It’s another tired day here in the CatBox. I’ve been very busy researching my medical way forward. I did order one thing from Amazon that should help with both Trump* and cancer: 100 barf bags. I just learned I get my port in next Monday and have my first infusion the following Monday. This is getting too real! WWWendy comes this evening to de-stink the TomCat and help with chores. I’m ready for a nap, and it’s only 8:30. Happy Hump Day!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:46 (average 5:33). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Jen Sorensen Cartoon:
Embedded with permission from Jen Sorensen.
Trump* Virus Update:
Cases: 188,881
Deaths: 4,066
Recovered: 7,251
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump should use this time when he is staying at home to repeat first grade, the nation’s teachers are urging.
Carol Foyler, the executive director of the National Alliance of Elementary Educators, said that the homebound Trump has a “golden opportunity” to use remote learning to repeat the first-grade curriculum.
“At a time when many of our nation’s children are being homeschooled, this seems like the perfect time for President Trump to learn the basics of reading, writing, and math,” she said. “By June, he could be reading ‘Hop on Pop’ and ‘Go, Dog, Go!’ ”
Sorry, Andy. I just can’t believe this one. All elementary educators are bright enough to be certain that criminal Fuhrer Trump* would flunk first grade. RESIST!!
From Alternet: Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s financial disclosures from late February and early March are simply fascinating. We already knew that Loeffler sold off a lot of stock in early February, while buying stock in a company positioned to do well during coronavirus shutdowns because it provides online meetings. But the hugely wealthy senator’s money moves didn’t stop there.
Loeffler sold off $18.7 million in shares of Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Loeffler’s husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the CEO of the company and she used to be an executive there. Loeffler and Sprecher also sold shares of retail stores including Lululemon and T.J. Maxx, while making another really interesting investment. This time, they bought shares of a company that makes protective gear being used in hospitals fighting COVID-19.
She did not even warn her own constituents, let alone the rest of us, that she knew the Trump* virus pandemic was about to strike. How many thousands did she and Republicans like her murder by choosing to line their own pockets, instead of doing their job? RESIST!!
From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): How to Prepare for the Trump Recession with Robert Reich
Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. The Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich, cares only for grabbing power and providing welfare for billionaires. All of Robert’s proposals are spot-on, but only as a start. I will not survive the Republican Recession. I hope and pray you do! RESIST!!
From YouTube: Canned Heat – On The Road Again [HQ]
Ah… the memories! RESIST!!
Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!
8 Responses to “Open Thread–4/1/2020”
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Cartoon: uh, yeah..!
Jen’s cartoon: Yes, unfortunately…that’s how it is.
TVU: And…meanwhile the ID does nothing but spew crap and sit on his throne in the Rose Garden during his rude and daily briefings. (sounds awful, doesn’t it? It is.)
NYer: So true, and so funny! Gotta start somewhere…The Dr. Seuss books are a great start. Before ya know it, he’ll be reading like a pro!
AN: Pretty deep hole there, boy, how low can one go?? Pretty dam low.
RR: Excellent, and well said, Mr. Reich! Helping in the community and to families, helps those in need. Passing on too.
BFTP: Love this song, the music/words rocks!
HI, Wendy. Hope that you get your chores done, and that you can relax. Yes…stuff is getting real, hope and daily prayers, .. that all goes well for you. Take good care, and Thanks, Tom.
This just in: At some places, doctors are wearing re-purposed RAIN ponchos as protection from deadly disease. “DT needs to be removed from office, he’s endangering the lives of those at the front line med staff.”~Joanne W.~
2. Speaker Pelosi says she hasn’t spoken with Trump since the SOTU February 4th. “I don’t know what I would learn in a conversation with the President.”
3. “An NPR station in Seattle said it no longer will carry live coverage of DT’s coronavirus briefings because of concerns that feature misleading or false information.” ~ Ellie S. ~
4. “Thoughts and prayers to Senator Rand Paul who has tested positive for Covid19, and is self-quarantining, while being paid 100% by taxpayers for his sick leave. AFTER voting against paid sick leave for every American taxpayer in the Coronavirus Relief Bill.” ~ Rick C. ~
5. Old TV M.A.S.H. program and Coronavirus – *pb
THIS is the Dr. Seuss book he ought to be reading.
M*A*S*H deserved an embed, I thought.
Thank you, Joanne for embedding.
Appreciate it!
The pleasure is all mine.
Our best to WWWendyWW. All the help she gives you helps all of us, all the time. It must be getting real indeed. Wish we could feel those emotions for you so you wouldn’t have to.
Cartoon – And Happy April Fools’ Day to you too!
Jen – Good grief, she’s good! Hard to tell which panel is scariest … but the second panel is the saddest.
Map – It won’t be long now for New York to pass 100,000 by itself … and isn’t New Jersey (I think that’s New Jersey) a little small to be coming i second? Or is it just that each entire state is contagious? So we are now behind Italy in hosital beds per capita … and way ahead in cases per capita. Good for South Korea. They must be doing something right.
TNY – Well, at least he is back to writing satire. Cut him some slack. It’s April Fools.
AlterNet – You do realize if everyone knows, insider trading isn’t any fun, right? Yes, murder indeed. That’s what death cults do. I did get a sardonic chuckle out of one aspect here, from the way Crooks and liars worded it: that Loeffler’s husband is the head of the NYSE, “because this season’s writers are too lazy and careless to come up with anything believable.” That’s slightly paraphrased, because it’s from memory.
RR – I wish I had any confidence that ANY of this will be done. Democrats will do their best, but Republicans will fight tooth and nail. To some degree, I think most CEOs can be reminded that, without customers, they won’t have a business to succeed with. But today, all that hate and fear from the cultists (whose belief that life is a zero-sum game has now hardened into obsidian) is reinforcing thair delusions from below. Depending on how long the Depression (because it will be a depression) lasts … I’m not sure I want to survive it.
Past – I do remember this. But hubby remembers it better. Endometriosis made me a very unwilling traveler for most of my life, and when it stopped inconveniencing me, disabilities took over the job.
Cartoon: Ah ha….wishing…hoping
Jen’s cartoon: Scary. Sad that it’s coming down to that.
TVU: We’re up to 849.
NY: Funny. I just can’t image tRump sitting down that long to read.
AN: Pure evil what she and the rest of the R’s did. Hope they get fined one way or another.
RR: Great one.
BFTP: Great song/group.
Hope you and Wendy had a nice visit and got your chores taken care of.
Pray that everything runs smoothly with your up coming medical appointments.
Remember we are all here to help make it easier for you.
Take care. Thanks TomCat
Getting ready for your chemo will indeed make it all very real, TomCat, more than mushing up your food and such did. Those were little, incremental steps in adapting to the new needs your body kept throwing at you; chemo and the urgency behind it is a large step, another slap in the face after your diagnosis. Which you have handled so admirably…I tip my hat to you, dear friend.
Cartoon: Republican hypocrisy.
Update: The number of cases and deaths increase so rapidly at the moment that they’ve increased significantly from the start of the article to you finishing it. Not every hospital bed available is one available for coronavirus victims; a certain number of beds need to be set aside, or worse, are already in use for ‘every-day healthcare’. If these beds are taken up by infected patients, non-infected patients are at risk of dying because they don’t get the necessary care. Then there will be secondary COVID-19 deaths, the numbers of which probably disappear in the system.
TNY: This stable genius in need of a first-grade repeater course? That doesn’t wash with me, Andy. Sadly this ‘saviour of the nation’ is incapable of learning any more. But if this argument is what it takes to have him isolated, then please use it.
Alternet: I have only two ‘words’ for such Republicans (or Democrats for that matter): 💩🤮
RR: What Robert proposes is only the bare minimum. Even our right-wing government has taken measures that would be called ‘socialist’ by their own base and certainly by Americans: a cash handout to most eligible Aussies, doubling the unemployment/welfare assistance, subsidising businesses for the next 6 months for employer salaries so they no longer fire those employers, but step them down for the time being (even take back those they already have let go in the previous weeks), and today making childcare free for all who are still working. The almost daily announcements of additional measures to the enormous care package so far are of course used by the government for increasing self-promotion, even though these actions taken are completely bipartisan, but for now: who cares?!
BFTP: Love this song. Thanks, TomCat.
Thanks and pooped hurry hugs to all!