Sunday, March 15, 2020

Center



60 comments:

  1. Snow melt prediction--April 13

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    1. Thanks, puddle! So noted!

      Anyone else around here gonna wager a guess?

      Demetrius?

      Hannah?

      Thankful?

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  2. Illinois Governor Tells Trump to Get His Shit Together [Click]

    Robert Reich: America has no real public health system – coronavirus has a clear run [Click] “Trump’s response has been inadequate but the system is rigged anyway. As always, the poor will be hit hardest.”

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  3. The Countries With The Most Critical Care Beds Per Capita [Infographic] [Click]

    NYT: For Biden and Sanders, the Fight’s Not Personal [Click] Of course this is written from the New Democrat point of view, but nevertheless it contains some interesting personal insights. Should Biden become the Democratic nominee, he will have to do something pretty remarkable to gain my vote— and I will remain skeptical about his reliability. I thought Nixon had changed his spots; I won't be so easily deceived this time.

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    1. I really do not think Biden will be physically or mentally able to complete even one term. Worse if he picks somebody like Klobuchar as VP and promises to appoint Jamie Dimon to a cabinet post....ugh. We the people will get NO relief from a Biden administration and the cops will continue their hunting down of brown people.

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    2. I will not vote for Biden.

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    3. It seems far-fetched, but if Biden were to make significant concessions to Bernie and name a satisfactory running mate, I might consider voting for him. Yep, far fetched. That reminds me that I should re-register with the Green Party. [wave to Howie]

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    4. My son keeps insisting that we must vote for three stacked lizards in a raincoat if that's why they give us for a nominee. But I have no faith in our elections any more. I mean Hillary won by 3 Million votes and she's not the one sitting in the White House, is she. Plus I think trump will absolutely humiliate Biden if he is the nominee - run over him like a tank.

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    5. OK, the deed is done; I have re-registered with the Green Party. Howie is rather lefty for my tastes, but by registering Green I help to maintain their ballot access in California, which I consider a good thing.

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    6. Susan--three stacked lizards in a raincoat would win in California as long as the raincoat had a "Democrat" bumper sticker on it. I agree that Biden would be no match for Trump; if Biden should win it will be because Trump is defeated by the coronavirus. IMO.

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    7. I agree completely with Susan. Even so, I'll wait till the suicidal idiots actually nominate Biden before changing my registration to the Green Party..

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  4. From The Atlantic: The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff [Click] “Like Japan in the mid-1800s, the United States now faces a crisis that disproves everything the country believes about itself.” At the time Perry arrived, Japan had a good education system— unequaled among agricultural societies. About 30% of the population was literate. The first thing Japan did after the significance of Perry’s visit sank in was to improve its education system—first on the American model, which didn’t work well enough, and then on the French model. Universal and free public education was seen as fundamental to creating a strong country. Sounds to me rather like the plan a certain presidential candidate has for the US education system.

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  5. Okay, Ohio is now up to 36 confirmed cases with 350 awaiting results.

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    1. Course of coronavirus real infections, reported infections, and case numbers. [Click] A longish article with pretty graphs.

      Are schools being closed and suchlike things?

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    2. Yes, Gov. DeWine says schools may not reopen at all this year.

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    3. Illinois Gov. Pritzker says schools will reopen the end of this month. That does not compute. Why close them when cases are so rare your chances of encountering anyone with CoVid-19 are essentially zero, then reopen them then reopen them just as the disease starts to spread?

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  6. Photo out front is all fixed. Great story. I wasn't aware of the issue until I saw a Messenger message from our beloved blog mom, Renee, alerting me to the concern. That made me smile. I fixed it and let her know. And I explained that I had been focused this morning on the church service that was live-streamed by Washington National Cathedral. Turns out she'd tuned in as well! It was the first time we ever went to church together. 😄

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  7. Debate Prep: Watch this clip before tonight's debate. If you can, watch all of Season 7, Episode 7 of the West Wing. Imagine a debate like that.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMMfFIx1ZfI&t=28s&fbclid=IwAR1-PxIVzCo7i3oCze0diTSq-PzRLi5eHgGGEYgh_e2gN0w_opMeYiOhefw

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  8. Susan—this is for you: The Price of Beef Is About to Plummet—Thanks to Coronavirus [Click] Why have hamburger when you can have steak?

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    1. Which reminds me of the way ranchers got screwed by a combination of irrational exuberance and politics related to the Trans Pacific Partnership. Japanese like beef heavily veined with fat, and for what they consider premium quality they will pay very high prices. One of the most famous kinds is "Wagyu" beef. Anticipating a big market when TPP went into effect, there were US ranchers who raised herds of Wagyu-like cattle, all ready to go for prices higher than any US beef had ever before brought. Then the TPP was pickled, and the ranchers were left with beef they could only sell in the US as hamburger. I expect those ranchers lost money on all of it.

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    2. Because I hate steak? I don't like meat in any recognizable form. I can tolerate hamburger if I don't think about it too much, but that is the only *real* meat I eat. No chicken or fish either.

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    3. And the moral of the story is, don't count your chickens before they hatch.

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    4. At the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Spokane, a group of us went to a restaurant that, among other things, featured wagyu beef. I had had wagyu beef during a tour prior to the 2010 Worldcon in Yokohama, and as expected didn't particularly like it. Fat is not my thing.

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    5. Good for you, Susan! Meats are harder to store and don’t keep long. Beans with rice and cornmeal, nuts, nut butters, soups and whole grain crackers, oatmeal and raisins. There’s plenty to eat that stores well for months!

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    6. Well, that would certainly be a good reason, Susan!

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    7. Bill--you and me both. People in Japan wouldn't eat a Wagyu steak, though; they would have it sliced very thin and broiled or otherwise prepared so that most of the fat would melt away. Once a well-meaning person served me prime rib, which I ate out of politeness, but good heavens--there was SO much fat in it!

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    8. Well, good Heavens then, what's the point of the fat?

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    9. So make it tender, as I understand. It's the fat that makes it USDA Prime.

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  9. Trump Relaxing Oversight of Nursing Homes [Click] Bad timing, what?

    First presidential debate staged in a television studio since Nixon-Kennedy [Click]

    =======================
    March 15, 2020 By Taegan Goddard

    “If you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country…go to your local pub.”
    — Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), on Fox News, telling people to ignore the advice of public health experts.

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    1. The Cow that talks about Devin is smarter than he is. Finally a country with a leader even more stupid than ours! Boris Johnson wants everyone over 70 to self-quarantine for four months. Meanwhile he wants everything to continue as usual so everyone can get sick and "herd immunity" will develop. OMG. I never thought I'd live to see a modern time with so many stone-age brained people!

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    2. And they are the ones in charge!

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    3. You beat me to it, Susan:

      From the It Could be Worse Files, we bring you Boris Johnson:
      I’m an epidemiologist. When I heard about Britain’s ‘herd immunity’ coronavirus plan, I thought it was satire [Click]

      So much for the supposed value of an Oxford education.

      As for Devin's cow, I would certainly vote for her rather than him. But I doubt he owns one. I think it was last year when he listed a ranch in his district among his assets--with a value of $50.000. When questioned, he refused to say where it was. People were skeptical about it.

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  10. Ohio bars and restaurants closed as of 9 pm today. Carry out will continue.

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    1. Are you folks stocked up for a few weeks?

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    2. More or less. Could have used more toilet paper, but the hoarders cleared the shelves. I made sure to get extra pet food and cat litter. Demetrius needed to pick up a new computer monitor to be able to work from home for two days, and everyone else in the store seemed to have the same need. I bet it will be more than two days.

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  11. Replies
    1. Saw a thing on Facebook that mentioned that Lysol is toxic to cats.

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    2. I've had a couple of cases where people bumped themselves off by drinking it.

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  12. PSA: Please read this now and bookmark it.

    In persons whose immune systems don’t slow down as COVID-19 recedes, their bodies hit a cytokine storm and their organs may begin to shut down.
    However, by an easy, readily available serum ferritin blood test, doctors can tell whose bodies may be likely to have a cytokine storm and be able to anticipate it and head it off with the anti-inflammation drug Actemra (tocilizumab). Actemra is used in the U.S. for rheumatoid arthritis.
    https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/the-coronavirus-turns-deadly-when-it-leads-to-cytokine-storm-identifying-this-immune-response-is-key-to-patients-survival-report.html

    My thanks to puddle for this article!!

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    1. It is theorized that cytokine storms were the reason so many of the people who died in the second wave of the 1918 flu were relatively young--20 to 40 years old, and therefore probably with capable immune systems. Ferritin is an "acute phase reactant," a protein that increases in the blood when the body is under stress; very nonspecific by itself. It became easy to test for around 20 or 30 years ago.

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    2. Very cool. I hope we do at least that test for every person being hospitalized with COVID-19.

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  13. Are you watching the debate?

    First thing, they called on Joe Biden and before he even spoke he coughed and touched his mouth!

    Bernie sounds healthy and is doing well.

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    1. Is it that time already? I guess it is. The sun is still up here. I will watch it after dinner.

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    2. Yeah, definitely eat first. 😜

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    3. IMNSHO, Bernie is way ahead of Biden on Climate Change.

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    4. I heard earlier today that Biden was going to try to woo Bernie's supporters tonight. There's 25 minutes left and I haven't seen any of that yet.

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    5. Bernie did great with his closing remarks.

      Biden actually said of the coronavirus crisis: "It's about bringing people together."
      😳

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    6. The e-mail from Our Revolution said Bernie won the debate. I wondered if that was just loyalty or an objective opinion.

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    7. I'd say it's a definite!! The CNN commentators always want so much to trounce Bernie and hail Biden. But they were saying how surprised they were how Bernie held his own, etc.. The best they could come up with about Biden was that he didn't trip over his words as much as usual.

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  14. Biden Adopts Plans from Sanders and Warren [Click] Joe Weathervane; well, that’s consistent.

    Various notes:

    Thousands leave Miami cruise ship without screenings after former passenger got COVID-19 [Click]

    “Ticket sales plunged to their lowest levels in at least 20 years at North American movie theaters as the coronavirus pandemic led to one of Hollywood’s worst weekends at the box office,” the AP reports.

    Fed slashes interest rates, pledges to buy up loads of Treasury bonds and government backed mortgage securities. Stock market futures fall 5%, trading halted. Do I detect a lack of investor confidence?

    CDC Advises Canceling All Gatherings of 50 or More.

    NYC schools to close.

    Trump 'offers large sums' for exclusive access to coronavirus vaccine developed in Germany. [Click] German government does not favor the proposal.

    Sanders and Biden clash over best US response to coronavirus in first one-on-one debate.

    California governor directs all bars and nightclubs to close as coronavirus spreads.
    Gavin Newsom calls for bars, wineries, nightclubs and brewpubs in state to close and for all seniors to self-isolate. Oh, no! Not my wine cave!

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    1. "...and for all seniors to self-isolate." Please tell Newsom that I absoG--D--lutely hate every breath he takes. I am not a second-class citizen to be treated like s---. And yes, I am very, very, very angry.

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    2. You know who Newsom's ex wife is? *Kimberly*, Don Jr.s "girlfriend".

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    3. Here in Massachusetts, Gov. Baker has also closed bars and restaurants, except for takeout, and banned gatherings of twenty-five or more.

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    4. I considered wearing a balaklava for my outdoor excursions so that my age would be less evident. But we all agreed that it would make me look like a robber. Oh, well.

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  15. Maine, NH and VT schools are closing too.

    Vermont is up to 8 confirmed cases and Maine suddenly has 12.

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  16. trump supporters will kill themselves off. Some of them are making videos of themselves licking public toilet seats "to own the libs". Lick away, fools.

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