This morning's mental health must:
what a penguin weigh-in looks—and sounds—like: pic.twitter.com/p7Ogz9HZLP— Alexandra Rosas (@GDRPempress) April 4, 2020
The Democratic Shadow Cabinet didn’t take the weekend off…
President Trump is using a global pandemic as cover to exact political revenge against the Intelligence Community Inspector General who revealed his misconduct. Firing IG Atkinson is corruption, and it threatens our national security during a global crisis. https://t.co/uOhSkUJCBL
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 4, 2020
Every day that Donald Trump refuses to use the full power of the Defense Production Act further threatens American lives.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 5, 2020
White House hopeful Joe Biden said Sunday he would wear a mask in public amid the coronavirus pandemic and that the Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention might need to be "virtual" to avoid spreading disease https://t.co/CjWefedT2p
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 5, 2020
Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden says he has informed his Democratic rival for the nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, that he is beginning the process of vetting potential vice presidential running mates https://t.co/JOaWejC9KI
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2020
Super PACs backing @JoeBiden are slamming Trump with searing spots playing back Trump’s early comments downplaying the #coronavirus. https://t.co/aRa2JNg7Ug via @politico
— @JulieZebrak (@JulieZebrak) April 5, 2020
.@JoeBiden's advice to Trump on @ThisWeekABC >>
?? Fully implement the DPA
?? Get small biz loans out
?? Make tests available
?? Open up Obamacare enrollment
?? Get data on impact on minority communities
?? Create Supply Commander to quickly coordinate distribution of supplies pic.twitter.com/jKT2dsp2j1— Matt Hill (@thematthill) April 5, 2020
PenAndKey
Pretty sure Trump already did that when he put Jared on the case.
prostratedragon
Good!
debbie
Where are the lawsuits charging Trump with hoarding PPE for his future profit and engineering the decimation of non-MAGAts?
debbie
@prostratedragon:
As long as the candidate’s initials aren’t B and S, agreed that it’s a good thing.
OzarkHillbilly
Joe missed one:
?? Resign.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
What future profit? That profit is occurring right now, as FEMA intercepts shipments and provides them to private middlemen for distribution.
raven
This is from our local music rag about a local restaurant owner who was an epidemiologist and pathologist with the CDC.
Baud
No. We want Trump to be opposed to the virus.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I was assuming he was planning for his retirement.
NPR reported this morning that cities are getting shipments of masks that expired 10 years ago or that are child-sized. Again, where are the fucking lawuits?
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
When I consider Bernie Sanders’ potential usefulness as Biden’s VP, the phrase tits on a boar is what comes to mind.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Plus it would be difficult to pass Bernie off as a woman.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Or as a boar, but you know what I mean.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Heh. I was referring to the fact that Biden’s Veep will be a woman. Although, I’d take a boar over Bernie.
JPL
ugh
prostratedragon
@debbie:
Bill Shakespeare?
Just almost choked myself with a passing thought while reading this article about a medical goods shipment to Barbados being hijacked by you-know-who. The Barbados Health Minister has a sign language interpreter for his press conferences, as do Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot for example. I’ve noticed recently that even some governors in our most benighted MAGAholes have them.
Can anyone imagine this for you-know-who?
Chris Johnson
@Baud: Robert Hanssen, y’all. That guy was caught in 2001.
I’m increasingly convinced that the stolen masks are going to Russia. Trump is opposed to the virus, when it’s in Russia. He is entirely in favor of it running amok in the USA and is doing literally everything he can to facilitate that.
Details about specifically how he handles his fucked-up treason and why he got that way are less relevant at this time. I think it’s much less about sharing kinky daddy-play with Putin, and much more about him getting his ass kicked by Russians for trying to cheat them in real estate deals, and then being well and truly compromised. History will show him as more a creepy slave than an ‘agent’, more a deeply broken personality than a cogent and knowing collaborator in Russian wartime aims.
…and if this ain’t a war I’d like to know what is. It’s looking to kill off more Americans than previous wars, and it’s being managed by a hostile foreign country.
NotMax
With huge caveats that
It’s a work in progress.
Database for comparison is limited.
It may eventually serve as an adjunct to but not a replacement for diagnostic tools.
Differences in hardware sensitivity and in ambient sounds picked up are to be considered.
And so on and so on.
Treat it as an intriguing curiosity in need of much further testing and refinement and definitely not yet a tool to rely upon.
New App Attempts to Detect Signs of COVID-19 Using Voice Analysis
Amir Khalid
@prostratedragon:
This is another thing the Democratic shadow cabinet needs to bring up. By hijacking other nations’ medical supplies, Trump is dragging America’s good name through the mud yet again.
OzarkHillbilly
NotMax
@PenAndKey
Jared would inevitably eff up the banana stand.
;)
debbie
Fuck. Johns Hopkins is telling me today there are 337,933 confirmed cases in the United States, compared to runner-up Spain’s 135,032.
Great job, Trumpie!
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
No point restoring our good name unless we can keep Republicans out of power for an extended period of time.
Cameron
@Chris Johnson: From what I’ve seen in the news (not much), Russia has plenty of pandemic problems of its own.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: An ASL interpreter would alternate between the jerk off motion and whatever is sign language for sucking Putin’s ass.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid:
Was there a nanosecond when he stopped? ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I thought that was how we restore our good name.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Who’s developing this app? Are voice fingerprints stored? Anyone else concerned about accidentally arousing the app with their melodious pipes?
First three questions are all serious.
Oh sorry, in counting like SPW doesn’t exist, first, second and fourth questions are serious.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
JPL
Why is FEMA stockpiling hydroxychloroquine but not masks and ventilators?
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Bright eyed and bushy zzzzzzzzzzz.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Article linked answers some of your questions. Real research as opposed to some fly by night operation.
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: Probably because some a-holes own stock in the pharma companies that make it.
“I’m luxurious at stock market!”
OzarkHillbilly
Trump administration determined to exit treaty reducing risk of war
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: Celebrate celebrate, bomb to the music?
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: f.king Esper is a coward who fears a tweet.
rikyrah
Yesss. Who ??
OzarkHillbilly
Saints’ record-breaking kicker Tom Dempsey dies after contracting Covid-19
ETA His famous kick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrxTjgFYoU8&feature=emb_err_watch_on_yt
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Right. My point was, even if we win big in November, we could be out on our ass again two years later, if history repeats itself. We shouldn’t tell the world that we’ve turned a corner if we can’t be sure that we have.
rikyrah
rikyrah
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yep. As you said yesterday, (or was it Saturday?) “Can we please have more than 2 years to fix this shit?” Or something like that.
Barbara
@rikyrah: Plaquenil is a generic drug. It’s really old. I am having difficulty seeing a profit strategy here. You aren’t allowed to buy drugs if you aren’t in the official supply chain. But I think the main manufacturers are Teva and Mylan.
satby
@Barbara: pretty sure the feds are in the supply chain. And insulin is a really old drug that used to be inexpensive too.
danielx
is it possible that Trump has made a calculation this whole thing will kill off more minorities/Democrats than Trump voters and that fucking up supply deliveries, etc., is therefore to his advantage? Or is that to credit him with a capacity for strategic thinking he does not possess?
Asking for a friend.
PenAndKey
I’ve known that this sort of act was possible from a legal perspective for a few years now, but it still floors me that it takes a vote of Congress to enter the US into a treaty yet presidents can essentially go “Nah, screw that” and withdraw at their leisure (primarily because the Supreme Court refuses to weigh in on the practice and pretends that it’s a “political question”, not a clear separation of powers constitutional conflict). I was always taught that treaties were laws, and that the President was responsible for enforcing the law, not retroactively vetoing ones they don’t like.
Naive, I know.
danielx
@mrmoshpotato:
Oh, now, THAT was a visual I could have done without.
satby
@danielx: I said that days ago. He and his Republican colleagues have moved on from voter suppression to voter removal.
NotMax
Entirely random wee hours thought, which could be worked into a skit.
Will induction centers now instruct “Turn your head and don’t cough?”
;)
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Starting from the premise that everything Trump does is for his own personal and/or political benefit rather than the national interest, maybe he’s pushing hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure and stockpiling it as a pre-loaded excuse to deflect the inevitable criticism. The admin blew it on ventilator production and to some extent on PPE; sufficient supplies won’t be manufactured in time thanks to Trump’s inexcusable inaction from late January to mid-March.
So, he glommed onto an anecdotal study with 20 participants, gambling that it really will turn out to be a miracle cure. If that happens, he’ll order the parks system to commence chiseling his face on Mount Rushmore immediately. If the drug doesn’t work, he’ll yap about how he’s an optimist who was trying to save lives and give people hope while blaming the governors for lagging on ventilators and PPE.
Barbara
@satby: No, I mean that you would divert it from Mylan and then down the chain and then ultimately to Feds so that someone in the chain is making a lot of money. Yes, Mylan could jack up the price, but that would be obvious. There is something non-obvious about what is happening here.
satby
@debbie: I turn off NPR as a reflex, so it’s encouraging to hear they’re reporting that.
germy
germy
satby
@Barbara: yes, ok. That’s what I meant to imply too. Reduced supply also jacks up prices even if the originator doesn’t.
germy
Narrator: “He didn’t want Fauci contradicting him.”
SFAW
@rikyrah:
A commenter at TPM posted a 2016 article from Motley Fool, noting that Trump owns Gilead stock (one assumes more than just a few shares). Apparently, Gilead is a prime/sole manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine?
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of either claim, but were it/they true, I would not be in danger of suffering a cardiac event from the news.
ETA: Did a quick Google: looks like Gilead had earlier stopped production of it, but has now restarted. Still no idea if the Murderer-in-Chief owns Gilead stock.
germy
I didn’t know we needed a “witness’s signature” for absentee ballots.
satby
@germy: put up the bat signal for Omnes, because that should be an immediate lawsuit and he has standing as a WS voter.
Spanky
No. I don’t need any help.
JCJ
@Barbara:
My daughter takes Plaquenil for lupus. Initially it was about $200 for a three month supply. During a shortage a few years ago the price went up to $600. There is plenty of profit to get from a manufactured shortage.
germy
Spanky
@germy: These people need to realize that the Resurrection has been cancelled. Jesus is sheltering in place.
germy
Baud
@germy:
We would actually be better off right now of we had no president.
Baud
@Spanky:
Some spunky artists should paint Jesus in a face mask.
Baud
Tweet, via Reddit.
https://i.redd.it/3kx3d5rai5r41.png
Spanky
@Baud: With nothing but his baby blues showing?
Baud
@Spanky:
If you look closely at images of the crucifixion, you’ll see that Jesus and the two thieves who were crucified with him were at least six feet apart. God couldn’t have been clearer.
Ben Cisco
Well, this sucks:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — More than 5,000 medical masks that Montgomery County received from the national stockpile were rotted, the local emergency management director said Thursday.
States and cities are receiving shipments from the National Strategic Stockpile to try to relieve shortages in medical equipment because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
…
(Sen. Doug) Jones, noting the problem with the rotten masks shipped to Montgomery, said he is concerned national stockpile shipments have been inadequate and states are in a “hunger games” competition, bidding against each other for private purchases.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I want to hear a reporter ask Dr Fauci if he’s a hostage.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I thought witness signatures were common practice.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Agreed we would be better of with anyone other than Orange Corona who is a malevolent morona.
BTW have any of the noble generals formerly of the T-tanic’s cabinet, spoken about the ouster of Capt. Crozier?
germy
@Spanky:
One of our favorites antenna-tv shows is Superstore. In one scene, an extremely religious manager is trying to convert some employees by talking about Jesus. “It wasn’t easy for a white man in the Middle East!”
zhena gogolia
@germy:
We had a beautiful Palm Sunday via Zoom and YouTube. Best one I can remember.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: The Americans defying Palm Sunday quarantines: “God wants me to die.”
zhena gogolia
@Spanky:
I used to joke about feeling old, but I really didn’t. This pandemic is the first thing that has made me feel old.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
I didn’t know that. I thought you just filled out your ballot in the privacy of your home and then mailed it.
I’ve seen it argued that absentee ballots are risky because of the threat of abusive spouses coercing their victims into voting a certain way (republican, I assume) so is the spouse the witness? Or do you walk the ballot over to a notary?
oatler.
Speaking of vile, this is vile: https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/apr/05/scv-gov-tate-reeves-proclaimed-confederate-heritag/
Sab
@OzarkHillbilly: First time I absentee voted from Ohio, in 1972, I had to get the ballot notarized.
Ian R
@OzarkHillbilly: “And my neighbors, too.”
MattF
Story I read is that T’s fixation on hydrochloroquine is due to ‘advice’ from Giuliani. So, the motivation could be Russia. Or just about fucking anything.
germy
Off topic, but why can’t we have nice things?
JMG
My neighbor across the street has been going to work every weekday. At first, I couldn’t imagine why. Then I remembered. He runs an institutional uniform manufacturing firm. I’m sure they’re real busy and also classified as essential.
MomSense
I’m not doing well working from home and I realize I’m lucky that I can work from home. It’s a confusing time.
I’ll try to check in later and see how everyone is doing.
TS (the original)
@Amir Khalid:
Imagine if any other country was doing this to the USA. He needs to resign now – it needs to be shouted across the country.
germy
NOVARTIS TRENDS AS TRUMP ACCUSED OF PUSHING UNPROVEN USE OF HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE MADE BY PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY
PenAndKey
@germy: My wife and I just had this talk this weekend when we filled out our ballots and “witnessed” the other do so. Not only is the requirement idiotic given the current isolation orders in the state, it’s equally idiotic in healthy times. My brother is single. If he still lived in the state he’d have to get a neighbor to witness him fill the ballot out, and that’s presuming he knows his neighbors well enough to ask one of them to do so. Such a requirement is nothing but a transparent roadblock to voters, especially given that we have to sign the ballot ourselves anyway and the stupid things are processed by the same people who would “witness” us vote and process our ballots if we did it in person.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I don’t know, I’ve never done it. but it’s the way they are done here in Misery. Absentee ballots are the major weak link in ballot fraud but the GOP generally resist changing it because quite a few of their older voters use it. The witness signature is not the problem. Recent elections in NC and STL showed how the process can be abused.
OzarkHillbilly
Republicans.
Rob
OMG those penguins!! I so needed that this morning.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: Funny, but a friend of my wife’s is a retired commanding officer of a significant Naval vessel. Since retirement he has “come out” as a vehement anti-Trumper, but on this particular issue he feels that Crozier shit the bed and should have been relieved.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Antibody drug therapy apparently offers some hope, but president dumbo would rather put the money elsewhere.
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
Nor do most of the State Governors. Cuomo doesn’t mention anything negative in his press conferences other than the odd push back when a nonsensical trump statement is mentioned by a reporter. I have never understood why everyone is scared of him – is he so powerful?
Fair Economist
@OzarkHillbilly:
Scary part to go with the sad: He was in a home for people with dementia. Scary two ways, actually.
OzarkHillbilly
via Nicholas Kristof @ the NYT:
ThresherK
@prostratedragon: “Medical goods shipment to Barbados being hijacked”?
Cheesy Pete, I remember when actual pirates were the only people we had to worry about doing that.
Trump is auditioning for the role of “Somali pirate leader” in Captain Phillips. Playing against Tom (America’s Favorite Guy) Hanks is never a good look.
Baud
@TS (the original):
Is that a serious question? Of course the president is powerful, especially in times of national crisis. And if the president is a Republican, he is more than likely going to use that power to settle scores.
Most people who are scared of him are scared for their own craven reasons. But governors are just being practical.
Van Buren
I know there is some tough competition, but I think Wisconsin Republicans really are the shittiest people on the planet. Especially when you factor in their history.
OzarkHillbilly
@Fair Economist: Yeah, I think they said the Covid death count was 14 in that one home?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s always been the case. That’s why it’s “flatten the curve,” not “kill the curve.”
ThresherK
@Fair Economist: I sorta hope Dempsey had the “normal” demetia (like my late FiL, say), and not football impact style dementia.
Never knew of him to be in a lot of collisions, although it was before my time.
And, of course, his story is just incredible. Makes me wonder if the actual NFL football has changed between his era and the next 60-yarder to go thru the uprights. (I know they made it harder to do so ~a decade ago.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Others have speculated that he did it knowing full well what the result would be but did it anyway because nobody up the chain of command was taking the situation seriously and anything less was a betrayal of his crew. I hope we get to find out.
Fair Economist
@JPL:More directly, favirapir was effective in a *real* trial conducted in China. The resources NY is expending on testing HCQ could have been used on that, or split. HCQ is already being widely used in Italy and the result is: “No miracles yet”. https://twitter.com/rob_cosentini/status/1245721133120454662
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I know, but it was the first I’ve heard the 95% non infected number. The whole idea has always been to slow it down so our hospitals aren’t overwhelmed but I have real doubts about my neighbors ability to keep up social distancing for the long haul.
germy
Jinchi
@rikyrah:
I’m worried Trump may be turning me into an anti-vaxxer.
I just don’t think I can trust the FDA or the CDC, anymore, given the fact that he clearly coerced them into dropping all standards to greenlight the use of an unproven drug to support his “what do you have to lose?” snake-oil salesmanship. He’s clearly either fired or sidelined anyone who will push back on this nonsense and I wouldn’t be surprised if he started pushing Jim Bakker’s silver solution next. So if in the next few months the government heralds a new vaccine, I don’t think I’ll trust that it is either safe or effective.
Amir Khalid
@ThresherK:
I was under the impression that kicker was the one position in American football with a low risk of traumatic head injury.
Jinchi
Social distancing as we’re currently practicing won’t be the standard over the long haul. It’s main purpose was to short circuit the exponential growth of the pandemic and give time for us to come up with longer term solutions. The hope is that 95% will never get coronavirus (meaning that 95% will remain vulnerable) and that we will have controlled the outbreak so they’re never exposed to it.
ThresherK
@Amir Khalid: You are correct. Rules have varied, but kickers and punters largely don’t get hit unless they initiate themselves into the play. And on placekicks (point-after touchdown converts, field goals) there’s really not a lot of that.
Kickoffs and punts are different; some K’s and P’s are actually good athletes and others avoid contact like crazy. A new thing is to groom rugby or Aussie rules footballers for punting, and they like hitting people!
Given Dempsey was born missing half his right foot, I would hazard a guess that he was not really a threat to be the last guy to tackle a returner heading for a touchdown.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@Jinchi: Repeating from the article:
The Moar You Know
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t agree that he should have been relieved, but he was going to be relieved. I’ve been a contractor for the Navy for over 17 years now and while Crozier absolutely made the right decision, he was going to get shitcanned and he absolutely knew it when he wrote that letter, because this is how the Navy does things. Lose your ship, lose your job.
That he wasn’t discharged and gets to keep his rank and salary (he will never be promoted, which sucks for him, but at least he might end up keeping his pension) is a bit of a nice surprise if it actually ends up panning out that way. Hope it does. He saved lives.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Being removed from his post might have just saved his life. Maybe his diagnosis will get some attention and help everyone who is still stuck on board.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t know. although a quick really rough calculation tells me if there are 300 million people in the U.S. (I know its more like 333 million ) and if 300,000 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 (it’s really 337,971 this morning) . That’s about .01% of the population that have caught the virus AND been positively diagnosed with it. Just guessing but since this is a novel virus every person in the U.S. has the potential to becoming infected and developing the disease, some will spread it without ever knowing they had it. It is also too early to tell how long immunity to the disease will last for those who recover. For example, with some diseases, like whooping cough, immunity whether acquired through vaccine or having the disease, wanes after a number of years.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15876927
schrodingers_cat
Is it just me or does anyone else hate video conferencing with the heat of thousand suns.
Jinchi
Right, that’s the flattening part of the plan. But that doesn’t mean everyone gets the virus, which is the path we would be on if we did nothing. And it doesn’t mean we stay in the current mode indefinitely.
Remember, at the start of this literally everyone was vulnerable, simultaneously, and we didn’t know who had it. If we ramped up testing we could isolate anyone who tested positive. Once we develop widespread tests for antibodies we can identify those who already had the virus and are (presumably) immune. Those people should be able to resume working and aiding those who aren’t.
OzarkHillbilly
Neither do I, but for the time being I won’t feel like I don’t have to worry until I get a vaccine. If it is only effective for 10 years that’s OK, I’ll probably die of something else before then anyway.
Jinchi
300,000 is about 0.1% of the population and given the testing shortages my guess is that the true number is 10-20 times that.
But still, most of us have likely not gotten it. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@schrodingers_cat:
Despise it. Makes me value my real life interactions a shitload more.
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: My understanding from reporting in The Navy Times is that it was the second day after the Theodore Roosevelt made port when Capt. Crozier sent the letter and gave it a wide enough distribution that publication was certain. I’m guessing that his pleas to get his sailors ashore were met by resistance that he soon understood to emanate from the office of the Secretary of the Navy, and since time was of the essence he decided to cut the knot at the expense of his career. The admiral commanding the task force was in close proximity to Crozier, and maybe other commanders he might have appealed to, but this was a very hot potato and he could achieve the necessary result by acting alone. He may have decided to take the hit for other commanders as well as his sailors. I am hoping there will be leaks of communications between Crozier and the Guam port authorities during this period.
satby
Shit, most of my neighbors aren’t even doing it for the short haul. They’ve cut down on having people over, but they still do. Most (but not all) of these folks are black, so I’m guessing they aren’t watching Fox, but I’m at a complete loss as to why they aren’t isolating themselves.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Maybe you should just get better people on the other end(s) of the video conference.
satby
I agree. And in 10 years, or 5, or 1 like the flu vaccine, we can get it again. But without immunity from that I don’t feel like it will ever be really safe. I’m not likely given my asthma to be an asymptomatic person.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve always hated it, but I’ve worked at home for about a decade, so my hatred of videoconferencing isn’t new. My sister is super-lonely because she’s a very social person, her spouse is working long hours and she can’t hang out with friends or go to the pub. The other day, we did a virtual happy hour using Facetime, and I amused/annoyed her by trying out every filter I could find. Maybe I’ll do that on my next client call…
Another Scott
ICYMI, Drum has a transcript of Navy Sec. Modly’s blowing up to TR’s crew.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
The Lodger
@Baud: Let’s see if Pilate gets booed or cheered when he goes inside to wash his hands.
Kelly
@Another Scott: I’d love to see the sailors questions he promised detailed answers to.
Jackie
@germy: In WA state, no witnesses are required – unless voter marks an ‘X’ for signature.
Kelly
@Jackie: No witness signature on Oregon Ballots.
opiejeanne
@Chris Johnson: Russia delivered 60 tons of PPE to the US last week, while Russian hospitals, doctors, and nurses are crying out for these same supplies, so no, Trump is not giving them to Russia.
Jackie
@Kelly: Same here. If the voter marks their signature with an X, only the signature is witnessed – not the actual voting.
Ksmiami
@Chris Johnson: I fail to see how anything less than hanging these traitors and eliminating the electoral college will be enough
Mnemosyne
@Kelly:
No witness required for California, but the voter does have to sign the outside envelope.
geg6
@germy:
We just started no excuse mail in voting in PA this year. My John and I just got our ballots. No witness needed. When we had just regular absentee voting, you had to provide proof of your reason for being absentee.
Oklahomo
I wanted to punch my TV this morning; I walked through the living room and Scaramucci was on whining about 28 years olds with brand new equities start-ups that might not get some of this sweet sweet bail-out cash. They’re just as important as those restaurant workers, dammit!
joel hanes
@debbie:
Where are the lawsuits
The courts are closed.
Barbara
@JCJ: Yes, that is the most feasible way of making bank on these things, but I would point out simply that in order to make money from the company that makes money from producing plaquenil you would not only have to own shares, you would have to sell them before they come back down to earth when it is determined (as I would bet money it will be) that plaquenil is only modestly useful, if useful at all. It’s the shortest term kind of grift I can imagine.
I think that someone is trying to study the incidence and outcome of COVID-19 in people who are currently taking plaquenil for other conditions, like malaria, lupus and RA, which are the main things, and they are not seeing anything that they would view as dramatic. The only reason plaquenil started being used for conditions with inflammation of the joints (lupus, RA) is that doctors noticed that those taking it for malaria experienced improvement in their RA and lupus symptoms, which is par for the course — we have no cure so anything that seems to work ends up being prescribed. I never thought it did any good at all.
Richard Guhl
Everything that Biden is doing inspires confidence in me. Informing Bernie of his intentions to move forward with the process of vetting potential VP and Cabinet members shows both kindness and firmness.
Something tells me a Biden administration would exceed our expectations. He knows what he’s doing.
Geminid
@Another Scott: CNN has good reporting by Barbara Start and others on the Acting Secretary of the Navy’s speech to the crew of the Roosevelt. Modly’s personal attack on Captain Crozier was absolutely disgraceful.
James E Powell
@OzarkHillbilly:
I vote by mail in California and there is no witness signature required. The voter’s signature has to match the one on file.
I don’t understand why a witness signature would be required or how it would reduce “fraud” – pardon me for deeming every “fraud” claim to be bullshit until proven otherwise.
Republicans don’t want Democratic-leaning people to vote and they will use every means, legitimate or otherwise, to keep them from voting. It is one of those facts that the political press/media refuse to acknowledge.
joel hanes
@OzarkHillbilly:
We’re all engaged in delaying actions until we have mass deployment of three things:
joel hanes
@schrodingers_cat:
I too hate videoconferencing, almost as much as I hate trans-national conference calls on loudspeaker in a meeting room.
This became a significant handicap in my most recent job.
MattF
Derek Lowe comments on yet another small test of hydroxychloroquine. Results are on the negative side, he says, and the drug will be dangerous to some patients.
MomSense
@Richard Guhl:
Competence has never been more appealing.
Barbara
@MattF: It can compromise your eyesight, and your peripheral vision in particular. I would be shocked if it were anything more than modestly helpful in some trials.
Geminid
@Geminid: Barbara Starr.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
I read the text at Kevin Drum’s place. I wonder how it was received by the sailors.
joel hanes
@MattF:
The drug may be dangerous
It is absolutely the case that the drug is toxic, and causes horrific side-effects if misused, and serious side effects in a substantial number of the cases in which it is used very carefully. The President of the AMA has responded to Trump’s “What have you got to lose” with “You could lose your life.”
But in this dystopia, Rudy Giuliani’s grifting and Hannity’s resentments have more influence on national medical policies than does a warning from the head of the AMA.
Yutsano
@Another Scott: Jeebus what a pile of horsepuckey! Way to make an entire ship hate you.
Robert Sneddon
Have you seen “Battleship Potemkin”? That well.
Geminid
@James E Powell: According to knowledgeable sources in the CNN article, were Modly a serving officer he would be subject to a courtmartial for his diatribe against Crozier. Another example of a man disgracing himself trying to serve Trump.
Elizabelle
James Fallows blog at The Atlantic (no paywall): https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2020/04/thank-you-captain-crozier/609484/
My husband is currently serving on the Roosevelt. Many family members have been reaching out to their respective ombudsmans to ask for a way to get in contact or relay our support for Captain Crozier and we have been all been told the same thing—they “don’t know” how to get in touch with him.
We are not to speak to the media regarding anything going on with COVID-19. In fact, we have been getting “updates” (I use that term very loosely because ‘update’ implies difference or a change in information, which is very much not the case) for weeks about the illness spreading throughout the ship and how we are NOT to discuss anything with the media. Which, given Operational Security requirements, is fair but also indicates leadership knew about the spread of the Coronavirus far earlier than what is being portrayed in the news.
Anyway, I have a simple ask: On behalf of the families of all on board the USS Roosevelt can SOMEONE just tell the man that we appreciate what he did to make sure our sailors and marines come back to us in one piece? Captain Crozier risked his career and did what he thought was best to get the resources they needed. The acting SEC NAV, who amounts to a little more than a modern day mercenary (you know, on account of forgoing his national service for profit in the private sector), railroaded CAPT Crozier and it’s an absolute disgrace.
We just want to say thanks and let him know we support him. It shouldn’t be this hard to get that simple message across.
Thanks for reading and please don’t publish my name or email address. We’ve seen how the Navy “doesn’t like to punish” people about stuff like this.
opiejeanne
@eric:
Experimenting with keeping my blood glucose low, I made egg flower soup this morning for breakfast: low-cal, a decent amount of protein, almost zero carbs, and really easy. And did I mention Cheap?
MattF
@Barbara: @joel hanes: Trump objects to expert advice on the subject.
low-tech cyclist
That’s nice, Joe, but when Trump doesn’t do any of these things, finds new ways to screw things up, and the result is thousands more lives lost, what do you recommend then?
Steeplejack (phone)
Mnemosyne alert!
Baud
@low-tech cyclist: I suspect he’ll recommend that voters vote Trump and his party out of office in November.
Barbara
@Geminid: Audience of one. That explains so much of what we see among a lot of people and is rather clarifying of their fitness for all kinds of public service.
Steeplejack (phone)
Geminid
@Barbara: And Trump seems more and more to be playing to an audience of one. His remarks about Captain Crozier Saturday evening were typically vile and churlish, but they were also very stupid politically. He didn’t have to say anything at all about Crozier, or at most given a vague deflection. But Trump went out of his way to drag Crozier. He basically just pulled a gun out his pocket and shot himself in the foot a couple times.
No One You Know
@PenAndKey: True, but Jared neither creates, nor commands, nor coordinates, and publicly announced he was against distribution. In other words, he’s there to actively prevent the work from being carried out.
Now, if Jared had a boss, and a subordinate who would eat his shit and still do the work… we’d get somewhere, maybe!
Gravenstone
@danielx: Trump? One of his brighter* cronies? Absolutely!
lol chikinburd
@Van Buren: Maybe I’m biased because I grew up in a place dominated by Wisconsin Republicans, and they were then, but, yes, they absolutely are.
And boom: Evers issues executive order delaying in-person voting to June, after said Republicans in the Lege making a formal ceremony of sticking their thumbs up their butts between rapid-fire gavels. So we get a day of furious lawsuits likely ending in a 5-2 reversal putting us back at square one.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Warren gives Trump to much credit, Trump gave up on the virus and using revenge as distraction, like bing watching Netflicks.
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato: (Returning from a long nap; I’m crepuscular at best, but lately it’s been ridiculous.)
Check.
Suzy
@Richard Guhl: Mr. Biden explained in an interview last week that indeed, he has begun the vetting process for vp. Mr. Biden didn’t mention Senator Sanders, but was very respectful: he said he didn’t want to be presumptuous about winning the nomination, but explained that the vetting was a long and serious process and he had to begin that process right now in case he became the nominee.
One of the most endearing qualities of Mr. Biden is that he displays the right balance between self-confidence and respect for others. He is a man of character.
Amir Khalid
@James E Powell:
I just read the CNN transcript. It describes some of the crew’s response, which suggests that they weren’t persuaded y the speech.