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You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45

Dolt 45

What Is The Test For SARS-CoV-2?

by Cheryl Rofer|  March 12, 20204:00 pm| 107 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Dolt 45

As I’m trying to dig out the problems with SARS-CoV-2 testing the United States, it’s become necessary for me to learn a bit about how the test works. I am not an expert in RNA analysis, but this is chemistry, which I do understand. I asked Stephen N. Floor, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology at the University of California, San Francisco, some questions and to check my work. All errors and political content in this post are mine.

I am working from the CDC instructions for the kit and their information for laboratories using the kit.

From the point of view of the person being tested, samples are taken from their respiratory tract, which means having the interior of one’s mouth and nose swabbed and perhaps washed out. They might be asked to hack up some sputum.

The laboratory procedures are demanding, but standard for RNA and DNA work.

RNA is extracted from the patient’s samples. It appears to be the extractant for this step that is currently in short supply. The extractant may be TRIzol, a solution of phenol and guanidinium isothiocyanate, neither of which should be hard to supply.

A primer and standard are added to the prepared sample, which is then run through a PCR machine.

PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is a method to make many copies of DNA. Because this virus is an RNA virus, its complementary DNA is produced, a dye is added that binds to the DNA, and the primer amplifies the SARS-CoV-2 selectively. Neither the virus RNA nor DNA is infectious, because they lack the rest of the virus.

The dye fluoresces, and the amount of fluorescence indicates how much DNA is produced. A control is added to give a known result, against which the SARS-CoV-2 result can be evaluated.

A test like this must be reliable – not too many false positive or negative results. False negatives are the more dangerous in this case, because they may result in an infected person moving about the community or a delay in treatment for a sick person. I haven’t been able to find statistics on false positive and negative rates for this test. The New York fact sheet has a short discussion of their effects.

If the sample from the patient is run through the procedure immediately, results can be available within several hours.

Despite administration promises, test kits continue to be in very limited supply, and the number of qualified laboratories and total tests small. (But numbers are all over the map, and the government doesn’t seem to be collecting them.) The reasons for this remain murky. It looks to me like a bad decision, possibly a number of bad decisions, were made early on, including not using the WHO kit and developing a kit to detect multiple coronaviruses rather than just SARS-CoV-2. This could be an organizational problem – I worked for an organization that felt it had to develop all its own computer codes, including payroll. That did not go well. Or it could be that Trump’s strong desire to deny the epidemic affected the judgement of people like Robert Redfield, CDC director.

People need to know if they’re infected so that they can observe quarantine or go about their business; doctors need to know so they can isolate patients and give them appropriate treatment; and we all need to know to understand the patterns of infection in society and take appropriate distancing measures. Right now, with so few tests, we have people self-quarantining, possibly without need, and people who don’t know they’re infected.

Also with PCR, the full genome of the virus can be sequenced, and that has been done in some cases. Trevor Bedford has an extremely informative Twitter account (@trvrb), where he explains what can be deduced about the spread of the virus from its genome.

Seven new #SARSCoV2 genomes from Washington State were shared today by @UWVirology. These group alongside existing genetic diversity so that all 23 community cases fall into the same transmission chain. 1/2https://t.co/1aeNEABy6q pic.twitter.com/Z245sIILBC

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) March 12, 2020

The media need to ask better questions on the lack of tests, particularly of Redfield and Mike Pence:

  • Who made the decisions on which test to use? Why did they make those decisions?
  • The question on the decisions is the central one, but you might be able to get there by asking about the alleged shortages of materials. Why? Who are the suppliers? Why are they not in short supply in the countries that are testing?

My suspicion is that the shortages are a cover for protecting Trump’s delicate ego. That priority has to be dumped in favor of the health of Americans.

Update: And it looks like my suspicion is right. From NPR Fresh Air interview of Dan Diamond, a reporter for Politico:

But at the same time, Secretary Azar has not always given the president the worst-case scenario of what could happen. My understanding is he did not push to do aggressive additional testing in recent weeks, and that’s partly because more testing might have led to more cases being discovered of coronavirus outbreak, and the president had made clear – the lower the numbers on coronavirus, the better for the president, the better for his potential reelection this fall.

Bolding mine. There’s more in the interview, but this is the most direct indictment of the president.

Cross-posted at Nuclear Diner

What Is The Test For SARS-CoV-2?Post + Comments (107)

Trump Speaks His Ignorance

by Cheryl Rofer|  March 11, 20209:00 pm| 405 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Dolt 45

Speech said to have been written by Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller. Theme said to be “not my fault.”

You may applaud now.

Trump Speaks His IgnorancePost + Comments (405)

The White House Coronavirus Task Force

by Cheryl Rofer|  March 5, 202011:21 am| 213 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Dolt 45

Here are some early thoughts about what the Pence Task Force should do, coming out of my experience in project management.

Determine who is in charge. In Donald Trump’s typical desire to weaken subordinates and watch them fight, he has appointed three people as being in charge of the task force. No work will get done unless they agree who is to be the responsible decision-maker. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Pharmaceutical Profit Alex Azar, or Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD. Once a leader is determined, all members of the task force must turn back Trump’s meddling on this issue.

As a part of setting up a responsibility structure, leaders must be chosen for subgroups as noted in the following topics.

Communications. Shut Trump down unless he learns something and can control his fear and inclination to improvise. Even then, his best play would be to act as a listener in his roundtable discussions and allow the experts to speak. Get a name for the task force: “Coronavirus Task Force” would do. Refer to it that way. Expert briefings every day, with no restrictions on video and recording. The topic of the briefing should vary from day to day, emphasizing recent developments. Lists of actions individuals can take should be posted on the internet and made available to local newspapers and governments. Hotlines should be set up. Communications should be accurate and should tell people what to expect.

Detection, treatment, and vaccine. Set up a National Academy of Sciences panel to investigate what went wrong with CDC’s development and distribution of detection kits. More urgently, decide on one kit and a recommended protocol for deciding who is to be tested. (This may have been done already, but they claimed it was done almost a week ago, and now it is being claimed again.) Make testing free to those being tested. Get the lab work on treatment and a vaccine out of the public eye. Report no claims until they are verified. Form a panel of experts to evaluate claims and recommend ways forward.

Community planning. State and local resources must be included in planning. The Public Health Service has a large role to play, although its funding has been greatly reduced under the Trump administration. Funding should be restored. Recommended standards must be developed for closing down events that involve large numbers of people or schools and for limiting movement of people within states or localities.

Maintaining essential services. Develop plans for maintaining garbage collection and availability of water and sewage services if large numbers of employees are absent because of illness. Hospitals need similar plans. Payment for medical services may need to be changed from emphasis on individuals. Grocery stores must continue to provide fresh food; plans must be made for people to access them.

Supply chains. There are three scales on which supply chains must be considered: international, within countries, and locally. Internationally, China supplies many pharmaceuticals and much medical equipment. Their shutdowns are affecting availability. International shipping is a vulnerable point, as airlines shut down flights. Essential chains (food, drugs, supplies to keep water, natural gas, sewage processing running) within the US must be identified and reinforced. Within communities, it may be necessary to set up food deliveries and monitoring of the most vulnerable in their homes.

Congress must be involved as well. Each subgroup must have a legislative liaison to the appropriate Congressional committees.

That’s a start. People who know more than I do about the specifics can fill in what I haven’t included. Would be good to hear from Pence and the task force that they are addressing these issues.

The White House Coronavirus Task ForcePost + Comments (213)

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Daft Days

by Anne Laurie|  December 29, 20192:07 pm| 186 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

In 18th century English, the period around Christmastime—and in particular, the days between Christmas Day and New Years—were known as the ‘Daft Days’. pic.twitter.com/YWXBl2kS2w

— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) December 28, 2019

What if the overt cretinism of the TrumpCelebs is a deliberate flex — a sort of “fuck you, we’ve got our crowd so locked down that we can use total imbeciles as our leaders and still keep our fans cheering, they’re that loyal” https://t.co/70ehTrjhGG

— TwoArticleHat (@Popehat) December 28, 2019

It's also a way for the in group to signal their commitment. By publicly embracing stupidity they demonstrate their willingness to abandon their dignity for the group. Kind of like how you have to kill someone to join the crips.

— Fyodor (@Fyodor32768) December 28, 2019

My teenage brothers and their friends used to challenge each other to stunts like mooning drivers on the Major Deegan Expressway from an extremely rickety overpass. But they were teenagers, and mostly working on imagined future careers as alcoholics. They expected to be ‘rewarded’, if caught, with a smack upside the head — the stupid stunting was bonding over their self-professed goals of being public losers. They weren’t highly-educated professional political operatives.

show full post on front page

At the risk of offending everyone (because, you know, it's been a couple of hours), if Biden did this there is half a chance that Trump would tweet out a picture of his balls. That might be enough for a bunch of GOP Senators to say "fuck this, it's time for President Mike Pence." https://t.co/oPuAjeDxNp

— Liz Mair (@LizMair) December 28, 2019

If there's one thing you can say about Mike Pence, definitively, it is that he will never, ever tweet a picture of his balls. Trump? Totally possible on any given day.

— Liz Mair (@LizMair) December 28, 2019

… And such is our degraded politics, I can envision the possibility. Except that Trump would, under such challenge, order his tweet-maker to find pics of someone else’s balls, massive balls, the best balls, that Trump would claim to be his own. And every little larval office drone would be crawling around the West Wing hallways, checking out each other’s undercarriages.

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Daft DaysPost + Comments (186)

The President’s Letter To The Speaker Of The House

by Cheryl Rofer|  December 17, 20194:14 pm| 139 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Impeachment

I don’t see anything new in it. Looks to me like you could attach an AI program to Daniel Dale’s file of Trump lies to produce something like this.

Anyhoo, it looks like we could use a separate thread to deal with today’s meltdown.

Update: Nancy Pelosi has sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues. It’s quite a contrast to Trump’s.

In Dear Colleague letter, PELOSI urges lawmakers to be on the floor tomorrow morning ahead of the impeachment vote.

"Our constituents look to us to be respectful of the Constitution and Defenders of our Democracy" pic.twitter.com/jUAEWm52e9

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 17, 2019

The President’s Letter To The Speaker Of The HousePost + Comments (139)

“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”…Modern Republican Update

by Tom Levenson|  December 9, 20196:31 pm| 79 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Crimes against humanity, Dolt 45, Israel, Open Threads, Racial Justice, Racist-In-Chief

The GOP today, and Trump himself, make a lot of noise about how much they love Israel.  What they really value, of course, is the racist and corrupt current Israeli government–and, some of them, the apocalyptic vision of Israel’s Jews massacred in a final confrontation on the plains of Megiddo, which would thus usher in the arrival of their god: Rambo Jeebus.

Trump is mystified — sincerely, I believe* — that his performative slobbering over Bibi hasn’t translated into support from American Jews, the overwhelming majority of whom interpret  the obligation to “Tikkun Olam” (heal the world) rather differently than does our presidential cager of children and patron of war criminals.

Over the weekend, Trump has explored this mystery, and has reminded us what Jews really are to him. Via Vanity Fair, here’s the shitgibbon speaking to the Israeli American Council in Hollywood, Florida:

He started off by once again invoking the age-old cliché about “dual loyalty,” saying there are Jews who “don’t love Israel enough. After that warm-up he dove right into the stereotype about Jews and money, telling the group: “A lot of you are in the real estate business, because I know you very well. You’re brutal killers, not nice people at all,” he said.

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"...Crayon Edition

“But you have to vote for me—you have no choice. You’re not gonna vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. You’re not gonna vote for the wealth tax. Yeah, let’s take 100% of your wealth away!” (It feels beside the point that neither Elizabeth Warren nor any other Democratic candidate has proposed a 100% wealth tax.) He continued: “Some of you don’t like me. Some of you I don’t like at all, actually. And you’re going to be my biggest supporters because you’re going to be out of business in about 15 minutes if they get it. So I don’t have to spend a lot of time on that.”

That’s us.  Jews aren’t really Americans, or not American enough — we’ve got Israel to take care of.  And Cash Rules Everything Around Us. (Not the best acronym, I know.)

You know, the old, familiar hate: the international conspiracy of world Jews, driven only by money, “not nice people at all.”

The Republican Party in any of its forms has not, as I write this, said anything about the shitgibbon’s remarks.

Silence = acquiescence.

That is: GOP is, until clearly demonstrated otherwise, home to and comfortable with exactly the same kind of anti-Semitism that underpinned persecution from pogroms to the Holocaust.  This kind of bigotry doesn’t have to end there, of course, but to avoid an escalation of the same hate that barely a year ago “inspired” the killer in the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, those closest to the President have to respond forcefully.  They haven’t and on the evidence they won’t.

The Republican Party has been playing on white fears of black and brown humanity for a long time, and it has long been a shock to the conscience how readily so many in power have been to do so instrumentally, not because they “in their hearts” hate black people or whoever, but because it works.

Well, it has, too well — and now the next phase is unfolding: when you unleash hate, sooner or later, it always finds the Jews.

And every other vulnerable minority.  We really are in this together, and 2020 truly is an existential election.

Other than that, how was your day, all you Mrs. Lincolns?

*I think that Trump is genuinely mystified by a lack of Jewish support.  He’d do business with someone he loathes if it made him a couple of bucks. Wouldn’t everyone?

Image: Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Rabbi, 1635

“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”…Modern Republican UpdatePost + Comments (79)

Why Do The Investigations Seem To End Too Early?

by Cheryl Rofer|  November 26, 201912:00 pm| 81 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Impeachment Hearings, Media, Mueller Report, Trump-Russia

Something has bothered me since Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Let’s look at the letter appointing him special counsel:

  • Robert S. Mueller III is appointed to serve as Special Counsel…

Not Special Prosecutor, as he is often titled. Special Counsel.

  • any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump…

Based on these words, I expected a very different report from Mueller.

Mueller acted more as a prosecutor than an investigator. Perhaps I am getting this wrong; in internet parlance, IANAL, I am not a lawyer.

Mueller prosecuted cases against Paul Manafort and the the Internet Research Agency of St. Petersburg. His investigations supported Michael Cohen’s conviction and Michael Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. There are probably others, but that is not my point. His investigation seems to have been for the purpose of finding prosecutable crimes.

I expected that “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” would have included a great deal more than what was in the report.

There were a great many contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign, or near misses like Maria Butina, who got cozy with the NRA, which supported Trump. The Russians used hacked files from the Democratic National Committee to help Republicans beyond Trump.

The Republican platform was changed to weaken support for Ukraine; the Mueller report mentions this, but notes that Trump seems to have been unaware of the change. The person who seems to have been responsible for it, J. D. Gordon, also is connected to Carter Page, who has his own Russian connections. And then there is George Papadopoulos, also with Russian connections.

Perhaps some of these Russian connections, like Butina, can be said not to have been connected with the Trump campaign. The hacked files used against other candidates, again not related to the Trump campaign. Although the platform change may not have involved Trump, his campaign certainly was involved with it, and with those other folks with hinky Russian connections. But these were investigated cursorily, if at all.

I don’t understand how Mueller interpreted the charge and why. I would like to know more about that.

It seems to be difficult to report on connections to Russia without being accused of paranoia. Additionally, some popular voices have greatly exaggerated connections to Russia on the basis of inadequate information.

I do not believe Putin is minutely directing a campaign to destroy the United States. He does not work like that. He remains a KGB colonel with access to the power of a state. He is a tactician rather than a strategist. He wants Russia to be recognized as a great power. Russia is in a strange position internationally. Its nuclear arsenal is equivalent to that of the United States, but its economy is about the size of Texas’s, based primarily on extractive industries. A nuclear great power, but not much else.

The way for Russia to be a great power is to lessen the influence of other great powers. Hence a campaign to divide Americans and Europeans, internally and from each other.

The campaign is loosely run – more a matter of “Who will rid me of these turbulent adversaries?” than of detailed planning and late nights in the Kremlin. Thus, multiple Russian actors, backed by multiple oligarchs, show up in the Mueller Report and in other ways.

Trump always has something bad to say about America’s allies, but never about Vladimir Putin and other autocrats. The connections across the Republican Party to Russia are many, as far as we know now, largely through donations. The Dallas Morning News has had major articles on this means of influence (August 2017, December 2017, two in May 2018) . Why haven’t other news outlets joined the investigation? Why isn’t this mentioned as common knowledge when Tucker Carlson sides with Russia over Ukraine?

There are so many stories that need more investigation.

Trump’s history with Russia. 1987 seems to be a turning point. And, of course, the noteless meetings with Vladimir Putin, particularly in Helsinki in July 2018.

Devin Nunes’s midnight run to the White House

Kevin McCarthy’s comment about Putin paying Trump and Dana Rohrabacher. McCarthy received a campaign contribution from Rudy Giuliani’s associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, which he is returning. He is not the only one to receive money from them.

Parnas and Fruman are currently a focus of media attention. Parnas would like to testify to Congress, but there is little reason to believe anything he says until we understand better his connections to Giuliani and Trump and to people like Dmytro Firtash.

Eight Republican members of Congress spent the Fourth of July, 2018, in Moscow. They met with senior Russian officials. They are Richard Shelby (AL), Ron Johnson (WI), John Neely Kennedy (LA), Jerry Moran (KS), Steve Daines (MT), John Hoeven (ND), John Thune (SD) and Rep. Kay Granger (TX). Johnson and Kennedy have been extremely vocal lately in spreading the Russian propaganda meme that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the campaigns in 2016.

And, oh yes, the US Intelligence Community report of January 2017 said that the Republican campaign was hacked too. We haven’t seen any more about that.

That’s the list I come up with over a day or two of thought. I’ll bet there’s more.

There is a throughline to all this: Russian interference in American politics. It’s a big story, to be sure, but one that we need to hear. Most of it was not covered in the Mueller investigation. The House Intelligence Committee hearings have been on a very small part of it. News organizations are working on parts of it. We need more.

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

Why Do The Investigations Seem To End Too Early?Post + Comments (81)

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