Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

We still have time to mess this up!

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Semi-Respite Open Thread: Happy Leland Melvin Day!

Semi-Respite Open Thread: Happy Leland Melvin Day!

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A man who has professional experience working in confined conditions, now sheltering in place with his doggos…

Plus, a note for later tonight!

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    Currants

    Oh that’s wonderful! LOVE the video, even more with the photo above it. Thank you!

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    For someone my age, I suspect my mad crush on Cmdr Chris Hadfield may be a bit … unseemly.

    Don’t care. I think he’s awesome and amazing.

  7. 7.

    VOR

    IIRC, that’s Leland Melvin’s official NASA portrait. Yes, with the dogs and the big smile.

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    (waiting for the next thread so I can have a really nice laugh at TCNJ dad’s expense…)

    Had no idea Leland had written a book so off to Amazon Smile I go!  Funny that he is just down Rt 29 from us.

  15. 15.

    J R in WV

     

    i see this headline on Google News / NBC news:

    NBC New York anchor Adam Kuperstein announced in an emotional Instagram post Monday that his father died “with a stranger holding his hand.”

    With all possible respect to Mr Kuperstein, his father died with someone willing to risk their own life to be there to hold his hand. Someone who has empathy for the plight of others past what most of us can understand. Not a stranger, a nurse.

    He is taking his pain out on the health care workers who are all risking their lives — in many cases giving their lives — to help the strangers in their hospital beds.

    And, amazingly, those health care workers forgive him for his bitter words, which I am sure they have heard before from families who can’t believe their loved one couldn’t be saved by modern medical miracle science.

    ETA: Actually, Mr Kuperstein is taking advantage of his father’s death to reap a headline as well as disregarding the bravery of the health care folks who cared for his father, and is in all probability a self-centered ass, but I’m trying to cut him a break. It’s hard, tho.

  16. 16.

    khead

    You know, I have no idea how many laws I broke yesterday but I managed to make sure Mrs. Khead got some flowers and a nice dinner for her birthday while being in close contact with only about three people.  Just had to tell someone. Hope all of you jackals are doing well out there.  

  17. 17.

    MisterForkbeard

    @J R in WV: You missed this key line from Kuperstein:

    My family never got to meet the nurses and doctors who cared for my Aba. But I know they did everything they could, even though it meant putting their own lives at risk.

    He’s regretting the circumstances and not blaming anyone beyond (obliquely) the national handling of this. But he specifically credits the doctors/nurses and wishes he could have met them.

  18. 18.

    charluckles

    I’ve got a grade-schooler with a brand new telescope.  Birthday gifted from his beloved Grandmother.  Bring on the moon!

  20. 20.

    germy

    NEW YORK (AP) – Convicted former drug company CEO Martin Shkreli, known as “Pharma Bro,” wants to get out of prison so he can help research a treatment for the coronavirus, his lawyer said Tuesday.

    Defense attorney Ben Brafman said that he will file court papers asking federal authorities to release Shkreli for three months so he can do laboratory work “under strict supervision.”

    His client – best known before his arrest for drug price-gouging and his snarky online persona – is housed at a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.

    “I have always said that if focused and left in a lab, Martin could help cure cancer,” Brafman said in a statement. “Maybe he can help the scientific community better understand this terrible virus.”

  23. 23.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    Sorry, but there’s no indication Shkreli knows jack squat about researching treatments for anything.  He’s just an asshole who knows how to make a lot of money by working the system.  That’s not who we need looking for cures.

    Besides, he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan. He stays locked up for his whole damn sentence.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy: BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!  How about a dickpunch for Pharma Bro?  Would he settle for staying in prison and a dick punch?

  25. 25.

    germy

    How to try to win election by stoking fear amid the COVID-19 crisis:

    Former Georgia Rep. Paul Broun who is running to return to Congress just released an ad warning that “in uncertain times like these,” it’s important to protect yourself against “looting hordes from Atlanta” pic.twitter.com/bqS4rePrmP

    — Marcus Baram (@mbaram) April 7, 2020

    Reminds me of that classic headline from The Onion, during Hurricane Katrina: “White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters.” https://t.co/OcXQC9ddxg https://t.co/fPHmh4JsUN

    — Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) April 7, 2020

    Hm who lives in Atlanta, hmmm… https://t.co/tDKKZKu20r

    — Brad Reed (@bwreed) April 7, 2020

  27. 27.

    Jay

    Is noticing karma a semi respite?

    Israeli Health Minister who said coronavirus is "a divine punishment against homosexuality" has tested positive.

    Maybe he needs to sit down with his wife and have an awkward conversation. https://t.co/fcTvcth3Jz— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) April 7, 2020

  29. 29.

    khead

    @germy:

    I want to enter the contest and win just to say “Go fuck yourself Paul Broun” while taking the gun.  Hey – we’ve won several giveaways since this whole thing started so it might happen.

  30. 30.

    germy

    Being American means seeing a video of an insane British woman claiming that the coronavirus is caused by 5G signals and still thinking, “I dunno, that accent makes her sound pretty smart”

    — Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) April 6, 2020

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @Jay:

    Israeli Health Minister who said coronavirus is “a divine punishment against homosexuality” has tested positive.

    Maybe he needs to sit down with his wife and have an awkward conversation.

    Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. It’s clear from reading the prophets that God punishes the whole of Israel for allowing sinful behavior to continue; He doesn’t limit the punishment to the sinners.

  42. 42.

    FlyingToaster

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Alas, I can’t start drinking until WarriorGirl heads upstairs for the night… 2 and a half more hours.  And only an hour until Violin via Zoom.

    Feel free to start without the rest of us; we’ll catch up.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    Lynchburg, hmmm?  I hope those Falwell Jr. Liberty U Vectors for Christ Cash are not anywhere near this good man of science.

    We just had a refreshing T storm pass through, quickly.  I hope we will be able to see the moon this evening.

  53. 53.

    A Ghost to Most

    Rick Wilson :

    As consequential and as deadly as the coronavirus pandemic has been, and will continue to be, the Trump media machine can’t stop and won’t stop its relentless propagandizing and historical revision. Trump is the hero.

    Even with over 10,000 Americans dead in part because of Trump’s deception, denial, and delay, the number of fucks they give is asymptotically approaching zero, and will never budge. Like Trump, shame, reality, and responsibility are alien concepts that fail to own the libs, and thus have been utterly abandoned

  54. 54.

    Calouste

    @germy: Because the people you want to have working on a vaccine are not pharmacists or chemists or biologists, but a guy with a bachelor’s in Business Administration, right?

  55. 55.

    Percysowner

    My son-in-law works for the State Legislature. He’s one of the people who writes the letters legislators send to constituents, congratulations, recognition of achievements, that sort of thing. This is usually their biggest time of the year, with high school and college athletics and graduations coming around. Needless to say this year is slow, slow, slow. The entire staff is working from home (and this from an office that never had ANY provisions for WFH. My SIL is now creating the database of state “holidays” including ones celebrating a Polish patriot. He says it’s actually really fun.

  57. 57.

    Jay

    The buzz around chloroquine represents a type of disinformation that is simple — and it is therefore easy for social media companies to have a clear stance on it. Doctors do not advise people to take chloroquine to treat or prevent the novel coronavirus, and so anyone saying otherwise is clearly spreading disinformation. When institutional will exists, businesses can easily build policies around stopping the spread of a potentially dangerous “cure.”

    Yet the most insidious information being spread about the coronavirus is not so easily stopped. In fact, a loose, headless network of media personalities and news websites has developed a fairly robust strategy for spreading coronavirus lies on social media — while also evading bans.

    https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/04/03/how-coronavirus-disinformation-gets-past-social-media-moderators/

  59. 59.

    Amir Khalid

    I remember my first thought on seeing that photo: he must be a nice man if his dogs love him so mch.

  61. 61.

    middlelee

    @J R in WV: Did you read his whole post? I did and he had a whole paragraph or more thanking the nurses and doctors who took care of his father.

  62. 62.

    JAFD

    Good evening, or night, or morning !

    Yours truly, knocked out of synch with world, fell asleep just as Ms. Laurie hit the ‘submit’ button, and now wakes up to face ‘breakfast’…

    Anyway, my mother would have been 106 today.  May she rest in peace.  (She passed on, three weeks short of her 90th, major stroke at the Seniors’ Club luncheon…  If she had lived to see blogs, she’d have spent her evenings at ye keyboard…)

    Either internet connection, or computer #3, went kablooie on Sunday afternoon, tech was here early Monday morn, replaced wireless router, but still trying to get that working.  So using computer #4, (#1 & 2 mothballed), typing on laptop on lap.  First world problems…

    Started work on converting a duct tape spool into a broach for a miniature Pict army.  Pictures soon.  Got email from Historicon (grand gathering of grown-ups who still play with toy soldiers, mid-July in Lancaster, Pa), asking for volunteers, said I’ll be there, good Lawhd willin and creeks don’t rise.

    So, get in touch with your parents – or children, or maiden aunts.  Stay well, keep hydrated, wash your hands.  Happy Spring Festival Of Your Choice!  Lawhd bless you all !

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