I know you all know this, dear readers, because you are the smartest and most learned readers on the internet, but the problem with big numbers in this context isn't simply that they're big, it's that they are likely to keep getting bigger. A week ago, "we" were starting to freak out because Texas had around 6,000 daily new cases.
Another Texas record day of new cases at 8,258. At that rate, next week it'll be eleven thousand reported on Saturday, and then fifteen thousand, and then twenty thousand...And that's daily.
Saturday, July 04, 2020
National Garden Of American Heroes
I don't think Trump is some sort of SUPERGENIUS but you don't have to be to get the racism is popular and conservatives love to own the libs. So I'm surprised he's going with the statue garden. Conservatives don't give a shit about statues, and to the extent that libs give a shit about monuments to racism, well, fine, go stick them in the Trump Garden of Racism, just don't put them out in front of City Hall.
Own the libs! Bayonet them if necessary! That's what the conservatives want. Not some dumb statue garden, and especially not one which has some statues of black people.
Own the libs! Bayonet them if necessary! That's what the conservatives want. Not some dumb statue garden, and especially not one which has some statues of black people.
Seems Bad
11,458 new Florida cases.
I don't think even most "pessimists" (including me!) really have a handle on what it means for this to just keep going, perhaps continuing to get worse, for another 3 months, and another 3 months... From the start there was a kind of "well, by the Fall, we will surely have this under control, even with that orange dipshit in charge." And it's July now.
I don't think even most "pessimists" (including me!) really have a handle on what it means for this to just keep going, perhaps continuing to get worse, for another 3 months, and another 3 months... From the start there was a kind of "well, by the Fall, we will surely have this under control, even with that orange dipshit in charge." And it's July now.
Nobody Ever Accused Don Jr Of Being The Smart One
Rich people, man.
A Hamptons insider was stunned to arrive at a house in Bridgehampton on Saturday night to find a packed party that looked “as if COVID had never happened” — with Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle among the revelers.That was last weekend.
Our spy estimated there were about 100 partiers, who our source says were maskless, at the bash at the 51 Sandpiper Lane mansion, hosted by famed Hamptons builder Joe Farrell, who owns the pricey pile and is selling one down the road for $15 million. The event — which comes days after Long Island entered Phase Three of reopening and while COVID cases surge in some parts of the country — had a caterer and uniformed bartenders.
Can't Escape
I get that rich people think they can isolate themselves from the devastation they have created, but they can't always.
Kimberly Guilfoyle — the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. and a top fundraiser for the Trump campaign — has tested positive for coronavirus, a person familiar with the matter and a campaign source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.
Friday, July 03, 2020
Or Die With It
Whatevs.
WASHINGTON — After several months of mixed messages on the coronavirus pandemic, the White House is settling on a new one: Learn to live with it.
Checked Out
Nationally the pandemic is worse than it's ever been and the Feds have basically checked out and...
What can be said?
What can be said?
Why Not Me
I know as a Thinkfluencer and Political Commentator I am supposed to have some deep thoughts on who Joe Biden should pick to be the VP nominee, but I really don't.
What If... You Can't?
I see a lot of frustration and discussion by parents on the internets about the necessity to open schools at the end of the summer. But how?
I'm neither being unsympathetic to the personal toll nor unaware of the impossibility of transitioning to normal life without schools/childcare, but wishing it to happen doesn't make it so. Not just the schools themselves, but the school buses...the whole thing? Sure people are hoping that children are not that likely to get sick and that they might tend not to be spreaders, but the only way to deal with all of this responsibly is to quarantine people and their close contacts. In practice, that means one sick kid or one sick teacher or one sick janitor or one sick bus driver and... you shut it all down. If the likelihood of that is high...
Yes it should be a priority, but, again, how? The answer seems to be, "hope," but...
I'm neither being unsympathetic to the personal toll nor unaware of the impossibility of transitioning to normal life without schools/childcare, but wishing it to happen doesn't make it so. Not just the schools themselves, but the school buses...the whole thing? Sure people are hoping that children are not that likely to get sick and that they might tend not to be spreaders, but the only way to deal with all of this responsibly is to quarantine people and their close contacts. In practice, that means one sick kid or one sick teacher or one sick janitor or one sick bus driver and... you shut it all down. If the likelihood of that is high...
Yes it should be a priority, but, again, how? The answer seems to be, "hope," but...
Freedum
There are fair arguments about how, exactly, a mask order should be enforced and with what consequences, but these people just want everyone to die.
Houston lawyer plans to sue Gov. Abbott regarding mask statewide orderProbably he's more a grifter looking to become the latest conservative pseudo-celebrity, and then president, but still.
Thursday, July 02, 2020
Going Backwards
And Texas requires masks.
Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texans in most counties to wear masks in publicPreviously on the Governor Abbott show:
Abbott previously resisted calls for such an order and at one point banned local governments from requiring masks. First-time violators will be issued a warning, though repeat offenders could be fined up to $250.7915 new cases today.
999 911
Herman Cain has been hospitalized with Covid. Two weeks ago (how was that two weeks ago?) he was at Tulsa Trumpstock.
Ghislaine
A bit worried about some of our faves.
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, an ex-girlfriend of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is facing charges in the US after being arrested by the FBI.
Seems Bad
The worse it gets, the more extreme the measures to contain it will have to be.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida reported 10,109 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, breaking the state’s one-day record yet again as leaders work to prevent further spread over the July 4 holiday weekend.
The previous record for a single day was 9,585 cases reported Saturday. Just two weeks ago, the state’s single-day record was 3,207 cases.
The Hot Takes
UK journalism is, actually, worse than US journalism. Don't be fooled by the calm insightful international coverage of BBC International. The rest (including the BBC) is a shitshow.
Much fun, but perhaps my favorite:
A close second:
And of course, the inevitable:
A thread about some of the worst takes on Covid, from UK pundits.The divide between journalist and pundit is...well, there isn't really one in the UK. The better inclusive word is "hacks."
Much fun, but perhaps my favorite:
Even though he tweeted about watching it: https://t.co/FioK46R6XV
— Richard James (@RJSHutton) July 1, 2020
A close second:
On the other:https://t.co/1AdpHGiaxC
— Richard James (@RJSHutton) July 1, 2020
And of course, the inevitable:
The real heroes of the Covid crisis?
— Richard James (@RJSHutton) July 1, 2020
Doctors ❌
Nurses ❌
Carers ❌
Retail staff ❌
Journalists ✅https://t.co/YFJJ1wl9Nr
We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country
Unemployment CRASHES ALL THE WAY DOWN TO 11.1%.
Also new jobless claims are at a minuscule ONE POINT FOUR MILLION.
Also new jobless claims are at a minuscule ONE POINT FOUR MILLION.
Opening The Schools
Not going well.
More than 40 school principals in the South Bay are in quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 during an in-person meeting held by the Santa Clara Unified School District.I don't know if there's a possible ideal "open the schools plans," but I am pretty sure in this country, no matter what the best intentions of many people, it's going to be a shitshow.
Wednesday, July 01, 2020
Dilbert Guy Has Discovered The Plan
Republican Hunter is the main job in the Biden New Deal Jobs Guarantee.
Republicans will be hunted.
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) July 1, 2020
Poll Porn
NEW @ChangePolls/@CNBC Poll (6/26-28):#Arizona:
— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) July 1, 2020
Biden 51% (+7)
Trump 44%
.#Florida:
Biden 50% (+5)
Trump 45%
.#Wisconsin:
Biden 51% (+8)
Trump 43%
.#Pennsylvania:
Biden 50% (+6)
Trump 44%
.#Michigan:
Biden 48% (+5)
Trump 43%
.
North Carolina:
Biden 51% (+7)
Trump 44%
Mask Up
Everybody's going backwards.
This is good. Even if it isn't strictly necessary, simple hard rules make clear that things are serious and encourage better compliance.
Breaking:PA Governor Tom Wolf announces new mask wearing order. Under the order "Masks must now be worn whenever anyone leaves home". Takes effect immediately. @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/pYgSkixogQ
— Chris O'Connell (@CoconnellFox29) July 1, 2020
This is good. Even if it isn't strictly necessary, simple hard rules make clear that things are serious and encourage better compliance.
Pretty Sure This Isn't Going To Hold Up Well
What if...there's good news?!?!?
Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim.That was a month ago. His point was that we're going to get headlines like UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS TO TEN PERCENT and then everybody will cheer but 10% unemployment sucks and everybody will not cheer even if it happens.
“We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country,” he said.
Sounds Bad
JUST IN: @VaughnHillyard reports on new coronavirus data in Arizona, including a 28.3% testing positivity rate over the past day.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 1, 2020
“Nearly 1 out of 3 individuals who were tested for COVID in the last 24 hours, their test came back positive. That is a stunning number.” pic.twitter.com/tEwJPuhZos
Early on I said the virus wouldn't be taken seriously until it breached the NoVa virus shield. Which it did (and in New York, of course, NoVa is a metaphor for "where people who matter live"). Obviously it's still getting coverage now, but not with quite the same urgent tenor, generally, even though (gestures around).
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
I know we've given up on any decent federal response, but aside from concerns about airplanes filled with people breathing all over each other, airplanes are also advanced speedy transportation systems for viruses, letting them travel from one place in the country to another in the lungs of their unwitting hosts, and perhaps airline travel should be restricted?
Hah, no, we're gonna pass a tax credit for rich people vacations.
Hah, no, we're gonna pass a tax credit for rich people vacations.
"Well-Intentioned"
As I said, I'm not interested in demonizing people for individual bad behavior - this is a collective problem - but why the hell are these people covered in this way?
This is A Cautionary Tale featuring well-intentioned people making poor choices. It is also the tale of a socialite with an Instagram habit who recently held a fabulous backyard soiree during a pandemic. The upside of living on social media is the admiration and envy of your friends. The downside is when your dinner party goes viral. Literally.I'm not sure this stuff needs the newspaper treatment at all, but if it does get it, it shouldn't have the first paragraph absolution. Yah, well, we all want to have fun with our friends but the well-intentioned thing was to... not?
Ashley Taylor Bronczek, one of Washington’s social stars, decided to throw a party after the Washington Ballet’s online fundraiser, which she co-chaired. The June 18 gala was a huge success, raising more than $800,000 — the top sponsors were her generous in-laws, David and Judy Bronczek. To celebrate the occasion, she hosted a catered dinner for a couple dozen friends in the backyard of her Spring Valley home. It was, by all accounts, a picture-perfect night chronicled on (per usual) her Instagram account.
Our Sister Network
Inbox: Fox News has fired correspondent Ed Henry over sexual misconduct claims.
— Alex Weprin (@alexweprin) July 1, 2020
Ed Henry was at CNN for 7 or so years before he went to Fox. I like to point that stuff out because there are *a lot* of Fox people who were longtime fixtures at CNN, the Communist/Clinton News Network, and everyone "forgets."
"Clean"
I know "we" used to obsess about surface exposure and hand washing and the like, but haven't we basically settled on the idea that THE VIRUS IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE BODY, as in you just don't want people breathing on/near you. It's the breath, not the tray table.
Between each flight, a group of six to eight employees is already spending a half-hour cleaning the inside of the plane with paper towels and a spray bottle of Sani-Cide EX3, a broad-spectrum disinfectant. At night, 10 employees spend an hour and a half giving the plane a deep clean with the same disinfectant. Every seven to 10 days, planes are also sanitized with spray guns, which cover the walls, seats, overhead bins, and ceilings with a fast-drying disinfectant.
“The cleanliness of planes so far is better than it’s ever been before,” said Charlie Leocha, president and co-founder of Travelers United, a group that represents travelers.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Everything's Big In Texas
No one tell the brain geniuses in the post below that Texas had yet another record new case day (6975). Previous record was 5996.
Infecting Ourselves To Death
It'd be funny except for the "giving it to others" part.
Protesters are upset @GovAbbott shut down bars in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19. More than 30 bar owners are suing over the executive order. Protesters are demonstrating at the State Capitol and soon at the Governor’s Mansion. @KVUE pic.twitter.com/MaRSILqIxk
— Jenni Lee (@JenniL_KVUE) June 30, 2020
Scheduled Rollout
The way to deal with liars and a media environment that, for various reasons, privileges those lies, is to anticipate them and then keep adding more details to the story.
Yes it's that fucking newspaper, but not the political reporters!
Yes it's that fucking newspaper, but not the political reporters!
Deep Thought
Stop asking young people to fix the problems old people made. They have enough problems, such as dealing with those problems.
Illegitimate
Clarifying, my point here wasn't that having a Democratic president wouldn't have made a difference, it's that the ongoing treatment of Democratic rule as illegitimate by conservatives and elected Republicans is a big problem with big consequences!
The Obummer Plague
It was a bit hard to get the MAGA anti-lockdown protests to catch on too much, but imagine what March-May could have been like if Obama had been president. Picture a full rebellion against tyranny from the Kenyan president if the Feds tried to encourage any sort of responsible state action.
There were always mixed messages from the Feds generally and even Trump himself about whether lockdown was necessary. Sure he kept trying to blame liberal governors and pushed to OPEN FASTER, but it was hardly straightforward. Without a clear "villain" to rebel against, the response, while hyped by our media, was pretty muted.
But try to imagine Tsar Obama instituting or just encouraging a nationwide lockdown. Republican governors would have rejected anything the Feds pushed, including fully paid for testing. Large protests in any state with a Dem governor trying to do the right thing. Front page stories in that fucking newspaper dominated by the question of whether OBAMA HAD GONE TOO FAR with whatever meek encouragement they would have used to stop the country from infecting itself to death.
However "good" the Obama administration's response would have been, in theory, the backlash would have been immense.
There were always mixed messages from the Feds generally and even Trump himself about whether lockdown was necessary. Sure he kept trying to blame liberal governors and pushed to OPEN FASTER, but it was hardly straightforward. Without a clear "villain" to rebel against, the response, while hyped by our media, was pretty muted.
But try to imagine Tsar Obama instituting or just encouraging a nationwide lockdown. Republican governors would have rejected anything the Feds pushed, including fully paid for testing. Large protests in any state with a Dem governor trying to do the right thing. Front page stories in that fucking newspaper dominated by the question of whether OBAMA HAD GONE TOO FAR with whatever meek encouragement they would have used to stop the country from infecting itself to death.
However "good" the Obama administration's response would have been, in theory, the backlash would have been immense.
Shutting Down
Looking at the pictures of the places that are shutting down again - and therefore had been very open - is jarring. Just people living "normal life." I'm not one who likes to tut tut individual bad behavior about this stuff (aside from the aggressive asshole behavior), but even at the worst of this it seems like the country was pretty divided between people who were like, "oh, yes, so I can still plan for my European vacation in July, right?" and people who weren't planning on leaving their houses for 6 months. Plenty of "normal people," not hyped up MAGAs, never really quite took all of this very seriously. "Normal people" received pretty mixed messages from the powers be.
Just Couldn't Reach Him
Why do reporters repeat nonsensical stuff? There are staffers and Secret Service agents all over the place. If you want to reach the president, even this pudding brain president, you can.
“The video remained on the president’s Twitter page for more than three hours because White House officials couldn’t reach him to ask him to delete it, the two officials said. The president was at his golf club in Virginia and had put his phone down” https://t.co/8bdiTDa5LS
— Rebecca Buck (@RebeccaBuck) June 30, 2020
Can't See Stationary Vehicles
A pretty much established feature of Tesla's "autopilot" is that if it's traveling at highway speed it can't recognize stationary objects fast enough to do anything about them.
According to court documents, a Weston man driving a Tesla slammed into a Massachusetts State Police cruiser that was stopped in the left lane of the road, propelling the SUV forward into Smith's vehicle before spinning out.No software fix for it, either, from what I understand. Just a feature.
...
A trooper who responded to the scene wrote that Ciarlone said his Tesla was set to Autopilot mode and he "must not have been paying attention."
Monday, June 29, 2020
Closing Time
Various states are locking back down and/or rolling back plans to open more.
Groundhog's gonna check if he can see his shadow in another 3 months, I guess.
Groundhog's gonna check if he can see his shadow in another 3 months, I guess.
Shrinking Life
My troubles are none compared to people who have real troubles (at the moment, knock on wood!), but the narrowing of the scope of existence is still a bit depressing. Many of the things I enjoy doing are not coming back any time soon, and substitute activities which are possible are still not necessarily easy to do in a safe and practical way. Not the best time to not have a car.
Not a complaint, really. Just, you know, 2020, man, what a year!
Not a complaint, really. Just, you know, 2020, man, what a year!
No You're The Nazis
Quality people running things.
The head prosecutor for Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s trial division resigned Monday after posting a meme on Facebook last week that equated protesters who remove Confederate statutes with Nazis.
RINO ROBERTS
Libs win the abortion case, 4-1-4 with Roberts siding with the libs on the judgment but not the opinion (justification). I have gleaned this from twitter.
Oh Dear, Two Blogger Ethics Panels In One Day?
One thing I'm pretty good at (not perfect) is spotting the grifters in public life, and my grifter alarm has gone off with Jones from the beginning. During the Obama years certain organizations treated him like some combination of saint and oracle and muse, and those groups didn't get a lot accomplished. Elevating brand Jones should not have been an important priority.
Jones went on CNN’s Inside Politics with John King and Anderson Cooper 360 to enthusiastically commend Trump’s executive order—even as it was being criticized as cynical and unproductive by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and “delusional” by the Color of Change, an influential racial justice organization that Jones himself co-founded in 2005.
CNN viewers weren’t informed that he had actually attended secret White House meetings with his new friend Jared Kushner, discussing ways to frame the presidential project.
According to a knowledgeable White House source, who expressed satisfaction that there were zero leaks, Jones and California human rights attorney Jessica Jackson, who runs #cut50, a prison-reform group that Jones also founded, actively participated with law enforcement officials and White House staffers to help fashion the order and guide the politics of the discussion to what they considered “the sweet spot” between law enforcement and “the reasonable middle” and “the reasonable left.”
Time For Another Blogger Ethics Panel
"Ethics in journalism" generally has nothing to do with "ethics" as commonly understood, and is almost entirely about creating an environment where people feel comfortable dishing dirt to journalists without any fear of consequences. They never, ever burn sources, even when President Trump publicly contradicts John Barron.
So you let sources tell you one thing anonymously and then deny it publicly to your audience. What do you call that?
....JOURNALISM!
A funny thing is that about the only time I've seen a journalist burn a source was when Howie Kurtz (who worked for the Washington Post then) outed Ann Coulter for the same thing. She denied something he had once reported. She was actually correct that what he reported was wrong, but what he reported was an Ann Coulter quote from TV that had been given to him by... Ann Coulter. So he burned her. Fair enough! Never happens.
All this stuff has nothing to do with readers, and everything to do with keeping sources - actual and potential - happy. And it's justified by the idea that sources are whistleblowers, but in political journalism anonymous sources are generally:
a) the administration line (a press release) being presented under cover of anonymity, which both gives deniability AND additional credence to the information to the un-savvy reader (most people).
b) office gossip, with sources knifing each other in public and the reader has little idea of the real importance of the story (usually it's who is knifing whom and why, and not whatever the story is, though even 'who is knifing whom' is usually bullshit)
c) beat sweetener stuff, with sources providing information for glowing profiles for themselves and their bosses.
In the article, Bob Woodward, the Post legend who protected the identity of his Watergate source, Deep Throat, for 30 years, was going to unmask one of his own confidential sources. He was, in particular, going to disclose that Judge Kavanaugh had been an anonymous source in his 1999 book “Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate.”
Mr. Woodward was planning to expose Mr. Kavanaugh because the judge had publicly denied — in a huffy letter in 1999 to The Post — an account about Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton that he had himself, confidentially, provided to Mr. Woodward for his book. (Mr. Kavanaugh served as a lawyer on Mr. Starr’s team.)
So you let sources tell you one thing anonymously and then deny it publicly to your audience. What do you call that?
....JOURNALISM!
A funny thing is that about the only time I've seen a journalist burn a source was when Howie Kurtz (who worked for the Washington Post then) outed Ann Coulter for the same thing. She denied something he had once reported. She was actually correct that what he reported was wrong, but what he reported was an Ann Coulter quote from TV that had been given to him by... Ann Coulter. So he burned her. Fair enough! Never happens.
All this stuff has nothing to do with readers, and everything to do with keeping sources - actual and potential - happy. And it's justified by the idea that sources are whistleblowers, but in political journalism anonymous sources are generally:
a) the administration line (a press release) being presented under cover of anonymity, which both gives deniability AND additional credence to the information to the un-savvy reader (most people).
b) office gossip, with sources knifing each other in public and the reader has little idea of the real importance of the story (usually it's who is knifing whom and why, and not whatever the story is, though even 'who is knifing whom' is usually bullshit)
c) beat sweetener stuff, with sources providing information for glowing profiles for themselves and their bosses.
Morning Thread
A friend of ours has just published a book:
It's available on Amazon. Click the link from left side of this
page and get your copy. I've only read the first chapter, so far.
That's enough to convince me to continue reading.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Do The Ostrich
I don't get the point of hiding this stuff. There's no point in trying to win the day or the week.
Texas Medical Center hospitals have stopped reporting key metrics showing the stress rising numbers of COVID-19 patients are placing on their facilities, undermining data that policy makers and the public have relied upon during the pandemic to gauge the spread of the coronavirus.
The change came one day after the hospitals reported their base intensive care capacity had hit 100 percent for the first time during the pandemic, with projections showing the institutions — which together comprise the world’s largest medical complex — were on pace to exceed their “unsustainable surge capacity” by July 6.
Donnie and Lindsey Go Golfing
I'd say there's a tiny chance that this is the moment when Lindsey stages his big intervention, at which point he learns what everybody else learns, which is that's how you become an unperson to Trump.
Tiny chance.
Tiny chance.
Afternoon Thread
It is time for the Trump Administration to take the threat posed by the coronavirus seriously.
Two Months Until The Fall Semester Starts
As I am academic adjacent in various ways, I see all the various plans for higher ed institutions to open in one way or another. I feel for the people tasked with dealing with this, because there is no way to deal with it, really. Some are well-intentioned, some are amoral assholes, as is always the case, but generally all the plans to try to have some students on campus are basically doomed unless the virus goes away. And (looking around) I don't think the virus is going to go away (9585 8530 new cases in Florida today, for those who like to keep count).
Reduce the number of students, put all of them in single rooms, tell them to socially distance (lol). But it's going to take about 2 genuinely sick residential students, if not simply two positive tests, to shut the whole project down, no matter what fantasies they have about quarantining people if they get sick and keeping the show going. And if they get sick, you have to quarantine them, because they can't travel, and...
I'm sorry to say, you just can't do it my friends.
Reduce the number of students, put all of them in single rooms, tell them to socially distance (lol). But it's going to take about 2 genuinely sick residential students, if not simply two positive tests, to shut the whole project down, no matter what fantasies they have about quarantining people if they get sick and keeping the show going. And if they get sick, you have to quarantine them, because they can't travel, and...
I'm sorry to say, you just can't do it my friends.
Civil War In The Villages
This is the content I crave.
...this was funnier before My President retweeted it praising the white power folks.
Seniors from The Villages in Florida protesting against each other: pic.twitter.com/Q3GRJCTjEW
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 27, 2020
...this was funnier before My President retweeted it praising the white power folks.
Hydroxychloroquine
Newspapers don't have to take it seriously when the president thinks he has found some magic beans, and doing so (on this and so many other things) has consequences.
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