Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us here that the refusal by Sean Inanity of Fix Noise to take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously is literally killing his audience; not sure what I could add to that (more here)…



Update 4/26/20: Any by the way, the pic isn't hyperbole (here).

…and Cenk Uygur tells us about the recent back-and-forth between AOC and the Swanson TV Dinner Heir; one important takeaway for yours truly is that AOC, In a very rare instance, gave up the high ground a bit on the issue of clean energy by deleting the tweet (even though she was unequivocally right…and yeah, I’m tempted to agree with Cenk that she was pressured to do so) and Carlson, being the utterly unrepentant alt-right wingnut that he is, went after her anyway…as much as I applaud AOC and Cenk on this, I have to admit that it’s discouraging a bit that we STILL have to fight over something approximating fairness and decency in assisting those hurt by the outbreak (though other countries such as Canada have enacted UBI, as noted here), commitment to renewable energy, a sane military budget, ACA and Medicare/Medicaid expansion, and on and on ("mostly white meat"...heh)…



…and this Georgia doctor tells Repug Governor Brian Kemp to actually LISTEN TO THE MEDICAL EXPERTS AND DON’T SENTENCE YOUR RESIDENTS TO DEATH BY REOPENING TOO EARLY!!!...



…and I don’t know…maybe it’s just me…but I’m really not seeing a lot of historical context for the true scope of the horror many of us are dealing with from COVID-19, and to be sure, there most definitely IS a historical context, and that has to do with the so-called “Spanish” flu of 1918 (which, arguably, didn’t originate in Spain, but in Kansas – it was called “Spanish” because that’s the first country that reported it); this video is about 40 minutes long, so yeah, pack a lunch (or a Swanson TV Dinner…?)…part of the reason why I’m including this is to note that Philadelphia played a particularly awful part in spreading it – not trying to be snarky, but just trying to present the full picture of what happened over 100 years ago…



…meanwhile, on a more upbeat note, today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day (and yes, we have much to do on that front also, but there’s hopeful stuff in the video)…to me, the significance of Earth Day is tied to the rise of the consumer movement in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and the backlash to that led ultimately to the ruinous conservative ascendancy, but it was a battle well fought and well won all the same…



...and since it's Earth Day, to me, that means it's time for this tune.