Day eight of lockdown, and parents of toddlers everywhere heroically battle to maintain order while ingesting basic nutrition. pic.twitter.com/OBaLb6cCic
— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) March 31, 2020
THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 4th, it begins right here on @twitter pic.twitter.com/pxWZ5lat5k
— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) April 1, 2020
I promo a thing: Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter and you can join me and the boss for a q&a Friday at noon ET. https://t.co/F5WNFmpfId
— Adam Rogers (@jetjocko) April 1, 2020
Democrats call for investigation into coronavirus response, modeled on 9/11 Commission https://t.co/8a797RY6Gf pic.twitter.com/amYVCLbYsy
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 2, 2020
Someone asked me today how would @BarackObama have handled this crisis? Answer in one word – Better. Ok, two words. Much better.
— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) April 1, 2020
Remember when we had reason to be hopeful?…
Baud
But would have been criticized much worse for it. #OneDeathIsTooMany
debbie
I know Obama is supposed to remain detached and presidential, but I still wish he would speak up to point out what a different world it would now be if his pandemic council had not been dismantled in a snit of petty, racist vindictiveness.
OzarkHillbilly
It won’t cure Covid but this has to help with whatever else might ail you: This is the best thing you’ll see today ??. I suddenly feel warm all over.
NotMax
Excuse me, ladies and gentlejackals, did someone at this table order an extra helping of cute?
(Consider it a welcome few minutes of early morning respite.)
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Pair that up with the orangutan and baby otters and you have proof animals are better people than we are.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: President Obama doesn’t have to speak up for us to realize that disbanding a pandemic council was a dangerously stupid act on Trump’s part. The unfolding crisis speaks for itself. President Obama did his part when he campaigned for Secretary Clinton to be elected.
Phylllis
@NotMax: The kid in the blue sweater is killing me.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
https://www.newsweek.com/barack-obama-full-transcript-cleveland-510052
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: What it means to be loved.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I understand that. But it would really piss off Trump.
debbie
@Baud:
Wish this could fit on a bumpersticker:
2016: “What do you have to lose?” The answer is: Everything.
Now: “And we have, that and more.”
Immanentize
@Baud:
This was the real reason, I suspect, that Obama isn’t speaking out. All he could say would be:
“I warned you motherfuckers and you didn’t listen then. I told you so.” And drop mic.
So, having nothing more to say than “I told all you idiots this would happen.” He says nothing.
Immanentize
@debbie: it could just be:
What did we have to lose?
Everything. BIDEN 2020
rikyrah
Which is why they will NEVER BE FORGIVEN ???
rikyrah
@Baud:
I have quoted that speech so many times.
Especially with those leftists from 2016. You know..the ones that had eleven billionty Reasons why they couldn’t vote for Hillary.??
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah, @Baud:
Good morning. ?
Baud
@Immanentize:
@rikyrah:
I want a red trucker’s hat that says “ITYSMF.”
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone): Good morning.
Nicole
@rikyrah: Truth, to what you said. I had (please note past tense) a friend in Florida who told me in summer of 2016 that she thought Donald Trump as President would be a “roller coaster ride” and she “didn’t mean that in a negative way.”
AAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH.
Aleta
Quarantine
Words by Aaron Cohen (@unlikelywords on twitter)
Sung by Josh LaFayette (Background track purchased from Karaoke Version)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Almost 63 million dumb ass (un)real ‘Murkins wanted a reality TV show star to be president. Now they are participating in that reality show: Trump Coronavirus Survivor.
Every person that dies from this is one more reason to get rid of the fucking Electoral College.
A Ghost to Most
My wife and I are headed to geezer hour at the store. Considering a bandana, but along with my hat, it might be too Billy the Kid.
Stay safe.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Hey, don’t worry – when this is all over, your lenders will be still be here, ready to hound you for the balances due on your delinquent and defaulted obligations, and the credit reporting agencies will be ready and willing to provide lubrication for a bailed out financial system by downgrading your credit for higher carry rates.
And don’t forget the large number of American seniors who draw pensions, SS and Medicare, the majority of whom will be willing to help you by encouraging less government dependence and more bootstrapping by decrying mooching and socialist healthcare.
Immanentize
@A Ghost to Most: That just made me want to pull out my old Stetson Open Road in 6x beaver (silver) and wear it and a bandana.
raven
@Immanentize: I have my fishing shirt with a hood and built in gaiter but I think the holes fro the mouth are too large.
raven
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
And yeah, do you think I have received so much as an email confirmation from my SBA request?
JAFD
Good morning, jackals and jackalettes !
Hope you’re staying happy and healthy.
Science fiction fans, especially in the NYC area, may want to check the HelioSphere virtual convention (was scheduled live this weekend) http://www.heliosphereny.org/beyond-the-corona-2/
Myself, put some pictures of one of my ‘winter projects’ on ye net at
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=527112
mayhaps you’ll care to look.
Have great weekend, everyone.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@raven:
My favorite fishing story is how the surgeon my mom used to work for hooked his own eye at a farm pond. I was unclear as to how that could even be accomplished, but he managed it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: I’m with you on that one. I tend to be slow to get angry, but when I do, I hold a mean grudge. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with some of my neighbors. At a distance, I suppose, and I’m not talking about social isolation.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Come sit six feet away from me.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: “Is this edible?”
raven
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I was bank fishin on the Sagnamon River and a friend below me pulled back to cast and the hook went through my nose. I grabbed the line and screamed and he didn’t fire but I had this big bight crawler hangin between my eyes!
Immanentize
@raven: I’ve seen a picture you shared. With the sunglasses? Alien. I love it.
I also have a thick black winter balaclava (cotton/wool blend?) that can go under chin or over mouth just showing the eyes. Classic criminal look. But it will be too warm for that soon.
Also, a neck gator that can be pulled up over the mouth to make me look like “Mort” from the Bazooka Joe Buble gum comics?
Strange days indeed!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Is it OK if I laugh now?
Baud
Since it will soon be gauche to go outside without a mask, does anyone have any suggestions on where I can find some? Is Amazon delivery my best bet?
Immanentize
@JAFD: That is so cool. Respect!
Jeffro
“trump bump” already gone, new ABC poll shows
And that’s just on April 3rd…seven months out from election day, with unemployment estimated to be ‘only’ 13%, and deaths from COVID-19 ‘only’ around 6,000
Hey, you wanted him, GOP – no backsies!! We told y’all ‘very fine people’ that even white supremacists deserved better representation, but you didn’t wanna listen. Too bad, so sad.
OzarkHillbilly
WeWork founder threatens to sue after Softbank scraps rescue deal
Some people make it really easy to hate them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Maybe etsy? We got a notice yesterday that our building management has hired a seamstress to make triple layer masks for $10 each. I’m going to order two today, since I can do that by calling our concierge.
Nicole
@Baud: That’s where my husband ordered his. He looks like a bandit when he goes outside now.
Sigh. I guess I have to order one, too. Let me know Baud!’s campaign colors so I can display my public support from six feet away. ;)
Emma from FL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: One of my oldest friends once described me as someone who held a grudge until it died then had it stuffed and mounted so I could keep looking at it. I despise each and everyone of those so-called “progressives” that voted third party or sat out the 2006 elections. Will never stop. One of the bastards could invent the cure for this thing and I would still hate him.
PenAndKey
So it turns out that naval hospital ship Trump bragged about sending to New York to help, didn’t actually send, and then got forced into doing so isn’t actually there to help with COVID-19 cases. Even though there aren’t a lot of non-COVID-19 cases in the city right now due to ongoing isolation measures, and where hospitals are converting all available square footage to treatment or triage space as is, the “help” Trump eventually ended up sending isn’t even there to actually help in any meaningful way.
Because of course that’s how they’d do it. The States really are on their own right now…
Immanentize
@raven: My uncle and my cousin were lake fishing in the 1000 lake area (my cousin was like 15) back to back in a John boat. Somehow, snapping a cast, my cousin landed my uncle’s forehead right at the hair line. It was solid stuck,
Maybe in his skull so they had to get it cut out by a doctor. But my cousin was too young to drive, so that they had to put back to shore, get in the car and my uncle had to drive about 30 minutes to a doctor’s office for him to do the deed. All the while, blood dripping down his nose. Bad fishing day, but great fish tale ‘cuz true.
Baud
@Nicole:
Hard to say. Some people see it as white and gold and others see blue and black.
Immanentize
@Baud: Demonstrating your knowledge of all internet traditions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: A bad day fishing but still better than a good day at work.
Immanentize
@PenAndKey: This is not a bad way for the ship to work as a helping hand. Ships are BAD for fast spreading diseases like Covid. So, hospitals triage for care outside of the emergency room doors or in a set aside area — necessary care but non-lifethreatening and non-covid cases are taken to the ship to receive their care rather than staying at a hospital where the patient might well get Covid. Also, the ship then provides hugely needed services taking burdens off emergency, ICU and bedspace resources at hospital s treating Covid patients while remaining, as much as possible, Covid free.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I like that saying! Make signs! Sell on Etsy!
Aleta
Positive change I expect from the Baud administration:
“Do you realize that because of you this city is being overrun by baboons?”
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Yesterday hair furor was asked why he isn’t opening enrollment for health insurance given the millions of people who just lost their insurance with their jobs. That motherfucker said they don’t need to because everyone is getting a cash payment.
The fucking one time 1,200 payment we may actually receive in 5 months is much better. It’s a good thing I’m stuck in my house.
different-church-lady
Three words: FUCK TONS better.
@PenAndKey: If we don’t do ads that pound the ever-loving shit out of these kinds of things we don’t deserve to win. “He said ships were coming. HE LIED. He said ventilators were coming. HE LIED. He said not many people would die. HE LIED.”
MomSense
@Baud:
If I had figured out how to do it properly, I’d send you one. I ended up just cutting up a bra and pinning elastic to it.
Aleta
@JAFD: Those are fantastic.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: It’s an old, old saying.
raven
@Immanentize: I was fishing on Lake Winfield Scott when a little girl put a barbed hook through her granny’s arm, I went to help and told the lady “the only thing I know to do is to push it through and cut the barb off”. She said, “well, I’m undergoing chemo so I guess I can handle that”. The poor little girl hid behind a tree while I did the deed.
different-church-lady
@raven: I don’t think I’d ever go fishing without a full face shield and helmet.
When I drive over a bridge where people are fishing, I cover my face, even though all the windows are up.
germy
Fauci says world community should push for closure of ‘wet markets’ that sell animals for human consumptio
Police break up New Jersey rabbi’s funeral, charge 15 men in another case of religion clashing with public health
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Reminds me of how I had to drive myself 45 minutes to the nearest ER when I broke my arm. Luckily it was an automatic.
germy
‘He just got better and better’: 104-year-old veteran beats coronavirus in time to celebrate his birthday
I saw this guy on the news last night. He survived the 1918 flu, World War 2, and now this.
Elizabelle
@germy: Someone needs to study his blood! That’s great.
WereBear
@germy: Yes. Just as animal cruelty in the US spreads disease, these wet markets speed up the process.
germy
@WereBear: True. Animal cruelty is not limited to any one country.
planetjanet
I had never seen that Brad Paisley song. It brought tears to my eyes. What an uplifting song. Thanks.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady:
I assume you mean you’re feeling much better? Glad to hear it!
Geminid
I think Obama will speak his mind this Fall when he campaigns with and for Biden. And I don’t think he will pull his punches. I am hoping he will also campaign some with senate candidates MJ Hegar in Texas and Amy McGrath in Kentucky. Cornyn and McConnell very much deserve to be retired.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: No, I was riffing on “How would Obama do? One word, better…”
Although I am feeling much better. Some gunk is still clearing, but I’m functioning reasonably normally again.
Elizabelle
Here’s some good news for cinema fans. LA Times. Films that were set for SXSW will appear exclusively on Amazon Prime Video
They will screen for free, and viewers can sign up for a free Amazon account if they don’t have one already. Marketing for Jeff Bezos, yes, but good for the filmmakers too, who get their films out there (and might get a little $$ out of the deal).
Nicole
@Baud:
(insert laughing emoji here)
eric
Captain Crozier as reported in Stars and Stripes
Marigold
@Baud: I’m making some for friends based on an internet pattern. If there’s any jackals out there who are in need, I wouldn’t mine making a few more. (I’m using the quilting cotton already in my stash, so it’s cartoon owls and vaguely Hawaiian florals right now, but the offer stands.)
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Hooking your own eye seems eminently doable to me. When we last went serious camping, in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, my husband managed to hook his finger and he still can’t say how it happened. I opened the emergency first aid kit the outfitter gave us and on the very first page of the instruction guide, first item: How to remove a fishing hook.
So I am guessing this is a pretty common thing to do, and if you get your face close to it to see what you are doing and you move the wrong way, all of a sudden . . .
Anyway, I made the mistake of reading the real paper this morning, and I confronted the obituaries of Ellis Marsalis and a doctor who was a pioneer in identifying acute respiratory syndrome. Both died of complications of CV. There is also one of the few female grandmasters at chess — a 33 year old who died in a car accident in Armenia. I read these as much to be inspired by how even relatively ordinary people lived their lives, but it just made feel even bluer this morning.
chris
Meanwhile in Canada the Conservatives who led the most opaque government they could get away with are complaining bitterly that Justin won’t tell us how this ends. So far they haven’t asked the virus.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Trump bump gone, hmmm? Lest anyone missed my favorite Facebook quip sighted yesterday:
Got to say, it’s actually worse than I expected from Trump, in my worst dreams.
Geminid
The Navy Times has a good article on the hero’s farewell the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt gave Captain Crozier when he walked off the ship at Guam.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: I’m stealing that.
Elizabelle
@Marigold: I would love if we had a tutorial thread on how to make the masks.
LA Times yesterday: How to make your own coronavirus face mask — including a no-sew one
One looks fairly simple. Pleated no-sew mask made with a cloth napkin and what looks like two elastic hair bands.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Please do! I stole it off FB; deserves wide dissemination.
Now we’ll have a run on coffee filters. Alas.
Sloane Ranger
Ok. I want that parent prosecuted for child abuse. Holding the child by its tail and using it to pull it back is surely cruel!
germy
Barbara
@Geminid: No matter how you spin the numbers and bloviate about your concern for the troops or the masses, it’s really hard to hide as the dead bodies start piling up behind you.
germy
@Elizabelle: Joann Fabrics has a good tutorial
https://www.joann.com/how-to-make-a-face-mask/042188731P321.html
Dorothy A. Winsor
@different-church-lady:
Glad to hear you’re still on the mend. This thing is scary.
I told Mr DAW about the 3-foot cotton swab. It’s simultaneously horrible and funny.
germy
Elizabelle
@germy: Thank you!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am planning to wear a silk scarf like a daaku from the Chambal.
Barbara
@germy: I know, really, I would like someone to ask Jared to explain in detail who exactly he is referring to when he uses the word “our” if he is not referring to the citizens of the various states? I mean, WTF?
germy
Elizabelle
@Barbara: Truly. Because our is the federal fucking government. For all of us. Which means people in states.
Trump and Jared are a tutorial on how the country fares under the most malevolent and shortsighted administration we have had yet.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Thank you. President Obama warned us about what would happen if Trump won and here we are.
Barbara
@germy: This is probably the best design of the “easy” masks I have been looking at. Commenters give good suggestions about how to make a nose bridge out of twist tie or similar material. You can also wear one over an N95 if you have one, to keep it clean. The downside is that it calls for fusible interfacing, which a lot of people are not going to have. you can use two layers of cotton fabric, but you will have to sew it together.
Geminid
@Barbara: I don’t link- I can barely post- but the Navy Times has several other good articles on the Crozier affair, including one on the reactions of the parents of the carrier’s sailors.
germy
WaterGirl
@MomSense: David will surely correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that losing a job is something that qualifies you for the ACA even when it is NOT during open enrollment.
schrodingers_cat
Can someone with a military background shed light on the firing of Captain Crozier?
germy
@Geminid:
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: The T-K crime syndicate. All your masks and PPE are belonging to us now says Jared.
WaterGirl
@germy: I don’t believe I have ever said this before, but that is one tough motherfucker! Good for him.
Patricia Kayden
Gin & Tonic
@different-church-lady: My wife just got tested, said it was really unpleasant. I had not read her your description prior to her heading out.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Omnes and others commented on that in Cheryl’s thread last night titled “War of Words.” She posted it about the time we heard of the firing and the Modly press conference was taking place.
germy
Really puts it into perspective.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: Were you ill? What did I miss? Good to know that you are feeling better.
JeanneT
I’ll be making masks over the next two weeks for our food pantry volunteers. So I’ve been looking far and wide for the best/easiest home sewing options.
Deaconess hospital has a nice how-to for a pleated mask style: https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask
Here’s some masks that biomedical engineers are designing, made out of reusable grocery bag fabric: https://makermask.org/masks/
Here is the easiest how-to I’ve found on making a shaped mask: https://ragmask.com/
I am using lightweight non-woven interfacing for a washable filter layer in the ones I’m making.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Obama or (either) Clinton would have acted more quickly, more aggressively and more competently, and GOP govs would be going all Jade Helm and screaming about creeping Stalinism, Trey Gowdy and Chaffetz and Louie Goehmert would be screaming conspiracy theories from the House floor, with Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul doing the same in the Senate– any updates on Rand Paul, btw? haven’t heard his name in a bit
Elizabelle
Singer Bill Withers has died at 81. Heart complications. No word it’s coronavirus-related in initial NYTimes breaking news.
Elizabelle
Betty Cracker has just put up a new thread. “Florida Fiasco.” She may want to label that “Volume one.”
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: The Navy Times has a good rundown.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
Suddenly, I have envisioned Joe Biden’s shortlist for SECNAV getting way shorter.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. I have read those reports I wanted to know how this would be seen by the rank and file military. How much of the military vote did the orange T get?
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Oh, man, that’s sad. His son John is a very good jazz guitarist too.
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yes. I was wondering if Crozier could eventually get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, although that might highlight the failures of the Navy chain of command to respond more rapidly. So probably not …
We are country short of heroes. Captain Brett Crozier is a genuine one. The Acting Navy Secretary accuses him of acting “unprofessionally.”
The Roosevelt crew, and their parents, loved ones and friends, may see that differently.
Ohio Mom
Schroedinger’s Cat: Different Church Lady was in the hospital with pneumonia, probably CV19 too, though the test came back negative.
The whole story is in the April 2 morning thread, A glitch in the Simulation (with the picture of the bat coin).
A frightening tale — if I didn’t know the ending was happy, I don’t think I could have stood reading it all. Told with DCL’s typical great wit.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Losing a job is a qualifying event but we also need open enrollment for all the people who now realize they need insurance. Also not sure what staffing will be if they don’t open the exchange
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: Mort from Bazooka Joe! That’s my look right there! I wear turtlenecks all the time anyway – wearing one right now, in fact!
schrodingers_cat
@Ohio Mom: Thanks that sounds scary.
Heidi Mom
Thanks so much for reminding me of that Brad Paisley video. It’s the most hopeful, inspiring thing I’ve ever seen, and I just posted it to Facebook so my non-country-music-liking friends can see it. I really hope the little girl in the pink shirt becomes President. In fact, I wish she were President now.
Miss Bianca
@germy: oh shit, I teared up watching that.
Damn all Trumps and Trump-enabling mofos to the hell they so richly deserve.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I agree. This is surely a wake-up call for anyone who isn’t insured and has been crossing their fingers. This is not the year to roll the dice on that.
But what do the people do who can’t even afford minimal insurance costs? Evil all around us.
Marigold
@Elizabelle: The pattern from Joann’s that germy linked @84 is closest to the one I’m using. But there’s a meme making the rounds today that says I should sew them with two different color fabrics, to make it apparent which one was on the outside, so I may have to revise my fabric dimensions. (These are for friends, not hospital workers, but it’s still a good point.)
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Automatic arm? Wouldn’t a mechanic be better for that?
joel hanes
@PenAndKey:
The Comfort is designed and outfitted to deal with trauma and surgery patients. It was not designed with infectious disease in mind — the ventilation, the corridors, the companionways, the crew quarters, the mess — everything conspires to make infection control and physical distancing effectively impossible. The physical design of the ship will make it a deathtrap if SARS-CoV-2 gets established. Look at the experience of the cruise ships to see how that would play out.
So those in charge are quite rightly doing everything in their power to exclude COVID-19 patients, and to prevent other patients who might be carrying SARS-CoV-2 from coming aboard.
This makes the hurry-up-quick dispatch of the ship to NYC a largely useless PR measure, possibly a net negative since most of the health workers aboard have been pulled from existing billets where they could do more good.
Largely-useless PR measures have been the _best_ of the Trump maladministration’s reactions to the pandemic. Their other reactions have been incredibly harmful, or measures designed to give them opportunities to thieve and grift.
tybee
@raven:
i’ve been fishing in that lake and the stream that comes out of it.
saw the biggest hellbender i’ve ever seen there, as big as a small alligator.
Sister Golden Bear
@schrodingers_cat: Last night Adam said he’ll probably do a post on it today.
Elizabelle
@Marigold: Thank you. And the advice about two different fabrics is a good one.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic: My drive wasn’t quite that long, but I, too, drove myself to the ER when I broke my own arm last fall.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Or just use an indelible magic marker to visibly designate which side is the inside.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Placing his sailors well being ahead of the chain of command, so out he goes.
Overly responsible to the crew’s health, so out he goes.
He didn’t commit to sucking the ass of CiC Trump and the Admirals, so out he goes.
This really saddens me. I was never fond of the USN as I wasn’t treated well myself, but this is a new low, following on the DD crews who were unable to man their ship at sea because of a lack of maintenance of both the ship itself and the crews.
Those collisions and crew fatalities were not the fault of the on-board leadership, they were the fault of BuPers and the Admiralty failing to support their sailors, they would rather buy super expensive weapons systems (F-35, etc) that don’t really work as advertised than spend money on training the crew and repairs to the ships.
Because spending money on expensive weapons systems will get them jobs after retirement with weapons manufacturers. Training and maintenance doesn’t even keep them in the Navy…