What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Obama reportedly convinced Bernie Sanders to drop out of primary
Could not give a flying fuck what convinced him to drop out and endorse.
It’s four years too late of course, but this is a chance for the Senator Spoiler to redeem himself in a lot of people’s eye, if only just a little.
The contrast between those two — Donald Trump and Barack Obama is stark, not just on policy but on larger themes like goodness, virtue and purpose. Restoring those things to the White House would banish what Obama called in his endorsement video the “corruption, carelessness, self-dealing, disinformation, ignorance and just plain meanness” of the Trump tenure.
The secret weapon hidden in Obama’s endorsement of Biden (opinion) – CNN
Interesting theory.
An evangelical pastor died of COVID-19 just weeks after proudly showing off how packed his Virginia church was — and vowing to keep preaching “unless I’m in jail or the hospital.”
…“I am essential,” he said of remaining open, adding, “I’m a preacher — I talk to God!”
On Sunday, his church announced “with an exceedingly sorrowful and heavy heart” that the pastor had died a week after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
Virginia pastor who held packed church service dies of coronavirus
Arrogance comes before a fall.
A CIA website for employees with questions about the coronavirus addressed the topic on March 27, noting there had been media reports suggesting the drug “has activity against the COVID-19 virus.”
“At this point, the drug is not recommended to be used by patients except by medical professionals prescribing it as part of ongoing investigational studies. There are potentially significant side effects, including sudden cardiac death, associated with hydroxychloroquine and its individual use in patients need to be carefully selected and monitored by a health care professional,” the answer said, before adding in bold type: “Please do not obtain this medication on your own.”
Anti-malarial drug touted by Trump was subject of CIA warning to employees – The Washington Post
hmmm
Bruce Hardy and colleagues discovered a six-millimeter-long cord fragment consisting of three bundles of fibers twisted together and adhering to a 60-millimeter-long, thin stone tool. The authors speculate that the cord was wrapped around the tool as a handle or was part of a net or bag containing the tool. They date the cord fragment, which they discovered in Abri du Maras, France, to between 41,000-52,000 years ago. Using spectroscopy and microscopy, they identified that the cord likely consists of fibers taken from the inner bark of a non-flowering tree such as a conifer.
50,000 Year-Old String Shows Neanderthals Were Technologically Advanced
cool.
Also, why do ALL of these articles start off the premise that any sign technology among out ancestors is such a surprise?
The warship’s doctors estimated that more than 50 crew members would die, but Capt. Brett E. Crozier’s superiors were balking at what they considered his drastic request to evacuate nearly the entire ship.
…On March 30, after four days of rebuffs from his superiors, Captain Crozier sat down to compose an email. “Sailors don’t need to die,” he wrote to 20 other people, all Navy personnel in the Pacific, asking for help.
…He showed the email to a handful of the most senior officers on the ship. They told him they wanted to sign it, too. Captain Crozier, fearing for their careers, told them no.
…A Naval Academy graduate with nearly 30 years of military service, the captain knew the email would most likely end his career, his friends said in interviews.
…He hit “send” anyway.
…Captain Crozier’s letter ran headlong into the administration’s narrative that it had everything under control.
..,Mr. Modly boarded a Gulfstream business jet at an airfield in suburban Washington and made the 35-hour round-trip flight to Guam, at a cost of $243,116.65.
…He went to the Roosevelt and delivered a 15-minute diatribe over the ship’s loudspeakers berating the crew for cheering for its captain. He called Captain Crozier either “too naïve” or “too stupid” to command an aircraft carrier. He told the sailors they should never trust the media. He blamed China for the virus. Less than 30 minutes later, after taking no questions from the sailors, he was gone.
Within another 30 minutes of his visit, audio of his remarks was being shared broadly across social media, complete with crew reaction.
…Three other carriers — the Ronald Reagan, the Carl Vinson and the Nimitz — have had sailors test positive.
‘There Will Be Losses’: How a Captain’s Plea Exposed a Rift in the Military – The New York Times
Trump has killed our once proud military.
Modly’s decision to relieve Crozier came despite the opposition of Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, and Gen. Mark Milley, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both recommended that the decision be left up to the military leadership. (Modly served in the Navy but retired from active duty in 1990 to attend business school.) Gilday and Milley further stressed that such a drastic step should not be taken until an investigation had been conducted.
But Modly refused to wait. It has also been reported that he confided to an aide that Trump wanted Crozier fired and apparently also feared stalling would appear indecisive to the impatient commander-in-chief. Though the president has denied any involvement, his administration has a record of firing anyone who appears disloyal.
….Equally concerning is the way the Trump administration has established new norms for the politicization of the military. These have included involving senior retired officers in political campaigns, urging troops to lobby Congress, deploying forces to the Mexican border to underscore a political statement, and using funds appropriated by the Congress for the military for pet projects.
…Sadly, this is not just the story of a political appointee who allowed his ambition to override his good judgment. Rather it is a warning about a growing threat to a foundation of American democracy.
Merz was able to verify Crozier’s immediate superior did not know he was sending the memo in which Crozier had urgently asked Navy leadership to evacuate sailors from the Roosevelt as the virus spread. Noting that, “I was not in his shoes,” Merz offered his own caveated assessment of Crozier’s actions pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation.
“I certainly don’t question his motives. I think his motives were pure. He was looking out for his crew,”Merz said.
But Merz also noted all commanders have “a lot of tools available to be heard,” adding “I am not going to second guess him at this point.”
The investigation could be completed as soon as next week. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he isn’t ruling out the possibility that Crozier could be restored to command.
hmm
Senior officers aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier reeling from a coronavirus outbreak offered to sign a revealing letter about the dire situation, only to be denied by the ship’s commander, Capt. Brett Crozier.
Crozier, who has since been relieved of command for sending the four-page letter out to over 20 recipients, was asked by senior officers on the ship to sign the letter, according to a New York Times report published Sunday.
Crozier reportedly feared for their careers and denied their request.
mmmhmmm
Recent research conducted into the genetic network analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic, done jointly by British and German experts, testified the variant of novel coronavirus that is closest to that discovered in bats was actually found mainly among cases from the US, rather than in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province.
…In reply to the question why the ancestral type of virus was not commonly seen in China and particularly in Wuhan, but instead the mutated type B virus, geneticist Peter Forster from the University of Cambridge, lead author of the study, told the Global Times that “type A isn’t fitting quite well with most locals’ immune systems in Wuhan” but has “become adapted to American and Australian immune systems.”
…But their study has evidence that the virus mutation rate is significantly faster outside China and the spread of the disease among humans likely occurred between September 13, 2019 to December 7, 2019.
Ancestral type of COVID-19 virus mainly found in the US: study – Global Times
hmmm
Trump on Friday fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who had told Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment.
…Atkinson — a career, nonpartisan official — came under fire from the President’s allies last year for alerting lawmakers to the then-unknown whistleblower complaint, which Congress later learned was an allegation that Trump had sought dirt on his political rival former Vice President Joe Biden from Ukraine’s President while withholding US security aid from Kiev.
The allegation sparked a House impeachment inquiry that detailed the quid pro quo effort and led to Trump’s impeachment in December on two articles.
…Atkinson’s firing is the latest case of the Trump administration removing officials who took part in the [Trump]’s impeachment. Trump also removed Alexander Vindman, a then-National Security Council official who had testified in the House’s proceedings, along with Vindman’s twin brother, both of whom were reassigned out of the NSC, and fired then-US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
Other officials, including then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and her acting successor, Bill Taylor, left the Trump administration after the impeachment proceedings.
Trump also fired former FBI Director James Comey in 2017.
authoritarian, despotic, totalitarian, comic book villain.
More than once, President Donald Trump has falsely claimed that the federal stockpile of emergency medicine and supplies he inherited from his predecessor was an “empty shelf.”
While the government does not publicize all of the contents of the repository, at the time Trump took office, the Strategic National Stockpile, as it is formally known, reportedly contained vast amounts of materials that state and local health officials could use during an emergency, including vaccines, antiviral drugs, ventilators and protective gear for doctors and nurses.
…The Strategic National Stockpile was created in 1999, and, as of April 2, was described on a Department of Health and Human Services website as “the nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.” [emphasis: Peanut Gallery]
(That description was later altered to say, “The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies.” The change was made after Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, said on April 2: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
…[June 26, 2016] There are rows upon rows of ventilators that could keep sick or injured people breathing. Mabry explains that they’re kept in a constant state of readiness. “If you look down to the side you’ll see there’s electrical outlets so they can be charged once a month,” she says. Not only that—the ventilators get sent out for yearly maintenance.
In fact, everything here has to be inventoried once a year, and expiration dates have to be checked. Just tending to this vast stash costs a bundle — the stockpile program’s budget is more than half a billion dollars a year.
One of the reasons for the current supply shortage, she said: “We’ve allowed our own national capacity to manufacture things to degrade and in some places go away. And we’ve done that for cost-efficiency sake.”
She later added: “What we need is not a big stockpile. We need a new strategy. We need to use the technologies we have now to create the capacity to respond to something in close to real-time.”
That means being able to “rapidly design and manufacture what we need, when we need it, and the quantities demanded,” she said.
Trump Falsely Claims He Inherited ‘Empty’ Stockpile – FactCheck.org
hmmmm
Publicly bucking those you’re supposed to salute is a surefire pink slip. Yet the Navy got the message and began evacuating the Roosevelt.
May the wind be at Brett Crozier’s back, whether he’s on land or sea.
n/t
Donald Trump Has Stake In Hydroxychloroquine Drugmaker: Report
Why would he be interested in any solution he does not have an interest in?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed from its website highly unusual guidance informing doctors on how to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, drugs recommended by President Donald Trump to treat the coronavirus.
The move comes three days after Reuters reported that the CDC published key dosing information involving the two antimalarial drugs based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.
CDC removes unusual guidance to doctors about drug favored by Trump | Article [AMP] | Reuters
hmmmm
Comments From The Peanut Gallery 