Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power
use it!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

In my day, never was longer.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Bark louder, little dog.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Monday Morning Open Thread: Walk in Beauty

Monday Morning Open Thread: Walk in Beauty

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Some upcoming events of possible interest:

And this guy, in the future, will confine his off-hour hobbies to “… building shelves, making furniture and doing some tiling”:

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  4. 4.

    debbie

    I think the NIckleodeon town hall is a great idea. Kid are also suppressing their worries and will have an opportunity to express them and get answers. Yay, Kristen!

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: The article at the Guardian is hilarious. I am still laughing my ass off.

    Especially this part:

    “My partner took me to the hospital that she works in because she wanted all her colleagues to laugh at me. The doctors thought it was quite funny, making comments like ‘This is an injury due to self-isolation and boredom.’”

  9. 9.

    Baud

    If you put the magnets in your nose backwards, your hands will be attracted to your face.  Major potential for operator error.

  13. 13.

    Sloane Ranger

    I see that Dominic Cummings has developed COVID 19 symptoms.

    If he has indeed caught the virus, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

  20. 20.

    Lapassionara

    Good morning, everyone. So the ad at the top of the page this morning, at least for me, is for a provider of hospice care. Hmmmm. Does my iPad know something I don’t know?

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    The D. Diamond tweet about warped perceptions of time in a single eventful month is so true. Was just reviewing something work-related from the first week of March that touches on the economy. It’s an artifact from another era now.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @debbie: Tangentially related:

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I have been “him”. It helps to be able to laugh at one’s foibles. Everybody else will. Might as well join in.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    @satby:

    I’m not so sure that they won’t. I have a hunch that they aren’t very careful about social distancing and all that in the Trump White House.

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    Checking the BJ overnight threads used to be my fun first-thing-in-the-morning activity. I guess that has to end. Along with everything else, I suppose.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    Heh, if my family decides to try teleSedering, they’ll all rush to their doors to welcome Elijah. Half will probably forget to wander back to their screens.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I call it “in the before times”, but your’s is definitely shorter.

    Unfortunately, B.C. also stands for Betty Cracker, so if I were her I’m not sure I’d want to go with that one! :-)

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie: “I’m luxurious and tremendous, and the Coronavirus is a total loser!  Now come close enough to kiss my ample orange ass.”

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    I'm not tweeting about Bernie Sanders anymore. His campaign is finished. The longer he stays in with no path the harsher history will judge him. It's time to fight the real enemy before us: Trump. Our focus must be on defeating him and his sycophants in Nov. LIves depend on it.— M. Mendoza Ferrer (@m_mendozaferrer) March 29, 2020

  54. 54.

    JPL

    @debbie: I like the part when Epstein brags about Gates agreeing with him, and then Gates comment is read to him…    The guy just says well I misread it, like it was no big deal.

  55. 55.

    Spanky

    Having known more than a few astrophysicists in my time, I’ll just say that I’m totally unsurprised.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: It’s appalling, isn’t it, that our leaders are so awful that we can’t just dismiss the idea that they know damn good and well that they are killing people with their lies and misinformation about coronavirus, but they feel it’s worth it because they can kill people in the blue states by not giving them the resources they need?

  59. 59.

    Anne Laurie

    @satby: they should already have it ?. One of Pence’s aides tested positive about a week ago.

    Remember the old joke about why lawyers are safe from sharks?

    Professional courtesy!

  60. 60.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: I read that this morning too. Amazeballs. It’s unsurprising that a Hoover Institution hack has an unscientific “contrarian” take on the virus, but that his crackpot ravings came so close to driving public policy changes is alarming. Also unsurprising because Trump.

    Chotiner is a devastating interviewer. I sure wouldn’t want to go up against him for a stupid thing I’ve said. Did you read his take-down of Bret Easton Ellis? Brutal.

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    I’m trying hard to control my impulse to post something to Facebook like “Now that their god has said COVID-19 is serious, perhaps all his worshipers will take it seriously”. I’ve got friends and family members among those sycophants, and I don’t want to alienate them, but I’m about done with worrying about hurting their little fee-fees. Our karaoke DJ was told a week ago that she most likely has it, but she can’t get a test to make sure because there aren’t enough tests because of their fucking “god”, so she’s sitting at home self-quarantined and not knowing for sure.  I just mentioned to my boss that the guy who cleans all the offices could be a problem; they’ve divided us up into groups and sections, and we’re supposed to stay in our section of the building as much as possible.  The guy we have who cleans the buildings goes everywhere!  What if he gets it, we’re completely screwed.  I told the boss’ boss he should hire a cleaning service before he hired this last guy, but he likes having someone to do his little projects for him.

  64. 64.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker:  OMG…  Chotiner is good..    Thank you for the link…

    You came to the defense of Roseanne Barr, saying that she denied, after tweeting racist stuff about Valerie Jarrett, knowing Valerie Jarrett was black.

    Did she say that? That she didn’t know she was black?

    You say it in the book.

    Yeah, right, I quoted her.

  66. 66.

    Geminid

     

     

    @JPL: The Covid-19 crisis has provided many examples of smart people like Tom Friedman saying dumb things. The New Yorker interview of Richard Epstein that you cite is a doozie.

  67. 67.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: Wasn’t that a thing of beauty? It sounded to me like Ellis wrote a really stupid, ill-conceived book to externalize a tedious, ongoing argument with his boyfriend, and damn, did Chotiner smash every premise to pieces. Made Ellis look like a gibbering moron. :)

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    As for the astrophysicist, no secret that people will go to ridiculous lengths attempting to make themselves more … attractive.

  69. 69.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I know I’d be happier if I could make a loose schedule for myself to structure my day. Stuff like morning and afternoon walk (30 minutes each), writing time (2 hours), housework, cooking, maybe pick some project to learn, etc. It would take my mind off possibly getting very unpleasantly sick or possibly dying and lessen the time I spend surfing the web getting more and more anxious and angry. But I’m having trouble making myself do it.

    Partly I’d be at loose ends right now anyway since I just finished a book. I usually need a little break before I start a new project.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2:“Now that their god….”

    I prefer to use the phrase, “Lord and Savior…” especially with the atheist among them.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    Weirdest thing yesterday – had a fleeting, deeply intense, gnawing craving for (of all things) salt water taffy. Lasted all of one minute and then was gone. Not that I keep it in the house, anyway, and haven’t eaten any for many decades.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @JPL: I think you live Va. like I do. Curious: Do you think Gov. Northam will need to order a full lockdown? From my observation people in rural Greene County and in Charlottesville are taking taking social distance guidance very seriously, and most businesses have closed. I drove a long country route home Friday afternoon and at 5pm the roads were almost empty. But I can only guess how things are in other places. Do you think Northam should pull the trigger on a full scale lockdown?

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: I have to say, I am about halfway thru that interview and the pain is getting unbearable.

    ETA

    This idea keeps coming up that a lot of people support Trump. Let’s grant that that is the case. How should that change how we respond to him?

    I don’t think at all.

    Yeah, we know.

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @OzarkHillbilly: I could! My building also has these raised garden beds that residents can sign up to use, but it snowed last week, so it’s a little early to use that as a project.

     

    @zhena gogolia: I do have zoom. My writer group has been using it to meet every Wednesday night at our regular time. That bit of my old life is still happening, which is very comforting. I should make the effort to phone people too. I keep meaning to and then the day slips away with me doing nothing much.

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: I read too quickly the first time through and saw it as ‘Nickelback town hall’.

    I was like, “Why would anyone want Nickelback hosting a town hall?”  But then again, in this crappy timeline, anything’s possible…

  84. 84.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid:

     

    @JPL: I’m here in central VA and while I think people are taking social distancing well, a) they need to take it more seriously (I’m still seeing all kinds of groups congregating in parks, on trails, on the Lawn, etc) and b) it’s not just Northam – all governors/the entire country need to do this for the entire month of April if we really want to ‘flatten the curve’.

    It’s deadly serious and people need to think of how they might bring it home to their loved ones, and/or what will happen if enough docs, nurses, cops, and EMTs get it (which they are starting to here).  Not good.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    As someone who is not fond of using the phone and does so only reluctantly, Zooming would drive me completely round the twist.

  88. 88.

    zhena gogolia

    So has anyone discussed Emma (2020) yet? We rented it and watched it last night. It is a trip.

  89. 89.

    JPL

    @Geminid: I live in GA   There is a strong value in locking down the entire state because it would alleviate the pressure on individual mayors to make all the decisions.   Locally the mayor is being fed Richard Epstein type of garbage about the need to open up the restaurants and then on the other side those complaining about kids gathering together on sidewalks and in grassy areas.

    One of the areas here that folks are congregating at is a location where city property butts up against a national park.

  93. 93.

    zhena gogolia

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Well, if you’re a Jane Austen fan it might not be your favorite adaptation of Emma — it’s rather cold, at least in the first half. But as a film it’s very enjoyable, with fantastic costumes, settings, and music. And Bill Nighy.

     

    @NotMax:  She’s one of the best things in it.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Watched the quirky, silly 40s B-film One Body Too Many yesterday, worth it primarily for seeing Bela Lugosi dipping his toes into comedy.

    Each time he asks “Anybody want a cup of coffee?” it becomes more humorous.

  96. 96.

    Geminid

     

     

    @JPL: Sorry, now I remember that you have spoken of Georgia matters often. I have friends in Atlanta who are very much hunkered down, as well they should be. Sorry about your idiot governor; he doesn’t seem to have a lot going on upstairs.

  98. 98.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Thanks. I work outside and alone, and I don’t need to  talk in person to my customers, but it is non-essential work and I think I’d better wrap up what I can this week, at least in Charlottesville.

  101. 101.

    Fair Economist

    In terms of time being strange, I was wondering yesterday what the unemployment numbers were this week. Then I realized the 3.3 million number had been released only 3 days before. 5 fold times any before and 3 days later it feels like ancient history.

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker:

    We’re big fans of Johnny Flynn, who plays Mr. Knightley. He also wrote and sings the song that plays over the end credits. He first caught our eye as Dobbin in the recent Vanity Fair adaptation — he’s a very soulful actor.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Shame that Pete Postlethwaite is no more.Would have been a natural to fit into Austen adaptations.

    (Opportunity to recommend seeing him in Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit, available on Prime.)

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: I just finished that article.  My main takeaway is that Richard Epstein was talking out of his ass, with his own made-up theories, stating things as facts that simply are not true, and not identifying his theories as his own pure speculation.

    And Trump listens as if it’s pure gospel.

  109. 109.

    joel hanes

    @WaterGirl:

    Richard Epstein was talking out of his ass

    Richard Epstein thinks he’s using “evolution” to justify his desired conclusions, but judging from his remarks,  Richard Epstein knows very little about evolution, and most of what he knows is wrong.   Some of it is not even wrong.

  111. 111.

    WaterGirl

    @joel hanes: Absolutely.  He not only makes stuff up, but he extrapolates from situations that are very different from the current one and applies it to the current situation as if it were known fact.

    God/Dog save us from charlatans, sociopaths, and arrogant idiots.

  112. 112.

    JPL

    @laura: It’s fascinating to me that someone like Epstein thinks so much about his personal brilliance, that he just assumes he can sell his crap to anyone.   Especially if that person is Chotiner.

  113. 113.

    Geminid

    @joel hanes: Well, I’m guessing Friedman tested well, but I’ve never thought intelligence was as important as good sense, which seems to be distributed independent of IQ.

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