1/ The war on science continues....
Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Earlier this month, the White House became aware of studies showing the coronavirus, if unchecked, could kill 2 million Americans, and Trump suddenly reversed his public stance. After having minimized the dangers of the virus, he began promoting social distancing and presenting himself as a “wartime president” who would defeat the “invisible enemy.” This political strategy required rewriting the history of the very recent past, casting Trump as the sage guardian of the nation’s health who had seen the pandemic coming and kept the country safe.
2/ Tom Tomorrow nails it again....
3/ Absolutely fascinating interview with a Historian who compares our present society to the Middle Ages and the Roman Empire. It's well worth reading, and you will be surprised how similar the issues are with so-called ancient history.
Nice to read intelligent stories....
I was 35 minutes into my conversation with Patrick Wyman when he scared the shit out of me.
I’d called Wyman — a European historian focused on the end of the Roman Empire and the world it left behind — to discuss his piece in Mother Jones on how societies hold together or fall apart. But like every conversation seems to these days, the conversation quickly turned to plagues and pandemics. Wyman brought up the mid-1330s Bubonic Plague that basically cut Europe’s population in half. Here’s what, in Wyman’s telling, Europe looked like on the eve of the “Black Death.”
4/ Umair with another essay, but even if you think he is dead wrong read this one. Keep in mind when you read it Trump's desire to get everyone back to work in spite of the consequences, and the two trillion bailout which does the bare minimum for workers, but gives hundreds of billions to corporations....
Argue his premise? You as an individual are worthless in a pure capitalist society? Good luck with that...and also see how this relates to #3 about the Middle Ages....
Americans are waking up to the fact, today, that their President wants to “reopen the economy,” which, of course, means millions of people having to back to work…risking their lives…being infected by a global pandemic…infecting their loved ones. What the?
Forgive me. I’m going to be blunt, maybe even a little harsh. But then I’ll be gentle, and we’ll talk about all this like adults, and maybe you’ll gain something from reading about why American can’t seem to deal with a pandemic well (but you can be the judge of that.)
5/ The Daily Show with a supercut of Fox hosts talking about......Biden? Two minutes....
6/ George Monblot in the Guardian with the theory that Covid-19 is the first disaster that is hitting the world hard, and there are definitely more coming.....
We have been living in a bubble, a bubble of false comfort and denial. In the rich nations, we have begun to believe we have transcended the material world. The wealth we’ve accumulated – often at the expense of others – has shielded us from reality. Living behind screens, passing between capsules – our houses, cars, offices and shopping malls – we persuaded ourselves that contingency had retreated, that we had reached the point all civilisations seek: insulation from natural hazards.
Now the membrane has ruptured, and we find ourselves naked and outraged, as the biology we appeared to have banished storms through our lives.
7/ Thomas Friedman with a challenging idea, but impossible to implement properly with the idiots at the helm.....but interesting thinking.
These are days that test every leader — local, state and national. They are each being asked to make huge life and death decisions, while driving through a fog, with imperfect information, and everyone in the back seat shouting at them. My heart goes out to them all. I know they mean well. But as so many of our businesses shut down and millions begin to be laid off, some experts are beginning to ask: “Wait a minute! What the hell are we doing to ourselves? To our economy? To our next generation? Is this cure — even for a short while — worse than the disease?’’
8/ Have a look at this 2 minute video - funny and dead on accurate - Trump on Easter! And Jesus.....
Even better - start the video and shut your eyes.....you'll swear it's him.....
9/ Kids are starting to get it - they have a very uncertain future.....
PLANO, Texas — A month ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend, talking about how crazy it was to want to be a writer. At that point, the coronavirus had yet to factor into our summer plans or pop up in the predictive text on our smartphones. That day, our biggest concern was whether my friend should settle for a summer internship in a financially stable industry or take a chance on journalism.
Now, like much of the world, my friend and I are in self-isolation. I called her on FaceTime from my childhood room in Texas last week. We worried about our diabetic parents getting infected; I asked her if she took the internship.
She was leaning toward it. “I’m not naïve enough to believe that I can pull myself through a post-recession world with a dream,” she told me.
10/ I absolutely hope Ezra Klein is wrong....or only partially right...
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As the Covid-19 pandemic worsens, it’s hard to decide which are scarier: the conversations I’m having with epidemiologists or the conversations I’m having with economists.
“This is an economic tsunami,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told me. Social distancing is economic distancing. We are telling people to cease going to stores, to restaurants, to workplaces. We are insisting they stop supplying their labor, making their goods. To slow a pandemic, we are forcing a recession, perhaps a depression.
11/ James Kwak with a damn good question...
COVID-19: Who Bears the Losses?By James Kwak
Our business and household sectors are losing lots of money every day, and will continue to lose money for the foreseeable future. People no longer spend money at restaurants. Restaurant owners can no longer pay the rent or pay back their business loans. Restaurants fire their workers, who lose their paychecks and can no longer pay their rent, or their credit card bills, or their student debt. In an economic crisis like this, the overriding question is: who ultimately bears the losses?
Photo by skeeze from Pixabay
We’ve been through this before. In the 2008 financial crisis, we applied the usual rules of capitalism—unless you were a large bank. Businesses failed and their owners (including shareholders, for corporations) were wiped out. Renters were evicted. Homeowners lost their houses. Investment funds that had bought mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations lost their money. Workers lost their pensions. Small banks were shut down by the FDIC. Big banks, however, got unlimited cheap credit from the Federal Reserve to stay afloat, thanks the the people we all know.
12/ Interesting story about how out of control Fox News has become with Lachlan Murdoch running it....
The chief executive of Fox News, Suzanne Scott, reacted swiftly to the threat of the coronavirus in late February: She ordered the bright, open new offices disinfected, installed hand sanitizer stations around the office and boldly canceled the company’s major ad sales event.
But her influence doesn’t extend to the most important part of Fox News: its programming in prime time.
There, for two crucial weeks in late February and early March, powerful Fox hosts talked about the “real” story of the coronavirus: It was a Democratic- and media-led plot against President Donald J. Trump
13/ Relaxing and surreal music....great video too....
14/ I'm just guessing you might need this list right now.....
Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Photo: Columbia Pictures/Getty Images
This post is updated regularly to reflect the latest movies to leave and enter Netflix. *New additions are indicated by an asterisk.
With thousands of movies to choose from, and a navigation system and algorithm that don’t always make the right choice easy to find, it can be difficult to know what to watch on Netflix. That’s why we’re here, breaking down the 100 best movies on the service at this minute, with regular updates for titles that have been removed and when new ones are added.
Todays video - the famous waitress tipping scene from "Reservoir Dogs", the Quentin Tarantino film.......two tense minutes, with a lot of truths.....
Todays religious joke
RESURRECTION?
While the priest was presenting a children's sermon, he asked the
While the priest was presenting a children's sermon, he asked the
children if they knew what the Resurrection was.
Now, asking questions during children's sermons is crucial, but at the same time,
Now, asking questions during children's sermons is crucial, but at the same time,
asking children questions in front of a congregation can also be very dangerous.
In response to the question, Little Bob Smith raised his hand.
The priest called on Little Bob and the boy said, "I know that if you have a
resurrection that lasts more than four hours you are supposed to call the doctor."
It took ten minutes for the congregation to settle down enough for the service to continue
Another religious joke
HELL EXPLAINED - BY A CHEMISTRY STUDENT
The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona chemistry mid term, and an actual answer turned in by a student.
The answer was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct..... ...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.
Todays joke for the ladies
Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed to find a wife with whom to share his fortune.
One evening, at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.
One evening, at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.
"I may look like just an ordinary guy," he said to her, "But in just a few years my father will die and I will inherit £200 million".
Impressed, the woman asked for his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.
Women are so much better at financial planning than men.
Impressed, the woman asked for his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.
Women are so much better at financial planning than men.
Todays classic Jewish jokes
A car hit an elderly Jewish man.
The Paramedic says, "Are you comfortable? "
The man says, "I make a good living."
I just got back from a pleasure trip. I took my mother-in-law to the airport.
I've been in love with the same woman for 49 years. If my wife finds out, she'll kill me!
Someone stole all my credit cards, but I won't be reporting it. The thief spends less than my wife did.
We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
My wife and I went to a hotel where we got a waterbed. My wife calls it the Dead Sea .
My wife and I revisited the hotel where we spent our wedding night.
This time I was the one who stayed in the bathroom and cried.
This time I was the one who stayed in the bathroom and cried.
My Wife was at the beauty shop for two hours. That was only for the estimate.
The Doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn't pay his bill, so the Doctor gave him another six months.
The Doctor called Mrs. Cohen saying, "Mrs. Cohen, your cheque came back."
Mrs. Cohen replied, "So did my Arthritis!"
Mrs. Cohen replied, "So did my Arthritis!"
Doctor: "You'll live to be 60!"
Patient: "I AM 60!"
Patient: "I AM 60!"
Doctor: "See! What did I tell you?"
A Doctor held a stethoscope up to a man's chest. The manasks, "Doc, how do I stand? "
The Doctor says, "That's what puzzles me!"
Patient: "I have a ringing in my ears. "
Doctor: "Don't answer!"
A drunk was in front of a Judge. The Judge says,
"You've been brought here for drinking. "
The drunk says, "Okay, let's get started."
Why do Jewish Divorces cost so much?
They're worth it.
Why do Jewish men die before their wives?
They want to.
The Harvard School of Medicine did a study of why Jewish women like Chinese food so much. The study revealed that the reason for this is because Won Ton spelled backward is
Not Now.
There is a big controversy on the Jewish view of when life begins.
In Jewish tradition, the fetus is not considered viable until it
graduates from Law School.
Q : Why don't Jewish mothers drink?
A : Alcohol interferes with their suffering.
Q : Have you seen the newest Jewish-American-Princess horror movie?
A : It's called, "Debbie Does Dishes."
Q : Why do Jewish mothers make great Parole Officers?
A : They never let anyone finish a sentence.
A man called his mother in Florida . "Mom, how are you?
"Not too good," said the mother. "I've been very weak. " The son said, “Why are you so weak?"
She said, "Because I haven't eaten in 38 days."
The son said, "That's terrible. Why haven't you eaten in 38 days?"
The mother answered, "Because, I didn't want my mouth to be full in case you should call."
A Jewish man said that when he was growing up, they always had two choices for dinner - Take it or leave it.
A Jewish boy comes home from school and tells his mother he has a part in the play.
She asks, "What part is it?"
The boy says, “I play the part of the Jewish husband.
" The mother scowls and says, "Go back and tell the teacher you want a speaking part."
Q : Where does a Jewish husband hide money from his wife?
A : Under the vacuum cleaner.
Q : How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?
A : (Sigh) "Don't bother. I'll sit in the dark. I don't want to be a nuisance to anybody."
A Jewish mother gives her son a blue shirt and a brown shirt for his birthday. On the next visit, he wears the brown one. The mother says, "What's the matter already? Didn't you like the blue one?"
Q : What's the difference between a Rottweiler and a Jewish mother?
A : Eventually, the Rottweiler lets go.
Q : Why are Jewish Men circumcised?
A : Because Jewish women don't like anything that isn't 20% off.
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