Is it right to feel so wrong?
I really object to this state of affairs wherein, since I have not been able to see either of my physical therapists since the city shut down in mid-March, my pain levels have gotten so bad that I am sleeping a couple of hours per night at most. I am not looking for tips on insomnia or pain management. I am doing everything in my power that is not those aspects of PT that cannot be reproduced at home. I am just registering unhappiness at my exhaustion and shot concentration and at least I'm not likely to lose the use of a limb from it, but also ow. Have some links.
1. A friend whom I had not heard sing since grad school has recorded himself singing Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes' "Lonely House." He apologizes for the glitches of a first-time video, but I think the authentic feeling more than makes up for any audio pops.
2. Courtesy of
moon_custafer: a really good point. Also, I hope that's all the same movie; I'd watch it.
3. Courtesy of
handful_ofdust: I remember very fondly the children's book this spell comes from. Specifically, I remember reading it on the cat-tattered green couch of the apartment in which I grew up. I just realized it should probably be classed among that genre of invented worlds that take on lives of their own, like Greer Gilman's Cloud, and I've never seen it discussed that way.
4. Courtesy of
spatch: an eloquent bookshelf. (It may have been inspired by John Finnemore's Cabin Fever.)
5. Want to be part of tracking the asymptomatic or untested spread of SARS-CoV-2? There's a study for that.
I saw that the man in the White House wants to "reopen the economy" on May 1st, which I assume is nothing more than his continuing appetite to murder his so-called fellow Americans for profit. I don't know if the U.S. can pull off a general strike, but I don't know what else our options are. Our governor's newfound spine had better be able to hold up. [edit] Massachusetts just joined the Northeast coalition to coordinate ongoing pandemic response, otherwise known as the acknowledgement of reality in the face of the federal government. This is one hundred percent politically fucking nuts, but it makes me feel safer.
1. A friend whom I had not heard sing since grad school has recorded himself singing Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes' "Lonely House." He apologizes for the glitches of a first-time video, but I think the authentic feeling more than makes up for any audio pops.
2. Courtesy of
3. Courtesy of
4. Courtesy of
5. Want to be part of tracking the asymptomatic or untested spread of SARS-CoV-2? There's a study for that.
I saw that the man in the White House wants to "reopen the economy" on May 1st, which I assume is nothing more than his continuing appetite to murder his so-called fellow Americans for profit. I don't know if the U.S. can pull off a general strike, but I don't know what else our options are. Our governor's newfound spine had better be able to hold up. [edit] Massachusetts just joined the Northeast coalition to coordinate ongoing pandemic response, otherwise known as the acknowledgement of reality in the face of the federal government. This is one hundred percent politically fucking nuts, but it makes me feel safer.

no subject
no subject
Strength to his arm.
no subject
no subject
Several of the states in the northeast are also talking about coordinating--not Massachusetts, at least not yet, but maybe Baker will see sense on this.
no subject
Well, I guess it's call-the-governor season again . . .
no subject
Two groups of governors, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, announced Monday that they were forming regional working groups to help plan when it would be safe to begin to ease coronavirus-related restrictions to reopen their economies.
Their announcements came hours after President Trump, who has expressed impatience to reopen the economy, wrote on Twitter that such a decision lies with the president, not the states.
“Well, seeing as we had the responsibility for closing the state down,” Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania said, “I think we probably have the primary responsibility for opening it up.”
He joined the governors of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island on a conference call, where they agreed to create a committee of public health officials, economic development officials and their chiefs of staff to work together as they decide when to ease the restrictions they have put in place to slow the spread of the virus. They said they did not necessarily expect to act together or to create a one-size-fits-all solution, but they stressed the need for regional cooperation.
On the West Coast, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington also announced Monday what they called a Western States Pact to work together on a joint approach to reopening economies. They said that while each state would have its own specific plan, the states would build out a West Coast strategy that would include how to control the virus in the future. “Our states will only be effective by working together,” they said in a joint statement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Monday that he had been in discussions with the other governors to coordinate efforts on the West Coast. He said that on Tuesday he would outline the “California-based thinking” on reopening and promised it would be guided by “facts,” “evidence” and “science.”
The stay-at-home orders that have kept a vast majority of Americans indoors were issued state by state, by their governors. The president did issue nonbinding guidelines urging a pause in daily life through the end of the month; in some states that had resisted such measures, including Florida, his input helped spur governors to act. If the federal government were to issue new guidance saying it was safe to relax those measures or outlining a path toward reopening, many states would most likely follow or feel tremendous pressure from their businesses and constituents to relax restrictions.
But Mr. Trump, who said Friday that the decision of when to reopen the country would be the biggest he would ever make, said Monday on Twitter that it was up to the president, not the governors, to decide when to reopen the states.
“A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!” he wrote.
But several of the governors who spoke Monday made it clear that they did not intend to let businesses in their states reopen until experts and data suggested it would be safe to do so. They noted that their fates were bound by geography. “The reality is this virus doesn’t care about state borders, and our response shouldn’t either,” Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island said.
....it feels so very weird that under this (not really a) President, the idea of confederacies and States' Rights are....on the more liberal side right now. But if he's going to do shit like make the states bid up medical supplies against each other and the Feds, send the Fed supplies to his buddies, ignore the hot spots and not take calls from mayors and governors....what other choice have we got? So glad I live in Seattle right now.
no subject
Massachusetts just joined the one in the Northeast! This is amazing and absolutely nuts.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I truly did not expect it of Baker. He's a Republican and prior to the advent of SARS-CoV-2 his track record of pushing back against his party was abysmal. Assuming he can keep it up, I feel like I don't often get to watch this narrative arc in real life, real time.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Af tselokhes!
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
no subject
I'd rather vote the thing in the White House out in November and set about actually binding the wounds of this country, not packing them with dynamite. I am not the target audience for those memes of the Second Civil War.
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'd say this also falls into the category of one hundred percent politically fucking nuts, but that suggests to me* that lack of spine isn't going to be his problem.
* though of course, I'm from the other end of the country and don't follow CA politics, so what do I know?
no subject
We're also famously hard to govern and fractious among ourselves, but I think one thing that is uniting most of us is a perception that 45 and his regime have it in for us, and have been well before the pandemic (tax bill messed with us hard). The feds sent us fucking *broken* ventilators! Fortunately, we have the tech base to fix them, but seriously, that sent a fuck off and die message to 40 million people.
no subject
no subject