To start this week, this NYT roundup piece has everything you need to know about "the new normal" for the next year and beyond. Include:
1. The hammer and dance of reopenings then (if there's people with brains) new, more limited shutdowns
2. The continued lack of US testing compounded by the lack of tracer testing;
3. The lack of a virus. (Per the likes of Paul Offut, don't expect one in a year or even 18 months.)
4. A "stimulus check" that is really nothing more than an advance against next year's taxes and is nothing close to Canada and Europe;
5. A likelihood that MAGA fellating red-state denizens will eventually be hit worse, which will compound Point 1.
For us to get back to something close to the old normal, we'll need to remember that we cannot get all the way back there, and these six other things as well as that one, all detailed here.
Finally, between now and then, we need to remain skeptical of prediction models with bad results.
That's the best of many a cartoon I've seen the past few weeks.
OK, so Gov. Strangeabbott decided to "reopen Texas" by CLOSING SCHOOLS for the rest of the year. Got it.
Have fun, tech-neoliberals, with continuing to tout ideas of salvific technologism. Because, unless you want to put workplace-type remote video monitors on kids' Chromebooks (and I shudder to think that I might actually be tempting somebody), you can't force kids to do an online classroom.
In the bigger picture of the world of Strangeabbott?
Mimi Swartz dealt with this sort of yahooism from Abbott, Danny Goeb, John Cornyn, Rand Paul and others in a recent NYT column. Her bottom line is that none of these folks are idiots.
They represent the stubborn if expediently applied strain of anti-government independence that is inherent in the Texas character, which conveniently dovetails with being a Trump toady.Ken Paxton may really be that stupid, though. That said, Swartz went light. Because Texas is near the bottom of states on coronavirus testing, she could have mentioned that actual cases
I dealt with some of this, and other Abbott hypocrisies of last Friday's announcement, on Twitter.
Reopening Texas has surgery restrictions lifted April 22. So Texas Gov. Greg Abbott? .@GregAbbott_TX & .@GovAbbott that means that there's no abortion restrictions, either?— Sheepdogging been berry berry good to me 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) April 17, 2020
I hear a petard cranking up.
And an ongoing plaint of mine:
Texas Gov Greg Abbott is Opening Texas ....— Sheepdogging been berry berry good to me 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) April 17, 2020
Except for not opening a special session of the #txlege to deal with those not-opening Texas shuttered oil wells and the opening Texas budget deficit.
With that, we're off to the rest of another week of a split Roundup. Regular stupidities come later in the week. The original week of split news is here. For the March 23 week, the same split is in effect. More coronavirus news here. And ditto for the March 30 week; COVID news here. And for April 7 week, here. Week 5 is here.
State
R.G. Ratcliffe of Texas Monthly poo-poos Abbott's reopening plan as a Trump-like way to avoid responsibility for decisions. He notes Christofascist Tim Dunn is leading a push for Danny Goeb-like libertarian Social Darwinism on reopening the state. At the Observer, Justin Miller is harsher yet, talking about Abbott's "cabal of billionaires." Democrats have their own ideas; they have no authority, but they may have fall political traction. Kuff has a broader roundup of reaction.
Can Texas hospitals handle COVID? They say they can, but with the state still near the bottom of the country in testing, how can anybody really know?
Voting by mail will get at least a temporary expansion.
Jim Schutze takes WFAA's Jason Whitely to task for craptacular interviewing of Friend of the Donald and hypocritical black doctor friend of Tuskegee Experiment-type medicine Dr. Robin Armstrong. (I thought of Tuskegee as soon as I heard about this, and I mean, as soon as I heard the original news. I've tweeted WFAA. Nothing.)
The Rag Blog documents the nuttery of the Infowars rally in Austin.
COVIDIOTs let the Houston Livestock Show start as planned even though they knew they should be concerned. As a newspaper editor, I know that 4H and FFA kids didn't want it cancelled even when it was. But foresight as well as hindsight was aavilable. And the top COVIDIOT was a Dem, Sylvester Turner, abetted by another, Harris County Judge Linda Hidalgo. Per that Pro Publica piece, we'll see other such COVIDIOTs in weeks ahead. What happens if one of them is a "sponsor" of Pro Publica's partner, the Texas Trib?
Dwight Silverman documents the problems that the Houston startup scene is experiencing right now.
Francesca Rattray touts the benefits of child care for essential workers.
The Bloggess shares how she is coping.
Louie Gohmert, aka Gohmert Pyle, said "hold my beer" to anybody trying to keep him away from the front of the COVID medical quackery line.
National
Socratic Gadfly looks at restaurants by type and class and wonders who will do better, who worse, on surviving coronavirus?
Who's the biggest hack, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, or Dr. Oprah for stanning for both and starting them off to the big time? Orac writes, and I Twitter poll-tweet.
State
R.G. Ratcliffe of Texas Monthly poo-poos Abbott's reopening plan as a Trump-like way to avoid responsibility for decisions. He notes Christofascist Tim Dunn is leading a push for Danny Goeb-like libertarian Social Darwinism on reopening the state. At the Observer, Justin Miller is harsher yet, talking about Abbott's "cabal of billionaires." Democrats have their own ideas; they have no authority, but they may have fall political traction. Kuff has a broader roundup of reaction.
Can Texas hospitals handle COVID? They say they can, but with the state still near the bottom of the country in testing, how can anybody really know?
Voting by mail will get at least a temporary expansion.
Jim Schutze takes WFAA's Jason Whitely to task for craptacular interviewing of Friend of the Donald and hypocritical black doctor friend of Tuskegee Experiment-type medicine Dr. Robin Armstrong. (I thought of Tuskegee as soon as I heard about this, and I mean, as soon as I heard the original news. I've tweeted WFAA. Nothing.)
The Rag Blog documents the nuttery of the Infowars rally in Austin.
COVIDIOTs let the Houston Livestock Show start as planned even though they knew they should be concerned. As a newspaper editor, I know that 4H and FFA kids didn't want it cancelled even when it was. But foresight as well as hindsight was aavilable. And the top COVIDIOT was a Dem, Sylvester Turner, abetted by another, Harris County Judge Linda Hidalgo. Per that Pro Publica piece, we'll see other such COVIDIOTs in weeks ahead. What happens if one of them is a "sponsor" of Pro Publica's partner, the Texas Trib?
Dwight Silverman documents the problems that the Houston startup scene is experiencing right now.
Francesca Rattray touts the benefits of child care for essential workers.
The Bloggess shares how she is coping.
Louie Gohmert, aka Gohmert Pyle, said "hold my beer" to anybody trying to keep him away from the front of the COVID medical quackery line.
National
Socratic Gadfly looks at restaurants by type and class and wonders who will do better, who worse, on surviving coronavirus?
Who's the biggest hack, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, or Dr. Oprah for stanning for both and starting them off to the big time? Orac writes, and I Twitter poll-tweet.
Who is the bigger quack, Dr. Oz, or Dr. Phil? Or Dr. Oprah? #DrOz? #DrPhi? #DrOzIsADisgrace #DrPhilIsADisgrace .@DrPhil .@DrOz .@Oprah— Sheepdogging been berry berry good to me 🚩🌻 (@AFCC_Esq) April 17, 2020
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer punked the "Operation Gridlock" nutters, telling them that enough stupidity could lead to further closure extensions. Yep, she's right, it was a political rally. Deal with it.
Politico covers third parties' problems with ballot access in the "new normal."
Therese Odell has had it with phony TV doctors.
Counterpunch has a breakdown of who is behind the various anti-shelter protests. What's brought into relief to my mind is that the "citizens" (ie, militia) groups have NEVER challenged the Koch-type plutocrat groups.
National/Global
The IMF says the world economy will contract by 3 percent in the second quarter, worse than in the Great Recession. Worse yet, the US economy will contract 6 percent, even as both duopoly parties think a stereoid-ramped-up capitalism as usual is the answer to the Trump Depression.
Past weeks
Week 1 is here and week 2 is here. And for April 7 week, here. Week 5 is here. Here's Week 7, and Week 8.
Politico covers third parties' problems with ballot access in the "new normal."
Therese Odell has had it with phony TV doctors.
Counterpunch has a breakdown of who is behind the various anti-shelter protests. What's brought into relief to my mind is that the "citizens" (ie, militia) groups have NEVER challenged the Koch-type plutocrat groups.
National/Global
The IMF says the world economy will contract by 3 percent in the second quarter, worse than in the Great Recession. Worse yet, the US economy will contract 6 percent, even as both duopoly parties think a stereoid-ramped-up capitalism as usual is the answer to the Trump Depression.
Past weeks
Week 1 is here and week 2 is here. And for April 7 week, here. Week 5 is here. Here's Week 7, and Week 8.
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