Comments

1

That choir practice was March 10. There was a Sounders game March 8 which drew an attendance of 33K+, the smallest attendance the Sounders have had since their earliest years. Clearly, some portion of the fan base was prudent enough to stay away. It's obvious now it was a grave mistake on the part of the Sounders and MLS and even the city and the state to allow that game to go forward. I wonder how many lives that ended up costing.

All the way back on February 19, there was a Champions League match in Milan between Atalanta of Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy and the Spanish club Valencia. 40K attended that match. It's now being referred to as Game Zero: https://time.com/5809848/game-zero-soccer-game-italy/. Bergamo is the region that has suffered the most devastating losses, and it's hard to see it as a coincidence that Spain is second to Italy now worldwide is COVID-19 deaths.

I'll tell you who DID do the right thing. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. No sooner did a player test positive than he shut down the whole league. Silver could have taken the predictable corporate exec tack and dallied 24 hours or 48 hours while the pressure was building up for him to suspend play, all the while looking like he was an out-of-touch business type who only cared about the money, all the while having some "crisis management" consultants whisper sweet-nothings in his ear. Instead, he had the guts and the character and the wisdom to cut to the chase. The other North American sports leagues swiftly followed suit.

We can look back now and say that Adam Silver saved thousands of lives by acting swiftly and decisively. The only question is how many thousands.

2

A breathy afternoon of hymn singing in a chorus is something that would have raised my concern. That poor choir.

3

Correction. That Sounders match was not March 8. It was March 7.

The scary thing is, that one day probably made a tangible difference in the death toll.

4

https://youtu.be/36Y_ztEW1NE

5

"A warning for people who are not taking self-isolation seriously: A Mount Vernon choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead."

And then, the Stranger's got its very own trolling trolly trolls spreading Misinformation and, much much worse, Malinformation -- still following FOX/Fake 'prez's' lead -- all in our heads, they say.

In our fucking Hospitals I say.

They figure if they can keep the Pandemic around here, long enough, delay the Peak so they can steal the next Election, Fascism'll be home Free.

So: Is it "Free Speech" to say,
'sit down, shut up, Pussys /Cucks!
this Theatre's NOT on Fire! FAKE NEWS!'
or isn't it?

6

@5 I like that you use the work "pussy" to describe a weak and fearful person. Because women have those, and women are weak and fear .... oh no wait a minute on second thought you're a misogynist asshole (we all got one of them).

7

hey @6 pussy meaning fearful is derived from pusillanimous.

8

@7, like you, or his mother, or anyone else thinks @5's smart enough to know that?

9

The previous "sick burn" in three parts was brought to you by the Kresge Foundation.

12

@10 .jaypeg? Are you slagging off our Governor? Immature. I like the guy, although he does seem kinda like a kind-hearted woman spent one drunken night with a super intelligent Golden Retriever.

Certainly better than Trump's head-injured Gordon Gecko meets head-injured orangutan.

13

Anyone else hate shopping now? I feel pretty good most of the time, but the grocery store feels like the apocalypse. I feel like I need a drink when I finish my shopping.

15

@5 kristofarian: Holy shit (no pun intended). A choir in Mount Vernon assembled to sing, only to raise the CONVID-19 death toll. At least the citizens of Skagit County are better off than those of us in Whatcom County, hospital and ER-wise. Skagit County has three hospitals (Skagit Valley Medical Center, Mount Vernon, Island Hospital in Anacortes, and United General in Sedro-Woolley) to our one (Saint Joseph / PeaceHealth Hospital in Bellingham). I would not want to have to be in a hospital, ER, or a gun shop at this point.
And Skagitonians don't have to worry about invasive crowds pooping behind barns, in the fields, ditches, parking lots, and driveways this year now that after 37 years, the annual Tulip Festival has been cancelled.
@13 Manta: I know, right? Red wine helps.

Everybody stay healthy, safe and sane.

16

@13,

Yeah, I was never a fan even during normal times, though this has undeniably made it worse.

Also, I used to be able to enjoy a quiet afternoon spent at home listening to NPR for a few hours, if not entire afternoon. These days.... Ugh, there's not really even any "news" being reported, just a reliable update to the ever increasing infection/death tolls every few minutes.

17

I haven't seem I-5 this deserted since 1969. Creepy.

18

@17: Correction: "I haven't seen I-5 this deserted since 1969. Creepy."
For some reason I have more typos when not consuming alcohol.

Trumpty Dumpty and its minions are the sickest puppies of all. May they drop like flies, and soon.

19

Paging 'doktor' Nelson:

Can you Cure Wormtongue
@6, 7, 8, 9, and 12?

He gots it REAL Bad.

And all's he wants is for Y'alls
to get a little Dose a' C-19

And then, maybe trumpfy can have
another four more years
-- for Fascism.

20

@3, so those bougie soccer fans have relatives in Kirkland?:)

23

Containers. Stack 'em up like cordwood
chutes n' ladders doors that lock toilets
that flush a Fan or two that work/s
and doesn't suck from somebuddy
else's vent. A wee bed and chair/s
a table, maybe a window or two
how Hard can that be?

Would a hundred Billion cover it?
Are our citizens Worth it?

'Civilization' we call it.
In thee richest country
in the History of countries
on all known and unknown Planets.

Human
ø
humane.

24

That covid 19 kicked off in December. I went to two Xmas functions that had thousands of people attending. Imagine trying to do that now? jeepers creepers.

25

One might tear off a plastic bag
& use it as a glove to pick thru
veggies were one so Inclined.

26

@16: Yeah, I miss the good old days when the news was about Russian election tampering, cybersecurity, climate change, Senate committees, and the Southern District of New York.

27

🎶But I don't know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs...🎶

28

@26,

At least it was a far more diverse array of depressing.

29

@13 Come on down to the Fred Meyer in Kirkland. It's like the heady days before this all hit where the store just lets in a shocking number of people and those people enjoy practicing social distancing by touching every goddamn thing in the store and then putting it back and standing so close to you that in some cultures, we would be considered married now.

30

Jesus, these poor people who can't be with their family members that are dying. This restriction is over the top. If people are willing to be quarantined afterwards in exchange for being there in the last moments - why not allow it? Unbelievable - you lose that chance you never have it again.

31

@1 -- Good point. Yeah, the NBA shut down immediately -- in one case, the players were warming up, fans had already started arriving, and they cancelled it. It would have been easy to just play that game, and the other ones scheduled for that night. It took courage to shut it down, and it was clearly the right choice.

In one sense, they were lucky, because Rudy Golbert had symptoms, and they were able to test him. Donovan Mitchell later tested positive but had no symptoms. Golbert was acting like an idiot, mocking the safety precautions before he got sick. If the disease had hit him like it hit Mitchell, then it is quite possible it would have spread undetected for far longer.

Which again shows the importance of testing. We should be testing the fuck out of the country right now. We should have been doing it for a long time. It is possible this could have been contained early, the way that Australia has contained it, or at worse, the way that South Korea contained it. Our inability to adequately test people has cost the lives of thousands, and will cost way more in the future.

32

Dr Nelson? I think you mean Dr Nick. "
Hi Dr Nick! Hi Everybody!!"
spammers.

33

CDC finds that 25% of Those Infected with COVID-19 Never Show Any Symptoms At All

CDC Director On Models For The Months To Come: 'This Virus Is Going To Be With Us'
Q: Has the CDC learned anything new about the virus, such as how contagious it is or how it is transmitted, in recent weeks?
A: Let's take transmission. ... This virus does have the ability to transmit far easier than flu. It's probably now about three times as infectious as flu.
One of the [pieces of] information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25%. That's important, because now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission, and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission.
And finally, of those of us that get symptomatic, it appears that we're shedding significant virus in our oropharyngeal compartment, probably up to 48 hours before we show symptoms. This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country, because we have asymptomatic transmitters and we have individuals who are transmitting 48 hours before they become symptomatic.

34

"You have 50 states competing to buy the same item [ventilators]. It’s like being on Ebay. How inefficient!”

Actually, it is the most efficient system possible.
The Free Market.

35

Chris Cuomo has the virus;
he will do the show every night from his living room, and be fine;
after a few days some folks will start to realize that this is all a big nothing-burger and that Chris and the other media stooges of The Left have been scaring them shitless over nothing.

The only way Chris can avoid being outed as a damn Leftist stooge lying propagandist pretending to be a 'journalist' is if he dies, a horrible gasping painful death, on his show.

37

Here is an interesting Coronavirus fact:
America's Patient Zero came to Seattle (from Wuhan) on the same day the Democraps were marching their bill of Impeachment into the Senate.
Talk about sadly misplaced priorities.
Talk about placing rabid political partisan hatred above looking out for the people.
Talk about giving Karma a big red bullseye on your far ass.
Of course,
we know that farcical fetid shitpie of an 'impeachment' would soon blow up all in the Democrap's faces, and raise Trumps approval among Americans.
And as fast as Democraps try to spin the Coronavirus situation for political gain it raises the Presidents approval even higher.
By the time Democraps are finished digging they will be canoning Trump....
(and burying the Democrats in the hole they have been furiously digging)

38

33
That 25% figure is low.
Very low.
Lots of folks have had the virus and never showed up in any counts at all because they had no or mild symptoms and never went to the doctor.
As PANDEMIC!!s go 19 is pretty tame.

40

So that's Trump's excuse for screwing the pooch? That he was too busy defending himself from the crimes he committed to actually do his job?

Give me a fucking break. The first U. S case was reported on January 20. On January 21 the Republican majority voted to reject 11 amendments proposed by Democrats, which requested subpoena authority to introduce testimony from current and former White House officials. At that point, the impeachment was over. I can understand why the president would be distracted on the 21st, but by the 22nd, he knew that he not only was going to continue to be president (a given) but that the Democrats couldn't reveal any more evidence about his wrongdoing.

Trump was officially acquitted on February 5. One day earlier, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, two former senior U.S. officials call on the Trump administration to launch broader surveillance testing to find infected patients and isolate them, and urge the FDA to allow private labs to develop diagnostic tests. Thus on the 5th, or 6th, or 7th, he could have jumped into action, newly exonerated (in his mind, anyway) and acted with the speed, courage and conviction of other countries (South Korea, Singapore, Australia, etc.).

But instead, he continued to screw the pooch. On February 24 he tweeted:

"The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA, We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. "

On March 4th -- six weeks after the first case and four weeks after he was acquitted of all charges, he compared the virus to the flu.

I could go on. It is clear that Trump was more concerned about the stock market than he was a major epidemic overwhelming the health care system. He ignored the advice of professional experts, and relied on idiotic political appointees (like Alex Azar, who replaced Tom Price). He screwed the pooch, repeatedly, and is now looking to shift blame, as he always does.

41

@38 -- You must be pretty old. This virus ain't nothing. I remember the Spanish Flu, from 1918. Now that baby was a pandemic. It hit you hard, then, when you thought it was over, it hit you even harder. Don't get me started about the Bubonic Plague ...

Yeah, in general this disease isn't the worst. The fatality rate is higher than most influenza strains, but it is nothing like Ebola, or AIDS (before there was treatment). There is a lag time between being contagious, and having symptoms (making the current testing approach almost useless) but it is nothing like AIDS in that respect. It is fairly contagious, but not that contagious -- nothing like measles.

Overall, it isn't the worst pandemic, but that just shows how terrible our response has been. A relatively mild virus overwhelms several countries, but especially the U. S. -- a country that should handle it better than anyone. To be clear, several countries did handle it well. South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia all did a very good job, all things considered. South Korea even managed to deal with a religious sect that didn't believe the rules applied to them (sound familiar, America?). But when all is said and done, it is quite likely that the U. S. will have the poorest response, and making it worse, we had a blueprint for doing it right. We just ignored it, because the president was too fixated on the stock market, and how a downturn would hurt his reelection chances.

42

@30 It's because they are also trying to keep the other patients in the hospital and the healthcare staff safe. If they had extra PPE then they could suit up the family suit up and let them come in. But right now they don't even have enough PPE for staff. Besides, COVID-19 is an infectious disease right now, there are CDC rules about exposing people to infectious diseases. Also, they can't just let anyone come into ICU , with everyone in there in critical conditions. The hospital can be sued by relatives of the other patients.

44

Golf's open but the woods are closed. WTF?

45

Rrpublicans always ignore the fact that in 1968 the Solid South Dixiecrats disillusioned by Civil Rights under LBJ jumped ship to the Republican party, largely in part to George Wallace and the politics of rage. But history and binaries only work in the infallible instance of convenient straw man ignorance to eliminate critical thinking. Also because after Vietnam, the fringe white supremacist movements hijacked the military into Desert Storm with the Timothy McVeigh faction that radicalized the GOP by extension.

46

But you don't have to take MY word for it. https://youtu.be/vAvQbEeTafk

https://news.uchicago.edu/podcasts/big-brains/rise-white-power-movement-kathleen-belew

https://youtu.be/oBHJ1EDtp0E

47

@45: Critical thinking typically doesn't conflate discordioate events into a narrative as breathtakingly illustrated as that last sentence.

48

@46: Critical thinkers don't swallow everything they read.

No, I won't take Ms. Belew's hateful drivel disparaging Vietnam vets (a war started by democrats BTW) as anything more than a pathetic quest of hers for respectability in academic circles.

49

Look, we are flattening the curve in Seattle and King County.

But not in the rural counties.

And, as you'll find out soon, this won't end in April. Hope you're prepared to stay home until May.

Unless you really want to see 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 Americans die.

Actions. Not excuses.

50

@48. And continued nigh indefinitely by Nixon.

Kathleen Belew spent ten years researching and writing Bring the War Home, examining previously classified FBI files and vivid personal testimonies and letters. Anyone in academia cannot hold credibility, let alone lecture at Stanford, without rigorous peer review and fact checking.

Lol you are the one conflating a dispassionate historical perspective with a convenient straw man that she is attacking veterans in order to reject her findings. Not that it matters. Perhaps I can soothe your anxiety with David Duke's My Awakening, a poor man's toothless love letter to Mein Kampf?

51

Plus I heard it on a podcast it's true.

52

@51. Don't be mad because Bro Rogan supports Bernie, Bro.

53

@50 -- "Lol you are the one conflating a dispassionate historical perspective with a convenient straw man that she is attacking veterans in order to reject her findings."

MORE projecting, rainy?
Never tire of it do you.

Moving on:
"kristofarian --

I am writing to you today about Walmart and the coronavirus pandemic.

Walmart, which is owned by the wealthiest family in the country, has millions of employees who are providing essential services for the country right now, keeping us fed and stocked during this unprecedented pandemic.

These workers, who are stocking shelves, checking out customers, and doing everything else to serve tens of millions of people, are critical to keeping our country functioning.

And it is past time for Walmart to give them the health protections and benefits they deserve.

Because right now, Walmart workers say they do not have the protective gear they need; very few Walmart workers have paid leave they can use; and many are making low wages.

That must change. Will you join me in
calling on Walmart to protect its workers?

While many may not have thought so before this crisis, it is clear that grocery workers are absolutely essential to keeping our society functioning.

Walmart workers are asking for three main things as they perform their critical jobs:

Prevention & safety: Provide gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, and other protective gear to all employees who interact with customers, vendors, and suppliers.

Paid leave: Provide adequate paid sick days, paid family leave, and comprehensive health coverage that they can afford.

Hazard pay: Double the regular pay for employees who decide to come to work during this health pandemic.
Basic protections so they don’t get sick or spread the virus. Paid leave. Hazard pay.

These are simple demands for critical workers employed by the wealthiest family in the country.

We know that Walmart and the Walton family can make this happen. Now we need tens of thousands of people like you standing up to demand it.

Please add your name to our petition calling for Walmart to protect its employees, give them paid leave, and hazard pay for their critical work in stores during this pandemic.

What we are seeing during this pandemic is that all kinds of workers are essential to our country, and that it is past time for them to be treated like it. Thank you for adding your name to protect Walmart workers, and workers everywhere."

In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders

Forgive me, but I STILL Love this Man.

Thank god we're saving him for the Senate.
Anybody* heard from the Front Runner lately?

*moving back --
No, not you, trolling trolly Troll.
We already heard it
umpteen times

54

touche to douche,
Garbby!

55

@53
Kroger is just as bad; I've heard complaints from workers at Freddie's* as well, that the customers are better protected than they are.

*Fred Meyer, for the out-of-towners

56

And my grandfather dropped untold bombs in that war (along with WWII and Korea), and Tet never left him. I cannot wipe away that history, nor the country that spat on and ostracized those who were drafted and died a world away, but I can understand why people who felt rejected by the people they served (for better or worse) would be taken in by the self destructive rhetoric of false empowerment and rebellion through racial separatism and supremacy. It has ubiquitous appeal and manifests in homogenous nationalism and ethnic cleansing.

57

Ubiquitous appeal to the tormented and disenfranchised, regardless of ethnicity, that is. But this does not excuse it.

https://youtu.be/BHOevX4DlGk

59

https://youtu.be/0XwRfWCwsSs

Fin.

60

@36 GermanSausage: They're the same idiots who keep ecstatically watching his garbled interviews and continue to mistake Sinclair Broadcasting and FOX TeeVee for reliable news sources.
@53 kristofarian: Meanwhile, how many moms shopping the local Wal*Marts are still getting fatally shot to death by their toddlers (Sarah Palin's proud Christmastime announcement of giving her three year old grandson Jr.'s First Rifle still gives me the chills)? The Walton family really should be truly ashamed at its lack of concern for the health, welfare, and safety of their employees and consumers.
@45 & @56 Garb Garbler: I am a Gulf War veteran and can only imagine what your grandfather went through. War is hell no matter who or where you are, and what you're doing.

60

58

Well, it's not Cuomo's fault this National Crisis caught him with his pants down...

in 2015 a state review said NY needed 18,000 ventilators, it had 2,000.
How many of the 16,000 needed ventilators did Hiz Honor procure?
zero.
That was five years ago.
When you didn't have to scrounge for ventilators on eBay.
Now Cuomo is reduced to squealing for Federal bailout.
Next he'll be wanting Trump to wipe his shitty ass for him....

Of course, NY isn't the only blue state that fucked up preparedness and has put it's citizens in mortal danger.
California, under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, built up stocks of ventilators, THOUSANDS of them, mobile hospitals, tens of thousands of mobile hospital bed capacity; the works.
Jerry Brown got rid of it.
Of course, that is Trump's fault too.

62

@trolling trolly Troll @60 @61 @

64

Bernie might start to look pretty damn good after this, because universal heath care would have better protected the US from all the deaths it will record as a result of this virus.

65

Bernie didn't get one single endorsement from any of the other 2020 Democratic candidates. Not one. Not even from like-minded Elizabeth Warren. Even the POC candidates Cory Booker and Kamala Harris endorsed Biden.

67

@65. What is the establishment.

68

Leaders lead.
Where'e Joe?
Somewhere Safe, I hope.

69

High drama @56,57.

You do get that you're a hair under average in intelligence and insight? ProzHiz is quite smart, and GermSaus, and Blip, and some others. Even Kristo is silly old hippy but mid-bright. You though produce boring basic screed after screed with a lot of emotion, to an audience of hundreds probably.

You know how you think of Raindrop? That's a mirror my friend, except he benefits surprisingly often from the help of being terse. You just go on and on with low-wattage drivel post after post after post, and you seem to think those dry turds are polished gold? I'm embarrassed for you.

70

@69. Then why do you read and respond to it?

71

@67: I feel your pain, bro.

72

@70 Good to see you finally figured out how to be "terse". Good work.

73

The unrivaled perfection of the Free Market is an article of faith among the Right Wing. They will no more question it now than any religious person living through some tragedy that God allowed will question the existence of God. When things are bad people cling all the tighter to their beliefs.

I'm sure the Almighty Free Market had its reasons for letting Grandma die of a preventable illness. It moves in mysterious ways, but we must not question lest it turn wrathful.

And look, the healthcare companies are some of the only companies showing profits in this economic downturn. Praise be! Proof the system works if only you have faith.

74

@73. The word you are looking for is "cogent," and if you weren't threatend by Garb's nigh illegible blather, then why would you try to bring him down to your level and tell us how you really feel? Before telling everyone else who they are, figure out who you really are.

75

73
Grandma died because she was old and in poor health.
Something was going to get her, sooner than later; we didn't notice you bitching about the 60,000 grandmas the flu killed off two years ago.
Grandma's passing might have been a little easier if Cuomo had bought the 16,000 ventilators his state needed 5 years ago.
Sadly, no economic system will allow you to wait until the virus is spreading thru your state before you start trying to obtain the medical equipment and supplies you needed.
Maybe what Cuomo needs is a genie lamp he can rub and make a wish.....

76

"The coronavirus has now killed more people in the U.S. than the 9/11 terror attacks...."
That's terrible.
The flu killed 20 (TWENTY) 9-11s 2 years ago.
How did we resist destroying our economy then?
What a wasted opportunity...

77

So many pixel ghosts now! Love how these comments are becoming a forum for free-floating ideas existing on their own merits! Much better than a parade of fake names in a masturbatory echo chamber who shout down ideas that don't adhere to the party line.

78

@76 You're arguing from an easy place because we never get to actually see what would happen to the economy if Coronavirus was left alone to play out. No matter what happens you'll always get to claim victory because you're speculative scenario never actually has to play out. You'll always get to make your flu comparison, because coronavirus is not going to be allowed to rampage in a way that would expose it as being about 20 times more deadly than the average flu.

But I've read my way through a lot of projections, and on the conservative end the hit to the US economy would likely be 6 trillion dollars. You don't get both a healthy global economy and a high level of sickness and death. The sickness and death in itself creates a massive drag on the economy. For sure the medical system would collapse, there will be no ventilators and very little medical care available.
But worse, the economic crisis of a full bore coronavirus induced meltdown would likely penetrate through the service economy where it's hitting now and into the goods economy. And if that happened we could end up with a Cormac McCarthy's The Road sort of apocalyptic scenario.

So in my thinking it probably makes sense to take measures to limit coronavirus now, because in the end the hit to the economy will be the same or less, and we for sure avoid a lot more death in chaos, and we also avoid the strong possibility of the food system, energy system etc collapsing.

You can call that sort of reasoning stupid and speculative, but it's no more stupid and speculative than your reasoning on this subject.

79

Get ready to git gud at checking arterial blood gas and potentially running out of the right sized needles. The radial artery is always more medial than you think.

81

Are the total idiots flocking to Florida's beaches off the beaches, yet?

@62 kristofarian: You know the trolls are scared shitless and desperate now when the gross, criminally insane level of their Fearless Fake Orange Leader's ineptitude is in clear global view. Now they're rabid and foaming. What a shame that the dumbest of MAGA dupes have had to start losing their own family members and friends to the coronavirus pandemic. I do not have much hope for the Southeastern United States--Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida in particular.
@64 LavaGirl and @68 kristofarian: We can only hope.

82

@76,

Just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that regardless of our frequent and vastly different opinions on the issues of the day, everyone here at slog, as well as everyone out there in the world both admires and respects you. And even though our differences may often seem to create an enormous gulf that's impossible to bridge, we're listening to your thoughts and always giving them careful consideration...

....April Fools!

No seriously, your opinions are dimwitted, unscrupulous dogshit, and so are you.

83

@78 -- Exactly. It is an easy, but stupid argument to make. It can be applied to just about anything. Why have police? Sure, people will rob, kill and rape, but they do that anyway. Most people are good, and will continue to be good.

It is worth noting that the U. K. initially considered "riding it out" and letting herd immunity handle the problem. But then they realized their health care system would be overwhelmed, and decided to take action.

Of course the biggest example is China. They are quite comfortable putting economic concerns above all else. They have more to lose from an economic downtown than just about any country on earth. If the economy collapses, many will go hungry, and it is possible there will be a revolution (it has happened before). Yet China, of all countries, shut down the factories and took drastic action because of this crisis. Letting it fester would be worse. Keep in mind, this was after they tried operating the factories with slave labor (Uighurs).

If China is willing to sacrifice their economy to stop the epidemic, it is nuts to think that other countries are better off ignoring it.

84

Pence is still blaming China: "We could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming."

Yeah, no shit. We also would have been better off if you wouldn't have assumed they were telling the truth. Jesus, what naive dipshits. China wasn't telling truth? Really? Is there no tooth fairy as well?

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trump-is-the-chinese-governments-most-useful-idiot/608638/

Trump is the kind of arrogant, idiotic businessman that are easy prey for smarter, just as ruthless wheeler-dealers. They sucker them in, thinking they are getting a great deal, only to sell them worthless shit, or take their most valuable assets. It is wonder his company never went bankrupt. Oh wait ...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/as-a-businessman-trump-was-the-biggest-loser-of-all

85

Choosing The Dark Side
is ALWAYS a Choice.

Even Fake prez
pivots, now and again.

He was forced to sign a 2
Trillion dollar stimulus Bill.

But, didja notice, how he was positivley Gleeful
when asked about a TWO TRILLION dollar
Infrastructure Investment Bill. Yes!
He said. We Gotta DO this!

Our Reality TeeVee Star
gets hit with Pandemic,
sees stars WAKES THE
FUCK UP. Stranger things
HAVE happened. We still got
a long fucking ways to go but we're
still talking REVOLUTION. Life's done
with the Olde Model. Looks like it's either
Full-On Fascism or a Democratic socialism.

And my Money (limited as it IS) is on the Latter.
The Question IS: HOW tf DO WE GET THERE?

86

@85 -- "President Donald Trump is ready to spend again.

Four days after signing an unprecedented $2 trillion relief bill to blunt the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, the president on Tuesday called for the U.S. to spend another couple trillion bucks on a massive infrastructure package.

In a tweet, he wrote that “this is the time” to craft an infrastructure overhaul with U.S. interest rates at zero during the crisis.

“It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4,” the president said, referencing the three pieces of emergency legislation lawmakers have already passed to combat the outbreak rampaging across the U.S."

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/coronavirus-stimulus-trump-calls-for-2-trillion-infrastructure-plan.html

87

Some more updates:

Wear a mask. Sew 15 cloth masks, tie dye them with cool designs, donate 8 of them to kids or friends, keep 7, WASH THEM IN the extra hot setting with undies. Do not take masks that otherwise would go to medical personnel, they are in short supply.
Golf really is unessential. Walk on the golf course, not in the park, so you can do social distancing.
There are no open parks - state, county, or federal - in WA and OR. Stop going there.

88

@86 -- AWESOME links, Ross.
Thank you.

89

Why has the school district not just cancelled school already. It seems perfectly logical to cancel school until the end of June (3 months of distancing), and start school up in July. Teachers and Students, it's summer break RIGHT NOW, Coronavirus style!!! I think it's insane to expect parents to teach their kids AND work during this period and then watch the Teachers get a full summer break. I'm pro teacher, but sending out remote lesson plans is wasted work. Just take the time off, enjoy your 3 months and have an extended school year starting in July (not Sept).

90

@89 -- It is unlikely things will be that much better in July. Lots of people also have plans for July. If you told your employer that you were taking two weeks off in July (and you are lucky to still have a job) then you want that time off to play with the kids, even if it is now a staycation (especially since July is nice in the Northwest).

91

@88 Thanks. The Atlantic has been really kicking ass of late (as has the New York Times). I guess it takes a huge tragedy for great publications to shine. There is one that actually addresses the idea proposed above (just letting the virus have its way): https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/national-shutdown-least-bad-option/608683/

You can see a big list here: https://www.theatlantic.com/category/what-you-need-know-coronavirus/.

92

I take exception to the advice to limit the frequency of grocery shopping trips. It just creates more hoarding and congestion in the aisles with overflowing shopping carts and waiting in line.

Better to have an "in and out" with fewer items approach.

95

94
So sorry about your friend.
We'll donate $500 to a worthy cause in their honor.

98

@troll

you
are a
CUNT

WHY
are U
here?

99

Why is it women cause you to become unkind?
Didja get a bad one, once? You can get Help for that.

100

@99 kristofarian: Trolly's MAGAvirus condition has reached Stage 4 and, since the disastrous outbreak of the CONVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, has become terminal. As for trolly's fear of women, it must be all those years spent down in his mother's dank, dark fruit cellar. Formaldehyde can really mess some people up. Sometimes he could be....only Mother.
But she's as helpless as one of his stuffed birds!
Trolly loves totally incompetent white men. Because he, too, is incompetent--and uneducated. The best way to educate Trolly? Elect an intelligent, well qualified WOMAN, like Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Elizabeth Warren President of the United States!!

101

Sorry to hear that xina.
This troll is totally toxic, running rampant thru all the threads. If the Stranger can’t deal with them because of a skeleton staff can everyone please Ignore Them.
And do not use the C word as an insult. Please.

102

wow, you gals are cranky.
Must be the Slog McClintock effect...

103

@102. Tell me about your childhood relationship with your mother.

104

Super easily triggered lady hits high speed bump, after several days off goes right back to screaming about executing the president (who to be fair is a collosal dunce and asshole).

Were you really a close friend of Adam Schlesinger's? Or is this some sort of deluded fan reaction?

And did you somehow expect no one to dies from coronavirus? You're the one who's been howling that we are all gonna die.

You do come off as patently unstable. I'm not sure why all of your SLOG friends (aka totally random strangers hiding being fake name anonymity) don't think it's more helpful to you to be sails for that rather than anchors. Lissa says here and there that she thinks you are mentally ill, but she's also quite supportive. Hmm.

I am sorry that an acquaintance (?) died, it sucks. Condolences.

105

103
We would have thought you would be more interested in our relationship with your mother...

106

Regarding blaming China, just because the Trump administration is doing it to try to deflect blame for their costly stumbling start in dealing with coronavirus, doesn't mean China doesn't deserve it.

China shit the bed big time with their wet market policy. It's repulsively filthy jamming a bunch of living species one on top of the other, letting blood and guts and pus a drip from one to the next as they slaughter them onsite. It caused SARS and those markets were shut down. But totalitarian governments are oddly weak in that behind their stern fronts, they need to capitulate to the unarticulated and often irrational desires of their peasants. There can't be public debate, so discourse doesn't change mind and practices like it does in democracies.

And so they let wet markets go on unmodified, and now we can a global pandemic. Which, because it's mutating pretty quickly, might recur like different strains of the flu seasonally for hundreds of years.

So yeah I would say the Chinese government fucked up royally, stupid fucking authoritarian assholes.

108

@107 Wow you are a phenomenally bad and/or sick person.

You're a wildly self-involved narcissist who hunts for reasons to self-righteously rage. The track record inarguably speaks for itself in this regard. You are addicted to the adrenaline and cortisol. I see this in a lot of people who've gotten sober. And right now you're choosing to grandstand in that vein as hard as you can. You think that's what your acquaintance and his family would want you to be doing right now? For you to be dragging his still totally fresh death into some twisted anonymous public display of you indulging your rage addiction?

You're a smart woman. Find a different way.

109

@105. Negative attention seeking behavior in adults is generally the result of psychological regression to childhood coping mechanisms of getting needs met. It is a response to jealousy, insecurity, fear, or being outcompeted by other siblings or peers for basic needs.

Thus, your penchant for seeking and doling out abuse is either a component of a deep-seated and inconsolible histrionic personality disorder, or you experienced some past trauma where your trust in your mother or mother figure was broken, potentially being displaced in another woman or mother figure man whose love and trust you displaced, and was then possibly betrayed by, either in death or divorce or some form of uncontrolled loss.

There is no one explanation, but your continued stoking of gender specific cruelty and conflict is an addiction to pain and psychological abuse that will never truly sate what is missing deep down, nor will alcohol and force and tormenting of others. In the end, your own children will devalue you as you devalue yourself and others. Break the cycle and be a fucking man, by which I mean be an adult.

110

Have you ever seen Donald Trump's mother? Go look her up. It explans a whole lot.

111

@107: I suggest watching a romantic comedy and snacking on dark chocolates.

112

@110: So a mother's facial features are determinative of her offspring's actions?

I thought you were more sophisticated than misogynistic comments like that. But I admit, we all (and me especially) enjoy a snide fix.

113

@112. No, he embodies the parts of her he lacked.

114

https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus

helpful website, click on "epidemiological curves" to see how we are doing - looks like progress, particularly in King County.

From what I've heard from a source who's sat in on some state leadership meetings, they think that CV got to Washington through just one carrier in mid-January. And in 10 weeks it was going totally ham.

So how the fuck are we going to come out of this lockdown in a month and not just ramp right back up a month after that? There's no way all carriers are cleared, for sure will be large numbers still out there. How do we restart with dozens or hundreds more people infected than the one who set this all off and not just end up right back in hell? Does summer help that much?

115

Love how the Stranger deleted my comments but lets the misogynist troll post ad nausum. Proof positive the trolls are Stranger staff.
People are dying and they DGAF.
Enjoy the cesspool assholes.

116

@115. I am so sorry for your loss and your suffering. I hope you find the compassion and solace you seek from those that truly matter. Keep focused on the things you can control.

118

@117 unless they're dead.


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