1/ The excellent Frank Rich...insightful as always....
Let the president tell you an extremely convoluted story. Photo: Drew Angerer/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, Trump’s “Obamagate” conspiracy theory, COVID-19’s spread across the country, and Joe Biden’s basement-bound campaign.
In the face of some gloomy election forecasts, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have begun to take aim at an unlikely, if familiar, target: President Obama. Is this the typical Trumpian floundering or a broader test for a kind of attack that we might see more of?
2/ David Wallace-Wells with a very good question - why don't we concentrate our resources on the people at risk? The elderly are the main targets of Covid and are disproportionately felled by the virus....
Senior citizens on a limited walking break in Ankara this week. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Over the course of the spring, as American deaths grew first into the hundreds, then the thousands, then the tens of thousands, one after another early scientific observations about COVID-19 have been revised or discarded: As it turns out, the virus can be transmitted by asymptomatic people, masks do help, and ventilators aren’t that effective — to name just three.
But one observation from the early days of the pandemic has been confirmed again and again, in country after country: The lethality of the virus rises sharply with age.
3/ If you can watch without vomiting, here is two minutes of Fox News on Judge Emmet Sullivan....blatant hypocrites....
4/ Andrew Sullivan's lead story is about the Black Death in the Middle Ages, chronicled by Samuel Pepys.....fascinating....
Scenes from the plague in London 1665, much like those described by Samuel Pepys. Photo: Universal History Archive/Contributor/Culture Club/Getty Images
If you need a role model for life in a plague, it is hard to beat Samuel Pepys. Pepys (pronounced Peeps) was a man about town in the London of the late 17th century, a member of Parliament and of the Royal Society, and an official in the Royal Navy as the British were fighting the Dutch. But his true claim to fame is that he wrote a personal diary for ten years of his life in the 1660s.
5/ Seth Meyers on Fox News and Obamagate....even they can't articulate what Obamagate actually is...
6/ Umair with a rant that's calmer than most of his columns....sorrowful almost...
Americans should be getting unparalleled support from their government, in hard cash, guarantees, and aid, during an unparalleled catastrophe — instead, President Donald J Trump’s proudly telling them to drink bleach, and go salute the Space Force, while spending most days…tweeting even crazier bullshit than the last 24 hours. The Democrats, on the other hand, tell us they’re fighting back — but are they, really, and if so, how? Americans, months into the pandemic, are still getting literally almost nothing in the form of real support, especially compared to other rich countries — just the equivalent of one week’s worth of income….during the fastest, hardest, sharpest economic calamity in modern history. What the?
7/ Jordan Klepper from the Daily Show interviews Trump supporters....12 minutes of ...of....of....words fail me....
8/ Tom Tomorrow on Crisis Management, Trump style...
9/ Matt Taibbi on the systemic corruption of our "bailout"....the rich and Wall Street will be fine, and screw the rest of us.
In late April Marko Kolanovic, a financial analyst for JPMorgan Chase, wrote to clients with good news. Pandemic aside, investors should expect stock prices in S&P 500 companies to return to record numbers some time early next year!
“The S&P 500 should attain previous all-time highs,” Kolanovic wrote, “if the monetary measures are sustained.”
The key part of this phrase was the last bit, “if the monetary measures are sustained.” In countries that did not have a Federal Reserve Bank shooting a bazooka of cash daily at Wall Street, Kolanovic suggested the coronavirus would result in a 30 percent decline in the present value of earnings.
10/ Interesting story from Politico "What Liberals Don't Get About Trump Supporters".....libtards indeed...
When President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, triumphantly invoked the “Star Wars” universe to likenthe president’s reelection effort to the “Death Star,” all but ready to “start pressing FIRE,” it was both a standard display of MAGA braggadocio and a brief respite from the unrelenting, bleak coronavirus discourse.
Well-meaning liberals instantly took the bait and flooded Parscale’s replies to let him know he had, supposedly, missed the point — “Didn’t make it till the end of Star Wars, huh?” https://www.politico.com/
11/ An interactive story from the Times showing the areas of the country that are unhealthy, therefore at risk of dying from Covid at a much higher rate....
As the new coronavirus continues to spread over the next months, and maybe even years, it could exact a heavy new toll in areas of the United States that have not yet seen major outbreaks but have high rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and other chronic health conditions.
12/ The new Joe Biden ad.....pretty good!
13/ Netflix has some excellent criminal justice documentaries....
or the first few weeks of quarantine, many of us were heedlessly drunk on Tiger King, the outrageous Netflix series on the wild and petty feuds between big cat owners (many would say abusers) in the US. It was commented on and memed into oblivion, having the great fortune of premiering just as most of America bristled against the second week of quarantine, itching for distraction with a sense of communal catharsis. But as the weeks dragged on, and as the fantasy of “when this is all over” melted into the recognition that we aren’t snapping back, that the breach from before is for many irrevocable, maybe it’s time to turn to the Netflix content more suited to the moment.
14/ Weekend Update talking to Janine Pirro from Fox News...an amusing three minutes...
15/ What is real organic food? The USDA has corrupted the approval of the label organic, so if your food is USDA approved it could be hydroponic, or raised in a pot with chemicals used all around the plant. Here is a story of a REAL farmer in Vermont...
Know Your Farmer | Full Moon Farm, Vermont
David Zuckerman: I’m David Zuckerman with Full Moon Farm along with Rachel Nevitt. We started the farm in ’99, and Rachel became a part of it in 2000, and we’ve grown the farm from a couple acres to about 15 to 20 acres of production, and added pigs, chickens (layers and meat birds) and a summer camp. I’m also Lieutenant Governor of Vermont. https://www.
16/ For movie buffs....
The Cannes Film Festival, which would have been taking place now, is like the Oscars for art-house films: it usually gets things wrong, runs more according to dollars than sense, but nonetheless brings welcome attention to many great films—albeit only a small sliver of those they should be paying attention to. https://www.newyorker.com/
Todays Trump joke
An assistant to Donald Trump told him she had a fantastic dream last night. There was a humongous parade in Washington celebrating Trump. Millions lined the parade route, cheering when the President went past. Bands were playing; children were throwing confetti into the air; there were balloons everywhere. It was the biggest celebration Washington had ever seen.
Trump was very impressed and said, "That's really great! By the way, how did I look in your dream? Was my hair okay?"
His assistant said, "I couldn't tell, the casket was closed."
Todays Little Johnny joke
A first-grade teacher, Ms. Brooks, was having trouble with one of her students.
The teacher asked, “Johnny, what’s your problem?”
Johnny answered, “I’m too smart for the 1st grade. My sister is in the 3rd grade and I’m smarter than she is! I think I should be in the 3rd grade too!”
Ms. Brooks had had enough. She took Johnny to the principal’s office.
While Johnny waited in the outer office, the teacher explained to the principal what the situation was.
The principal told Ms. Brooks, he would give the boy a test.
If he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the 1st grade and behave. She agreed.
Johnny was brought in and the conditions were explained to him and he agreed to take the test.
Principal: “What is 3 x 3. Johnny: “9.”
Principal: “What is 6 x 6?” Johnny: “36.”
And so it went with every question the principal thought a 3rd grader should know.
The principal looks at Ms. Brooks and tells her, “I think Johnny can go to the 3rd grade.”
Ms. Brooks says to the principal, “Let me ask him some questions.”
The principal and Johnny both agreed.
Ms. Brooks asks, “What does a cow have four of that I have only two of?”
Johnny, after a moment: “Legs.”
Ms. Brooks: “What is in your pants that you have but I do not have?”
The principal wondered why would she ask such a question!
Johnny replied: “Pockets.”
Ms. Brooks: “What does a dog do that a man steps into?”
Johnny: “Pants.”
Ms. Brooks: What starts with a C, ends with a T, is hairy, oval, delicious, and contains thin, whitish liquid?”
Johnny: “Coconut.”
The principal sat forward with his mouth hanging open.
Ms. Brooks: “What goes in hard and pink then comes out soft and sticky?”
The principal’s eyes opened really wide and before he could stop the answer,
Johnny replied, “Bubble gum.”
Ms. Brooks: “What does a man do standing up, a woman does sitting down and a dog does on three legs?”
Johnny: “Shake hands.”
The principal was trembling.
Ms. Brooks: “What word starts with an ‘F’ and ends in ‘K’ that means a lot of heat and excitement?”
Johnny: “Firetruck.”
The principal breathed a sigh of relief and told the teacher,
“Put Johnny in the fifth-grade, I got the last seven questions wrong…… “
Todays parrot joke
A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.
John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary.
Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer.
For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”
John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, “May I ask what the turkey did?”
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