The Point

Jon Stewart makes the point that the spirit of the thing matters - not just the letter.

If what you're trying to do is make the whole thing better, then you have to work at fixing the mechanism itself.

We continue to have problems in a larger sense because too many people get hung up on the symbols instead of addressing their concerns to the ideals those symbols are supposed to stand for.

This seems particularly important on a day like the 4th of July.

COVID-19 Update

USA: 57,000 new cases yesterday.

Top 20 COuntries

Top 20 States

WaPo:

The United States reported 55,220 new coronavirus cases Thursday, surpassing Wednesday’s record of 52,789, previously the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by The Washington Post.

Florida on Thursday reported 10,109 new cases of the coronavirus, marking a new single-day record for the state, which reported 6,563 cases on Wednesday. There were 68 deaths, for a total of 3,718. It’s the 25th consecutive day that Florida has set a record high in its seven-day rolling average. Georgia, one of the first states to loosen restrictions, joined Florida and several other states in setting single-day records of new cases. Georgia reported 3,472, up from 2,976 on Wednesday.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday issued a statewide mandate requiring Texans to wear masks in public in any county with 20 or more positive covid-19 cases — a dramatic move that comes as cases in the state continue to climb. On Thursday, Texas reported 7,915 new cases of the coronavirus.

Here are some significant developments:

• The mayor of Miami-Dade County announced a 10 p.m.-to-sunrise curfew starting Friday night and continuing until further notice. Around 2,300 of Florida’s 10,109 new infections on Thursday were reported in Miami-Dade.
• During an event in Florida, Vice President Pence sought to distinguish the surge of coronavirus cases across the Sun Belt from the larger pandemic that shut down the country. “It’s not one large pandemic, but rather pandemics that emerge individually,” Pence said.
• Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has been hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement posted to his Twitter account Thursday. The announcement comes almost two weeks after Cain joined thousands of people at President Trump’s Tulsa campaign rally.
• Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease expert, attributed rising case numbers in the United States at least partially to the fact lockdown measures were more lenient than those in some European countries that have since managed to turn the tide on the virus.
• The U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs in June, sending the unemployment rate down to 11.1 percent. But new data also released by the Labor Department showed that 1.4 million people filed unemployment claims for the first time last week, marking the 15th straight week of claims that exceeded 1 million.
• The United States is on track to have a vaccine against the coronavirus by the end of this year or early 2021, according to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn. The FDA has given authorization to proceed with clinical trials for four vaccines, Hahn said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

The View From In There

Vanity Fair:

With Donald Trump’s approval sinking to Jimmy Carter levels and coronavirus cases spiking across the country, Trump is reluctantly waking up to the grim reality that, if the current situation holds, his reelection is gone. Republicans that have spoken with Trump in recent days describe him as depressed and “down in the dumps.” “People around him think his heart’s not in it,” a Republican close to the White House said. Torn between the imperative to win suburban voters and his instincts to play to his base, Trump has complained to people that he’s in a political box with no obvious way out. According to the Republican, Trump called Tucker Carlson late last week and said, “what do I do? What do I do?”

To console himself, Trump still has moments of magical thinking. “He says the polls are all fake,” a Republican in touch with Trump told me. But the bad news keeps coming. This week, Jacksonville, Florida—where Trump moved the Republican National Convention so he could hold a 15,000-person rally next month—mandated that people wear masks indoors to slow the explosion of COVID-19 cases. According to a Republican working on the convention, the campaign is now preparing to cancel the event so that Trump doesn’t suffer another Tulsa–like humiliation. “They probably won’t have it,” the source said. “It’s not going to be the soft landing Trump wanted.”

Neither the Trump campaign nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

Trump remains furious at his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom he blames for the campaign’s dismal poll numbers. Axios reported this week that Trump complained privately that Kushner’s advice on criminal-justice reform damaged Trump politically. But because Kushner is family, sources say it’s unlikely that Trump will formally strip him of authority.

Kushner’s vast sway over West Wing decisions has become a flashpoint between him and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, sources say. The two have been engaged in a cold war over control of the campaign. Meadows pushed Trump to replace campaign manager Brad Parscale, a Kushner ally, the Republican close to the White House said. Kushner wasn’t happy that Meadows is close with Kushner’s adversaries Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. “Meadows is in real shit. He went to war with Jared and tried to get Brad out,” the Republican, briefed on the internal debate, told me. A couple weeks ago, Meadows unloaded about Kushner over dinner with his predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, at Sette Osteria near the White House. “All Mark did was complain how much operational control Jared has and how it leaves very little space for the chief of staff,” said a Republican briefed on the conversation. “Mark whined to Mick, ‘why didn’t you warn me before I accepted the job? There’s nothing for me to do.’”

Nervous Republicans worried about losing the Senate are now debating when to break from Trump. Trump campaign internal polls show Trump’s level of “strong support” dropping from 21 to 17 points since last week, a person briefed on the numbers said. A source close to Iowa Republican Joni Ernst’s campaign said Ernst advisers are upset that a solid seat is now in play. “Joni’s campaign is pissed. They should not be in a competitive race,” the source said. ("This is completely false," an Ernst campaign spokesperson said in a statement. "Folks are energized about re-electing Joni Ernst, President Trump and the rest of Republican ballot in Iowa this November.") A Republican strategist close to Mitch McConnell told me that Republicans have Labor Day penciled in as the deadline for Trump to have turned things around. After that, he’s on his own.
So, basically, "If he hasn't turned it around by Labor Day, he's on his own."

Republicans are proceeding as if everything's normal - like it's just another election cycle and all they have to do is wait and it'll get clearer later on. Plenty of time - no need to hurry.

COVID-19 is getting worse, and because of that, the economy's almost completely in the shitter. 45* refuses to do anything about the pandemic, and that refusal is making the economy worse, which in turn forces people to forego some of the precautions we need to take in order to tamp down on the spread of the disease, which causes the disease to get worse which causes the economy to get worse, and round and round we go.

And it's not like these clowns don't know any of that (I hope to fuck anyway), so they must be willing to let the damage occur so they can get something else they want(?)

Driftglass said it: Never forget how deeply "conservatives" hate this country and its ideals of democratic self government.

Degrees Of COVID-19

WaPo:

Herman Cain, who attended Trump’s Tulsa rally, hospitalized with covid-19

Herman Cain, the former pizza chain executive who ran in the Republican presidential primary in 2012, has been hospitalized with covid-19 less than two weeks after attending President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa.

Cain, 74, learned that he tested positive for the virus Monday, and by Wednesday required hospitalization for his symptoms but is not on a ventilator, according to a statement on his Twitter account.

“There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus, but we do know he is a fighter who has beaten Stage 4 cancer,” the statement says.

While it is unclear where Cain contracted the disease or how long he had it, Cain was among the several thousand attendees at Trump’s Tulsa rally on June 20, most of whom did not wear masks. Cain, who co-chairs Black Voices for Trump, was pictured maskless and not socially distancing at the event.

Corporate Calling

Julie Nolke

Today's Tweet

Armed and hysterical

What the fuck is this pic.twitter.com/s64SNurait

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) July 2, 2020

But the really fun part is that Karen got a little lesson in what you're not allowed to do with your emotional support weapon.

Unfortunately, that lesson included eventual reinforcement of her white entitlement when the cops let her go - because they determined she had the right to "defend" herself from the dangerous black lady who slapped her car, trying to get Karen's husband to pay a little more attention to what he was doing.

Samantha Bee

aka: the John Oliver of Basic Cable

Part 1

Part 2

The State Of Things

WaPo:

The economy added 4.8 million jobs last month, based on a survey taken mid-month, sending the unemployment rate down to 11.1 percent — a sign of how many businesses were scrambling to emerge from the depths of the recession.

But new data also released Thursday by the Labor Department showed that 1.4 million people filed unemployment claims for the first time last week as many businesses reversed themselves and closed again during the surge in coronavirus cases. This trend has not fallen off in recent weeks.

This marked the 15th straight week of unemployment claims that exceeded 1 million, a sign that the economic recovery has not taken hold for many Americans.

The data bring into sharper focus the turmoil facing the U.S. economy after many businesses sent workers home in March during the beginning of the spike in deaths caused by the virus. Many companies began rehiring in May and June, but there are still more than 10 million people who lost their jobs during the crisis and have not been rehired.

Federal and state officials have stumbled during reopening plans, and now some of the states that reopened the fastest are seeing a large spike in coronavirus cases that are causing them to backtrack swiftly, leading to new job losses.

In last month’s report, there was a particular focus on a misclassification error the Bureau of Labor Statistics said it made that marred how it calculated the unemployment rate. On Thursday, it said that issue had mostly been fixed.

The BLS said the true unemployment rate is probably closer to 12.1 percent, 1 percentage point higher than the official rate it gave. Last month, it said the unemployment rate was 13.3 percent, but the data collection error had artificially lowered it from 16.3 percent. The disconnect stems from the way surveyors interview people about their job status, as many Americans are unclear about whether they have actually been laid off or just sent home temporarily.

We're not coming out of either the pandemic or the economic slump anytime soon.

And President Stoopid doesn't seem capable of understanding how those two things go together.

Progress

WaPo:

Richmond’s grand statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson came down Wednesday in a sudden thunderstorm and a burst of mayoral muscle, becoming the latest Confederate monument toppled amid a national reckoning on racism and injustice.

Hundreds gathered to watch crews dismantle the statue, one of five honoring Confederate icons on Monument Avenue in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. Onlookers cheered, and bells rang out from the nearby First Baptist Church.

One supporter of the monuments cried.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D), bucking advice from the city attorney and relying on emergency powers, dispatched a crew to take down the statue after the City Council delayed a vote on removing it along with three others owned by the city along the avenue. The fifth Confederate statue is owned by the state

Once the equestrian statue was lifted from its base and lowered to the ground, just after 4:30 p.m., Stoney compared the moment to the end of the Cold War.

“The Berlin Wall fell, but also the system fell with it,” the 39-year-old mayor said. “Now for us, as elected leaders, alongside our community, it’s our job to rip out the systemic racism that is found in everything we do — from government, to health care, to the criminal justice system.”

There are no statues of Lenin or Saddam or Tojo or Mussolini or Rommel.

We should not be putting up monuments to exalt "the noble losers" - no matter how valiantly they fought in service to a cause that proved out to be little more than the usual desire of evil men to impose a gross injustice on an unwilling populace.

BTW, that's how you do it. You make a political decision based on the outcome of an election. You remove the offending article in broad daylight, under peaceful conditions.

I think I understand the impetus for protests and the impulse to destroy the symbols of oppression and hatred.

But we have rules. We even have rules on how you break the rules.

Don't throw rocks and then hide your hands

COVID-19 Update

Surprise surprise, >50,000 new cases yesterday - just like everybody said there would be. Well, everybody except the hardcore knuckleheads who still insist the whole thing is just media hype.

And we're back on track to top over 150,000 dead Americans before August 1st.

WaPo:

Daily number of new coronavirus cases in U.S. tops 50,000 for first time

The United States reported 52,789 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic. President Trump speculated in a Fox Business interview that the virus was “going to sort of just disappear” at some point.

Experts say that is unlikely, unless an overwhelming majority of people are infected and develop immunity, which could lead to millions of deaths, or through the successful development and deployment of a vaccine. There is a good chance the coronavirus will never go away, some experts have warned.

Across the country, states are casting aside plans for a gradual return to normalcy, with California, Michigan and New York City the latest to rethink some aspects of reopening.

More than 800,000 new coronavirus cases were detected in the United States in June, many of them in Sun Belt states that were quick to reopen. At least 125,602 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic.

Here are some significant developments:

• California, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia all broke their previous single-day records for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, while Louisiana’s infection rates continued to rise.
• Trump on Wednesday said he was “all for masks” and would wear one if he were in “in a tight situation with people.” Later in the day, he mocked presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for covering up at campaign events where “the audience is 25, 30, 40 feet away.”
• A ballot initiative that would expand Medicaid in Oklahoma passed by a narrow margin, allowing nearly 50,000 people who lost their health insurance amid the pandemic to become eligible for the safety-net program.
• Arizona reported a record number of coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday as intensive care units approached 90 percent capacity. Vice President Pence, who visited the state on Wednesday, said the federal government would send in 500 additional medical workers to help combat the surge.
• Vanilla Ice, the ’90s rapper who last made headlines when his pet wallaroo went missing in Florida, plans to hold a weekend concert for up to 2,500 people in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend.
• The World Health Organization has warned that the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes the Middle East, is at a “critical threshold,” as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases there continues to rise.