Phew! [DOT 16/10/20]

16/10/20 MegMegMcGee 19

Another week down; you made it you guys. Great job.

I did not watch this. If you are some sort of masochist and did, please fill us in on what happened, feel free…

Biden, Trump field questions on coronavirus, Supreme Court in dueling town halls
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/15/trump-biden-live-updates/

As if I needed an excuse not to go to spin class…

How were so many infected? Everything you need to know about Hamilton’s SpinCo outbreak
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2020/10/15/how-were-so-many-infected-everything-you-need-to-know-about-hamiltons-spinco-outbreak.html

[fart noise]

Stonks!

Stock futures rise slightly after market suffers 3 straight days of losses
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/15/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html

Sprots!

College football’s next steps after Nick Saban coronavirus diagnosis and high-profile postponements
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30121257/college-football-next-steps-nick-saban-coronavirus-diagnosis-high-profile-postponements

Demi Lovato has made the most damning protest song of the Trump era
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/15/demi-lovato-has-made-the-most-damning-protest-song-of-the-trump-era-commander-in-chief

Neat!

Jewish family’s painting looted by Nazis in 1933 is returned
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/jewish-familys-painting-looted-by-nazis-in-1933-is-returned-family-nazis-family-ap-residents-b1055091.html

Co-moo-nicate! [I see what they did there!]

Cows prefer to co-moo-nicate in person, research suggests
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/world/cows-cattle-communication-scn/index.html

The 80s were wild!

Have a great Friday everyone!

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19 Comments

  2. …I didn’t watch the town hall(s) but from what I gather the lady tasked with hosting the trump one was entirely less of a walkover than the last couple of moderators turned out to be?

    …telling him “You’re the president! You’re not, like, someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.” seems to have caught on to the point of “crazy uncle” being all over this morning’s stories

    …he still got to push a lot of bullshit & generally lie a bunch as far as I can make out but with Biden elsewhere & someone unwilling to roll over & give him a pass he seems to have forgotten to take many swipes against his opponent…while Joe seemed to remember just fine to (very civilly) put the boot in from time to time?

  3. There’s a really fascinating book called The Rape of Europa that chronicles the pillaging of Europe by the Nazis. It goes chronologically, so it starts with Germany, then Austria, then Czechoslovakia, then Poland, then France, etc. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, no one was spared. I have it somewhere in my exceptionally chaotic “library” but I remember very well two figures. One was an assistant at the Louvre who could speak German but she played dumb. When Göring, who was in a sense one of the greatest art collectors the world has ever known, albeit briefly, and his henchmen would tour the galleries she accompanied them and reported back. Stuff would mysteriously disappear before it could be shipped back to the Reich. The other was this incredibly sleazy Dutch art dealer who worked hand-in-hand with the regime to give them first dibs on stuff that came his way, mostly looted from Jews. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the Mosse stuff actually went through him, despite the fact that the Mosses lived in Berlin. 
     
    On a lighter note, the 1980s were a fabulous time for interior design. While some went the vulgar Trump way and coated everything in cheap gold leaf, it gave rise to the Memphis Group. Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was not far off from what a Memphis Group interior would look like. Fun, bright colors, bubbly, so different from the austere faux-mid-century modernism of Design Within Reach in the early part of this century. I say this because I am living in faux-mid-century modernist hell but the stuff we bought was expensive and built to last, so I’ll probably be living with it for the rest of my life!

    • I also read that book and I hate to do the Dril tweet — under no circumstances do you “have to hand it to them” — but Goring’s collection reshaped the art world more than any other collector in modern history, so … yeah, kind of a big deal. (Now I need a shower to cleanse myself.)

      And the 80s are such a great, insane decade. I dunno if it was the coke or what, but so much was going on everywhere.

      • The strange thing about Göring (maybe not so strange, I guess) was that he was a distinguished WWI fighter pilot and early member of the Nazi Party. Hitler loved him in his own weird Hitler way and for many years he was the second-in-command. But where his love and appreciation for art came from is anyone’s guess. It might have been to amass tangible assets in case the Third Reich somehow prevailed in one way or another, like a negotiated peace, but the Third Reich would be a pariah state and the Reichsmark would be deemed worthless, as the Weimar Marks were in the 1920s.
         
        But he had a very discerning eye. When modern, “degenerate”  art was being destroyed by the truckloads he often stepped in and basically said, “Wait, not so fast. I have to give this personal inspection.” And he’d take it and squirrel it away. 
         
        He was rightfully sentenced to hang at Nuremberg when the war was over but he took cyanide instead. 

  4. So, now that I have had something of a primer on the Twitter freakout from the other day, guess who has suddenly decided that the FCC does in fact have jurisdiction over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act?  Everyone’s favorite corporate shill, Ajit Pai.  Remember when he justified rolling back net neutrality because he said the FCC didn’t have jurisdiction?  Well, to the shock of literally nobody, it turns out that Republicans have zero principles, which is why they are so shamelessly able to flip flop on their own bullshit decisions any time they like without consequence.

    • One more big reason why the Dems need to win the Senate on top of beating Trump is it gives them a fast track to overturning regulations the GOP may have pushed through in the past year.
       
      In 2017 the GOP used the Congressional Review Act to spike a bunch of Obama regulations including online privacy, financial regulations and environmental rules. There is no filibuster allowed in the Senate.
       
      This was major way where the supposed GOP resistors to Trump showed they were just lapdogs. Collins, Flake, Sasse, McCain and the rest could have blocked passage of these wishlist measures in exchange for all kinds of concessions in ethics oversight. Instead, they threw away their leverage and still got dumped on over the next four years anyways.

    • All these “cows like REAL people, not just voices!” And “Cows LIKE to be petted/massaged!” stories are HILARIOUS, when one grew up in dairy country!😉😆😂🤣
       
      Because when you grow up around folks who raise dairy cattle (Holsteins & Guernsey’s, if anyone cares what our local cow herd makeups were😉), you OF COURSE end up out in the barns at SOME point, on a visit to their house–because you HAVE to see the kittens–or in the spring, all the cute new calves!!😍🥰😁, and OHMIGAWD, do you learn that COWS LOOOOOOVE SCRITCHES & cuddles!
       
      Their tongues are also INCREDIBLY gross, and getting licked by a cow–especially a full-sized momma is potentially a disgusting slime-fest!(😳🤢🥴), but cows and calves LOVE being loved-up on!😉

  6. I heard a story once that in the 1960’s Frigidaire paid Pablo Picasso $100,000 for consult on refrigerator design. He supposedly cashed the check and replied, “White and rectangular would be nice.” I don’t know if it’s true but I like to think so.

    Took Fanny for her usual morning walk and noticed something about the political sign. Biden is printed only slightly larger than Harris on their signs. The trump signs don’t mention Pence at all! It’s Just Trump 2020, Keep America Great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before after the primaries. 

  8. Cows prefer to co-moo-nicate in person, research suggests

     
    But the badgers prefer e-mail.
     

    Hamilton’s SpinCo outbreak

     
    I have not gone to the gym since March. I had paid the entire year up-front in late December 2019. And yet, I do not feel compelled to go work out in a room – large though it is – where a bunch of strangers have been exhaling a great deal in order to get their money’s worth. The gym can keep my money – hopefully it helps them stay afloat until things return to normal.

    • Same reasoning for me.
      I paid for my membership this year in full 2 days before everything got shut down in March.
      I haven’t stepped in not once because I live in the Greater Toronto Area’s CoVID hotspot and there are a lot of dumbass gym-bros where I go to work out.  They said I could come by and work out, but I didn’t because I don’t need/want CoVID.

  10. Just leaving this, for the OBVIOUS reasons😉

    Eta, mostly because your “Phew!” Headline got the song IMMEDIATELY stuck in my head, so i’ma make you deal with that song being in YOURS now,too!😉😆🤣💖

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