DL Open Thread: Sat., March 7, 2020
SXSW Canceled. This is just one event among many events that are being canceled. The economic impact is huge. $356 mill for the City of Austin alone. Something like 400,000 visitors. I fear we’re already in a recession that will only grow exponentially until this event is behind us.
An Upside To The Coronavirus? The air is cleaner and pollution is down. Significantly. Especially in China. For now.
How The Trump Administration Totally Screwed Up The Testing Protocols. Today’s Must-Read. All that Trump and Pence Happy Talk about millions upon millions of test kits. The most accurate number as to how many people have been tested? 1895. What a fucking disaster. BTW, in Europe the number of infections doubled in just three days. Can you imagine what will happen here when people are finally tested? Yikes. Here is your daily rundown from the NYTimes. BTW, two deaths in Florida? What will Vince McMahon do if they ask him to cancel Wrestlemania?
Mulvaney Out, Meadows In. Not sure why Le Grand Orange relegated this to the Friday news dump. But ‘Mick’ Mulvaney is, wait for it, headed to an ambassadorship to Northern Ireland, and conservative firebrand Rep. Mark Meadows is in as the new Chief of Staff.
DOJ Simply Not Prosecuting White Collar Crime. Cases at an all-time low under Trump/Barr. Dog bites man.
Bill Could Provide Paid Sick Leave. Since we are one of the few countries that don’t provide this, we are especially at risk for (a) economic chaos for those who get sick, and (b) illnesses caused b/c workers come to work when they shouldn’t. I wonder whether the coronavirus will prompt the Rethugs to act. Actually, no, I don’t. BTW, if you’re a gig economy worker, you’re still screwed.
Bill Clinton Still Sleazy After All These Years. Says that his affair with Monica Lewinsky was to help him, I’m not making this up, ‘to manage his anxieties’. I wish both the Clintons would just STFU. Amoral and unlikeable.
Are Wilmington Cops Telling The Truth About Latest Police Shooting? They could be, after all, there’s a first time for everything. But they’ve been caught lying quite a bit recently. This is what the so-called police ‘Bill of Rights’ hath wrought–the assumption that cops aren’t telling the truth b/c the law says they don’t have to.
What do you want to talk about?
Bill Clinton is the architect of where we are today. If Biden wins the nomination, with his history of statements and votes, Trump will turn him into Clinton’s conjoined twin.
Imagine yourselves in a rip current. The harder you swim the more precarious your situation. It’s scary & violent. But if you keep fighting it you’ll drown.
…..
Please note, feel free to do the old **but what if it’s you who are struggling against the** &c. If you do this you misunderstand.
Be well.
Another coronavirus silver lining: Two people who attended AIPAC’s confab tested positive for the virus, which means hundreds of right-wing assholes have been exposed to it, including dozens of Republican politicians.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving group.
Trump says a miracle will make the virus go away. So there is that.
Well, it made Mick Mulvaney go away, so maybe the virus IS the miracle.
SXSW cancelled and I can feel the bands and musicians pain, this is a premier festival. I can imagine “SXSW cancelled? Dammit, took five years to get in and now they cancel it!”
Yeah. Although it’s been overrun by the corporate media giants in recent years. Musical discovery is still important, but SXSW is a lot more than a music festival now. I liked it better when it was just a music festival.
Pardon me, I think I hear my rotary phone ringing…
Moscow Mitch pledges no epiphany, invalidating the premise of Joe Biden’s candidacy:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/06/under-a-democratic-president-mcconnell-vows-a-return-to-total-obstruction/
It was never very valid to begin with.
As noted Joe was a devotee of “all we have to do is talk to them”. Yeah… Right! If we flush Trump but not McConnell the problem is only half solved, Trump could have never gotten away with what he has without Moscow Mitch watching his back.