Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

People are weird.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: The Heroes We Need Now

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: The Heroes We Need Now

by | 114 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

… Dedicating her award to protesters around the country, the star said: “You’re proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain.”

“I’m encouraging you to continue to take action, continue to change and dismantle a racist and unequal system.

“We have to vote like our life depends on it, because it does.”

Beyoncé was presented with her award by Michelle Obama, who praised the star’s commitment to the black community.

“You can see it in everything she does, from her music that gives voice to black joy and black pain, to her activism that demands justice for black lives.

“And she’s doing it all while staying devoted to her children and the loved ones she holds dear,” she continued. “To my girl, I just want to say – you inspire me. You inspire all of us.” …

Finally, an anniversary reminder:

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    With all due respect to Tupelo’s mayor, recognizing and taking action based on reality is pretty liberal.

  6. 6.

    Geminid

    Va. 5th congressional candidate Cameron Webb was just tapped for the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program that prioritizes resource to candidates capable of flipping Republican-held seats. Three others were also added to the program- Dana Balter (NY-24), Hillary Scholten (MI-3), Amash’s seat, and Michelle de la Isla (KS-2nd). de la Isla is mayor of Topeka.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Jason Shelton:

    Also, ANTIFA is not coming to Tupelo, Elvis statues are not being removed, you are not the target of some global conspiracy, it is impossible to erase history and no one has attempted to do so, covid is not a hoax, you shouldn’t believe and share posts that are obviously false or used as political propaganda, and there is nothing “liberal” about any of the actions that have been taken by our administration regarding these matters.

    I almost want to move to Tupelo MS just so he can be my mayor.

  12. 12.

    Ohio Mom

    How did that guy get elected mayor in the first place and what’s his Plan B for after he loses the next election?

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    Fox still busy defending the two tipsy St. Louis gun wavers first thing this morning.

    ”Above all else, we MUST defend the rights of (white) gun owners to wave weapons of war at (non-white) protestors!”  I’m sure this is playing well overseas.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: ”Above all else, we MUST defend the rights of (white) gun owners to wave weapons of war at peaceful (non-white) protestors!”

    Filled in the blank for you.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @Jeffro:

    I watched local news on Fox and on NBC last night. The difference in their reports was striking. Fox’s version included statements from the husband saying that he was terrorized, that he feared he would lose his life and his property in a conflagration in seconds, and that he was terribly intimidated. He said one protester held two gun clips and knocked them together in a threatening manner. NBC basically just reported the facts. Both segments included video, and neither showed any threatening going on.

    But the wife was definitely more than a little tipsy.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    126 days to go. I read somewhere that House Dems will get an intel briefing at 8 AM on the Russian bounty issue, and they have a press conference scheduled for 9:30 AM. Looks like this story has legs. Good. Every fake tough guy Republican who has enabled Trump should have to answer for this.

    As we know, Trump has been an unmitigated disaster on foreign affairs. Even low-info voters who gave Trump the benefit of the doubt in 2016 don’t like to see the U.S. beclowned on the world stage — that turns out to be a stronger than expected motivator, according the the Pod Save America bros. Maybe the drip-drip revelations about the bounty and the White House’s preposterous excuses (Trump wasn’t briefed!) will prevent them from evading accountability.

    As we also know, voters trust Biden more than Trump on the pandemic, as is sensible. Either of my dogs would be handling it better than Trump. But as the race comes down to the final weeks, I hope this tweet becomes more widely known:

    That tweet, with an animated marker circling the date stamp, needs to be an ad all by itself that runs non-stop in every swing state. Maybe Bloomberg could get on that.

    The last leg of the stool we need to kick out from under the Trump campaign is the misplaced low-info voter confidence in Trump’s ability to manage the economic crisis. The Biden campaign has repeatedly emphasized that Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic led to needless economic pain, and good for them.

    But to deliver the ass-kicking Trump and his enablers so richly deserve, we need to find a way to disabuse low-info voters of the delusion that Trump is a competent businessman. Maybe the niece’s upcoming book about the crooked, greedy family will help. Trump’s continued flailing in the face of the pandemic is already delaying attempts at economic recovery and will likely continue to do so.

    What else could get this message through particularly thick skulls? Pointing out that the complete lack of planning for reopening schools is an unprecedented burden to millions of working parents?

  20. 20.

    MagdaInBlack

    @debbie:

    My money says there was a martini in her hand not 10 minutes before she was waving her pretty little gun around.

  22. 22.

    Argiope

    @RandomMonster: Yellowstone could still blow, too.  2020 bingo has been lit so far.  I remember the halcyon days of late 2019 when we couldn’t wait for Jan 1.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: I wonder if the sleazy shit-stain can be arsed to provide details about that. Maybe if someone can pitch it as a way to boost sales of his book…

  28. 28.

    JMG

    Both the gun wavers were well over the legal DUI limit. It’s a miracle they didn’t shoot a protestor or more likely each other by pure accident.

  29. 29.

    John S.

    @Betty Cracker: Reason doesn’t work on members of a cult. You have to deprogram them, and the only way to do that is to get them away from the cult — which isn’t really feasible.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @John S.: I’m not talking about members of the cult. I’m talking about low-info voters who think Trump is a competent businessman because they watched The Apprentice.

  32. 32.

    Chyron HR

    @debbie:

    Fox’s version included statements from the husband saying that he was terrorized, that he feared he would lose his life and his property in a conflagration in seconds

    Silly civilian, “I feArEd FOr MY LiFE,” is for cops.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    If I were more into performance art, I would advise Pelosi to replace the U.S. flag with the Russian flag for Independence Day.

  34. 34.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: What else could get this message through particularly thick skulls?

     
    They believe fantasy more than reality. We’re talking cult deprogramming now.

    We’ve seen senior support sag when the Texas Lt Governor stopped hinting and outright told them, “You olds die for the stock market.” It should have CRATERED. Within, like a DAY.

    Some people change their minds with glacier slowness. I only hope we have enough time to make a dent in cement, as I think of it.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m not talking about members of the cult. I’m talking about low-info voters who think Trump is a competent businessman because they watched The Apprentice.

    To the extent there’s a difference between the two, do you want Democrats to portray themselves as successful business people? Much of people’s impressions are based on marketing, and Republicans aren’t shy about marketing themselves as business people.  You and I know that the reality is different, but the low info voter just reacts to the marketing.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yes!

    Yet the nightmarish withdrawal of the key social support underlying modern parenthood is being presented as a fait accompli, rather than a worst-case scenario that government is mobilizing to prevent.

    Incredible to me. We’re really going to do this. We’re really going to throw 50 million children under the bus, not because we “can’t” do this but because we aren’t even interested enough to try.

    We’re the only country that put schools last. Every single other country put them ahead of shopping and restaurants. We hate our young people. We just cavalierly sacrifice them FIRST every time there’s a crisis. Some of these youngs will have been screwed TWICE- once with the financial system crash and again with this one, and they were already on track for 30% less income than the generation prior.

  40. 40.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Betty Cracker: 

    Maybe Bloomberg could get on that.

    Boy, remember the good old days, when ol’ Mike swore he’d spend a billion dollars to elect the Dem nominee even if it wasn’t him? That aged pretty well, didn’t it?

  42. 42.

    cmorenc

    @Spanky: 

    We are, however, coming for your damn Elvis statues.

    Elvis was one of the first black white people in the south – when his early music came out in the 50s, it was widely condemned by the predominate white community as “n*clang” music – crude and sexual just like black music. In fact, lots of southern white folk who hadn’t seen his picture yet initially presumed Elvis was black

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @The Thin Black Duke: What ain’t happening? US voters who don’t really give a shit about politics and think both sides sorta suck aren’t souring on Trump? It’s already happening. I’m wondering how to complete that process.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It was pretty clear he was full of shit when he loudly proclaimed he was for gun control and climate change mitigation, while funding loads of candidates who didn’t support any of that, but did cut taxes and lower wages and gut regulation.

    No one ever asks him about this insane, blatant contradiction, I think because he’s rich and owns a media company.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie:

    Also, I know this is trivial, but those people have terrible taste. I don’t necessarily hold them responsible for the exterior of their house. Maybe they bought it because of the location or something. But the interior was decorated in whorehouse modern.

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep. And looking at it as a political opportunist, the complete abandonment of this issue is an opening for Biden and Democrats too, and with a population that isn’t sold on the nominee.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    My favorite part of the Bloomberg debate was watching his face as it dawned on him that he might actually have to answer a question. None of the “data people” told him there would be questions!

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    Thread

    I was today years old when I found out that after years of spying for France, Josephine Baker went to Germany to perform for sick and dying former inmates at Buchenwald concentration camp after the camp was liberated. She apparently never spoke about it publicly.— Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) June 29, 2020

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    They have the PERFECT villain too. DeVos. She’s horrible with people, she’s already universally loathed, and she or one of the low quality hires have decided to approach this pandemic as an opportunity to promote their far Right agenda on Twitter, of course, which is all they fucking do. They Tweet.

    Here’s the thing about the Trump people- they don’t work very hard. They lack a work ethic. She doesn’t DO shit. I’m not at all clear she shows up for work.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: I saw in the WaPo that Biden & Co are preparing to ramp up their criticism of trumpo & Co’s handling of the pandemic.  GOOD.  We’re far and away the world’s biggest disaster, and school will be starting soon…well, I should say “school”, because it’s going to be a loose approximation of actual school, at best.

  58. 58.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Betty Cracker: What’s “not happening” is people whose support for Trump is allegedly teetering on the edge. After everything that has gone down, anyone who is still ambivalent has already made up their minds. Engaging with these people is exhausting, which is the point, I think.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I love how they’re busily lowering expectations. “You MAY get one day of school a week”

    Know this- they succeed in this and there goes the idea that the US has an obligation to provide a free public education. We’re dropping floors on the elevator as I write, speeding down past “what we now have” and some much-reduced, cheap, flimsy “new normal”. They’ll be insisting you tube videos and a library parking lot with free wifi are “education”.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    Maybe the drip-drip revelations about the bounty and the White House’s preposterous excuses (Trump wasn’t briefed!) will prevent them from evading accountability.

    You feeling OK? It’s not like you to make irrational statements

    Either of my dogs would be handling it better than Trump.

    If you REALLY cared about us, you’d include a photo of Badger. [NB: I’m a cat person, but I really love seeing Badger, not sure why.]

    But to deliver the ass-kicking Trump and his enablers so richly deserve, we need to find a way to disabuse low-info voters of the delusion that Trump is a competent businessman.

    Maybe I’m too cynical for my own good, but I think that evidence has been presented since 2015 or 2016. And although I appreciate the (theoretical) distinction between the cultists and the morons, it’s not clear to me that his remaining supporters are anything BUT cultists. [I consider tribal Rethug voters to be cultists, just not necessarily his cultists.]

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    blockquote>well, I should say “school”, because it’s going to be a loose approximation of actual school, at best.

    Can I suggest not starting at the lowest rung? Ask for the whole thing. If you start at “maybe we’ll get some cheap junk replacement” you won’t get shit.
    They’re bailing out airlines. They can bail out 4th graders. HAVE TO. It’s non-negotiable.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    blockquote>well, I should say “school”, because it’s going to be a loose approximation of actual school, at best.

    Can I suggest not starting at the lowest rung? Ask for the whole thing. If you start at “maybe we’ll get some cheap junk replacement” you won’t get shit.
    They’re bailing out airlines. They can bail out 4th graders. HAVE TO. It’s non-negotiable.

  63. 63.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: no talk of a national lockdown, to get cases well under control and allow kids to go back to school in a normal fashion.

    No mention of raising taxes on the well-off, even temporarily, to keep state/local/school budgets from making deep, deep cuts.

    No national distribution of PPE and related to schools across the country, in order to try and make things safer for teachers and staff as well as kids.

    No national ‘call to service’ to former teachers, part-time workers, etc to help serve as classroom aides, additional transportation, online tutors, etc.  (Not even to the millions who have been laid off!)

    No national contact-tracing program going on of any kind.

    And half of one party can’t/won’t imagine any different, either.  “Donald J(im Jones) trumpov told us this Covid thing will just have to ‘wash over us’…no way to take collective action here like oh most every other country on the planet”

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    What’s “not happening” is people whose support for Trump is allegedly teetering on the edge. After everything that has gone down, anyone who is still ambivalent has already made up their minds. Engaging with these people is exhausting, which is the point, I think.

    “Yes, Trump is a pathological liar, and a sexual predator, and a failed businessman, and a racist and anti-semite — but that Hillary Biden, well, I JUST DON’T KNOW.”

  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: The phrasing might not have suggested it in that one particular comment, but I think you know we’re on the same page here.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    The Trump Administration and one pathetically desperate GOP senator are promoting bailing out the tourism industry.

    They can bail out schools. They don’t want to and they don’t care but they COULD. We have to make them.

  67. 67.

    WereBear

    I think these wildwild times have a lesson for us, politically. Which is how people are most motivated by a clearly defined target that is directly causing a self-perceived crisis.

    Anything else just gets lost in the fog. Because political extrapolation is obviously a rare skill, or we wouldn’t be in such a mess now.

    We policy-wonky Democrats can look at a law or study and say, “Dang, there’s a train coming down the tracks right at us.” But it’s not just low-info voters who can’t do that. It’s a lot of good Democrats who rely far too heavily on pundits and mass media to do their “beware the light at the end of the tunnel” warnings, because they are so busy just staying alive.

    But this crisis is so big, and the differences so stark, and the cause so big and everywhere… I think more sense is sinking in than usual.

    Drip drip drip. That’s the worst part. We haven’t been given the firehose the Right Wing has.

    Drip drip drip.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Right and I know you’re a parent and they’re scared of us politically, and they should be. They need to be threatened with severe political punishment because they’re not doing enough and they’re not moving fast enough.

    They got funding to big business in record time. I know they can meet this challenge. They’re all fucking ancient and none of them have skin in the game for public schools but 55 million kids means 2x that many parents. That can swing one of their elections.

  70. 70.

    Aleta

    @Kay: They’ll be insisting you tube videos and a library parking lot with free wifi are “education”.

    I can see them using this to throw money at profit-driven companies for online instruction.  And not caring how well or if  that works.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @The Thin Black Duke: Again, I’m not talking about the base. The voters we hope to pick up — the bloc that we HAVE to win if we don’t want to just eke out a narrow victory but rather give Trump and the Republicans the electoral beat-down they deserve — are the independent / un- or weakly affiliated voters who are politically disengaged. They exist, and polling data shows Trump losing support with that group on every major issue except the economy.

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: totally agree.  I have been tweeting and FB-posting about it, but I need to get off my rear and write more op-eds and letters to the editor, too.

    The best thing American parents can do for their kids, for ALL kids, is to hit those Capitol Hill phone lines and insist that states and schools get the same speedy bailout that big business got.

    After that, we need to talk about a national plan to flatten this curve into the ground, which means almost by definition we are talking about voting D

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Great point about DeVos being the perfect villain. As Trump might say, “she’s straight outta central casting.”

     

     

    @SFAW:

    “Maybe I’m too cynical for my own good…”

    You are, IMO, but time will tell. Here’s a Badger pic anyway.

    Tuesday Morning Open Thread: The Heroes We Need Now

  76. 76.

    Mathguy

    I just have to say that “asteroid strike” is the only thing I need on my “what the f**k else can happen this year” card for bingo.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think Trump loathes her because she’s so incredibly bad at being a public figure, but he’s stuck with her because her grifter political operative family gave him Michigan.

    Also, let’s face it he hates women and particularly older women. Did you read the Bernstein story about how incredibly rude he is to female world leaders?  Germany apparently hid this, probably because they were afraid if the world found out what a gross pig we hired world markets would tank, harming Germans.

  79. 79.

    narya

    Kitchen update (because I have no can’t evens left for the current treason reporting): electric is nearly done–all boxes are placed. Carpenters are here today to put up walls.

  80. 80.

    Spanky

    @Kay: Doesn’t explain KellyAnne Conway, but then again, nothing explains KA Conway.

    “Cruella DeVos” should be used whenever referring to the current SoEd.

  82. 82.

    Spanky

    @narya: Thank you for these updates! I need to hear non-disastrous remodeling stories these days, as we’re moving from contemplation to action on a massive upgrade around Casa DeferredMaintenance.

  84. 84.

    BruceFromOhio

    Beyoncé was presented with her award by Michelle Obama, who praised the star’s commitment to the black community.

    First that TikTok, then this. My day is complete.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘I’m high as a Georgia pine’: Dock Ellis’s no-hitter on LSD, 50 years on

    “I can only remember bits and pieces of the game,” Ellis recalled in 1984. “I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the [catcher’s] glove, but I didn’t hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters, and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn’t.

    “Sometimes, I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn’t hit hard and never reached me.”
    ………………….
    “I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire,” he recounted years later to the New York Times. “And once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate.”

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    You are, IMO, but time will tell.

    That hurts me to the quick. Sort of. Unfortunately, my cynicism too often is borne out by reality (vis-a-vis the Rethugs, that is).

    Here’s a Badger pic anyway.

    Thanks very much, I appreciate that! I think my favorite one of him was when he was a really young pup, looking up at you adoringly (not to anthropomorphize him too much).

  87. 87.

    LAC

    @Betty Cracker: then perhaps not use the word “low information” voter. You can be politically disengaged and be informed. And I agree with his point about exhausting ourselves by chasing these persons.  There is no need to be snippy.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Spanky:

    One of my sisters said “she looks like every mean rich lady I have ever known” in this way that made it sound like she has known A LOT of them :)

    I was at a yacht race in Lake Michigan once, on the deck of a club, just happened to be a race going by, and this man pointed to one of the boats and said “that’s DeVos”. I was thrilled, thinking he had gossip!

    But I scared him off. Too desperate. I have to get cooler. Nonchalant. “Oh? Lovely boat. Do you know them?”

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: “she looks like every mean rich lady I have ever known”

    I once worked on the house of a Sinclair Gas heiress. That woman was so abusive I walked off the job 3 times. Her husband would come running after me to beg me not to leave. One was the Wednesday before T-day. I told him something like, “No. I want you to look at that half finished handrail all wkend long and then come Monday maybe your wife will keep a *civil tongue in her head*.” She was so bad the contractor I was working for not only didn’t fire me, he was sympathetic.

    ** Ok ok, it was more like, “maybe your wife will STFU.”

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “No. I want you to look at that half finished handrail all wkend long

    You learn that as you get older. I worked for a rich southern lady when I lived in NC. She cajoled me into help her with her gardens, so I did (for pay) and it was a nightmare. She would follow me around pointing at tiny little shoots coming up amid the pine straw and order me to pull them. Just the level of supervision. I can’t stand that. If i had backed up I would have knocked her over- that close. The family called her “sister” but she was in her 80’s.
    I don’t know how people do it. I was incorrigible at 20 so I left one day and never came back. I was intimidated by her, which I covered with sullenness. But you learn to stick up for yourself.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yes, I saw that infuriating report. I’m not surprised that Merkel didn’t make it a thing; she’s secure in who she is and a leader who acts in the interests of her constituents, which is probably why she and Obama hit it off — they had that in common. I expect we’ll see a flood of horrifying tales after Trump leaves the scene.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: I remember their first meeting/photo-op in the Oval Office, he sat there in his chair half turned away from her, a bored-adolescent smirk on his face. It was so awkward she finally said, “Shall we have a handshake?”, and he ignored her.

  96. 96.

    frosty

    @Argiope: I vaguely remember wanting to put 2019 behind us too. What was so bad that we wanted to start the new year? All the Ukraine stuff that went into the impeachment hearings?

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker:   Merkel probably is determined to avoid as much damage to NATO as she can until trump is gone, so she might swallow the insults for that reason. She may have a way to retaliate through DeutcheBank (sp?) which holds a lot of trump debt, probably laundered Russian money. The bank is German chartered and regulated. But if she can drop the hammer on trump through Deutschbank, she’ll probably wait till just before or after the election so he will have less time to retaliate.

  102. 102.

    Quiltingfool

    Late to the thread, but I agree 100% with Kay’s view on education.  I’m a retired teacher, and I can confirm that the U.S. does not take education seriously.  We cannot get it through our thick skulls that our children are our greatest natural resource.  Other countries know this.  And act accordingly.  We don’t.

    Two things drove me to improve my teaching skills – pay it forward was the first.  I had an excellent public school education.  I knew many people contributed to my education, folks I would never know, so I wanted to pay them back.  Second, I wanted to give my students the best science education I could (within the constricted parameters of public education) because I really don’t relish the thought of ignorant people being in charge when I’m too old to be in charge myself (selfish, but here we are!).  And speaking of science education, I really hope my unit on communicable diseases and pandemics (I focused on the 1918 pandemic and polio) stuck with my students…maybe they will be the ones to champion masks in their very red, Republican county.  I can only hope.

  103. 103.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: has the possibility that a  second trump administration will remove restrictions on oil production in the Eastern Gulf been made a campaign issue in Florida? One story I read said removing the restrictions are on the oil companies wish list for a second trump term, and that the administration is willing but is keeping this on the down low for now.

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @RandomMonster:

    How about a swine flu pandemic, also too?

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/swine-flu-strain-human-pandemic-potential-increasingly-found-pigs-china

    What the world doesn’t need now is a pandemic on top of a pandemic. So a new finding that pigs in China are more and more frequently becoming infected with a strain of influenza that has the potential to jump to humans has infectious disease researchers worldwide taking serious notice. Robert Webster, an influenza investigator who recently retired from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, says it’s a “guessing game” as to whether this strain will mutate to readily transmit between humans, which it has not done yet. “We just do not know a pandemic is going to occur until the damn thing occurs,” Webster says, noting that China has the largest pig population in the world. “Will this one do it? God knows.”

    When multiple strains of influenza viruses infect the same pig, they can easily swap genes, a process known as “reassortment.” The new study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on an influenza virus dubbed G4. The virus is a unique blend of three lineages: one similar to strains found in European and Asian birds, the H1N1 strain that caused the 2009 pandemic, and a North American H1N1 that has genes from avian, human, and pig influenza viruses.

    […]

    Yay?

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    @MagdaInBlack: Someone (supposedly) found and zoomed in on a 2/3 empty pitch3r of Bloody Marys or something in the video of them.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    narya

    @Spanky: the key for me was getting a recommendation. Turns out the contractor had done work for my organization (which is how the recommender knew of him), and THEN it turned out that the contractor had worked with/for others I knew (an architect i met at my previous job when we were doing construction; people from that previoius organization, etc.). And he’s a mensch, as far as i can tell; he housed a bunch of SE Asian refugees when they first showed up here, then hired them as laborers and encouraged them to learn a trade, by following around/learning from more experienced folks on the job. Some did, and some folks have worked for him for 30 years or more.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker:

    ProPublica (from April):

    Yes, Trump Hotels Do Appear to Qualify for Coronavirus Bailout Benefits.

    President Donald Trump’s hotels in D.C., New York and Chicago all seem to qualify for benefits from the coronavirus bailout. So does his winery lodge in Virginia.

    Last month’s $2 trillion bailout bill barred President Donald Trump, his family or other officials from benefiting from one of the law’s giant loan programs. But as reporters noticed, there was no such language included for other elements of the bailout. Some provisions of the bailout are particularly beneficial to businesses like Trump’s.

    […]

    Federal rescue for me, but not for thee.

    Thee should go out drinking and partying and shopping and busing tables and attending Donnie’s rallies.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It’s even worse than them not bailing out schools. DeVos ordered public schools to share millions of dollars of CARES money they got with private schools! So not only are they not bailing them out, they’re ordering them to give away the money Congress did give them. It’s horrible what’s happening under the radar.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2:

    If I’m not mixing up memories/information, I seem to recall that the private schools were going to end up getting a shit-ton more money than the public schools. I don’t recall why that was the case, nor if it’s really happening that way.

  112. 112.

    eddie blake

    @Kay:

    SO not willing to sacrifice the woman i love so she can go back to  teaching in a poorly-ventilated room full of plague-rats.

    the fascist gop NEEDS to PAY people to stay home.

    we knew that from the START. pay people to stay home, develop testing-and-tracing while social distancing and masks retard the spread of the plague.

    the goddamn PARENTS can play their part and enforce the remote-learning, for now.

    NO teachers need to be SACRIFICED for GREED.

Comments are closed.