Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Allied troops begin their evacuation from Dunkirk, France; President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial ends with his acquittal; Actor John Wayne; Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie marry
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Nature never makes any blunders, when she makes a fool she means it.
I have visited Staten Island (great free Ferry ride) and most of my interactions have been very pleasant, the place has a fascinating History, and some really excellent Restaurants.
But there’s not a Hotel or a Motel on the Island that hasn’t seen a murder and Fresh Kills has it’s own special Chernobyl section where they piled up all the Radioactive Waste from the Medical Devices.
They also have Deer which people get all sentimental about because Bambi.
They’re really not much more than big disease ridden Rats.
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
The president, the Republican party and their Fox News cheerleaders care only for corporate profit
Most of Europe and all 50 US states are in various stages of “reopening”. But why, exactly?
The pandemic is still with us. After the first tentative steps to ease the lockdown in Germany – the most successful large European country in halting the spread of the virus, thanks to massive testing – the disease has shown signs of spreading faster.
At least Germany is opening slowly and carefully, as is the rest of the EU.
By contrast, the US – with the highest number of deaths and most haphazard response to Covid-19 of any advanced nation – is opening chaotically, each state on its own. Some are lifting restrictions overnight.
Researchers expect the reopenings to cause thousands of additional deaths. [..]
In truth, there is no good reason to reopen when the pandemic is still raging: not getting the economy moving again, or workers clamoring to return to work, or the cost of extended income support, or because workers should be “free” to endanger themselves.
Let’s be clear. The pressure to reopen the economy is coming from businesses that want to return to profitability, and from Trump, who wants to run for re-election in an economy that appears to be recovering.
When it comes to foreign policy, Pompeo’s penchant for undermining America’s credibility is top-notch
Donald Trump’s disdain for the people, country and values his office is supposed to represent is unmatched in recent memory. And he has found in the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, a kindred spirit who has embraced his role as Trumpism’s number one proselytizer to the world.
Pompeo doesn’t wield nearly as much power or have the jurisdiction to inflict damage on as wide a range of issues as the president. He’s not as crass or erratic as Trump, and his Twitter feed seems dedicated more to childish mockery than outright attacks. But when it comes to foreign policy, Pompeo’s penchant for undermining America’s credibility is top-notch. [..]
The fish, they say, rots from the head. And Pompeo, like his boss, is actively undermining the values embodied by the state department, its professionals and the Americans they represent.
At various times over the past three and a half years, many of us have asked what would happen if President Trump truly went over the edge or if his behavior became so frightening that his unfitness for the most powerful position on Earth could no longer be denied.
But the human capacity for denial is apparently almost infinite. [..]
The truth is that Trump is not much more despicable of a human being than he has always been; it’s just that standard Trumpian behavior becomes more horrifying when it occurs during an ongoing national crisis. It is reality that changed around him, and he was incapable of responding to it.
We all know this. In public, Republicans may say that the real villain in the pandemic is China, or that all those deaths — and the tens of thousands yet to come — were inevitable, or that it is essential to get the economy moving. But they know as well as the rest of us do what a catastrophic failure Trump has been.
They must own the moral choice they now make. In 2016, they said Trump would grow serious and sober once he was faced with the awesome responsibilities of the office. There was little reason at the time to think it would happen, but it was at least possible.
No one can say that now. Not only do we know who Trump is, we know who he will always be. And we know that reelecting him will be disastrous in a hundred ways.
Today I did something that I haven’t done in 20 years — I voted by mail.
I did not request the ballot. It was sent to me courtesy of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who decided after postponing the primary election because of the pandemic that every registered voter would receive a ballot in the mail. Filling in the ballot was quick and easy, the instructions were clear and I did it in my pajamas over a cup of coffee. When I finished, I sealed the postage-paid envelope and signed a statement saying I understood that if I violated the state elections law, I would face a $1,000 fine, two years in prison or both.
So, what is all the fuss? President Trump is making outrageous and unfounded claims of “tremendous” voter fraud with vote by mail, while some Republicans and the conservative media are parroting the same. Trump’s recent threats to withhold federal funding from Michigan in light of its secretary of state’s move to expand vote by mail comes as Texas Republicans make a hard charge in federal court to stop efforts there.
Here’s a fact for the president: More than one-quarter of voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2018 election, and that number is likely to increase in the novel coronavirus era. As evidence, the April primary in Wisconsin, in the midst of the pandemic, saw the voter turnout among the highest in 40 years, with more than 70 percent of votes coming from absentee ballots. Another fact: A recent survey by Pew Research Center found that 70 percent of Americans believe that anyone who wants to vote by mail should be allowed to do so.
The president’s anti-science cult represents the nadir of a long tradition of conspiracy-loving wingnuts from the fringes of American conservatism
What kind of buffoon brags about taking a drug that could kill him?
Among the many ailments Donald Trump has inflicted on his own country – not to mention the rest of the world – there may be something even worse than hydroxycholoroquine.
Yes, it’s bad that he claims to be taking an anti-malarial that his own Food and Drug Administration says is unsafe and ineffective to treat Covid-19.
Yes, it’s astonishing that Trump’s tools forced out of office an actual vaccine expert because he dared to question the president’s love of an unproven drug.
But it’s even worse that he is a one-man delivery vehicle for a dunce cult that denies science.
We’re not just talking about the presidential brainwaves that bounced around the world, hitting bodies with very powerful light or bleaching patients “by injection inside or almost a cleaning”.
Trump’s anti-science cult does not begin with quack remedies for a pandemic, and it does not even begin with him.
I tell you, Christians are a cult that worships death (more than Kali who is also a Fertility Goddess who battled at the side of Brahma and Vishnu though she is commonly associated with Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds). Pay attention. It’s all there will be Pie in the Sky, bye and bye, bye and bye, on Big Rock Candy Mountain. Pay no attention to your sucky life and your oppressors.
Act IV, Scene 4
To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?
To die, to sleep– no more– and by a sleep to say we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
To die, to sleep…
To sleep– perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause.
There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?
Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprise of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.
Soft you now, the fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.
Hell is worse than that because you are permanently separated from Yahweh. Oh, and that Lake of Eternal Fire thing.
So if you consider yourself among the Elect you don’t fear Death at all. It brings you closer to God.
This is why venomous snake handling is popular among certain variations of Pentecostalism. It proves your faith by denying fear of death.
Don’t tell me you haven’t seen this work itself out over the last month or two with the mostly manufactured clamor to reopen Churches. While most of the Pastors are motivated by the collection plate (because they’re shameless Elmer Gantrys) their idiot congregants actually believe this stuff.
To which I say “Darwin”. Unsurprisingly Churches in defiance of Social Distancing, Masks, and Gloves have become new Coronavirus Superspreaders.
Want to prove you’re tough? Get out there and catch a bullet or two for me.
Vacationers flocked to the Lake of the Ozarks over the holiday weekend, flouting social distancing guidelines as they packed into yacht clubs, outdoor bars and resort pools in the Missouri tourist hot spot.
Images of the revelry rippled across social media, showing people eating, drinking and swimming in close quarters. In one picture shared by the news station KSDK, dozens of people could be seen crammed on an outdoor patio underneath a sign reading, “Please practice social distancing.”
The scenes underscored how some have interpreted the loosening of coronavirus restrictions ahead of the Memorial Day holiday as an invitation to return to a pre-pandemic version of normal. Amid varied and sometimes conflicting orders from state and local officials, people across the country have been left to decide on their own how strictly to follow the rules.
The images elicited a barrage of criticism from people angered by the open disregard for the guidelines that public health experts have spent months promoting.
“I don’t even know what to say anymore,” Meghan McCain, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” tweeted.
Like most of the country, Missouri has allowed some businesses to reopen and rolled back pandemic-related bans on nonessential activities, even as researchers warn the virus is still spreading at epidemic rates in Missouri and 23 other states.
After Missouri’s stay-at-home order expired May 3, Gov. Mike Parson (R) said a range of businesses, including large venues, could resume service as long as seating was spaced out to enforce social distancing. State guidelines mirror those issued by the federal government, instructing people to stay six feet apart when they are outside their homes.
Many businesses around the Lake of the Ozarks closed in the spring when the pandemic hit. But as the state moved to reopen, they allowed guests to rebook reservations. Several hotels and resorts told local media last week that they were fully booked through the weekend.
In videos shared widely on social media, people could be seen lined up outside Backwater Jack’s, waiting to enter the already packed bar and grill.
“Corona-free,” one man in line shouted in as the camera panned to him.
The waterfront establishment hosted a pool party Saturday called “Zero Ducks Given” that featured DJs and live bands. A Facebook page described the event as a summer kickoff party and showed nearly 400 people had attended.
A representative from Backwater Jack’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. The event organizer said in a May 7 Facebook post the venue had “worked with and taken the advice of government officials and management teams and will be following social distancing guidelines,” adding, “extra precautions and safety measures will be taken.”
Missouri has reported more than 11,700 cases of the coronavirus and 676 deaths. A study by researchers at Imperial College London said it was one of 24 U.S. states that had yet to rein in the coronavirus and risked a second wave of infections.
Actually Clorinated Water is pretty disinfectant and it was mostly because of Ick Factor that we would go through a 45 minute to an hour test routine when kids would take a dump in it, but take a look at the people on the deck!
That does not excuse you from doing your Civic Duty to prevent killing others no matter how much you personally want to die.
Buy a Gun. Use a Knife. Find something poisonous to drink, like Clorox. Take a long dive off a short pier. Put your head under three times and pull it up twice. It’s the sudden stop you know, bridge abutments and sidewalks are your friends, just like they are for Sperm Whales and bowls of Petunias.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
“Star Wars” — the classic sci-fi movie written and directed by George Lucas — premieres; Former Enron execs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling are convicted of conspiracy and fraud; Comedian Jay Leno begins his run as host of N-B-C’s “The Tonight Show .
They’re running the Turn Left Bumper Car Flaming Chunks of Twisted Metal 600 today and good luck with that. No Infield, no spectators, social distancing in the Pit (they already wear masks and gloves for safety).
Up until last week or so they’d been running Video Game Races and they suspended one guy for real because he broke the Fourth Wall and started ramming people for fun (have I ever told you about Carmageddon?).
Anyway it’s not very satisfactory but nothing is unless you’re a fan of Borussia Dortmund but it put me in mind that this weekend is also Lime Rock (postponed until at least September) and Monte Carlo, a race I particularly hate because although it’s very important to the tradition of Formula One it is an archetypical display of excessive wealth and boring because unless people break down or drive into a wall nothing ever happens.
I’m disappointed Formula One has followed Turn Left Bumper Cars into espace but then, there is a market for Fortnight League Tournaments so what do I know?
How are things in the Land of Steady Habits (that’s right, we’ve been swindling you since Colonial times)?
Thank you for asking. Seriously.
My Oximeter came in and my base line is between 94 and 98% which is good enough for the most part given my underlying Anemia. I feel much more confident about my ability to get help if I need it now that I can tell the difference between Anxiety driven Hypochondria and actually being sick.
Though I understand the Headaches are life changing and hard to miss.
Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Wear a Mask and Gloves if only as a courtesy to others and STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY PERSONAL SPACE!
Actually I have personal space issues unrelated to the current conditions.
My Sister the Health Insurance worker dropped by for a visit. Second time she’s been out of her house since the Ides. She’s feeling ok too, very, very busy.
My Nephew still has a job which I find rather surprising since the Company where he works has been going out of business for two or three years now.
Richard and Emily have failed to kill each other yet and my Brother still has his job which is another surprise since he works for a Government sub-contractor and a lot of contracts have been canceled.
My personal observation is that no one is anxious to re-open. Crowds are sparse and many restaurants and other storefronts are still shuttered. Supermarkets? I’ve been to a few with mixed results, they still have spot shortages of odd items which is usually what I want. That’s why I was not at all surprised by this-
Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday that flexibility will be the key to the state’s deliberate, summer-long reopening process, and depending on how the coronavirus proceeds – along with Connecticut’s reaction to its unfolding freedoms – he may slow down or speed up future segments of the public recovery.
While Lamont admitted surprise – during a late-morning Hearst Connecticut Media webinar – at how small the response was to retail and restaurant openings on Wednesday, he said that consumers and corporations alike need to establish some confidence. “Slow and steady is fine with me,” Lamont said.
“I think that the people of Connecticut have been cautious,” the governor said, noting that a month ago, Georgia allowed many businesses to reopen, and customers there remain reluctant as well.
“It’s not like the governors are closing down the economy,” Lamont said. “The consumers have to feel a sense of confidence before they go back. That’s why, for example, maybe they’re going to walk by the restaurant once or twice and see if the waiters are wearing masks and gloves. I feel like the restaurants have done a very good job. I think they’ll slowly be getting back to those restaurants and stores, not overnight.”
David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, a Norwalk-based human resources outsourcing and consulting company, said that many fewer people have returned to offices and most continue to work remotely from home, as they have since mid-March.
Judith Roll, the owner of Tabouli Grill and Judy’s Bar & Kitchen in Stamford, said Wednesday’s outdoor dining-only reopening was quiet at her two restaurants.
“Look, COVID is changing everyday,” Lamont told the webinar audience. “It is fast-moving. I wish I could tell you exactly what the world is going to look like in August, so you could plan on it accordingly.” He said “hundreds and hundreds” of hair salon owners and workers told him they were unprepared to reopen this week, so he pushed back hair-care shops until June 1.
The governor said he’d keep an open mind on possibly allowing summer sleep-away camps to open in July, despite the current plan to let only day camps convene at the end of June.
“A key piece of that is testing,” Lamont said. “We can test everybody going into that camp, because then they’re in residence, in a tent and they’re all over each other. We’re going to cautiously be looking at that and give you guidance in a couple of weeks.” He said there’s still “a chance” they may be allowed to open this summer.
“A month is a lifetime in COVID years,” Lamont said during the webinar, hosted by Columnist Dan Haar. Lamont called the reopening guidelines provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “incredibly vague.”
Hurray for local investigative reporting.
I’ve met Ken Dixon, he’s a nice enough guy. When he started his beat was Town Meetings and High School Sports.
Samuel Morse opens America’s first telegraph line; Four men sentenced for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Britain’s Queen Victoria born; The Brooklyn Bridge opens; Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan born.
Researchers in the UK are conducting extensive trials to see whether trained sniffer dogs can detect the coronavirus in patients, even before they show any symptoms.
Previously, it’s been found that people with illnesses like malaria, cancer, and Parkinson’s give off a particular odor, which dogs are trained to detect. The research team behind the trial — starting in the next two weeks — is hoping the same will be true with COVID-19.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) are collaborating with Durham University and the charity Medical Detection Dogs to carry out the project. The team first announced their trial in late March, and have now received £500,000 ($610,000) worth of funding from the government.
…
Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
On Sunday mornings we present a preview of the guests on the morning talk shows so you can choose which ones to watch or some do something more worth your time on a Sunday morning.
This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guests on Sunday’s “This Week” are: White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx; former Trump Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Tom Bossert; and Brigham and Women’s Hospital Surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande.
The roundtable guests are: ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl; ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas and Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace.
Face the Nation: Host Margaret Brennan’s guests are: National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien; former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb; former Department of Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff; Boston Federal Reserve CEO and president Eric Rosengren; and Wynddam Hotels CEO Geoffrey Ballotti.
Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on this week’s “MTP” are: Dr. Dan Barouch, Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Dr. Peter Hotez, Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development; National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien; and Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH).
The panel guests are: O. Kay Henderson, News Director of Radio Iowa; Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security; and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent and MSNBC host.
State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: Whiite House senior adviser Kevin Hassett; Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ); Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL); and Rep. Val Demings (D-FL).
Here’s how “Plandemic” went from a niche conspiracy video to a mainstream phenomenon.
On the morning of May 5, less than 24 hours after Mr. Willis posted “Plandemic,” a Facebook group dedicated to QAnon, a right-wing conspiracy group, posted “Plandemic” to its nearly 25,000 members with the headline “Exclusive Content, Must Watch.”
Within days, more than 1,660 people had shared the video to their own Facebook pages after watching it on the QAnon page, according to CrowdTangle. The video went from being viewed directly on YouTube to people linking out to the video on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels, fueling its rise.
On the afternoon of May 5, Dr. Christiane Northrup, a women’s health physician, shared “Plandemic” with her nearly half a million Facebook followers. Dr. Northrup, who had developed a following from her appearances as a medical expert on “Oprah,” had previously expressed misgivings about vaccines.
Her status as a celebrity doctor made her endorsement of “Plandemic” powerful. After Dr. Northrup shared the video, more than 1,000 people also shared it, many of them to groups that oppose mandatory vaccinations, according to an analysis by The Times. She did not respond to a request for comment.
By the evening of May 5, “Plandemic” had popped up on a large-scale political page on Facebook.
The page was for Reopen Alabama, which has over 36,000 members and was part of the movement by Americans who wanted to lift shelter-in-place orders. Once the video appeared on that page, which was linked to dozens of other Reopen America groups, it quickly began spreading to the pages of those other groups in a kind of forceful multiplier effect.
The Facebook user who posted “Plandemic” to the Reopen Alabama page did not respond to a request for comment.
I’ll stop to point out Alabama had one of the shortest, loosest, and earliest shut down restrictions and their Coronavirus cases have skyrocketed. Most Cities’ ICU Beds and Ventilators are 100% deployed, there are no reserves. Sucks to get sick, you’ll probably die.
That same night, Nick Catone, a professional mixed martial arts fighter, also shared “Plandemic” on his Facebook page. Mr. Catone, 38, with nearly 70,000 followers on Facebook, has been an anti-vaccine activist since the death of his nearly 2-year-old son in 2017. Mr. Catone, who did not respond to a request for comment, has publicly blamed vaccines for his son’s death.
More than 2,000 people quickly liked Mr. Catone’s post about “Plandemic,” which he exhorted people to watch before it was taken down. His post was one of the first by a public figure who had no special medical expertise.
Two days after “Plandemic” went online, it came to the attention of Melissa Ackison, who lost in the Republican primary for Ohio’s 26th District Senate seat last month.
On May 6, Ms. Ackison, 41, an anti-Obamacare campaigner, posted the video and told her 20,000 followers on Facebook, “If you watch ANYTHING on my page, it needs to be this.”
Her post spread the video to a broader political audience, which then shared it among conservative groups and other Republican campaign pages.
“I knew when I shared that video that people would watch,” Ms. Ackison said. “People know me as a person who is skeptical of what the mainstream media narrative is telling them.”
BuzzFeed wrote an article on May 7 about “Plandemic” and its falsehoods, in one of the first signs that the mainstream news media had noticed the video. The article was shared on 63 Facebook pages, including the page of Occupy Democrats, a popular left-wing group, according to The Times’s analysis.
“‘Plandemic’ is a part of a larger narrative of conspiracy theories and disinformation reporters have been highlighting since the pandemic began,” Jane Lytvynenko, who reported on the video for BuzzFeed, said in an email. “Its popularity shows how vital it is to keep reporting on false and misleading information and take online events as seriously as offline ones.”
After BuzzFeed published its piece, the tenor of comments and shares around “Plandemic” shifted. More people began to fact-check and debunk the video.
That same day, YouTube and Facebook removed “Plandemic” for violating their misinformation policies. By then, the video was fully in the mainstream.
