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You are here: Home / Elections / Biden For President / Friday Morning Open Thread: If You Thought *You* Had A Bad Week…

Friday Morning Open Thread: If You Thought *You* Had A Bad Week…

by Anne Laurie|  July 10, 20207:21 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: Biden For President, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All, Schadenfreude

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Members of the exonerated Central Park Five help paint #BlackLivesMatter on the street in front of Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue. pic.twitter.com/Cw2AB2zhb9

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 9, 2020

Things Trump has bragged about this month:

– 11% unemployment
– 3 million COVID cases
– being able to lift a 6 oz glass of water with one hand
– successfully identifying a picture of a camel

— Grudgie the Whale (@grudging1) July 10, 2020

Every time Trump says "If we did less testing, we'd have fewer cases," he's essentially failed a cognitive test.

— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) July 10, 2020

WARREN: "Look, Donald Trump is going to spend this election trying to fool people into thinking the economy isn't collapsing around us because of his failure to lead during this health crisis. But it is."

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) July 10, 2020

We can't keep ignoring the facts and hoping our economy recovers on its own—we need action and we need leadership.

That's what @JoeBiden will bring to the White House. https://t.co/8Cgg93aXq0

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 9, 2020

Anyone who thinks Trump cant sink lower, wait until Sept 15 or so & it hits people that there really won’t be school for a long time, maybe not until fall 2021 (if even that soon). There are lots of parents teetering on the abyss. They will not blame that on Nancy Pelosi or BLM

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 10, 2020

and trump can’t change his handling of coronavirus to improve perception because it means an admission of failure https://t.co/HrzP4rr8fd

— kilgore trout, suburban female understander (@KT_So_It_Goes) July 9, 2020

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Reader Interactions

116Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    July 10, 2020 at 7:24 am

    Oh, I really, really like that the Central Park Five were there!

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    July 10, 2020 at 7:31 am

    As it’s open thread –

    Hardly of import in light of all that’s happening (or not happening) but note is made that Prime video has instituted big changes to their user interface.

    IMHO, only partially for the better.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    July 10, 2020 at 7:36 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  4. 4.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:37 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  5. 5.

    raven

    July 10, 2020 at 7:37 am

    @NotMax: Mine is the same

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    July 10, 2020 at 7:38 am

    The school issue concerns me. Those poor kids and their parents??

  7. 7.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:38 am

    Friday Morning Open Thread: If You Thought *You* Had A Bad An Infrastructure Week

  8. 8.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:39 am

    @raven:

    Amazon just likes to fuck with NotMax.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    July 10, 2020 at 7:41 am

    Gotta go to four places on errands this morning. Got to get out of the car for two of them. ????

  10. 10.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:41 am

    Joe Biden will listen to scientists and the CDC on the best time to safely reopen schools, the presumptive Democratic nominee’s wife told teachers union members on Thursday, as the Trump administration continues its aggressive push to have schools fully reopen.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 10, 2020 at 7:42 am

    I found out about this yesterday so there’s a good chance somebody else has already passed on this unadulterated good news, but just in case: The Far Side is back.

    His website.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    July 10, 2020 at 7:43 am

    @rikyrah:

    Don’t forget to take your hand sanitizer!

  13. 13.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:43 am

    Oof.  We have one last chance to avoid this ourselves.

    Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic are reshaping the UK economy. Could it end up looking more like Turkey, Mexico and Argentina than France, Germany and the United States?

    Some analysts on Wall Street are beginning to wonder whether a volatile currency, declining global clout and a reliance on foreign investors could relegate the United Kingdom to “emerging market” status.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    July 10, 2020 at 7:47 am

    @Baud:

    Did anyone honestly think Brexit was the redawning of the Empire?

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    July 10, 2020 at 7:47 am

    @raven

    The front page is essentially the same; the changes are evident once one clicks on something. The new look may not have rolled out universally yet.

    There’s now an option to skip the introductory promo or (as on Netflix) the opening credits of a show, for example. Toggling subtitles/closed captioning on or off is now more cumbersome (six step process now as compared to one step previously).

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 10, 2020 at 7:48 am

    Shameless: Nikki Haley positions herself to lead the post-Trump Republican party.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:48 am

    @debbie:

    Yes.  Britain’s version of Trump voters thought that.

  18. 18.

    R-Jud

    July 10, 2020 at 7:49 am

    @Baud:
    And that is why I have two 16kg bags of flour in my pantry closet, among other things.

    Signed,
    US expat in the UK

  19. 19.

    satby

    July 10, 2020 at 7:49 am

    I gotta be honest, if I still had school age kids I wouldn’t send them to school with cases rising anyway. They can make up time in school, but there’s still too much being discovered about potential long term effects even in patients with milder cases.

  20. 20.

    Jack Canuck

    July 10, 2020 at 7:51 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: 
    Now this is the kind of good news I can do with right about now! Bloom County is back, the Far Side is back – things is lookin’ up, at least in small ways!

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    July 10, 2020 at 7:52 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    ??????

    I needed that laugh this morning

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 10, 2020 at 7:55 am

    Top US general vows response if military confirms reports of Russian bounties

    “Well, if the president isn’t going to say anything…”

  23. 23.

    John S.

    July 10, 2020 at 7:57 am

    @rikyrah: It’s freaking me out. I have 2 young kids, and my wife is a middle school teacher.

    Ron DeSantis is a moron who wants to gamble with their lives, and I am not ok with that.

    Yesterday he said “if Walmart is open, schools should be open”, without a hint of irony. As if the two situations are identical. And then in the same sitting said “young people aren’t affected by COVID-19” while stating that our numbers are out of control in Florida because “young people are spreading it”.

    Meanwhile, an 11 year old girl became the first young victim of COVID-19 here in Broward this week.

  24. 24.

    mad citizen

    July 10, 2020 at 8:00 am

    The orange one has a long 12 day today traveling to Florida and back.  Only one public event, though, at 1:40 delivering remarks on our counter-narcotics activities.  Then “participating” in a roundtable on Venezuela, then a fundraiser at a private residence.  I’m hoping his dementia shows itself in a major way today.  This will be a very long day for him.  Still can’t imagine him finishing out the campaign…

    https://factba.se/topic/calendar

  25. 25.

    JPL

    July 10, 2020 at 8:03 am

    @John S.: DeSantis needs to spend six hours in a Walmart greeting people

  26. 26.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 10, 2020 at 8:12 am

    @Baud: More like “submerging market” methinks. Rublelaunderland on the North Sea.

  27. 27.

    Frank Wilhoit

    July 10, 2020 at 8:12 am

    “…trump can’t change his handling of coronavirus to improve perception because it means an admission of failure…”

    Merits aside, I think this underestimates the power of the Memory Hole.  Who says that a change has to be perceived as a change?

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    July 10, 2020 at 8:14 am

    Why, I do believe That Paper managed to publish the takes of ordinary voters who are sick of trumpov.

    Granted, none of these folks are Midwestern diner patrons, so it’s questionable whether or not their opinions count.

     

    …[the] disconnect is especially pronounced in the swing state suburbs like Cornelius — traditionally a conservative-leaning area — and along the Main Line outside Philadelphia, where some educated white voters are repelled by the president’s divisive rhetoric.
     “It’s a disgrace,” said Jane Scilovati, a schoolteacher from Devon, Pa., who called the president’s recent handling of racial issues “deplorable.” “He doesn’t have any compassion or empathy. He doesn’t reference historical facts correctly. He’s brought more division to this country than we’ve seen since the Civil Rights Act.”

    Ms. Scilovati, 54, voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 but said she now regrets the decision. She would support “Daffy Duck” rather than the president in this year’s election, she said in an interview outside a supermarket in Philadelphia’s wealthy western suburbs.
    Added Karl Rowell, 46, from the Milwaukee suburb of Greenfield, which Mr. Trump won narrowly in 2016: “He has sharpened the spear and handed it to the racists. Every time he has a chance to bring people together, he strikes a divide.”

    But still!

  29. 29.

    Anya

    July 10, 2020 at 8:15 am

    Instead of painting Black Lives Matter on Fifth Avenue why not reform the fucking police. This is how you ensure that Black lives actually matters and not this performative shit. It’s as satisfying as feeding a starving kid cake once and congratulating yourself for the effort.

  30. 30.

    Chyron HR

    July 10, 2020 at 8:18 am

    @Jeffro:

    “It’s a disgrace,” said Jane Scilovati, a schoolteacher from Devon, Pa., who called the president’s recent handling of racial issues “deplorable.”

    What part of “Proud Deplorable” is she surprised by?

  31. 31.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 8:18 am

    @Anya:

    As long as it’s not mutually exclusive, it’s fine.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    July 10, 2020 at 8:19 am

    @Chyron HR:

    “We are all Hillary Clinton now.”

  33. 33.

    Anya

    July 10, 2020 at 8:20 am

    @Jeffro:

    I am glad Ms. Scilovati saw the light but Trump has never hid his racism, and his ignorance was on display in 2016. He’s the same guy she voted for. I wish she would tell us why she voted for him then. He was still deplorable.

  34. 34.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 10, 2020 at 8:21 am

    @JPL: I vote for that.

    @OzarkHillbilly: Good article.

  35. 35.

    Anya

    July 10, 2020 at 8:22 am

    @Baud: I agree but it’s in New York’s case. There is no reform. The police union literally bullied and threatened the mayor and he cowered. Cuomo is no better.

  36. 36.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    July 10, 2020 at 8:31 am

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-continues-rant-on-testing-which-he-says-has-created-cases-in-covid-19-hotspots

    “Test everybody, pull-up parking lots, everything else, what we’ve done is we’ve created a tremendous number of cases.” Trump told Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in a phone interview

    Oh dear god, the test creates the virus.  The man is really a total idiot.  I think it’s going to come out at some point that Trump has some serious developmental issues that Fred Trump had hidden because he didn’t want to have a kid that was a “retard”

  37. 37.

    Bruce K

    July 10, 2020 at 8:33 am

    @Jeffro: Nice that they’re starting to see the light, but there are over a hundred thousand Americans for whom that epiphany came too late.

  38. 38.

    zhena gogolia

    July 10, 2020 at 8:36 am

    @NotMax:

    Oh, no! I do the subtitles in the middle of a show, no problem. Don’t tell me they’ve changed that!

    I can’t deal with any more change right now.

  39. 39.

    zhena gogolia

    July 10, 2020 at 8:36 am

    @NotMax:

    I always had an option to skip the intro.

  40. 40.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    July 10, 2020 at 8:38 am

    @Anya: his ignorance was on display in 2016

    Well to be fare even we’ve been appalled at how dumb Trump really is and thought a lot of it was just an act.

  41. 41.

    Jeffro

    July 10, 2020 at 8:38 am

    @Chyron HR:

     

    @Anya:

     

    @Bruce K: I hear y’all and agree, but let’s just let her vote ‘D’ and keep moving forward.  Nobody has to send her a thank-you note or treat her like some insightful genius or anything.

    (But it is beyond irritating with some of these ‘late arrivals’, I agree!)

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    July 10, 2020 at 8:39 am

    Sad mood today. To quote Chekhov’s character Masha in The Sea Gull, “I am in mourning for my life.”

  43. 43.

    Kropacetic

    July 10, 2020 at 8:40 am

    @Anya: I am glad Ms. Scilovati saw the light but Trump has never hid his racism, and his ignorance was on display in 2016. He’s the same guy she voted for. I wish she would tell us why she voted for him then. He was still deplorable.

    She didn’t have enough time to figure it out given only a year of saturation coverage.

    Besides, it was Trump being deplorable in front of her eyes versus the media telling us it was actually Clinton who was deplorable.  Who was she gonna believe? Trump’s a liar after all.

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    July 10, 2020 at 8:42 am

    I’m so glad to see that the Far Side is back! Yay!

    As for Trump and cognitive issues, I’m more and more on the side that thinks he’s in the throes of dementia, and his enablers are trying their best to hide it. Watch videos of him speaking 10 or 15 years ago; the difference is shocking. Most people talk a little slower as they age, and have to grope for words every now and then, but their basic intelligence level doesn’t change, and the words they use don’t change. Trump’s vocabulary is getting smaller and smaller, and he talks a lot to hide the fact that he doesn’t understand questions. I think he often doesn’t answer questions because he literally can’t. He can’t grasp the question that’s being asked and what the answer would be.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    July 10, 2020 at 8:42 am

    On another note, I’m glad that this bad person continues to reveal herself for who she really is: Loeffler continues to rip Black Lives Matter.

    I have yet to hear a Republican candidate or officeholder successfully ‘finesse’ this issue (ie, get away with having it both ways).  Good – they shouldn’t!  Let it define them and their party and keep them from winning.  The public is not with them.

  46. 46.

    narya

    July 10, 2020 at 8:43 am

    Kitchen update: Pics later this morning!! But only of the before. We’re nowhere near “after” yet, more like “in the middle of.” Not much happened yesterday–some cabinets apparently weren’t delivered, so those guys couldn’t do anything. The electrician came by with some sample under-cabinet lights and I okayed them so he installed them. It’ll happen when it happens; I figure that there are always delays, and they want to be done as much as I want them done, so . . .

  47. 47.

    Kropacetic

    July 10, 2020 at 8:44 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: “Test everybody, pull-up parking lots, everything else, what we’ve done is we’ve created a tremendous number of cases.” Trump told Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in a phone interview

    In addition to the established presidential briefings, Trump needs an English tutor.  Today’s lesson is the definitions of “create” and “identify.”

  48. 48.

    narya

    July 10, 2020 at 8:45 am

    @Soprano2: @TomJChicago has been all over this, and I am convinced. I think that the substance use issues that Castler (?) details contribute as well, and this was never a smart man to begin with.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    July 10, 2020 at 8:46 am

    @Soprano2:Trump’s vocabulary is getting smaller and smaller, and he talks a lot to hide the fact that he doesn’t understand questions. I think he often doesn’t answer questions because he literally can’t. He can’t grasp the question that’s being asked and what the answer would be.

    Great point/insight.  Plus he probably sees questions – any questions – as a challenge of some sort.  (No one should be asking him questions!  He’s him!)  But that is a great point…he probably has tremendous difficulty processing what’s being asked of him at any given moment.

    Then again, he’s also trying to toggle back and forth between reality and his reality, where the virus is under control, the economy’s roaring back, etc etc.

  50. 50.

    Kropacetic

    July 10, 2020 at 8:46 am

    @Soprano2: Trump’s vocabulary is getting smaller and smaller, and he talks a lot to hide the fact that he doesn’t understand questions. I think he often doesn’t answer questions because he literally can’t. He can’t grasp the question that’s being asked and what the answer would be.

    Are you sure he isn’t just using the well-worn Republican tactic of “deflect and filibuster.”

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    July 10, 2020 at 8:49 am

    DeSantis lies as much as Trump, which I didn’t think was even possible. I wonder if Trump’s visit here today is partially to quell some infighting among state-level Republicans:

    A new report from the New York Times suggest that DeSantis is hindering efforts to raise money for the Jacksonville event because a personnel beef he has with Susie Wiles, the political operative now in charge of President Donald Trump’s Florida campaign.

    It’s sure starting to look like the Jacksonville RNC event is going to be a big fat disaster, what with COVID-19 cases spiraling out of control in FL, elected GOP figures declining to attend in droves and backstabbing among the local party faithful. Now they’re talking about holding the event in an outdoor venue because city ordinances bar large in-door gatherings.

    In August, it’s hotter than the surface of the fucking sun. They’d be keeling over like bowling pins, Trump included.

  52. 52.

    Kropacetic

    July 10, 2020 at 9:00 am

    @Betty Cracker: In August, it’s hotter than the surface of the fucking sun. They’d be keeling over like bowling pins, Trump included.

    There’s an obvious solution to this, full-body refrigeration.

  53. 53.

    Percysowner

    July 10, 2020 at 9:01 am

    In the world of absentee voting fraud

    West Virginia mail carrier busted for helping GOP by tampering with absentee ballot requests

    It’s always projection for these guys, and a warning that we have to be vigilant.

  54. 54.

    Emma from FL

    July 10, 2020 at 9:05 am

    @Kropacetic: Actually I think Soprano2 is right. My Dad, at 85, is beginning to show signs of what someone described to me as a “mental slide”. He gropes for words, has to find alternative ways to describes events, things like that. The difference is he continues to read the paper every day, does spanish language crosswords, loves english and spanish magazines like Discover and DYI, and watches tv outside the Fox-bubble.

    Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t have the acuity to grasp the problem, much less the bravery to acknowledge it and try ameliorating it. His brain is in free-fall. And may God have mercy on us all.

  55. 55.

    Glidwrith

    July 10, 2020 at 9:11 am

    @rikyrah: Wait until those same parents figure out fertility might be affected. The original SARS did a pretty good job of destroying male fertility.

    Link to Pubmed search (keywords SARS fertility): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=sars%20fertility&pos=6

  56. 56.

    cmorenc

    July 10, 2020 at 9:12 am

    @Anya:

    I am glad Ms. Scilovati saw the light but Trump has never hid his racism, and his ignorance was on display in 2016. He’s the same guy she voted for. I wish she would tell us why she voted for him then. He was still deplorable.

    What matters now is that Ms. Scilovati has seen the light in time to be inclined to vote more intelligently this time around. She is now fully aware she got suckered in and fucked up in 2016.  Let’s not discourage folks like Ms. Scilovati from seeing the light and being willing to give testimony via news interviews and influential conversations with neighbors, by implicitly scolding her with curious questions that are nevertheless inherently scornfully accusatory.

  57. 57.

    patrick II

    July 10, 2020 at 9:15 am

    Except perhaps in deep wingnut country, and maybe not even there, Trump isn’t really trying to get schools to open.  He is trying to give himself cover when they don’t.  It’s not his fault, the Democrats are doing it for political purposes.

  58. 58.

    Kropacetic

    July 10, 2020 at 9:16 am

    @Emma from FL: Maybe.  But so much of his behavior I see reflected in Republicans of all ages.  80% of the Republicans I talk to in daily life do the same thing; cut me off, don’t respond to the partial statement/question I get out (or lie about what I said), ramble about nonsense for 10 minutes until it’s impossible to address everything. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a debate panel hijacked this way (hello, Bill Maher).

    Trump’s brain was already mush.  Even if he does have dementia, I think his behavior is better understood in the context of Republican obfuscation tactics than amateur armchair diagnostics.

  59. 59.

    Citizen_X

    July 10, 2020 at 9:19 am

    @Jeffro: he’s also trying to toggle back and forth between reality and his reality

    He’s a lying sack of shit, so he’d like to keep his lies straight, but his rapidly diminishing mental capacity is making the job that much harder. Sad!

  60. 60.

    Soprano2

    July 10, 2020 at 9:21 am

    @narya: I started following TomJChicago on Twitter a couple of months ago, and he has convinced me too. I don’t know who Castler is, though.

  61. 61.

    Danielx

    July 10, 2020 at 9:21 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Saw front page of Miami Herald from a couple of days ago; two articles were about 1) state ordering schools to open in August, and 2) Miami restaurants and gyms closing (again) to fight the virus. I wonder if DeSantis has ever heard the phrase ‘cognitive dissonance’. He appears to have decided that if the choice is between pleasing the Orange One and protecting the lives of his constituents, well, better use that Preparation H lip gloss and get down to it.
    Note: is the use of “Republican” and “disaster” in the same sentence becoming redundant?

  62. 62.

    Citizen Alan

    July 10, 2020 at 9:23 am

    @Glidwrith: Plus, here’s the thought that keeps me up at night. Suppose that in 2021, SCOTUS finally kills the ACA. In a post-ACA country, even if you had Covid and “recovered completely,” you’re still uninsurable for life because health complications from it that crop up ten years from now that could potentially be traced back to your infection will be the result of a preexisting condition.

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    July 10, 2020 at 9:23 am

    @Kropacetic: I don’t think so, because of the way he repeats words and his small vocabulary. There’s a marked difference in the way he answers questions compared to most Republican politicians. I think he’s saying a lot of words to make it sound like he’s saying something to cover up the fact that he can’t answer the question that was asked. It’s something people with dementia sometimes do.

  64. 64.

    Patricia Kayden

    July 10, 2020 at 9:24 am

    @rikyrah: I’m not a parent (to humans) but If I were my children wouldn’t be sent back into packed classrooms because Secretary DeVos and Trump are pulling a dangerous political stunt.

  65. 65.

    Danielx

    July 10, 2020 at 9:26 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    I would wager ten bucks against a stale doughnut that’s a topic of conversation in insurance company boardrooms everywhere.

  66. 66.

    Kropacetic

    July 10, 2020 at 9:27 am

    @Soprano2: Again, maybe.  But I’m not ready to treat this as fact until an official diagnosis is disclosed to the public

    ETA: Now, if that diagnosis is disclosed 5 years from now, will I be willing to speculate whether this was the case throughout his presidency? Abso-fucking-lutely.  But now’s not the time.

  67. 67.

    Amir Khalid

    July 10, 2020 at 9:28 am

    @Baud:

    Besides, it gets Trump’s goat. Getting Trump’s goat is a fun and popular sport these days.

  68. 68.

    germy

    July 10, 2020 at 9:29 am

    The Donald Trump Presidential Library will be a book cart he pushes around prison with unread copies of the Art of the Deal.#TrumpTaxes

    — Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) July 9, 2020

    I’d like to think so, but I somehow doubt it.

  69. 69.

    narya

    July 10, 2020 at 9:32 am

    @Soprano2:  Here he is: https://twitter.com/CaslerNoel

    He worked on the TV show and spilled all. He claims it’s substance abuse, not dementia, but I go with one exacerbated by the other.

  70. 70.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 10, 2020 at 9:33 am

    @germy: I’ve said it numerous times, but if there’s one thing you can take to the bank, it’s that DJT will never see the inside of a prison cell.

  71. 71.

    Danielx

    July 10, 2020 at 9:37 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    And it’s such an easy game to play!

  72. 72.

    Glidwrith

    July 10, 2020 at 9:37 am

    @Citizen Alan: And to finish the job: what if this is like HIV or chicken pox? What if a reservoir of virus remains and activates 10 years later?

     

    ETA: and re-reading your comment, basically what you said.

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 10, 2020 at 9:38 am

    Woman in Italy is fined €850 for going 703km/hr in her Ford Focus.

  74. 74.

    germy

    July 10, 2020 at 9:40 am

    A bit of personal news, which I've been holding off posting: I (almost certainly) have Covid.

    I say almost certainly b/c it's been over 8 days since I was tested & I *still* do not have my results. An incredibly frustrating situation, to say the least.

    — Centrism Fan Acct ? (@Wilson__Valdez) July 9, 2020

  75. 75.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 10, 2020 at 9:47 am

    @Gin & Tonic:  I have owned a Focus. I admire her skill at mods and her ability to find a long, straight road in Italy.

  76. 76.

    Parfigliano

    July 10, 2020 at 9:52 am

    @Anya: I dont need explanations from Ms. Scolvati just need her and millions like her to not vote Trump this time.

  77. 77.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 10, 2020 at 9:54 am

    Question: Am I correct in thinking that LatinX is a gender neutral form for Latina/Latino? How do you pronounce that? Latin-ex?

  78. 78.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    July 10, 2020 at 10:00 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Question: Am I correct in thinking that LatinX is a gender neutral form for Latina/Latino?

    Sí.

    How do you pronounce that? Latin-ex?

    Again, sí. With “Latin” pronounced in Spanish. See for instance this video around the 0:30 mark.

  79. 79.

    Robert Sneddon

    July 10, 2020 at 10:03 am

    @Glidwrith: 

    COVID-19 is a coronavirus, it’s not like chicken pox or HIV or an influenza virus other than in the name, basically. The scientific world has a good handle on how this coronavirus propagates, what it does and how it mutates and they believe one or more of the hundred or so vaccines under development will be effective in the near future. It’s not the first time a coronavirus has erupted into the human population after all.

    The Internet world thinks COVID-19 is treatable by thoughts and prayers, infection can be avoided by the use of Himalayan salt and bleach enemas, it’s all a Democrat hoax and the certain doom of mankind as predicted by the Mayan calendar.

    You decide which source of information to trust. I know which one I’m going with.

  80. 80.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 10, 2020 at 10:05 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Thanks. The video was interesting too.

  81. 81.

    germy

    July 10, 2020 at 10:07 am

    Powerful obituary in today’s AZ Republic. Regular people are starting to boil over pic.twitter.com/fNdL1bCDh2

    — Bill Scheel (@billyscheel) July 9, 2020

  82. 82.

    Marcopolo

    July 10, 2020 at 10:08 am

    Didn’t want to jam up the new thread up top with this but a new Biden ad dropped this morning and it is pretty darned good:

    I really love the new Biden ad that premiered on Morning Joe today. pic.twitter.com/OIXDh1nrQm— Florida Chris (@chrislongview) July 10, 2020

  83. 83.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 10, 2020 at 10:14 am

    @rikyrah: Yeah.  I see a lot of ‘Congrats class of 2020’ signs around my place on my late night walks and think about what was stolen from these kids.

    ETA – and probably what’s yet to come.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    July 10, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @narya: The kitchen renovation post is up.

  85. 85.

    germy

    July 10, 2020 at 10:19 am

    The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years.

    I Know Because I’m One of Them.

     https://www.propublica.org/article/the-police-have-been-spying-on-black-reporters-and-activists-for-years-i-know-because-im-one-of-them?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

  86. 86.

    pluky

    July 10, 2020 at 10:24 am

    @Danielx: and actuarial society meetings. we’ve been doing pandemic effect modeling for years. now we have the real thing to price for in health, life, disability, pension . . . (yes, this effects ANYTHING with mortality/morbidity contingencies).

  87. 87.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 10, 2020 at 10:30 am

    @Gin & Tonic: That was no Focus, that was a Ford Falcon.

    A Ford F-16 Fighting Falcon (yeeeeeeowwwwwwww!)

    Brings to mind the legendary physicist, ticketed for running a red light, who appeared before the judge with a brief explanation of the Doppler shift & the excuse that at the speed he was traveling the red light had blue-shifted enough to appear green.

    The judge remembered enough of his college physics to offer him a choice: Pay the original ticket, or plead guilty to speeding – at a velocity calculated from his blue-shift claim – at so many dollars per each 10 mph over the speed limit.

    He paid the original ticket. Plus court costs. Such a bargain!

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 10, 2020 at 10:33 am

    @debbie:

    Did anyone honestly think Brexit was the redawning of the Empire? 

    LOL No.

    But the dawning of mummified chicken fajitas?  YES!

  89. 89.

    Jim Appleton

    July 10, 2020 at 10:35 am

    @germy:

     

    His library will be a vacant field in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a jet black thirty foot wall of vertical steel slats.

  90. 90.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 10, 2020 at 10:35 am

    @narya: In one of the follow-on posts, I think he typed “scintillation” when he meant titillation. (Maybe he thought the latter would get him in trouble, I dunno.)

  91. 91.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    July 10, 2020 at 10:36 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: As you probably know, many nouns in Spanish have both a male and female form, and the generic term is male. Mother = madre, father = padre, but parents = padres = “fathers”.

    I’m not fluent so I don’t get all the nuance with this. But apparently there has been growing feeling in some circles, especially among folks who don’t identify as binary male or female, that they don’t want to be labeled with either -o or -a and also “generic = male” is not inclusive.

    Which of course it’s not but that’s even more deeply embedded into Spanish than it is in English I think.

    @Uncle Cosmo: Not sure if there’s any truth to that tale but it’s a popular homework or quiz question in introductory physics.

  92. 92.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    July 10, 2020 at 10:46 am

    I think somewhere in here is a question for OzarkHillbilly. I’ll accept any input anyway.

    My biggest Covid project has been to repair our long-neglected deck. I’ve painted it a couple times since we moved in 19 years ago, but probably didn’t treat it at all right and it’s in sad shape. So I’m pulling up and replacing a bunch of the boards.

    I’ve found that trying to do hardware store purchases via home delivery is quite an adventure, but that’s another story.

    Anyway, I just learned that one segment of the deck is not made of 16-foot boards as I assumed, but close to 18-foot. So I’ve got to buy 20-footers. Which nobody carries. I talked to a guy at Lowes last night and he said they might try to special order them but pressure-treated lumber is a hot commodity right now and it might take 6-8 weeks. He also said to call back in the morning, and this morning they aren’t answering the phone. I get an error message from Verizon instead, which is disturbing.

    I might try to piece them together from smaller boards, I already did one temp repair that way and there are a few board that are made of two pieces. But a lot of the rot is at the joins in those pieces.

    If I ever get through to Lowes again, I think I’ll order the 20 footers and just accept a wait till Labor Day (on the plus side, the heat will be mostly over by then) but I wonder if there’s some alternative I’m missing.

  93. 93.

    joel hanes

    July 10, 2020 at 10:47 am

    @Emma from FL: 

    The difference is

    Another difference is that Trump has never in his life been able to read with comprehension at a 10th-grade level.

  94. 94.

    TS (the original)

    July 10, 2020 at 10:56 am

    @germy:

    The thread included a letter his daughter wrote to the governor.

    This broke my heart. pic.twitter.com/TaC0euf90r— Carrie (@carriebethy) July 9, 2020

  95. 95.

    catclub

    July 10, 2020 at 11:20 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: but I wonder if there’s some alternative I’m missing.

     

    Fine,  hand cut,  fancy japanese joinery joints where you splice them together.

  96. 96.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 10, 2020 at 11:36 am

    I clicked on one of the usually-scurrilous ads here because it looked promising – something about Eric Trump deleting a tweet after the response he got. And indeed it was!

    Shitgibbon Spawn tweeted a photo of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in which Bill was escorting his daughter up the aisle & Ghislaine Maxwell was visible in the crowd. He circled La Maxwell’s face & captioned it “birds of a feather.”

    Whereupon a shit-ton of respondents tweeted photos of his dad with Maxwell, not “in the crowd” but right beside him or with his arm around her, etc., saying “‘Birds of a feather’, yeh?” It was like that scene in Airplane! with the hysterical woman & a whole slew of fellow passengers lined up in the aisle to take turns at “calming her down” (by means of various blunt & sharp objects).

    Apparently after the first bunch of replies he had sense enough to delete the tweet. But it was sweet while it lasted!

  97. 97.

    patrick II

    July 10, 2020 at 11:47 am

    Every time Trump says “If we did less testing, we’d have fewer cases,” he’s essentially failed a cognitive test.

    As a corollary, every time DeSantis doesn’t count the deaths from Covid, there are fewer deaths from Covid.

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    July 10, 2020 at 11:49 am

    @debbie:

    Same thought. That might just be the most New York idea I’ve ever heard, if the goal is to poke at shitforbrains. I wonder if they offered to help, just for the pleasure of that jab. Damn I hope so.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    July 10, 2020 at 11:55 am

    @debbie:

    I always thought that Brexit was the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand, where if you can’t see problems, they don’t exist, or if you made the problems worse, you don’t have to know. Really, no matter the reason, sticking your head in the sand, (or some bodily orifice) and hoping that everything would be all better really doesn’t seem to ever help.

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    July 10, 2020 at 11:59 am

    @JPL:

    Why would you do that to people shopping at wally world? Isn’t it bad enough they have to shop at wally world?

  101. 101.

    The Moar You Know

    July 10, 2020 at 12:00 pm

    Instead of painting Black Lives Matter on Fifth Avenue why not reform the fucking police. This is how you ensure that Black lives actually matters and not this performative shit.

    @Anya: We’re now a performative society.  Fixing things is 20th century thinking, outmoded and so inefficient.  Why spend the money, time and effort when you can just slop some paint on a street, take some pics with your friends on that now paint drenched street to slap up on your social media account of choice and congratulate yourself on a job well done. RACISM SOLVED

  102. 102.

    trnc

    July 10, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    @NotMax: I like that it’s possible to have multiple users now. I sure hope they never do what Netflix has done – I can’t stand that a trailer starts playing when I hover over something for 2 seconds.

  103. 103.

    trnc

    July 10, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The Far Side is back.

    His website.

    Bookmarked. Thanks.

  104. 104.

    trnc

    July 10, 2020 at 12:23 pm

    @Soprano2: As for Trump and cognitive issues, I’m more and more on the side that thinks he’s in the throes of dementia, and his enablers are trying their best to hide it. Watch videos of him speaking 10 or 15 years ago; the difference is shocking.

    Yup. I saw some of the early 2000s interviews with Howard Stern and older ones on various news networks. He was smooth and coherent enough to hide the obviously sociopathic traits. However, it’s easier to see now that it was all gloss. There doesn’t appear to be a depth of knowledge about anything.

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    July 10, 2020 at 12:27 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    July 10, 2020 at 9:38 am

    Woman in Italy is fined €850 for going 703km/hr in her Ford Focus.

    Sorry, no Ford Focus can go 436+ miles per hour… can’t be done, even by dropping it out of a C-130 at 40,000 feet. Perhaps with a F-18 pushing it? Doubtful even then. Has to be a malfunction in the speed camera or a typo.

    Perhaps it was supposed to be 103 kph in a 50 zone?

  106. 106.

    trnc

    July 10, 2020 at 12:33 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I’ve said it numerous times, but if there’s one thing you can take to the bank, it’s that DJT will never see the inside of a prison cell.

    I think you’re right. Putting any high level politician from the opposition party in prison, much less a president, will look to many people like an authoritarian move, even to some people who would never vote for him. He would probably literally have to be caught on video murdering people to get widespread support for sending him to prison.

    However, I am hopeful that the evidence of his financial crimes comes out and makes it clear to everyone how he did business, and that the resulting fines and lawsuits leave him and the adult members of his family destitute.

  107. 107.

    ThresherK

    July 10, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    I suggest these fellow be known as the Exonerated Central Park Five.

    They’ve been the “Central Park Five” for too long. “Exonerated” as a capitalized part of the name is overdue.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    July 10, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: An introductory mechanics question that stuck with me involved a ski slope Y feet high at angle theta with a curve at radius R at the bottom.  The problem was to figure out why starting out at the top of the slope was a very bad idea when R = (some value).

    tl;dr – Basically, the effective acceleration in the curve would be 20-gs or so and the skier’s bones would snap.  And that’s why ski jumps have very, very gradual curves at the bottom.

    Such practical problems!!  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Ken

    July 10, 2020 at 2:07 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Good news, indeed! Thanks for the notice and for the link.

  110. 110.

    Ken

    July 10, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    @Kropacetic: Today’s lesson is the definitions of “create” and “identify.”

    That’s what I thought too, but then maybe he actually did intend “create”. Also, I may have goofed up use of blockquote.

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    July 10, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Uhh…it’s a Romance language. It’s descended from Latin two genders and all. For a trans Spanish speaker to make that work they would have to at least adopt the Germanic three gender system. So basically tearing apart español and remaking the whole thing. Good luck with that!

  112. 112.

    Ruckus

    July 10, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    @Emma from FL:

    I went through 20 yrs of my dad going from fully functioning adult to can’t function as a basic human on any level, as he struggled with and died from Alzheimers. At the start he was working for me as I ran what had been his business. It started out that I couldn’t let him work because he was reverting to when he started his apprenticeship and couldn’t remember how to do things we did every day. It got unsafe. It progressed to not being able to remember anything real and claiming things like his parents owned a cow, in their apartment in North Hollywood, CA as he was growing up. And ended when his body could not remember how to live. The middle was a lot of what you see in shitforbrains, who also has issues with his physical body, walking, drinking, etc. Add in his mental failings that he’s had for his entire life and it doesn’t look good. I’ve know other people whose parent(s) have gone through similar and it has taken from 5 yrs to about the 20 it took for my dad. Some of which might be just not noticing as early, but I had decades of observation of his skills, so the change was obvious, although at that time we had no idea it was Alzheimers. Not being a neurologist nor any kind of doc I can’t make a diagnosis but I can say that I’ve seen this in more than one person and that he’s not in any way a normally functioning adult, not even close.

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    July 10, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    @trnc

    Several months back Netflix finally gave in and provided an option to disable that trailer autoplay feature. Can be done by going to the account management area of the netflix.com site.

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    July 10, 2020 at 3:15 pm

    @Kropacetic:

    Don’t confuse republican BS for mental illness. People can be taught to be assholes, they have to want not to be one to resist. Animal survival takes on many forms, the republican concept of racism and whiteness is one form of that. It’s not in any way logical or truthful but it is a survival instinct and they can take on many forms and at it’s basic level this is one of them.

    shitforbrains, like any other human can hold bullshit in a demented mind. Hell it might be easier to do that way. Racism and bigotry are learned behavior. Dementia and assorted mental inabilities are illnesses and the two are not the same as learned behavior. We have a country that has had over 300 yrs of learning/unlearning racism and bigotry. The world has had centuries of this. It is not solely an American learned behavior, bigotry is a world wide learned  problem that we are not born with, we acquire it. We obviously don’t have to do that but the last 30+ yrs of faux news and racism hasn’t helped and neither has a country that has never really solved it’s history of slavery. Legally we sort of have but emotionally, we have not.

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    July 10, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    @J R in WV:

    They do sell the Focus RS over in Europe, or did until recently. It has just a bit more power than a standard Focus. I’d bet the number is supposed to be 203kph, which would be 126mph, not an unusual number for an RS Focus or even the ST. 103kph would be about 61mph, which likely wouldn’t require a 850 euro fine

    As it was a 50kph limit 103 might have been right though. They don’t like their speeding in the cities across the pond. It was an automatic speed camera.

  116. 116.

    Tom Fitz

    July 10, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: We used 16-footers overlapped for stringers to build a bridge with a 20-ft span on one of our local trails. We spread a strip of tar paper on top of the stringers. Seems to work ok here in the rainy PNW; maybe that approach would work in your climate.

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