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May 08, 2020 06:53 AM UTC

Friday Open Thread

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“The reward of suffering is experience.”

–Harry S. Truman

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28 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

    1. They were probably all very busy watching FOX News all day, and tweeting threats aimed at removing all of those unnecessary pandemic restrictions. . .

      . . . you know, helping to make America great, again!?

      1. Maybe this was the personal shoe valet so there were, at all times, a safe social distance of six-feet-four inches between *rumps adderalled nostrils and the valet's nose as he tied and shined the Dolce and Gabbannas? (plus the bonus of the William Howard Taft girth separating the two to deflect any stray Rona). 

        He'll be fine. 

        1. Indeed. The presidential staff is a tradition from long ago.

          "The Butler", starring Forest Whitaker is a fine film about the subject.

      1. Speaking of….

        Ms. Luther has raised over half-a-millon-dollars on her Go Fund Me page. NO wonder Caribou Barbie made a visit yesterday – she’s wanting in on this action.

         

        1. The new “cause de celebre” for the Right Wing Howling Society. Similar to the air-headed clerk in Kentucky.

          Of course, the 1/2 guv can see the potential.

          1. Hey now, Duke, some of us lefties howl at 8 pm, too. It’s a way of saying, “We’re here, we’re bored, but we’re still alive.” I wonder if any nursing homes have taken up the practice. 

            Howling at 8 pm started as a nonpartisan declaration of support for health workers, almost a unity movement. You can howl masked or unmasked, with your furry friends harmonizing.

            1. My Capitol Hill neighborhood howls every night at eight.  Kwtree nailed it, it’s a hoot. I’m famous fo r my loud “we-onk!” In honor of the geese who overfly our cheeseman park neighborhood regularly with their dawn patrol.

              Arooo!

            2. Oh, shucks. I had forgotten about that when I made up that group.

              Certainly no connection to the folks howling at 8 PM.

              I do not live in a neighborhood, per se, as my 2 neighbors are 2.5 and 2.25 miles away, respectively, I am a bit disconnected from any community, writ small. We don’t get in to town much.

              I enjoy the solitude. 

  2. Where are Powerful Pear and Moderatus/PodestaE-mails/Stained BlueDress?

    14.7% unemployment rate at the end of April and the Trump Recession keeps rolling right along. 

    Visit: Lincoln Project dot org; Rule of Law Republicans dot org; The Bulwark dot com. Pear and Moderatus: these sites will show you what being real conservatives is all about.

    2. Where are Powerful Pear and Moderatus/PodestaE-mails/Stained BlueDress?

       

      In order to summon them, or any other Trumpistas, you must play the following music:

    4. Moddy was here not too long ago, defending the bomb maker up in Loveland. I spose we just need to mention their "fine people" before they'll make a peep.

  3. Surveys: Coloradans ordering less from restaurants, not excited about dining in when they reopen

     

    Even as Colorado restaurants edge closer to reopening, a majority of residents don’t know that they are willing to go back out to dine in them and, in the meantime, are ordering less takeout food from them, according to two surveys that were released Wednesday.

     

    The findings, part of polls that found also that Coloradans prefer to keep a statewide business and travel restrictions in place and that they support Gov.  Jared Polis’ actions during the coronavirus pandemic, could portend trouble for an already battered industry. According to  Colorado Restaurant Association  findings, statewide restaurants were  expected to lose $975 million in sales in April  as compared to the same month in 2020, and some 23% said they feared closing permanently if stay-at-home orders remain in place through the end of this month.

     

    Polis, who’s transitioned the state to a safer-at-home order that allows retail stores and non-essential offices to open again, reiterated during a news conference Wednesday that he has no timeline yet for allowing bars and restaurants to allow in-facility dining and drinking again. The governor said he wants to see data on the decline or resurgence of coronavirus cases under the new order before deciding whether to allow people to go back into the facilities, likely under orders that would have the restaurants begin operating at reduced seating capacity.

     

    According to a Keating-OnSight-Melanson (KOM) poll of 600 people released Monday, just 41% of respondents said they will go to a restaurant when restrictions are lifted, while 39% said they will not and another 20% said they don’t know. That represents a far higher percentage of people than those willing to go to a concert or sporting event when the state permits that activity (20%) but a far lower percentage than are willing to go now to a retail store (62%).

     

    And in a Western States Coronavirus Survey conducted by the  University of Denver’s Center on American Politics and Montana State University-Bozeman, 62% of Coloradans said they got takeout from a restaurant less often in late April than they did just the week before. The results from 2,220 responses in four Rocky Mountain states — including 503 Individuals in Colorado — demonstrate what several area restaurateurs have begun to say anecdotally, that consumer spending that was crucial to them during the first month dine-in restrictions were in place has begun to drop off as weeks of closings have turned into months.

     

    Colorado had recorded 17,816 positive cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, and 921 deaths as of mid-day Wednesday, Polis said. The May 5 numbers represented a 2% growth rate in positive cases but just a 0.3% increase in hospitalizations, he said.

     

    The second-year Democratic governor declared a public-health emergency on March 10, shut down casinos and gyms as well as banning dining-in at restaurants and bars on March 17 and then issued a stay-at-home order closing non-essential businesses beginning on March 26. While opponents of his actions have organized two rallies at the Capitol calling for Polis to reopen the state fully, a number of other people have expressed concern that the governor has moved quickly than counterparts in other states to begin reopening targeted services like non-emergency medical providers and hair salons.

     

    According to the KOM poll, 68% of Coloradans support Polis’ safer-at-home order and 71% approve of the job Polis is doing on the coronavirus outbreak. Overall, Polis has ratings of 66% favorable and 30% unfavorable, up significantly from his 50%/35% split in a poll by the same firms conducted last June.

     

    Polis fares slightly less well in the Western States Coronavirus Survey, with 64% of respondents approving of his handling of the coronavirus response and 23% disapproving. In that poll, 73% of Coloradans supported the stay-at-home order, with 12% opposed.

     

    Despite their acceptance of Polis’ restrictions on business activities, Coloradans believe they could have long-term consequences on the business environment here, according to the Western States survey. A full 73% of respondents said they were very (40%) or moderately (33%) worried about the collapse of small business in their state, while only 9% said they were not worried.

     

            

     

  4. Trump blocks national testing program — why? Because tests make us "look bad"

           Amid Trump's flagrant lies, a truth comes out: He's never wanted "all this testing" because he fears the optics

    On Wednesday, Trump explained himself with an extraordinarily revealing quote — one that included both a lie and a confession.

    "In a way, by doing all this testing we make ourselves look bad," Trump told reporters on Wednesday,

    It was a lie because the number of tests administered in the U.S. — currently about 7 million — is tiny compared to the actual need.

    It was a confession because Trump was acknowledging what many of us have perceived all along: He sees testing as a matter of his own political health rather than an urgent question of public health.

    Hold on it gets better….

     

    Trump also repeated one of his most flagrant lies about testing, saying, "We've done more testing than every other country combined, wouldn't you think?" This is something he has asserted at least four other times as well, and it's pure lunacy.  A quick look at the stats shows that Russia, Germany and Italy combined have done more testing than the U.S., and a little number-crunching shows that the U.S. has done less than a fifth of the total tests worldwide.

    What Trump was really telling us is that he has no idea what he's talking about, he has no interest in understanding it, he has no interest in actually solving the problem, and the only thing he cares about is how it makes him look

    We knew this…now he is admitting it.

     

    https://www.salon.com/2020/05/08/trump-blocks-national-testing-program–why-because-tests-make-us-look-bad/

     

     

  5.  

    From…   the Hill

     

    Electric cars are here to stay — despite what the oil industry thinks

    Thanks to a new study by Harvard University – that there’s a clear link between long-term exposure to air pollution and higher COVID-19 death rates, there’s yet another reason to electrify our transportation. (As if 50,000 Americans dying prematurely every year from transportation emissions pre-COVID-19 wasn’t enough to electrify cars and trucks.) 

     Despite President Trump’s recent attempts to further weaken emissions standards, and new attempts in Congress to bail out the auto industry (without pollution-reducing preconditions), the consumer market may have the final say, moving us to an all-electric — and thus healthier — future. Even China understands the lethal pollution-coronavirus connection, prioritizing electric vehicles in their COVID-19 stimulus packages. America should do the same.

    Electric vehicles have suffered century-long beatings, but this time they’re sticking around. Why? Because the technology is too good to ignore, markets are finally moving, and it’s a healthier, life-saving choice. That Super Bowl car commercials featured electric vehicles this year indicates that EVs are now the norm. It wasn’t always that way. There were multiple births and many deaths, and now a rebirth that’s here to stay.

     

    https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/496727-electric-cars-are-here-to-stay-despite-what-the-oil-industry

  6. Q.  When is a medical crisis, not a medical crisis? . . . 

    . . . A. When it’s an economic concern.

    Or, why JBS needed (and received) Presidential liability absolution . . .

    . . . and, why their CEO will probably receive a Presidential pardon, and a Presidential medal.

    What Happened When Health Officials Wanted to Close a Meatpacking Plant, but the Governor Said No

    [New documents obtained by ProPublica show public health officials in Grand Island, Nebraska, wanted the JBS meatpacking plant closed. But Gov. Pete Ricketts said no. Since then, cases have skyrocketed.]

    Unlike Nebraska, Colorado’s health officials eventually ordered the JBS plant to close. But documents obtained by ProPublica show the protracted debate that came before that decision, with JBS invoking the governor to question the formal closure order. By the time the order was issued, some public officials felt the virus had been given too big a head start.

    Like Grand Island, Greeley officials were already hearing by the end of March that hospital emergency rooms were seeing a “high number of JBS employees,” according to an email Wallace sent April 1 to the plant’s occupational health director.

    “Their concern, and mine, is far too many employees must be working when sick and spreading infection to others,” Wallace wrote, urging the plant to take additional safety measures.

    Three days later, Wallace wrote a more detailed letter to JBS’ human resources director, Chris Gaddis, documenting the virus’s spread and threatening to shut the plant down if it didn’t screen employees and ensure they could work 6 feet apart.

    But as days passed, the situation in Greeley didn’t improve.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/what-happened-when-health-officials-wanted-to-close-a-meatpacking-plant-but-the-governor-said-no

    #thanksdonnie, #thankscory, #thanksken, #thanksJBS

    Remember, nobody working at JBS ever got Covid at a JBS plant anywhere; they all brought it from home. Because, you know, “essential workers” (i.e., those people, not praying enough to the right jesus, etc.) . . .

    . . . JBS was actually doing these workers a favor by allowing them to come to work in the close quarters of their health-inducing plant facilities, thereby escaping the terrible squalor they’re accustomed to living in at their homes.

  7. This would be a good place for a couple of Republican senators who have a conscience (if such a thing exists) to begin the GOPs retaking of their party. We can see the edge of T***pland and the ship is rudderless. If the Republican party wants to survive, if they want to avoid the waterfall into the void, their window is closing.

     

    ‘We’re going to fill it’: Republicans ready for any Supreme Court vacancy

    GOP senators denied Obama a seat on the high court. They’ll deliver for Trump.

     

    Democrats acknowledge they could get run over in the next eight months. Supreme Court nominees can now be confirmed by a bare majority after McConnell changed the rules in 2017 to overcome a Democratic filibuster of Neil Gorsuch, Antonin Scalia’s successor.

    “They’re not troubled by inconsistencies,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). “It would be completely inconsistent with everything that was said [in 2016]. But we knew when they were saying it they didn’t mean it. We knew that was a situational answer.”

     

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/08/republicans-ready-supreme-court-vacancy-243574

    addendum: I just learned a new and troubling term, which, from its use must get tossed around in DC, a lot. A “situational answer” is a cousin of “alternative facts”. I must be slipping…I have not heard it.

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