1/ David Wallace-Wells had an interview with Bernie Sanders.....actually gives one hope!
Photo: Getty Images
All of a sudden, there is some genuinely good news about the coronavirus, visible at least in the medium distance: seemingly plateauing case numbers in “second wave” pandemic hot spots Florida, Texas, and Arizona; encouraging news from the most promising vaccine candidates; and early results suggesting a particular drug therapy, inhaled interferon beta, could reduce coronavirus mortality by as much as 79 percent.
2/ Since it's Sunday, think about this one.....
3/ You may have seen this before, but watch it again if you have - the Lincoln Project "Failure"...
4/ Roger Cohen with a very good column in the Times....
PARIS — No people has found the American lurch toward authoritarianism under President Trump more alarming than the Germans. For postwar Germany, the United States was savior, protector and liberal democratic model. Now, Germans, in shock, speak of the “American catastrophe.”
5/ The talented and amusing Randy Rainbow with "Please Dr. Fauci"....
6/ Barbara Walters interviewed Trump in 1990, 30 years ago. Two takeaways - Trump was, is and always will be a liar and braggart - his techniques haven't changed a bit. Two - where are the journalists with the cojones of Barbara Walters? She is professional, well prepared and calls him on all his lies. A wonderful two minutes.
7/ Nicolas Kristof with an excellent column about Portland and Trump's Gestapo.....
PORTLAND, Ore. — To watch Fox News is to learn from Sean Hannity that the “Rose City” of Portland is “like a war zone” that has been, in Tucker Carlson’s words, “destroyed by the mob.”
So I invite Hannity and Carlson to escape their bubbles and visit Portland, stroll along the Willamette River and enjoy a glass of local pinot noir. They’ll be safe — unless they venture at night into the two blocks beside the federal courthouse.
This is the Trump FB ad referred to in Kristof's column....the panel on
the right is from 1/ 2014 and 2/ Ukraine!
8/ The Chairman of the Royal Caribbean Group with a message to travel partners, and indeed all of us. Richard Fain is one of the most intelligent and worldly men I have ever known, and it is so refreshing to hear a lifelong conservative like Richard tell it like it is....obviously no politics, but a lot of common sense with a frank appraisal about where we are now.
This is worth watching....
9/ Trump wished Ghislaine Maxwell well at one of his "briefings"....
I think this is a coded message to her to keep your mouth shut and I'll pardon you...
President Donald Trump took a moment out of today’s coronavirus briefing (his first in months) to send well wishes to an old party pal: Ghislaine Maxwell. As in, the British socialite recently arrested and charged for her alleged role procuring underage girls for Trump’s former friend, Jeffrey Epstein. As in, the Epstein associate who could potentially name some pretty big names in her conversations with federal authorities. Asked on Tuesday if he thinks Maxwell will “turn in powerful men,” the president told a reporter that he “hasn’t been following it too much,” really. But when it comes to Maxwell, he said, “I just wish her well, frankly.”
10/ And of course the Lincoln Project was on it...."Maxwell"....
11/ Boy are they on it - "Maxwell 2" - even the Lincoln Project thinks Trump just sent a message to Ghislaine
Maxwell to keep quiet and I'll pardon you like Roger Stone....
Hope she doesn't commit "suicide"...
12/ Whatever you were taught about the Civil War was either wrong or misleading.....great article....
It’s likely difficult for many of us — and nearly impossible for younger generations — to imagine a world without air conditioning, refrigeration, and amply filled grocery stores. Which is nothing to say of a life without the internet, smartphones, and Amazon.
Consider for a moment that just over 150 years ago, many Americans didn’t live to see their 40th birthday — and one of the leading causes of death was dysentery.
13/ Sarah Cooper with how to "Person, woman, man, camera, TV". A really good one! One minute...
14/ Frank Bruni with an excellent column, with a catchy title....
Donald Trump Is the Best Ever President in the History of the Cosmos
It’s no longer interesting, or particularly newsworthy, to point out that Donald Trump lies. It stopped being interesting a long time ago. He lied en route to the presidency. He lied about the crowd at his inauguration. His speech itself was one big lie. And the falsehoods only metastasized from there.
15/ Trump's Gestapo beat up medics in Portland - a very disturbing minute....
16/ "Donald Trump is a broken man"....good commentary by Peter Wehner, a lifelong Republican...
the most revealing answer from Donald Trump’s interview with Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace came in response not to the toughest question posed by Wallace, but to the easiest.
At the conclusion of the interview, Wallace asked Trump how he will regard his years as president.
“I think I was very unfairly treated,” Trump responded. “From before I even won, I was under investigation by a bunch of thieves, crooks. It was an illegal investigation.”
17/ Good toon....
18/ Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's full speech on the floor of the House, responding to Ted Yoho [Floriduh] calling her an effing bitch....she's wonderful, classy, passionate and so right. She demolished the Gainesville asshole Yoho in nine minutes...
19/ American Death Cult" is how Jonathan Chait describes Trump's Republican Party....long but
very interesting history of how they handled the pandemic....
Last October, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security compiled a ranking system to assess the preparedness of 195 countries for the next global pandemic. Twenty-one panel experts across the globe graded each country in 34 categories composed of 140 subindices. At the top of the rankings, peering down at 194 countries supposedly less equipped to withstand a pandemic, stood the United States of America.
It has since become horrifyingly clear that the experts missed something.
20/ Sam Bee with dimwitted state governors and mask denial....am amusing five minutes...
21/ The Republican war on science and competence has damaged this nation's trust in institutions, maybe irrevocably. How can we get this back with a right wing media constantly on the attack? Good question....
As the Ebola epidemic raged in 2014, some West Africans resisted public health guidance. Some hid their symptoms or continued practicing burial rituals — like washing the bodies of their dead loved ones — despite the risk of infection. Others spread conspiracies claiming the virus was sent by Westerners or suggested it was all a hoax. In Conakry, Guinea’s capital city, an imam was arrested for violating his quarantine, and residents protested by not letting health officials check for fevers.
22/ This is lovely - a Utah children's choir sings a virtual song...."Memories"...
23/ Thomas Friedman with a very good column....his comparisons of our situation to Syria is chilling....
Some presidents, when they get into trouble before an election, try to “wag the dog” by starting a war abroad. Donald Trump seems ready to wag the dog by starting a war at home. Be afraid — he just might get his wish.
24/ Jordan Klepper goes to a Trump boat parade in NJ....five minutes of Trumpies revelry....
25/ How Republicans are reacting to the Portland secret police...
26/ Can Florida's Covid numbers be trusted? The Orlando Sentinel explains....and of
course the answer is no....
An error by the Florida Department of Health produced a COVID-19 positivity rate for children of nearly one-third, a stunning figure that played into the debate over whether schools should reopen.
A week after issuing that statistic, the department took it back without explanation. The next weekly report on children and COVID-19 showed the rate had plunged to 13.4%.
Today's Catholic joke
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Todays engineer joke
An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. Saint Peter checks his dossier and, not seeing his name there, accidentally sends him to Hell.
It doesn't take long before the engineer becomes rather dissatisfied with the level of comfort in Hell. He soon begins to design and build improvements. Shortly thereafter, Hell has air conditioning, flush toilets, escalators. Needless to say, the engineer is a pretty popular guy.
One day, God calls Satan and says: "So, how are things in Hell?"
Satan replies: "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning, flush toilets, and escalators. And there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."
"What!" God exclaims: "You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have been sent to Hell. Send him to me."
"Not a chance," Satan replies: "I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him!"
God insists: "Send him back or I'll sue."
Satan laughs uproariously and answers: "Yeah, right. And just where are you gonna get a lawyer?"
It doesn't take long before the engineer becomes rather dissatisfied with the level of comfort in Hell. He soon begins to design and build improvements. Shortly thereafter, Hell has air conditioning, flush toilets, escalators. Needless to say, the engineer is a pretty popular guy.
One day, God calls Satan and says: "So, how are things in Hell?"
Satan replies: "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning, flush toilets, and escalators. And there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."
"What!" God exclaims: "You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have been sent to Hell. Send him to me."
"Not a chance," Satan replies: "I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him!"
God insists: "Send him back or I'll sue."
Satan laughs uproariously and answers: "Yeah, right. And just where are you gonna get a lawyer?"
Todays blonde jokes
A brunette goes into a doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.
"Impossible," says the doctor. "Show me."
She takes her finger, presses on her elbow, and screams in agony.
She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams, and so it goes on; everywhere she touches makes her scream with pain.
The doctor says, "You're not really a brunette are you?"
She says, "No, I dyed my hair. I'm naturally blonde."
"I thought so," he says. "Your finger is broken."
******************************
A blonde, out of money, and down on her luck after buying air at a real bargain, needed money desperately. To raise cash, she decided to kidnap a child and hold him for ransom.
She went to the local playground, grabbed a kid randomly, took her behind a building, and told her, "I've kidnapped you."
She then wrote a big note saying, "I've kidnapped your kid. Tomorrow morning, put $10,000 in a paper bag and leave it under the apple tree next to the slides, on the south side of the playground. Signed, A blonde."
The blonde then pinned the note to the kid's shirt and sent him home to show it to his parents.
The next morning, the blonde checked, and sure enough, a paper bag was sitting beneath the apple tree.
The blonde looked in the bag and found the $10,000 with a note that said, "How could you do this to a fellow blonde?"
