;)
The Commentariat -- April 19, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Steve Eder, et al., of the New York Times: "In recent weeks, the United States has seen the first rollout of blood tests for coronavirus antibodies, widely heralded as crucial tools to assess the reach of the pandemic in the United States.... But for all their promise, the tests -- intended to signal whether people may have built immunity to the virus -- are already raising alarms.... Criticized for a tragically slow and rigid oversight of those tests months ago, the federal government is now faulted by public health officials and scientists for greenlighting the antibody tests too quickly and without adequate scrutiny. The Food and Drug Administration has allowed about 90 companies, many based in China, to sell tests that have not gotten government vetting.... But the agency has since warned that some of those businesses are making false claims about their products; health officials, like their counterparts overseas, have found others deeply flawed.... Even as government agencies, companies and academic researchers scramble to validate existing tests and create better ones, there are doubts they can deliver as promised. Most tests now available mistakenly flag at least some people as having antibodies when they do not, which could foster a dangerously false belief that those people have immunity."
Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials.... Senior Trump-appointed health officials ... consulted regularly at the highest levels with the WHO as the crisis unfolded, the officials said. The presence of so many U.S. officials undercuts President Trump's charge that the WHO's failure to communicate the extent of the threat, born of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Dana Milbank first revealed U.S. scientists' presence at the WHO in WashPo his column, also linked here yesterday. Putting the onus on the WHO for not informing the U.S. about what it knew about the spread of Covid-19 is another giant lie Trump has repeated multiple times. As U.S. residents began sickening & dying from Covid-19, Trump repeatedly lied about the mortal danger the virus presented to Americans. As Milbank pointed out, Trump has told 18,000 lies since becoming president*, but hiding the truth about the coronavirus is, as Milbank calls it, "a murderous lie." Impeachable? Yep.
Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "In a nation where most health coverage is hinged to employment, the economy's vanishing jobs are wiping out insurance in the midst of a pandemic."
Edwin Rios of Mother Jones: "On Sunday, in her first appearance on Fox News since 2017, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that a new $400 billion relief bill could come 'soon' but also slammed ... Donald Trump's 'weak' response to the coronavirus pandemic for failing to put forward science-based plans to address the pandemic. 'He doesn't take responsibility. He places blame -- blame on others,' Pelosi told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.... She also sharply criticized Trump's leadership when it comes to expanding testing for COVID-19, telling Wallace, 'We're way late on it, and that is a failure. The president gets an F -- a failure -- on the testing.'... Her comments came as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicated on CNN that the Trump administration and congressional Democrats could reach an agreement on yet another aid package would include $300 billion to replenish funds for a federal small business loan program that ran out last week."
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The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here.
Steven Mufson, et al., of the Washington Post: "With the number of the covid-19 tests hovering at an average of 146,000 a day, businesses leaders and state officials are warning the Trump administration that they cannot safely reopen the economy without radically increasing the number of available tests -- perhaps into the millions a day -- and that won't happen without a greater coordinating role by the federal government. Though the capacity of private business to produce those volumes remains unclear, state leaders and health experts say that the administration should move with a greater sense of urgency and could do several relatively easy things to speed the production and distribution of tests. On Friday, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry said there were still critical supply chain issues that stand in the way of ramping up testing, including a lack of protective equipment for technicians who run the tests, and a shortage of swabs and reagents -- chemical solutions required to run the tests.... This week the federal government took one step private industry has been seeking -- Medicare doubled reimbursements from $51 to $100 a test, making covid-19 testing profitable for labs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Keith Collins of the New York Times: "... new estimates by researchers at Harvard University suggest that the United States cannot safely reopen unless it conducts more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering over the next month.... To reopen the United States by mid-May, the number of daily tests performed between now and then should be 500,000 to 700,000, according to the Harvard estimates. That level of testing is necessary to identify the majority of people who are infected and isolate them from people who are healthy, according to the researchers.... The researchers said that expanded testing could reduce the rate [of people testing positive] to 10 percent, which is the maximum rate recommended by the World Health Organization. In Germany, that number is 7 percent, and in South Korea, it is closer to 3 percent." ~~~
~~~ Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: "The sentiment has been mouthed by every fool from Dr. Oz to the Cheetos-dusted flimflam man in the Oval Office: Rather than damage the economy further, we must accept a certain number of coronavirus casualties so the rest of us can go back to restaurants and football games.... There is something deeply suspect about this rush toward sacrificial death for the sake of American dollars, this framing of margin calls as worth dying over.... It's a false moral equation and a false choice. And the people putting it forward smack of panic. How about we ... [take] common-sense measures to prevent the preventable. Such as, a ramped-up national testing and tracing system that would allow Americans to make legitimate personal-risk assessments and reduce the chance of new outbreaks.... It's called informed consent. And right now, we don't have it.... The crudity of the White House's response to the virus resembles nothing so much as [World War I] -- rudimentary, unskilled, disorganized waste with needless carnage, led by a vain martinet kaiser with extravagant hair who never set foot in a trench." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ David Willman of the Washington Post: "The failure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to quickly produce a test kit for detecting the novel coronavirus was triggered by a glaring scientific breakdown at the CDC's central laboratory complex in Atlanta, according to scientists with knowledge of the matter and a determination by federal regulators. The CDC facilities that assembled the kits violated sound manufacturing practices, resulting in contamination of one of the three test components used in the highly sensitive detection process, the scientists said.... The Washington Post separately confirmed that Food and Drug Administration officials concluded that the CDC violated its own laboratory standards in making the kits. The substandard practices exposed the kits to contamination.... After the difficulty emerged, CDC officials took more than a month to remove the unnecessary [and contaminated] step from the kits, exacerbating nationwide delays in testing...."
MEANWHILE. Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration's failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat. In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year -- from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis.... Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits.... On Jan. 30, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Fox Business that the outbreak could 'accelerate the return of jobs to North America' because companies would move factories away from impacted areas.... 'Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another,' said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.). 'People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.'"
Campbell Robertson & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential, according to a New York Times analysis of census data crossed with the federal government's essential worker guidelines. Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else." The article is an expansion of an item that appears in Saturday's NYT coronavirus live updates. (Also linked yesterday.)
Debbie Cenziper, et al., of the Washington Post: "Forty percent of more than 650 nursing homes nationwide with publicly reported cases of the coronavirus have been cited more than once by inspectors in recent years for violating federal standards meant to control the spread of infections, according to a Washington Post analysis. Since 2016, the nursing homes accrued hundreds of deficiencies for unsafe conditions that can trigger the spread of flu, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and skin diseases." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: What is the point of "citing" these Petri dishes if you don't shut them down & sue their owners for their last shiny pennies?
Slaughterhouse 50. Michael Corkery & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "... meat plants, honed over decades for maximum efficiency and profit, have become major 'hot spots' for the coronavirus pandemic, with some reporting widespread illnesses among their workers. The health crisis has revealed how these plants are becoming the weakest link in the nation's food supply chain, posing a serious challenge to meat production<. After decades of consolidation, there are about 800 federally inspected slaughterhouses in the United States, processing billions of pounds of meat for food stores each year. But a relatively small number of them account for the vast majority of production. In the cattle industry, a little more than 50 plants are responsible for as much as 98 percent of slaughtering and processing in the United States.... More than a dozen beef, pork and chicken processing plants have closed or are running at greatly reduced speeds because of the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday.)
Edward Moreno of the Hill: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Congress is 'very close' to a deal on additional funding for the small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).... Pelosi's comments come as the program's coffers ran dry Thursday and the Senate adjourned without reaching an agreement on the terms of the fourth coronavirus relief package. Congressional Democrats have been negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the amount of additional money that will go into the program in the next stimulus bill."
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#FloridaMoron#1. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday offered a fiery defense of his response to the novel coronavirus and the nation's testing capabilities as the administration faces growing pressure to ramp up testing. In a lengthy briefing that covered various topics, Trump attempted to cast the United States' response to the virus as far better than other nations in Europe and elsewhere. Trump both lashed out at Democratic criticism of his response to COVID-19 while hammering the previous administration of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, for leaving a bare 'cupboard' of medical supplies for him to pull from." Mrs. McC: Sounds as if his show-of-lies has gone into reruns.
David Fahrenthold & Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "Thousands of U.S. hotels have volunteered to help local authorities house doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at reduced rates -- or even free -- during the covid-19 pandemic. President Trump's White House has praised these efforts. But so far, none of Trump's own hotels are known to be participating. In five U.S. cities where President Trump's company operates large hotels -- New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington and Honolulu -- local authorities said the Trump hotel was not involved in their efforts to provide low-cost or no-cost rooms to those fighting the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mary McCord in a Washington Post op-ed: "President Trump incited insurrection Friday against the duly elected governors of the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. Just a day after issuing guidance for re-opening America that clearly deferred decision-making to state officials -- as it must under our Constitutional order -- the president undercut his own guidance by calling for criminal acts against the governors for not opening fast enough.... It's not at all unreasonable to consider Trump's tweets about' liberation' as at least tacit encouragement to citizens to take up arms against duly elected state officials of the party opposite his own, in response to sometimes unpopular but legally issued stay-at-home orders." McCord argues that when a president* does it, it isn't protected free speech since the power of his bully pulpit is likely to lead to lawless action. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
It's More Than November. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "After years of single-minded devotion, the conservative movement is achingly close to dismantling the New Deal political order and turning the clock back to when capital could act without limits or restraints.... In which case, it makes all the sense in the world for Trump, the Republican Party and the conservative movement to push for the end of the lockdown, public health be damned.... And all of this is happening as one of the most progressive generations in history begins to take its place in our politics, its views informed by two decades of war and economic crisis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence on Saturday addressed the Air Force Academy's Class of 2020, speaking solemnly about the coronavirus pandemic at a significantly scaled-back ceremony. 'We gather at a time of national crisis,' Pence told the 984 senior cadets before him on the academy's parade field, called the terrazzo, with each of them sitting eight feet apart."
Maggie Severns & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "A senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, whose nomination to a post overseeing health insurance floundered in the wake of revelations of his financial ties to UnitedHealth Group, is now playing a key role overseeing a $30 billion recovery program being administered by UnitedHealth. The choice of UnitedHealth, a leading health insurer, to serve as a conduit in funneling billions of dollars to hospitals and other providers, surprised many in health care, including employees at the Department of Health and Human Services who had assumed that HHS would administer the program itself. Though UnitedHealth says it will make no profit off of the deal, its role in handing out billions of federal dollars to hospitals could boost its relationships with the White House and the public during a tumultuous year and possibly provide it with valuable health care data, experts say.... After the White House withdrew [Stephen] Parente's nomination in the face of congressional concerns about his relationships with the healthcare industry -- and UnitedHealth in particular -- and omissions about finances that Parente had made on his financial disclosure form, the president appointed him to his current post, which does not require confirmation."
Meredith McGraw & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "As ... Donald Trump uses the bully pulpit to press state and local governments to ease their virus-related lockdowns, conservative activists and religious leaders are urging his administration to go further by unleashing a wave of lawsuits arguing that the measures are intruding on Americans' legally protected rights to worship, protest and buy guns. In a letter sent to Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday, the Conservative Action Project, a group of conservative leaders including Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, called governors and local leaders 'petty, would-be dictators' who had committed 'rampant abuses of constitutional rights and civil liberties' as part of their response to the coronavirus.... Trump told faith leaders on a call Friday afternoon that while he wants everyone to abide by his administration's guidelines, he affirmed the right of churches to meet and their civil liberties to gather.... The president listened to recommendations from faith leaders, according to the participants, who shared their concerns about getting the economy re-opened."
Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Thousands of people are preparing to attend protests across the US in the coming days, as a rightwing movement against stay-at-home orders, backed by wealthy conservative groups and promoted by Donald Trump, continues to take hold.... While organisers claim the protests are grassroots- and people-driven, a closer look reveals a movement driven by traditional rightwing groups, including one funded by the family of Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos.... As with the Tea Party, the anti-stay-at-home movement has been promoted by a rightwing media eager for the economy to reopen, including Fox News which on Friday aired a segment on protests in Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota. Two minutes later, Trump tweeted to his 77.4 million followers the need to 'liberate' those states." ~~~
~~~ Salvador Hernandez of BuzzFeed News has more on the fake grassroots protests.
#Florida Morons. Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "Aerial snapshots of people flocking to a reopened beach in Jacksonville, Fla., made waves on the Internet on Saturday. Local news aired photos and videos of Florida's shoreline dotted with people, closer than six feet apart, spurring #FloridaMorons to trend on Twitter after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) gave the go-ahead for local beachfront governments to decide whether to reopen their beaches during a news briefing Friday. Duval and St. Johns counties have reopened their beaches, while Miami-Dade County officials said they are considering following suit. On the same day that Florida reported 58 deaths from the coronavirus -- its highest daily toll since the pandemic began -- DeSantis told reporters that it's essential that Floridians get exercise outdoors."
Kansas. AP: "A federal judge on Saturday blocked Kansas from limiting attendance at in-person religious worship services or activities to 10 people or fewer to check the spread of the coronavirus, signaling that he believes that it's likely that the policy violates religious freedom and free speech rights. The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Wichita prevents the enforcement of an order issued by Gov. Laura Kelly if pastors and congregations observe social distancing. The judge's decision will remain in effect until May 2; he has a hearing scheduled Thursday in a lawsuit filed against Kelly by two churches and their pastors." Mrs. McC: Broomes is a Trump appointee.
Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "The star-studded Lady Gaga-curated fundraising event 'One World: Together at Home' raised $127.9 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO and $72.8 million for local and regional responders, organizer Global Citizen said in a statement early Sunday.... Saturday's online event honoring and celebrating those on the front lines of the fight against the novel coronavirus was broadcast worldwide and billed as the biggest concert since the 1985's Live Aid, watched by 1.9 billion people. Former first ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama were among more than 70 artists and celebrities to take part from their homes." Mrs. McC: What? No Melanie? ~~~
~~~ Per Capita, This Guy Raised A Lot More. Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post (April 17): "Last week..., 99-year-old veteran [Capt. Tom Moore] set himself a goal to raise money for Britain's widely cherished but chronically underfunded National Health Service during the deadly coronavirus outbreak. He set up a fundraising page and decided to walk the 82-foot length of his garden back and forth 100 times, using his walker for support. He split the journey into chunks of 10 laps with the idea of completing them before his 100th birthday on April 30. Initially, he wanted to raise 1,000 pounds ($1,250).... As of Friday morning, Moore had raised $23 million for Britain's health-care system.... More than 13,000 people in the United Kingdom have died of the virus, including 27 health-care staff."
Presidential Race
Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's campaign is preparing to launch a broad effort aimed at linking Joe Biden to China, after concluding that it would be more politically effective than defending or promoting Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision by top campaign advisers, which has met pushback from some White House officials and donors, reflects polling showing a declining approval rating for Trump among key groups and growing openness to supporting Biden in recent weeks.... The shift represents a remarkable acknowledgment by aides to a self-described ... 'wartime president,' leading during what might have been a rally-around-the-flag moment, to effectively decide it is better to go on the attack than focus on his ;own achievements." ~~~
~~~ Here's Biden's response, via the Huffington Post:
News Lede
AP: "A man disguised as a police officer went on a shooting rampage in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday, killing 13 people, in the deadliest such attack in the country in 30 years. Officials said the suspected shooter was also dead. A police officer was among those killed. Several bodies were found inside and outside one home in the small, rural town of Portapique, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Halifax. Overnight, police began advising residents of the town -- already on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic -- to lock their doors and stay in their basements. Several homes in the area were set on fire as well." An update reports 16 people were killed; it's unclear from the report if that number includes the gunman.
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Reader Comments (20)
What will the excuse be when the death toll doubles or triples in the wake of Fatty’s historically dangerous move to reopen the country purely to help steal another election? Who will he blame? Or will he just shrug his shoulders and sniff that if tens of thousands of Americans have to die, needlessly, For his benefit, that’s the price that must be paid?
I can understand how the mass of unthinking Pretender acolytes don't worry much about global warming or the world's rapidly depleting resources.
These are gradual things, easy to ignore. With climate change, bleached reefs are something on the teevee, most of the fires and severe weather are somewhere else and if not, well, they are familiar enough in themselves. They know the awful things that fire and weather can do, and if more frequent, they've seen them their whole lives. They're just another new normal.
But this corona thing, when the national death toll jumps by thousands each day, not gradually at all, when the virus makes it way into their neighborhood and people they know stack up in the local morgue, why that's something you don't have to think too hard about to believe, is it?
I'll leave that question parked rhetorically for now, but I see we're only 20,000 away from Americans killed (58,000+) fighting for more than a decade in that senseless Vietnam War.
We're on track to match that mark in the next few months. Match it in both number and pointlessness.
Now I'll ask the question. Will some of the Trumpbots notice?
Ken,
Typically, Republicans don’t give a rat’s ass about most things until they are directly affected. Trump Republicans (which, I suppose entails the vast majority of registered R’s), are far more obtuse, to the point where, as I’ve been reading, the current thinking goes along the lines of, people need to accept death so the money will come back.
Naturally, such fatalistic sentiments please the Orange Menace (who wouldn’t sacrifice even a second of his time for another human being if he wasn’t getting something out of it) greatly since the two things he values most in life are money and himself, and not in that order. If people, even his people, are willing to go happily to their deaths to help him out and make him more money, he won’t stand in their way.
Rather, like Japanese commanders sending kamikaze pilots off to sacrifice themselves for military success, he will give them his best Mussolini chin jut, salute them, then skeddadle back to his protected cocoon to take another test and watch totalitarian state TV encourage more lovers of Trump brand fascism to kill themselves for the cause.
@Akhilleus asks, probably rhetorically, "What will the excuse be when the death toll doubles or triples in the wake of Fatty’s historically dangerous move to reopen the country purely to help steal another election?"
Trump has already provided the answer: he took a worst-case scenario as the inevitable outcome without his heroic intervention: "You're talking about 2.2 million deaths — 2.2 million people from this. And so, if we can hold that down, as we're saying, to 100,000 — that's a horrible number — maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100- and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job."
So I can tell you right now that as long as fewer than 200,000 Americans die before election day, Trump is going to boast about how he personally saved the lives of 2 million Americans while the do-nothing Democrats diddled. And the Trumpendroolers will drool on one other, in order to get sick & spread the virus another day.
Being Trump or a Trumpette means never having to say you're sorry.
That little bit about Obama leaving the cupboard bare: Funding comes from the Congress. The fact that the cupboard was bare likely means Obama was asking for supplies and republicans said No.
Obama should have said “It’s a good thing to have no supplies!” Then the tea party assholes would have filled the shelves.
Trump is the worst president (I won’t say imaginable because there are plenty of confederates out there, Tom Cotton, e.g., dying to get their raptor claws on that office with its newly expanded powers and Republican sponsored extirpation of oversight, who could potentially be far worse) so far for many reasons.
In addition to his ignorance, laziness, disinterest in the actual job, and drug store novel demagoguery, there is also his propensity for encouraging violence directed at his perceived enemies, mostly any and all who won’t bow to his delusions of brilliance and pompous self regard, and who refuse to interpret his criminal acts and greed as the signature of personal greatness.
Although it seems as if this predilection has grown more obvious and dangerous over time, leave us not forget that even before he was “elected” (thanks, Putin, Zucker, and Zuckerberg), he was advocating the assassination of his political rival, Hillary Clinton.
Assassination!!The criminally negligent media yawned over that one. And now he’s calling for outright insurrection against elected officials. It’s a tired old Trumpian ploy he’s used to the point of weariness, “Let’s you and him fight”. First say one thing. Then say another, different thing. Then throw in some insults, toss out more non-sensical claims countering everything you just said and sit back and watch the fun.
This might have been an everyday sort of puerile masturbatory psych game when he was fucking up his own business (rich kid who had everything handed to him needs to prove he’s the “only one who can fix things” by breaking everything in sight) but now he’s playing with actual life and death scenarios, as well as delving into the depraved fantasies of the Pavlovian dogs he counts on to respond to his every dangerous provocation.
But speaking of those Trumpendroolers (thanks, Marie), I’m wondering who, or what, they’re revolting against. Personal safety? Measures to keep them and others from dying a painful death? What are they “liberating” states from? Laws? Their own constitutions? Common sense?
It doesn’t matter. They’re ripe for “revolution”, for toddler rattle throwing and nonsense tantrums. Like the Marlon Brando character in the biker-gangster movie “The Wild Ones”, whose response to the question “What are you rebelling against?” is “Whadaya got?”, they don’t actually care, or even know what they’re up in arms about as long as they can stay torn up, angry, and violently unhinged.
Just the way Fatty likes them.
So we’ve got an amoral, narcissistic psychopath riling up puerile psychopaths to start a violent revolution against...staying alive?
All so he can feel good about himself.
@NiskyGuy: I'm also unclear about how the national stockpile of medical equipment is supposed to work inasmuch as many of the items in it have a short shelf life. Is the government just supposed to trash & replace every box that reaches its expiration date? That's a pretty expensive proposition. Is it supposed to cycle items through the stockpile, distributing things to medicos long before the items expire?
Years ago, my mother noticed my hands were kinda rough-looking from all the hard labor I did (gardening & building stuff & painting & so forth), so she gave me a big ole box of disposable surgical gloves. Since I'm very cheap, I used the gloves sparingly -- only when I was working with something really noxious. So after about three years, when I had used a total of maybe five pairs, I went to the nearly-full box to get another pair for some nasty project I was working on, whereupon I discovered that all the remaining gloves had pretty much disintegrated.
That is to say, if Obama & Boehner had kept up the stockpile (excellent point about Congress's role in this), many of the items in it would be useless today unless the Trumpy-wumpies had rotated in new stuff. Which they did not.
Here's the difference displayed in a garden walk way by a 99 yr. old British war veteran with those that care and help the cause and those that don't and care only for what will benefit them. It's an old story told throughout the history of the world and today this world has been invaded by a single pathogen that sets out to replicate and destroy millions. How we deal with this as a collective and how we deal with this individually will be registered once again and be part of that old story in our history.
And in this part of that world we go back to Ken's question which I'll extend to more than those whose fealty lies with Fatty: WHO WILL NOTICE?
Re: the shelf life of plastic: Read recently of a a family member of a deceased older member having to rummage around in the attic in order to gather up all the stuff that had been stored there. She discovered that all the clothes and sheets that had been stored in plastic bags had disintegrated. I found this interesting and puzzling because I have had things stored in plastic bags for decades and they are in perfect shape. Joe has had a box of plastic gloves for as long and getting them out for recent use they were in fine shape. Would it be the quality of the plastic –-thicker last longer or something in the manufacturing process itself?
Akhilleus,
Yeah, the 'bots are pretty much programmed from head to heel, their behaviors limited to those dictated by their reptile brains, with resentment, anger and petulance topping the list.
Still, in line with what I observed the other day about the Pretender's thin margin of victory in 2016, I'm just wondering if the unavoidable and more directly personal encounters with the virus might nudge a some few of the Pretender's base in the direction of conscious thought, enough that when combined with already skeptical independents might give the Pretender that drubbing you and we so devoutly wish to see this fall.
Beyond that speculation, we have this from yesterday, a report from the conservative limbic system on unrest in the ranks:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/18/media/matt-drudge-trump/index.html
That’s the kind of Right Wing news I can take some delight in.
I’d know more about what all this means but I’d have to read the Drudge Report to find out, and I’m not up to it.
I’ll just take it as good news for now.
Young working men with wives and children are not going to quietly let their family starve. If those lines for food are not shortened the wing nuts will be joined by millions tearing stores and
warehouses apart.
What will Filthy do then ?
Ken,
I don’t think even the death of loved ones will be enough to rewire the Trump Morons. They already have half a dozen EZ ways to excuse the little king’s criminal incompetence: it’s Obama’s fault. The Chinese did it, and by November it will be the Chinese with help from Joe Biden and his son. Democrats have been hoping they’d turn against their emperor, but they’ll show those libs. They won’t even wait to get the coronavirus. They’ll kill themselves. That’ll show those evil libs who the real ‘mericans are.
The other day I read a lede (didn’t even bother with the story; no need) that indicated Joe Biden’s doubt that he could reach Trump voters. Yeah, I’d say that’s a lead pipe cinch.
They’re gone, out of reach. Not even seeing Trump personally escorting grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, and half the kids into that boat crossing the River Styx would compel them to rethink their allegiance to him.
These are the zero sum people. If a single idea from people they have learned to despise with every fiber of their being (scientists, liberals, the media, etc.) turns out to have merit, then everything they believe in must, ipso facto, be wrong, and that thought is intolerable.
Better to allow Fatty to inject them with the plague then let him dance in their graves than let them libs “win”.
@Bea, re: shelf life, stockpiling, and globalization
It's true that latex has a very short shelf life, but ventilators, paper/Tyvek gowns, masks, swabs, and other types of plastic disposables last much longer and could be stockpiled. Machines used for testing could be stockpiled as long as the testing format didn't change. (The basic mechanics of a PCR thermocycler haven't changed much since the mid 1980s, and the enzymes used in those tests can be frozen).
A related bigger problem revolves around the impact of having the supply chain for these products that could be stockpiled be dependent on foreign producers who were the first to be shut down because that was where the pandemic originated. A globalized supply network itself isn't the problem unless it is coupled with "just-in-time" supply expectations. If the slow emergency response has resulted from an avoidance of stockpiling, because we had embraced "just-in-time' manufacturing principles and expected the same efficiency, then we were short sighted. Our current predicament needed resiliency and preparedness that require costly on-site inventory, bricks and mortar facilities, and an abundance of supply to meet the worst case scenario. If the COVID virus were a few percentage points more infectious and lethal we'd really be screwed.
Then the question is, who does the stockpiling - the federal government or the states? No easy answer. In Washington state we have the deficit hawks who complain that our 'rainy-day fund' has gotten too big, and whine (meaning: sue the state) every time a tax is imposed to improve public transportation.
From a conservative news aggregator.
But don't let that put you off (this time).
As is said, M.A.S.H. has an answer for everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5CNHDeF2xA&feature=youtu.be
Periscope,
That just in time delivery on top of the global supply chain is indeed one of the major problems with the turns we've taken.
I'm reminded of friend, now departed, who was a premier, Olympic-caliber, procrastinator. He worked in Seattle in the financial printing world and often had to get things to Los Angeles NOW! because he didn't do what had to be done until the very last minute.
Fortunately for him Fed Ex and UPS instituted overnight deliver service about that time. To no surprise, he (instantly) came to rely on those services to rescue him from the bad habits which in his past had often caused him great grief.
Today, I see that friend' habits writ intercontinentally large.
And boy are you right about the politics of our goofy state.
I think Poor Richard had something to say about "penny wise and pound foolish."
Ya know what else Munchkin said when he talked to Jack Tapper on CNN?
“Well, let me just correct you and say the checks have not gone out yet, because we’re hoping that more people, as I said, will go to IRS.gov,” Mnuchin replied. “It’s much safer to send out direct deposits.”
OK, Fucktard. What are those without computers with internet access and/or bank accounts supposed to do? Wait until you turn blue?
Sorry. Jake, not Jack.
My thought is that "just in time" is MBA-speak for getting non-Caucasians, non-American to do things at the lowest possible wage rate. This euphemism driven, mealy mouthed double-speak has become acceptable. Last I checked the Sunday morning political shows that's what they do. Non-Caucasians, non-American citizens getting Covid in Sioux Falls slaughterhouses should suprise no one. This area, while technically not Rep. Steve King's area, is just up the border from his district. We do remember that he was too racist for the Republican party. Wow! How's about the Democratic party go do some just-in-time voter registration in these areas instead of the "strategy" of 2016 to not worry about these places and focus on the big cities? That is, of course, appropriate social distancing voter registration.
@unwashed
On the Munchkin's remark,
“Well, let me just correct you and say the checks have not gone out yet, because we’re hoping that more people, as I said, will go to IRS.gov,” Mnuchin replied. “It’s much safer to send out direct deposits.”
Another unintended(?) consequence?
Fewer payments polluted with the Pretender's florid signature.
Also, as I remember, this gummint hates the USPS.
https://rt.live/#learn-more
An up to date tracker of how fast Covid is spreading in each state, courtesy of my daughter in law.
Her comment: "Per the site, the very modest increase in testing (there has been no “fast ramp up” in WA) likely does not account for the increase in cases.
And the delay means there are actually more cases out there (in addition to the many cases that are going undiagnosed).
Absolute testing levels should not affect this algorithm much, but a fast ramp or decline in testing will affect numbers.
There is a delay between onset of sickness and testing positive, this is not reflected in these numbers. Actual Rt values are delayed by some amount.
Skagit County (where we live) has had 22 new cases in past 2 days, in addition to the 26 new cases last week. Most Skagit cases are in the 98273 zip (Mt. Vernon)."
Wonder if the Rt site makes it into the White House....
In any case, looks like even here in my rural western WA county, I'll be looking for solitary things to do for a while yet.