May 2, 2020

Today's Tweet


There is great talent abroad in this land.

COVID-19 Update

COVID-19 continues apace, although the Growth Rates seem to be steadying up at about 1.03. Which means they're still in line with the Exponential thing, but it's low.

And I can't believe I just wrote that - "People are still dying at an alarming rate, but hey - it could be worse - it's not as bad as it was a while ago" (?)

And there you have it. That's pretty much the entire message we've been getting from President Stoopid's daily episodes of Gaslight Theater for months now. 

I must atone.




And it looks like California's about to get it's 2nd wave.


The crowd that descended on the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street was significantly larger than a demonstration at the same site near the Huntington Beach Pier two weeks ago. The raucous protest included people carrying banners that read “All jobs are essential” and “Freedom: We the people.” One person had a sign that said “Recall Gavin Newsom.”

Parents walked hand-in-hand with children to the now-closed beach, while protesters, some bringing their dogs, arrived on bikes, skateboards and scooters. Several shared their grievances through chants, signs and occasional songs.

While some protesters wore face coverings, most neither wore masks nor followed social distancing guidelines of six feet of separation. Police officers on horseback monitored protesters while others ushered attendees across Pacific Coast Highway in an effort to keep traffic moving.


Luckily, the idiots are relatively few, but that's kind of a big fucking problem when it comes to infectious disease. Plus, it makes us look like The Stoopid States Of America.

May 1, 2020

Today's Pix

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Foil Hatters

I get really tired of debunking this shit.


Chinese lab conducted extensive research on deadly bat viruses, but there is no evidence of accidental release
WaPo:

On Thursday, the U.S. intelligence community released an assessment formally concluding that the virus behind the coronavirus pandemic originated in China. While asserting that the pathogen was not man-made or genetically altered, the statement pointedly declined to rule out the possibility that the virus had escaped from the complex of laboratories in Wuhan that has been at the forefront of global research into bat-borne viruses linked to multiple epidemics over the past decade.

“The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, using a common initialism for the U.S. intelligence community.

It goes on to tell of certain activities concerning genetic modifications of some viruses in order to make them easier to study - which involved making the viruses more capable of infecting hosts, including humans.

Most of us find this pretty alarming because it sounds like it came straight out of a Michael Crichton novel. But the real point is that because you have to acknowledge the "possibility" of something going horribly wrong - and things do go wrong with near-shocking regularity - you end up giving just enough daylight for the Foil Hat Brigade to run amok.

You can't say absolutely that there's no chance of something happening, so the nutballs seize on that and lickety-split, the villagers are destroying everything they associate with the monster, including all the information they need to make sure they can fight it and beat it.

They just burn everything and hope for the best.

"It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."

But wait - there's more.


Since the novel coronavirus pandemic began, misinformation has proliferated on the Internet — par for the course during a crisis. People took to social media in droves to share false claims that covering your body in chlorine or eating garlic were effective methods of fighting the virus, both of which were disproved by the World Health Organization.

The pandemic has also sparked a wave of more insidious conspiracy theories, such as the false claim that 5G mobile networks spread and worsen the coronavirus, which has led to dozens of instances of arsonists setting fire to cell towers across Europe.

Misinformation spreads online much like a virus itself. Though various types spread slightly differently, the transmission of the 5G conspiracy theory offers some insight into how false claims grow online.

A “calamitous event” like the pandemic creates a “very fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories,” said John Cook, an expert on misinformation with George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication.

The onslaught of information and misinformation on social media, on cable news and in general conversation may create confusion, but it’s made even worse by human discomfort with ambiguity, especially when our lives are at stake.

Kate Pine, an assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, is currently interviewing people around the United States on how they’re navigating covid-19. She said people “feel like they’re inundated with information, but they don’t have the information they want,” and as a result, they might be more willing to believe outlandish claims.

- and -

When people feel threatened or out of control or they’re trying to explain a big significant event, they’re more vulnerable or prone to turning to conspiracy theories to explain them,” Cook said. “Somewhat counterintuitively, it gives people more sense of control to imagine that, rather than random things happening, there are these shadowy groups and agencies that are controlling it. Randomness is very discomforting to people.”

In the mean time - don't forget that 45* needs to make us look the other way. He's desperate to get the economy back up and running. And while he can easily blame COVID-19 for the economy going in the shitter, he has to get us thinking away from his total fuckup-itude, so he's desperately spinning the yarn about how COVID-19 is all China's fault.

He invites the inference that China "attacked" us with the virus and so none of the bad shit that happens as a result is his fault - everything he does is justified because he's just being a strong powerful leader - a wartime POTUS.

Today's Tweet


"Blursday"

>

COVID-19 Update

Notice how the Rent Collectors are clamoring for us to get back to work?

I'm wondering if we actually learn something - like how a general strike scares the fuck outa the plutocrats.

Who's essential now, bitch?

(6AM EDT)



Apr 30, 2020

Today's PSA

Honest Government

COVID-19 Update

President Stoopid gave us another thrilling episode of Gaslight Theater, telling us he didn't say what he said when he said we'd be at 5 million tests per day very soon.

WaPo Fact Checker, on all the nonsense 45* spouts every day when asked about the testing.

And if you wanna have some fun - in a way that's no fucking fun at all - you can always play a little Google Roulette: 


Then, Supervising Meathead-in-Chief, Jared Kushner, told us that Cult45's handling of COVID-19 has been a big win - a stunning success - and we should all be proud and go back to work, and we'll have this economy humming again by mid-Summer.

Meanwhile - not to be outdone, and certainly never to miss an opportunity to fuck us over, Republicans in Congress are pimping the idea that employers need to be shielded from law suits resulting from the death of employees who are ordered back on the job.

They've been eroding the right to seek redress through the courts for decades - the most effective tool has been the inclusion of an Arbitration Clause in practically every contract we have to sign for anything from a service warranty on that new toaster to cable service to brain surgery.

Anyway, we continue apace.

8AM EDT

8AM EDT

And here we are again, expecting to top 100,000 dead Americans by mid-May.


Apr 29, 2020

Long Term Shit

Making the COVID-19 tests free didn't make them any more accessible.

I'm still not able to get tested if I'm not symptomatic.

Turns out that for a whole bunch of my fellow humans here in USAmerica Inc, another effect of this whole thing is that we've been forced to see that too many folks won't go in for the test even if they are symptomatic for fear of finding out they're in need of hospitalization - which makes them even more fearful that they can't afford to be cared for.

(yeah, it's The Independent, but still) Independent:

Around one in seven Americans would not seek medical if they developed a fever or dry cough because of concerns over costs, a new poll has found.

It suggests that almost 35 million people might avoid seeing a doctor for the symptoms, which are known manifestations of Covid-19.

The new poll was conducted by Gallup and non-profit organisation West Health and published on Tuesday. It further found that 9 per cent of people would avoid healthcare even when the question was “framed explicitly as believing [they] have been infected by the novel coronavirus“.

Oh Yeah - He Said It

Brian Tyler Cohen