Tracker

Economics is more like an art than a science. If it were cut and dried, then the secret would be public and people, corporations and governments would utilize it and be wealthy forever. Damned few are. Economics are a guess at a fluid and volatile stew of politics, weather, and stupidity, not to mention dumb luck.

https://www.salon.com/2020/04/20/us-experts-at-who-warned-trump-administration-about-new-coronavirus-in-real-time-last-year-report/ US experts at WHO warned Trump administration about new coronavirus in real time last year: report Trump claimed that he had defunded WHO after the organization "missed the call" by not sounding the alarm "earlier" IGOR DERYSH APRIL 20, 2020 8:28PM (UTC) More than a dozen U.S. health experts based at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva provided real-time information about the new coronavirus in China last year, according to a new report. President Donald Trump announced last week that the U.S. would stop providing funding to WHO, because it allegedly "missed the call" by not sounding the alarm "months earlier." Trump, who also accused WHO of being "China-centric," has ramped up his rhetoric against the organization after numerous media reports revealed that the president and his advisers did not head warnings about the emerging pandemic from intelligence agencies, health experts, economists and even top White House aides. The president continued to downplay the threat publicly in an apparent attempt to calm the stock market.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/atlanta-rages-as-georgia-gov-kemp-eases-covid-19-lockdown?ref=home ‘Mortified and Appalled’: Atlanta Rages as Governor Eases Lockdown One resident chalked Georgia’s plan to reopen the state from COVID-19 shutdown up to “absolutely nothing but greed and the desire to kiss the president’s ass.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-plans-to-extort-states-into-reopening-as-mitch-mcconnell-holds-up-aid-report/ Trump plans to extort states into reopening as Mitch McConnell holds up aid: report

Honest to God: Trump’s golf business tweeted video claiming that drinking a bottle of vodka kills the coronavirus https://www.salon.com/2020/04/20/trumps-golf-business-tweeted-video-claiming-that-drinking-a-bottle-of-vodka-kills-the-coronavirus_partner/

And remember which political wing has historically used force to enforce dictates. Hint: it ain't socialists.

HEALTH CARE IN US APPROACHING CRISIS Cash-strapped hospitals lay off thousands of health workers despite COVID-19 staff shortages https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/cash-strapped-hospitals-lay-off-thousands-of-health-workers-despite-covid-19-staff-shortages/

Absolutely. Trump needs a hot war or a Reichstag incident involving lots of bloodshed.

Trump has no cards to play except to incite his base in an attempt to muddy the waters and claim that he is the victim of a vast conspiracy. His followers are already trying to resurrect "Pizzagate" and somehow tie it to Epstein. It is gonna get wilder and crazier.

Hmmm....i wonder if they will reference Elvis's pedophilia, drug abuse and mommy issues.

It will be interesting to watch Trump respond to this. He has no factual response, so will resort to the worst of personal attack ads and distortions in retaliation. His followers will eat it up as gospel and /i would not be surprised to see him advocate violence but deny he is doing so.

Publisher: Study Touting Hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 Cure Doesn’t Meet ‘Standard’ The International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy now says the hydroxychloroquine work by France’s Didier Raoult failed to meet its “expected standard.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/publisher-now-says-study-touting-hydroxychloroquine-as-covid-19-cure-doesnt-meet-its-standard?ref=home

To reinforce the previous point:

Fact checker busts GOP Rep. Louie Gohmer for hyping nonexistent ‘magic powder’ that purportedly kills COVID-19 instantly. https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/fact-checker-busts-gop-rep-louie-gohmer-for-hyping-nonexistent-magic-powder-that-purportedly-kills-covid-19-instantly/ The GOP is becoming desperate and resorting to outright lies and fantasy.

I think the PCs ought to demonstrate leadership by meeting en masse daily without PPEs until the crisis is over. From Huffington post: Scheer 'Irresponsible' For Wanting To Resume Parliament Amid COVID-19: Trudeau The Green Party’s Elizabeth May says her "blood is boiling" because the Conservatives seem willing to risk the public’s health for in-person meetings. By Althia Raj OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Conservative Leader Andrew Sheer of being “irresponsible” Sunday, while the Green Party said Scheer was holding Parliament hostage and putting people’s health in jeopardy. “My blood is boiling,” Green parliamentary leader Elizaberth May told HuffPost Canada Sunday evening. “This is not acceptable.” May was livid after Scheer refused to sign an agreement with the other parties earlier on Sunday to avoid the return of the House of Commons on Monday. “I’m so distressed,” the Greens’ longtime leader said. The Conservatives “refused to do what was expected,” she said, when MPs agreed to put the Commons on hold until April 20th — a date, she said, was selected as a placeholder when the pandemic was just developing. “It’s now obvious that no one should have regular Parliament meetings starting tomorrow.” Earlier in the day, Trudeau told reporters that calling MPs back to Ottawa for regular sittings of the Parliament was irresponsible and that while he believes Parliament has a function, it has to be done responsibly. “Right now, the Conservatives are not taking a responsible approach,” the prime minister said during his daily press conference. Public health authorities, experts and common sense, he said, all stress that Canadians need to limit their movements. The Liberals, he added, proposed that some MPs sit in-person once a week and that virtual sittings be added to ensure that MPs across the country have a voice. “We know that accountability is important, and taking questions every day from the media is a good thing, but it is also important that parliamentarians and opposition politicians get to ask questions of the government, which is why we’ve proposed that the Parliament sit every week in reduced fashion, … a proposal that was accepted by most parties. “The Conservatives need to work on it a little bit in terms of their own reflection,” the prime minister said. Sunday, the Conservative were insisting Parliament meet in-person three days a week for two hours.

From Salon.com Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis accused of concealing "crucial information" about COVID-19 crisis DeSantis’ administration hasn’t been forthcoming about coronavirus-related deaths and infections in Florida: report ALEX HENDERSON APRIL 20, 2020 11:30AM Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a far-right Republican and strident supporter of President Donald Trump, has been widely criticized for not being nearly as proactive as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo or New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in his response to the coronavirus pandemic. And this week in an article for the Miami Herald, reporter David Smiley notes some ways in which DeSantis' administration hasn't been forthcoming about coronavirus-related deaths and infections in Florida. DeSantis' administration, according to Smiley, "has been unwilling or unable to provide crucial information about its coronavirus response — and at times, has actively tried to shield critical details about the depths of the crisis from becoming public." Smiley discusses the Herald's recent request for information on coronavirus deaths in South Florida, reporting, "When the Miami Herald sought information from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office last month about COVID-19 deaths in the epicenter of Florida's coronavirus outbreak, attorneys for the state health department moved to block the records from becoming public." Those attorneys, according to Smiley, "spent more than a week trying to convince their counterparts in Miami-Dade County not to provide that information to the Herald." On April 2, Christine Lamia, deputy general counsel for the Florida Health Department, told Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney Christopher Angell: "As we discussed, it is the Department of Health's position that the information requested in the request below should not be released, as it is confidential and exempt from public record disclosure."

John Oliver returned to his “blank void” on Sunday night for another quarantine edition of Last Week Tonight. And the main story of the evening concerned the miniature protests that have been popping up against stay-at-home orders over COVID-19. And these little misguided protests have been thanks to the dangerous disinformation being pushed by those in the right-wing media who’ve repeatedly downplayed the danger of the novel coronavirus, which has killed over 65,000 people worldwide including more than 41,000 in the U.S. There’s Rush Limbaugh—or “A man with millions of listeners, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and almost certainly, a room in his basement that his housekeeper isn’t allowed to go into,” cracked Oliver. On March 11, Limbaugh said on his radio program, “All of this panic just is not warranted. When I tell you… that this virus is the common cold. When I said that, it was based on the number of cases. It’s also based on the kind of virus this is. Why do you think this is COVID-19? This is the 19th coronavirus!” “OK, no Rush. Just no,” said Oliver. “It’s called that because it was first identified in 2019, you giant potato.” Then there’s Fox News, with host Sean Hannity calling it a “hoax” and “hysteria,” and Laura Ingraham calling Democrats “panic pushers” for warning about the potential dangers of the disease. “When people started dying, and that argument became harder to sell, the network seemed to pivot from trying to downplay the warnings to downplaying the deaths,” Oliver explained, before throwing to Dr. Phil (yes, really), who said on Fox News, “The fact of the matter is…365,000 people [die] from swimming pools but we don’t shut the country down for that!” “The total number of drownings, period, is around 4,000,” responded Oliver. “Also, if swimming pools were killing 360,000 people a year, and you could contract a swimming pool on a trip to the grocery store, we might want to think about shutting them down until we worked out what the **** was going on.” liver also pointed out how, while Fox News was “downplaying” the danger of COVID-19, the company suspended all non-essential business travel, encouraged employees to cancel all in-person meeting, and said that they should conduct business via Skype or phone “because,” Oliver said, “they only pretend to believe these things on television for money.” Oh, and lest we forget white nationalist sympathizer Tucker Carlson, who’s pushed hydroxychloroquine as a likely COVID-19 cure—which was then parroted by Trump. And it wasn’t just Carlson, with Fox News promoting hydroxychloroquine 300 times in a two-week period, with Laura Ingraham “even visiting Trump at the White House earlier this month to advocate for the drug.”

A total of 13 dead as of 18:00h.

Until it is viable outside of the mother's womb, it is not a child or baby- it is a cluster of cells called a foetus.

Seems reasonable......and familiar somehow

From Alternet.org New England Journal of Medicine publishes letter from doctor explaining how FBI and DHS almost grabbed the medical masks his hospital was buying A U.S. Navy Sailor with 2nd Medical Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, takes the temperature of a Marine with 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, on Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, March 31, 2020. II Marine Expeditionary Force is following the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services to take the necessary precautions to protect redeploying service members and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Scott Jenkins) Written by Meteor Blades / Daily Kos April 19, 2020 3 The New England Journal of Medicine has begun a new series called “Covid-19 Notes,” which is focusing on the innovative responses to the dealing with the coronavirus. On Friday, the journal published a letter about acquiring N95 masks written by Dr. Andrew W. Artenstein, M.D., of Baystate Health in Springfield, Massachusetts. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: It would be nice to have federal leadership that doesn’t make acquiring essential medical equipment seem more like buying a heroin shipment. ADVERTISING