We’re Halfway There…[DOT 22/7/20]

22/7/20 MegMegMcGee 29

…Halfway where? I’m not sure.

Giving Rip a a little break today and I’ll TRY not to “doom monger” all over the place, but it’s a challenge when dealing with [GESTURES WILDLY].

Let’s see what’s going on, shall we? Feel free to drop your own doom mongering below the line.

“AS WE GO ALONG”???? We’ve been going along with this for six months!

Trump says U.S. ‘in the process’ of crafting coronavirus strategy that has ‘developed as we go along’
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/21/coronavirus-trump-says-us-in-the-process-of-crafting-strategy.html

  1. we’re screwed, 2. we’re screwed, 3. we’re screwed.

As the pandemic surges, there are three scenarios of what happens next
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/21/toll-covid-19-worsens-us-has-three-options/?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-a-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

As one does…

Donald Trump on Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘I wish her well’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/21/donald-trump-ghislaine-maxwell-i-wish-her-well

Nooo, I love Odwalla

Coca-Cola (KO) is on an operation to take out some “zombies.”The beverage giant, fresh off announcing the shutdown of longtime juice smoothie brand Odwalla, is considering dumping other “zombie brands” — or those that aren’t growing — to help cut costs, Coke’s CEO James Quincey said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Tuesday.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/business/coke-zombie-brands-coronavirus/index.html

Home state represent!

Happy Birthday!

Is the 13 year old me?

Some Wednesday to get you through your Wednesday…

Have a great day!

avataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

29 Comments

  1. Regarding your item “As the pandemic surges, there are three scenarios of what happens next”: the whack-a-mole technique may work best in my state. Some caveats: 1.) we have a strong governor; 2.) there are wildly disparate population areas, with some counties having very, very, few cases of the virus and fewer residents than within a few block area in the largest city; 3.) few people travel to the non-populous areas, so lesser chance of transmission. We have watched political posturing locally, where we remained “red” because of high case rates while adjoining counties went to lighter-precaution yellow or green designations. (The local politicians defied state government and erred to side of money over health, btw.) And I hear my friends with school-age children struggle to make Solomonic decisions about fall school choices. Without Federal leadership for the good of the people (as opposed to the storm troopers they are sending to contentious areas), I fear that we will continue to slide into pandemic apocalypse.

    • I feel for all the parents out there who have to make so many hard decisions every day. What do you even do if you need to work and have to care for littles at home and try and home school. I’m overwhelmed and it’s just me and the mister. And the friends I usually help out by babysitting (yes, people leave me in charge of their small children!) I can’t even do anything for them and I know they are drowning! 

    • …the whole thing is entirely more precarious than anyone could want it to be but it seems clear that in an ideal world people with a knowledge of the local conditions could make calls based on actually addressing the situation they’re grappling with whilst as the authority became further removed support & analysis of the bigger picture could be provided

      …we know the president is too busy fucking shit up to do anybody any good but it’s stuff like this that consistently makes me want to weep?

      https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/texas-border-county-had-coronavirus-under-control-then-governor-stepped-n1232267

      • “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help. ”  Okay, this makes sense now. Reagan was describing REPUBLICAN government. 

      • “and one of the poorest county’s in the country, us”
        The one thing that–unrelated to the (terrible & sad) content of that story, was the fact that whoever edited that story allowed “county’s” to make it through, ABOVE the headline…😯😲😳
        “counties” is how it’s typically spelled up here, when we have more than one…
         
        Makes me curious, if the editor perhaps came from a place where they use a different word to describe the small, local, units of Government? (I.e. Parishes over in LA?)

  2. The Portland crackdown seems to have backfired, and now there is a blueprint for pushing back on any of the other cities where Trump wants to send his secret police.
     
    The plan in DC was to turn the military against the protests, and that backfired. All of this is rooted in his political weakness and represents  invisible hand style calculations that all kinds of people are making in whether they can defy him.
     
    I think the risk of a widespread crackdown is shrinking, but the risk I can see that is growing is he lashes out in frustration on a small scale with whatever goons he can muster with something a lot worse than tear gas.

    • Yes, I think the primary risk now is something like the Kent State Massacre, where a poorly coordinated and excessive response escalates into a serious and deadly conflict. If you keep sending armed squads out to confront protestors, someone will eventually pull a trigger. 

    • I heard some interesting information on the secret police they are using in Portland and coming to your town soon.  First, it is all tied to Roger Stone who was a big part of creating Nixon’s southern strategy.  Also, a blast from the past:
      https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/trump-law-and-order-politics-nixon-reagan.html
      Trump hopes to bring his private police force to cities with large black populations and start a race war.  Then he can back up his claim to be the Law & Order president and show all the white people that only he can protect them.  Where do you recruit these people?  Are they really Blackwater soldiers?  Are they just the most racist or violent federal employees that volunteered to be in this?  Why are they in Iraq war style camouflage?  This is an interesting read:

      Trump May Use DHS Stormtroopers To Stop People from Voting

      • But there is another deeply alarming possibility to consider. This November will be the first since the expiration of  a 1982 consent decree in which the Republican National Committee will be freed to conduct voter suppression and intimidation en masse.

        but if there is mail-in voting the intimidators can’t intimidate

        ergo, there shouldn’t be any mail-in voting

        if you vote by mail the terrorists win

  3. Here’s some cheery stuff.
     
    My brother-in-law got a Labrador puppy, and I told him from the jump that I could tell she was smart. When she first came home, she kept peeing and pooping on the floor; obvious no-no. So my brother-in-law bought a crate without a roof, essentially, to keep her in when she’s home alone. And while he was putting up, I said “that dog is going to jump out of it.”
     
    “Nah, she’s just a puppy.”
     
    Sure enough, everyone would leave for work, and when we come home, Lily is under the coffee table, or on the sofa, or has torn something to pieces.
     
    So then my brother-in-law bought…basically a child gate to keep her in the kitchen. We leave for work, we come home, and Lily is, again, just hanging out on the sofa, looking guilty in only a way dogs who know they’re doing something wrong but are going keep doing it because…”dog reasons”, I guess.
     
    My brother-in-law takes the cardboard from the bottom of a box, and zipties it to the end of the gate so she can’t crawl underneath it. Does that stop her? Nope! We come home, Lily’s still gotten out somehow. And this time we were completely stumped as to how she kept managing to escape. We started to learn the only time she really tried to escape the crate (it’s less a crate and more of a play pen made of metal) was when she needed to do her business, but still, my mother-in-law was ranting every single time she managed to get out and everyone is staggered trying to figure it out.
     
    So I’m at home last week. I come downstairs; Lily’s on the couch, and her crate is locked. So I pick her up, carry her back to the pen, and stick around just to see how she does it. She gets distracted playing with a chew toy, I finish up in the kitchen, then I decide I’ll take her for a walk and get some sunshine and get her some exercise and hopefully she’ll use the bathroom so she doesn’t feel like she has to escape.
     
    We go outside, we have a grand ol’ time, I trip while running backwards and having her chase me, I teach her how to sit; it’s a good walk. I come back in, lead her to her crate, lock the door, put some water in her feeding bowl, and I’m feeling like “okay, she’s had some fun, she’s done her business, now I can go play some games, I’ll check back in hour.”
     
    Sure enough, I come back downstairs an hour later…and Lily is out of her crate and under the coffee table. I see that she peed on the puppy pad. 
     
    So I’m like “Lily, go back to your bed!” And sheepishly, she does so, in a way that completely surprised me, amused me, and made me feel like a stupid idiot.
     
    You see, when we bought the child gate, my brother-in-law stuck it between the wall on the banister to the steps. So while we had been busy trying to outmanuever a 4-5 month old puppy, she had figured out that she’s small enough to escape through the rails in the motherfucking banister. 
     
    When I told her to go back to her bed, the child gate was still up, so she sheepishly slides back through the rails, walks to her crate…and then can’t figure out how to jump back into the crate she had clearly practiced at least a dozen times getting out of.
     
    My brother-in-law put a chair in front of the banister, but no dice. Now the child gate is up between the kitchen stove and the kitchen island, and there’s like an obstacle course of stuff blocking and barricading the other side of the island. And I’m just sitting here, waiting to find out how she (inevitably) gets out of this particular situation.

      • What triggered it was there’s an article over on Giz talking about how dogs are dumb and we just project certain qualities on them and I’m like “I have a 5 month old puppy who outsmarted five whole-ass human adults for the better part of a month and I beg to fucking differ.”

      • My guess is, KC’s pup-in-law, Lily probably is doing something VERY similar😉
        Lord only knows, MY Lily managed the same thing, up 4 1/2′ of chain-link fence, back when *she* was 4-5 months old (also a VERY smart Black Lab!)
         
        KC, you’re in for some REALLY fun times, if you can get her trained up properly, and keep her engaged enough to not be bored (which is obviously when the smart girls manage to get themselves into trouble!😉
        With regard to chewing, having plenty of fun things they can chew on is great, the little smartie will learn quickly which things are good, and which things she *shouldn’t* chomp on, if she gets some good consistency from you guys.
        Predictable & consistent, and plenty of busy/work (play!) time should get her out of troublemaking in no time!
        (Ok, in two years, really, because she’s a lab, and they can be total crazy-pantses until about that two YEAR mark…
        But after the helltime two years is up, I PROMISE you, they do mellow out!!!😉😆🤣💖)

      • I have repeatedly told my wife that she is not our dog and I don’t want to end up being responsible for her when it’s her brother’s dog, but goddamn it if she isn’t managing to worm her way into my heart.
         
        I’ve never been a dog person, but she’s changing my mind. Just…don’t tell my wife, please.

    • It’s not a bad article; far from it. It’s got empirical research and it makes some good points about how dogs actually relate to us as humans.
       
      But fuck me, if this dog can solve somewhat complex problems at 5 months old, she’d at least be a better President than Trump is at 74 by the time she turns one.

  5. welp lol..its been just about 3 weeks since easing rona measures and our cases are up..last week being double the week before was…they might wanna hurry up with that vaccine coz it seems we are pretty fucking dense here
    still avoiding my little part of the country so far tho….we’re antisocial bastards up here in the stoic north…not like those huggy kissy funhaving wankers down south :p
    anyhoo…i suspect we’re heading for mandatory masks outside and possible local lockdowns shortly

Leave a Reply