WhiteSupremacyHouse coverage is all Kremlinology all the time.
Mai naem mobile
I love Nancy Pelosi as a leader but as a spokesperson for the Dems she isn’t all that great. I heard her on CNBC this AM. She’s not able to sound bite her language and she has a tendency of stumbling over her words(kind of like me.) Also, I misunderstood the Pope Francis quote and Mnuchin responding with ‘I’ll quote the markets.’ I heard that this morning and I thought they were saying Mark as in Mark the book in the bible – honestly that’s disgusting on the part of Mnuchin. If a Dem had said that evangelicals would have been all up in arms about it. Anyhow, at least Pelosi doesn’t use $20 like the King of $20 words – Chuck Schumer. He was just on the Senate floor and he said after five days of ‘arduous’ work. Jeezus, doesn’t he know TV is aimed at a third grade level. Why didn’t he just say hard work. Schumer drives me crazy with his Harvard Law School language. He needs to learn a lesson from that Louisiana Rhodes Scholar moron John Kennedy who sounds like a redneck from Hicksville.
NotMax
@Mary G
No prob. I’m done anyway, although his #45 deserved far, far worse.
Mai naem mobile
@Anya: that’s right, I forgot Cuomo was the one who caused the Republicans to get power in Albany. I tell you if this was last year and the COV19 thing had settled down I would be all in for Cuomo being Veep although he would probably be running for POTUS .
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Emailing someone would be a start. Reading the newspaper on her tablet, ordering groceries online and using Zoom – that’s a big Joe Biden deal.
Good for your mom!
brantl
“James “Stay In. Make Masks. Test People” Palmer@BeijingPalmer
this is bad propaganda, it talks down and scorns its target audience – makes them feel childish and stupid.” Sorry, but this is the only type of propaganda that works on the macho assholes that run around not paying any attention to “those stupid rules”, that they mouth off about so much. This is exactly right, for those morons. You’re not going to engage their higher selves, just their guilt.
stevecrickmore
@Mai naem mobile:
Harvard psychiatrist Thomas Gutheil wrote:
“The current administration is best understood through cult analogies, including factors such as total authoritarianism and intolerance of any questioning or deviation from the ‘playbook.’ This is a both a clarifying and a terrifying book.” The MAGA followers may be more gullible than those at Jonestown. “Pathological lying is characteristic of destructive cult leaders – saying things in a very confident way that have nothing to do with facts or truthfulness – blaming others and never taking responsibility for his own failures and faults “.https://www.bainbridgereview.com/opinion/trump-as-jim-jones-james-a-haught/
Amir Khalid
@Jay:
NotMax is not the troll here. You are.
Barney
@brantl: Exactly. Palmer missed the “certain parts” bit of the message; this is aimed at the people who all went for a crowded stroll in the park last weekend, the “vox-pop-in-the-mostly-deserted-street” people who have met up (BBC interview last night; the interviewer tried to explain, nicely (and at a distance of over 2 metres), what they were doing wrong, but they just shrugged and laughed); or the American churches who are bussing in people for large gatherings.
“Keep Calm and Carry On” got into the British psyche as “a stoic insistence on behaving as usual is good”. This time, it isn’t. You’re right that these people don’t need to be told the health workers are heroic – they’d cheerfully agree with that; they need to be told they’re getting in the way.
SteverinoCT
@dmsilev:
Way back when, what got my wife online was a talk show giving away trips to Disney online. Whatever it takes.