Biden, the 1st lady, VP Harris and the 2nd gentleman will be at sundown candle lighting ceremony this evening at 6:15p to remember people who died of coronavirus.
US to reach 500,000 deaths, likely in the next few days depending on whose count is used.https://t.co/QpsqzLOfin
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 22, 2021
Haunting to be listening to the bells of Washington National Cathedral tolling 500 times, one for every 1,000 Americans who have died from covid.
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) February 22, 2021
Biden today will order flags on federal property be lowered to half staff for five days to mark the milestone of 500,000 Americans dead from coronavirus, @PressSec Jen Psaki says. pic.twitter.com/ba2b4LhRAC
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 22, 2021
SiubhanDuinne
Nicolle Wallace had a couple of moments earlier when the National Cathedral bell was tolling. It must be exceptionally moving to be in D.C. in person and hear that.
lollipopguild
If trump was still president he would have given Rush a state funeral with flags lowered. Biden gives us a memoriam for the 500,000 Americans that trump helped to kill.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Baud
@lollipopguild:
Good point. Electing Biden was worth it just to deny Rush a state funeral.
trollhattan
We’re at good-size bordering on large city, dead of Covid. Horrid beyond imagination.
My good news for the day, just now learned sports girl qualified for the WCC XC championships this Wednesday. Goin’ to Vegas, baby! Not bad for a freshman.
Baud
@trollhattan: ?
Ohio Mom
I wonder how long it takes to ring the bell 500 times. One peal for each 1,000 deaths brings home how big a number 500,000 is.
I suspect that it is the Catholic in Biden that has a thing for ritual, and the politician in him that knows how important it is to get people to understand the enormity of what we are going through.
debbie
A very sad day all around for the nation
ETA: Beautiful remarks, Joe. ?
Raven
@Ohio Mom: I was part of reciting every name on the Wall and it took 3 days.
Ken
@Ohio Mom: I’ve tolled our church bell for funerals. The rule is a slow ten-count between tolls, so that the sound nearly fades away. Call it five to ten seconds. 2500 seconds is roughly 45 minutes, 5000 an hour and a half.
BTW the medieval custom was nine tolls for a man, six for a married woman, three for an unmarried woman or child. No one at my church wanted to follow that tradition.
Spanky
If you tolled one strike for every death and assuming a 3 second interval in tolling, it would take you over 17 1/3 days non-stop.
Spanky
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: OK, that sounds like around a 4 second interval. Make that over 23 days if tolled for each American death.
West of the Cascades
Don’t worry it will go away soon its like a miracle.
I hope Trump rots in his splendid isolation, then in jail, and then in hell
ETA I can’t see Joe and Jill and Kamala and Doug together and not cry and should “I love you!!” at the browser.
MomSense
I was struck by watching Joe that he is a thoroughly decent and good person. His remarks were so moving. And now to see Joe, Jill, Kamala and Doug with their heads bowed in remembrance, I think many of us finally feel that we are cared about.
Cameron
@lollipopguild: Here in Florida, DeSantis has ordered flags at half-mast for Rush. No comment needed.
debbie
@MomSense:
Seconded. But you just know that the GQP will mock him for it tomorrow.
MomSense
@West of the Cascades:
Same here. I said the same thing through tears.
Roger Moore
@Raven:
Fuck LBJ, and fuck Trump harder.
Miss Bianca
Anybody else seen this blog post? I’m not familiar with John Pavlovitz, but he expresses my sentiments perfectly on the whole “Freedom’s just another word for Conservative Oppositional Defiance Disorder” aspect of the COVID pandemic.
MomSense
@debbie:
They keep revealing themselves to be monsters.
Wyatt Salamanca
And then there’s this pathetic clown from the White House Press Corps at today’s briefing with Jen Psaki:
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/biden/abcs-cecilia-vega-confronts-jen-psaki-about-the-100000-covid-deaths-since-biden-took-office-could-more-have-been-done/
I’m all for holding Biden accountable for things, but with respect to this pandemic Cecelia Vega truly needs to get a fucking clue. Unlike Trump, Biden has taken COVID seriously from the second he was sworn into office, but he doesn’t have a motherfucking magic wand he can simply wave to prevent more Americans from dying.
Jay
@Cameron:
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-nikki-fried-limbaugh-flag-20210222-nfrc6bx2pbhtzf2yoe6mrl6744-story.html%3foutputType=amp
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
In addition to his very real knowledge of grief, he understands the importance of ceremony and ritual and sacrament — not just as empty, rote symbols or theatre but as (in the words of the Book of Common Prayer) “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”
Ken
@MomSense: “The sort of person who has a rescue dog, supports people fighting addiction, and shows respect for the dead. Is this really what America wants?”
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I knew that that had to be said, I just hadn’t seen the time yet. This was the time.
Ksmiami
CNN has a very moving tribute to individual victims on the home page. I’m seething with rage at Trump and the Republican Party. They all need to fucking burn
BruceFromOhio
@Jay: cue the death threats in 3 .. 2 ..
Baud
@Wyatt Salamanca:
LOL. “Can you please help me come up with a story about why Biden sucks? I’m having writer’s block.”
BC in Illinois
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Press: “Could more have been done in the last month?”
The only part of JFK’s Profiles in Courage that I remember in detail ever since I read it during his administration, is the letter from the congressman:
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well said.
@Ken:
We’ll find out in 2022. It seems like the only times we pick decent people and enact programs to help are after catastrophes. In good times we revert back to IGMFY.
Cameron
@Jay: Figures – our only Cabinet-level elected Democrat. Good for her. DeSantis is scum, pimping COVID vaccine to his rich donors.
MomSense
@Miss Bianca:
He is an evangelical Christian who directs much of his ire at Christianists who support trump. I like him a lot.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
I’m glad to know I wasn’t overstepping.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes.
Martin
@trollhattan: Closing in on an entire congressional district.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
Yes, that essay is beautifully written.
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
I follow him on Twitter. He’s great, even if he is a pastor. ?
Roger Moore
@Miss Bianca:
Freedom’s just another word for I got mine fuck you.
LurkerNoLonger
@Cameron: To honor Rush, in the Dominican Republic the flags are at full mast.
smith
For me, one of the most shocking things about Trump was that AFAIK he never once expressed any sadness about the covid dead or any sympathy for the ones who loved them.
debbie
@MomSense:
Still not speaking to my brothers, but I want to run over to their homes and rip off their faces before they can even open their mouths to say something.
Jay
The Nib covers Rush,
https://thenib.com/rush-delivery/
debbie
@smith:
That’s the way he has always been.
Tom Levenson
@Ken: Hence the Nine Tailors of the great Dorothy Sayers novel.
debbie
@Wyatt Salamanca:
I hope Psaki used her steely gaze and chilliest voice to correct that reporter’s misstatement.
Roger Moore
@debbie:
It’s not shocking the Trump had no words of sympathy for the hundreds of thousands who died in his presidency, but it’s shocking that the POTUS would be that kind of person. It’s just one more reminder of how not OK everything surrounding Trump was.
Baud
@smith:
That’s because he didn’t feel any sadness or sympathy.
The Moar You Know
Almost the entire population of Wyoming. And it will be more than that by March 15.
NetheadJay
@Miss Bianca: Yup, been following him for some time. Pavlovitz is one of the good guys on the religious side, doesn’t mince words when it comes to wingnuts and fundamentalists desecrating Christianity.
Punchy
Fireplug Radio takes shit from no one. Pumping out reality-based facts and truths must really confuse the Bartys and OANies.
debbie
@Roger Moore:
Agreed. That he won the presidency remains the biggest of many, many shocks.
Baud
@NetheadJay:
Been waiting to hear more about decent Christians fighting to reclaim Jesus from the right.
smith
Sure, but until Trump, any politician on earth would have at least faked it.
Cameron
@LurkerNoLonger: Damn – how could I have forgotten? The Oxyconservative Sex Tourist!
NetheadJay
@Jay: I follow Kendra (the artist) on twitter, she said she was really happy with this one.
debbie
So the SC rejected T****’s appeal of the PA decision about the election. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented. There’s this in Thomas’s dissent (from a Reuters article which I can’t find the link for):
This crap won’t be ending in my lifetime, apparently.
Cameron
@smith: “But what about ME? ME? ME? The most persecuted President in history!”
Roger Moore
@smith:
Except that isn’t true. There have always been politicians whose basic shtick has been hating on Those People, and performative callousness to others’ suffering has always been part of that.
leeleeFL
I have only cried twice for the victims of the f’ing virus. Both times it was thanks to Joe! Thank God for him. We are so blessed by this Mourner in Chief, and his chosen circle of people. Such a good and decent human being. I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and it might not be an oncoming train.
Punchy
@Wyatt Salamanca: “hey, arent you embarrassed that Biden doesnt have negative COVID deaths? What could you have done diff to bring those Americans back to life?”
planetjanet
@Baud: Check out Jim Wallis and Sojourners.
The Moar You Know
@Baud: They don’t. And won’t. My best friend from grade school became an extremely serious, extremely liberal Christian over a decade ago. It’s not what they do. For him, religion is for God and politics is for the world. And they don’t meet, not for them.
I don’t understand it but I don’t understand religion at all. Never did. Whatever part of the brain it lives in, I don’t have it.
BruceFromOhio
@MomSense:
Choose your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.
@The Moar You Know:
This.
Mike in NC
@lollipopguild: Yes, we knew that Trump would have given that fat rat bastard a state funeral, complete with lying in state in the Capitol and burial in Arlington National Cemetery.
BruceFromOhio
@Jay: Gotta see if the library has Hell Rules in Kindle format.
debbie
@planetjanet:
Also James Martin SJ’s Twitter feed.
Brachiator
@lollipopguild:
I don’t even know if Limbaugh has had his funeral. And I am very happy that he passing did not get much attention from this administration.
Ken
Thomas might, though.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world, so it’s understandable Christians would take him at his word. It’s the people who act as if America is God’s kingdom on Earth who are ignoring the Bible.
Baud
@planetjanet:
Seems like they do good work on policy issues, but they are not really taking on right wing religionists.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
burnspbesq
To the list of Austin-area residents who died from deregulation last week, add former Blasters and Fabulous Thunderbirds pianist Gene Taylor.
Fuck Abbott. These deaths are directly and personally on him.
leeleeFL
@Cameron: I got her email about it. I like her.
Ken
@Mike in NC: Burial at Arlington is only for service members, not someone who avoided the draft because he had a cyst on his butt. I suppose Trump could try to order it, but I’d expect there would be pushback from the military – say, the helicopter carrying the coffin to Arlington accidentally drops it in a hog waste pond.
Yutsano
@debbie: I know I get yelled at for it here, but I still TO THIS DAY believe just enough votes were changed to get him into the White House. I can’t explain the results in Pennsylvania any other way. A huge sweep for the Democrats EXCEPT Senate and President? Then they buried everything immediately? Still stinks like lutefisk left in the sun for 5 days.
mrmoshpotato
@Ohio Mom: Washington Cathedral has video on YouTube. Thirty-eight minutes for the 400 tolls on January 19th. Fifty minutes for the 500 tolls today.
Thank you, Mr. President for being such a decent person.
Brachiator
@debbie:
So much for strict construction. The Constitution gives power to run elections to the states.
The states can choose whoever they want, including non-legislators to help administer the election process. State legislators don’t have to be the only people involved in the process. This would not be logical and certainly is not what the Constitution says.
More originalist hypocrisy from the conservative wing. Thomas and the other right wing clowns read the Constitution in any way that serves their purposes.
Baud
@Yutsano: Didn’t the other woman Dem also lose in PA?
Salty Sam
@The Moar You Know:
So you’re saying your friend represents every liberal Christian, and therefore there are NO liberal Christians who will push back against right wing evangelicals?
As my new favorite president would say, “C’mon MAN!”
Salty Sam
My wife’s from Minnesota, and I can tell you from personal experience, you don’t need to leave that stuff out for five days for it to stink…
japa21
@Salty Sam: There are, in fact, several Christian groups who are pushing back, including some with evangelical leaders. There is a group called Faithful America which is very strong in its push-back. But the media, as usual, only focuses on the far right, non-Christian Christian groups.
cain
@LurkerNoLonger:
I’ve been crankin Rush songs – and got a candle lit with a pic of Neil Peart.
debbie
@Brachiator:
He was better off when he was silent.
KSinMA
@BC in Illinois:
Fabulous!!!
BruceFromOhio
@cain: I hope you play Bangkok.
cain
The news is setup to create conflict in order to sell ads. News in itself does not do anything – and I’m wondering if it is worth providing incentives to create new organizations that does news correctly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: Also “render unto Caesar…” wasn’t just about paying taxes.
debbie
@Yutsano:
Are you talking about 2020 or 2016?
Jay
@Salty Sam:
Each Christian sect, is unto it’s own.
For a liberal Christian Sect to “push back” against the non-Christian Evangelicals, they would need a Media Empire and invites from the MSM to pontificate.
Because they don’t have this, they focus on their flocks and good works.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: Yes, but what folk like Thomas are pointing to is that the Constitution says that state legislatures choose how electors are chosen. The legislatures have done that, it’s the winner of the popular vote.
Salty Sam
@japa21: Thanks. I was unaware of these groups, but glad to know of them now. I just had to call out Moar for making an assumption of an entire class of people based on one friend’s actions.
Roger Moore @69 gave a very good and valid reason for making that assumption.
No hard feeling Moar?
NotMax
U.S. put 500,000 in the rear view mirror several days ago at the site I check, which right this moment reads 505,549.
TS (the original)
@debbie:
And the uproar from the right about Biden winning – because voter fraud – would make one wonder about what happened in 2016.
BruceFromOhio
Perhaps it has already been cited elsewhere. It is compelling to see both civil AND criminal investigations into one topic: the dumpster fire’s books on real estate valuations. There is a scenario out there with the dumpster fire in an orange jumpsuit with a felony conviction that forever bars him from running for elected office, and the State of New York freezing and seizing assets. While the grifted will continue to throw shekels at him to keep him supplied with Diet Cokes and hamburgers until he draws his last breath, the soulless ratfuck criminal will not be able to run for high office again if convicted. While it does little to cure the body politic of fascist fever, it does present a picture of a Lyndon LaRouche-like future which suits me just fine.
frosty
@Yutsano: There’s a simple explanation. I was there. I worked the polls in PA in 2016. Lots of new Republican voters. For President, they didn’t vote down ballot because they didn’t care.
Senate? McGinty (D) was the wrong candidate for a populist year, a Democrat whose turn was next. Plus, a woman, so misogyny probably cost her some D votes too.
Haroldo
I’ll see your Bangkok and raise you mine.
RIP Alex Chilton
dnfree
@trollhattan: congratulations! We had one daughter who ran cross country in high school and we found it a fascinating sport. The way it’s scored means the runners on the team who aren’t superstars can still make a difference. And at least in Illinois, the girls and boys practiced together and went to meets together and cheered for each other.
NotMax
@cain
Isn’t the sequence Rush to Journey to Styx?
;)
TS (the original)
@Yutsano:
No yelling from me – this is what the GOP were claiming in 2020 – reflects their thinking for all elections.
BruceFromOhio
@Haroldo: Damn, I’m ready to spin up a nice fat doob and hit the road with volume at illegal after listening to that. Thanks for sharing.
@NotMax:
Rush to Styx to Journey, and only if you have a girlfriend. If not, you stay on Rush.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: ::shutters::
THE COVETED #100!
Haroldo
@BruceFromOhio:
You are welcome.
J R in WV
@Wyatt Salamanca:
I’m all for holding Biden accountable for things, but with respect to this pandemic Cecelia Vega truly needs to get a fucking clue.
This is what I sent to ABC News management. Fuck those people~!!~
Thanks for calling this to my attention, Wyatt. What a piece of work, sounds like a Trump employee!!
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
According to the Gospel, “render unto Caesar” was about dodging a trick question. The whole point was that the people questioning Jesus were trying to get him to commit to a specific answer on a question where committing either way would get him in trouble. Instead, he came up with a cryptic non-answer that people would naturally interpret in a way favorable to their existing beliefs.
something fabulous
@KSinMA: you rang?
[goes to check]
–oh. never mind.
yes, indeedy. I like that it takes two whole steps to do properly.
andy
Excepting the circumstances, it’s good to have a President in the White House again.
andy
@Miss Bianca: Pavlovitz has been fighting a long long battle deploying Bible-Fu against redcap christians. I think this line of debate would have actually worked a generation ago, but I’ve come to believe that the more ostentatiously you proclaim your faith, the less you believe in God. The true believers love tr*mp because they were getting what they wanted- secular power, revenge against the growing number of people they want dead, and free rein to pursue their own personal grift unencumbered.
Dan B
@The Moar You Know: I spent years trying to get liberal Christians to use modern mass communications to get their views in public. Liberal Christians are a big block. 60% of churches in metro Seattle are “Welcoming and Affirming”, which means that LGBTQ people are welcomed and affirmed. There was interest if they could get more people in the pews but no interest if it might entail criticizing other Christians. I got burned out in my attempts to get them to take moral stands and be public. It’s a route that mega churches have used with success while leading people into behavior that contradicts the message of Jesus.
Wanting everyone to get along is not an attractive message. People seek purpose and meaning not “niceness”. At least not if they want a dynamic organization.
Another Scott
@frosty: Thanks.
While anecdotes are not data, we need to remember that our neighbors run elections in our precincts. Most of them have been doing it for years and take it very seriously. They know the correct numbers and can easily check the state’s reported numbers for their precincts. Multiply that by eleventy bazillion precincts.
But what about mail-in and absentee and the rest? Same thing. Witness the video cameras covering contested recounts.
Changing numbers enough to matter would be easily detected.
Cheers,
Scott.
Dan B
@Salty Sam: There are liberal Christians who would push back against conservative Christians. Their influence is diluted by a great many liberals who want to be nice. Most activist Christians get burnt out by the hypocrisy of being nice instead of actively seeking to heal the world and end injustice. The “nice christians” weigh down and /or limit the scope of efforts to achieve significant social change or justice. There is hope but it’s quite thin.
Dan B
@japa21: There are methods to get MSM and social media attention. I’ve found that talking about these is met with blank stares if not active disbelief. I got the head of the Department of Communication at the UW to do some workshops and talks. The liberal Christian groups seemed stuck in the “humans are rational” trap.
Maybe one day there will be a breakthrough.
cain
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Congratulations!!!!!@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Congratulations!! OMG! This is big!!!
Dan B
@cain: Most of what is missing are good stories. It’s essential to have a sixth sense for what is a story versus what 8s a belief, an opinion, or just facts. Most liberal Christian leaders have academic training which doesn’t reward good storytellers as highly as educated interpreters of scripture.
There was a push to get Seattle area churches to get LGBTQ kids into “Christian” therapy. I went to several of these and the media was all over me. They wanted to know why I’d show up at these psycho-religio-babble rodeos with a minister or two, and oppose, nicely, the scam. O ended up on TV and on a notorious right wing radio show. I stated my case and told some stories. One was a horror story and another about LGBTQ kids at an accepting church. They were simple stories but completely new and unexpected to the RWNJ.
Media attention is not that hard. But you have to abandon the idea that “facts” move the needle, at least not facts alone.
TheflipPsyd
Late to thread but I just read this on Diane Ravitch’s blog and wanted to share. As a parent who worries about how the past year is going to affect my kids, this is a great attitude and letter. Apologies if someone else has shared.
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
I am writing today about the children of this pandemic. After a lifetime of working among the young, I feel compelled to address the concerns that are being expressed by so many of my peers about the deficits the children will demonstrate when they finally return to school. My goodness, what a disconcerting thing to be concerned about in the face of a pandemic which is affecting millions of people around the country and the world. It speaks to one of my biggest fears for the children when they return. In our determination to “catch them up,” I fear that we will lose who they are and what they have learned during this unprecedented era. What on earth are we trying to catch them up on? The models no longer apply, the benchmarks are no longer valid, the trend analyses have been interrupted. We must not forget that those arbitrary measures were established by people, not ordained by God. We can make those invalid measures as obsolete as a crank up telephone! They simply do not apply.
When the children return to school, they will have returned with a new history that we will need to help them identify and make sense of. When the children return to school, we will need to listen to them. Let their stories be told. They have endured a year that has no parallel in modern times. There is no assessment that applies to who they are or what they have learned. Remember, their brains did not go into hibernation during this year. Their brains may not have been focused on traditional school material, but they did not stop either. Their brains may have been focused on where their next meal is coming from, or how to care for a younger sibling, or how to deal with missing grandma, or how it feels to have to surrender a beloved pet, or how to deal with death. Our job is to welcome them back and help them write that history.
I sincerely plead with my colleagues, to surrender the artificial constructs that measure achievement and greet the children where they are, not where we think they “should be.” Greet them with art supplies and writing materials, and music and dance and so many other avenues to help them express what has happened to them in their lives during this horrific year. Greet them with stories and books that will help them make sense of an upside-down world. They missed you. They did not miss the test prep. They did not miss the worksheets. They did not miss the reading groups. They did not miss the homework. They missed you.
Resist the pressure from whatever ‘powers that be’ who are in a hurry to “fix” kids and make up for the “lost” time. The time was not lost, it was invested in surviving an historic period of time in their lives—in our lives. The children do not need to be fixed. They are not broken. They need to be heard. They need be given as many tools as we can provide to nurture resilience and help them adjust to a post pandemic world.
Being a teacher is an essential connection between what is and what can be. Please, let what can be demonstrate that our children have so much to share about the world they live in and in helping them make sense of what, for all of us has been unimaginable. This will help them– and us– achieve a lot more than can be measured by any assessment tool ever devised. Peace to all who work with the children!”
Teresa Thayer Snyder, Ph.d
Another Scott
@TheflipPsyd: Thanks for sharing that. There’s a lot of truth in it.
Kids are resilient with support.
Cheers,
Scott.
planetjanet
@debbie: Thanks, I will check it out.
jonas
@Miss Bianca:
I’d never heard of him either, but damn. I needed a cigarette after reading that…
Benw
@trollhattan: yay! So happy for sportshattan girl. XC is a tough grind
scav
Scriptwriters are back at it. Are we at the right-wing unexpected lip-lock trifecta or beyond?
Al Jazeera to launch rightwing media platform targeting US conservatives