It’s a very busy day, here in the CatBox. WWWendy should be here in half an hour, so I’d better burn rubber. This is today’s only article. Have a great holiday weekend. If you must travel, please protect yourselves.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Trump* Virus Update:
Cases: 1,669,311
Deaths: 98,740
Recovered: 446,982
Short Takes:
From Alternet: …A new study shows that when it comes to forcing workers to go back into offices, stores, and factories, almost half the online voices shouting for the “reopening of America” were, and are, bot accounts. Of the accounts that have tweeted most on this topic, more than half are bots. Of the most influential, almost all are bots. And behind the bots … is someone still unknown.
The report comes out of Carnegie Mellon University. Digging through over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus, researchers focused in on the most influential accounts—those most active, most retweeted, and most liked. Out of the top 1,000 accounts, 62% are bots. Perhaps even more amazing: of the 50 most influential accounts on this topic, 82% are bots.
The bots may be numerous, but their message isn’t varied. They’re not being used to pass along accurate news about COVID-19, to encourage social distancing, or to support state government calls for preventive measures. In addition to pushing false cures, like Trump’s much-pushed hydroxychloroquine, and spreading general false information about the dangers of COVID-19, there’s one point where bots are driving the whole of social media. According to the report, they are “dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and ‘reopening America.’”… [emphasis added]
We can be sure of one thing. Those bots are smarter than the Republican sheeple they influence. Even artificial intelligence is more than no intelligence at all. RESIST!!
From CNN: With restaurants closed or open with limited capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic, a certain subset of those establishments’ “patrons” is struggling.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that certain areas across the country are reporting “an increase in rodent activity,” as rats search for sources of food other than restaurant dumpsters.
“Jurisdictions have closed or limited service at restaurants and other commercial establishments to help limit the spread of COVID-19,” the CDC said. “Rodents rely on the food and waste generated by these establishments. Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas.”
As a result, rats are scampering elsewhere — including residential areas. Given the circumstances, they may even exhibit “unusual or aggressive” behavior, the CDC said.
We need to do some heavy duty pest control to kill those rats. Not only do they spread disease, but also, you know they’ll vote Republican in November! RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the past): If I Were a Carpenter
Ah… the memories! RESIST!!
Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!
18 Responses to “Open Thread–5/24/2020”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Cartoon: Oh! but of course!!
TVU: We are at…171 w/53 recovered, 2 deaths.
AN: They (bots) are playing a dangerous game with lives. I am sure that it will get worse as time goes by…and as the election draws closer. imho.
CNN: Yikes, I agree. I forgot about the rats in NY and elsewhere. Remember the rat taking the pizza slice down the steps, and taking it home to feed the wife and kids? I do.
BFTP: AH! What memories! Great song!
Hi, WWWendy!! Hope that you have a wonderful Memorial Day..take good care, and Thanks, TC !! We have a small grill out back, and are celebrating tomorrow on the back porch. I don’t know what other family members are doing, but I think it will be a quiet day though.
This just in: “Beating Trump in November is not the goal. It is not even the minimum acceptable outcome. The GOP is the problem. The GOP must be defeated in both the House and Senate. GOP must be defeated up and down the ballot. Don’t lose sight of this.” ~ David R. ~
2. “A president who can’t handle a crisis is no president at all. ~ Joe Biden ~
3. “Mike Pence: “I can’t wear a mask; I will not be able to kiss Trump’s as- without one.” ~ Richard D. ~
4. “I just want to note that they, (GOP), attacked Obama with racism, smeared his wife and kids, demanded his birth certificate, questioned his faith, AND not once did Obama stoop to the level of tweeting, screaming expletives, and accusing the opposition of treason. Not once. Not a single day in 8 years.” ~ Oliver W. ~
5. “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he blames somebody else.” ~ John Burroughs ~
*Two names I read from remembrance of lives lost from Covid – NYT: 100,000 lives lost.
– Thomas T. Russell, (age 83) died of Covid 19. Mentored by the computer science pioneer Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral, United States Navy.
– Margit Buchhalter Feldman, (age 90) died of Covid 19. Survivor who taught classes about the Holocaust.
TJI #5 – I was musing this week and weekend about how all our legends and folklore are built around what many would call “losers.” The medieval epic “Chanson de Rolande” is probably the clearest exampl – all we know about him is that he lost (but he lost heroically.) We know a bit more about the heroes at the Alamo … but they are honored today mostly because they lost – heroically. Even King Arthur isn’s exactly a winner. Those in charge of our gvernment today might call him a “cuck” and you can’t argue they would be wrong. Finally, he was annihilated by Mordred (which is why Malory called his long work “The Death of Arthur.”) I could go on, but this will likely do for now.
JOE BIDEN: “A president who can’t handle a crisis is no president at all”.
That’s the closing tagline of this great ad:
Thank you, Joanne and Nameless for your comments and the video,
which is spot on.
Thanks! I was looking for that video early yesterday morning, but I couldn’t find it!
Best to you and to WWWendy. Tell her we love her.
Well, I think this is the second best news I’ve heard all week (second to hearing TC was out of the hospital and perky)
Cartoon – My mother’s uncle Fred was a civil engineer, so he was able to see and interpret the plans for the Golden Gate Bridge. He said it could never be built – and, you know, he was right – because he didn’t think he needed to add “without unacceptable loss of life.” We all to tend to think others are like us until proven otherwise.
AlterNet – I can’t argue with you. Maybe it isn’t pure stupidity, but it is a cocktail of stupidity, greed, anger, and hate, and, although the proportions may differ, stupidity is always an ingredient. Even an educated person who is intelligent in what he/she has been educated about can be stupid outside that field.
CNN – So easy to get sentimental about animals coming back to old habitats once there are no humans there … but it’s not so cute when they are rats. And I don’t think TNR will work for them. In fact, I’m not sure there is anything that will work for them which won’t do a lot of collateral damage, not just to humans, but to other, innocent wildlife.
Past – I remember this one. I had an impression it was an updated-by-arrangement version of an extremely old folk tune, but I could be wrong.
Great News!
“Cartoon – My mother’s uncle Fred was a civil engineer, so he was able to see and interpret the plans for the Golden Gate Bridge. He said it could never be built – and, you know, he was right – because he didn’t think he needed to add “without unacceptable loss of life.”
Interesting Missouri tidbit: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis was built with NO loss of life.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/facts-about-st-louis-gateway-arch
The Gateway Arch is 30 years newer than the Golden Gate Bridge. It is 630 feet wide, whereas the bridge is 8981 feet long (the water under it is a mile wide.) The bridge was designed by a commitee of people no one ever heard of. The arch was designed by Eero Saarinen. The bridge is a suspension bridge, a type of bridge used where there can be high winds; the structure is designed to prevent it from being damaged by those winds because there is some “give” in the design. I don’t know what the winds are like in St. Louis (but I’ll bet Saarinen knew very well. Is it in Tornado Alley?) Basically, it was the wind and then the water below that did workers in. I’m not dissing the arch. To have built it with no loss of life is an amazing achievement. The bridge lost only 11 workers, which is also amazing (28 dies building the Bay Bridge, and it was not considered as dangerous.)
Yep…they sure have been.
TVU: Still growing here. I’m in no rush to go running away. As people do, the numbers keep rising.
Alternet: Agree with Pat and Joanne’s comments.
CNN: I honestly hope as you suggested TomCat, to do some heavy pest control in these infested areas. I know that I certainly wouldn’t want to see them anywhere around where I live or ate.
BFTP: Sweet memories.
Tell Wendy Hello and thanks for me too. Hope you both get a lot accomplished.
Take care and stay hydrated.
Thanks TomCat
TC, hang in there.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a beautiful sight to this day. John Roebling’s wife, he being the designer, supervise the finishing of the bridge after his untimely death. The “Water Cure” he insisted on, after a foot was crushed in an accident, that more, or less, used his death, is reminiscent of Dumpy’s malaria cure for Covid-19.
TVU: Getting redder, are we?
Alternet: The internet is, clearly, a double edged sword. WE will probably never know who is pushing the idiocy, though my first guess is the remaining Koch boy.
CNN: Aha! It’s the rats running the bots, wanting people to be out and about, and eating in public!
BFTP: Nice!
Pat’s #5: According to “A Very Stable Genius,” Trump wasted no time whatsoever in blaming others for virtually anything. On March 1st, 2017, he had huge difficulty reading form the constitution, for a movie showing former presidents and VP’s reading the whole thing, and the Bill of Rights. Trump came in totally unprepared, and stumbled all over the place, it was reported, blaming anyone present for his fumbling. Others who made mistakes apologized, not him.
glad you’re back…thanks for everyone who makes this all happen for those of us like thinkers…and you are blessed to have WWWendy…..
I hope you have a good holiday weekend too, TomCat.
3:02 Tactic to look at stripy background colour chiefly bore fruit.
Cartoon: I’ve never seen it and I never buy anything unseen.
Update: A map with new cases each day could be more informative at this point to show that Trump and his red governors are lying when they say the coronavirus is disappearing.
Alternet: Those bots could either be “made in Rusia” or “made in China”, but don’t forget Steve Bannon’s involvement with Cambridge Analytica on Facebook, so it might be “homemade” just as well.
CNN: Actually, I rather like the individual rat and I can understand why some people keep them as pets, but their smartness, resilience and adaptivity becomes a burden when they’re in their thousands if not millions and roaming the street. Another problem nobody saw coming.
BFTP: A song I know very well and like, but I do not know the Cash & Carter cover version. I think I like the original by Tim Hardin best, but I’m most familiar with the cover by the Four Tops who reached number four in the Netherlands in 1968.
Good idea!
Here’s a site which has that kind of information, but not in map form (because there’s just too much of it.) It does get updated.
Thanks!
Take Care Tom Cat,have a good day.☺️🎉
Thanks and holiday hugs to all!