The Countdown to the restart of the economy has begun.

[BoSoxGal]

Here’s an article that really bears reading - Dr. Osterholm predicting total 800,000 covid19 deaths in USA alone before pandemic comes to an end.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/opinions ... index.html

[rubato]

Just as I suspected. Nobody cares about plucky little Belgium

Especially after their achievements in social justice. _ Oh, this is news to you? Morons.

yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Just as I suspected. Nobody cares about plucky little Belgium

Especially after their achievements in social justice. _ Oh, this is news to you? Morons.

yrs,
rubato

(sighs) oh you are such a dick

[Darren]

I can't believe it! Cuomo found an acorn!

“Just like some states will reopen before other states because they have a different circumstance when it comes to COVID and their status with COVID, it’s also true across the state,” Cuomo said. “North Country has a totally different situation than New York City. Central New York has a different situation. We operate as one state, but we also have to understand variations. And you do want to get this economy open as soon as possible, and if a situation is radically different in one part of the state than another part of the state, take that into consideration.”

Albany has broken down the state into multiple regions regarding the reopening question, including Central New York, the Finger Lakes region and Western New York for the Buffalo region.

https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/watch ... om-buffalo

[Darren]

About those deaths due to COVID-19. Seems a coroner wants some splaining.

Coroner accuses Pa. Health Dept. of ‘Monday morning quarterbacking’ coronavirus deaths

"WILLIAMSPORT – The Lycoming County coroner is accusing the state Health Department of “Monday morning quarterbacking deaths” in connection with the coronavirus.

Charles E. Kiessling Jr., who also is president of the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association, voiced his opinion Tuesday when asked if he had any information on the two COVID-19 deaths in the county as reported by the Health Department. Kiessling said that he "was shocked upon learning there were two deaths” because none has been reported to him. He checked with the hospitals in the county and previously asked nursing homes to notify him of any deaths, he said.

He plans to ask the state for information because he said as far as he is concerned Lycoming County has had no deaths. He said he believes if a county resident died elsewhere that someone would have notified his office.

In a Facebook message, Kiessling said in his capacity as coroner there are zero “official deaths” in the county.

He urged residents going forward to refer to his Facebook page for official Lycoming County information.

Sullivan County Coroner Wendy Hastings also is puzzled why the state attributes one death in that county to COVID-19.

She does not know of anyone testing positive in that county let alone dying, she said. She checked with the two medical clinics and funeral directors, she said.

The law requires deaths from infectious diseases to be reported to coroners, Kiessling said. The Health Department is not doing that, he said.

“I think we’re falsely inflating the numbers,” he said, referring to Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine’s explanation during a Tuesday press conference that state data now includes probable cause deaths, which help provide a more complete picture of the COVID-19 situation in the state."

https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/20 ... eaths.html

[Scooter]

Neo-Nazis Are Spreading a List of Emails and Passwords for Gates Foundation and WHO Employees

A data dump of what appears to be the email addresses and passwords of members of the Gates Foundation, World Health Organziation (WHO), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and a virology center based in Wuhan, China, is circulating within a network of neo-Nazi extremists.

The data dump and circulation appears to be an attempt at intimidating several of the leading government and non-governmental groups currently leading the fight against the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, though it's likely many of the emails and passwords are outdated.

Judging specifically from a list of the data obtained by Motherboard, it appears like this may be an aggregation of previously-hacked usernames and passwords that was compiled from a previous data breach, though Motherboard cannot say for sure at the moment where the list comes from and how it was compiled. Motherboard ran a series of the email addresses through the website haveibeenpwned.com, which compiles data breaches, and found that each of the addresses we tested have previously been part of known data breaches. Many of them were also confirmed by the site to have been circulated in large aggregated lists of usernames and passwords tracked by the site.

In recent weeks, far-right extremists have become particularly enamoured with sowing disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, stoking protests and anti government sentiment in hopes of creating social chaos. Many experts have openly warned that “accelerationists”—followers of violent political doctrine calling for terrorist actions to hasten the collapse of society—have seen an opportunity in the current pandemic to test already weakened governments that are struggling to contain the virus.

Chatter discussing the data dump first appeared on the shitposting site 9chan—one of the many iterations of infamous anonymous posting boards—Monday night, it then spread to various social media platforms.

SITE Intelligence, a private terrorism watchdog based in the U.S., first spotted the data dump and then its migration to a Telegram channel with over 5,000 followers and links to neo-Nazi terrorist organizations Atomwaffen Division and The Base, both of which have been under an extreme, nationwide FBI crackdown in recent months.

“Far-right extremists’ distribution of allegedly hacked data by organizations like WHO and the Gates Foundation is fitting to how they’ve targeted medical organizations and personnel amid the pandemic,” said executive director Rita Katz. “Whether out of accelerationist or conspiratorial-minded motivations, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis have called to vandalize hospitals, intentionally infect medical workers, and beyond.”

Katz explained that the hacked data could lead to continued conspiracy theories proliferating about the pandemic, and the potential for violent actors to act on those fictitious and dangerous theories.

“Far-right communities online have an enormous capacity to disseminate this hacked data, especially as their audience grow amid this pandemic,” Katz said.

[Scooter]

Gay Jewish governor accused of Nazism – yes, really – for trying to save lives during coronavirus crisis

Jared Polis, Colorado’s gay Jewish governor, has furiously rejected accusations of Nazism for his coronavirus stay-at-home order.

The Democrat, elected in 2018 as the first Jewish governor in Colorado and the first openly gay governor in the US, is currently facing strong opposition for retaining the coronavirus lockdown in his state, a decision which many Republicans are seriously comparing to Nazi fascism.

At a press conference on April 15 a reporter asked him: “We’re seeing a lot of rebellion out here against your orders, which have been called tyrannical against local health department orders, being equated to Nazism.

“How do you react to that? What do you say to those people who are clearly getting frustrated with this stay-at-home order?”

As tears welled in his eyes and his voice cracked from emotion, Jared Polis gave an impassioned rebuttal to the ridiculous claims.

“As a Jewish American who lost family in the Holocaust, I’m offended by any comparison to Nazism,” he said.

“We act to save lives. The exact opposite of the slaughter of six million Jews and many gypsies and Catholics and gays and lesbians and Russians and so many others.”

He continued: “That being said, we know these steps are difficult, and it’s not a contest to see how much you can get away with. It’s a contest to see how well you can stay at home.

“By not staying at home, by having parties, by congregating, you’re not sticking it to the government, you’re not sticking it to Jared Polis — you’re sticking it to yourself, because you’re putting yourself and your loved ones in jeopardy.”

He urged Coloradans to act with unity and do the best that they can to stay at home so that the economic difficulties they face aren’t prolonged.

Polis has been plagued by comparisons with Nazism from the day he issued the stay-at-home order, when Colorado house minority leader Patrick Neville warned that it could lead to a “Gestapo-like mentality.”

It is particularly egregious in light of the fact that the Nazis killed six million Jews in the Holocaust, along with an estimated 10-15,000 gay men.

[Scooter]

800 new cases in Florida in the past 24 hours. Ready to open up????

[MajGenl.Meade]

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
3h
States are safely coming back. Our Country is starting to OPEN FOR BUSINESS again. Special care is, and always will be, given to our beloved seniors (except me!). Their lives will be better than ever...WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Now there's good news - no special care for our beloved senior leader. Off to the Georgia gyms with you, fatty!

[Scooter]

Georgia leads the race to become America’s No. 1 Death Destination

Whether you’re going to heaven or hell, the old joke goes, you’ll have to change planes in Atlanta.

But Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is proposing to offer a new nonstop service to the Great Beyond: He has a bold plan to turn his state into the place to die.

Kemp, a Republican and an ally of President Trump, just called for the reopening within days of his state’s gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body-art studios, barbers, nail salons, cosmetologists, aestheticians, beauty schools, massage therapists, theaters, private social clubs and dine-in restaurants.

He’s doing this even though the state ranks near last in testing, even though it’s not clear that covid-19 cases are declining there, and even knowing “we’re probably going to have to see our cases continue to go up,” as Kemp himself said.

Public health experts fear coronavirus will burn through Georgia like nothing has since William Tecumseh Sherman. But Kemp is making a big gamble that his constituents wouldn’t want to swab places with anyone, and that tourists will be dying to get to Georgia in any class of travel — economy, economy plus or intensive care — as the Peachtree State remakes itself as the Petri State.

When gyms and fitness centers reopen, residents of Georgia will have a whole new range of exercise classes to help them flatten the curve, including the total-body workout CrossImmunity and a new aerobics-and-flexibility boot camp called SuperSpreader.

Newly reopened aestheticians will offer the latest in antibody sculpting, and skilled therapists statewide plan to offer discounts on deep lung-tissue massage.

The return of bowling leagues is bound to increase the strike rate among those who participate, leaving relatively few to spare.

Reopened theaters will show reruns of several R-naught rated features, such as “Contagion,” “Outbreak” and “Carriers.”

Diners will crowd into wet-market-to-table restaurants to experience a growing sampling of zoonotic dishes (ACE2 proteins offered for vegans), and mixologists will experiment with heart-stopping cocktails of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

As “private social clubs” reopen, the Elks and Lions will develop herd immunity, while Legionnaires will flourish.

Cosmetologists, again among the essential workers, will help the citizens of Georgia replace their N95s with exfoliating facial masks guaranteed to enhance viral shedding.

It has been 88 years since Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis developed the idea of states serving as “laboratories of democracy.” But even that great thinker probably couldn’t have imagined states serving as actual laboratories, experimenting with the spread of infectious diseases in their populations. Now several Republican governors, with Trump’s encouragement, are racing to reopen during the pandemic, using their constituents as lab rats to see what happens when you relax virus containment.

Talk about poor modeling. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has opened many retail stores and lifted restrictions on beaches. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida will take reopening recommendations from a task force that includes Disney and Universal Studios. Texas, Tennessee and others are joining the race to become death destinations.

But nobody is as far out there as Kemp. Jimmy Carter, who served as Georgia’s governor before becoming president, may have been a peanut farmer. But Kemp is an actual nut. Earlier this month, when he announced one of the last stay-at-home orders in the nation, he stated that he hadn’t known “until the last 24 hours” that asymptomatic people could spread the coronavirus. This had been known for a couple of months to anyone paying attention.

But Kemp is not without guile. As Georgia’s secretary of state, he purged half a million names from voting rolls — then beat his opponent for governor by only 55,000 votes. Now he seems to have embarked on a new purge: inducing his constituents to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Perhaps he should abandon all pretense and turn his reopening into a parade and festival?

You and a guest are invited to

LIBERATE GEORGIA!

The Grand Reopening of the Petri State

Grand Marshal: President Trump

Dress: PPE optional.

As a promotion, Georgia could offer ventilators to the first 100 hotel guests to register (room service would offer supplementary oxygen at no cost to all others). Atlanta’s own Coca-Cola would sponsor festivities, using the new slogan “Share a Coke with Covid-19.” The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra would perform a new variation on Berlioz, “The Damnation of Fauci.” Trump and Kemp would lead a packed house at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena in burning their face masks the way feminists (apocryphally) burned bras and Vietnam War protesters actually burned draft cards.

There would be no containing the excitement! It would be an unmitigated success! And Kemp’s experiment would go viral in truly historic ways.

[Darren]

Kill them them now or kill them later? Hmmm?

""Citing massive revenue losses, UW Health and UnityPoint Meriter on Tuesday announced pay cuts and other measures that will put some nurses and support staff out of work to stanch the financial bleeding from the COVID-19 outbreak.

“These are not easy changes and we had hoped to avoid them,” said UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan in a Tuesday morning email to faculty and staff. “While we were able to limit drastic reductions in the first few months of our response, the dramatic and continued deterioration of the health industry economics left us few options.”

SSM St. Mary’s, the city’s third hospital operator, is facing similar revenue losses but hasn't announced specific plans. "

https://madison.com/ct/news/local/govt- ... i2K-_eELAs

[dales]

Just as I suspected. Nobody cares about plucky little Belgium

Especially after their achievements in social justice. _ Oh, this is news to you? Morons.

yrs,
rubato

(sighs) oh you are such a dick

No, he's only being a "Richard" aka: dick.

[Scooter]

[Scooter]

And Trump throws Brian Kemp under the bus, after Kemp planned to do EXACTLY what Trump has been inciting his disciples to agitate for:

Trump says he ‘totally disagrees’ with Georgia Gov. Kemp’s decision to reopen businesses in the middle of coronavirus pandemic

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he “totally disagrees” with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s phase 1 plans to reopen tattoo parlors, bars, hair salons and other nonessential businesses this week.

Trump said Kemp’s decision violates the phase 1 guidelines the White House announced last week that recommends states wait to ease social distancing restrictions until there’s widespread testing and a low level of community transmission. Trump said he respects Kemp’s right as a governor to make his own decision. (so Minnesota and Michigan need to be "liberated", but not Georgia, hmmmm)

Kemp is allowing tattoo parlors, spas, hair salons or barbershops, movie theaters and bowling alleys to reopen this week so long as they, and their patrons, follow physical distancing orders and other guidelines, Kemp announced on Monday.

“Maybe you wait a little bit longer until you get to a phase 2. So do I agree with him? No, but I respect him and I will let him make his decision,” Trump said at a White House press conference. “Would I do that? No ... But I’m going to let him make his decision, but I told him, I totally disagree.”

White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said the coronavirus will rebound if governors and local officials reopen the economy too soon and advised Kemp against his planned reopening of the state.

“If I were advising the governor, I would tell him that he should be careful and I would advise him not to just turn the switch and go because there is a danger of a rebound,” Fauci said.

“I plead with the American public, with the governors, with the mayors for the people of your responsibility, although I know one has the need to leap frog over things, don’t do that. Do it in a measured way. This is a successful formula. The problem is if we don’t do that, there is a likelihood that we will have a rebound,” Fauci said.

After Trump and Fauci’s comments, Kemp acknowledged his call with the president on Twitter, saying he appreciated Trump’s “bold leadership and insight during these difficult times and the framework provided by the White House to safely move states forward.” He said the decision is “driven by data and guided by state public health officials.”

[Scooter]

Trump is punishing those who call out his rejection of science and embrace of quackery:

Statement from leader of federal vaccine agency about his reassignment

Dr. Rick Bright, the director of the agency responsible for leading the charge on the production and purchase of vaccines in the Trump administration, released a statement Wednesday blaming political motives for his abrupt reassignment.

Read the statement in full:

"Yesterday, I was removed from my positions as the Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response by the Administration and involuntarily transferred to a more limited and less impactful position at the National Institutes of Health. I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science -- not politics or cronyism -- has to lead the way.

"I have spent my entire career in vaccine development, in the government with CDC and BARDA and also in the biotechnology industry. My professional background has prepared me for a moment like this -- to confront and defeat a deadly virus that threatens Americans and people around the globe. To this point, I have led the government's efforts to invest in the best science available to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this resulted in clashes with HHS political leadership, including criticism for my proactive efforts to invest early in vaccines and supplies critical to saving American lives. I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.

"Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the Administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit. While I am prepared to look at all options and to think "outside the box" for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public. I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 while under the supervision of a physician. These drugs have potentially serious risks associated with them, including increased mortality observed in some recent studies in patients with COVID-19.

"Sidelining me in the middle of this pandemic and placing politics and cronyism ahead of science puts lives at risk and stunts national efforts to safely and effectively address this urgent public health crisis.

"I will request that the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services investigate the manner in which this Administration has politicized the work of BARDA and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections as well as efforts that lack scientific merit. Rushing blindly towards unproven drugs can be disastrous and result in countless more deaths. Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics.

"I am very grateful for the bipartisan support from Congress and their confidence in my leadership of BARDA as reflected in the generous appropriation to BARDA in the CARES 3 Act. It is my sincere hope that the dedicated professionals at BARDA and throughout HHS will be allowed to use the best scientific acumen and integrity to continue their efforts to stop the pandemic without political pressure or distractions. Americans deserve no less."

[Gob]

Donald Trump’s botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a “third world” country and on course for a second Great Depression, one of the world’s leading economists has warned.

In a withering attack on the president, Joseph Stiglitz said millions of people were turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying because of health inequalities.

The Nobel prize-winning economist said: “The numbers turning to food banks are just enormous and beyond the capacity of them to supply. It is like a third world country. The public social safety net is not working.”

Stiglitz, a long-term critic of Trump, said 14% of the population was dependent on food stamps and predicted the social infrastructure could not cope with an unemployment rate that could hit 30% in the coming months.

“We have a safety net that is inadequate. The inequality in the US is so large. This disease has targeted those with the poorest health. In the advanced world, the US is one of the countries with the poorest health overall and the greatest health inequality.”

Stiglitz said Republicans had opposed proposals to give those affected by coronavirus 10 days’ sick leave, meaning many employees were going to work even while infected. “The Republicans said no because they said it would set a bad precedent. It is literally unbelievable.”

He added: “The safety net is not adequate and is propagating the disease. There is very weak unemployment insurance and people don’t think they can rely on it.”

During an interview with the Guardian to mark the paperback publication of his book People, Power, and Profits, Stiglitz was asked whether the US might be heading for a second Great Depression.

“Yes is the answer in short,” he said. “If you leave it to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell [the Republican Senate majority leader] we will have a Great Depression. If we had the right policy structure in place we could avoid it easily.”


https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... nald-trump

[Lord Jim]

GOP lawmaker calls McConnell remarks on state bankruptcy 'shameful and indefensible'

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) comments after the senator said that he’s in favor of allowing states to declare bankruptcy in the wake of coronavirus responses that have seriously diminished state budgets.

“.@senatemajldr McConnell’s dismissive remark that States devastated by Coronavirus should go bankrupt rather than get the federal assistance they need and deserve is shameful and indefensible,” King tweeted Wednesday.

“To say that it is ‘free money’ to provide funds for cops, firefighters and healthcare workers makes McConnell the Marie Antoinette of the Senate,” he added.

McConnell said Tuesday in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt that he supports letting states declare bankruptcy as they face budget constraints in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A $484 billion bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday and expected to clear the House on Thursday did not include any new funding for state and local governments.

Congress provided $150 billion for state and local governments as part of last month's $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Democrats have said additional funding for state and local governments is a top priority for a fifth coronavirus relief bill, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Trump have appeared open to including such funding in the next package Congress passes.

King’s home state of New York is the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York reported a total of 257,216 confirmed COVID-19 cases and a total of 15,302 deaths on Wednesday.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4942 ... ameful-and

[Darren]

"Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt outlined a vision Wednesday for reopening some shuttered businesses starting Friday.

Many other businesses previously deemed "nonessential" will be allowed to reopen on May 1 so long as they adhere to social distancing and sanitation recommendations."

https://oklahoman.com/article/5660710/s ... ing-friday

[MajGenl.Meade]

Which reminds me of this:

"I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities," Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday. "But at the same time, he must do what he thinks is right. I want him to do what he thinks is right. But I disagree with him on what he's doing."

A statement which for some reason reminds me of this:



Hope they open tattoo parlors everywhere - that should cull the pro-Trump herd quite significantly

[Darren]

Hope they open tattoo parlors everywhere - that should cull the pro-Trump herd quite significantly

Has it occurred to you the big Democrat controlled cities are seeing the highest death tolls while the rural areas that supported Trump aren't seeing much?

Meanwhile more good news:

"JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday most businesses would be able to reopen their doors when the state begins to loosen restrictions on movement early next month.

Until May 4, Parson said at his daily briefing, the current state stay-at-home order remained in effect. And he said Franklin County, where officials plan to loosen restrictions this weekend, is still be under the state order."

https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/hea ... ec106.html