@245 Thank you Lissa & @244 Merchant Seaman, I'm going to check those books out. I'm getting stressed from being inside all the time. Even too restless and bored to eat properly. And really worried about friends and family who work in hospitals.

Music - playing Queen's Sheer Heart Attack
Books - C.S. Harris Sebastian St Cyr series
Movie - Jump Tomorrow

Why thank you Seaman Merchant for including me with the real persons. Riddle me this first though: if I sidled up to your bar and ordered two-finger what would I get? One can imagine a variety of answers.

I am reading:

Beowulf

and to my little one The Three Billy Goats' Gruff. Starts off good but a real tearjerker.

I am viewing:

Lord of the Rings. It's a movie about a powerful force for good being beaten by furry-footed sneaks.

I am listening to:

JT's Can't Stop the Feeling

@247: What a good idea! I just put a birthday card to my ex father in law in the mail and now you are inspiring me to write to others as well.
@250: I know right? He's wonderful.
@252: Which translation of Beowulf? I have Seamus Heaney's verse translation and I really liked it.

Can we impeach Trump now for being a failure with Coronavirus? I mean his failure will mean lives lost.

254

He's already impeached!

@255 he can be impeached again for all of his other crimes. they only impeached him for 2 of his crimes. of course the GOP will never remove him from office no matter how many crimes he commits or gets impeached for (they can't even be bothered to give one fuck that he's murdering americans, especially if they live in states where the governors don't suck his cock before asking him for supplies they need to prevent people from dying).

he just gutted the provision of oversight of the $500 BILLION in the stimulus bill. they will keep him in power as long as he keeps the taxpayer money flowing to them, unfettered and unsupervised.

@244 Merchant Seman, Lissa @245 & @253, and others:
Music: The Wall by Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, She's So Unusual, by Cyndi Lauper, Clair de Lune and Arabesque No. 1, by Claude Debussy, my own composed orchestral work, Sea Symphony, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
Books: The Witches are Coming, by Lindy West, Why Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast, My LIfe on the Road, Gloria Steinem
Films: Bless the Beasts and Children, Inherit the Wind, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (all three directed and produced by Stanley Kramer), Forrest Gump, Top Gun, Good Morning, Vietnam, Private Benjamin, The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, and Rain Man

@258 re @244: Gahhh! Excuse me! I meant Merchant Seaman. Sorry about the unintended typo.

@256 xina: Harvey Weinstein, now in prison, is in isolation after testing positive for coronavirus. He is likely to die alone and miserable. Should Trumpty Dumpty, Dencey Pencey and their Evil Empire face the same self induced fate, the world, what's left of it, would rejoice.

Only the soulless and depraved rejoice in the death and suffering in this pandemic and wish it on other people. They're the worst of the worst.

@260 it really is disturbing your pattern of drinking and abusing prescription medication. As the nights get later, quite regularly you start ideating miserable death and are gleeful about it.

I'm not sure why the peanut gallery can't separate this disturbing repeating pattern from its mostly Republicans creep targets.

But I can hold two things still:

Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump are terrible people.

You are experiencing a mental health crisis.

It whips ass that the president wants his signature on the stimulus checks so you dummies will think he’s giving you his money instead of what it really is, a payday loan from China that you will never be able to pay back and end up making your grandkids responsible for.

trump must resign:

Nader on our sociopathic
fake prez (whose biggest goal
seems to be keeping the Pandemic
around long enough to seize the next Election).

Oh, and trumpfy CAN order Big Pharma to make the necessary drugs.

http://www.radiorethink.com/tuner/?stationCode=kodx&stream=hi

Precisely the Messge his 'trumps coronavirus blah blah blah' mailer wanted to make -- if he OWNS it, then HE sent those checks out. He's an Expert at seizing the Message and wholly-Corps-owned Mass Media plays right along -- Never any Fact Checking on this fucking Faker -- they just take him at his LYING word.

And Good for our local NPR affiliate, KUOW fm 94.9, who no longer will air fake prez's Nurmemberg/Coronavirus Lie-Fest Updates. Meanwhile FOX is free to spread their facts-free Infotaintment It's just a HOAX! poopaganda, 24/7/365.25 regardless.

@267 was in agreement with and response to @265.

"Ralph Nader Radio Hour - Ralph talks with Katherine Eban about
how we can expect the coronavirus pandemic to affect the supply chain
for every drug we import.

And Jamie Love about how the government needs
to keep pharmaceutical companies from gouging American taxpayers in a
crisis, especially when the research and development of the drugs was
done with taxpayer money."

http://www.radiorethink.com/tuner/?stationCode=kodx&stream=hi

@266: Maybe he'll resign if Pence immediately pardons him.

Trump wants his signature on the checks. Meanwhile 99.9% of the people receiving checks will not get checks, they will have funds deposited directly into their accounts. Even social security recipients were forced to go to receiving direct deposits (or debit cards that funds were put on every month - and charged tons of fees) instead of getting an actual check. So, in essence, not only does Trump care so much about something that is totally meaningless when there are so many other things an actual POTUS would be caring about and doing at this time, he doesn't even know or understand that no one will see his goddamn signature when they get the money.

My condolences to Dr. Ming Lin for having the decency and moral courage to speak out for public health and safety, only to get fired when we need good healthcare workers and teams now, more than ever before. SHAME ON YOU, St. Joseph Hospital Adminis-traitors! A very grim reminder of my needing to stay out of hospitals and especially the ER at this point. Fellow residents of Whatcom County, take serious note.

Bless you, Nordstrom, for putting your tailors to good work! Kudos!

It's interesting that bumbling U.S.(New York, NY) -born Boris Johnson, serving as UK Prime Minister (how do the British people think of an incompetent white male Yank in charge?!?), now has coronavirus. It is only a matter of time before Trumpty Dumpty, Dencey Pencey, and the rest of the Evil Empire face their own self induced consequences.

Everyone--including the trolls--stay healthy, well, read, listen to & play music, watch your favorite movies. We're all in this together.

@271 xina: It wouldn't surprise me if Trumpty Dumpty uses invisible ink to make any actually printed U.S. Treasury economic stimulus checks to the 99.9% officially null and void. At this point, hitting 6 for 6 numbers on Powerball is more reliable.

@274, well he did gut their funding and basically neuter them. they're just another faction of his pr team now. he did seem to be able to understand (how? who knows) that he can't lock down states he wants to lock down so now the CDC has issued a "strong travel advisory" for new york, new jersey, and connecticut. and florida, denying all responsibility re: spring breakers taking the virus back home to half the country, is now checking license plates coming into the state with ny license plates. trump really believes he will be reelected if he kills enough new yorkers, all the while ignoring the fact that if enough people die in florida it will go blue. i mean that's what this all about to him. no human emotion. no empathy or sympathy or compassion for the sick or the dead. he just believes he can kill off enough people he doesn't like and he'll be able to stay president. i just want to know how many of his supporters need to die before he loses the entire faction of whack jobs in this country that believe he's some sort of human being that belongs in the WH.

@275 xina: You know what I'D love to see in November? The entire United States---what's left of it---turning totally blue. Then Trump, Pence, ad nauseum get tried, convicted and sent to prison on THEIR filthy laundry money--not any from taxpayers (has anyone ever seen or heard from the Tea Party, lately?).

I'm glad I'm not in Mississippi. I feel sorry for people trying to stay healthy down there.

277
so are they

@274 Trump sidelines the CDC during COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it's ego or internal politics, it's bad. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/26/1931515/-Trump-sidelines-the-CDC-during-COVID-19-pandemic-Whether-it-s-ego-or-internal-politics-it-s-bad

@276, me, too.

Wow. It needed to be said, and Pelosi said it.
She is always very precise in her language, says nothing she does not mean and can back up.
The D's have such a strong bench it is a shame we have to tolerate such a weak standard-bearer in Biden but such is our fate.

1 Flu Over The Cuckoo's Nest?

Hopefully, 1 Flu and the Cuckoo's Nest Is Over

Check out this story and map:

The green states have shut down. Those orange and red states? They aren’t taking this pandemic seriously.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/29/1932380/-California-proves-that-stay-in-place-orders-save-lives-Florida-and-Texas-hurl-toward-6-figures-dead

While the Cons're
busy pwning the Libs
COVID-19's pretty busy
pwning the Cons. Ouch.

COVID-19, like all disease, is politically agnostic. Elevated thinkers shun using diseases as fodder for political attacks.

"Elevated thinkers shun using dis-
eases as fodder for political attacks."

'Elevated thinkers' don't elect clueless Morons
who only make Pandemics exponentially Worse.

Moron Apologists do.
There's your cue.

@285

"Elevated thinkers shun using diseases as fodder for political attacks."

Donald Trump has politicized this public health emergency from day one. He He has politicized it internally by destroying the pandemic response organizations and protocols put in place by President Obama; he has politicized it by simply refusing to do his job as the so-called leader of this country, ignoring the threat, pretending it did not exist, lying to everyone who asked him about, and doing absolutely NOTHING to uphold the oath he took when he slithered into the White House.

Donald Trump has politicized it by allowing states he doesn't like (or states whose governors have refused to kiss his ass) the help they need in both supplies, declaration of state of emergency, and repeatedly said nasty, vile things about them on live TV like he's not responsible for THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, NO MATTER IF THEY'RE KISSING HIS ASS OR NOT; he has politicized it by constantly tying it to his ratings, his opponents, the media, and his own ego and self-worth - ALL WITH LIES AND BRAGGING; and he has politicized it by stating that his wealth and the economy and unemployment rates and everything else he wants to be able to brag about going into the election are more important than people's lives, so much so he believes people should sacrifice their lives for him and threatened to tell everyone in the country to get back to business on his chosen date, Easter.

Donald Trump has politicized it by not taking any responsibility, blaming everyone but himself (Obama, the Democrats, the House for impeaching him, the people running ads using his own voice/image/words telling lie after lie after lie about how this situation was under control, nasty reporters, mean Governors, doctors and scientists who don't know as much he does, and the list goes on and on and on and on...)

Donald Trump has also politicized this internationally with his non-stop referral to COVID-19 as the Chinese virus.

Donald Trump has viciously, intentionally, and relentlessly politicized COVID-19 and his talking heads (FOX news, Hannity, etc.) and his riled up base have done the same. Jerry Falwell Jr. even opened Liberty University and now there's students who are sick. FOX news is worried it is going to get sued for spreading misinformation (it would be wonderful if it were sued out of existence).

@287/286: Weak sauce. Such examples don't negate my point unless you think they're elevated thinkers.

Your point, not to put too fine a point on it, rainy, is your constant harping about fairness and cheap demands for 'etiquette' and non-stop Apologetics re all thing Neoliberal make you insufferable.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 45 million cases of the flu in the United States during the 2017-2018 influenza season, resulting in 810,000 flu-associated hospitalizations and 61,000 deaths.

61,000 > 2,450

@293 -- Well, then, unPanikyPandemicPoser
get the fuck Out There and take one for the Team
and don't forget to Mingle with your like-minded Cohorts.

El trumpfy's a' Countin' on ya.

@292: Insufferable? A rather hypocritical comment from someone with such ubiquitous bloviation.

Hypocritical?
I never claimed to be sufferable.
But you contine to make my Point.
Points.

The trolls should get back to licking doorknobs or talk a long walk outside (since this whole thing is a Democrap hoax). Everything's going awesome for you guys, and your totally amazing president is easily MAGAing and skating to reelection, right?

Why you all so stressed then?

Xina, you're right on the money. Stay safe, ya'all.

@Trolly Troll

"You hate-blinded ignorant asshole.

Karma is a Bitch to the Evil;
she has been feasting on the ass
of The Left for four years now...

you ignorant slut."

Your Projections are magnificent.

Your defense (of the indefensible) trump
meaningless in terms of All The Hurt he's
causing and will Continue to Cause till he either Resigns or steps aside for SOMEONE WHO CAN RUN THIS FUCKING THING -- he's TOTALLY IN-fucking-capable.

And your refusal to See it makes you Complicit.

Just 'cause you saw something
on FOX don't. make. it. True.

THEY'RE using You.

@298 -- BINGO
& thank you.

"COVID-19, like all disease, is politically agnostic. Elevated thinkers shun using diseases as fodder for political attacks."

Of course. But we certainly can use a person's response to a pandemic as a political attack, right? If there is a fire, and the fire chief says "this is nothing, we have fires all the time -- I think reports of this fire are designed to make me look bad", and the whole fucking city burns down, don't you think the chief should expect a little criticism?

Here are a few facts regarding the pandemic. These are how some countries have responded to the pandemic. The first column is when the virus was first detected in that country. The third is how many people, total, have died so far:

Jan 10, China, 3,300
Jan. 12, Thailand, 7
Jan. 14, Japan, 54
Jan. 19, South Korea, 152
Jan. 20, Taiwan, 3
Jan. 20, USA, 2,475
Jan. 22, Singapore, 3
Jan. 22, Hong Kong, 4
Jan. 24, Australia, 17

In every case, the numbers are likely to go up. But in those where the numbers are small (Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia) it is unlikely they come close to the number that have died in this country already, let alone the total number that will die. South Korea -- unlike most countries -- is on the downward side of the curve. Even though they were hit very hard with the virus -- as hard as China -- they will likely come out of this with fewer than 200 dead.

Trump has fucked up the response, even though the U. S. was better prepared to handle this than any country on the planet. It would be like having Mexico invade us, take Texas, the Southwest, and Oregon (just for giggles) even though we have the best military on earth. What the fuck.

You can find report after report of how Trump screwed the pooch on this. You can argue that it is unseemly to talk about things, but there is no doubt that the pooch has been screwed.

Man, Trump is pushing for more social distancing?! Why is he promoting this liberal hoax? What a leftist.

And the Army is setting up a hospital at CenturyLink?! Guess they're succumbing to the liberal media panic. They must be scared of the flu. What a bunch of pussies.

What's next, they gonna cancel NASCAR?

If only they had the manly courage of our brave Slog trolls.

@297: Yes, you're right. Hypocritical is inapt in that context as I've never claimed to be insufferable myself.

And during his daily hit of narcissistic supply, Trump claimed all of the nurses and doctors and health care workers begging for medical equipment are really just liars and thieves, because there is no way they need that many masks.

And right now Louisiana has more confirmed COVID-19 cases per capita than any other state.

And Liberty University, re-opened by Jerry Falwell Jr.is now seeing sick students. How many will be infected because of his fealty to Trump and his religious insanity?

As for the comparison to ONE YEAR'S WORTH OF FLU DEATHS, from January 20 (the first case in the U.S.) to today is just over 2 months. Make the comparison of flu deaths vs. COVID-19 deaths at the 12 month mark.

The so-called 'right's' goal is to make OUR Governement so fucking Bad we all want it to just go away so's they can Privatize the motherfucker and sell it off piecemeal like Put-in did/still does to Russia.

Corporate/Oligarchical Rule* is their sole goal.

Do I have that right, Trollly?
What do you get out of it?

*Fascism

@293, Dr. Fauci estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 could die from Covid-19. He said this is a middle of the road estimate.

From the New York Times: "Coronavirus Slowdown
in Seattle Suggests Restrictions Are Working"

"Officials in Washington State worry that their gains are precarious, but they see evidence that containment strategies have lowered the rate of virus transmission."

"The largest outbreak in the country is now in New York, which reported 237 deaths on Sunday, the state’s deadliest day so far. The number of confirmed cases there jumped by 7,200, reaching 59,513. More than half — 33,768 — were in New York City, where hospitals and the city’s 911 system have been overwhelmed.

'I don’t think there’s any way to look at those numbers,' Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said, 'without seeing thousands of people pass away.'"

"With so many states now deep in crisis, the signs of provisional success in the Seattle area offer a lesson for other cities and regions that are just beginning to see the onset of the coronavirus: Early and aggressive action to contain the spread may help lower the trajectory of a virus that could otherwise overwhelm health systems."

"'There is evidence that doing the aggressive measures can have a benefit,' Gov. Jay Inslee said in an interview, discussing the overall numbers he is seeing.

But the governor said that the state was far from turning a corner. While there are indications of improvement, he said, he has also seen numbers in the last few days that still have him worried, including a rise in positive test results statewide and the emergence of new cases in rural areas.

He said more restrictions may yet be needed, and that the state is not 'within 1,000 miles of declaring victory.'"

The NYT is offering FREE access to its COVID-19 reporting.

See more at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/us/seattle-washington-state-coronavirus-transmission-rate.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

Comparing a year's worth of flu cases and deaths to two months' worth of COVID-19 cases and deaths is absurd. Compare the numbers at 12 months.

@NYT:

"Coronavirus Live Updates: Trump Extends Social Distancing Guidelines to April 30 as U.S. Cases Top 140,000"

Looks like we got a Month, baby.
Enjoy it, while you can.

"The global count has passed 700,000, an official warns Britain that some kind of lockdown may last for months and Joe Biden urges mail-in elections.

RIGHT NOW -- More than 894,000 tests have been performed in the United States, according to the Trump administration’s point man for testing."

"新冠病毒疫情最新消息"

"... and Joe Biden urges mail-in elections."

Big Joe, steppin' Out!
Yipee!

Thank you, xina, and kristofarian, for staying so consistently spot on.
May the trolls get the help they need as well as better educated.

298

"The trolls should get back to licking doorknobs ......"

you do realize that doorknob licking is Danny's speciality, right?
he even did time for it in Iowa.
google it.

"You're nothing to me." A former Joe Biden aide says those words are still ringing in her ears after he allegedly sexually assaulted her in 1993, the Huffington Post reports.

The accuser, Tara Reade, went on a podcast this week and said Biden kissed her, thrust his fingers inside her, and got upset when she pushed him off: "Come on, man!" he supposedly said.

"I heard you liked me." Reade claims he then jabbed a finger at her and said she was nothing: "And he was right. That's how people treated me ... I have no platform, I am no one and to him I'm nothing." Reade was among eight women who accused Biden in April of inappropriate touching, but says she kept quiet about the rest after enduring a wave of online harassment.

Bro, nobody gives a shit about women or sexual harassment. Your little post is probably convincing trump republicans to vote for joe. All the misogyny and half the incompetence of the current president.

I like this post 313. Same factionalized follower you; no freaking out murder porn.

Keep it up!

Tara Reade a couple of years back on Medium:

”“What if I told you that everything you learned about Russia was wrong? President Putin scares the power elite in America because he is a compassionate, caring, visionary leader. … To President Putin, I say keep your eyes to the beautiful future and maybe, just maybe America will come to see Russia as I do, with eyes of love. To all my Russian friends, happy holiday and Happy New Year.”

And Garb the ex-troll dumbass leaps at the easy "love me internet randos cause daddy didn't" easy points.

Does it prove her allegations untrue that she wrote bizarrely fawning love letters about Putin? Of course not.

Should that context be ignored? Also of course not.

319
Well, obviously she deserves to have EVERYONE stick their fingers up her twat...

320
We are.
Like a laser beam.
It's the Election, Stupid.
But go ahead, stick your head in the sand and stick with Joe;
obviously you won't be satisfied until all nine of the Supremes are Liberty U graduates...

He's Wormtongue
thru & thru

@328 -- OOh! Stranger's
now Sponsoring Comments,
on Slog! Pan-Demic, Bay-bay!

Not to Worry, @Clawell
I reported it, so that's as
good as Stranger Guarantee
it'll be up there, for all Time!

Tell all your loan shark buds.
Oh, and Potions and Magical
Elixar Perveyors and 'doktors' too!;

Oh, wait

' We don't need no stinking charismatic leadership !! '
Good.
How about basic lucidity?
Wish for Bernie, Settle for Biden- newsflash; Trump is who you are getting.