1/ Frank Rich on the weeks news.....
Looking to November, not the mortality statistics. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via 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 insistence on reopening the economy, Joe Biden’s response to Tara Reade, and George W. Bush’s reemergence.
In the face of a climbing death toll and against warnings from some of his advisers, Donald Trump continues to value “reopening the economy” more than the nation’s public-health needs. Will this strategy bring him any political advantage?
Since Trump’s only motive for any action is to seize political or economic advantage, that’s certainly his hope.
2/ David Wallace-Wells on "The Plan" for the pandemic. We are in for a long haul, and many, many more deaths than they are telling you.
Trump's plan seems to be to get herd immunity by having 60-70% of the country infected.
Intelligent, science and fact-based article....
Goes hand in hand with #7....
Trump seems content to have an excuse for losing the election, rather than trying to beat coronavirus and have a chance at winning it. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images
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There is still no plan for the end of the coronavirus crisis, for all intents and purposes.
A month ago, on April 5, I wrote that, weeks into what was initially intended to be a short lockdown, there was no clear vision of an endgame from the White House. In theory, the lockdowns were designed to slow the spread of the disease to give us time to catch up and prepare for what would happen when restrictions were relaxed.
3/ Even some Trumpies might agree with the statement "Trump is a malignant narcissist"...but do you know what this means?
How a malignant narcissist sees the world? And how he sees you?
Fascinating and scary article by a renowned Psychologist....
Note the first third of the story is a summary of how this disaster has unfolded - you may want to straight to the interview with the psychologist...
At almost every juncture, Donald Trump has made decisions about the coronavirus pandemic that have led to more death. His behavior is that of a person who has no care or concern for the health, safety and welfare of the American people. Nothing could epitomize that more perfectly than his grotesque suggestion this week that "injecting" disinfectants or household cleaning products might kill the coronavirus. This would seem comical, and entirely unbelievable, if it had not actually happened.
4/ Good story from the Guardian about Paul Krugman, the economist who writes a column for the Times....
The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has four essential rules for successful punditry:
- Stay with the easy stuff
- Write in English
- Be honest about dishonesty
- Don’t be afraid to talk about motives
- https://www.theguardian.com/
books/2020/may/03/arguing- with-zombies-review-paul- krugman-trump-republicans?CMP= Share_iOSApp_Othe
5/ A charming and fascinating video.....four minutes of story time....
6/ We've not seen a comprehensive list of the corruption of this Administration laid out as clearly as this.....they just don't care any more, he has corrupted everything.......
QUICK AND DIRTY
- Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue was the subject of multiple ethics complaints and investigations during two terms as governor of Georgia. In one headline-making case, he approved a tax bill with a little-noticed provision that retroactively saved him $100,000 on a land sale.
- Perdue has filled the department’s top ranks with former agribusiness executives and lobbyists, along with an unusual number of Trump campaign workers without other obvious qualifications.
7/ A serious but tongue in cheek article from the Times about "Flattening the Truth"....it's amusing, informative, spot on and gives us the reality of the virus....
Recommend this one....
The People (P): What is happening?
Answer (A): A virus has come.
P: Is it dangerous?
A: Very dangerous. But not dangerous to most. It strikes the elderly most viciously. But it can kill the middle-aged, the young, the thin, the healthy.
P: What should we do?
A: Stay away from others. Stay inside.
P: And then we won’t get the virus?
A: Absolutely you will get it. Everyone will get it.
P: Wait. No one told us this. They’re telling us to stay inside and we won’t get it.
A: Well, I’m telling you now. Almost everyone will get it. Seventy percent of you, give or take. https://www.nytimes.com/
8/ What is going to happen to small businesses, the restaurants and stores we support in our communities?
Anne Lowry in the Atlantic explains how it's not going to be the same world....
Outside of Boston, a marketing company is struggling to figure out how to cover its bills. In Indiana, a dance studio is waiting on three emergency-loan applications. In Baltimore, a deli is closed and desperate for help.
The government is engaged in an unprecedented effort to save such companies as pandemic-related shutdowns stretch into the spring. But Washington’s policies are too complicated, too small, and too slow for many firms: Across the United States, millions of small businesses are struggling, and millions are failing. The great small-business die-off is here, and it will change the landscape of American commerce, auguring slower growth and less innovation in the future.
9/ The English version of an ad running on China TV....
10/ Michelle Goldberg with a good column from the Times....maybe something good will come out of this eventually, but hopefully the Democrats won't screw it up as usual...
Until very recently, Andrew Yang thought that the need for a universal basic income would be a big issue in the 2024 election, as “many of the trends that I campaigned on were going to become completely clear to more and more Americans” over the next four years. He was arguing, for example, that between now and then, “30 percent of our stores and malls were going to close because of Amazon.”
11/ Another great ad from the Lincoln Project, Republicans who hate Trump....
12/ Tom Tomorrow - Trump's dreams....
13/ For those of you that think Umair is a little OTT, read this story about how the lockdown is affecting different classes in this country,
and of course it's awful at the bottom....
For us in our middle class bubble it's inconvenient, but if you are poor it's a disaster.
There was the pandemic, then there was the storm. Of all the natural disasters, tornadoes lend themselves the most to being read as Providence. Like hurricanes and wildfires, they can level everything in their path, but those paths can also be narrow enough, forgiving enough, to grind one house into debris while leaving the neighboring structure untouched. Metaphors become redundant in the face of such calamity; the thing to which you’d otherwise be comparing it is, too often, what it already is. But when disaster looms, we grasp for deeper meaning.
14/ Umair insults us all.....the trouble is he's a little bit right....
“Hey, Umair. Did you inject yourself with Lysol yet?”
Ben, the London copper, shouted from across the dog park.
I looked up, confused.
Massimo, the Italian doctor, grinned, and cried: “Maybe he drank it already!”
“Wait, what?” It was too early for this. I’d just woken up. Snowy looked up at me, smiling, too. I grumbled, irritated https://eand.co/donald-
15/ Hows your vitamin D level? Might want to take a supplement....
A new study found that vitamin D levels are “severely low” in aging populations, particularly in Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. These countries have also experienced the greatest death rates due to COVID-19, prompting the authors to advise “vitamin D supplementation to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
Researchers at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation Trust and the University of East Anglia analyzed the mean levels of vitamin D for 20 European countries, as well as data pertaining to the mortality rate caused by COVID-19.
16/ Rolling Stone with what to watch in May....
Seen any good movies lately? Chances are you haven’t, at least not in theaters. But as our new stay-at-home normal stretches out into another month, some films once destined for the multiplex have started to show up in other locations. Remember that comedy that reunites Kumail Nanjiani with Michael Showalter, the director of The Big Sick, and co-stars Insecure‘s Issa Rae? That’s coming to a home theater near you in May. Ditto a controversial documentary about sexual harassment in the music industry and the final installment of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s gastro-travelogue Trip
And of course, there’s a lot of new TV — good old-fashioned serialized and oh-so binge-worthy TV.
17/ The Times TV reporter with the best movies on Netflix....
The sheer volume of films on Netflix — and the site’s less than ideal interface — can make finding a genuinely great movie there a difficult task. To help, we’ve plucked out the 50 best films currently streaming on the service in the United States, updated regularly as titles come and go. And as a bonus, we link to more great movies on Netflix within many of our writeups below. (Note: Streaming services sometimes remove titles or change starting dates without giving notice.)
Todays Italian joke...
For several years, a man was having an affair with an Italian woman.
One night, she confided to him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his marriage, he said he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18.
She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born.
To keep it discreet, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write 'Spaghetti' on the back. He would then arrange for the child support to begin.
One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife.
'Honey, she said, 'you received a very strange post card today.'
'Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later,' he said. The wife watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.
On the card was written:
Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
Two with meatballs, one without.
Send extra sauce.
One night, she confided to him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his marriage, he said he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18.
She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born.
To keep it discreet, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write 'Spaghetti' on the back. He would then arrange for the child support to begin.
One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife.
'Honey, she said, 'you received a very strange post card today.'
'Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later,' he said. The wife watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.
On the card was written:
Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
Two with meatballs, one without.
Send extra sauce.
Todays talking dog joke
A man sees a sign outside a house - 'Talking Dog For Sale.'
He rings the bell, the owner appears and tells him the dog can be viewed in the back garden.
The man sees a very nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting there.
"Do you really talk?" he asks the dog.
"Yes", the Labrador replies.
After recovering from the shock of hearing the dog talk, he man asks, "So, tell me your story"
He rings the bell, the owner appears and tells him the dog can be viewed in the back garden.
The man sees a very nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting there.
"Do you really talk?" he asks the dog.
"Yes", the Labrador replies.
After recovering from the shock of hearing the dog talk, he man asks, "So, tell me your story"
The Labrador looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the SAS"."In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one imagined that a dog would be eavesdropping."
I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years."
"But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at Heathrow to do some undercover security work, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded several medals. I got married, had a few puppies, and now I've just retired."
The man is amazed. He goes back into the house and asks the owner how much he wants for the dog.
"Ten quid", the owner says.
"£10!!? But this dog is absolutely amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheaply?"
"Because he's a liar. He's never been out of the garden...!
I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years."
"But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at Heathrow to do some undercover security work, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded several medals. I got married, had a few puppies, and now I've just retired."
The man is amazed. He goes back into the house and asks the owner how much he wants for the dog.
"Ten quid", the owner says.
"£10!!? But this dog is absolutely amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheaply?"
"Because he's a liar. He's never been out of the garden...!
Todays Dear Abby jokes
