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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Lunch with Andrew

Lunch with Andrew

by @heymistermix.com|  April 23, 20209:48 am| 241 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19

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I’ve been uncharacteristically busy the last couple of weeks with a work project, but every day I take a break for lunch and listen to Cuomo’s news conference. It’s some of the best TV around, and like any good TV, it has a set pattern with enough variation to get the viewer hooked.

First, the pattern. Cuomo begins with the most important part right at the top: are we bending the curve? For the past few days the answer has been a definite “yes”. After the daily chart, there’s the death count, with a few somber words from Cuomo. There are usually a few words explaining why continuing New York PAUSE (our stay-at-home order) is critical to save lives.

After that, variation on a theme begins with the educational lecture of the day, the topic of which changes depending on what Cuomo thinks we need to know. Yesterday, as has been the pattern for the last couple of days, he talked about the massive test, trace and isolate program that New York is initiating. Bloomberg is going to help out, financially and by organizing it. We’re going to mobilize 35,000 SUNY and CUNY students in medical fields to assist the few hundred tracers who are already in the field. It will be a massive effort that has never been tried before.

For the past couple of weeks, the educational lecture has included a discussion of testing, and lack thereof. New York’s maximum capacity is 40,000 tests per day if we put the pedal to the metal and redline it, in Cuomo’s words (he likes car metaphors). The capacity is limited by a supply chain that reaches to China. Cuomo consistently reminds us that only the federal government can really get testing going for the state.

Then comes Cuomo’s opinion, clearly marked as such. This often consists of a little civics lecture, accompanied with a quote. Yesterday’s was from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a fitting choice.

Cuomo’s exhortations are a little less subtle than Gibbon’s:

Finally, the questions from the reporters in the room, all of them socially distanced. This is where camera hog Cuomo has to give it up to the supporting cast on occasion. The two main players here are Dr. Howard Zucker, the commissioner of health, and Melissa DeRosa, the Secretary to the Governor. Both of them are ferociously competent.

“Secretary to the Governor” is a bit of a deceptive title — it’s the #2 position in New York State government, and Melissa is the first woman to hold that position in the state’s history. Cuomo turns to her whenever some complicated piece of government machinery needs to be explained. Yesterday, it was the tracing program. I’ve watched probably a dozen press conferences where she’s spoken, and I’ve never seen her ruffled or short on detail. By the way, she makes more money than Cuomo.

Howard has the good physician’s capacity to explain complex biology in terms we can understand. Cuomo calls on him whenever there’s a technical question – yesterday it was about monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of Covid. Cuomo also likes to give Howard a little shit on occasion. I’ve never seen him do that with Melissa.

After the initial excitement over trivia like Cuomo’s nipple rings, we’ve all settled down for a long haul watching the Cuomo show, unfortunately. If anyone told me two months ago that I’d look forward to eating lunch and listening to almost an hour of Andrew Cuomo, I’d think they were crazy. But here we are.

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Reader Interactions

241Comments

  1. 1.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 9:53 am

    It’s amazing how appealing truth, facts, logic, and competence are in an emergency.

  2. 2.

    laura

    April 23, 2020 at 9:58 am

    Out here in Sacramento, it’s lunch with Gavin Newsom. He’s got an odd cadence to his speech but it grows on you after a while. It’s about all the news I can handle tbh.

    It’s my in office day and I am preparing to send my case files for July arbitrations to the firm. Identical cases arising out of the same facts. The agency’s counsel refused to schedule these early in the year and only offered dates in July, refused to combine them into a single case and refused to agree to have the same arbitrator hear both cases. Monday I found out a key witness has died of CV19. Gonna be a long day of head desking I’m afraid.

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 23, 2020 at 9:58 am

    I’m no longer a New Yorker — haven’t been for 50+ years, in fact — but the Cuomo Show is must-watch TV for me every day. Thanks for the thread, and for providing some information I hadn’t known.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 23, 2020 at 10:00 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It’s amazing how appealing truth, facts, logic, and competence are in an emergency.

    I always appreciate you, your writing style, and your Oxford commas.

  5. 5.

    Served

    April 23, 2020 at 10:01 am

    Pritzker’s daily briefing in IL seems to have been molded from the Cuomo template. The reporters’ questions are an embarrassment every day. “When can we go golfing?!” “When did you last get a haircut??” “What do you say to people who feel the stay-at-home is a punishment?”

  6. 6.

    Freemark

    April 23, 2020 at 10:04 am

    I actually loved de Blasio’s long and extremely informative plan for NYC yesterday. I know a lot of people dislike him but I would love to see similar things like that from every mayor and governor.

  7. 7.

    download my app in the app store mistermix

    April 23, 2020 at 10:04 am

    @laura: I haven’t listened to the Gavin show yet but I imagine it’s pretty good given the results in Cali.

    @Served: Cuomo has no patience with stupid questions and the reporters at his press conferences generally ask good ones.

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 10:07 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Thank you. And they will pry the Oxford comma from my cold, dead hands.

  9. 9.

    Emma from FL

    April 23, 2020 at 10:10 am

    I am in Florida.  A competent state government — or even a non-malicious one — is a blessing devoutly to be prayed for.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    April 23, 2020 at 10:13 am

    I must admit, I’ve gone from “meh, at least he can be pushed from the left” to “Thank you, Mythic Pantheon of Lady Luck, that we got this governor at this time and this place.”

    I have never been more happy and grateful to be a NYer. The much-pilloried blue states (and the red states who have a bit of sense in their government) will be the ones who are leading the way in this vacuum of leadership. We will blaze the way forward and the whining right wingers will at least have to shut up.

    Because they would literally rather die than admit to any mistake. To me, that’s the one reliable element of their persona which will doom us all if we don’t marginalize their malign influence.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    April 23, 2020 at 10:13 am

    I really did not need to know that the Governor of New York has body piercings. That aside, Cuomo’s one of that group of leaders around the world who have been just what their public needed in this pandemic: knowledgeable, competent, assured, focused, and not inclined to make shit up or demand praise for glaringly inept job performance.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:14 am

    What I have appreciated is Andrew Cuomo dispatching the wingnut talking point(s) du jour.  With glee.

    Transcript of a lengthy exchange with “Speaker 9” — a young woman who is asking about the Reopen protesters.  Actually, she is channeling them.  She is way too familiar with their rhetoric.

    Putting this up, cuz not sure you’ll be able to access it as readily.

    I love how he finished his comments by advising the protesters to go and get an “essential job” — which are available — and then they can be working again.  Go clean those hospitals, surfaces, streets, wingnuts.

    C-Span link:  audio and video of April  22 press conference

    Transcript from “Rev”:

    Speaker 9: (54:37)
    I have a couple questions for you and one for Melissa. I don’t know if you can hear, but there are protesters outside right now honking their horns and raising signs. We did speak to a few of them before we came in and these are regular people who are not getting a paycheck. Some of them are not getting their unemployment check, and they’re saying that they don’t have time to wait for all of this testing and they need to get back to work in order to feed their families. Their savings is running out. They don’t have another week. They’re not getting answers. Their point is the cure can’t be worse than the illness itself. What is your response to them?

    Andrew Cuomo: (55:19)
    The illness is death. What is worse than death?

    Speaker 9: (55:23)
    What if somebody commit suicide because they can’t pay their bills?

    Andrew Cuomo: (55:27)
    Yeah, but the illnesses may be my death as opposed to your death. You said they said “the cure is worse than the illness.” The illness is death. How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?

    Speaker 9: (55:47)
    But what if the economy failing-

    Andrew Cuomo: (55:52)
    Worse than death?

    Speaker 9: (55:53)
    … equals death [crosstalk 00:55:54] because of mental illness-

    Andrew Cuomo: (55:56)
    But it doesn’t. No, it doesn’t.

    Speaker 9: (55:56)
    … the people stuck at home.

    Andrew Cuomo: (55:58)
    No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t equal death. Economic hardship. Yes, very bad. Not death. Emotional stress from being locked in a house. Very bad, not death. Domestic violence on the increase. Very bad, not death; and not death of someone else.

    Andrew Cuomo: (56:26)
    See, that’s what we have to factor into this equation. Yeah, it’s your life. Do whatever you want, but you’re not responsible for my life. You have a responsibility to me. It’s not just about you. You have responsibility to me, right? We started here saying, it’s not about me. It’s about we. Get your head around the we concept. It’s not all about you. It’s about me too. It’s about we.

    Andrew Cuomo: (56:57)
    Also, I get the economic hardship. Everybody gets it. Everybody feels it. The federal government is sending out a check for individuals, $600, an additional $1,200. We are moving heaven and earth to get the unemployment payments going. We get the economic anxiety. The question is, how do you respond to it and do you respond to it in a way that jeopardizes public health and possibly causes more people to die? And think about it as if it was your family that might get infected, right? And that’s what we’re talking about. And when you think about it as your family, you have a different perspective.

    Andrew Cuomo: (57:48)
    I’ll tell you the truth. It’s not an abstract argument where they say, he says, she says, he says, she says. I know that’s how it works. Well, the protestors say this. Governor says this. The protestors say this. The governor says this. Okay, think about it as your family might be in the mix. Because when I see 484 New Yorkers die, I feel that it’s like people in my family, and nothing comes before the public health risk of somebody else’s life, and that’s where we are.

    Speaker 9: (58:27)
    But they’re also saying, if you can’t afford to pay me unemployment or your system is not set up-

    Andrew Cuomo: (58:35)
    You will be paid. You will be paid unemployment from the day-

    Speaker 9: (58:39)
    But they can’t wait for the money. They’re out of money.

    Andrew Cuomo: (58:41)
    Yeah. We’re talking about a couple of days lag on the unemployment insurance, and they will get the check from the date of unemployment. It does that cost them an extra penny. Now, they can say unemployment insurance isn’t enough. I get it. Even with a $600 check and the $1,200 check and the unemployment insurance benefit is not enough. I understand the economic hardship. We all feel it. The question is what do you do about it, and do you put public health at risk, and do you drive up the number of deaths for it because you have no idea how to reopen now?

    Speaker 9: (59:20)
    They’re saying that, “Is there a fundamental right to work if the government can’t get me the money when I need it?” Is there a fundamental right to go to work?

    Andrew Cuomo: (59:29)
    By the way, do you want to go to work? Go take the job as an essential worker. Do it tomorrow. Right, you’re working.

    Speaker 9: (59:39)
    I am.

    Andrew Cuomo: (59:39)
    You’re an essential worker. Go take the job as an essential worker.

    Speaker 9: (59:42)
    But the people are [not] hiring because of the pandemic.

    Andrew Cuomo: (59:47)
    No, there are people hiring. You can get a job as an essential worker, so now you can go to work and you can be an essential worker and you’re not going to kill anyone.

  13. 13.

    Aleta

    April 23, 2020 at 10:14 am

    If anyone told me two months ago that I’d look forward to eating lunch and listening to almost an hour of Andrew Cuomo, I’d think they were crazy. But here we are.

    A true “no one could have predicted.”   Great post.  Thanks for pointing out  Melissa DeRosa and Howard Zucker.   The team thing applied to saving lives, solving crises, is alien to this administration.  Obama always emphasized it.  Nurses and doctors too.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    April 23, 2020 at 10:14 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Long live the Oxford comma.

  15. 15.

    MattF

    April 23, 2020 at 10:15 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: To me, the ‘Oxford’ comma is merely ‘a comma placed where it’s needed.’ Why that’s considered controversial is a minor puzzle.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:15 am

    @download my app in the app store mistermix:   In moderation.  I put up a lengthy  excerpt (rush transcript) from yesterday’s press conference.  Will you free me?

    Thanks mistermix.  Good morning, jackals.

  17. 17.

    Aleta

    April 23, 2020 at 10:15 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  lol, well said.

  18. 18.

    Just One More Canuck

    April 23, 2020 at 10:16 am

    @Served:

    “What do you say to people who feel the stay-at-home is a punishment?”

    “Suck it up, buttercup!”

  19. 19.

    prufrock

    April 23, 2020 at 10:16 am

    @Emma from FL: We used to have one.  It lasted from the time they rewrote the state constitution to defang the pork chop gang up until they instituted term limits and started electing Republican governors.  So roughly from 1968 to 1992.  We coasted on the fumes from 1992 until Walkin’ Lawton shuffled off this mortal coil, but since 1998 it’s been an utter shit show.

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 23, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @Amir Khalid: Hear, hear!

    And Ramadan Mubarak. I wish you an easy fast.

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 23, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: And they will pry the Oxford comma from my cold, dead, and chapped hands.

    For more Oxfordiness.  Also because of the hand washing.  Not casting aspersions on your quality of self-care.

  22. 22.

    Chyron HR

    April 23, 2020 at 10:18 am

    This is where camera hog Cuomo has to give it up to the supporting cast on occasion.

    If only you were being guided through this crisis by (checks notes) Miranda from Sex in the City.

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 23, 2020 at 10:19 am

    @Amir Khalid: @SiubhanDuinne: Echoing SD, Ramadan Mubarak.

  24. 24.

    BobS

    April 23, 2020 at 10:19 am

    My wife and I started watching because my daughter and her family live in Manhattan. We quickly got hooked simply because his calm and competent leadership give us a little comfort.

    I described him to my son (out in Seattle, now also a viewer of The Cuomo Show– he too worries about his sister, while his wife goes to work in a Seattle hospital) as a benevolent NY godfather. He suggested Pacino could play him when the movie version of COVID19 is made- either that, or Cuomo could play Pacino when the biopic of of his life is made.

  25. 25.

    germy

    April 23, 2020 at 10:20 am

    2 cats in NY become first US pets to test positive for virus

  26. 26.

    Duke of Clay

    April 23, 2020 at 10:21 am

    Here in Kentucky we have “Andy at 5.” It’s organized along the same lines, is chocked full of useful (and accurate info), and is totally non-political. We are so lucky not to have the mini-Trump who just lost his bid for reelection by a whisker in November.

  27. 27.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 10:26 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’m using some hand cream I bought from satby, so my hands aren’t bad.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    April 23, 2020 at 10:27 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thank you, thank you.

  29. 29.

    A Ghost to Most

    April 23, 2020 at 10:29 am

    Six months ago, most people considered him too abrasive. Now he’s America’s de facto president.

    Competence doesn’t always come from social butterflies. In fact, I would argue that a reliance on being a butterfly detracts from concentration on the core competencies.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    April 23, 2020 at 10:30 am

    @prufrock:

    This is not directed at you in the least, you just provided the opening for my rant…….

    It would be funny if not so painful but republicans complain about ineffective government, that we need to drown it, kill it off, and it’s the republicans who keep electing the morons who make government ineffective and shitty. They keep electing republicans.

    This may be a life lesson, never ask someone to do something for which they tell you over and over they are incapable of. Take their word for it, they are.

  31. 31.

    germy

    April 23, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @BobS: Pacino is what, 80 years old?  They’d have to digitally de-age him.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    April 23, 2020 at 10:34 am

    Reading, reading, reading—“Cuomo’s nipple rings.” Wait, what?

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    April 23, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Don’t feel any compelling need to watch it. Do appreciate what he’s doing, however.

  34. 34.

    Professor Bigfoot

    April 23, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Punishment?

    Stodgy, dodgy ol’ Ohio has amended the rules so that restaurants offering takeout can offer alcoholic drinks to go.

    Am I the only one who’s kind of… enjoying being quarantined?

    (also I should point out that so far I only know one victim personally, and though it’s dragging out, it doesn’t look like she’ll need hospitalization, praise the gods.)

    (also also who else would be happy to start throat-punching the Flu Klux Klan at their stupid ‘demonstrations’?)

  35. 35.

    L85NJGT

    April 23, 2020 at 10:36 am

    @germy:

    He also stopped acting and starting doing an Al Pacino impersonation about 25 years ago.

  36. 36.

    L85NJGT

    April 23, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Don’t ask…. that way madness lies.

  37. 37.

    Dog Mom

    April 23, 2020 at 10:37 am

    He is my lunch date too on most days ending with a ‘y’.  Most questions are good from the reporters, however yesterday one woman irritated the heck out of me with all her concerns about protesters – Don’t know if you can hear them outside . . .,  they want to be free. . ., they can’t work . . ., they can’t feed their families . . . felt like she went on forever.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:38 am

    OK, I don’t know if that first comment I put up will ever show, but to give you the gist:

    What I have really loved is Andrew Cuomo addressing and refuting the wingnut talking point(s) du jour, with glee.  Here’s C-Span link for yesterday’s press conference.

    At 48:00 minutes in, an exchange with a female reporter who is channeling pure wingnut:  the reopen protesters.  Cuomo eventually tells the protesters they can go get a job as an essential worker — there are plenty still available — and then they can be working and not killing anyone.

     

    Reporter:  ….  Their point is the cure can’t be worse than the illness itself. What is your response to them?

    Cuomo:  The illness is death. What is worse than death?

    Reporter:  What if somebody commit[s] suicide because they can’t pay their bills?

    Cuomo:  Yeah, but the illnesses may be my death as opposed to your death. You said they said “the cure is worse than the illness.” The illness is death. How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?

    Reporter:  But what if the economy failing-

    Cuomo:  Worse than death?

    Reporter:  … the people stuck at home.

    Cuomo:  No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t equal death. Economic hardship. Yes, very bad. Not death. Emotional stress from being locked in a house. Very bad, not death. Domestic violence on the increase. Very bad, not death; and not death of someone else

    ….  See, that’s what we have to factor into this equation. Yeah, it’s your life. Do whatever you want, but you’re not responsible for my life. You have a responsibility to me. It’s not just about you. You have responsibility to me, right? We started here saying, it’s not about me. It’s about we. Get your head around the we concept. It’s not all about you. It’s about me too. It’s about we.

    ….. Reporter:  But they can’t wait for the money. They’re out of money.

    ……I understand the economic hardship. We all feel it. The question is what do you do about it, and do you put public health at risk, and do you drive up the number of deaths for it because you have no idea how to reopen now?

    Reporter:  They’re saying that, “Is there a fundamental right to work if the government can’t get me the money when I need it?” Is there a fundamental right to go to work?

    Cuomo:  By the way, do you want to go to work? Go take the job as an essential worker. Do it tomorrow. Right, you’re working.

    Reporter:   I am.

    Cuomo:   You’re an essential worker. Go take the job as an essential worker.

    Reporter:  But the people are [not] hiring because of the pandemic.

    Cuomo:  No, there are people hiring. You can get a job as an essential worker, so now you can go to work and you can be an essential worker and you’re not going to kill anyone.
    NOTE:  I took text from “Rev”, a company that prepares transcripts.

  39. 39.

    germy

    April 23, 2020 at 10:38 am

    @L85NJGT:  Didn’t he play Phil Spector a few years ago?  I didn’t see it, did he play him as Pacino?

  40. 40.

    germy

    April 23, 2020 at 10:39 am

    @Dog Mom:  I noticed that one reporter, and wondered where she was from.  Usually, during Trump’s pressers, the role is played by the lady from OAN.

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    April 23, 2020 at 10:40 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Absolutely agree.

    I have zero need or desire to know about anyone’s piercings.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    April 23, 2020 at 10:40 am

    @Elizabelle

    We were told there wouldn’t be any tests until the final!

    :)

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 23, 2020 at 10:41 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: GAHHHH!!!!!!!!

  44. 44.

    BobS

    April 23, 2020 at 10:41 am

    @L85NJGT: You may reconsider after checking out The Hunters on Amazon prime.

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:41 am

    @Dog Mom:   Funny.  That’s exactly the excerpt I put up.  Andrew taking aim at wingnut protesters, and those journalists who channel them at his press briefings.

    Truly.  You want to work?  Wingnut, go clean a hospital, clean a street, pump gas, ring up groceries.

    Points out explicitly that it’s about “we” not “me.”

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    April 23, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Ramadan Mubarak. ?

  47. 47.

    hueyplong

    April 23, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @Elizabelle: That “go get a job as an essential worker” response is fantastic.  Surely Steve Hasty of Murfreesboro could use that information though, sadly, it doesn’t resolve the critical Free Refiils issue.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 23, 2020 at 10:43 am

    Just heard that Elizabeth Warren’s oldest brother died of CV19. How very sad. He died alone. Even sadder. Condolences to SPW and others in the circle of family and friends.

  49. 49.

    L85NJGT

    April 23, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @germy:

    I haven’t seen it either, but this clip would indicate that’s affirmative.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @L85NJGT: Like the Rolling Stones who became their own cover band in the 1980s

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @NotMax:   Just put that up because it’s faster to read than listen, and it was a really good exchange in a really good press conference. Never did find out who “Speaker 9” in the transcript was …

  52. 52.

    AnotherBruce

    April 23, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @Just One More Canuck:

    “Suck it up, buttercup!” Yes I don’t get this persecution complex. The government is paying you to sit on your ass at home. I try to do my part by not using the money on hookers and blow. I’m a hero!

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    April 23, 2020 at 10:44 am

    @Elizabelle: Thank you.

    It’s great that he’s not afraid to push back against RWNJ talking points.  Break the stupid framing!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    April 23, 2020 at 10:45 am

    @Ruckus: Funny about that.  My libertarian R-voting war-loving sister boiled with outrage about gov’t is a waste, taxes an abomination, whenever a Dem was in power.  When Rs were in power, I mostly heard about the glory of war.  She made her fortune from  gov’t contracts btw.

  55. 55.

    MattF

    April 23, 2020 at 10:46 am

    It’s not just a coincidence that every single thing Cuomo does forces a contrast with Trump. You want details on precisely how Trump has failed, is failing, and will continue to fail? Watch Cuomo.

  56. 56.

    germy

    April 23, 2020 at 10:49 am

    @MattF:  I watched the Anderson Cooper interview with the Las Vegas mayor, and she reminded me of Trump, in that she would say something, he would repeat what she said, and then she’d accuse him of putting words in her mouth.

    She literally contradicted herself from sentence to sentence.

    She reminds me of almost every “business person” and boss I’ve ever dealt with over the years.

    If Cuomo is the opposite Trump, that mayor is Trump’s twin.

  57. 57.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:50 am

    @MattF:   Yes.  Exactly.

    Do you think Trump watches Cuomo, or parts of it?  (I have no idea whether Fox News broadcasts the press conferences.)  But a lot of Cuomo is pitched at The Audience of One.

    And he is very frank about what the wingnuts are actually saying, and about community and caring vs. selfishness.

    It’s a tutorial for others on how to effectively respond.  Obviously, a lot of his fellow governors and elected officials are getting bolder.  Maybe Cuomo helped that along, maybe it’s just the situation is so dire they have NFLTG.  Especially when up against lies.

  58. 58.

    Fair Economist

    April 23, 2020 at 10:51 am

    @A Ghost to Most: The problem with Cuomo has been that he is a Republican in disguise who spent his first six years in office hamstringing the state by keeping Republicans in control of the state Senate. Like Baker and Hogan, he is competent, not too dangerous when controlled by a Democratic legislature, and not so evil as to be OK with mass death in his constituents; but he’s not really one of the good guys.

  59. 59.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 10:52 am

    While I’m glad Cuomo is looking out for his state, he needs to look out for every member of his state.

    ‘A recipe for disaster’: American prison factories becoming incubators for coronavirus

    Every morning around 7 a.m., a group of three dozen inmates begin their contribution to the fight against the novel coronavirus: bottling citrus-scented hand sanitizer at the Albion Correctional Facility, a medium-security women’s prison in New York state. For seven hours inside a locked compound, they fill bottles and label them for distribution to emergency responders, hospital staff and government workers.

    They don’t get to use the sanitizer, the women say, only make it. They say they don’t wear masks even though they sit across from one another, face to face. They’ve been told that if a spark were to ignite, the high alcohol content of the sanitizer would lead to a fast, deadly fire. They say they fear that by making products to help other people be safer, they are more likely to get sick themselves.

    “We are given no choice. If we refuse to come into the factory, we are threatened with disciplinary action,” said Sandra Brown, one of five women who described being compelled to work on the production line for $4 a day. “We do not have masks, nor do the staff or visitors. It’s as if our lives don’t matter.”

    With inconsistent access to soap and disinfectant and social distancing difficult to maintain, American prisons are becoming incubators for the coronavirus. Thousands of inmates are getting sick, and guards are spreading the virus back out to the larger community. This week, a single Ohio prison has become a top hot spot in the country, with 1,950 inmates — 78 percent of the prison population — testing positive for the virus.

    Maybe I should’ve written about this in my military series:

    “Honestly, we were relieved,” said Kareen Troitino, a correctional worker who is also head of the union at a federal prison in Miami. But then word came from Federal Prison Industries that some factories would remain open to fulfill contracts with the military. The Defense Department “has been pushing back on our shutdown plans,” Federal Prison Industries CEO Patrick O’Connor wrote in a memo to regional prison directors.

    So in Miami, 100 inmates continue to take their places around cutting stations and conveyor belts to make camouflage coats. “There’s no social distancing. It’s like what you see when you have a big exposé at some sweatshop in China,” Troitino said. “We’re being made to keep producing these military jackets, which are not necessary at this moment. It’s just pure greed.”

    Guards at six other prison factories that have stayed open to make military supplies raised the same concerns: The production lines are putting everyone in the prison, from inmates to staff, at risk. “Mandating staff to work on nonessential items during a time like this does not seem right at all. It undermines the whole quarantine,” said James Simmerman, a correctional officer and union president at the federal prison in Englewood, Colo.

  60. 60.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 10:52 am

    @Elizabelle:

    That’s such a good answer.

  61. 61.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    April 23, 2020 at 10:54 am

    Cumo was on the Daily Show last night, that was interesting. Cumo says the problem is they have no model to work off of, every prediction so far has been wrong and apparently the virus is spread threw bodily contact, that’s why NYC is a hot spot; it’s impossible to have social distancing on public transit.

  62. 62.

    Dog Mom

    April 23, 2020 at 10:54 am

    @Elizabelle: Yes – So glad you put that up – and was really glad for his response. So folks, when you read the transcript  – for full effect make sure to hear those questions in the sad, whiny, desperately dramatic tone of voice . . .

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 10:55 am

    @ MisterMix:  thank you for freeing my comment.

    The original one is now #12.

  64. 64.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @BobS: I liked The Hunters.  Sort of set up the ending too much, but hey — TV!

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 23, 2020 at 10:57 am

    @AnotherBruce: I try to do my part by not using the money on hookers and blow. I’m a hero!

    I am not following.

  66. 66.

    artem1s

    April 23, 2020 at 10:57 am

    Cuomo turns to her whenever some complicated piece of government machinery needs to be explained. Yesterday, it was the tracing program. I’ve watched probably a dozen press conferences where she’s spoken, and I’ve never seen her ruffled or short on detail. By the way, she makes more money than Cuomo.

    this is the single thing I’d love to see become the norm in our brave new world. More pay and recognition for competence and a whole lot less pay and adulation of talking head hairdo’s, incompetent CEO frat boys, and failing upward trust fund babies.  We’ve been putting the wrong people on a pedestal and in the spotlight for far too long.

  67. 67.

    JPL

    April 23, 2020 at 11:01 am

    The mayor of the city that I reside was on Chris Cuomo last night.    Although she walked a tight rope not to anger the governor, she did a good job.   Mayor Henry.  

  68. 68.

    AnotherBruce

    April 23, 2020 at 11:02 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s a joke, apparently, not a good one.

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    April 23, 2020 at 11:02 am

    Can you find and post the clip of Cuomo slapping down the twit who was trying to defend the ‘ open up the economy’ protestors? I have only seen it on Facebook, and I don’t know how to get videos off a Facebook. But, it was a sight to behold, watching him slap that stupid line of reasoning down. He didn’t give them one phucking inch of plausibility.

    I could play that video on an endless loop :)

  70. 70.

    Baud

    April 23, 2020 at 11:04 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Ramadan Mubarak, Kawan.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 11:05 am

    @rikyrah:   Good morning.  It’s on the C-Span link.  The exchange starts at 48 minutes into a 60 minute presser.

    ETA:  Jackals, please share if we ever find out who is the female reporter channeling the Reopen set.

    Anybody know what time is Cuomo O’Clock today??

  72. 72.

    Amir Khalid

    April 23, 2020 at 11:06 am

    Oh dearie me. According to The Guardian’s coronavirus liveblog, Mike Pompeo is threatening a permanent cutoff of US funding to WHO. This after China pledged more funding to the organisation, and Germany called it an essential partner against Covid-19.

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    April 23, 2020 at 11:07 am

    @Baud:

    Terima kasih.

  74. 74.

    artem1s

    April 23, 2020 at 11:07 am

    No, there are people hiring. You can get a job as an essential worker, so now you can go to work and you can be an essential worker

    I love this.  don’t know Cuomo well enough to know if the subtext is what I’m thinking it is. But I pretty much read it as ‘if you are so eager to expose yourself, at least be useful.  If you are only calling for everyone else to expose themselves so you have the luxury of going to a rally or protest, screw you.  Stop being lazy minded and selfish, get out there and do something useful if your so eager for the economy to recover.”

  75. 75.

    raven

    April 23, 2020 at 11:08 am

    Wanna see where this douche came from”

     
    Brian Kemp and the Triumph of Mediocrity

  76. 76.

    BobS

    April 23, 2020 at 11:09 am

    Probably everyone has seen this one by now, with Cuomo spending about 10 minutes batting Trump like a pinata:

    https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1251190517142114304

  77. 77.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 23, 2020 at 11:11 am

    @AnotherBruce: No, I got your joke.  Apparently, my follow-on joke wasn’t the good one.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    April 23, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @L85NJGT

    Heck, Jack Nicholson’s been doing the same for 50 years.

    ;)

  79. 79.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @Amir Khalid: I know I’ve seen that saying here, that fortunes are squandered by the second/third generation? Grandfather builds it, dad takes over, grandkid then pisses it all away. I’m just wondering if we, as a country, are at the grandkid pissing it all away stage?

  80. 80.

    mad citizen

    April 23, 2020 at 11:16 am

    I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the daily Indiana show. Our Governor is from the country club/business wing of the R party (he was a longtime R staffer) and fell into the job when Pence left. In Indiana, a republican has to be really bad, boring, crazy or whatnot (think Pence) to be unelectable. I’ve been really impressed with our Secretary of Health, a longtime doctor around 60 appointed by our governor in 2017. She was an OBGYN, but really knows what she is talking about.

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    April 23, 2020 at 11:16 am

    @artem1s:

    That’s how I heard it too.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    April 23, 2020 at 11:17 am

    @Leto

    Must admit there are days when it seems the Menendez brothers have become role models for a too great a percentage of the country.

    //

  83. 83.

    Kay

    April 23, 2020 at 11:18 am

    @Leto:

    Manufacturing is big where I live and they’re getting scared. They’re open because they’re “essential” (about half are open) but they’re really getting serious about protecting employees.

    My son is doing electrical work for Johns Manville (they make insulation and roofing systems- they never closed) and he got checked by an RN they brought in when he arrived for work yesterday. That’s a ramp up from what they were doing, which is taking their temps. He’s young and a little reckless so he’s not scared (he’s also working on the roof of the plant, so safer) but he says the older “line” workers are upset- close quarters.

    Businesses that are open have a hard set of problems that are different than businesses that had to close, but still hugely disruptive. The “open it back up!” people are kidding themselves if they think this can be cured with an order to reopen from the governor. The problem is the virus. It has to be addressed.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 11:19 am

    Cuomo O’Clock is at 11:30 today.  Here’s the C-Span link for it.  I love to listen online.

  85. 85.

    BobS

    April 23, 2020 at 11:20 am

    @NotMax: It’s that way with virtually every movie star who becomes iconic- we see them on screen and we see them, rather than the character they’re playing.

  86. 86.

    Shawn in Showme

    April 23, 2020 at 11:26 am

    @artem1s:

    It’s the ultimate “calling their bluff” moment.  The protesters tell us the threat of coronavirus is overblown but they don’t dare take a job at a hospital or a shipping warehouse.

  87. 87.

    MagdaInBlack

    April 23, 2020 at 11:26 am

    @Leto:

    “Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in 3 generations” was my fathers phrase for that process. Ive kind of been thinking about that idea myself.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    April 23, 2020 at 11:27 am

    @Kay:

     

    Kay,

     

    good to see you.

     

    hope that they all stay safe.

     

    They can open whatever they want. But, if people like me, who will not be doing anything outside of going to work and coming home…have no intentions of going anywhere unnecessary.

  89. 89.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    April 23, 2020 at 11:28 am

    @Professor Bigfoot:  Throat-punching? At times like this, sabers are the tool of choice for the throats of idiots. Trust me.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    April 23, 2020 at 11:30 am

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    Piano wire don’t get no respect.

    // ;)

  91. 91.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 11:30 am

    @Kay: I haven’t spoken about this but my son, who’s stationed in Hawaii, has asthma and his leadership has essentially locked him in his room. He basically only goes out to make food runs, and he has people bring him stuff, but I still worry. I think about my own accident 18 months ago and how, I guess if it had to happen, I’m glad it happened then because even with dedicated medical staff I still had to have help from Avalune and my parents with so much stuff while I was there. I occasionally think about how I would’ve responded when I eventually “woke up” and nobody that I knew was there to help me figure out wtf was going on.

    I’ve seen on the news, and read, how the “open it back up” crowd is really small. Like 12% or something. Yes they’re small, but that 12% includes multiple governors who are actively hindering prevention efforts and in the process ensuring this is worse than it has to be. As always, a minority of people are fucking over a majority.

    As always, glad to see you here. Hope you and your family are doing well/staying safe.

  92. 92.

    JPL

    April 23, 2020 at 11:32 am

    @NotMax: lol    I wonder how many readers had to google that name..

  93. 93.

    Spanky

    April 23, 2020 at 11:32 am

    @Shawn in Showme: Those “protesters” don’t want to go to work. They want you to go to work to serve them. Exhibit A being Mr. Two-cups-of-iced-tea the other day.

    A quote from some lefty:

    McConnell’s position, therefore, makes no practical or political sense. It’s the Herbert Hoover mentality all over again, as though fiscal tightening is the antidote to recession. It nevertheless is revealing of the ongoing contempt many Republicans (including many in the donor class) have for good governance and active, nimble government. The position is entirely out of step with popular opinion that wants government action now. Americans who are still employed are fearful of losing their jobs and, moreover, are deeply sympathetic toward lifesaving first responders and other local government workers right now.

    The “donor class”, Hoover all over again. Amazed that it’s Jen Rubin in the WaPo. Again. I do believe we’ve witnessed the birth of a(nother) radical.

  94. 94.

    Jinchi

    April 23, 2020 at 11:32 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: I just read the same. Terrible news.

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 23, 2020 at 11:32 am

    @Kay: Late to join the chorus, but I am exceedingly glad to see you back as a commenter.

  96. 96.

    MattF

    April 23, 2020 at 11:33 am

    I’ll note that, according to the 538 tracking of Trump’s national Approval vs. Disapproval we’ve hit (Disapproval) – (Approval) = 9.0%. Trump’s rally-round-the-flag-bump is officially over.

  97. 97.

    JPL

    April 23, 2020 at 11:35 am

    @Leto: That must be so difficult on both of you, but your son also.  If he’s anything like you and Avalune, he wants to be useful.   Staying safe is being useful though.

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 11:36 am

    @Kay:   Hello there Kay.  You know how we feel about your presence, and absence.

    Waiting on Cuomo O’Clock.  The soothing New Age piano music as we await the governor.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 11:38 am

    @Leto:

    They don’t get to use the sanitizer, the women say, only make it. They say they don’t wear masks even though they sit across from one another, face to face. They’ve been told that if a spark were to ignite, the high alcohol content of the sanitizer would lead to a fast, deadly fire. They say they fear that by making products to help other people be safer, they are more likely to get sick themselves.

     

    That is so wrong.  I hope Cuomo is asked about it, and can report that they are providing PPE and distancing and sanitizer to those making it.

    How ironic.

  100. 100.

    cain

    April 23, 2020 at 11:38 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    It will be fun if the WHO comes up with something and decides not to share with the U.S. That should make for some great outrage.

    Also fuck Pompeo.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 11:39 am

    Cuomo up.

    “Grim facts.  Troubling facts.”

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    April 23, 2020 at 11:43 am

    @BobS:

    WHY CAN’T WE MAKE HIM PRESIDENT RIGHT NOW

  103. 103.

    FlyingToaster

    April 23, 2020 at 11:46 am

    Up heah in the Frozen North, the (surprisingly, GOP) Governor of the Commonwealth, Charlie Baker, has been very non-political, and quite terse with the “open the economy” reporters.  Baker is a low-key guy, but he’s also the former CEO of BCBSMA.  So he is capable of understanding a briefing by an epidemiologist,  or by a supply chain guy from NewBalance.

    Our contact tracing people are up and running; unfortunately, we can’t get reagents or swabs for the test kits, so we’re stuck at 5-8K tests/day.  There are several firms ramping up swab production locally (with Staties and National Guardsmen on duty at the plants), but reagents are dependent upon raw materials we don’t have in the land of terminal and alluvial moraines.

    The New England Governors move their updates around, so that none of them are on TV at the same time (so that NECN, et. al. can broadcast all 6 of them without stepping on one another).  NY is past the hump on the curve, but MA and NJ still seem to be on the plateau, and everyone else is still on the upslope.

    I’m grateful that Cuomo has taken up residence in Trump’s head.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    April 23, 2020 at 11:46 am

    @Amir Khalid

    And the U.S. assessed contribution amounts to chump change, more than readily replaceable by other countries stepping up.

    One of the main ways in which the U.S. government supports WHO is through assessed and voluntary contributions; the U.S. is the single largest contributor to WHO. For many years, the assessed contribution for the U.S. has been set at 22% of all member state assessed contributions, the maximum allowed rate. Between FY 2010 and FY 2019, the U.S. assessed contribution has been fairly stable, fluctuating between $107 million and $119 million. Source

  105. 105.

    BobS

    April 23, 2020 at 11:48 am

    @zhena gogolia: You’re preaching to the choir.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 11:49 am

    @Leto:

    I always thought the “three generations” thing came from the infamous 1927 Buck v. Bell decision in which Oliver Wendel Holmes — the Gorsuch of his day? — wrote that “three generations of imbeciles was enough.” And, relevant to our times regarding forced medical procedures (in Buck it was sterilization):

    We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.

    Never overturned.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    April 23, 2020 at 11:50 am

    @Leto:

    People are trying but it’s all so new. Courts are closed here except for “essential business” and I had one of those cases yesterday. So magistrate has done a good job- she’s got all these rules in place. One of the rules is she asks a series of questions to the litigants when they enter. One of the questions is “have you had contact with…”. We had a “yes, I have had contact” (a nurse). Then we all look at one another- now what do we do ? :)

    We did nothing. Went forward.  Hadn’t planned on someone actually saying “yes”!

  108. 108.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    April 23, 2020 at 11:52 am

    To each his own…

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 11:55 am

    @BobS: IMO, The worst example of that — see the star, not the character — was Reds.  All the actors were mostly themselves, but Nicholson’s Eugene O’Neil was a particularly extreme example of the genre.

  110. 110.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 11:56 am

    @JPL: They have him completing “book reports” while he waits. I gave a hearty laugh because that’s what I used to do as a punishment; gave him a list of books, told him to pick one, and write me a report. Between the ages of 13-17, he read a lot of good books ;)

    @Elizabelle: Maddow has been reporting on prisons and senior centers/homes for going on two weeks now. This virus is ripping through them and not enough is being done. Both facilities are emblematic of the issues we have in American society: fuck the old. Fuck the poor. It also goes back to the fundamental, “If we can make a buck off their suffering, I’m sure we can make two!” mentality that we’ve had for so long.

  111. 111.

    Firebert

    April 23, 2020 at 11:59 am

    I mostly lurk, but I need to vent.  Today is the one month anniversary of getting furloughed, and because someone screwed up entering my info (my HR director denies everything), I still haven’t gotten an unemployment check. I can’t get through to TWC on the phone, nor has My HR director gotten a response. I haven’t seen the stimulus money yet either.

     

    My employer got a PPP loan and is putting me back on the payroll this Monday, but it’ll be three weeks before I see that money, and if I did the math right, I’ll be getting about $400 less a week than if I stayed on unemployment.

     

    I’m sure we’ll pull through, but I’m just a little tired of stressing about money. I just never wanted to put a grocery run on a credit card.

  112. 112.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    @Kay: “Open the Economy” is an election slogan, not a real thing.  All businesses that have to do with government, interstate commerce, manufacturing, etc. are mostly “open” (often dangerously so) in Massachusetts.  The ones that are not (schools, restaurants, gyms, etc.) are the ones where it is least possible to distance. Besides schools and elective surgery, I really can’t think of one business that is closed that is not a service/convenience industry. I am sure they are out there, but I can’t think of them.

  113. 113.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    If anyone told me two months ago that I’d look forward to eating lunch and listening to almost an hour of Andrew Cuomo, I’d think they were crazy.

    Nothing like a genuine mortal crisis to make the narcissism of small differences seem small and narcissistic, eh?

  114. 114.

    mad citizen

    April 23, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    I think “we” are pissing it away in all the years we have economic expansion yet run huge federal budget surpluses.  No one is talking about it much, but we’re all borrowing a shitload of money from our future selves to keep our money/food/way of life etc. going now.  It’s necessary, but it surely would be a lot less painful if we had mindfully and smartly reduced our national debt when we could, not spent like drunken sailors almost every year for 50 years.  And yes, it’s nearly all or all when the republican is in the white house.

    My devious plan is when our debt gets up to a certain level–40, 50 trillion, we just reneg on it.  What could happen :)

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    @NotMax: @JPL:

    As a criminal defense lawyer, I learned something super important from the Mendez Bros. —
    “The sweater vest is the credibility argument of slim men.”

  116. 116.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    @Firebert: I have become “a person filing for unemployment” and feels like a body blow to my sense of who I am. But we have to remember that none of this is personal. It’s something happening to us, it’s not something we failed at. All the normal work-ethic rules have been upended.

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:04 pm

    OT, but this is a good read, from pre-COVID days.  LA Times profile of Nancy Pelosi from October 2018, when she was traveling heavily to support Democratic candidates. Looked this up, after scanning the morning thread re ice cream gate.  It is silent on the frozen confection.
    They say terrible things about Nancy Pelosi. Her response: Just win, Democrats

    Pelosi doesn’t care about the invective hurled her way, in whatever language. She doesn’t care that her face has appeared, menacing and twisted, in thousands of Republican attack ads. She doesn’t care that life is a full-time residency in travel hell — a blur of meals on the run, flight delays, a different hotel each night.

    … She is tireless. During a two-day campaign swing last week she was up at dawn and starred at a healthcare forum in Lawrence, Mass., a Harvard seminar, a meeting with gun control advocates, the get-out-the-vote rally in Coral Gables and a cocktail reception for south Florida Democrats. Grazing, she snatched a slice of prosciutto before delivering her remarks to several dozen patrons before a high-rise view of the Atlantic.

    There were fundraisers for breakfast, lunch and dinner and, in between, a steady stream of phone calls and text messages with staffers, congressional colleagues and political donors.

    On a good day, she makes it to bed around midnight, after rewarding herself with dark chocolate, a sudsy bath and the New York Times crossword puzzle.

  118. 118.

    raven

    April 23, 2020 at 12:04 pm

    Cuomo “This is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.”

  119. 119.

    raven

    April 23, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    @mad citizen: if a bullfrog had wings. . .

  120. 120.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 12:06 pm

    @Kay: Sounds like the “plan for the best, expect the worst” stopped at the former. In military parlance: no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

    @Immanentize: I’ve seen that ruling before. I think you’ve quoted it, or someone else has. That was during the eugenics period in our country, wasn’t it? Or around the time when eugenics was a booming thing? Ugh.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    Good.  Cuomo is launching into McConnell’s comments yesterday that “maybe the states should declare bankruptcy.”

    Cuomo:  “One of the really dumb ideas of all time.”  … [how do you not fund front line workers — healthcare, police, etc. — at this time?  Airlines, yes …]

    States should declare bankruptcy.  That’s [how you deal with economy]?

    You want to see that market fall through the cellar?  … You will see a collapse of this economy.”

    Calls McConnell “vicious” for labeling the disease a blue state phenomenon.

  122. 122.

    Capri

    April 23, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    @Elizabelle:  I love that exchange. He handled it so well and was actually able to add in perspective and context.  I thought at the time that it’s never a good idea to get into an argument with someone who grew up in a large Italian family.

  123. 123.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    SPEAKER 9: “But what about the people who commit suicide because you won’t let them die from the virus?”

  124. 124.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    Taking on the aiding Red States over Blue States.

    “If there was ever a time to stop your partisan bias and … political anger —

    How irresponsible and how reckless.”

    This is not the time or the situation to start your divisive politics …. there is no red and blue … certainly not now. …  This country …  is red, white and blue.”

    “We operate with love and we say love.  To say love is not a weakness, it is a strength.”  Speaks of NY Tough.

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    First question up included Q on inmates and hand sanitizer!

    NY Secretary responds.

    [I would paraphrase, but she speaks too quickly for me to catch it. ]

  126. 126.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    Now Cuomo is up again about “Grim Reaper” [his words] McConnell.

    …. Kentucky takes out $148 billion more than it puts in.  [Unlike NYS.]

    “Senator McConnell:  who’s getting bailed out here?  It’s YOUR state that is [living large on our money].”

  127. 127.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 12:11 pm

    @Leto: Yep.  Eugenics for everyone but meeee!  And we wonder how Nazi Germany happened.

  128. 128.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:11 pm

    @germy: They won’t test my friend who’s been laid-up with Corona-like symptoms for the past month, but they’ll test pets?

  129. 129.

    FlyingToaster

    April 23, 2020 at 12:11 pm

    @Immanentize:

    Besides schools and elective surgery, I really can’t think of one business that is closed that is not a service/convenience industry. I am sure they are out there, but I can’t think of them.

    Craft stores (Michaels, JoAnn) and fabric/yarn stores.  I could have used supplies from both, especially if they had “order online, pick up at door” as an option.  Instead, I was able to order Elmer’s Tack (poster hanging putty) from Staples to get us by.

    We completed 5 weeks of Zoom Middle School and Zoom Music School, and are now on April Break (Patriots Day week, when schools fix the HVAC).  But we can’t go back to school, so I suspect that work is, um, postponed to August.

    There is no Zoom Aikikai.  Alas.  Where’s my holodeck, goddamit?

  130. 130.

    raven

    April 23, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    @Elizabelle: He’s crushing it

  131. 131.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    @Professor Bigfoot: There’s one in every… uh… crowd…

  132. 132.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    @Firebert: First off, hello! Second, I’m right there with you. I’m trying to retire from the Pennsylvania Air Nation Guard atm, and the dumbshits at my base have fucked up my paperwork 3 times now. I’ve been in this holding pattern for about a year now. On top of that the Army Benefits Center-Civilian has been giving me endless headaches as I try to get my civilian side disability approved, and just to add the piece dela resistance (I don’t know the French spelling of it/I’m not looking it up/ YOU’RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!) to the shit custard mix, the Air Force agency responsible for processing the remainder of my medical insurance claim is essentially closed until this mess is sorted. It’s a substantial sum that is just waiting in limbo but we kind of need. That’s also been about a year long struggle to get.

    Yeah, I’ll be glad when I don’t have to exactly worry about money again. My wife will be eternally glad as she’s the bank manager in our marriage.

  133. 133.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    @different-church-lady:   Her is reaching, no?

    It was eye opening on hearing the exchange, and even more so seeing it written out.

    We need to find out who Ms. Reopen is.  Maybe NY Post??  Someone will know.  Cuomo did not address her by first name, unlike some of the other journalists known to him.

  134. 134.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 23, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    Senator Warren announced this morning that her oldest brother, Don Reed Herring has died of COVID-19.  He was 86.  He had been a bomber pilot and bomber squadron commander in Vietnam. :(

  135. 135.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    @Immanentize: Because you have nothing but time:

     What America Taught the Nazis: In the 1930s, the Germans were fascinated by the global leader in codified racism—the United States.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    @different-church-lady:   I think it turns out to be a different type of test for pets.  The journalist covered that, because it’s an obvious Q.  Will find the article; think it was NY Times …

  137. 137.

    WereBear

    April 23, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    He’s stomping on McConnell now! Facts to the head!

  138. 138.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 12:16 pm

    @FlyingToaster: I could use a holodeck!  Except that is where stuff so often goes terribly wrong….

    We got news all summer courses will be on line.  I’m teaching a group of new law students starting in May. I really don’t think the Uni. has a plan for the fall except for prayer, burnt offerings and coins in a well.

  139. 139.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 23, 2020 at 12:18 pm

    @Elizabelle: The “take the job as an essential worker” soundbite got pulled out of that and passed around as a reminder that leftists should hate Cuomo. I didn’t understand what the context was until later.

  140. 140.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:18 pm

    @Shawn in Showme:

    The protesters tell us the threat of coronavirus is overblown but they don’t dare take a job at a hospital or a shipping warehouse.

    Well, as many have said, the protests are not about the protesters getting back to work, they’re about other people getting back to work for the protesters.

  141. 141.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    @different-church-lady:  The NY Times article.  Might be a free click since COVID related;  don’t know.

    Two Cats Are First U.S. Pets to Test Positive for Coronavirus

    The animals appear to have mild symptoms and likely caught the virus from their owners. And there’s no evidence pets can pass it to humans.

    The first pets in the United States, two cats from New York State, have tested positive for the virus that is causing the worldwide pandemic, the Agriculture Department and the Centers for Disease Control announced Wednesday.

    The cats, from different parts of the state, are showing only mild symptoms and are expected to be fine.

    Testing positive does not mean the cats have the same illness that people have. Nor does it mean that the cats can pass on the illness to people. And tests for pets are not the same as those for people, so no humans missed out on testing because the cats were tested.

    Veterinarians took samples from both cats that were tested at a private lab. The test results were then confirmed at a national veterinary lab. The owners brought both cats to veterinarians because they showed symptoms of a respiratory infection. One owner had tested positive for the virus. No human in the other cat’s household tested positive.

    Other cats have tested positive for the virus, SARS-CoV-2, including a pet in Belgium and a tiger at the Bronx zoo. After the tiger who showed mild symptoms tested positive, the zoo collected fecal samples from other big cats and found that a total of five tigers and three lions had been infected. One of the tigers didn’t show any symptoms. All of the big cats are doing well, the zoo reported Wednesday.

  142. 142.

    Immanentize

    April 23, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: I don’t understand.  Don’t leftists still believe in “from each according to ability; to each according to need?”

  143. 143.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 23, 2020 at 12:21 pm

    Bloomberg? I’m so fucking old I can remember when ol’ Mike was going to spend a fortune on advertising for whoever the Democratic nominee turned out to be, even if it wasn’t him.

    Asshole.

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:   You are spending too much time with leftists.

    Give yourself a vacay from them!  Your life will improve.

    I suspect many of those on the far left are as whack as those on the far right. They sure believe the same talking points generated by Republicans and their mouthpieces.

  145. 145.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    More from that NY Times article on finding coronavirus in two NY State cats (who are doing well now, thank you):

    Karen Terio, the chief of the Zoological Pathology Program at University of Illinois’s veterinary college, where the Bronx Zoo tiger sample was tested, noted that hundreds of thousands of people have tested positive in the United States, as opposed to two cats.

    Dr. Terio said that while the tests and the earlier experiments did show that cats appear to be somewhat susceptible to the virus, “If this was going to be a serious problem for cats, we would have seen greater numbers.” Either very few cats are being infected, or their symptoms are so mild that their owners don’t notice them or think they warrant a trip to the vet. The direction of infection “is not going to be cat to human,” she said. “It’s going to be us to our pets. Thankfully, they’re having very mild disease.”

    For now, the C.D.C. recommends keeping cats indoors to prevent them from contact with other animals or people. And for people who become sick, they recommend, as they have in the past, isolating from pets as much as possible, treating them as you would a human being in your family.

    Dogs are less susceptible to infection with the virus, according to the same research paper on cats. Although there is some evidence that they may have low-level infections, they haven’t shown any symptoms. Nonetheless, the C.D.C. recommends that you put dogs on a six-foot leash when walking them, keep them away from other animals and avoid contact as much as possible with any pets if you are sick. The American Veterinary Medical Association has the same advice, which did not change with the new announcement.

    The Agriculture Department will post any confirmed tests of animals with SARS-CoV-2 on its website. It does not recommend routine testing for pets.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 12:29 pm

    Last Q, about death rate discrepancy among some nursing homes.

    Over.

  147. 147.

    Kent

    April 23, 2020 at 12:33 pm

    @Immanentize:Besides schools and elective surgery, I really can’t think of one business that is closed that is not a service/convenience industry. I am sure they are out there, but I can’t think of them.

    I guess each state is different.  Here in WA, all construction is shut down, commercial and residential.  That will likely be the first sector to get the green light to re-open in May.  I live in a fast-growing suburban area and there are half-completed construction projects all over the place sitting deserted.

    We were probably doing the best of any state.  Almost two weeks with daily increases in the 2% or below range.  We started as the #1 state in the country for both infections and deaths and have slid down to #16 bit by bit as all the red states pass us by.

    But yesterday, fucking Tyson meat plant in eastern Washington pops up with over 100 infections and probably a shitload more they haven’t tested yet.  And also an apple packing plant with immigrant labor popped up with over 50.  Same county where the local yahoos wanted to get things re-opened and threatened to defy the governor.

    So actually here in WA we get to experience both the blue state western half that is doing what is necessary, and the red state eastern half that is fucking it up for everyone else.

  148. 148.

    different-church-lady

    April 23, 2020 at 12:34 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    You are spending too much time with leftists.

    Rather than using my free time to catch up on all those projects and tasks that have been building up over the years, I am instead wasting it by compulsively hate-reading the Twitter sidebar at LGM, just irrationally craving seeing them beat down on the latest outrage performed by the very-online-left. I don’t even rubberneck real-life auto wrecks, but I just can’t quit my addiction to the stupidity of the Rose emojis.

  149. 149.

    Kent

    April 23, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    @different-church-lady:Well, as many have said, the protests are not about the protesters getting back to work, they’re about other people getting back to work for the protesters.

    A lot of them are boomers near or at the retirement age so it’s also about firing the stock market back up so their 401k and IRAs start looking better.

    And those dark roots don’t just dye themselves.  Have you noticed how many GOP blonds are in those protests?

  150. 150.

    PST

    April 23, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    @MattF: The 538 tracking gap is nowhere near its maximum yet, so as heartening as it is to see the bump evaporate, there is plenty of room for improvement. That gap is one curve we don’t want to see flatten.

  151. 151.

    BC in Illinois

    April 23, 2020 at 12:37 pm

    Nicola Sturgeon on re-opening Scotland.

    Social distancing and limiting our contacts with others will be a fact of life for a long time to come, certainly until treatments and ultimately a vaccine offer different solutions

    And that’s why talk of lifting the lockdown as if it’s a flick of the switch moment is misguided. Our steps when we take them will need to be careful, gradual, incremental, and probably quite small to start with.

    After listening to Trump and a Trump-like Missouri Governor, it’s refreshing to hear a reasonable, empathetic, and knowledgable national leader.

    Here is the Scottish Government Framework for Decision Making.

  152. 152.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 12:44 pm

    This community has been very frustrating to read about in all this

    Drove through a Hasidic neighborhood in brooklyn yesterday and wow — it was business as usual. Zero social distancing, all shops were open, kids running around. Saw a few elders in masks but that was it.

    — Spoon & Tamago (@Johnny_suputama) April 23, 2020

  153. 153.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: oh no! How awful.

  154. 154.

    Wolf

    April 23, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    I think this week we will pass the amount of combat deaths in Vietnam.  We should start using it as a unit of death.  I think it  helps people understand the scale and tragedy of this moment.  1 Vietnam in just 3 months(Feb-April).

  155. 155.

    Shawn in Showme

    April 23, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    @Firebert:

    I understand how disorienting this can be.  When the recession hit in late 2007, I was unable to land a steady job for two years.  That was almost 2 years of putting groceries on a credit card and eventually, depleting my life savings.

    I don’t know how people who live on the edge of survival manage to go on year after year.  They are much tougher than I am.

  156. 156.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 12:47 pm

    @Kent:

    But yesterday, fucking Tyson meat plant in eastern Washington pops up with over 100 infections and probably a shitload more they haven’t tested yet.

    All of the Tyson meat plants have had significant outbreaks, along with the Smithfield brand. Tyson was finally forced to close one of them in Blackhawk County, Iowa after the sheriff appeared on Maddow’s show. Smithfield is saying none of their workers picked it up from being at work in their close proximity plants, no they all got it from home… fuckers.

  157. 157.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    And this is very interesting. Probably +/-5%, give or take, and suggests an infection fatality rate of about .9%, which is consistent with what we’ve seen elsewhere.

    Regional test results fascinating: 21% of NYC tested positive for antibodies pic.twitter.com/fVzB7NHc06

    — Kate Hinds (@katehinds) April 23, 2020

  158. 158.

    trollhattan

    April 23, 2020 at 12:51 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I’ll put Nancy SMASH right up there with Liz Warren as somebody defying her age. She seems tireless, relentlessly upbeat and laser focused on the tasks at hand. Not “task” because life’s not that simple.

    My fam were lucky enough to meet her at one of those above-mentioned fundraisers last year and came away super impressed. And when she did selfie duty with the kid she made sure to bring mom over for inclusion. That’s the Nana role coming through.

    NY’s clearly fortunate that the battle-ready edition Cuomo has been there, since politician Cuomo has irked y’all since being first elected. I can only imagine how a Governor McConnell would manage this. “Let them declare bankruptcy” would so easily morph to “Let them get sick, it’s not the state’s job to babysit them.”

  159. 159.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 12:52 pm

    @trollhattan: NYC is unfortunate we didn’t have London Breed and Gavin Newsom. Thousands of lives were lost due to inaction and continued dithering.

  160. 160.

    Kent

    April 23, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Religion is going to be the death of us all.

  161. 161.

    Feathers

    April 23, 2020 at 12:54 pm

    @FlyingToaster: One of my favorite classes was on the Ice Age. We took field trips around New England to see various geographic ice age formations. My recommend is Great Esker Park in Weymouth. Worth a day trip, both for the hike along the top of the esker and the lovely marshes.

  162. 162.

    trollhattan

    April 23, 2020 at 12:54 pm

    @Leto:

    Smithfield is saying none of their workers picked it up from being at work in their close proximity plants, no they all got it from home… fuckers.

    Anybody buying that other than shareholders? “Let a thousand lawsuits rain” comes to mind, but I wonder how cowed all those green card(?) laborers are about raising a stink about getting a potentially fatal disease at The Plant?

  163. 163.

    trollhattan

    April 23, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    @BC in Illinois:

    I could listen to Nicola Sturgeon read the Edinburgh phone book.

    Just needed to say that.

  164. 164.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    @Leto:

    I saw that Blackhawk County, IA sheriff on Maddow. He was impressive. He was so reasonable and just tired. We used to live in Blackhawk County before we moved here. That’s NE IA, House district IA 1 which was Democratic the whole time we lived there. There’s a large John Deere presence there.

  165. 165.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    @trollhattan: Nobody is buying it because their infection rate keeps going up. I think that plant alone counts for almost 50% of the infected in South Dakota. And dipshit republican governor still refuses to issue a stay at home order, or do literally anything to help prevent further spread.

  166. 166.

    FlyingToaster

    April 23, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    @Feathers: I’ll add that to my list for WarriorGirl this summer, since her summer camps are likely to be axed or go to Zoom.

    One week is definitely axed (Museum of FineArts has cancelled all summer courses); one is probably axed (Girls Invention Week at partsandcrafts.org). Fiddle Camp in August is probably okay, Museum of Science is in Limbo, as are the rest of the Parts&Crafts weeks.

    Zoom is, frankly, not up to most of the task, as we’ve learned from the past 5 weeks.  It works WELL for lectures and then breakout rooms for the core curriculum plus Spanish.  It works poorly for Art and violin group over at Music School.  It FAILS for Chorus.

    Seventh grade normally spends a week at Cape Cod studying the terminal moraine; their May trip has been cancelled.  It’s likely that they’ll go in September (as 8th graders), and WarriorGirl’s class will go as usual next May.

  167. 167.

    cliosfanboy

    April 23, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    @WereBear: i was shocked at how the repub governors of Maryland and Ohio seem to have stepped up to meet the challenge.

  168. 168.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 1:09 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Picking a fight are we? //

  169. 169.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 23, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    @Immanentize: The implication was that Cuomo was endorsing right-wing “risk your life or starve” rhetoric for the masses. Of course he was actually responding to a right-wing whackjob who was insisting on opening up the economy.

  170. 170.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @Just One More Canuck: I think I will spend part of my lockdown time making that into an embroidery sampler.

  171. 171.

    Baud

    April 23, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They’re as deceitful as Fox News. At some point, we just have to internalize that fact.

  172. 172.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Satby handcream: the lavender stuff?

    ETA: I just used her shampoo this morning. Those bars are slippery little things in the shower.

  173. 173.

    Fair Economist

    April 23, 2020 at 1:15 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Sadly New Yorkers aren’t done dying from this so the IFR is going to be higher, well over 1%. And NYC has a young population.

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    April 23, 2020 at 1:17 pm

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    Drive through liquor stores. To me, moving from CA to OH 25 years ago and seeing them was eye opening. Drive through in your pickup, load up, and head to a tailgate party which you never leave to see the game.

  175. 175.

    e julius drivingstorm

    April 23, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    I could better understand the positive test data from day to day if I knew how many tests were conducted from day to day. Governor Cuomo says that the max he can test in NY is 40,000 per day. That tells me the number varies each day up to that maximum. It’s easy to trust Cuomo if he were to release that info but I live in a state (Florida) with too many red people in charge and in the testing pipeline and know that they will skew the data to further their own stupid shit. The Miami Herald had to sue DeSantis to get him to release the names of the nursing homes that have cases. I’m sure the republicans will bottleneck bad news wherever they think it suits their politics.

  176. 176.

    WhatsMyNym

    April 23, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @trollhattan: Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a meat-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, and a wholly owned subsidiary of WH Group of China

    via Wikipedia

  177. 177.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @trollhattan:     Yes.  No “ageism” WRT Nancy Smash or Elizabeth Warren.

    You got to meet her!  Way cool.

    I hope she lives to be 100.  Have not given up on President Pelosi, although looks like we’re stuck with Trump for too many months remaining …

    Although:  those tests have a — what — like 17% failure rate for giving a false negative?  Hmmm.

  178. 178.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    @Fair Economist: I was more using it as a corroborating metric. It’s a rate that makes sense, unlike with those garbage stanford studies in CA

  179. 179.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    @Professor Bigfoot: As of a week ago 7 people died in my dad’s nursing home, 28 tested positive, and my dad’s nurse’s aide had no idea that the positives are on my dad’s floor because it has locking doors.

    I pay her way above market rate, but I never paid her for this level of risk. But a week later she is still on the job

    ETA: in Akron OH

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    April 23, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    @Aleta:

    I’d bet the glory of war didn’t include her or any one she knows actually involved in the warfare.

  181. 181.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Pieces like that give me hope there’s some sanity out there.

  182. 182.

    Baud

    April 23, 2020 at 1:26 pm

    @Leto: If only there were some sanity in here!

  183. 183.

    FlyingToaster

    April 23, 2020 at 1:27 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    those tests have a — what — like 17% failure rate for giving a false negative?

    That’s the Abbot “one hour” tests.  The other tests are MUCH more accurate.  The Cleveland clinic had published stats, and AFAIK, only the Feds and Florida are using the Abbot tests.  Since Massachusetts testing is dominated by Quest, Broad Institute, and the the Medical complexes (Partners, Tufts, BIDL, BayState, etc), we’re not using Abbot.

    I just listened to the Baker Daily Briefing; we’ve got 200K swabs approved by the FDA, produced locally.  Next is to figure out the reagents…

  184. 184.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    @Sab:

    I got rose scented. It’s so pretty.

  185. 185.

    Leto

    April 23, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    @Baud: yuk yuk yuk! Remember to tip your waitresses everyone! :P

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 1:32 pm

    @FlyingToaster:   Thank you.  Good to know.

    I still hope Trump is in some type of peril, though.  The worse the better.  Come on, karma.

  187. 187.

    Ruckus

    April 23, 2020 at 1:35 pm

    @Kay:

    Welcome back.

    I am back working my part time job, a lot of what I’ve been doing is working on medical suppliers tooling for devices/production equipment.  Considered essential. And I was just getting used to this retirement thing……..

  188. 188.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 23, 2020 at 1:36 pm

    @FlyingToaster: I’m personally not convinced that the schools are going to be operating completely normally until the 2021-22 school year.

  189. 189.

    Yutsano

    April 23, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    @Leto: If you want, I know an officer there. I could have him pop around to check on your son if you’re okay with e-mailing me details. My nym e-mail is valid.

    EDIT: just sent him a message to pick on him. Trying to see if he’s out of butterbar status yet. :P

  190. 190.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 1:40 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    those tests have a — what — like 17% failure rate for giving a false negative?

    This depends on what you mean, as well as the assumptions you plug into Bayes’s theorem. Let’s say the test is 95% accurate (specificity) and the overall infection rate is 2%. In that case, a random individual who tests positive would only have an 18% chance of actually having antibodies. (I think that’s the figure for 2% spread, don’t remember off the top of my head)

    But if you test somebody who’s had respiratory symptoms, particularly with a fever, it’s much more accurate for that individual.

    Some tests claim 99%+ specificity, which is better obviously. You want specificity to be higher than (1-infection rate) for the tests to be useful for a random individual.

  191. 191.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    @trollhattan: She would sound glorious, but you still wouldn’t understand a word she said.//

  192. 192.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    @e julius drivingstorm: Here’s the breakdown of tests performed by NY state https://covid19tracker.health.ny.gov/views/NYS-COVID19-Tracker/NYSDOHCOVID-19Tracker-Map?%3Aembed=yes&%3Atoolbar=no&%3Atabs=n

  193. 193.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    Mike ( deWine) and Amy ( Acton) Show in 15 minutes.

  194. 194.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 1:48 pm

    @germy:

    Pacino is what, 80 years old?

    In two days, he will be.

    Or, translated into Oxonian: In, two, days, he, will, be. [For DAW and Subaru Dianne and Amir and a host of others.]

  195. 195.

    BC in Illinois

    April 23, 2020 at 1:51 pm

    Somebody on some thread referenced “The Politics of Hydroxychloroquine” by Derek Lowe.

    I finally got around to reading it, and (in the comments) came across this treatment protocol:

    Leeches. The cure is always the time tried application of leeches. And if that doesn’t cure you, then you’ve either not applied enough of them, or you forgot to chew on a piece of zinc at the same time.

    Response:

    This is fake news. You don’t ask the patient to chew on a piece of zinc first – that would be ridiculous. Instead it’s the leeches that need to be dosed up on zinc – everyone knows that zinc-enhanced leeches can cure everything.

  196. 196.

    JeanneT

    April 23, 2020 at 1:53 pm

    @Leto:  I just read a NYT article about statistical analysis of comorbidities: asthma is NOT showing up as a big contributor Covid19 outcomes   in NY. Not that your son should come out of his room, but I thought you’d be glad to know.

  197. 197.

    CaseyL

    April 23, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    Ramadan Mubarak to all who observe it!

    Cuomo Pressers are must-see TV for me.  I’m deeply fond of the Cuomo Brothers show as well, and hope that will resume once Chris is able to get back to work. (NB: My state’s governor, Jay Inslee, is also excellent, and I watch his press briefings when he has them.)

    It has also occurred to me that much of the vitriol directed against Cuomo comes from the same “wokeness” that brought us Bernie and the Purity Ponies.  I am re-evaluating my own previous dislike of Cuomo in that new light, since i think it was mostly based on hearing their comments and perspectives.  I’m re-evaluating many things that I hear and see against Democrats, and tbh dismissing out of hand anything that comes from the Left.

  198. 198.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Re: Speaker Pelosi: when the Murderer-in-Chief tweeted a recent put-down attempt — calling her “inherently dumb” — it annoyed me more than his usual projection.

    At the end of the “Eragon” tetralogy, the bad guy goes up in a puff of smoke (so to speak) when he realizes the pain and suffering he’s caused during his reign. I would almost wish that on the Murderer-in-Chief, but the likelihood of that motherfucker ever having an instant of self-awareness (or awareness of the suffering he’s caused for others) is less than that of me winning the Olympic Marathon, ever.

  199. 199.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    @SFAW:

    You, are, deluded.

  200. 200.

    Barbara

    April 23, 2020 at 2:00 pm

    @e julius drivingstorm: The federal government will begin requiring nursing homes to inform families if there has been a positive test for COVID-19 in the facility, but it is not clear to me what the timing of that requirement will be.  It is truly outrageous that they could withhold that information.  CMS Memo on Reporting

  201. 201.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 23, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    @SFAW: You, are, so, silly.

  202. 202.

    e julius drivingstorm

    April 23, 2020 at 2:04 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Thanks. That clarifies much.

  203. 203.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 2:05 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You, are, deluded.

    Various “thoughts” come to mind:

    1. You’re just figuring this out now?
    2. You seem to be saying that as if it’s a bad thing
    3. Needs moar commas, Oxford or otherwise. [By the way: is there a special character (typeface/font-wise) for a non-Oxford comma, so that we can distinguish between the two in a comment?]
    4. What does Steve in the WTFHI say about this? Literally.
  204. 204.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 2:06 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    You, are, so, silly.

    See my reply to DAW.

    But thanks for noticing.

  205. 205.

    MoCA Ace

    April 23, 2020 at 2:07 pm

    Not sure if my Gov. (Tony Evers) even has a daily presser but if he did I don’t think I could watch it… He may actually have negative charisma and his affect is that of a dead fish.  Still I thank god we don’t have Scott Walker at the helm.

  206. 206.

    Sab

    April 23, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    @Sab: Amy was ordered to take a day off because Frannie deWine was worried about her.

  207. 207.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 23, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    @Barbara: You’re so often right that I hesitate to quibble here, but this must depend to some degree on the nursing home resident. I live in an over-55 community, not a nursing home, and I fully support notifying the residents if there’s a case in the building. Nursing home residents are probably on average less able to be independent than I am, but their medical records and decisions could belong to them, not a relative. Again, depending on the resident and what powers of attorney the resident has filed.

  208. 208.

    Professor Bigfoot

    April 23, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    @Sab: We’re lucky– my MiL is in a nursing home in Massilon that locked down EARLY– so far no sign of infection there at all.

    Wishing luck to your your dad and his caregiver and all the rest of us stuck in this clustertrump.

  209. 209.

    zhena gogolia

    April 23, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Yep. I was fond of our new young mayor, but he just retweeted some tripe from Briahna Joy Gray about how she wishes the Democrats would consolidate to save the post office and help working families the way they consolidated to deny Sanders the nomination.

  210. 210.

    cain

    April 23, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    @Leto:

    I personally would start pushing on the churches – who are allowing this mentalityl  to go unchallenged in our society.

    Remember moral scolds who would yell at the black community about gangs and other folks as somehow they were representative of all black people? I think we can use the same mentality against all these non-evangelical churches – we might as well make this a reflection of Christianity.. after all aren’t they the ones who say this is a Christian nation?

    Act like it.

  211. 211.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Gray is truly awful. Since presidents tent to govern the same way they ran their campaigns… one more reason to be glad we dodged that bullet.

  212. 212.

    sdhays

    April 23, 2020 at 2:24 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Oh dearie me. According to The Guardian’s coronavirus liveblog, Mike Pompeo is threatening a permanent cutoff of US funding to WHO.

    Mike Pompeo doesn’t get a say next year.

  213. 213.

    rikyrah

    April 23, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    Maxine Waters says on the floor that her sister is dying of coronavirus in a hospital in St Louis, Mo.— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) April 23, 2020

  214. 214.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    @MoCA Ace:

    It would not surprise me to learn of the WI lege passing a bill specifically stating that anything Evers attempts/attempted to do to gain control on WI COVID-19 outbreaks would expose Evers to criminal prosecution.

  215. 215.

    Ksmiami

    April 23, 2020 at 2:29 pm

    @Professor Bigfoot: yes but only with my sharp 6 foot distancing pole and with gloves on

  216. 216.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 2:33 pm

    @Sab:

    She would sound glorious, but you still wouldn’t understand a word she said.

    I think the Scots declared their independence from the English language long before they considered exiting from whatever union of countries that Brexited.

  217. 217.

    Amir Khalid

    April 23, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    @sdhays:

    Well, we hope he doesn’t.

  218. 218.

    Uncle Cosmo

    April 23, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    @SFAW: Brings to mind the chorus in the original (Jimmy Jones, 1960) version of “I’m Your Handyman”:

    Comma comma comma comma com comma comma

  219. 219.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 23, 2020 at 2:40 pm

    @Ksmiami: “spear and gauntlets” might be what you’re looking for here

  220. 220.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 2:40 pm

    Maybe this has already been commented on,  but:

    I’m wondering what the Venn diagram looks like for the overlap between persons who say “Let me go back to work, no matter the consequences to others, because unemployment doesn’t cover my expenses” and those who say “Why should we let those slackers — who are quarantined at home — sit on their asses and collect the extravagant amounts that UI pays; they’re trying to get a freebie!’

    I expect it won’t be exactly a single circle, but I bet the overlap is fairly large.

  221. 221.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    I was afraid you were going to go all Culture Club on me:

    Comma, comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon.

  222. 222.

    Calouste

    April 23, 2020 at 2:43 pm

    @Fair Economist: South Korea, which did a lot of testing, was at about 0.8% at one point, they’re now at 2.2%.

  223. 223.

    rikyrah

    April 23, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    Awe..

    Look at that face??

     

    https://twitter.com/RaeElle/status/1252771823864995841

  224. 224.

    Another Scott

    April 23, 2020 at 2:50 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: And who could forget Culture Club’s Comma Chameleon?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  225. 225.

    Barbara

    April 23, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It includes representatives or family members where that would be more appropriate.

  226. 226.

    Another Scott

    April 23, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    @SFAW: Rats!  Too slow!!  [shakes fist ineffectually!]

    Though the video, set in Mississippi in 1870, was interesting.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  227. 227.

    FlyingToaster

    April 23, 2020 at 2:54 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’m personally not convinced that the schools are going to be operating completely normally until the 2021-22 school year.

    Since WG’s school consists of 1-grade classrooms with <18 students per class, I’m pretty sure it’ll be running.  Ditto with Music School, where the largest class (group violin) is ~12 students.

    Our local public schools cancelled April break, because it took 3 weeks to get devices out to the middle and grade schoolers, and to make sure that they and the HS kids all had connectivity at home.  They’re likely to be in school through June 26, while we’ll be done June 10th.

    If Massachusetts can get testing ramped up, it’s likely that we’ll be back to school in the fall; we don’t start until after Labor Day.  But the ability to test — and retest — in conjunction with contact tracing and the ability to test incomers at the state lines and airports and ports will be key.  Kiss the 2020 tourist season goodbye…

  228. 228.

    Fair Economist

    April 23, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:Yeah, that kind of rate is plausible with other data if you assume the unreported rate is high. Santa Clara would be nuts.

  229. 229.

    VeniceRiley

    April 23, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    Newsom is just now thanking 14 doctors just now taking off to NYC arriving tonight at La Guardia for NYC relief.

  230. 230.

    Kent

    April 23, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    @sdhays:Mike Pompeo doesn’t get a say next year.

    He doesn’t really get a say this year either to the extent the Congress appropriates money, not the Department of State.

    A new president can just catch us back up with 2020 year obligations that the previous Congress already made

    On the other hand, I find it hilarious that the Chinese are being the good guys here by stepping up and covering at least part of the US’s obligation.  It’s all about propaganda value, the money is trivial.

  231. 231.

    CaseyL

    April 23, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    @Kent: This is the thing:  A Biden Administration will have a hard time even beginning to re-establish the US as any kind of global leader, because other countries (*cough* China *cough*) will have already stepped up – and since they are totalitarian, there isn’t much worry about wild swings in policy every 4 years.

    The issue isn’t just reassuring other nations that we have sane people in charge *now*.  It’s reassuring them that the GOP won’t turn everything to shit the minute they’re back in office – and unless we do as I fervently hope and destroy the GOP utterly, that’s not a promise we can reliably  make.

  232. 232.

    Shawn in Showme

    April 23, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Until a way is found to make the general population scientifically literate, there’s no way to permanently marginalize the GOP in this country.  It’s the party of fear and ignorance.  Those people need somewhere to go.

  233. 233.

    Cleardale

    April 23, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Yep, the damage is already done. We will never repair the damage to the reputation of the US. Of course other countries have elected idiots, damaging and dangerous idiots. We have shown that not only can we do it, but that our political system is actually incapable of reigning them in and controlling them.

  234. 234.

    Miss Bianca

    April 23, 2020 at 3:51 pm

    @rikyrah:

    : (

  235. 235.

    SFAW

    April 23, 2020 at 4:11 pm

    @Cleardale:

    our political system is actually incapable of reigning them in and controlling them.

    Slight disagreement: the system IS capable of doing that. But it needs “stakeholders” who are acting in good faith. The Party of Traitors (almost) never acts in good faith.

  236. 236.

    The Lodger

    April 23, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    @SFAW: You, just, demonstrated, the, Shatner, comma.

  237. 237.

    Cleardale

    April 23, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    @SFAW: It’s technically possible by the rules of government. The two party system, and more importantly, the voters have shown what is realistically possible. We will not control a bad actor as a country.

  238. 238.

    MaryRC

    April 23, 2020 at 5:17 pm

    @Elizabelle: I`m listening to it now and wow, Melissa DeRose is RIGHT ON POINT.  No hesitation, has the facts at her fingertips.

  239. 239.

    Elizabelle

    April 23, 2020 at 5:32 pm

    @MaryRC: 

    Yes! She’s fabulous! But I would need to slow her speech enough to transcribe better. Lots of precise information per minute. She is prepared.

  240. 240.

    EthylEster

    April 23, 2020 at 7:36 pm

    Thread is dead but my devotion to Oxford comma will never die!

  241. 241.

    SWMBO

    April 25, 2020 at 12:29 am

    @prufrock:  Dead thread but I loved Lawton Chiles bumper sticker. The Republicans found out he was taking an antidepressant and started wailing about having a governor with mental illness. His bumper sticker? “Would you rather have a Governor with depression or one that causes it?” He won.

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