Month: May 2020

 

President Obama to high school graduates provided via jobsanger:

This pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare a lot of our country’s deep-seated problems — from massive economic inequality to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it. It’s woken a lot of young people up to the fact that the old ways of doing things just don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and our democracy only work when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.

It’s also pulled the curtain back on another hard truth, something that we all have to eventually accept once our childhood comes to an end. All those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? Turns out that they don’t have all the answers. A lot of them aren’t even asking the right questions. So, if the world’s going to get better, it going to be up to you.

That realization may be kind of intimidating. But I hope it’s also inspiring. With all the challenges this country faces right now, nobody can tell you “no, you’re too young to understand” or “this is how it’s always been done.” Because with so much uncertainty, with everything suddenly up for grabs, this is your generation’s world to shape.

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From Infidel753:

Trump’s response to covid-19 has seemed bizarre because it’s so obviously contrary to self-interest. He repeatedly says it will just disappear, perhaps by magic, though common sense would tell him it’s unwise to go on record predicting something so unlikely. He keeps pushing “re-opening” and deprecating precautions, in hopes of reviving the economy, though common sense would tell him that a hugely increased death toll (caused largely by the course of action he urged) would hurt his re-election chances more than the recession would. He ignores and rejects expert advice, though common sense would tell him that it’s of practical use in navigating the crisis which will now define his presidency.

It’s actually a huge missed opportunity. Before covid-19 came along, Trump was already suffering from low approval ratings, a highly-motivated opposition, and the disdain of most of the population outside his own blind cult following. If he had handled the pandemic well — as much as Cuomo has in New York, for example — he could have redeemed himself, won widespread acclaim, and probably guaranteed his own re-election, even a landslide. Why didn’t he see this?

It’s not a matter of pandering to the Trumpanzees and Republican politicians who are downplaying the crisis. It’s they who have followed his lead in doing so, not vice-versa.

This looks to me like something more bizarre and alarming than his standard selfishness and greed.

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In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

If Polly said to me about all my hard work, All praise be to Jesus for this wonderful fried chicken, I would be more than a bit upset.

Morse, on the other hand, has never cooked a meal, or done anything else for that matter, without at least thinking that Jesus was worthy of all praise, honor and glory.

Morse concludes his post by telling readers what he would say to the aforementioned godless happy man if given the opportunity to do so again:

The Christian faith is not merely about man’s happiness, although God gives more joy than you can now imagine. Christianity addresses how sinful men, women, and children can be reconciled to their Creator and live happy lives for his glory. God has placed good gifts to summon you to see God’s ultimate gift: his Son, Jesus Christ. He came to save a people he didn’t have to save. To live a life we couldn’t live. To die the death we deserved to die. And to rise, summoning all everywhere to turn away from their sin, and trust in his finished work on the cross for sinners.

The smartphone in your pocket has everything to do with this God. The music massaging your ears, the colors jumping before your eyes, the gladness of heart and the love you feel are kindnesses from God with one message upon their lips: “Repent and believe.”

With a straight face with Morse asserts without one whit of evidence, “The smartphone in your pocket has everything to do with this [the Calvinistic] God.” In other words, if I carefully peer into the screen of my iPhone I will see “God.” That’s right, iPhones lead us to Jesus. Android phones? Straight to Satan and Hell! Only iPhones lead to the straight and narrow way.

That Morse would dare to utter such nonsense out loud is quite amusing.

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From Nan’s Notebook:

Oh dear, oh dear. We’ve become such baaad people! Poor God has had to step in –once again– to tell us to straighten up and fly right.

Gosh, people. When are we going to get the message?

Of course one can’t help but wonder why this almighty powerful entity messes around with a silly virus. Why doesn’t “he” just wipe out the human race as “he” did in Noah’s day and start over?

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From Tommy Christopher:

On Saturday morning, Trump retweeted video of his supporters verbally attacking and stalking reporter Kevin Vesey as he tried to file a story on their protest. Vesey captioned his video by writing “The level of anger directed at the media from these protestors was alarming. As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today.”

Trump wrote “People can’t get enough of this,” and added “Great people!”

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

“What happens if I get sick with the virus? Would you have to stay away?”

All night long I couldn’t shake the image in my mind of one of my kids being sick and scared and suffering, and not being able to give them the one thing parents can provide when the word caves in for our children: physical contact that makes them feel safe.

It reminded me that 86,000 families have faced these unthinkable challenges over the past three months; that many had to lose loved ones they couldn’t embrace or climb into bed with, or had taken from them so quickly they weren’t able to kiss them on the head or wipe the hair from out of their eyes or hold their hands one last time. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are grieving right now.

This makes me even more furious that so many people not faced with such unthinkable trauma are still ignoring restrictions, refusing masks, dismissing the numbers, complaining about their imagined oppression, harassing grocery store workers—and defiantly enabling a sociopathic leader who couldn’t care less about human life.

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• At least it doesn’t involve injections of household cleaning products. The Journal of Improbable Research discovers a beginning study by two Canadian universities on the potential treatment of COVID-19 with an extract from marijuana.
   
  I didn’t have the heart to snark about why there are no solid results yet. I drilled down a little into the links, then drilled through the research jargon. If all the dots connect and it works, it will break down one enzyme and prevent it from combining with all the others to allow the coronavirus to enter cells.
   
• Up to about 10 years ago, the Christian Science church embraced a rigid anti-medical dogma. The practice of medicine is a fraud because all illness simply reflects a lack of fervent faith. I noticed a few news stories in 2010 explaining that faith leaders were ready to modify that tenet a bit and allow medical treatment. But then it dropped off my radar. No idea how it stands now.
   
  I’m reminded of all that by some of the Trump faithful. Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit carries news of a barber who defied stay-at-home orders and opened shop. After all, the pandemic is just a hoax meant to make the president look bad. Seems the barber is now testing positive for the virus.
   
  Back when I was a teen, satirist Tom Lehrer talked about 1965 – “…it has been a nervous year and people have begun to feel like a Christian scientist with appendicitis.” Which might just describe militants who get sick. Don’t know about their grandparents.
   
• Max’s Dad is funny and eloquent when he rants. This time he is pretty much fed up with the bully boys from the Michigan Militia, the governor of South Dakota who is bullying the Lokota Nation into accepting the virus, folks who refuse requests to pre-order before showing up at an ice-cream parlor then scream at employees and close the place, and an anti-social-distance hairdresser in Dallas who turns out to be a scam artist, ripping off donors to the cause. Title of the piece: Mean People Suck! Well, yeah.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara says closing a business for violating a stay-at-home order violates the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Besides, those business owners are not defrauding their customers. And aren’t those customers just as guilty of safer-at-home violations? Hey! Equal protection, folks! Sheesh.
   
• Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson watches as the state Supreme Court rules against the Governor’s safer-at-home order, then offers advice to fellow conservatives: Just wear the mask, already.
   
• Nan’s Notebook goes to market and celebrates that big deal, because she finally was able to get a mask.
   
• JoAnn Williams at Biased Unbalanced and Politically Incorrect describes the Son of God to a pastor who refuses to wear a mask to protect others because he can’t picture Jesus wearing one.

Continue reading “COVID-19, Weed v Virus, Protesters, Replace Fauci, Too Many Tests, Socks”

 
A short film

From the Atlantic Magazine:

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From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

People who hate all the presidential candidates, but still end up voting for one of them

Who are these people? According to one pollster, “There are a number of people who hate politics and politicians, and they play somewhat of a swing role in the country.” Let’s call this demographic the haters.

In 2016, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had high disapproval ratings, and almost 20% of voters were “haters”, which makes it a rather significant demographic. In exit polls during the election, Trump got 17% more of the hater vote than Clinton. This was more than enough to change the winner in several of the battleground states.

Indeed, our Electoral College system turn a 17% lead in a single demographic group into the difference between winning and losing. This is especially true for a demographic like haters, which is spread out over a large number of states.

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From Frances Langum:

Womp Womp! Koch money isn’t funding the LIBERTY! astroturf, so…surprise! The “where’s my haircut” people are going back inside.

Trump voters are not allowed to rebrand themselves as “independent constitutional conservatives who never liked the tweeting but just want LIBERTY” only with more misspellings.

And their “Reopen” rallies were BS astroturf. Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post:

Recent attempts to reenact the erstwhile tea party protests in a movement to oppose coronavirus-related shutdowns have shown signs of fizzling despite President Trump’s weird cheerleading.

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