Gromnir

we know a woman who helps at local food bank. describe her as religious is understatement. goes to church multiple times a week as well as bible study. in addition to food bank and homeless school volunteering, she also mentors recent immigrants as part o' an esl program run through local public libraries. some couple years ago we heard her reference "those people" when describing homeless people who were not taking advantage o' assistance programs. probable shoulda' ignored the comment but we were curious, so we kinda questioned her 'bout her pov on homeless. turns out the woman is a bit o' a bigot who has strong opinions 'bout various minority groups and is dismissive o' mental health problems. ... we had a knee-jerk reaction where we were internal thinking o' her as a hypocrite. then we reflected a bit and realized this were one o' those fu Gromnir moments. (have these moments frequent as we age) didn't matter if the woman were being charitable 'cause she thought it would get her into heaven or 'cause she wanted the praise o' her fellow bible study members. this woman were spending much time and effort helping people to whom she owed nothing. family members is often the folks is hardest to help, but even so there is practical reasons for doing so. helping strangers is different. hypocrite religious lady were/is helping people she, on some level, disliked. every week and month after month and year after year, this woman who kinda despised the homeless and were prejudiced towards numerous minority groups, did her honest best to make better the lives o' less fortunate people. Gromnir criticism were misplaced and embarrassing in retrospect. not donating time to charitable causes such as soup kitchens and shelters for battered women is hardly some kinda indicator that you are a bad person. can be generous in smaller and more immediate ways. ordinary acts o' kindness add up, or so we believe. go and volunteer at a food bank but be an evil bastard to everybody you meet is seeming like a net loss to Gromnir as well, but such questions is beyond us. motivations is not insignificant, but such is 'tween you and your conscience. what you do is what matters and for us is most fundamental 'bout choice. we choose. doesn't matter what others think 'cause is our choice. *descends from soap box* HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind we ain't suggesting it is ok to be a bigot as long as you donate time for good causes. bigotry is like a virus and it spreads insidious. however, just 'cause religious lady is a bigot does not change fact she is doing something good, doing more than far too many sjw using social media to be proselytizing the evils 'bout which religious lady is actual doing something to make a real difference.

having read the new guidelines/phases, couldn't help but be reminded o' the old joke: A ‪‎physicist, an ‪‎engineer and an ‪‎economist are stranded in the desert. They are hungry. Suddenly, they find a can of corn. They want to open it, but how? The physicist says: “Let’s start a fire and place the can inside the flames. It will explode and then we will all be able to eat”. “Are you crazy?” says the engineer. “All the corn will burn and scatter, and we’ll have nothing. We should use a metal wire, attach it to a base, push it and crack the can open.” “Both of you are wrong!” states the economist. “Where the hell do we find a metal wire in the desert?! The solution is simple: ASSUME we have a can opener” so, assume we have enough testing and ppe... HA! Good Fun!

am thinking peaks and curves is simple concepts which is great for communicating with a large group o' people, but such might be oversimplifications for the US, particularly as the fed has been visible during daily briefings but has otherwise abandoned a leadership role. couldn't help but chuckle, darkly, at the thought the US is beginning to, from a practical perspective, look more like our old crimson skies board game map. michigan's peak is still a bit temporal remote even if new york is final seeing a decrease in new hospital admits. south dakota has just begun to see the 3-4 day doubling rate which is becoming typical o' disease hotspots, which means cases is gonna be increasing for a considerable period o' time. thank goodness the roosevelt were able to get to guam and see sailors distanced and quarantined 'cause the naval vessel represents the #2 case hotspot in the entire nation with 585 all by its lonesome. general trends for the US might be a bit misleading. cdc, muzzled and humbled a bit by trump pressers, nevertheless has been more vocal recent with their warnings regarding anticipated seasonal recurrence o' covid. as we got no proven therapeutics and a vaccine is at least a year away, social distancing is the only real tool we got to combat covid-19 and as such there is gonna be new hotspots from time-to-time as this is a novel virus with only native human resistance to protect those exposed. w/o adequate testing and given this virus spreads asymptomatic, US is gonna be playing whack-a-mole with virus hotspots for some time to come, particular as a few governors is clear not grasping the gravity o' the situation and singlehanded validating the florida man memes. HA! Good Fun! ps we very much wanted to use our shadowrun map, but the united canadian and american states were just too vast to make it analogous. can hip pocket shadowrun for 2021?

a clever quick solution if you don't have masks and don't have skills/supplies to craft one. HA! Good Fun!

didn't know that iran had their own version o' the onion. HA! Good Fun!

again, "knowing" doesn't mean you ain't actual bought chinese. buy made in usa products does not mean such purchases is absent china contributions 'bout which you is unaware. made in rochester or san jose does not preclude possibility (likely) more than one component or part required a chinese contribution. gd hasn't used a nail in last five years? even if the nail were made in usa, is a good chance were chines steel involved. HA! Good Fun! ps sunpower

well, "medical professionals" makes more broad than one might initial consider. doctors, nurses, hospice workers, emergency medical technicians, and "trained caregivers" is all considered medical professionals. whole lotta folks and am betting each category skews a bit different. 'ccording to wsj, for years (up until late 90s) doctors were gop stalwarts. has been a shift and is now closer to 50/50 with actual monetary contributions favoring democrats. 'course as with the rest o' society, republicans is more likely to bother to vote. nurses, emts, hospice workers and trained caregivers? all we got is unreliable anecdotal evidence and such is predominant CA. FBI warns companies of employees faking coronavirus test results "Last month, a South Carolina man was arrested and faces state charges after police say he similarly submitted fake documentation to his employer, indicating he contracted Covid-19. The call center where he worked was shut down for five days while the facility was disinfected. "Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told to CNN affiliate WSPA that it "seems to me like the fellow just wanted a two-week paid vacation."" disappointing but not unexpected. HA! Good Fun!

even more insidious. @Guard Dog has his larder full o' canned foods to get him through the coming apocalypse, yes? many o' the cans producers use is from china and even those who don't use chinese cans are probably using chinese steel to make cans or the lining o' cans. am recalling a couple stories from last year how trump tariffs were hitting the canned food industry hard 'cause of issues with steel and cans. is products which is sold with individual extreme small profit margins, so changes in canning costs caused a serious impact which were felt 'cross industry, including individual farmers and small producers. For One California Company, Trump's Tariffs Have Unintended Consequences How Trump's steel tariffs kick the can business does gd know for certain if the tinplate lining his cans is japanese, mexican or chinese? car parts. factory equipment. nails? am betting gd purchased a few chinese products w/o even realizing. not a criticism. is likely most o' us is buying chinese even if we are conscious attempting to avoid doing so. and is nothing freaking wrong with buying products which take advantage o' cheap chinese production. fox opinion pundits rail 'bout globalism, but has nothing whatsoever to do with ideological globalism. is free freaking market and rational business practices which has American manufacturers and consumers purchasing chinese alternatives. 'course you gotta plan for contingencies. can't rely on china for essential goods and components given they act adversarial far too often. Federal government spent millions to ramp up mask readiness, but that isn’t helping now "In September 2018, the Trump administration received detailed plans for a new machine designed to churn out millions of protective respirator masks at high speed during a pandemic." end of the story on that piece o' equipment. hhs keeps recommending development o' prototype machine, but no money were allocated. cheap in retrospect. obama admin, based on bush era recommendations, started a program to do something 'bout PREDICTED n95 shortages. $9.8 million spent to develop two options: 1) a machine which would mass produce n95 masks quick; 2) a reusable n95 mask. rail 'gainst cheap chinese products or globalism is silly and inefficient. like it or not, in a global economy, buy American doesn't necessarily mean you are avoiding buying chinese. even so, the fed needs be cognizant o' realities o' shifting world conflicts to prepare for an eventuality when essential goods and components sudden become impossible or prohibitive to purchase. HA! Good Fun!

and what about the birds? now that prince has passed, why is trump the one who must need listen when doves cry? HA! Good Fun!

obama had big dreams 'bout renewable energy, high speed rail and smart grids. he didn't follow through but is noteworthy he simultaneous got hit with a fracking boom which woulda' required a whole lotta will to slow... and orogun would have us seeming give trump credit for the fracking boom which happened during the obama years, so go figure. HA! Good Fun!

so the trade war with china weren't 'bout economics. what a relief. wait. what? US overseas manufacturing needs had already been expanding beyond china borders before the start o' the trade war in part 'cause o' increasing labor shortfalls in china which will only get worse in the next few years. vietnam and cambodia were already becoming a new nexus for manufacturing which has only accelerated. that said, if not economics but principle were the selling point, then all those US farmers and and other business has paid a heavy price w/o knowing what they were actual fighting for, eh? is not binary. were not trump's trade war or nothing. am agreeing china has been a bad actor for a long time, but the trade war has cost the US billions and hurt businesses most vulnerable. trump had no plan. period. that's should be in quotes. "i have no plan right now, and "i have second thoughts about everything," were quotes from trump last summer. at g7 last year, trump were asked at if he had second thoughts ' bout escalating the trade war with china and his rambling and nonsensical responses were as follows: "Yeah, sure why not. Might as well. Might as well." ... what? and blame WHO, china and pelosi for trump's pandemic slow walking is idiotic as trump had dire warnings, at the latest, in january. did nothing for six weeks After the travel limits. not ban. so trump applauds xi for transparency on january 24 but fails to heed warnings from his own intelligence folks and healthcare experts, and somehow, this is WHO fault? or pelosi? trump played golf and had rallies for a month and a half after credible warnings and signs o' asymptomatic community spread and your excuse is the real nogoodniks is WHO, china and pelosi. deflection.pathetic deflection. yeah, china lied and WHO were not aggressive enough, but pass the buck when trump knew is hardly convincing. raise hand if you were surprised china lied 'bout an emerging pandemic threat? anybody? nobody. nevertheless, trump gets a pass? please. the only thing you mention insofar as trump actions as the reason for a boosted economy is the tax cut and no, the boosted economy won't pay for itself. that were the point 'bout the CBO growth projections post tax cut. to pay for the tax cut woulda' required sustained growth far greater than we were seeing. trump overestimated growth by a whole bunch. Visualizing the huge difference in the White House economic projections versus the CBO’s and Wall Street’s growth rates post tax cut were almost exact what CBO predicted previous to tax cut and far short o' the wh estimates. trump, to sell tax cut, were predicting sustained 4% and that never happened. even before covid-19 there were a big drop-off in 2019 ending at less than 2% in the last quarter with projections o' sub 2% being norm post 2021. trump sold you debt, but don't feel bad, he did same with all his casino investors so you are in good (albeit foolish) company. btw, germany has better than 40% o' its energy needs fulfilled by renewable sources. the US? ~17%. yeah, large cargo ships is gonna continue to be powered by diesel for the foreseeable future, but other nations has made the transition to renewable sources much more effective and efficient than has the US. funny part is much o' the ai tech which makes renewable work elsewhere is pioneered in the US, but then doesn't see use save as oversized science experiments. renewable reduces dependence on foreign oil btw. thought that were obvious. we use oil and coal and gas 'cause current it is cheap and also to continue to support those industries. isn't 'cause renewable cannot replace much o' the current need for petro. and again, these are your High points? lordy. HA! Good Fun!

the china trade situation has been, at best, a minor win for the US even if there were a larger perception win for trump. perhaps the trump hardline on china strikes you as more impactful if you are one o' the handful o' folks who hasn't yet realized that trump is fool o' p00p when he claims china is paying for tariffs? and the cost... U.S. Farm Bankruptcies Surge 24% on Strain From Trump Trade War gonna point out obvious how most economic gains from three years o' trump, regardless o' who deserves credit, has evaporated in a matter o' a month. p00f. gone. trump ain't responsible for covid-19, but he is at fault for much o' the unnecessary pain resulting from such a slow response. played a lot o' golf and held a bunch o' rallies in february and early march. coulda' been preparing. yeah, the US economy had been doing well since second half o' obama's second term, but do a search o' Gromnir posts regarding Presidential impact on the economy for our views on such. Presidents have less impact on the economy than they get credit or blame regarding. is typical the next administration which sees benefits or harm from Presidential efforts. given how trump has increased national debt during a period you identify as having positive growth and low unemployment were complete irresponsible and we were gonna need eventual pay for that brobdingnagian stoopidity. we mentioned a few pages back how if trump had been more responsible these past three years, reducing fed spending as 'posed to increasing, he would then be able to brag 'bout his prescience. with trillions o' dollars needing be spent on covid-19 (woulda' been less if trump didn't waste 1.5 months minimizing the pandemic threat and were instead addressing medical needs in anticipation o' increasing inevitable US outbreaks) three years o' traditional conservative fiscal responsibility woulda' been a godsend. oh, and increasing oil production don't look all that forward thinking at the moment, does it? sure, trump unthinking epa deregulation has potential for severe climate and environmental damage, but even ignoring such, the future is renewable energy as 'posed to oil and beautiful clean burning coal. reduce oil production reliance means current massive shortfall in demand would be less painful. ... we were considering going down the laundry list o' trump fails, but we would be creating a wall o' text which would exhaust even Gromnir. genuine positives from trump? is actual a few. biggest is small business tax breaks resulting from the 2017 tax cut and jobs act. much o' the rest o' the hastily penned tax cut were lacking wisdom and has not resulted in the growth trump insisted woulda' paid for the cuts, a shortfall the CBO predicted btw. regardless, small business win is good. kudos. one o' a few. have admitted from time-to-time how we didn't disagree with the President, but no signature issue or program. HA! Good Fun!

... a tweet from potus after the wh were receiving intelligence reports that the covid-19 situation in china were more serious than reported from the ccp. HA! Good Fun!

andrew jackson, unlike trump, were an experienced statesman o' unquestioned courage and patriotism. fact jackson were arguably unhinged and enjoying a bit too much o' the ultraviolent from time-to-time were not well known by the public as media were a bit different in those days. even so, unlike trump, jackson were genuine popular and advocating for the common man during a Presidency in which he, relative speaking, displayed competence if not remarkable levels o' such. much different than trump. even so, compare worst aspects o' andrew jackson to trump is not benefiting corporal bone spurs. btw, even andy knew he needed Congress to vote to end the nullification crisis-- were no declaration o' total authority. HA! Good Fun! ps invoke trail of tears is typical enough nowadays to have most folks label jackson as a villain in US history.

is predictable trump will now spin similar stories as fake news by media. the real problem is democrats and liberal media are complete misrepresenting trump and in a time o' crisis they focus on a movie reference rather than the important issues. freaking inside-out and bassackwards and yet +30% of the US population will reflexive agree. "every country has the government it deserves." HA! Good Fun!

Trump Clearly Has No Idea What Happens in Mutiny on the Bounty "Film lovers all slapped their foreheads on Tuesday as President Donald Trump belched out an odd tweet, even by his own standards. In it he warned that Democratic governors going over his head to take emergency coronavirus measures couldn’t fool him, because he watches TCM." HA! Good Fun!

folks voting 3p in battleground states last cycle is exact why we got trump as President today. democrat? republican? party is irrelevant when cataloging trump fails as he is mendacious narcissist the likes o' which we ain't never seen in the oval office sitting behind the resolute desk. as usual gd sees some validation in trump which is unwarranted. fact we never had a President do as trump (at least with this level o' profound disturbing excess and consistency) should be an argument in favor o' notion trump is an exception rather than some kinda inevitable culmination. nevertheless, for gd, trump is the political kwisatz haderach. and we would say the current snaffu regarding covid-19 shows how is clearly a few jobs which is too much for individual states to handle, and is unnecessarily inefficient even if were possible for states to do lonesome. each state have their own space program? each state have their own vaccine development mechanism? ridiculous. gd sees opposite o' what would appear to be the more obvious conclusions, but such is part o' his charm as the board's resident crazy hermit. HA! Good Fun!

nothing supernatural. unlike visual or language arts, music translates to a much better degree regardless o' cultural hardwiring. perhaps more with music than poetry or sculpture or whatnot, the artist emotions is communicated with heightened verisimilitude. whether or not listener is religious is irrelevant 'cause the music conveys the artist's feelings at a fundamental level which ignores a whole lotta cognitive baggage. now for something a bit different... we don't watch fallon, but am a fan o' the roots. questlove playing scissors and flatware were worth the view... and 'course the connect 4 guy were hypnotic. HA! Good Fun!

can you see the light? gospel choirs do have a unique capacity to take sombre and mournful songs and make 'em hopeful and even joyous. swing low, sweet chariot (written by a choctaw man btw,) is positively ebullient when sung by etta james and backing choir. amazing grace might be a rare exception as it is one o' the gospel hymns which rare get uplift. yeah, you may find exceptions, but is an inherent reserved quality to amazing grace which affects most performers. @Azdeus is likely apocryphal, but supposed, mozart managed to "steal" the secret o' allegri's miserere mei. written music were a close guarded secret o' the vatican, or so the story goes, until mozart heard once and then put pen to paper. the music were deemed a powerful tool o' conversion and faith by the church. am also a big fan o' mozart's requiem, though a few o' the portions we like bestest might not actually have been written by mozart. go figure. and our favorite movie theme o' all-time is having choral and is evoking mass even though such is secular. am not certain o' our faith, but if God does exist, he speak to us more clear through music. HA! Good Fun!

a woman was banished from pine ridge after testing positive for covid-19. an employee at the local jesuit school, and spouse o' a tribal member, recent had a medical procedure performed in CA sometime in late march. during self quarantine 'pon her return from CA, the woman displayed symptoms and were subsequently tested off-reservation. tribal council were deadlocked for a week before finally agreeing 'pon banishment. going to a "hot spot" such as CA (which has 'bout half the cases per capita as sd) were deemed irresponsible behaviour worthy o' banishment. 1918 spanish flu hit the oglala disproportionate killing indians 3x to 4x more readily than the general US population. comorbidities which significant impact covid-19 lethality is also representing more often in oglala than in other US demographic identifiable groups. caution bordering on paranoia is understandable. am disappointed but sympathetic. will be time after fear recedes to revisit the issue. positive: we had a great excuse for not visiting family this easter as those residing off reservation were asked to stay clear for the time being. HA! Good Fun!

the drummer in the vid is james gadson, who is one o' the most heralded and prolific session drummers. gadson were drummer on at least a couple o' withers' albums. am bringing up 'cause o' realization we complete overlooked gadson's appearance in one o' those playing for change, song around the world videos. is #2 on our personal list from the site, so am not certain why we overlooked save that we listen more than we view. only possible for why we overlooked gadson (who must be in his mid or late 70s?) is 'cause we were so focused on rajhesh going epic at 3:05. HA! Good Fun! ps fyi, michael mcdonald, who surely is near 70 himself, recent did a npr tiny desk concert: home edition. not the best sound quality, but is amazing how fantastic is his voice in 2020. worth a look/listen.

which toe? am knowing multiple people who had to end their athletic careers after serious cases o' turf toe. god forbid, dancing career could be over for shady. small toe? get out the pruning shears and bactine. go ronnie lott on that sucker. ... not serious 'bout the ronnie lott advice. HA! Good Fun!

in a closet where we keep med/first aid stuff we found a box o' procedure masks-- 50 count. not n95 and not even surgical masks. they are hospital garb blue, and they got a bendy metal nose strip, so they give the impression o' being more effective than the cloth petri dish medicine dan described in another thread even if they ain't. have used one. the masks is likely near a decade old, and have a dusty odor, but as their only function is to keep us from spreading via respiration whatever foulness we may have contracted, am thinking they will be good enough. functional near a year supply as am only needing weekly. am thus set for masks. huzzah. Here’s what we know about Minnesota’s model for predicting the toll of COVID-19 Scenario 3.1: Two weeks of stay-at-home followed by physical distancing until June 12, followed by requirement that the vulnerable stay home until about Aug. 14: Date of peak cases: July 6, or 15 weeks (10-20 weeks) Date of peak ICU need: June 29, or 14 weeks (9-19 weeks) Number of beds needed at peak ICU: 3,300 (2,600-4,000) Mortality: 20,000 (9,000-33,000) ... "MDH officials have said they believe the oft-cited University of Washington model, which predicts fewer than 500 deaths for Minnesota, makes unrealistically optimistic assumptions about how well Americans’ succeed at social distancing and about the accuracy of death data from China." ... numbers is only for minnesota and their health folks admit their models is leaning towards pessimistic compared to other state models, albeit not most pessimistic. nevertheless, the mdh mistrust o' china numbers is looking reasonable in light o' recent info which suggests china cases and deaths were much higher than reported. HA! Good Fun!

in our experience, the hardest part 'bout helping grandma has been unnecessary politeness. we get lists from grandmas on day previous to doing our shopping sojourns. brief. small. minimalist. ... we keep telling grandmas how particular as stocks is still not normalized, is better to add a bit o' bloat to the lists as 'posed to trimming out o' some misplaced sense o' not wanting to be a burden. am suspecting it would help if we were an actual grandson to the folks for whom we shop. is a bit easier to ask family for help as 'posed to neighbors even if such neighbors is friendly and have a good foundation/relation. every grandma is channeling mary mcdonnell. HA! Good Fun!

one o' the more unreasonable recent arguments we have seen from folks who complain 'bout dnc, and keep in mind Gromnir is one o' the folks who complains. after 2016 is hard not to question every dnc choice, yes? from start, the democrat debate rules for 2020 were arbitrary. the changes were rational and reasonable but no less arbitrary. with so many candidates, dnc decided it were not making sense to let everybody on stage during televised debates, so they came up with cutoff points. original cut-off were 1% in at least three polls. there were also a unique donor prerequisite, but am forgetting the number. no more than 20 and a tiebreaker were also part o' rules? goal were so there would be no more than 20, but admitted, all the numbers requirements were arbitrary. rules were adjusted many times before bloomberg were added and tulsi were blocked. goal were always to keep pool number smallish and nevertheless provide candidates with a legit chance o' victory the opportunity to speak on a national stage to relevant issues. mindless following arbitrary rules is the perverse nature o' bureaucrats and ignoramuses. got some rule which says husband and wife need sign a form for school registration in the event o' married couples but make no provision for same-sex couples even in states which permit such unions? failure to change such a rule or make a workaround is example o' bureaucrat stoopid, and happens all the time. we criticize when no changes is made, and for good reason. exclude tulsi were not arbitrary. the arbitrary rules for the debates were not penned in the Constitution and had in fact been changing with almost every debate since september o' 2019. exclude tulsi were intentional and rational as 'posed to the arbitrary rules. tulsi had negligible chance o' winning the nomination and keeping her on the debate stage because of the earlier arbitrary rules woulda' been asinine. 1 delegate were a rule, but such ignores fact tulsi had failed to meet polling requirements for multiple previous debates. keep gabbard on a debate stage with biden and sanders woulda' been reflexive bureaucratic stoopid which has persons adhering to arbitrary in the face o' ludicrous results. alternative, bloomberg were polling better than candidates who would appear on the stage in february, so exclude him 'cause o' those same arbitrary rules were deemed unreasonable. nevertheless, democrats had to make a tough choice as it appeared bloomberg were buying his way into the election which brought a stink to the democrat party as a whole if he should debate on even playing field with those who had been meeting thresholds from day 1. nevertheless, democrats side with the democratic choice and allow a popular candidate to debate. again, the rules which woulda' allowed tulsi and excluded bloomberg were arbitrary. there weren't some profound civil rights or fundamental fairness issue which were the basis for the dnc rules for debate candidate eligibility. the purpose o' rules were to get relevant candidates on stage for debates. ignore purpose and instead blind follow arbitrary? stoopid, the kinda stoopid most of us justifiable criticize. now is arguable the dnc rules failed when the result were to exclude viewpoint diversity o' candidates so early in the race, but that is a different and much more serious question. HA! Good Fun!