caulfield12

You Can’t Grab an Economy by the P#$&y, sorry! “When you see a virus like this one that does not respect county boundaries, this started out predominantly in Madison and Milwaukee; then we just had this outbreak in Brown County very recently in the meatpacking plants,” Roth explained. “The cases in Brown County in a span of two weeks surged over tenfold, from 60 to almost 800—” “Due to the meatpacking, though, that’s where Brown County got the flare,” WI Chief Justice Patience Roggensack interrupted to clarify. “It wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.” Perhaps Roggensack did not mean that the largely Latino workers in Brown County’s meatpacking plants—who have told reporters that they have been forced to work in proximity with one another, often without masks or hand sanitizer, and without being notified that their colleagues are infected—are not “regular folks” like the other residents of the state. Perhaps she merely meant that their line of work puts them at greater risk, and so the outbreaks in the meatpacking plants, seen as essential to the nation’s food supply, are not rationally related to the governor’s stay-at-home order, from which they would be exempt. Yet either way, Roggensack was drawing a line between “regular folks” and the workers who keep them fed, mobile, safe, and connected. And America’s leaders have treated those workers as largely expendable, praising their valor while disregarding their safety. ..... Although the full picture remains unclear, researchers have found that majority-black counties “account for more than half of coronavirus cases and nearly 60 percent of deaths.” The disproportionate burden that black and Latino Americans are bearing is in part a direct result of their overrepresentation in professions where they risk exposure, and of a racial gap in wealth and income that has left them more vulnerable to being laid off. Black and Latino workers are overrepresented among the essential, the unemployed, and the dead. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/ The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.

It would actually be a good thing for another reason...at least for those who are religious in the US, Pence is able to project some modicum of warmth and human empathy completely lacking in Trump. We can talk about separation of church and state issues, but now is as good a time as any to push the boundaries a bit (public speaking, not limiting abortion access) if it brings comfort and a sense of unity and shared sacrifice/purpose to the American people. I’ve come to believe Pence at least has a consistent belief system and moral code, despite the fact that watching him have to kiss up to Trump is totally uncomfortable. On his own, he certainly fits that central casting idea of what a President would look like...and projects confidence and stability if not charisma. Watching thousands of deaths being ignored or not even acknowledged by our government on a daily basis is almost incomprehensible. And late May, early June promises even more horrific numbers.

Basically, in the rush to get respirators/masks to healthcare professionals (not the general public) from Chinese suppliers...it turns out only 23.3% actually worked the way it was supposed to. Well, that’s yet another argument for bringing back our PPE and pharmaceutical supply chains back to the US. One can’t help but wonder how many doctors and nurses around the world got sick or died as a result...? According to press reports, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has withdrawn its authorization for dozens of China-made respirators, “after government testing found many didn’t work properly.” This is reflected in the FDA’s own thinning list of China-made respirators covered by the relevant Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the current iteration of which lists only 14 manufacturers, down from a peak of around 60. The EUA was originally issued on April 3, 2020, but was reissued yesterday, May 7, 2020: https://www.chinalawblog.com

Was just wondering if Trump actually contracted Covid if they would even publicly admit it...? He has been known to disappear for weeks at a time with only twitter blasts.

What are we doing this for?': Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs https://www.yahoo.com/news/doing-doctors-fed-conspiracies-ravaging-214800418.html Halazun has since stopped engaging with the trolls on Facebook, some of whom claimed that "the hospitals are empty" and that the virus was part of a plot to vaccinate or microchip U.S. citizens — just two of the many conspiracy theories that have swirled around the coronavirus. But he was still left with big questions: How can people believe this stuff? And do they understand the algorithms and opportunistic extremists that led them to believe it? "It scares me more than anything that there are people who are basically controlled — and in the same way they feel they're fighting against that control," he said. "They go to YouTube, where they're really being controlled, and they don't realize it. That's what's scary."

When this inevitably fails and the stock market zips back up to 30,000, he can quickly adjust on the fly to consult with the Financially Independent, Retire Early crowd... And maybe “Death Star” is an accidentally appropriate image, since we’re leading the known universe in Covid-19 deaths...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/opinions/the-future-normal-hinge-event-bergen-rothenberg/index.html How the Hinge Event of Covid Will Change the World https://www.yahoo.com/news/armed-activists-escort-black-lawmaker-to-michigans-capitol-after-coronavirus-protest-attended-by-white-supremacists-184000180.html Greg, we’re getting closer and closer to Civil War. With that flowing hair, be careful you don’t get confused with Quantrill’s Raiders. Go Kansas!

https://www.thebalance.com/job-creation-by-president-by-number-and-percent-3863218 Six of the seven largest Presidential job creators are Dems (yes, there are NUMEROUS factors involved...fwiw, Reagan was the lone trend exception, coming out of a brutal 1981-82.) I also saw a stat quoted that claimed in their lifetime, Democratic presidents had created 32 million jobs while Republican presidents had seen 34 million in net job losses. Not sure how far off that is, but just wow. Would need to do some more thorough research to verify.

77,000 WI (no HRC event), MI (Bill Clinton told them it was going against them but was ignored) and PA (brought in Obamas, but too late with Comey letter also turning momentum last two weeks)

Breaking news: Robert Stewart just named Georgia state director of “Black Voices for Trump”

No, this isn’t Red Dawn. Too much distance to cover the entire Pacific against our Navy, Air Force and defense systems. What good does having a huge conventional army (they’ve been cutting back dramatically the last decade in size, but much more nimble and fast strike, high tech missile systems) with tactical nukes? Their planes are mostly hybrid copies of American and Soviet fighter jets. They have 1 1/2 aircraft carriers. Nobody wants to capture or torture you. Whiteman AFB for stealth bombers the closest obvious target to you. Their only real ally is Russia, and that’s a practical, pragmatic relationship versus genuine trust and respect. Otoh, the US attacking China could go either way. What would we do as “winners,” anyway? Our nation building record since Korea and Vietnam is pretty miserable across the board.

We are doing that to ourselves...self inflected. Can you imagine Reagan, JFK, Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Lincoln agreeing with this idea? The Chinese system is based on maintaining control and allegiance to party...but hasn’t really been outward facing until the 2008 Olympics and 2010 World Expo. There has been blood in the water ever since 9/11 and the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan (in terms of international consensus on US), but the current preference for China is to continue to increase “world market share” through trade and diplomacy...massive loans/development projects in Africa and Asia/Middle East, transforming from USD to RMB denominated transactions, competing with petrodollar, Belt and Road Initiative, etc. Of course, if we had reacted just two weeks more quickly, we could or might have saved the majority of those who have already lost their lives. Unless they could have predicted a totally incompetent US response (certainly arguable), they never could have anticipated the damage to the US and American economies would be so extensive. Keep in mind, they’ve wiped out their #1/#2 export markets (EU/US), so how is that to their advantage if they have nobody left to sell to? India is not their friend, either. More a budding rival. Now their supply chains are under threat....and countries are looking to bring back domestic production of PPE and especially drugs/medicine. None of these are positive developments for China.

Just like Jared and Ivanka take their weekend getaways to Bedminster, NJ (incurring additional government security cost) seriously. Privileged politicians on both sides are not so different, well, except for the insider trading numbers since 2016.

It comes back to “reasonable standard of care.” Would a jury find such actions defensible...in hindsight? We don’t have all the mothers of the world demanding speed limits should be lowered across the board to 30 MPH to save lives, do we? We do have limits on assault weapons, drunk driving and compel drivers to wear seat belts. We do have social norms that also impact behaviors, such as the stigmas related to cigarette smoking. We haven’t banned cigarettes, tobacco or even Big Gulps, but we realize the consequences of our actions. Due to the lack of testing available in the US, not sure we can say the same thing about Covid. There’s reasonably unaware, and then intentionally or blissfully unaware. If you had (unprotected) sexual relationships with 10+ people, and refused to get tested...and passed on HIV/AIDS, is that so much better than having unprotected sex knowing you have tested positive? Maybe. But where does the first person’s behavior go from “reasonable” to reckless or endangering? The same shades of grey exist with the mask and overall lack of testing situation. Can one sue someone because the President has consistently maintained “there are plenty of tests”...they made no effort to do so, and it can be proved in hindsight or retroactively how many others they infected?

I’m assuming you are referring to NYC Mayor DeBlasio’s routine in the morning. Well, he got ripped to shreds for it, and his popularity ratings rose a fraction of Governor Cuomo’s. As for the other part of the argument...there are always those in flyover territory who take umbrage with the behaviors of coastal elites, DC, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, NYC. Growing up in Iowa, there’s a bit of a built-in inferiority complex...that said, most of those states are generally safer statistically, offer solid public education systems and more freedoms (speeds on highways or gun rights) along with a much cheaper cost of living/housing affordability. It’s ALWAYS going to be a trade-off. And there’s also invariably going to be loads of people assuming they’re safe/r in Lawrence than Chicago...so not testing and not wearing masks will cause Covid rates to spike in Kansas, just like in Iowa. And then you're REALLY talking elevated death rates due to the dearth of high quality rural health care (see Gallup, NM or Albany, GA).

For Black Men, Fear That Masks Will Invite Racial Profiling African-American men worry that following the C.D.C. recommendation to cover their faces in public could expose them to harassment from the police. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/us/coronavirus-masks-racism-african-americans.html You can also certainly understand with people wearing KKK hoods in public and brandishing weapons at public protests that there would be an immense fear factor here...it seems inevitable that this will used as an excuse in a manslaughter case, where someone felt “threatened.” And it’s not just African Americans, you have the cinematic tradition of Mexican/Hispanic bandidos and outlaws in popular culture, and, more recently, the association of Islamic jihadism with head and face coverings. I’ll just put it this way...in places like Michigan, Florida and Texas, how comfortable do you think any of those groups feel with the lack of trust in public policing and now the almost militant opposition to mask wearing? Especially with teenagers having confrontations with various entities in public...the risk is higher of dying (or at least getting injured) in a mask confrontation than from the actual virus itself. Otoh, many young people are asymptomatic carriers. Then you have the fear within a community itself...this association with masks hiding “nefarious” activity. Here in Hong Kong, the protestors consistently flaunted a mask ban (then hid behind it as a health issue) because it was the optimal way to avoid being identified by CCTV cameras and avoid arrest, which goes on public records and into job employment databases.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/live-let-die-blasts-president-013638094.html Who is the idiot who thought playing Live and Let Die at the Honeywell plant in AZ was just a swell idea? Sweet Jesus, that’s tone deaf. They’ve managed to outdo Melania’s anti-MSM messaging jacket, I think. And then choosing the Guns N Roses version, instead of the original Bond...doesn’t Axl Rose ALWAYS go after Trump in the media? Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, formed a volunteer-staffed, "shadow" White House task force to help the US government acquire medical equipment during the coronavirus outbreak. But according to a new report in The New York Times, the group fumbled these efforts by prioritizing tips and bids from close Trump associates, rather than from experienced and legitimate suppliers. The group was told to prioritize those with special connections, and even tracked tips from close Trump allies on a spreadsheet titled "V.I.P. Update," according to The Times. Among those prioritized were conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a former "Apprentice" contestant, Tana Goertz, who serves as the campaign chair of Women for Trump. cnn.com

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/us/man-wore-kkk-hood-grocery-trnd/index.html Now we have KKK hoods in grocery stores...the main shocker was that it was in California.

I can’t even remember what plan the Tea Party had back in the day...other than complaining about the government takeover of health care. Unsurprisingly, no viable solution from the conservative side of the aisle has arisen in over a decade’s worth of time to consider the problem. In that sense, no different from Occupy Wall Street. Well, THEN WHAT? Perhaps they can hire Elizabeth Warren, she has a plan for everything. In this particular case, it’s going to be we attempted to reopen the economy, went off or lost unemployment benefits...but are still much worse off than we were in late February or early March. Who will be to blame then?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8259203/FEMA-seized-5MILLION-face-masks-ordered-veterans-VA-official-says.html You go though all these stories, it just gets worse and worse. I was trying to find the one about the White House seizing 3600 masks out of a donation from Taiwan to the national stockpile to keep just for themselves, but instead discovered that FEMA was preventing masks from getting through to the VA as well. After all that lip service that Trump pays to veterans? Of course, when MD Governor Larry Hogan used his wife’s connections to bring in a shipment directly from South Korea, Trump laid into him. Further irony, the MD National Guard had to protect it from Federal seizure in a Baltimore shipyards scene reminiscent of Frank Sobotka’s reign as union boss in The Wire.

Thanks! He’s tough as they come, he’s got that working in his favor. He’s already made it through getting hit by a car walking on a residential street in Plano about five years ago, and smoked cigarettes and pipe tobacco for sixty some years as well.

In addition to Dr. Rick Bright, you have a MI GOP Congressman suing Gretchen Whitmer...and comparing it to the freaking American Revolution and her actions parallel to those of King George the 2nd. Mitchell describes Whitmer's executive order as autocratic, saying keeping Michigan "on lockdown indefinitely" is "in all material respects, the same kind of government from which we declared out (our) independence 244 years ago." "The Governor's orders lack objective criteria by which to measure when the 'emergency' is over. In this regard, the Governor has stated that she alone will decide when the emergency will end," the court documents say. The congressman also alleges that the executive orders violate his right to interstate travel and his right to obtain medical care for his osteoarthritis in another state. The orders also interfere with his property rights because he couldn't obtain lumber or hire workers to build a new barn and he couldn't get home improvements or necessary repairs done at his second home. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/politics/michigan-congressman-lawsuit-whitmer-coronavirus-order/index.html

You somehow managed to make the follow-up worse than the original. I know my 92 year old uncle who lives in a nursing home in Texas and just was diagnosed with Covid yesterday would never think this way, thankfully. He can’t see, he can hardly hear, he’s stubborn and ornery as a mule yet is whip-smart at the same time...the thought of suicide by any of those from that Great Depression/World War II generation, well, it would just never cross their mind to do anything but fight for their lives until the very end. Almost all of them learned in Sunday School it was one of the worst, most selfish sins one could possibly commit.

The document carries the seal of both the Health and Human Services Department and the Homeland Security Department. The projection contains a range of estimates. The forecast of 200,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths per day are around the middle of the range. The documents are labeled “for official use only.” The slide deck is labeled a “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Situation Update” but a CDC spokeswoman, Ana Toro, said the projections were “incorrectly attributed” to the agency. She didn’t say where it came from, referring further questions to a spokeswoman at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who didn’t respond to an email. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-04/white-house-disclaims-projection-showing-surge-in-virus-outbreak Right there alone, you have four government agencies who are on the “outs” with Trump but still attempting to fulfill their missions...it’s a wonder even more Americans haven’t died. Then you have Jared “It’s Our Stockpile” Kushner actively working with US military leaders to seize critical PPE supplies, to the point where GOP (MA, OH, IN, MD) and Dem governors were forced together into regional coalitions to combat this...the closest the government response actually is to a wartime footing is fighting against each other and bidding up the price of supplies (leading to further state budgetary issues.) Additional resources spent by NPS to make Trump look even smaller by being in closer physical proximity to the Lincoln Memorial for a Fox Town Hall (instead of outside on the steps). The same week, attacks by the Lincoln Project (conservative ”traitors” like George Conway) so offending Trump with a brutal oppo campaign ad that he has to stay up all night tweeting about it. Stephen Miller using every chance he gets to tie the Covid response into immigration broadsides that appease the base...while simultaneous undermining suddenly more and more critical aspects of the economy disproportionately worked by immigrants like farming, “last mile delivery,” nurses, gig workers, grocery store employees and meat processing plants. Essential workers are now being treated like the least among us, except for just 4 1/2 minutes of generic mentions in task force briefings over an entire month. As of today, they were also the only ones to actually be ordered to do anything by the Defense Production Act. Which was to sacrifice themselves for the good of the country while corporate liability was removed from their overlords.

You would think the phrase “per capita” never had been invented. Stockholm doesn’t even have a population of ONE million. Goteberg or Gothenburg, #2 largest “city” at 548,000. That would be #33/34 in the US, Tucson or Fresno metropolitan area. Let’s look at Vietnam for a country to emulate, last time I checked they had just a handful of deaths...and they’re not even “first world” compared to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the larger megacities in eastern and southern China.