…oof…I’ll level with y’all on account of you’re a decent bunch & it’s the weekend…I just scanned the rough batch of links to things that seemed worth reading at the time that seem to have accumulated since last I typed DOT at the top of a page &…well…it’s the weekend damn it & that stuff reads like the voice of doom
…I mean…seriously
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nebraska-meat-plant-workers-are-afraid-go-work-can-t-n1181361
…so, with no disrespect intended to those for whom faith in such statements is a matter of genuine conviction…at a time of year when the general tone as a good deal to do with one man giving his life to atone for the sins of all others the spectacle of one man’s sins taking the lives of so many people that in New York the public cemeteries are having to dig what some future archaeologist is most likely going to call “plague pits” is something I’m having a hard time not shooting my mouth off about one way or another
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/coronavirus-trump-dhs-undocumented-workers-essential.html
…stands to reason that would tend to rile a person up, I would have thought…in fact, I’d have thought probably somewhere upwards of six & a half million persons, as it happens
…but this is, of course, the one & only (please&thankyou) alleged administration we’re talking about here…so naturally it’s so much worse than it looks if you make it past the layer of scum on the surface into the murky & fetid swamp waters beneath
…right…because the fucking asshat’s asshat in the big boy seat seems to think “no-brainer” means “remove all functional connections to an actual human mind prior to making your decision”…I mean what do those mean intelligence officials with all their russia hoaxes that never seem to tell him anything he wants to hear even know, anyway
…forewarned is forearmed…or it is if your frame of reference allows for such things, I guess…rather than being limited to, say, getting away with a bunch of shit you know full well you ought to have been put away for a great many moons ago
…see what I mean…none of that sounds like weekend material to me…but apparently this is what passes for good news these days
…what’s that saying?
…it’s on the tip of my tongue
https://www.thedailybeast.com/baby-qanon-was-just-arrested
…oh, yeah…couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy…that’s the one…assuming by “guy” you mean “good-for-nothing misbegotten excuse for a human being we’d all be better off without”
…yeah…like the kind of grandstanding malcontented travesty that you’d need to be to try to dress up denying a quarter of a billion dollars in relief funding as being the fault of the people who won’t pass your bill without it as them standing in the way of funding because you’re cynical enough to think enough people will buy it that it buys you votes from the very people you’re fucking over…surely the very definition of a good-for-nothing misbegotten excuse for a human being we’d all be better off without
…but you know what…we ain’t built for this shit
…& with all due respect…even under leadership considerably more benign than any of those concerned have shown themselves to be this shit does not make me feel better about a damn thing
…I’ve heard accounts from people in China who are happy to be all squared away in a system that generates their own personal covid-QR code so they can swipe their way out of their residence & in & out of businesses & return to non-lockdown life but knowing even as little as I do about the things the chinese state considers acceptable regarding its relationship with its citizens I don’t honestly think I trust apple, google, facebook or any tech behemoth all that much further than I trust the chinese state with that kind of technical capability…& what the GOP would do with that shit doesn’t bear thinking about…or rather it really fucking does…well in excess of the amount of thought the motley collection of stooges & assorted fuckwits putatively in charge of the US at present are in any danger of actually giving it
…so…well…to tell you the truth I’m feeling a little ashamed of myself that I couldn’t find something a little more in keepingwith the whole easter theme…I dunno…maybe an act of genuine charity that did some actual good where it could use being done
…& that made me remember that someone once told me you really need to be high to watch those movies of his…& that made me think it’d sure be nice in these house-bound days & nights if we all lived in the kind of state that listed the weed shops under essential businesses…because all the days are blurring together but from March clear through to May this year according to god’s own calendar it is literally 4/20-24/7 people…it may actually be a sin to not be high right now
…there’s a time & a place for everything
…college…or quarantine…at least as far as the weed thing goes…I mean…if not now, then when…looking at you, place-I-live-that-hasn’t-seen-that-light-just-yet…anytime now…seriously…look what happens when I’m not stoned at this time of day…it’d be a public service, really…when you think about it
meanwhile over here we are burning down telephone masts coz 5g causes the rona yo!
im beginning to think im too smart for this world….and i dropped out at 15
I worked with a lot of so-called educated folks (engineers) who are complete idiots in almost any field outside of work (and sometimes at work.) Especially as they don’t read much outside of technical stuff (and barely.)
Many professions have the same issues. Folks who should know better and don’t.
BTW, the microwave bands 5G uses are common communication frequency bands and some military freq bands. These have been used for over 60 years.
yeah… education does not equal intelligence… wich makes it doubly frustrating that so many jobs are closed to me coz i dont have the required sheet of paper…
apparently experience and know how dont mean shit without a sheet of paper…
(sorry if double post…i did something wierd and made me reply dissapear)
…yeah…there’s some update that didn’t like another update & various plugins are squabbling about what gets shunted into limbo but we generally manage to shake them loose when they go missing
…I took the liberty of disposing of the double post thing, though
a thank you very much
I’ve got your back. Here’s a blurb about a group called RVs for MDs which is connecting people with RVs to front line healthcare workers so they don’t have to risk spreading anything to their families when they get home.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/04/01/us/coronavirus-rvs-4-mds-healthcare-isolate-trnd/index.html
Unless the local Nazi chapter, er, Home Owners Association gets all Nazi and demands they get moved because it destroys the ascetic of the condo park.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/04/02/hoa-responds-to-clay-county-nurses-quarantine-rv-debate/
This is why I’m glad I no longer live in a subdivision.
also… in unrelated news… this is a protest song
wierdest goddamn protest song i ever did hear….dutch people are wierd…
i miss sinatra….lol
i mean…. im kinda used to protest songs sounding like this
(dont mind me….im seriously manic today)
or possibly like this…. coz fuck the london underground…
…could be misremembering but I think the two guys who wrote this might have been either med-students or junior doctors at the time & there were tube strikes happening…I think?
…still makes me giggle, though…cheers
Quarantine and all, I took four of the videos from this page and turned them into a different beat….with a dumb video to go with it (just stolen internet pics_) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZFo__OFBzc
there
(fwiw… over here you need to enter and give the youtube link its own line or it wont work)
Thank you
Ugggggh. At first I thought your meat-packing plant story was the one I caught wind of yesterday on my drive to work (on MPR/NPR)…
Annnnnd then I realized YOUR story was about a *Nebraska* processing plant.
Smithfield has a plant down is South Dakota–the next state north from NE.😕
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/smithfield-temporarily-shuts-pork-plant-due-to-coronavirus/89-5ccd6b2e-c540-4b15-8f5f-eeeac453c0cf
This stuff, combined with what’s been happening with the segment of farmers whose products have been going to the foodservice side of the market,** AND the fact that because of Dolt45’s incompetent trade policies have already bankrupted thousands of farmers & run them out of business….
Worry me immensely.
It’s NOT a concern in the short run! And there really ISN’T cause to panic & hoard things. But Trump’s incompetence is setting up the US for even *more,* long term and structural, food insecurity.
Because meat-processing plants are just *one* link in an entire chain of things, where we already have some REALLY weak links.
Most farmers have seen the prices they’re paid for product crater lately (soybeans & corn are money-losing crops). Egg farmers are one of the few seeing rising prices, but Dairy farmers are literally having to dump milk over in WI (And elsewhere!), because the facilities online of the farms are too full to accept more milk.
A legit concern, with the closing of these pork plants, will be that farmers can’t send the hogs they have growing right now, because they’ll get too big (like how potatoes need to fall into certain size ranges–depending on what they’ll become, i.e. “chippers” are different sized than potatoesfor fries, which are differentagain from the potatoes that go for hashbrowns or dehydrating? Certain processing plants only want animals between a specific range of sizes, because that’s what their equipment is set up to run for–think of it like how an auto factory produces either cars, trucks, or SUV’s, but they *don’t* run a car, then a truck, then two cars, then an SUV, then two trucks, then another car down the same production line, because you run *all ONE thing* down that single line)
This means that with some of these plants going down *right now* due to the ‘Rona, and knowing we’ll have others cycling in & out, just like the dairy farmers who are having to dump due to full splines right now, there will be hog farmers whose hogs will grow out of their processing window… costing the farmers on labor and feed, and running at least a few of them out of business.
Now, I KNOW that bigAg is terrible. And there are MANY arguments to be made, about less CAFO’s not being a bad thing. That’s *not* what I’m concerned about at this moment (although it IS a great discussion to have sometime!).
What I AM concerned about–as someone who grew up in farm country, and who has seen the effects of the 1980’s farm crisis intimately, is what happens starting in a few months, when farmers have had to fold, sell off herds, and get out of the business.
And “suddenly,” the producers have less animals available to process, meaning they need to pay more for animals, and *they* pass that cost on to the grocery stores, who–in turn–have to pass the price on to consumers.
MANY customers are going to be hurting financially from lost jobs & revenue streams–we’re in *at least* a recession…
It’s going to exacerbate food insecurity, which–as we can see from the stories on food banks–are already on a thin edge.
These plant shutdowns are canaries, warning us about some really BIG problems which are… now becoming increasingly likely to occur, because of sustained incompetence at the National level.
And that’s extremely worrisome, in a way in which *most* folks don’t see coming AT ALL right now.
I’m NOT saying to stock up unnecessarily. And I’m DEFINITELY not saying to hoard anything!! But we ought to be looking at ways to strengthen our supply chains, or to try to team up with local farmers, to get them supplying *locally* again.
FWIW, if you’re willing to wait/be lenient on when you get meat, you can OFTEN get a “downer” animal inexpensively–i.e. one who breaks a leg an needs to be euthanized because it can’t ship to the plant. There is nothing wrong with it as a food source, it just can’t go to the regular processing plant (think of it as the most version of “ugly” produce & fruit). So the farmers will typically have a list of folks they call up, and say, “We’ve got ___ many hogs, do you want one(/a half/a quarter)?” And then the animal will be put down taken to the local butcher’s shop.
Most folks don’t realize you can get meat that way–although you *do* need to have the privilege of freezer space.
We’re setting up for a possible ongoing crisis guys, I’m worried that, in our constant chaos thanks to DonnyDumbass and his constant need for “ratings” and eyeballs, folks are going to be even MORE unnecessarily harmed.
**great article here, on how the distribution networks work: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5x7w3/why-grocery-store-shelves-look-bare-even-though-theres-no-food-shortage
…think you make some excellent points there…some of them I’d given a bit of thought to even before I ran across that story but I don’t have anything like that depth of familiarity with the way it looks from the farmers’ end
…in an ideal world there’d be provision made to backfill & resurrect otherwise functionally self-sustaining business but as you suggest some of those will have created voids here & there where a cycle’s worth of output simply isn’t in the system until it can pick back up & while I agree that it isn’t grounds for flipping over into survivalist-prepper territory I suspect it’s going to be hard to predict where the effects of that effect will show at scale
I was hoing to post a comment, but then I got high!
🙂
going…