1/ Frank Rich is pissed....and so should you be....
Not exactly meeting the moment. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, evidence that Trump is playing favorites with medical aid and whether news networks should air his coronavirus briefings live.
Amid reports that the federal stockpile of medical supplies is “nearly exhausted” and production of new equipment is unlikely to come soon enough, it now appears that the Trump administration may be playing favorites, distributing supplies to political allies and states important for the president’s reelection campaign. How bad will the fallout be?
2/ Tom Tomorrow, nails it as usual....
3/ Irish wedding....very funny, 2 minutes....
4/ My ideal story for DDD is an intelligent writer analyzing a problem and telling what they see as the truth about it, not trying to fit the facts into a preconceived agenda. Here is a textbook example of such a story - David Wallace-Wells gives us his thoughts on how this crisis will end....or not. If you think [or are hoping] this will be over by the end of May, think again.
Atlanta under lockdown. Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
For a month, American journalists and public-health experts have praisedthe corona
5/ Andrew Sullivan with some thoughts on how to live with this crisis...
Photo: Melissa Hom
“There is no wealth but life,” the great critic John Ruskin once wrote. You can hear that faith in the words of Andrew Cuomo, whose Catholic upbringing still clearly reverberates in his soul. “If it’s the public health versus the economy, the only choice is public health,” Cuomo tweeted. “You cannot put a value on human life. You do the right thing. That’s what Pop taught us.” That’s why American soldiers never leave a fellow behind, why American doctors never abandon a patient, and why American rescuers and first responders go beyond the feasible and reach for the impossible.
Epidemics make this choice explicit.
6/ The excellent environmental journalist Jeff Goodell on the next coming disaster - our oceans. It's not just that the water is rising....it's much worse.
A long article, but well worth your time....
The blob went unnoticed at first. In the summer of 2013, a high-pressure ridge settled over a Texas-size area in the northern Pacific, pushing the sky down over the ocean like an invisible lid. The winds died down, and the water became weirdly calm. Without waves and wind to break up the surface and dissipate heat, warmth from the sun accumulated in the water, eventually raising the temperature by 5 degrees Fahrenheit — a huge spike for the ocean.
7/ Getting a little stir crazy? This website has live cams from around the world of wild animals, from eagles to a water hole in Africa....
No excuse for being bored!
8/ The most disgusting person in the whole mess this gub'ment has made of this crisis is undoubtedly
Jared Kushner....greedy, corrupt and arrogant little prick...
Reporting on the White House’s herky-jerky coronavirus response, Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman has a quotation from Jared Kushner that should make all Americans, and particularly all New Yorkers, dizzy with terror.
According to Sherman, when New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said that the state would need 30,000 ventilators at the apex of the coronavirus outbreak, Kushner decided that Cuomo was being alarmist. “I have all this data about I.C.U. capacity,” Kushner reportedly said. “I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators.”
9/ Stephen Colbert interviews John Oliver.....starts awkwardly, but good in the end.....about 10 minutes...
10/ Matt Taibbi on how Trump and his minions are going to screw up the financial bailout....for $2 trillion!
He has put one of his personal lawyers in charge of the $500 billion to corporations....
“I’ve never signed anything with a ‘T’ before,” Donald Trump quipped at the signing of the $2 trillion CARES Act. He reportedly wants his signature on coronavirus relief checks, as if they were Trump Plaza casino chips. This might be a fitting metaphor for America’s post-virus economic future.
The new bailout bill, which combined with a series of Federal Reserve interventions is more like a $6 trillion rescue, is a massive double-down on the 2008 rescue efforts. This bailout of the last bailout sets the stage for permanent state sponsorship of America’s overheated financial markets.
11/ A guy sings "Don't Be Cruel" to a pair of cockatoos....an amusing two minutes....
12/ The blatant corruption and stupidity of this Administration and the Republicans in Congress is numbing.....everything they do is wrong.
Read how they have stymied the solar industry to please the fossil fuel boys...
Solar power’s great leap forward over the past decade has been stunning. Solar energy can now supply nearly 14 million homes in the U.S., up from fewer than 800,000 in 2010, and the price for solar generation has plunged by 90 percent. Over the same time, our solar workforce — primarily installers — has more than doubled, to nearly 250,000. Southern states like Florida, South Carolina, and Texas are starting to realize their solar potential, ranking behind only California in new installed capacity last year, when solar accounted for nearly 40 percent of new electrical production nationwide. “Today, solar is cheaper than pretty much any other power technology you can install,” says Jigar Shah, the founder of Sun-Edison, who now helms the green-investment firm Generate Capital.
13/ Seen in The Villages!
14/ A combination of evil Republicans and Floriduh.....how Rick Scott made sure the unemployment benefits system would be as difficult to use as possible, so with this emergency with millions of low wage peele entitled to benefits it's a complete cluster.
Good story because I haven't found this summary of the facts anywhere else as clearly as here.....
Not my sunshine. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
When Republican Rick Scott became its governor in 2011, Florida already had one of the stingiest unemployment-insurance systems in the country. As the Great Recession rained pink slips down on the Sunshine State, its laid-off workers received no more than $275 a week in unemployment benefits — a cap that had been set a dozen years earlier and never adjusted for inflation.
But Florida’s system wasn’t just tightfisted; it was also underfunded.
https://nymag.com/
Todays fishing joke
After an hour in the boat with four guys out fishing, the following conversation took place:
First guy: You have no idea what I had to do to be able to come out fishing this weekend. I had to .promise my wife that I would paint every room in the house next weekend..'
After an hour in the boat with four guys out fishing, the following conversation took place:
First guy: You have no idea what I had to do to be able to come out fishing this weekend. I had to .promise my wife that I would paint every room in the house next weekend..'
Second guy: That is nothing, I had to promise my wife that I would build her a new deck for the pool.'
Third guy: Man , you both have it easy! I had to promise my wife that I would remodel the kitchen for her.'
They continue to fish.
When they realized that the fourth guy has not said a word, they asked him, You haven't said anything about what you had to do to be able to come fishing this weekend. What's the deal?
Fourth guy: I just set my alarm for 5:30 am. When it went off, I shut off my alarm, Gave the wife a slap on her butt and said: 'Fishing or Sex?'
And she said: 'Wear sun-block.'
Third guy: Man , you both have it easy! I had to promise my wife that I would remodel the kitchen for her.'
They continue to fish.
When they realized that the fourth guy has not said a word, they asked him, You haven't said anything about what you had to do to be able to come fishing this weekend. What's the deal?
Fourth guy: I just set my alarm for 5:30 am. When it went off, I shut off my alarm, Gave the wife a slap on her butt and said: 'Fishing or Sex?'
And she said: 'Wear sun-block.'
Todays Trump joke...
Donald Trump goes on a fact-finding visit to Israel. While he is on a tour of Jerusalem he suffers a heart attack and dies. The undertaker tells the American diplomats accompanying him: "You can have him shipped home for $500,000, or you can bury him here, in the Holy Land, for just $500.”
The American diplomats go into a corner to discuss for a few minutes. They return with their answer to the undertaker and tell him they want Donald Trump shipped home. The undertaker is puzzled and asks, "Why would you spend $500,000 to ship him home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and you would spend only $500?”The American diplomats reply, "Long ago a man died here, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. We just can't take that risk.”
Todays collection of awful puns
I tried to catch some Fog. I mist.When chemists die, they barium.Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I can't put it down.I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.They told me I had type A blood, but it was a Type O.A dyslexic man walks into a bra and orders a martini.Class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there's no pop quiz.Energizer Bunny arrested. Charged with battery.I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.How do you make holy water? Boil the hell out of it!
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