Yes, for those at home, that *IS* an Obama mask that one girl's wearing.
Guns. Blackface. Breaking laws to "protest" public safety.
— WylieDeeds (@DeedsWylie) April 30, 2020
Perhaps these angry rubes may finally be proudly ridiculous enough to tip the ‘economic anxiety, also both sides’ arguments. That video clip shows two extremely underage girls shaking their rumps and kicking their slippers at a bunch of middle-aged men got up in camo cosplay… to the tune, as best as I can make out, of some kind of Candyman remix. Little Miss Sunshine was supposed to be satire, not political commentary.
sure do love when michigan militiamen pick April of all f***ing months to remind the world they exist
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) April 30, 2020
(Yes, the Michigan Militia — Tim McVeigh wasn’t actually a member, although they did provide him with support — is still very active in the state. Wolverines!)
I'll give them benefit of the doubt. They're mostly protesting because they miss being able to harass the wait staff at a Buffalo Wild Wings. https://t.co/jSombvXvo2
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) April 30, 2020
The disposable bad guys in Mad Max: Fury Road. Among their 400 slogans were 'Die Historic on the Fury Road' and 'live, die, live again.'
Incidentally their schtick is throwing themselves into traffic because they're all dying of disease anyway. https://t.co/1TiP2V15bL
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) April 30, 2020
But mah FREEDUMBS!
Shorter Rod's friend : how dare these snowflakes to hurt my feelings? https://t.co/1TSFyPjv3y
— Alex Hazanov (@alexhazanov) April 30, 2020
These orotesters want a haircut is snide. These orotesters, a tiny slice of population, with the means to deck themselves with tactical gear , are not motivated by material factors but their belief non- Republicans have no legitimate authority is on the other hand , accurate. https://t.co/J6BZYPLgSJ
— Alex Hazanov (@alexhazanov) April 30, 2020
Conservative intellectual discovers that judging protesters by their wacky extreme is dumb, in year 50 of conservatives being angry at dirty America hating hippies. https://t.co/criLfAfNpp
— Alex Hazanov (@alexhazanov) April 30, 2020
Terrorists often have legitimate grievances!
— Alex Hazanov (@alexhazanov) April 30, 2020
Conservatives love to wax lyrical about Churchill and WW2 and how weak and effeminate our feminized society is. And yet, during this time of testing , most Americans are exhibiting grim determination, while conservatives throw tantrums . https://t.co/8km6Hi5P0R
— Alex Hazanov (@alexhazanov) May 1, 2020
I think there the actual issue- on which there is a general consensus we need to balance health and economic calamity , and there is the meta- issue: do governors have authority over REAL Americans. https://t.co/0gJ2WDkhvj
— Alex Hazanov (@alexhazanov) May 1, 2020
Imagine if they were black or Muslim. https://t.co/Z0WXNVJvYZ
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 30, 2020
Tamir Rice was shot in a playground for having a toy gun. https://t.co/JYwKlO8cl4
— Geraldine (@everywhereist) April 30, 2020
If the "left" did this, it would be national news for 15 years for the right and a way to demonize the entirety of anyone center left as radical terrorists. https://t.co/GK6v2UP3gE
— AdotSad (@AdotSad) April 30, 2020
California gun laws changed drastically when the Black Panthers exercised their 2nd Amendment rights. This seems perfectly in line with a white system of oppression. Had those people storming the Capitol been black, I imagine a different response would have taken place.
— Jim Bentley (@Curiosity_Films) April 30, 2020
And now they’re an international laughing stock. Good going, mah dudes!
“This protest wasn’t about the stay-at-home order, it was an opportunity for a small group of folks – very few engaging in social distancing or wearing masks – to show off their swastika posters, confederate flags, nooses hanging from cars and signs calling for murder.” https://t.co/ppLnAMHdov
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) May 1, 2020
The loons yelling at cops and legislators are going to get worse as the pandemic spreads into red state America. https://t.co/DPsZjngmfG
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 1, 2020
YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND IT’S ABOUT ETHICS IN GAMING ECONOMIC ANXIETY!!!
They started out cooperating then abruptly changed course & have been belligerent ever since. Hard to come up with a more plausible explanation than Dick & Betsy DeVos ordered them to stop working in the interests of Michiganders & start working in the interests of Donald Trump https://t.co/A5q00pcbFi
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) April 30, 2020
At least her brother Erik Prince runs most of his hired guns in other countries.
Reporters, ask Betsy DeVos why she’s funding groups & protests in Michigan intended to undermine the attempt to contain a pandemic & that threaten public order.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) April 30, 2020
debbie
It was reported some of the protesters breached the state Capitol through basement windows. Seriously, how is this not an arrestable offense? The building may be public, but there’s always a security checkpoint.
Just Chuck
These people are a greater enemy to the second amendment than anyone on the left.
Because I want our next government to come for those peoples guns.
And take them.
All of them.
By force if necessary.
There are no more compromises to be made. There is no reasoning with these people. These people have convinced me the second amendment must go. They are not bastions against tyranny. They are tyranny.
The Thin Black Duke
Wait until these idiots find out that COVID-19 ain’t scared of them.
Mandalay
Completely O/T, but since it’s an “Assholes” thread….
Kim Jong-un has appeared in public for the first time in 20 days, North Korean state media says.
Baud
We can’t even bump fists without drawing suspicion.
Baud
Meanwhile, to our north
L85NJGT
@The Thin Black Duke:
FTW
The WaPo piece about the virus heading into rural and small city America is sobering. The GOP trying to manage the politics of it is going to get people dead. SARS-CoV-2 is just not spinnable.
lollipopguild
@Baud: The GOP passed a constitooshunal admendment to outlaw terrorist fistbumps if i remember it right. Or maybe the”hidden, secret” constitooshon outlawed them already.
Skepticat
@The Thin Black Duke:
I’m a bad person, but I want them to find out the very hard way.
Gripe of the day (well, the hour anyway) is the incredibly wasteful military Operation Stupid flyovers. At $60,000 an hour per squadron, think of the testing and protective equipment that could have been bought rather than having all the pilots and ground crews thrash all over the country. Don’t even start with “Oh, but the gas is so cheap.” This rots my Yankee socks and soul.
Mary G
Housemate came home from his healthcare job near the Huntington Beach protests and asked me to post this:
Martin
Huntington Beach is having a day. Not sure attacking Newsom is a winning proposition when I think he’s the governor with the highest approval rating (83%) in the nation.
Lots of crowds, virtually no masks, but on the upside, our protesters don’t carry guns because we would fucking arrest them.
Elizabelle
Thank you to Jeffro (previous thread) for this Jennifer Rubin link from the WaPost.
No, the media isn’t fair. It gives Republicans a pass.
Newsweek reported:
“What happened in Lansing today is dangerous in so many ways,” said Michigan Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee in a Thursday statement. “Today’s protest will come at the expense of public health. Protesters openly defied the advice of medical experts, putting their own lives and the health of all Michiganders at risk.”
“The political rhetoric on display was also appalling. Republican elected officials compared Michigan’s stay at home order to the Holocaust, and protesters carried signs calling for the execution of those they disagree with. This behavior is especially appalling the week after Holocaust Remembrance Day. Every leader in our state must condemn the use of hate speech, racism or threats of violence,” Kildee added.
“There was a lot of really disgusting symbols of hate,” Michigan Democratic Senator Dayna Polehanki told Newsweek in a Thursday interview. “You’ve got your Confederate flags still, disgusting, misogynistic signs about our governor, signs suggesting she may be killed . . . and then lots of people bearing arms.”
This has got to stop. We have to make it stop, somehow. It’s dangerous. This is how a country gets marched right up to the doorstep of fascism.
Break up the big media companies. Fairness Doctrine. Rebrand Fox News as non-news and don’t let it broadcast propaganda under the auspices of the First Amendment.
We would not have Trump if there was not such a double standard. Which allows Fox News and rightwing bloviating to be treated as credible.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay: I would just love if it turned out he’s had gastric bypass and a major face lift. Or a sex change. That could be good.
VeniceRiley
The covid test site for Huntington beach is at one of my sister clinics. I expect they’ll be busy
The Moar You Know
@Just Chuck: I have been a lifelong shooter and own firearms and I 100% agree with you.
And since it won’t happen, because this is America, my wife and I will be leaving the country as soon as she’s hit retirement (couple more years) and we are not coming back.
One of many reasons, but one of the bigger ones.
Delk
How much are we spending to protect Betsy?
lamh36
Georgia, Texas and Tennessee plan on opening restaurants and stuff this weekend or next.
I’ve asked before, but I’ll aske again…how exactly is one supposed to waitress while also social distancing???
mali muso
@The Moar You Know: Yup. We’ve already got our papers to immigrate to Canada. Just waiting for the quarantine situation to abate so we can activate it and start the actual process of job hunting, etc. I want my toddler to have a chance at growing up in a civil society.
Charluckles
My grocer has a big sign on his front door that requests masks be worn as a courtesy to his employees. At minimum a third of the people in the store are not complying. It’s infuriating but ultimately I remind myself it’s about a vacuum of leadership on the right. If Trump came out wearing a MAGA mask and told his followers to get one and wear it they would.
Trump stating he won’t wear a mask and Pence refusing to wear one at Mayo do seem like the kind of explanatory anecdotes you find in a history book about a massive human caused calamity.
Sab
@L85NJGT: Ohio’s sole remaining county with no cases had three yesterday.
Latest spin is “why shut down rural coumties when cases are all in cities? Gov. deWine pointed out today that if they did that then city people would just go to the rural counties to eat, shop, drink etc. That’s kind of what happened around Youngstown, where PA locked down differently than OH.
I can see that. I need new jeans. I could order them by mail, or I could just drive to the outlet mall in Lodi. Faster than mail and I probably won’t catch anything. I live in a highly infected county, so too bad for Lodi outlet employees if I turn out to be asymptomatic.
That’s just speculation, because governor has down statewide.
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
I thought about leaving about 15 yrs ago. I looked at Costa Rica, it seems nice and has been pretty stable for a long time. I have a friend who lives in Panama and he said it’s every bit as nice and cheaper. After the GWB recession, I was wiped out monetarily and while I’ve recovered a bit since, it’s still a tough road. But I have no real idea what I’d do, what I can do. My health is covered by the VA, and will be right up to the time republicans manage to end it completely. But after today, what with the drive by at my complex by assholes, I have no idea what I want to do. I wasn’t planning to live at this location more than another year but where to next is always a question. I know where not to move to, but nothing on the positive side.
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke: Friend,
I have thoughts like this now, almost all day every day. Today especially. They are making me sin against Charity.
I was at my local ACE hardware today. I have gone there for almost 20 years. A couple of ownership changes, to be sure. But basically, a good neighborhood somewhat old timey hardware store. I was checking out, face mask, gloves, tap credit card. Doing what I could. And this jerk comes in and starts talking to the manager guy, John.
“You’re a smart guy. You know they are just taking the economy on purpose. They just hate to work.”
Now my normal response is just STFU and get out. I was doing that, until the guy said, “it’s all fake, no one is sick,bits just made up.” And John, the MANAGER. WAS AGREEING.
This morning, I learned a colleague’s father died of Covid. He was a Doctor! And my close colleague who lives in Chelsea, MA has has had four! people die in her extended family with two more hospitalized. And I then broke my normal path and said:
“Jesus Christ! People are dying, my colleague’s father died yesterday!”
And the manager turned and walking away and said, “Died of something else.”
I am lost.
Mike in NC
Maybe Fat Bastard should invite these “great people” to lunch at the White House. Let them dress up in camo and carry their assault rifles while he orders up 300 Big Macs to serve them. What could possibly go wrong?
Matt McIrvin
This doesn’t register to them because of their aggressive image of “toughness”–the things we’re doing to fight this are, to them, signs of weakness and effeminacy. It’s the school-kid code that regards carrying an umbrella in the rain or wearing warm clothes in the winter as the signs of a ridiculous dork. To be tough you have to make no concessions to your environment whatsoever, and if that includes going unprotected in a plague zone, so be it.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Damn, that sucks.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Yep, the crisis actors are everywhere! //
Emma from FL
Part of me wishes, savagely, to cut them loose from society, treating them like the parasites they are. Let them go play Mad Max without doctors, without grocery stores, without roads, without any sort of civilized support. Put them in a reservation and treat them as they treat others. Survive or die.
But most of all, I want to take every politician that uses them, every think tank “scholar” that normalizes them, every “media star” that feeds their racist rage, every billionaire that funds them and throw them in with them. Let them do without anything modern society has to offer: no money, no private planes, not even soap and clean water. Survive or die.
Instead, much like Moar, I am waiting only until my sister and her husband can retire and my father passes. And then I’m gone. It breaks my heart, but I’m beginning to think America has had its historical run.
khead
@Immanentize:
Thank you for saying something. Fuck these people.
Baud
We should start using the “I” word more when talking about these people: Immoral.
Another Scott
ICYMI, Popehat the Sealion…
Cheers,
Scott.
ciotogist
@Baud: Remember how mad they were about Wellstone’s funeral?
Baud
@ciotogist: Only vaguely.
Immanentize
@Martin: I was hoping to run into you. My excessively rational son, the Immp, has a college dorm solution. Forget for a moment the various optics. That is another issue. But how sound is this plan. Rationally?
First, decide what percentage of sick students will cause you to shut it all diwn. He thinks 10% is a good conservative number.
Secind, open up dormatories in the fall — with lots of notice — but only 1 student per room if there is a shared bathroom or two students in a room that has its own bathroom. Third, when any student gets symptomatic, move them to a reserved set of rooms able to handle 15% of the dorm students (either reserved rooms or renting local unused hotel spaces). Quarantine the healthy roommates for 14 days w/only online classes.
His point is, ultimately, that both parents and students want to get the students back to school (for different reasons). But students are willing to do that accepting more personal risk. And almost all college students are over 18 and able to legally make this decision. Finally, that sharing a bathroom is only vaguely more likely to end in disease than is the classroom or the quad.
Thoughts??
Ruckus
@Skepticat:
The only thing shit for brains knows how to do is lose money. He’s not smart enough to learn anything, although it’s possible he’s in overload mode, meaning he’s already learned everything that will fit in that tiny little pin hole sized brain. The only thing he thinks he knows is how great he thinks he is. Which of course is a lie. Leave it to the republicans to elect the worst person in the world to be president. And leave it to them to think he’s perfect. It might be because they are as fucking stupid as he is.
Uncle Cosmo
@Immanentize: Walk back in there tomorrow, if not sooner, & tell that fuckhead that he’s seen his last cent of your money. And that you’ll pass the word in the neighborhood that he’s a hazard to public health & people should boycott him. And that you hope he catches COVID-19 & takes a long, painful time to die. Then walk out & don’t look back.
Better yet, take off your mask & cough on the motherfucker. Or sneeze if you can work one up. Then walk out. Hey, he said there ain’t no such thing as COVID-19, let’s see how much courage he has in his convictions.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
I’m so sorry. Massachusetts has been hit hard.
I have a relative in a nursing home in Bedford so I check the Middlesex County stats and it is so upsetting. Her nursing home is closed to outside visitors, but apparently 7 are positive on her floor but there are only isolation facilities for five of them. Ugh.
Immanentize
@Baud: @debbie:
I admit I am pissed, feeling stabby, and bereft all at once. I hate this feeling.
On another note, I did research the relative value differences between pump, semi automatic, and over/under shotguns today.
See? I am sinning against charity.
NotMax
@Immanentize
In a strictly closed system, with all students, all staff, all adjunct workers and all faculty confined to and actively barred from leaving the campus 24/7, maybe. Otherwise, a bubble constructed of Swiss cheese.
IMHO.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Bathrooms are a problem because COVID is present in fecal matter. Depending on the type of toilets they have (without lids would be dangerous) this is a concern.
JMG
The next time something like the Michigan demo is held anywhere, the Governor of that state should mobilize the National Guard, put tanks and machine guns up, and give the “militia” 30 seconds to surrender their arms or die on the spot. That would stop it pretty damn fast.
Immanentize
@Uncle Cosmo: I would rather never see that guy again. I decided instead to write to ACE corporate tomorrow. I don’t want any apology from him if they make him do it. I think he should be made to write serious condolence cards — or buy mass cards — for my colleagues. That I get to review.
Or else I am going Medieval on his ass.
tokyokie
Some of them are as stupid as he is, but a lot more of them refuse to face their moral complicity in energizing this monster. They buy into his bullshit otherwise they’d have to stare into the abyss and it scares them.
Ken
I know it’s horrible and immoral to imagine drones flying over these protests, spraying a fine mist while a recording announces “Thank you for increasing herd immunity.” So why does it feel so good to imagine it?
Immanentize
@NotMax: true. But in one way that is the Immp’s point. There is no set of circumstances that prevent exposure. None. So, manage it as best as possible. Create rules. Enforce them. Rice is probably easier to do than my downtown absolutely urban university. It is on its own property even though really close to Houston. Still….
I admire the boy.
Immanentize
@MomSense: that is a good point. And the Immp loves his bidet attachment….
Dorothy A. Winsor
Well, crap. A case of COVID has been confirmed in the memory unit on the grounds here. It’s a separate building, and they’re now testing everyone who lives and/or works there. But crap.
debbie
@Immanentize:
I can relate. I have a niece with a toddler who has lost her waitressing job because of the shutdown. I know she’s just venting, but she keeps posting on FB how she knows no one personally who’s had the virus and why has the whole state shut down over this. It’s taking more willpower than I have ever needed not to jump all over her and rip off her face. One of my work teammates (six total) is dead and another’s sister is on life support after suffering a massive stroke.
I don’t know when all this not-believing began.
Immanentize
@debbie: Well, she is not within two degrees of consanguinity with anyone who died, amirite? So, fake. I hate these people who pretend they know anything.
It is something my friends used to mock in college. There is NO DEMOCRACY OF IDEAS.
Some ideas are just way more stupid and wrong than others. But today! It’s like what Mel Brooks said, “We mock the things we are to become.”
Another Scott
@Immanentize: Not Martin, but my $0.02.
It just seems unworkable to me. Either the campus is open to students, or it’s not, seems to be the only workable system to me. And if 10% of the students are shown to be infected, then that’s way, way too high…
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Immoral, illegitimate, and idiotic.
Selfish, stupid, and immature covers it too.
If you saw those photos from Haiti or Venezuela or Brazil or Iceland or France or Germany, you would be wondering WTF?
Suzanne
Rod Dreher is offended? I’m shocked!
I mean, this is a guy who literally wrote a book encouraging Christians to secede from the rest of the world and go live in enclaves where they never have to encounter anyone unChristian, aka the most un-Christ-like action one could possibly take… and spends all of his time trying to explain why trans people are a mortal threat to society… but leave it to this dude to get bent around white working class men not having a monopoly on cultural power.
debbie
I’m enjoying Howard Stern’s interview with David Letterman.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: Well, at my Uni all those, especially cost are really critical. At Rice, they currently have a 6.5 BILLION Endowment. They could afford all the things you suggest.
But the closed system seems critical. I was a Townie at a State University in NY. That is a very good point. Thanks. I like bringing smart thoughts back to the idea man.
khead
@debbie:
It was really good and I WISH I could grow a Santa Claus beard like Letterman.
lgerard
The song is this smash hit from the old tea party days
The government can
Not exactly Randy Rainbow ready
satby
Well, the Republican governor in Indiana basically dropped restrictions *officially as of Monday* to completely non-sensical rules about places only allowing 50% of customer capacity at a time, no gathering of over 25 people, and churches can open and have services but people over 65 should still stay home. Absolutely idiotic but gives him a pretend “phase in while monitoring” . And two different houses on my block had people over to party within an hour of his announcement.
Back in IL, my HS alumni page has 2-3 death announcements per week and several of them are my age or younger. But very few people here know anyone sick yet. So it’s all fear mongering by the liberal media.
I’m daily sinning against compassion too, because I want serious, serious illnesses for these people. And the cosplay facists to get put on ventilators.
dmsilev
@Immanentize: There are options. One that I’ve seen floated, and it’s not clear how practical it is, is to break up the student body in half. One half is on campus the first half of the term, other half for the latter portion, thus allowing you to run dorms at 50% capacity. It’s a hell of thing for the course curriculum though; you basically have to do all the lectures as if everyone is still remote and then cram any hands-on portion of the course into half the time.
As Martin points out, testing is a key question, because you need to know ASAP when to move someone into whatever isolation arrangements you have. Looking for fever is relatively straightforward to do at scale (whether via handheld thermometers, IR cameras looking at whoever passes by, etc.), but that’s both a trailing indication of infection and also completely misses the asymptomatic carriers. Fast RNA or antigen testing, at a high enough rate to surveil the student/campus population, would be much much better, but the availability of that is of course a huge issue.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Would also point out the gross number of dorm rooms is a fixed quantity. Reducing across the board the number of students per room (for the sake of argument, let’s pull a numerical result out of the air of a 30% reduction in occupancy) would necessitate either reducing the student body as a whole by 30% or forcing that 30% into off-campus housing, either option opening up a variety of other cans of worms.
No slam on him, it’s a valuable thought exercise in the ripples, eddies and relative salience of elements of interconnectivity which are part and parcel of complex systems.
khead
@Immanentize:
I, too, am not Martin (see Another Scott @49), but none of the things you talk about in that post are ever gonna happen. Not this fall at least. Unless you are talking about an SEC school. I mean, those folks would gladly kill your kid to make sure they get their football.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fortunately, it seems your building has been decently isolated. Hope it doesn’t get to your building.
I worry a lot about my sister with MS. I know she’s not in a top tier nursing home because she’s on Medicare and Medicaid, and she’s very immunocompromised.
Fair Economist
@debbie: Can you contradict your niece and talk about the people you know? And of course the point is to keep it from reaching her, because death is irreversible. Decent people want to stop it *before* it kills somebody they know.
Luciamia
Respite note: 8pm on TCM, ‘Cocoon.’ Remember seeing it when it first came out and now I’m the age of a lot of these characters.
Bokonon
@Elizabelle: Interesting.
Dan Kildee is a cousin of mine … and he’s a good guy.
Spanky
@Immanentize: My thoughts are dark. Semi-auto. And sawed off if such a thing were possible, which I don’t think it is.
I guess you’ll need two then
ETA: I’m not Martin either.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby:
Until today, we’d been lucky. I was starting to get cocky. This place is run as well as you could ask for, but the virus is sneaky.
Baud
I. Am.
Spartacus. Martin.Fair Economist
@Immanentize: I think bathrooms are even more of a problem than Momsense points out. They are places for coughing, noseblowing, and lots of shared surface touching. Most toilets produce aerosols. Plus in a full bath there’s sharing germs via water in the shower.
Also, when I went to college dining was communal. Students need to eat.
If you had a dorm set up with all single studios with minikitchens, with all group hangout areas closed, it could work. But I’m not aware of any place like that. Any modification to dorm arrangements to make existing ones safe will reduce their carrying capacity, probably a lot. That creates an excess student problem.
Elizabelle
@Bokonon: Way cool.
Scout211
Here in California, several arrests were made at the protest in Sacramento today. The CHP finally removed them after several hours. Here in California, the CHP patrols the Capitol grounds
KCRA
schrodingers_cat
@Ruckus: What happened? I must have missed it. Are you okay?
dmsilev
@Fair Economist:
That one is at least straightforward to solve. Dining halls just serve food to go, no eat-in. There are logistic issues to work out and I can’t imagine that the students would be very happy about it, but it’s far easier to manage than questions about dorm occupancy or lecture hall capacity.
Sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My dad is in a memory unit and they are putting the covid cases there on his floor ( intaking from hospital discharge because somebody has to take them) because the memory unit has tight security. They are on the same floor but isolated with totally separated staff. My dad’s nurse’s aide feels relatively safe. Everyone has masks and she’s nuts about sanitizimg.
The first case was early March and here we are in May and he and she are fine so if they know what they are doing you are probably okay.
khead
@Luciamia:
Diabeetus.
Wilford was also pretty good in “The Thing” and “The Firm”.
rk
Two days ago a patient in the emergency room came in with very low hemoglobin. Had a massive transfusion of blood, stabilized for a while, but died the next day. Found out later that he had been unwell for a month. Too scared to go to the hospital because of COVID and it was too late when he finally did. I would call him an indirect casualty of COVID. I think there are many like him. Hospital is trying to get the word out that people should not be afraid to go. I don’t know if people here are too scared to go. It’s natural. But don’t be scared, go if you have to.
On another note, I’m so angry at all these morons who’re protesting and the moron governors who are opening up everything. There’s not an infinite number of doctors and nurses out there to take care of everyone. These people are tired and exhausted. Some are not allowed to take PTO. Who is going to take care of all the sick people when the second or third wave hits because of stupid behaviors? A bunch of bone tired health care workers!
hueyplong
@khead: And best ever as the DOJ guy near the end of Absence of Malice.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sab:
They follow every single CDC recommendation religiously, so I suppose we’re in as good a shape as we can be. They promised to tell us if a case occurred on campus, and they kept that promise today, which I think is good. There’s no attempt to spin.
ETA: I hope your dad continues to do well.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sab:
Is that what happened? Apparently a lot of the deaths have been from local nursing homes around here. The counties that border NE Ohio in PA have seen very few confirmed cases or deaths so far
Immanentize
@NotMax: At my University, we are gaming all sorts of scenarios. But the biggest Q is how many dorm students could we have in the fall. These are rough #s to protect the innocent.?. But we are what is called, under the Carnegie classifications, a mid-size comprehensive. Which means about 10k students w/ graduate and PhD programs. We actually have one of the highest private college Pell Grant populations in the region (which really helped under the CARE Act).
We have about a 2000 student dorm capacity. We guarantee only 2 years of dorm living, which are only for undergrads. But if you just put one student in every room, we would be down to about 900 spaces. But then, if you only allowed a person per bathroom, we are down to just shy of 500.
It’s a perfect ponder. What is the moment of unsustainable given our reserves, etc.
trollhattan
Turnabout’s fair play. Remember when Antifa ™ mowed down half the Kansas legislature? That was bad, yo.
Immanentize
@Luciamia: Some Wag described this year’s Dem primary as Cocoon w/policies!
Fair Economist
Oh, in the “Results of Republican Statehouses” department, Wisconsin had its highest ever number of new cases today, 460. Looks like forcing the election will be the gift that keeps on giving. Looking at graphs, it looks like spread is increasing rapidly in rural areas. The election spread it there and now Fox disinfo is keeping it going.
khead
@hueyplong:
I am sorry I forgot this. It’s probably the most relevant to the BJ jackals.
PJ
@Immanentize: I am also not Martin, but, other problems (which are much bigger) aside, which others have discussed, this could only happen at a large, wealthy university which had private bathrooms for each dorm room. I went to a small liberal arts school, and then there was one shared bathroom per dormitory floor. Not to mention that all of the classroom buildings generally had one shared male and one shared female bathroom per floor. You would also have to have empty quarantine dorms set aside for the symptomatic students, which means that you are operating at way less than capacity, which means the college is going broke. Also factor in, as others have mentioned, that faculty and staff all have to live somewhere else, and most universities typically only have dormitories sufficient for freshman and sophomore classes; upperclassmen are expected to find housing off campus.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
Of all of the Never Trumpers, I still think that Rubin is the one most likely to do a full Cole-style 180-degree flip. I think Biden is someone who can push her “daddy” button and make her feel safe to do the switch.
The Thin Black Duke
@satby: Wait. Time is not on their side.
trollhattan
Have we now had two consecutive months with no school shootings?
Canada just banned assault weapons, unironically expanding everybody’s freedom.
#SilverLiningsWhereICanFindThem
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Scout211:
On horseback, they make quite an impression.
Fair Economist
@Immanentize: I would tap a real epidemiologist to look at ideas for minimizing spread. One thing to consider is ways to reduce the overall network for the campus in that the people students contact in dorms should be the same people they contact in classes or while eating (insofar as contact can’t be stopped). This can make outbreaks more containable.
PJ
@dmsilev: Where are students going to eat, outside? When I was a student, dorms had room for two beds, two desks, two dressers and that was it.
The whole point of college is that it is communal – you are living with and communicating closely with other students. Take that away, and what’s the point?
satby
@The Thin Black Duke: I know. But a lot of innocents will end up being sacrificed just to appease the god of hubris. And I don’t want to end up as collateral damage.
FelonyGovt
My friend went for a socially distant walk today here in Southern California and saw the following written on the ground in it bright pink letters: COVID-19 is a hoax. WTF is wrong with people?
SiubhanDuinne
@Bokonon: Never met Dan, but I knew his (uncle? father?) Dale Kildee in the 70s when I lived in Flint. Really good guy. It must run in the family.
Brachiator
@Immanentize:
No answers, but more questions to think about.
One thing that annoys me is when conservatives talk about personal risk and personal responsibility.
Conservatives always confuse risk as a philosophical concept and actual risk related to some activity, which they generally can never accurately gauge.
Also, more critically, in this case, the students cannot determine how the virus might behave. So in real terms they have no real control over possible outcomes should they become infected. The bottom line is that there actions are not just a matter of accepting personal risk; these actions also have an impact on other people as well, and may put others at risk.
Also, while how students might move about the campus is obviously a big issue, there are roughly speaking, two other groups that have to be considered:
professors and school administrators
school support staff.
And within all three groups (students, professors, staff) you would also have to consider people with known health conditions that might put them more at risk
There are more ways of looking at this, and more to consider, but this is just off the top of my head.
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: This is probably what needs to happen. An 18th century academic plague closure. Complete scholastic isolation. My son would be down with that. But how many others?
Somehow I am remembering a scene from My Dinner with Andre in which Andre suggests to Wally that we will be soon down to cloistered communities of knowledge.
HumboldtBlue
@khead:
I can, and did, for about three years or so. Made me take a second look when I saw Dave a few years ago after he had grown his, that was me. In fact, my 2015 DL photo has that beard.
Shit, I gotta renew my license in October.
PJ
@Brachiator: The biggest factor, aside from, y’know, everybody’s health, is liability. I can’t imagine most people signing Covid-19 waivers. A couple of lawsuits could wipe out a small college, and a class action could wipe out a university. (Whether insurance would cover this is another issue.) Until we have regular, reliable testing and tracing, ain’t nothin’ gonna happen.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Here’s a sample of the shit they were putting up with today.
Gin & Tonic
Tomorrow will be 50 years since I, a mere child, went to a party where I met the young girl who would soon become my girlfriend, and eventually my wife (as she remains.)
I have been very fortunate.
Poe Larity
Omega-3, a fatty acid commonly found in fish oil, may have long-term neurodevelopmental effects that ultimately reduce antisocial and aggressive behavior problems in children, a new study suggests
These people just didnt get enough fish
patrick II
@NotMax:
Not until there is testing.
Gvg
My University is gaming out bringing back students in small lots based on type. I gather that students who need labs and whose programs just don’t work on line are considered more in need of classes than other kinds of classes. Also a class that is designed to work on line in the first place will be a more successful one than a regular class that was emergency converted to online mid semester. Details are still unclear with a lot of, we could have to change plans yet again suddenly, which is only realistic. Summer is planned to be on line. Next fall all professors will be more experienced than they were. I still expect it to mostly be online in fall. We are an SEC school and football doesn’t even seem to be a consideration.
it would really have helped if DoVos wasn’t Sec of Education because we can’t get any rules relaxing of even just answers about how we can use the money we haven’t got yet. Congress did not say we couldn’t help non title IV kids (dreamers) but the department corrected original guidance and it keeps getting worse about multiple issues. We have already drained a lot of emergency money helping our students with the crisis so we need money fast not slow. That’s true all over. Republican idiots just can’t help being vicious bullies.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I hope that doesn’t mean you won’t be around here tomorrow.
Happy anniversary!
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
Here’s some video.
@Gin & Tonic:
Congratulations. If I recall, you really enjoyed the jazz under the tree so here’s to you and your wife.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I am, in fact, unlikely to be on-line very much tomorrow, especially since it promises to be a beautiful day in what has seemed like a very long stretch of dreary, cold, wet ones.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Aww {clink} cheers to you both!
Sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): So why did deWine ban Pennsylvanians from your liquor stores?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Poe Larity: I take fish oil, I’m still very angry about Trump. Obviously fake news.
Chip Daniels
I can’t help but think that the videos of these yahoos is causing a significant number of suburban moms and dads to shift from “Lean Dem” to “Solid Dem”;
I mean, who wants these fuckin’ weirdos around your kids?
Brachiator
@PJ:
Great point. Yeah, a big issue.
Testing is only the beginning. The Los Angeles County health expert noted that people who test positive should self isolate for ten days (used to be seven) and also for 72 hours after any fever passes.
But with widespread testing available, there will be people who refuse to take tests.
And how many people could afford to self isolate for ten days and miss work?
And what about people who become sick, but who do not have health insurance?
Some people might not be able to safely self-isolate at home.
I think that most people will co-operate, but we have the idiot in the White House encouraging rebellion and bad behavior. But apart from that, we may need to develop policies that encourage testing and help those who may test positive deal with the situation.
Subsidies?
debbie
@Fair Economist:
I intend to when I feel like I can remain calm.
trollhattan
All the university discussion is on point because kiddo signed her letter of intent today, and the school’s current stated goal is to have in-class attendance and the dorms open. I’ll say I quarter-believe this will happen. This poor HS class of 2020 not only has the best four months of their entire miserable school journey yanked away from them, now they can’t even know if the welcome mat for round 2 will be mothballed for…months, a year?
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Well then , early congratulations to you and your eventual bride!
Achrachno
@Elizabelle: No photos. Just a claim by NK state media that he appeared at the grand opening of a fertilizer factory. I’m skeptical. Maybe it’s true, but who knows.
Brachiator
@Gin & Tonic:
Very cool. Can we presume that you hit it off right away?
Congratulations!
trollhattan
@Achrachno:
North Korea reporting facts for consumption from a fertilizer plant is so on-point I’ll never top it.
Achrachno
@Sab: More for him!
James E Powell
@Elizabelle:
Has anything like this ever been stopped without violence?
Richard Guhl
But, but these Brownshirts are soooo misunderstood. They brought their long guns, because their intentions were quite peaceful. They just wanted you to be peaceful and silent, so they can seize power.
And if you object, well….
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sab:
To stop people from PA from crossing over, since they closed down their liquor stores. I see a fair number of Pennsylvania licenses when buying alcohol at work. Unfortunately, I heard on the news a few weeks ago that PA residents crossing the border were just traveling further into Ohio to buy liquor, which is pretty sad
khead
@Sab:
It’s not just Ohio. MD and DE are tired of PA folks hitting out liquor stores too. Buying liquor in another state and taking it back to PA is actually illegal for the PA folks. Didn’t know that until I married a PA gal, but it’s true.
ETA: See JMG below.
JMG
Pennsylvanians at the other end of the state have been going to Maryland and Delaware to buy booze since I was a kid in Delaware, just because it’s cheaper. At Christmastime years ago, one Governor of Pa. sent unmarked state police cars to Maryland liquor stores to photograph Pa. plates and arrest and ticket the drivers once they crossed the state line. Not to be outdone, the Maryland governor had his state police arrest the Pa. staties for loitering and had their cars towed.
Sab
@Gin & Tonic: I am gonna weed. Mustard garlic is takimg over. Very nutricious if you don’t mind arsenic in your veggies.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
RE: This has got to stop. We have to make it stop, somehow. It’s dangerous. This is how a country gets marched right up to the doorstep of fascism.
Whiskey Rebellion, 1794.
However, I cannot see Trump personally leading a militia to maintain order.
Sab
@JMG: Ohio used to send folks to Michigan.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: I hope so. She shows her work, and reasons things out. Come closer, Jen Rubin. You’re in the right direction.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sab:
I like it with a bleach sauce, yum!
Sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Great. So now they are in my county.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the h/t!
You’re completely right, this has got to stop. These people need to be arrested for terroristic threatening at a minimum.
trumpov tweeting that they’re ‘good people’ and just ‘angry’ is his trying to normalize it. Every other Western democracy looks at us in horror because they know where this leads.
Jeffro
@lamh36: I’d like to know how I’m supposed to enjoy a nice sit-down meal in a restaurant while also wearing a mask, personally.
Why would I do that? What is the benefit of having a meal served by a masked stranger, in a restaurant with a handful of tables, where I have to push my mask aside with every bite? And if someone sneezes anywhere in that dining space? Bye-bye, seeya!
Keith P.
@Elizabelle: Remember that time when a bunch of armed white guys seized a government facility for over a week? The debate somehow had turned into “Are these people patriots who just want the government off their backs?” They’re basically trying to push the envelope a little bit each time to see how many guns they can amass (peacefully) until they get to a point where they can overtake law enforcement, at which point they stop being peaceful. Should have nipped this in the bud on day 1.
Sab
All the businesses around me run by Korean immigrants just shut down immediately. Dry cleaner, reastaurant. They probably could have stayed open. The restaurant has always done a lot of take-out. But they just didn’t try. Good advice from the old country? Don’t trust what they hear here? Who knows. I hope they repen eventually.
BC in Illinois
Old:
New:
rikyrah
Newest hot spot:
A prison in Tennessee
They tested 2700 inmates
<b>1349 came back POSITIVE</b>
Anotherlurker
Off topic: Got out sailing today, on S.F Bay, with my oldest friend in the world, on his boat. It was great enjoying the water, the breeze and the handling of of a great vessel. Boat is big enough to allow distancing.
Also, I received my U.S. Treasury check for my trumpchange.
All in all, a good day.
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: Congratulations! Like, times eleventy!! =)
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Dining guests presumably would not have to wear masks.
At some point, most businesses and social spaces are going to have to open up again, with changes and modifications. The idea is to try to do it as reasonably as possible, and not give in to idiots.
It’s either that, are, what, stay locked down until a vaccine is perfected?
No easy answers, but the idea is to avoid rash stupidity.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As I will be a resident of PA in two weeks (God willing), I was just having this discussion about state liquor laws today with my colleagues. Here in AZ, you can buy liquor in the grocery stores. The Fry’s on the corner has a liquor department that is pretty exhaustive. However, I generally buy from Costco or BevMo.
Chyron HR
“Some people think that the people who voted for Trump are racists and sexists and homophobes and deplorable folks. I don’t agree, because I’ve been there.” – Bernie Sanders
Mary G
Gin & Tonic
@Keith P.: In connection with the Canadian assault weapons ban, I read a sobering number. The USofA has 120 guns per 100 people. Since in my immediate family of (now) 10 people there are zero guns, I feel we are not doing our part to keep America great.
PJ
@Brachiator: Come fall, the economy will probably still be in the shitter, millions of people will probably still be unemployed (because how many people are going to be patronizing bars, restaurants, conventions, sporting events, concerts, etc., even if they are open?) Plus everything we do normally will take much longer (waiting to get in stores, distancing in stores, walking to work, etc. – who is going to be taking public transportation?), so productivity will probably be down. We are going to need regular cash distributions to a lot of people who are out of work, whether it’s because they have coronavirus or not. And that’s with regular testing and tracing and people following the rules.
We’re looking at 100,000 dead by the end of June. People think this is as bad as it gets, but this is just the beginning. The second wave will probably be more lethal because Americans are idiots and the Trump Administration is corrupt and incompetent.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The answer from these governors is the waitress should stop bothering her betters, f off and die, but not before she gets them their nachos with a side of ranch (and that moocher better not expect a tip). It’s really that stupid.
toine
Good Lord!
I live in Canada.
If we could dig a trench deep enough to set ourselves afloat away from you, we would…
sorry for the 50% of you who are’nt obviously insane… :-(
Ruckus
@khead:
A full beard and a mask is not a compatible situation. Not if you want the beard to actually look like his. I have first hand experience with this, it is not a cool look. But that is starting from someone that doesn’t look all that cool to began with. And I don’t care enough about what I look like to give a damn as I will never be on TV again.
Eric U.
I was shocked when I moved to PA and found out their alcohol laws were less permissive than in Utah, where I was moving from. But they got a little better recently as far as beer and wine. Still ridiculous though.
Redshift
@PJ:
Heh. I went to a large wealthy university and there was one shared bathroom per dormitory floor (except in the dorms that had been built later than the 1920s, and I’m not sure about those.) Not to dispute your point, other than to note that the necessary conditions aren’t universal even at expensive schools.
Jeffro
@Brachiator: Ok, well, let us know what you think this would look like. I am not seeing sit-down restaurants as enjoyable or viable places to spend time and money at until there’s a vaccine. YMMV
Alex
@Keith P.: You’re right that they have been testing the bounds. They have been showing up at the Michigan Capitol for years armed like this for protests and events like Open Carry Day. Here’s an example from 2013 https://www.mlive.com/politics/2013/10/bring_your_guns_leave_your_sig.html
The Republican majority controls Capitol access rules and open carry laws. They will not act to protect staff or other legislators. The current Speaker was arrested at an airport with a gun he forgot was in his bag— needed to attend a 3 year olds birthday party. Another legislator wore a long semiautomatic in shoulder to shoulder crowds during the governor’s state of the state speech this year. Guns were stolen from his underwear drawer soon after. They don’t need marching orders from De Vos to adopt the cause of making the state ungovernable for a Dem governor, especially a woman.
J R in WV
@Spanky:
Actually, a vise and a hacksaw can create a sawed off shotgun, if you don’t cut too much off it won’t even be too ugly. There is a legal limit.
But they do manufacture what is called improved cylinder choke, which means the barrel is wider at the muzzle to increase the spread of the shot pattern, I think used for bird hunting at close range… that would be nearly as good as sawed off.
And shorter barrels just at the legal limit are available too.
Pump shotguns are especially good for the sound of the loader — no smart criminal won’t know what that sound of the pump mechanism is. The sound alone will make many people run away, run away!!
OldDave
Pump … because I’m somewhat convinced the sound of a pump shotgun being cycled is something everyone knows, even if they have not actually heard it before. It’s in our damned DNA or something. Everyone knows it, and knows it is BAD NEWS.
Redshift
@Brachiator:
I don’t see any opening up without mass testing that qualifies as “avoid rash stupidity.”
The Trump team pissed away the opportunity to limit the pandemic through denial, wishful thinking and only caring about his reelection prospects.
Then they pissed away the lockdown (to the extent we had it) doing next to nothing to get testing going, and pretending that “bending the curve” meant it was all over.
There are better ways, but we’re only going to get them at the state level (with active opposition from the federal level) until January.
OldDave
@rikyrah:
What’s the big deal? It’s less than half. By one. (More seriously, damn. That’s horrifying).
Jinchi
What kind of security checkpoint lets through an angry armed militia? Who are they turning away?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/florida-coronavirus-death-figures-withheld/index.html
So the brilliant plan from the Republicans about the virus in the Red States, pretend it’s not happening.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OldDave: I suppose the they will finally answer what is the mortality rate for the virus.
Elizabelle
@Jinchi:
You made me laugh. The times we live in …
Jinchi
So wait… Are they for her or against her?
This was so much easier when we all agreed that the Nazis were the bad guys.
Ksmiami
@Ken: Because these teeming hoardes of vile, ignorant and stupid ppl are the enemy.
J R in WV
@Eric U.:
Hell, in Ohio they have drive thru liquor stores, where you can also get hay and feed and fencing with your booze. One stop shopping for hard working farmers!!! Now, it may be that it was mostly beer? Was a long time ago and all my Ohio cousins have died from cigarettes.
ETA: It was literally a drive through barn with a big cooler for the beer. I honestly don’t recall if there were spirits also for sale…
Brachiator
@PJ:
We will just have to find a way to confiscate some of that sweet drug money lying around. A fun recent LA Times story noted that drug lords can’t use legitimate businesses to launder money because of the lockdown.
But it is not enough to just pass out money to people. You have to maintain a certain level of economic activity. Food production is one obvious problem. And if this pandemic stays around as long as many think, a lot of people will need winter clothes. It’s not just a matter of plutocrats wanting to get things back to normal. A prolonged lockdown cannot be sustained. We are improvising here to a large degree.
Fortunately, the governors, not Trump are mainly in charge. This should continue to make a difference. And hopefully we will dump Trump in November.
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: She’s already at like, 160 degrees or so. It’s not just that she’s been consistently Never Trump; she said shortly after he clinched the nomination that she could no longer be part of the Republican party. I’ve also noticed that she’s changed many of her positions. The woman who used to be a diehard Likud supporter is now criticizing Prince Jared’s peace plan because it ignores the Palestinians.
People can and do change. I understand being skeptical, but one of my pet peeves about certain left-leaning groups is the idea that changing your position is grounds for permanent suspicion.
Anotherlurker
@Elizabelle: I’ll bet you that if I tried to cary my Leatherman Multitool in to their Capital, I would be flagged as a potential Terrorist and the tool would be confiscated.
Feathers
Everyone hear is talking about the dorms, but the classrooms won’t be safe. Here’s a link to a CDC study about a restaurant where 1 person infected 9 other diners. I know people will be in masks, but sitting in a lecture hall with masks on, listening to a masked professor doesn’t seem worth being in person for. Not when there is such a risk involved.
@J R in WV: Fencing With Your Booze sounds like an absolutely terrible indie film.
ArchTeryx
@khead: He was creepy as shit in The Thing. Special mention goes to the visit that Kurt Russell’s character MacReady made in the middle of a blizzard with Brimley’s character Blair (a suspected Thing) locked in his shed. When MacReady opens the viewport, he sees and hears two things: A noose, and Blair calmly insisting all was well, that he wasn’t going to hurt anyone, and that he really wanted to go back and rejoin the the rest of the team. Over and over and over again.
The noose was never mentioned. By either character. It was just there.
You wouldn’t think Mr. Diabeetus could do creepy, but he managed to spectacular effect there.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
Congratulations! ?
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Restaurant owners and government officials have been discussing possible solutions. Los Angeles county officials suggested limiting the maximum number of diners to 25 or some other number. Waiters would wear masks and gloves. Menus would be printed on paper or other single use material.
It might take two years to develop a vaccine. Or a vaccine might never be found. I suppose that we could revert to some level of subsistence society, but even that might be difficult to sustain for an extended period of time.
ETA. It is funny how all these idiot “liberators” are whining to just go back to the way it was. I remember when these yokels would brag about what great survivalists they were, and how they could just go out hunting and shooting and wrestling bears when society collapsed.
Feathers
@Dorothy A. Winsor: One other thing that needs to happen is staff working full time at only one facility, preferably only one building. Apparently staff who work at multiple facilities to get enough hours to make enough to live on are a vector for the virus spreading through care facilities.
I remember reading at the beginning of all this about a hospital in Asia which managed to have no staff infections. What they were doing differently was splitting staff into “pods,” who were all scheduled to work the same shifts and in the same unit. No one was called to cover for another unit. Pods ate their meals together in the cafeteria, not interacting with staff who weren’t a part of their pod.
It’s really crazy how this squeeze the profit out of everything, do everything the worst way, on principle, is causing so much grief and horror. We must manage to take it all back.
Mnemosyne
@Sab:
I got a message today that my favorite Chinese restaurant is re-opening as of tomorrow, so hopefully they just took some time to regroup and figure out how to reopen safely. They probably still have enough friends and relatives in the old country that they were able to get better health advice than what we’re getting. South Korea seems to be one of the only countries that has managed to successfully balance quarantine and staying open for business.
Mnemosyne
@J R in WV:
I also suspect that having the pump gives everyone a moment to think about what they really want to do in that situation and maybe back off instead of continuing to be aggressive. Plus it gives kids sneaking in after curfew a moment to say, “It’s me, dad, don’t shoot!”
Leto
@J R in WV: Just want to say, PA has those too. I’ve spoken about this before, but I find it weird as hell that PA restaurants have BYOB/W laws. Not every place serves, but a number of them are BYO. That’s weird as fuck. The fact that you can’t buy hard liquor and beer together… weird. I’m used to a military class 6: go in, get whatever you want. PA is sort of better than SC, but splitting hairs and all.
BlueUgly
@NotMax: This. Without a completely self-contained system, it will spread. College personnel may bear the brunt of the casualties, but burying your instructors, admins, and food service workers isn’t the kindest education.
Morzer
If you want to see a case of shallow-minded, posturing delusionality, Justin Amash has apparently decided that his hour has come round at last:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/30/justin-amash-running-destroy-the-system-that-created-trump-225147
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
Yeah, that’s why I’ve been comparing her to Cole, who did do a complete and genuine 180-degree turn. I don’t trust Bill Kristol or Jonah Goldberg’s newfound contempt for the Republican Party to last past Election Day, but I have a good feeling about Rubin.
Come to the dark side, Jen — we have cookies! ?
marklar
@Feathers:
Thank you for bringing up the classrooms. This is definitely a selfish perspective, but as a professor in their 50’s, I’m not sure if I want to be in an enclosed area with 15-25 students (typical class size at my college) with poor air circulation. Then there are the housekeepers who work in the dorms, the groundskeepers, the food workers, who work on campus and bring whatever pathogens they contract back home to a dense urban area, which already leads our state in cases per capita.
Colleges (especially residential ones) should be through of as akin to cruise ships, only stationary. Even if you didn’t live on one, would you want to spend several hours a day on it and then leave? Until a vaccine is ready, I expect that we’ll be doing distance learning if we value safety.
Another Scott
@J R in WV: Short barrels are a necessity if you’re short and want to do the tough and oh-so-kool Lucas McCain thing….
I’m convinced that the opening for that show (which I watched!!) did an awful lot of psychological damage to too many boys who never grew up. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
Also, too, did you get a chance to see the photos of the Biden archives at U of Delaware that somebody posted at LGM? Some people on Twitter were confidently saying that the entire archive could digitized and OCR’d in a few days by a couple of interns with a scanner. I took one look at this photo of the shelves and I laughed and laughed and laughed.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uofdlibrary/7352262200/in/photolist-ccGgMN-ccGgpo-ccGfbu-ccGhg3-ccGh9Y-ccGgKh-ccGfRd-ccGge9-ccGfDm-bVk134-bVk1Bz-bVk1on-ccGfuy-bVjZZ2
Soprano2
Just found out on FB that a friend’s 28-year-old nephew has it. He was transported to St Louis, where he finally got a test (he had a hard time getting one). He’s one of the patients who had a stroke. These denialist bastards make me crazy. I have no more fucks to give on this subject.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: We have a good number of folk that used to be Republican here, it’s not just Cole.
@Mnemosyne: Back in my days of working for Satan, we used to do document extraction and then scanning/OCR. That amount of content would take a trained staff months to do.
Zelma
@Mnemosyne:
Clearly the people who thought that have never visited an archive. But seriously, what is this with getting into Biden’s archives at Delaware? Setting aside the fact that employment records are not part of the archive, do these idiots think that a “secret” complaint about sexual assault would make it into any archive? Talk about naive. Had there been such a complaint (which I doubt), the moment Reade left Senate employment, it would have been cheerfully trashed by any loyal employee. Any historian knows to approach any personal papers with considerable skepticism as to their completeness. It’s always a magical moment if anything surprising appears.
Alex
@Jinchi: Usually there is no checkpoint; you just walk in past the state police sitting at a desk. The checkpoint they bypassed was a symptom check. Also they had to leave their signs at the door— guns are allowed but not signs.
HumboldtBlue
Christine O’Donnell has re-appeared as her niece claims to have been sexually abused by Biden.
That’s what Betty pointed out upthread.
JaySinWA
Nope, the masterminds are looking for a win win here, they get access and it’s fishing time for anything to quote out of context. Access denied? Well that just proves the coverup doncha know?
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Months of working full-time on just that project, and usually archives staff need to work on multiple projects at the same time. I would guesstimate at least three or four years for the scanning alone, much less the cataloging, indexing, metadata, etc. It’s a HUGE job.
@Zelma:
IMO, they see it as this year’s DNC email dump. They’ll be able to find something that can be spun as damaging (OMG! A risotto recipe!) so they can suppress turnout like they did in 2016. I honestly think that’s the motive. Assholes. ?
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: Yes! I laughed hard at that. Sorry, folks: you can’t just feed everything into a scanner and do Ctrl-F for “Tara Reade sexual assault”.
Not gonna lie, though: my eyes lit up a little, because I would love to get my hands on an archive like that someday.
Mnemosyne
@HumboldtBlue:
Uh, sexually harassed. “Abused” implies that he touched her in some way. He made an inappropriate comment that made her uncomfortable and self-conscious.
Mnemosyne
@Darkrose:
G got to digitize some letters from a Japanese American woman who was incarcerated (the current preferred term) at Manzanar during WW2 and he said it was fascinating to read them. They were a little tricky to digitize, though, because they were double-sided and typed on that old “onionskin” paper so there was a lot of bleed-through
ETA: He says hi. ?
HumboldtBlue
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, poor wording on my part.
Morzer
@HumboldtBlue:
Which witch is which?
Citizen Alan
@OldDave: No one in the Republican party (which is to say around 45% of the country) cares about sick or dead prisoners. Every inmate sitting in prison for any crime could die tomorrow and most Republicans would shrug.
Wait, that’s not true. The ones who are financially invested in private prisons would be upset until the government rounded up some more inmates to house in plague-prisons. Or just gave them a bail-out. Either way.
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
Norwich.
Citizen Alan
@Zelma: My theory: #LyingTara can’t narrow down the date on which the “assault” happened to less than a 90-day period. So the Bernie Scum want access to Biden’s records from that era to find a date when Biden was working late at the Capitol or whatever and doesn’t have an alibi. At which point, she’ll “remember” that as being the date it happened.
That or they just want to search for every single thing he said or did that might seem like insensitivity about race or gender. Or both.
NotMax
@lamh36
Maybe resurrect a novelty from the past – eateries with strategically laid out model train tracks; your orders were delivered to the booth or table on a train. Waitresses would take orders and only deal with any drinks and refills.
;)
@Eric U.
Back before pictures on a drivers license I had a NY license and car had NY plates. But I received all my mail at a P.O. box (rental cost $5 per year!) in PA as I spent a lot of time there. So the PA address was what was printed on the NY license.
Hop, skip and a few jumps to cross the Delaware river from northeastern PA into NY to buy booze. With NY plates, was never hassled. Plus drinking age then was 18 in NY and 21 in PA.
Bill Arnold
@Charluckles:
My local grocery stores (all open stores) have a sign saying (paraphrased): by order of the Governor, all customers must wear masks/face coverings. (New York State). I’ve been observing 100% compliance in limited checks. So state level political leadership matters.
The mask order was on April 17; around now any effects should be start to be observable in the confirmed-reported-infected statistics. Some of the infections are within households; the 4 cases I know about are 2 Republican couples. (None of the 4 ended up in the hospital, but “worse than any flu”).
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Just scares me??
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
?????
different-church-lady
“WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR CHIN?!?”
rikyrah
@khead:
He was so menacing in “The Firm”
Fair Economist
@PJ:
I’m thinking more. I think it will slow down to maybe 40,000 average over May (going at 60,000/month right now) but then pick back up over June with the death cult propaganda, retracing the drop in May for another 40K. So maybe 140,000 by the end of June.
Anya
@HumboldtBlue: Jesus. She looks 14 in that picture. This makes me sick to my stomach. It’s gross.
Mnemosyne
@Anya:
Yes. He definitely owes her both a private and a public apology. “I was just kidding” isn’t going to cover it.
SWMBO
@NotMax: There used to be “diners” that had booths with speakers in them. (Sort of like inside Sonic’s). You push a button and order. If they just had little trains to run the food out, you might not need to see a waiter/waitress. Could set up payment at the table too. Maybe we should open up a new chain that does that…
Another Scott
@Immanentize:
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@SWMBO
From Qatar.
:)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Fair Economist: Maybe, the big cities are run by reality based people, so it’s question of how many states have a Kemp level idiot for governor to force the cities to act stupid. The deaths will be there, but mostly in the low population density Red counties.
Uncle Cosmo
@Anotherlurker: Somewhat o/t, but on that note: Some years ago I was in Berlin & stood in line for about half an hour to tour Norman Foster’s glass dome atop the Reichstag building. When I sent my shoulderbag through the metal detector the guard said, You have a weapon in your sack.
I was flabbergasted. Out of a side pocket he fished my multifunction knife. I told him (truthfully) I’d forgotten it was there.
The guard produced a baggie, tore a numbered ticket in two, put one half in the bag with the knife, zipped it & handed me the other half: You may have this when you leave. And they let me pass. About 45 minutes later, at the guard booth just past the exit I handed over the claim check & was given the baggie with the knife. No muss, no fuss. Those Germans!
Uncle Cosmo
Not all that “past.” I had drinks with a friend at one of those just off Wenceslas Square in Prague a few years ago.
2liberal
@Mnemosyne:
what make you think this actually happened? Did you see the part about how he wasn’t actually there for the event?