April 3, 2020

How to properly wipe down your groceries (CNN, Dr Sanjay Gupta)

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta demonstrates the proper way to wipe down grocery or take-out items before bringing them into the house, and how to remove contaminated gloves without compromising your hands.Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/04/03/sanjay-gupta-wiping-cleaning-groceries-demo-town-hall-vpx.cnn

April 3, 2020

Hopes Dashed After Trump Mega Fan Announces Mask Hoard

*these Magats just disgust me

(TalkingPointsMemo) Remember Robert Hyde? He was the Connecticut contractor, congressional candidate and Trump mega-fan who somehow found his way into the Trump/Ukraine scandal. He was the go updating Lev Parnas on the team he purported had surveilling US Ambassador Maria Yovanovich in Kyiv, Ukraine. Seems like a lifetime ago, right?

Well, he’s back. And he’s sitting on a stockpile of n95 masks. Or so he claims. This morning we saw this tweet in which Hyde announced he has ten million N95 and KN95 masks available for delivery, apparently through Finley Hyde & Associates, LLC the lobbying firm he established to provide access to Trump world power-brokers.

In other tweets, Hyde aggressively defended his efforts to put PPE into the hands of front line medical workers:

“I’m connecting product to our loved ones on the frontlines that are in dire need. What are you doing beside opening your cock holster on social media? You want to to donate them? Great, make calls, but (sic) them and donate. In the meantime I’ll be saving lives by getting masks that nobody can get from countries that will sell to other countries before ours. You’re welcome. Stay home. Stay safe and healthy. Good luck.”

Let’s get masks to our frontline loved ones. Do you have some awesome contacts I can have? I can get as many masks as your hospitals, police, fire, “essential workers” states and companies need. Please email me at robhyde@finleyhyde.com pic.twitter.com/9mMocFBEeS

— HYDE for U.S. Congress (@rfhyde1) April 1, 2020

Anyway, we wanted to find out how Hyde had managed to get hold of this amount of product when states, hospitals and the federal government are bending every sinew of power to acquire them.

When Josh Kovensky contacted Hyde to ask how he got the masks and how much he was selling them for the story changed. Hyde said he doesn’t actually have any masks but seems to be trying to set up as a middleman. “We don’t have them. Sourcing agents contacted us and we’ve been paying them up with hospitals etc” and then “I help locate to get into our country to help save lives of our loved ones on the front lines.”

When Kovensky pointed out that this seemed to contradict his public claims, Hyde responded negatively: “What’s it contradict? That we sourced them to America and frontline loved ones. Are you on crack? Go help people. They are dying.”

So unfortunately it appears that Hyde does not have ten or twenty million masks and likely has no masks.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hopes-dashed-after-trump-mega-fan-announces-mask-hoard

April 2, 2020

Women are using code words at pharmacies to escape domestic violence during lockdown

(CNN) On Sunday, a woman walked into a pharmacy in the French city of Nancy, one of the few public places still open after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of a dangerous virus.

But the woman wasn't there for medicine; she was there to tell the pharmacist that her partner had abused her. Soon after, the woman's spouse was arrested by police.
As the coronavirus pandemic forces countries everywhere to take unprecedented steps to restrict the movement of their citizens, victims of domestic violence have suddenly found themselves trapped at home with their abusive partners. Some are unable -- or too afraid -- to call the police, experts say.

So France, inspired by a similar scheme in Spain, has started telling victims to head to drugstores. If they can't talk openly in the store, they can simply say the codeword "mask 19" to the pharmacist behind the counter. The woman in Nancy was the first to seek help since the government launched the initiative last week, the spokesperson for Marlene Schiappa, the French minister for equality, told CNN.
As lockdown measures across Europe get stricter, charities and police forces are raising the alarm over a potential spike in domestic violence. Being confined at home with their abuser makes victims more vulnerable, because there is no escape.

(Read More) https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/europe/domestic-violence-coronavirus-lockdown-intl/index.html

April 2, 2020

Defying Florida Governor, Miami Archbishop says there will be no Easter Masses

*DeSantis is such an irresponsible jerk that even priests are rebelling against him....


(Miami Herald) A few hours after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told people they could congregate at houses of worship, which he exempted from his mandatory stay-at-home order, the Archbishop of Miami on Wednesday strongly told his priests not to conduct any in-person services, including Easter Masses, over the next two weeks.

“It is not prudent for parishes to plan any activity that would encourage people to leave their homes,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski wrote in a statement. “Therefore, parishes are not to offer ‘drive-through’ palms, confessions or Holy Communion or any similar type of activity.”

Last weekend, St. Augustine Catholic Church in Coral Gables offered drive-thru confessions to its parishioners.

“These next two weeks, our health professionals tell us will be very critical — with more people becoming infected and more deaths,” Wenski wrote. “Because many people who are infected may not have any symptoms, the best way to mitigate risk is to practice social isolation and, if one has symptoms or has possibly been exposed, or has an underlying health problem, to self-quarantine.”

Wenski, the leader of the state’s biggest Catholic diocese, said parishes should still respond to calls from parishioners and respond to emergencies, including visiting sick people in hospitals. He added, however, that clergy should take precautions and do so only if permitted by the hospital.

He urged pastors to continue live-streaming Masses and other services during Holy Week, which begins Sunday with Palm Sunday and continues through Holy Thursday and Good Friday leading up to Easter Sunday, which is April 12.

He suggested that on Palm Sunday, parishioners place a palm frond on their door as “most yards in South Florida have some type of palm in them.”

Earlier Wednesday, DeSantis, after resisting for weeks, announced he would sign an executive order limiting activity in Florida to essential services for the next 30 days to try to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. The order will go into effect Thursday night at 12:01 on Friday, April 3, and expires on April 30.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241695281.html

April 1, 2020

My Boyfriend Andrew Cuomo's New Girlfriend Is America

*my friend sent me this article and it gave me the chuckle that I sorely needed....


(Yahoo News) I was eating ice cold Tostitos cheese with a spoon at my desk on a recent Monday morning, gearing up to wrangle my inbox and not open the shades for the 9th day of quarantine in a row, when my phone started buzzing:

“Check Facebook.”

“Check Twitter.”

“Are you OK?”

It was an emergency: My boyfriend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, I learned, had a new girlfriend.

America.

“Lolol” if you want. (Everyone I know did.)

Vital New York Times’ think pieces aside, life in Corona lockdown has been pretty innocuous for me so far. I have no children, no pets, just lots of beautiful things from HomeGoods and the outlets packed into a not-unspacious apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. I’m able to work from home sans bra, artfully tucking my breasts into my armpits while replying to work emails, and thankfully putting pants on to host my morning radio show on SiriusXM from my living room, a show my neighbors have called “Can you please close your windows?” and “Seriously, we have a newborn.”

But the one thing I do have to look forward to every day like clockwork has been New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefings at 11 a.m. (Sometimes he’s late, and starts them at 11:30. I’ve started referring to this waiting time as “Cuomo FOMO.”) Like a velveteen gravity blanket for my soul, the second I see this man’s perfectly weathered face and tousled curls, the moment his Pacino-like accent fills my living room with its mafia-like authority, my blood pressure drops, my breasts seem to perk up on their own, and a tingly feeling of optimism washes over my imprisoned body as I think to myself… I think we’re gonna be okay.

Also: I think I’m in love with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

(Read More) https://news.yahoo.com/america-thirsting-over-boyfriend-andrew-203500245.html

April 1, 2020

Every GOP Senator that voted against convicting & removing trump on Feb 5 has blood on their hands.

They knew what was happening in the world - folks were getting sick and dying and it was getting closer and closer to us here in the United States. AND they knew he was incompetent in every single way - still they let him stay in office knowing that he did not have what it took to keep us safe. They did this to us. As much as I hate trump I think I might hate them more...

January 19, 2020

Dersh may be a contrarian, and love the sound of his own voice

but I don't think that he is doing what he's doing because he likes the notoriety and attention that comes from being a lone voice in a crowd. He is not a lone voice. He is part of the big fat trumpy chorus that sings with people like Giuliani who used be something.