For These Times

If you despair of the administration bringing us safely through this test, then let this provide some hope, click here.

Elgar’s Nimrod Variation IX, from the Enigma Variations – musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

18 thoughts on “For These Times”

  2. Moses Herzog

    Great stuff. I always wonder how they synchronize that so well. I guess the obvious assumption would be they can see the conductor on their computer monitor somehow?? The cynic in me thinks it might be some kind of software metronome, but then it would have to be able to switch between time and rhythm changes. Anyway you slice it, it’s really great art and must have taken solid effort by all the individuals to make it synchronize so well.

  4. Moses Herzog

    Good news for New York. 1,000 ventilators from China. This could save MANY American lives. In a related note, is it getting harder to tell who our “real friends” are??
    https://www.wpr.org/big-deal-new-york-hails-ventilator-deliveries-china-and-oregon

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/04/donald-trump-coronavirus-power-grab

    Or is it still quite easy based by certain standards said by a wise Jewish man centuries ago:
    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A15-20&version=NKJV

  6. pgl

    THE RICK the other day blamed Obama for not gearing up medical stockpiles that would now help with COVID-19. Of course, THE RICK was shifting blame away from his buddies in the Tea Party:
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-tea-party-budget-battles-left-the-national-emergency-medical-stockpile-unprepared-for-coronavirus
    Dire shortages of vital medical equipment in the Strategic National Stockpile that are now hampering the coronavirus response trace back to the budget wars of the Obama years, when congressional Republicans elected on the Tea Party wave forced the White House to accept sweeping cuts to federal spending. Among the victims of those partisan fights was the effort to keep adequate supplies of masks, ventilators, pharmaceuticals and other medical equipment on hand to respond to a public health crisis. Lawmakers in both parties raised the specter of shortchanging future disaster response even as they voted to approve the cuts.
    “There are always more needs for financial support from our hardworking taxpayers than we have the ability to pay,” said Denny Rehberg, a retired Republican congressman from Montana who chaired the appropriations subcommittee responsible for overseeing the stockpile in 2011. Rehberg said it would have been impossible to predict a public health crisis requiring a more robust stockpile, just as it would have been to predict the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
    “It’s really easy to second-guess and suggest we didn’t do as much,” he said. “Why didn’t we have a protocol to protect the Twin Towers? Whoever thought that was going to happen? Whoever thought Hurricane Katrina was going to occur? You tell me what’s going to happen in 2030, and I will communicate that to congressmen and senators.”
    There were, in fact, warnings at the time: A 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded report by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials urged the federal government to treat public health preparedness “on par with federal and state funding for other national security response capabilities,” and said that its store of N95 masks should be “replenished for future events.”
    But efforts to bulk up the stockpile fell apart in tense standoffs between the Obama White House and congressional Republicans, according to administration and congressional officials involved in the negotiations. Had Congress kept funding at the 2010 level through the end of the Obama administration, the stockpile would have benefited from $321 million more than it ended up getting, according to budget documents reviewed by ProPublica. During the Trump administration, Congress started giving the stockpile more than the White House requested. By late February, the stockpile held just 12 million N95 respirator masks, a small fraction of what government officials say is needed for a severe pandemic.

    *****
    Which is worse? That these rightwingers are so damn cheap that this pandemic is now killing our citizens needlessly? Or is that dishonest rightwingers like THE RICK lie about who is to blame?

    1. baffling

      typical rick fashion, complain about predecessors while the current administration makes dramatic “cuts” to the exact agencies that could have helped with the current pandemic. and yet dick would still argue these “cuts” were beneficial. who needs a pandemic response team at the ready when we have daddy’s little girls hubby, jared kushner, to sweep in and take charge like the hero he is? soon trump will call it a victory and return to his beloved golf course.

  7. Alan Goldhammer

    Menzie – Thanks for the music link! I do a newsletter every day that surveys the clinical trial and drug development landscape. It goes out to form pharma industry colleagues that I worked with over the years. I do a music link everyday and I have very eclectic tastes. Here is what I wrote today: “For today’s musical selection, I’ve moved over to the pop world. I am a closeted Taylor Swift fan so we have the great music video (great for the depiction of girl power) ‘Bad Blood’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo There is a cameo VIP appearance by someone whose marriage I may or may not have broken up about 25 years ago (that’s a story for another day).”

    Tomorrow it’s the wonderful 2019 Concertgebouw Mahler 8th symphony

  8. Moses Herzog

    My state recently has been reporting roughly 4 deaths per day. Based on our poor state hospital system, lack of Medicare coverage, percentage of uninsured, low education levels. etc. I find the numbers to be unbelievably low. I smell a rat here. I believe state officials and hospital administrators are intentionally reporting low death rates on COVID-19, by not designating COVID-19 caused deaths as COVID-19 deaths, but finding other categories to document them as (generic pneumonia for example) in order to make the county or state COVID-19 statistics “more pretty”. But this NYT article could be a very good synthesis of what I strongly suspect is happening in my state, at BOTH the county and state level:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/coronavirus-deaths-undercount.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

    The only other reason that explains my state’s thus far low number of deaths, is the population density (even in its major city) is lower than in most other states, which could help in the transference rate (the number I keep hearing is 2.7, so I’m assuming our transference rate could be lower, again due to less population density)

    1. baffling

      I know a beautiful woman who was born in “red china” (ht bruce hall) who is battling that virus treating patients in the icu. She will be away from her family, including young child and elderly parents, for month(s) so they do not become infected. She probably will be infected, and suffer those risks alone. So that others can survive. She is sacrificing more for this country than trump and his family. Rick and bruce, exactly what are you sacrificing and committing to this country in our time of need? The silence is deafening.

      1. Moses Herzog

        The good news is, in Oklahoma, our Republican Governor Kevin Stitt only insists on having public servants with the highest standards of ethics, and always trying hard to pinch every nickel out of the budget—except when it comes to their own car they use to take a permanent field trip around the state, and nice office furniture for the 4 hours per year they actually sit in it:
        https://oklahoman.com/article/5659507/new-commissioner-made-suv-chairs-among-his-first-purchases-at-oklahoma-health-department

        Republican Governor Kevin Stitt and Jerome Loughridge, doing everything they can to “serve the people”

        “The Health Department in January paid $27,239 for the Ford Explorer, $2,739 for “tag and title fees” and $420 for GPS for a year, according to purchase orders. Signing off on the SUV purchase was Jerome Loughridge, who serves as secretary of Health and Mental Health on Gov. Kevin Stitt’s cabi- net, the records show.
        The most recent previous heads of the agency used available transportation, The Oklahoman was told.
        The Health Department in November paid $7,949 for 24 chairs for the com- missioner’s office, his conference area and a third-floor conference room, according to a pur- chase order. The chair described on paperwork as “For Gary” has a gas lift and cost $453. Health and Mental Health on Gov. Kevin Stitt’s cabinet, the records show. In a response to The Oklahoman earlier this year, the Health Department defended the purchases.”

        The Oklahoman story, written by Nolan Clay, goes on…….
        “The governor appointed Cox health commissioner in September, even though he does not have the educational background required under the law for the position……… “We have — each of us have — an opportunity to be part of the solution,” the commissioner said.
        How long Cox remains commissioner is up in the air. Legislators would have to agree to a proposed change in the law for him to continue and the Senate would have to confirm him…….. “I think Commissioner Cox has done yeoman’s work in the midst of a global pandemic. He and his team have been exem- plary,” Loughridge said Wednesday.”

        Yeah….. real “exemplary work”. Who could doubt it in this illiterate state?? Gary Cox is a real “winner”. Because….. because….. well, uh, uh, well, because….. Republican Governor Stitt’s cabinet appointee Jerome Loughridge told us Gary Cox was a “winner”. What else need we dumb Okies hear???

  12. Moses Herzog

    Not bad. For like, a beginner and stuff.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2O0goniAFE

    Made me think of those Spanish style acoustic numbers on the early Van Halen albums. She could make a ton of money if she decides she wants to do electric guitar and knows how to write sheet music. These are the type that never do those things though.

  14. Moses Herzog

    This one is a nice one that posted early in the morning. Wherever he did this, the room or building captures the sound really well. Acoustics is so important. Can make the difference between drums sounding like thunder to sounding like a child beating on cardboard when you listen on an audio track. Acoustics is always like that unseen extra member of the band, and a lot of modern bands don’t “get” mic placement and that.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9cbs6oSyxU

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