#DieForTheDow is trending

Age-wise, I am on the wrong side of the "let's save the economy by throwing grandma to the wolves" argument. So I have to say, I disagree with it!

And with COVID-19, it won't work anyway. 

Because it isn't only the grandmas who get sick and die. Its the doctors, the nurses, the teachers, the stock brokers, the policemen, the bartenders, the teenagers on a beach. 

Many of the shitmonkeys advocating #DieForTheDow are legislators who have proven (but mysterious) ways of getting tested for COVID19 that your average person doesn't. Have NO doubt: these shitmonkeys will also have first dibs on increasingly scarce ventilators & other treatments. https://t.co/2HZJpqXDwM

— Sailin' Dame (@YerseniaP) March 24, 2020

If you need a wake-up call, here it is: My husband was on a large conference call of American med school deans last night. One asked about legal coverage for pulling people off ventilators to give to others more likely to survive. I.e., not being charged with murder. Here we are.

— Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) March 24, 2020

The choice is between:

- a very hurtful major recession caused by social distancing, managed by stimulus

or

- a economic collapse caused by the breakdown of our health system due to millions of deaths, tens of millions of hospitalizations, that cannot be managed by stimulus

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 24, 2020

At the end of all this, let’s try to remember that the geniuses who told us not to worry about coronavirus are the same geniuses telling us not to worry about #climatechange

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) March 16, 2020

Courage is found in unlikely places

Things are awful and they're going to get worse - the economy is going to tank, maybe worse than it did in 2008, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their jobs. 

To understand why the world economy is in grave peril because of the spread of coronavirus, it helps to grasp one idea that is at once blindingly obvious and sneakily profound.
One person’s spending is another person’s income. That, in a single sentence, is what the $87 trillion global economy is.That relationship, between spending and income, consumption and production, is at the core of how a capitalist economy works. It is the basis of a perpetual motion machine. We buy the things we want and need, and in exchange give money to the people who produced those things, who in turn use that money to buy the things they want and need, and so on, forever.
What is so deeply worrying about the potential economic ripple effects of the virus is that it requires this perpetual motion machine to come to a near-complete stop across large chunks of the economy, for an indeterminate period of time.

In spite of the billions that governments will spend to prop up the economy, our standard of living is going to decline. Or at least it will FEEL like it is declining -- we won't have the restaurants around anymore that we used to love, we won't be getting the variety and quality of food we are used to seeing in grocery stores because the agricultural and shipping industries are going to be in such disarray, we won't have sports or new TV shows or new movies or touring theatre companies or concerts or community events. For many of us, our retirement savings are taking a hit that we won't be able to recover. 

Not to mention, of course, the hundreds of thousands around the world who will get sick, and the tens of thousands who will die in the next 18 months to two years, before a COVID vaccine can be developed and put into production and reach the market.

Goodbye yellow brick road, yes indeed.

Someday maybe we will say "I remember when you could walk into a store and buy bananas any time of the year".

So in the meantime, I can only keep my spirits up by searching out some "good news" stories. Because once again, in a crisis, people have a remarkable way of pulling together, pushing though, helping themselves and each other to cope and to manage and to survive.

“But where shall I find courage?” asked Frodo.
“That is what I chiefly need.”“Courage is found in unlikely places,” said Gildor.
“Be of good hope! Sleep now!”

Beautiful. King Street, right? https://t.co/LkN6dqdqnj

— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 18, 2020

@CoronavirusCast

You wanted some positive stories.
Here you go. This man must be a listener.

Sask. First Nation chief prepared for COVID-19 pandemic weeks before it hit https://t.co/1zRd7e74O3

— Raptor Girl SK- We the Champs! (@raptorgirlSK) March 17, 2020

While our doors may be closed, we'll still bring the Gallery to you online.

During our closure, we’ll take you on a tour, gallery by gallery. Each day we’ll focus on one room and the works of art on view within it. #MuseumFromHome pic.twitter.com/VfI4Nm8kj5

— National Gallery of Art (@ngadc) March 14, 2020

We're better than our political leadership. https://t.co/ez9K1RChDP

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) March 16, 2020

Louis Vuitton is switching all its perfume & cosmetic manufacturing factories to make hand sanitizer gels. https://t.co/p6I5QC1s4d

— Krishnan (@cvkrishnan) March 15, 2020

Hope they were able to find some TP https://t.co/3gBnXKJAKB

— Kevin Smith (@Global_Smith) March 15, 2020

COVID Shakespeare

What’s the difference between Covid 19 and Romeo & Juliet?

One’s a corona virus and the other is a Verona crisis.

— Julian Lee (@JulianLeeComedy) March 14, 2020

One’s a pandemic disaster, the other’s Iambic pentameter

— folb (@SleepingAnnual) March 14, 2020

Omg. Now do Two Gentlemen of Corona.

— Steve Austin from Texas (@ResistTheLiars) March 15, 2020

With jokes like that you're just trying make us welcome death

— Tom (@_T0M_V_) March 15, 2020

ok isaac newton discovered calculus and william shakespeare wrote king lear while in quarantine but i bet none of them could eat 2 family packs of chips ahoy in 3 days while in quarantine so what the fuck

— Ryan Dils (@ryan_dils) March 15, 2020

COVID tweet-fest

I keep saving COVID-19 tweets and then before I can post anything, it all gets worse.  

So here's a few, but with the warning that they might be completely out of date by the time anyone reads this.

"These are all the predictable consequences of giving power to people whose only understanding of the role of government is to protect investment portfolios." https://t.co/RJNDb0Vdcu

— Anil Kalhan (@kalhan) March 13, 2020

Republicans made a bet that they could stick a moronic incompetent in the Oval Office and get their preferred policy outcomes without cost. They lost, and now the bill is coming due.

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 12, 2020

1. Trump has made clear - the administration will not save us. It is unable to turn, to acknowledge the severity of this crisis. No one is coming to help you. You must protect yourself and your loved ones on your own.

Here is what increases your chances of weathering this....

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) March 12, 2020

How canceled events and self-quarantines save lives, in one chart https://t.co/iFPcJrHdqM

— Raju Narisetti (@raju) March 10, 2020

Palate cleanser

One of our kittens is a bit of a drama queen pic.twitter.com/oklQb6eTae

— Kittens (@kittensfolder) February 27, 2020

I don’t think the sign is working. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/wjwLhRV0QZ

— You Had One Job (@_youhadonejob1) March 12, 2020

The sweetest thing

My sister is presently training one of our dogs in Rally Obedience, so I am trying to flag any tweets, etc about this sport. 

And here is one that I found, which isn't exactly about the sport, but more about how people in this sport act:

This beautiful little girl has autism. She brought her stuffed-puppy to the dog show.

One of the judges stopped, walked over to her, and asked if she wanted to show her dog as well.

This is what happened.

Humanity.❤️ pic.twitter.com/wkkcJCiIWC

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) March 6, 2020