Virus thread, the political one.

[sine]

Hmmm, so all US states have a lower R0 than Germany???????

Last week the R0 in Germany was 2.88 largely due to the meat processing plant that has around 1500 infected individuals. Reports today (DW Online article) say that there is now community spread.

A good site on the C19 reproduction number. Useful to keep track of when to push on the panic button...

Rt: Effective Reproduction Number

[Sbti]

Podcast of interview with Florida's former Covid19 data dashboard GIS expert, Rebehka Jones: Florida Scientist Says She Was Fired For Not Manipulating COVID-19 Data : NPR

When Gov DeSantis was elected he made one or two noises that sounded, on the face of it, reasonable, in a sorta progressive way. My wife was hopeful but I didn't buy the blather for a second. No surprise to me but what we actually have is a gov who's comportment is polished, who's vastly more well spoken than Trump but otherwise a GOP culture warrior in the mold of Barr, and a dedicated Trump lacky. It's a very dangerous combination. He or Tom Cotton as prez would be a disaster.

Functionally he's blocked the will of the majority to restore voting rights to most felons who have served their term of incarceration (gee, I wonder why). The notion that he would ever take even the baby steps necessary to start addressing environmental pollution/degredation was absurd and that's been born out by his inaction. And now he's cooking the Covid19 books after ignoring what world class epidemiologists tell us is the bare minimum of what's necessary. What a guy!

So what's new?

I'm sure you remember DeSantis didn't want the voters to "monkey things up" when it came to electing an African American. How is that comment aging there?

[jclay]

I'm sure you remember DeSantis didn't want the voters to "monkey things up" when it came to electing an African American. How is that comment aging there?

Indeed I do. How is it ageing?? It's not on anybody's radar and things just get better every day:



Fortunately, I think and hope, Trump seems well on his way to alienating all but his most rabid True Believers.

My headline wish for the day after? TRUMP, GOP: OBLITERATED!

[ides1056]

I was thinking about getting personalized license plates...

[gregl]

Fortunately, I think and hope, Trump seems well on his way to alienating all but his most rabid True Believers.

My headline wish for the day after? TRUMP, GOP: OBLITERATED!

I wish I shared your enthusiasm. I think you are underestimating just how deeply ingrained racism, classism, and sexism are in this country. It's taken me a while to come to this view, but Trump is the messiah for the white male power structure in the United States. He's also a representative of the 1% who want to hold on to as much of their $$ for as long as possible. You won't change the votes of people in those demographics. They are "all or nothing" for Trump. I see it in poor, rural areas here in CNY. There are more confederate flags than I can count when I ride my bike in the rural counties around Syracuse. They will vote for Trump until death. The key to the 2020 election is voter turnout from women, minorities, and new, young voters (and combinations thereof).

Greg

[Clean39T]

I wish I shared your enthusiasm. I think you are underestimating just how deeply ingrained racism, classism, and sexism are in this country. It's taken me a while to come to this view, but Trump is the messiah for the white male power structure in the United States. He's also a representative of the 1% who want to hold on to as much of their $$ for as long as possible. You won't change the votes of people in those demographics. They are "all or nothing" for Trump. I see it in poor, rural areas here in CNY. There are more confederate flags than I can count when I ride my bike in the rural counties around Syracuse. They will vote for Trump until death. The key to the 2020 election is voter turnout from women, minorities, and new, young voters (and combinations thereof).

Greg

How do we explain the Trumper Karens throwing Anti-Masker fits in grocery stores and Starbucks across the land?

[theflashunc]

How do we explain the Trumper Karens throwing fits in grocery stores and Starbucks across the land?

It's same cover he's given to everyone to reject the social contract for what they personally want to do. The rules only apply to "other" people, whether it's epidemiology or financial fraud.

[Clean39T]

It's same cover he's given to everyone to reject the social contract for what they personally want to do. The rules only apply to "other" people, whether it's epidemiology or financial fraud.

I was speaking to the assumption that this is all "ignorant racist white men" and we need to just get out the vote with those not in that category -- without overly assuming gender, there appear to be plenty of "ignorant racist white women" out there also...

[gregl]

I was speaking to the assumption that this is all "ignorant racist white men" and we need to just get out the vote with those not in that category -- without overly assuming gender, there appear to be plenty of "ignorant racist white women" out there also...

I concur with your assessment - I'll go with "willfully ignorant, racist, white people." Sadly, I have more than a few in my family who fit this description.

Greg

[theflashunc]

I was speaking to the assumption that this is all "ignorant racist white men" and we need to just get out the vote with those not in that category -- without overly assuming gender, there appear to be plenty of "ignorant racist white women" out there also...

Ah, fair enough.

The one saving grace that's tough to understate is he's not running against the GOP bogeywoman of the last 30 years in national politics. As a Politico story pointed out late last week, Trump has a real problem this time around with demographic groups that suprisingly swung his way in 2016 -- suburban women for starters, the elderly, and even some evangelicals (hence the weird Bible thing in front of the Church).

His base has only gotten smaller over the last four years.

[Sbti]

Indeed I do. How is it ageing?? It's not on anybody's radar and things just get better every day:TRUMP, GOP: OBLITERATED!

Can you turn the volume up on that? I couldn't quite hear him yell WHITE POWER!
That was the White House excuse for Dotard tweeting this and then deleting it.

[jclay]

I wish I shared your enthusiasm. I think you are underestimating just how deeply ingrained racism, classism, and sexism are in this country. It's taken me a while to come to this view, but Trump is the messiah for the white male power structure in the United States. He's also a representative of the 1% who want to hold on to as much of their $$ for as long as possible. You won't change the votes of people in those demographics. They are "all or nothing" for Trump. I see it in poor, rural areas here in CNY. There are more confederate flags than I can count when I ride my bike in the rural counties around Syracuse. They will vote for Trump until death. The key to the 2020 election is voter turnout from women, minorities, and new, young voters (and combinations thereof).

Greg

Uh....I'm far from enthusiastic and optimistic and if I'm misunderestimating the other stuff it isn't because I fail to realize that it's gye-effing-normous; It's huge. Shoot, if you're white, the virus is in you; maybe dormant for the most part but all us white folks have been exposed to it.

What I'm hoping for is that young, black and minority folks vote in numbers never before seen and that the folks who voted for Obama and then Trump wake up and smell the coffee. The True Believers are lost forever.

[j44ke]

I'm just going to say that in some of these mask blow ups, the reaction of the individual is way out of line with the issue at hand. So I'm willing to bet that not a few of these people have experienced something that makes wearing a mask, especially when directed to do so by someone else, some sort of psychic upheaval. Some people are obviously just going for the thrill of participating in acts rewarded by their Q-Anon brethren with online kudos. But I do think there is the distinct possibility that some of these people are frightened by the prospect of putting on a mask under orders in ways they themselves may not even understand and that would require some therapy that is not going to be found in a supermarket.

[Chik]

The healthcare system in the US is rotten to the core, with apologies to the VS healthcare professionals. Of the G7 (perhaps even the G20) countries, I don't think there is another country that's as incapable of sorting out basic stuff like healthcare and gun control. Just to be clear, I don't think any country has them perfected by any stretch of the imagination, but they tend not to sustain and even protect a system so corrupt and buggered.

2 friends were tested for COVID. One bill was $199. The other? $6,408. | Boston.com

[monadnocky]

The healthcare system in the US is rotten to the core, with apologies to the VS healthcare professionals....

No need for apologies. I am a healthcare professional and agree 100% with the assertion, as do, oh, I'd say about 95% of my peers. A comprehensively broken system and if you believe otherwise you're one of the lucky few who has never been seriously ill, never had a loved one suffer a serious illness, or are just so wealthy you don't care.

[Mark Kelly]

It beggars belief that you have to pay for testing at all in a pandemic.

The tests are bulk billed here, meaning the practitioner charges Medicare directly, the patient pays nothing.

[monadnocky]

It beggars belief that you have to pay for testing at all in a pandemic.

The tests are bulk billed here, meaning the practitioner charges Medicare directly, the patient pays nothing.

What really beggars belief is that we have a President who claims he has ordered his "people" to "slow down the testing" and then later claims he was just kidding.
You know, because somehow, in his atrophied, amoral walnut of a brain, "kidding" about something that has killed 125,000 Americans and counting makes the statement less appalling.

[Mark Kelly]

It's got to the stage where it no longer surprises me. It struck me the other day that his "policies" are an embodiment of the H. L. Mencken quote that for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

[sk_tle]

Everytime you think Trump or his followers cannot go any lower they will surprise you.

The sad thing is under normal circonstances Biden should be dismissed as a really bad prospect. It is a bit like in France where far right (Front National) gets so much support that everybody else has to stick to the lowest common denominator that is not it.

[Sbti]

And lots in the military still support him. That I'll never understand. Bounties on service members and Putin's Puppet goes golfing for the weekend.