Damn. This SUCKS.

I was just going through the blogroll and found that "skippy the bush kangaroo" was gone. Uh-oh.

Tried googling the blog title. And found an obit.

Gil Christner was an actor, comedian, and writer. he was also "skippy," of "skippy the bush kangaroo" blogging fame.

He was one of the very first to link to me regularly and, I believe, the second or third to blogroll me.

Here's a piece by a guy who knew him face-to-face.

RIP, Mr Christner.

The Problem with Asymptomatic People Is...

... they show no symptoms.

Just got a text message from my employer, reminding us that 80% of people with Covid are asymptomatic, and telling us what to do if we think we may have been near one of them.

Google defines "asymptomatic" as: "(of a condition or a person) producing or showing no symptoms."

If they're asymtomatic, AND HENCE SHOWING NO SYMPTOMS, how do we know if we should take precautions? Or should we just self-quarantine for 14 days every time we're within 100 feet of another person?

Sweet Baby Jesus with an industrial-size bottle of hydroxychloroquine, these people are gonna be the death of me.

trump v. Fauci: The Final Chapter?

According to CNN, Dr Anthony Fauci has committed the cardinal sin:

Fauci's transgression is to base his evaluations -- after decades of public service and expertise fighting HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika and anthrax -- on facts and logic that conflict with Trump's chosen version of reality. Fauci has long said that only the virus can decide when normal life -- things such as NFL games and schools reopening, for instance -- will be safe again.

Trump has always been battling the pandemic he wants to fight, rather than the one that actually exists, with a strategy shaped mostly by his political requirements as he seeks a second term. The pandemic arrived in the US despite his insistence that it would not be a problem. Now, with 84,000 Americans dead and 1.3 million infected, Trump argues that the country has prevailed over the virus and it's time to get back to work.

He wants to declare victory, forget about this stupid virus, and get back to what he does best: holding Nuremberg-style rallies full of howling blockheads who have no concept of reality. He doesn't give a damn about 84,000 dead Americans, or the 1.4 million infected (so far, as of 9:30 AM today, per Johns Hopkins University). Nor does he care about the potential for 2.2 million dead by the end of the year. He also doesn't give a damn about the unemployment rate being 14.9% at the end of April, or the 30,000,000 Americans who have lost their jobs (and income and medical insurance) since this whole thing began.. He doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything that isn't donald j. trump.

In recent weeks, Trump has shifted from an approach rooted in benchmarks for phased state openings based on a waning of the virus to one based on opening the economy whatever the cost. [emphasis added]

This, of course, is the real problem: the Coronoavirus/Covid-19 pandemic is murdering trump's shot at a second term (which means it's also murdering his chances of staying out of prison, most likely for the rest of his life). trump knows that if his base ever figures out just how bad things are now, and that they are going to get far worse before they get any better, his ass is cooked in November. And that means, come January 21, US Marshals will show up and do a little "cuff-and-stuff" on the donald, and haul his ass to the Southern District of New York, where he cannot expect any deference, or mercy.

So once again, trump's big mouth and continual lies have gotten his ass in bigly trouble.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

It's Coming, People. Batten Down the Hatches

Heather Cox Richardson, writing in today's issue of "Letters From an American," makes a very ominous point, one that a growing number of us are making. Discussing the declassification of the names of FBI agents involved in the trump/Flynn/Russia investigation, and turning those names over to a Justice Department run by trump sycophant, Billy Barr, Cox says:

More, though, it suggests that the Trump administration does not anticipate a Democratic presidency following this one, since it could expect any precedent it now sets to be used against its own people. That it is willing to weaponize intelligence information from a previous administration suggests it is not concerned that the next administration will weaponize intelligence information against Trump officials. That confidence concerns me. [Emphasis added]

"That confidence" scares the shit out of me.

This goes back to recurring fears that trump will use some sort of subterfuge to either postpone or cancel the 2020 elections, and name himeself "president-for-life," as both Papa Doc and Baby Doc did in Haiti, and as Xi Jinping has done in China..

Trump has, in fact, stated his intentions many times in the past, passing them off as "jokes" or "sarcasm" or "wishful thinking." Squirrel-frying goober and former Arkansas governor Mike "Bubba" Huckabee (who is also the father -- to the best of our knowledge -- for former trump spokesdrone Sarah Huckabee Sanders) has claimed that trump's impeachment makes him "eligble" for a third term (which is, of course, total bullshit).

Trump himself has floated the idea on many occasions, claiming that "people will demand" he serve a "third, fourth, or even fifth" term, that he wished he could stay in office "maybe [...] 14 [years]," "looking into" naming himself "president for life" as Xi Jinping did in 2018. He even tweeting a video of himself as president to the year 80,000. The scary part is, his zombie followers would think that was a GREAT idea, almost as great as making education optional.

And don't try to explain these away as jokes. trump -- like the FBI in "Men In Black" -- has no known sense of humor. He does, however, have a keenly developed sense of how to say exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.

I think we may have passed the point of no return: I doubt trump will leave peacefully if defeated at the polls. I have a feeling that if the numbers look ominous to him, he'll just skip the election althogether.

Grand Reopening... With a Whimper, Not a Bang

The state is allowing retail businesses in 12 of the 16 counties to repopen to walk-in customers today, as long as certain precautions are in place: occupancy signage, plexiglass partitions by registers, 6-footy spacing tapes on floors, etc. The big one is that ALL employees and customers must wear cloth face masks. This is going to piss off the libertarian crowd, and the ones who like to protest simply because it "allows" them to be azz wholes in public.

There was a post on FB about a small ice cream shop in MA that reopened, with advance-order, face-covering, and other common-sense requirements. Customers ignored the rules, and took out their frustration on the staff, causing one 17-year-old girl, whom the owner called "my best employee," to quit in tears because of the verbal abuse. The owner decided his employees were more important than the azz whole public and closed again. His action, though, was met with an outpouring of very strong support from the community, and he was able to open again, this time with everyone playing nice.

This is what trump hath wrought: it's okay to be an azz whole.

Thank you to the slave states for making this possible.

Azz wholes.

"We Have to Get Back to Normal"

That's what the trumpers and the Covid deniers and the ones who protest simply because they enjoy being pains in the ass are saying.

Got news for you, kiddies: we will never be back to normal, not if you define "normal" as the way America was before trump and the Coronoavirus. And I lump them together because although we might have survived one or the other and returned to the "old" normal, the two combined are a wallop from which we will never fully recover.

Had trump been more of a president, and less of a self-centered, spoiled, arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical, sanctimonious, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, narcissistic, incestuous, ignorant, pompous, dictatorial, lying, thieving, corrupt, venal, fascist, childish, narrow-minded, Adderall-addicted, malignant asswipe of a walking, talking douchebag criminal, serial rapist, and confirmed pedophile, we might have made it through.

We've had bad presidents before -- Hoover springs to mind -- but America was able to survive because of the way our Founders wrote the Constitution and formulated our government. We've had presidents who have tried to pervert the Constitution -- Nixon, for instance -- but the co-equal branches of government, the Congress and the Judiciary, blocked those attempts. We've had corrupt presidents who would rather golf than do anything else (Harding).

We had useless legislative bodies before, such as the rethuglican-controlled Senate and House during the Obama years, when the mantra was "if [Obama] is for it, we had to be against it," even if it was good for the country.

We've had Supreme Court lineups that should never have happened, like the ones that gave us Plessy, Bush v Gore, Dred Scott, and Citizens United (respectively, 163 U.S. 537, 1896; 531 U.S. 98, 2000; 60 U.S. (16 How.) 393, 1857; and 558 U.S. 310, 2010).

But this is the first time all three have come together in a "perfect storm" of corruption, arrogance, and ignorance.

We have trump, arguably the worst president in history, as ranked by just any poll not conducted by a far-right organization. We have a corrupt Senate, ruled over by an anthropomorphic turtle who openly promised to work with the White House to ensure trump was not convicted in his impeachment trial. We have a SCOTUS that includes a black sexist, rapist, racist with a white wife, a white drunk frat boy rapist who boasted during his confirmation hearing that he "like[s]" beer (and, presumably, getting drunk and raping women) and three others who believe that corporations are people too, and should have more rights than other people.

Our nation has faced disasters of national impact, as well: Hurricane Katrina, the Great Depression, and, of course, September 11. But in those disasters, we had trained, dedicated, experienced responders available, people whose first -- and only priority -- was protecting the people of the United States.

Now, however, we have a disaster of epic proportions, a virus that could equal or even exceeed the death toll of the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu epidemic... and our "leaders" are morons and idiots chosen for their loyalty to the president, rather than to the people of the United States, a leader who repeatedly ignored and downplayed the dangers of the Covid-19 virus because he was afraid it would hurt his re-election chances (and, thus, increase his chances of being indicted, tried, convicted, and imprisoned -- most likely for life -- by the SDNY).

The Coronavirus scare will eventually settle down, at least a bit.

But we will never get back to the normal we knew. Too many families will have lost loved ones, often unnecessarily. Too many businesses will have failed. Too many unemployed will not be able to find new jobs.

"Social distancing" will become a fact of life.

Bars and restaurants will find their business models altered forever. Restaurants have been restricted to “to-go” and delivery orders only, with the partial offset of now being allowed to offer “alcohol-to-go” if accompanied by a food order. Here in Maine, as in other states, some restaurants are now offering groceries to their customers (to keep themselves in business, to ease strain on customers wishing to avoid traditional markets, and to prevent spoilage or waste; some have announced they may continue this service once the state of emergency is lifted). Buffet-style restaurants are at particular risk: San Diego-based Souplantationsclosed all 97 restaurants permanently due to their inherent inability to meet FDA recommendations, which also now discourage salad bars and self-serve beverages in fast-food restaurants. Golden Corral has closed its company-owned locations, at least temporarily, although franchise locations mostly remain open, but under strict scrutiny and sanitary programs. Old Country Buffet and HometownBuffet are likely to follow suit.

Here in Maine, much of the local economy is based on tourism. Coastal towns like Wiscasset, Boothbay Harbor, Camden, Rockport, Rockland, and Searsport are already showing more and more empty storefronts as smaller businesses call it quits because without sales, they can't make their expenses (utilities, insurance, rent, etc.). The town of Camden, so far, has been hit extremely hard: of all the businessses in town -- restaurants, boutiques, B&Bs, etc. -- only five business are open, by my count: the gas station/convenience store (on greatly-reduced hours), the supermarket (on reduced hours), one local market (on reduced hours) and two restaurants (both restricted to take-out only).

Festivals, fairs, and other large gatherings have been cancelled coast-to-coast. Here in Maine, among the big annual events not happening are the North Atlantic Blues Festival, the Damariscotta Pumpkin Festival and Regatta (a bunch of drunks in hollowed-out giant pumpkins, fitted with outboard motors, racing in Damariscotta Harbor), the Maine Lobster Festival, the Yarmouth Clam Festival, and the Common Ground Fair. While lobsters and clams may be breathing sighs of relief, these communities are looking at the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in much-needed income.

Major retailers like J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and JC Penney have all filed bankruptcy; other companies like Sears are sure to follow suit.

To show you how bad things are here in Maine, L.L. Bean, which has prided itself on being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, closed all its retail stores in March. This is only the fifth time in the company's 100+ years of operation the flagship store has been closed... and the first time it's been closed for 24 hours or more (it was closed for four hours for the funerals of President Kennedy, founder LL Bean himself, former President/CEO Leon Gorman, and for a few hours due to a major fire across the street).

Another bellweather company, Waffle House, had closed ALL of its restaurants in the South for varying periods because of the pandemic. The “Waffle House Index,” originally proposed as a tongue-in-cheek disaster assessment factor in 2011, but subsequently adopted by FEMA, notes that closed Waffle House restaurants are indictive of “severe to catastrophic” damage in the area.

So, NO, we're never going to "get back to normal."

How Come...

One can’t advertise tobacco products on radio or TV because the contain nicotine, but one can advertise e-cigarettes which contain more nicotine, and are flavored to appeal to younger people?

Three Weeks Old, But...

... worth it...

I love than reactions from the anchors.

https://www.ctv.ca/Your-Morning/Video/Teachers-song-about-her-feelings-during-the-pandemic-made-our-hosts-cry-of-laughter-vid1943353?jwsource=cl

You’ve GOT To Be Kidding

WLBZ TV is calling for snow on Saturday. One to six inches. In May.

Sucks To Be You

Republicans here in Maine are bitching because they’ve been “locked out” of negotiations about reopening the state.

This is rich, coming from the party that has systematically excluded Democrats from all discussions at the national level for the last three and a half years.

Truck fump

Truck fump and all his zombie followers.

WE ARE THE TRUE AMERICANS.

https://youtu.be/TvWWXv59apY

Miscellaneous Musings and Random Raciocinations

I. Once Again, Fox Admits It Lies

Fox is being sued by WASHLITE (Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics), which is claiming that Fox's coverage of the Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic is violating the state’s Consumer Protection Act by “falsely and deceptively disseminating ‘news’ via cable news contracts that the coronavirus was a ‘hoax’ and that it was otherwise not a danger to public health and safety," and specifically names host Sean insHannity and former host Trish Regan. Fox, in response, claims that the First Amendment protects "false" and "outrageous" speech, which is, unfortunately, true.

“It’s Constitutional Law 101: the First Amendment protects our right to speak openly and freely on matters of public concern,” Fox News Media general counsel Lily Fu Claffee [emphasis on F.U.] said in a statement. “If WASHLITE doesn’t like what we said, it can criticize us, but it can’t silence us with a lawsuit.”

Again, even accepting the Complaint’s characterization of the speech at issue, the Fox commentators were expressing their view on the scientific question of how dangerous the Coronavirus is and how society should respond to it — including what type of governmental action should be taken.” [emphasis added]

A number of years back, in a Canadian court, Fox also admitted it lied, and claimed not to be a news agency, but an "entertainment" outlet, and, as such, was not bound by the truth.


II. Nazis and Klukkers in Michigan 

The far-right, pro-gun, pro-militia, anti-government, pro-trump Nazis and Klukkers were out in force in Michigan, carrying an assortment of Confederate flags, nooses, and swastikas. The "very fine people," as preznit called them a few years back, were protesting the states "stay at home" and masks orders promulgated by the governor. A large number of them, carrying AR-15s, tried -- unsuccessfully -- to get into the legislative chambers.

As home to the Michigan Militia, and several active Klaverns, the state has an unfortunate expertise at dealing with these goobers, many of whom seem to believe they're just one step removed from Navy SEALS, but most of them couldn't fight their way out a pack of rampaging Brownies, even WITH the multiple firearms they all carry. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both involved in the Michigan Milita, which shows you where the group's sympathies are.


III. "God Wouldn't Wear a Mask, So I'm Not Going To, Either"

Ohio State Representative Nino Vitale (GOP, of course, since he's an idiot) says he's refusing to wear a mask in public, claiming, “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.”

Vitale, who has that typical dull, vacant, deer-in-the-headlights look so common among goopers, says, “This is not based on logic, this is based on fear and propaganda and every statistical, data driven study done in the last 2 weeks says death counts are low, the models were wrong, and this is more like the flu," indicating that not only is he a blithering idiot, but that he's also slurped down a few gallons of trumpian Kool-Aid. Other than the Spanish Flu of 100 years ago, I can't think of any flu outbreak that has killed in excess of 60,000 people in two months.

The good people of Ohio need to retire this Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin' sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup, duck f***in', toothless, chinless, mouth breathin', meth-cookin’, NASCAR-lovin’, redneck, slack-jawed, drooling-idiot, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, inbred moran. Although to be fair, I must point out that he does, in fact, have a chin.


IV. The Oath Keepers. Again.

The Oath Keepers, a far-right, anti-government extremist group, identifued as a hate group by both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which claims to be comprised of active and former law enforcement officers and military (and which claims to be the final arbiter on the Constitution), is now threatening American police officers, saying, "Police in the U.S. need to realize they stand at the precipice of losing the trust, support, and protection of millions of American patriots. They must reverse course and refuse unlawful orders, or risk being declared domestic enemies of the Constitution." Of course, what they deem unlawful are the executive orders issued by various governors, designed to keep the citizens safe and healthy. And while the cops may lose the trust, etc., of the Oath Keepers, they will continue to enjoy the respect of the 299,000,000 or so who aren't far-right-wing loons.

The Oath Keepers, by the way, are closely aligned with the various militia movements, the Sovereign Citizens, Christian Identity, the Klukkers, Aryan Nation/Aryan Brotherhood, and the various pro-Nazi parties. These people are NOT good Americans, no matter what they may claim. They're thugs, killers, and terrorists.


V. The Preznit Is Unraveling

In case there was any doubt, the past dozen days have proved we’re at the point in his presidency where Donald Trump has become his own caricature, a figure impossible to parody, a man whose words and actions are indistinguishable from an Alec Baldwin skit on Saturday Night Live.

These words, from an article in The Atlantic, paint a grim picture of the cascading failures of our Idiot-in-Chief. From his asinine comments about Nazis and Klukkers being "very fine people," and Mexicans being "drug dealers and rapists, but some very good people too" to his more recent moronic pronouncements about shining "just very powerful light" up your ass and "injecting disinfectant as a way to combat the effects of the virus “because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on them, so it’d be interesting to check that[,]” it is becoming more and more obvious that not only is he completely and totally unfit for any job requiring intelligent thought, but that he is also rapidly losing what little grasp he may have had of reality.

He even lit into GWB, after Bush contributed a video to "The Call To Unite," going into a typical trumpian twittertantrum, which made -- if this is even possible -- Bush actually seem Presidential, intelligent, and decent.

He then went on to claim that he was being treated "worse" than Prsident Lincoln, who, if memory serves me correctly, WAS FREAKING ASSASSINATED. This, of course, was a warmed-over reprise of a previous complaint, that he was being treated worse than Jesus, who, if memory serves me correctly, WAS FREAKING CRUCIFIED.

What scares me is that his paranoia and megalomania (and his understandable desire to stay out of the clutched of the Southern District of New York and a few other United States Attorneys) is the growing possibility that he will whip up some sort of bogus "national emergency" that "I, alone" can solve, "requiring" him to "postpone" the election until the emergency is over... in other words, until the statute of limitations has run on all his crimes. But given his life-long proclivities, he will continue to commit as many crimes as he can, so the limitation statutes will just keep piling up.

This is what happens when you elect an insane, paranoid, megalomaniacal, egotistical, liar to high political office.


VI. We Can Declare Victory and Go Home

The Federal Coronavirus/Covid-19 task force will be wound down at the end of the month, allowing trump to claim -- falsely -- that "I, alone" defeated the virus, and it's now safe for everyone to go back to work, making money for the millionaires.

The second senior administration official told CNN that the White House is shifting its focus toward reopening the economy "and putting Americans back to work." That shift will take place over the next few weeks and doctors such as Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who have been prominent figures in the President's task force briefings with reporters, will still play "an important advisory role" in the process, the second senior administration official said.

Fauci, and to a lesser extent, Birx, would both be shuffled back off to their labs and insulated from the media, so they couldn't contradict trumps calims that everything is now hunky-dory. The article adds that one driver behind the wind-down is that Mikey pence wants to get out and travel and can't, partially because he's "leading" the task force, and partially because ISN'T FREAKING SAFE TO GO GALLIVANTING AROUND IN PUBLIC YET, even if Mikey does have "The Power of the Mythical Sky God" and the Sweet Baby Jesus on his side (just ask all the Evangelicals who have died from this damned virus).

F**K Facebook

Facebook is truly amazing. Or maybe it's their AI bots that are amazing. Far-right-wingers post the most vicious threats against others, openly praise Nazis and Klukkers, and openly embrace hatred. Report those posts as "hate speech," though and you get a canned response that says they "don't violate community standards." But let a liberal call one of them a redneck asshole and -- BANG -- bounced for hate speech.

OTOH, since Zuck is now a billionaire, he's going to hang with the other billionaires. But I simply cannot fathom why a Jewish man is so solicitous of Nazis.

Amazing. Absotively, Posilutely A. Maze. Zing.

Now that Zuckerberg is a billionaire, he suddenly realized which political party coddles billionaires, and which expects them to pull their fair share.

FB is now almost as conservative as Fox Spews or One unAmerica News, allowing the incredible, bilious filth to pour forth from the far right, with their message of hate and fear and loathing, while clamping down on the liberals, telling us that pointing out the emperor has no clothes "violates community standards." What kind of standards could one possibly have, if one posts and condones the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic garbage from trump and company?

Facebook Cops At It Again

I just got another warning from Facebook, saying that if I didn't mend my ways, I'd be banned for seven days. They did not, however, tell me what my current transgression was. The last post before I got the notice was one that said a friend and I had a "Calvin and Suzie type of relationship."

Tell me how THAT violated their "community standards, and pictures of a father and daughter who drowned trying to enter our country is socially acceptable?

Guess FB will be restricted to Sam and Joey stories from now on.