Like Linda Belcher from Bob’s Burgers says, “I’m so mad I could stomp!”
However, the good news is that this shit-show of a week had to come to an end some time, and that time is now. Happy Friday ya’ll.
The poor, beleaguered social media person at Tito’s Vodka has spent all day telling dummies that their vodka is not strong enough to be fashioned into home-made hand sanitizer.
Pour one out for that guy or gal, and yourself while you’re at it. It is Friday after all.
More virus news:
“The U.S. coronavirus death toll rose to 12 on Thursday as officials confirmed another death in Washington state. The outbreak has continued to disrupt the economy and strain resources, and Vice President Pence acknowledged that testing materials will not meet demand.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/05/coronavirus-live-updates/
I hate the Dow. Ok, hate is a strong word. How about I loathe the Dow and believe the S&P 500 is a better indicator of stock market performance. The S&P 500 includes 500 large-cap companies compared to the only 30 in the Dow. Sure the Dow gives you a big picture, but it’s overly influenced by Apple and Microsoft. But since everyone likes to bang on about the Dow and all the headlines are DOW DOW DOW, that’s what most people use as a gauge. [soapbox off] Irregardless (wink), the market continues to be, shall we say, volatile.
“Dow tanks more than 950 points as Wall Street’s roller-coaster week continues”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/us-markets-dow-futures-indicate-opening-drop.html
I’ve been mad about a lot this week, but the stupid, it hurts. I hope it all works out for her, as it seems to be so far.
“A black female-owned feminine hygiene company was bombarded with negative reviews and online abuse after it was featured in a Target commercial, but its founder says the experience has ‘turned out to be a really beautiful thing.'”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/business/target-commercial-race-reviews-trnd/index.html
I may have mentioned this in a previous DOT and multiple times on my Twitter and possibly in about 6 group texts but I am so here for this bop:
While the song mostly references Natalie Maines’ nasty divorce, it’s not hard to find parallels to our fascist gaslighting ‘president’ in the song and imagery. Either way, I’ve been singing it in the car quite a bit and so I offer my sincere apologies to those who had to witness or hear that.
Welcome back ladies. We (I) missed you!
They are glowing!! And I need that lipstick color, stat!
“Harry and Meghan in first official UK appearance since royal split”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/05/harry-and-meghan-in-first-official-uk-appearance-since-royal-split
“What is sprots?” Me, on Jeopardy!
(There was a time in my life where every year I would take the online test and try and get past the first round of gatekeepers for Jeopardy! I never could, but I do kick ass at pub trivia.)
Re: Corona virus. I’m not sure why the CDC/assorted U.S. officials are trying to downplay the threat. I mean, I’m sure Trump and co. are doing some behind the scenes shit to “protect the economy.” But, more broadly, why are the walking the line that “Well, actually, incidence of death is probably less than 1%!” when they don’t have the data to back that up? Math was my worst subject but if 100k people are identified with the virus and 3k have died then until the data says otherwise, that’s a 3% death rate. It’s even higher in the US if 100 people have been officially diagnosed and 10 have died.
I know they don’t want people to panic but many private companies are taking the virus extremely seriously whereas the CDC/Trump juche is failing miserably to address even basic preparedness among the population. Somehow, you should seek medical attention, but also not show up to any medical facilities. Somehow, reporting yourself as a public duty is going to cost you 3k if you can even find a place to be tested.
Re: The Markles. I’m always impressed by how clear it is that Harry loves Meghan. It just radiates from his eyes. She seems like a lovable person to me, so along with the racism, it’s infuriating that the British press decided that she’s actually some demanding harpy.
CBS Sunday Morning had a good explainer about it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-facts-about-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know/
I did understand that they think that, actually, a ton more people are infected so actually the death toll isn’t that bad. But right now there’s no hard estimate on how many people have those mild symptoms and get better. Trump is very much listening to that detail because his syphilis brain went on Hannity and said people are just getting better on their own (while still going to work!)
I know that the deaths are happening to people with certain concurrent conditions i.e old and already sick. But it’s not truly a comfort because I know old and sick people and I myself have some conditions that may preclude me from fighting it off.
To be clear, I’m not living in fear but this feeling reminds me of when a hurricane is hovering in the Atlantic and you just have to stand by and watch it wobble in your direction.
if i remember correctly the corona splainer i got from ze news and at work is that its not so much covid 19 being all that deadly that has the comps worried… its just that its a new strain so pretty much no one is immune..and with the advice being if you have symptoms stay at home just in case…
meaning if this shit gets out of hand they wont have staff left coz they are all stuck at home just in casing or stuck in quarantine after a not cancelled business trip… and thats bad for business..
im not trying to downplay the seriousness of cov-19 here…just saying it aint your health the companies are worried about
“The Markles” – they should totally change their last name to hers!
This pretty much sums up why Trump doesn’t want to make a big deal about it:
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/trump-has-a-selfish-reason-for-holding-back-coronavirus-testing-kits-ex-prosecutor/
My wife is a healthcare provider and she has been freaking out all week. She is convinced that it has been here way longer than we think. We now have a high school near us and an entire school district shut down with more on the horizon. They are cancelling meetings & afterschool activities all around us. She thinks it is just a matter of time until we close all our schools and they start banning travel. Happy Friday!
The energy coming out of businesses and people on the ground is so different than how the government is responding. That one CDC official said that there could be a large disruption to daily life and she was shut up real quick. The government doesn’t want us to be prepared for certain realities.
Even if all of this blows over in the summer and never, ever, comes back (ha…) then what is the harm of preparing people for a disaster like this? Beyond the many natural disasters the country faces on the regular, the government used to prepare people for nuclear war, no matter how ineffective their advice was against, you know, a nuclear bomb. So why not drill people on how to survive for a few weeks at a time? I don’t even think this is the realm of the over-prepared doomsday prepper types. It’s basic survival.
The CDC is actually taking down info on the virus now to keep people in the dark. One of the best sites now for actual info is this one from Johns Hopkins:
https://systems.jhu.edu/
and UW is going to all online classes for rest of semester:
https://q13fox.com/2020/03/06/university-of-washington-employee-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-classes-to-be-taught-remotely-starting-monday/
…guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Johns Hopkins are on the case (& that is a lot of tracking they seem to be doing) but that first bit about the CDC removing information that was previously accessible makes no damn sense at all
…what the actual fuck?
Yes, it is important to clarify that it is Trump, Pence and the GOP that is shutting down testing and information.
I hope the front line federal employees are documenting everything coming out of the political side, because as this gets worse we will see Trump and his people trying to make the career experts the fall guys.
Right now most of the press is falling for the strategy, with outlets like the NY Times refusing to cover the dysfunction at the top and shifting the focus to the unfortunate people trying to fight the spread with their hands tied.
Guys, GUYS! It’s Fur Face Friday.
https://groupthink.kinja.com/fur-face-friday-1842071907
…thank F-F-Friday for that
Yay!!
The NY Times has a hit piece on Sanders out today.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/new-york-times-finds-scandal-in-bernie-sanders-cooperation-with-ronald-reagans-soviet-peace-plan.html
You can almost see the fingerprints of rightwing oppo researchers on this, just as the NY Times swallowed BS fed to them on the Clinton Foundation, and were about to run with Giuliani’s Ukraine garbage until the whistleblower screwed up Ken Vogel’s dreams of a front page story.
Posted elsewhere but gonna post it again because fuck Mick:
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/06/trump-hires-mark-meadows-as-permanent-chief-of-staff-sends-mick-mulvaney-off-to-northern-ireland/?fbclid=IwAR1jriMRy9SC9UXVXCc6psNfycS11k8zg2c-1ePD8JvNWwnO0U4A3HM95KA
Mick is being shipped off to Ireland, and Mark Meadows is apparently going to be the real deal Chief of Staff. He’s also off the OMB director seat. I hope it stings!