@deetoo That is powerful. He is not the first sorry person who listened to Donald Trump on the virus. Here is the link to the whole story https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/us/30-year-old-covid-party-death.html
I wonder whether an utterly irresponsible & amoral Governor such as DeSantis can be sued in a statewide class action suit? After all, demanding that schools re-open despite surging infection levels indicates the epitome of poor judgement and negligence...and the scientific data is definitely not on their side.. Betsy de Vos too: THEIR kids are not attending school so what the hell do they care? They need to be made PERSONALLY LIABLE for their gross negligence and abuse of public trust..it is equivalent to demanding that unarmed soldiers be sent into a raging war zone for strictly political reasons. When the inevitable slaughter occurs, General di Santos and de Vos will just shrug and walk away scott free...is there a precedent for this? Allyn: Can this legally be done? Likewise, can Americans launch a country-wide class action suit over Rump's bungling of our Covid response? He has blood on his hands and couldn't care less. I feel the Collective has to be more action oriented in their outrage...not violence or looting but making these clowns personally accountable for their actions...I realize we can vote them out but that takes too long...too much damage will have been done by then...
Now T is trying to discredit CDC and Fauci. When are the Republicans going to say enough is enough? Oh wait never!!!
"The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19," read a tweet written by the game show host and conservative commentator Chuck Woolery that the president shared with his over 83 million followers on Twitter on Monday morning. "Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it."
The attacks on doctors and the nation's leading infectious disease scientists, in the middle of a pandemic, came as the White House has sought to discredit Fauci, a member of its coronavirus task force.
Over the weekend, it provided a document to several media outlets that contained a misleading list of comments made by Fauci, in an effort to damage his reputation.
Fauci has found himself a target of Trump and his supporters as he paints a less rosy picture of the pandemic than do the president and his top political appointees. His approach has earned him praise from leading public health experts.
What it is like for teachers right now in Texas?
In a nutshell, teachers in Texas cannot strike without losing their certificate to teach. Texas is also a right to work state, as is Arizona, which means you are not allowed to be part of or form a union either.
According to Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, Texas public school districts must reopen campuses for an in-person instruction in August in order to receive state funding, unless the governor issues a school closure or confirmed case of COVID-19 (at the school).
"On-campus instruction in Texas public schools is where it’s at,” Morath said during a conference call with superintendents. “We know that a lot of families are going to be nervous, and if they are nervous, we’re going to support them 100 percent.”
Thanks for throwing teachers under the Covid bus Morath. Not a word about protecting teachers and staff.
There are districts which have decided to defy that order in Texas however. 2 neighboring districts to the the one my daughter will be working at.
Teachers are resigning right and left. Many teachers across the country, including young 24 year olds, are writing wills and buying extra life insurance policies.
Today, teachers are protesting at the state capitol and holding a "sit in".
https://www.chron.com/coronavirus/article/Teachers-are-writing-wills-Should-Texas-15404484.php
In case you missed it, the Trump Admin is now requiring that all hospital Covid data be rerouted to the The Trumps Administration's HHS first, not the CDC.
Oh, by the way, the "database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. data to make projections and crucial decisions."
You think???
There's news today that the Houston Chronicle published obituaries in a separate 43-page section. Let that sink in. I fear it is the first of many coming "death magazines."
Regarding schools, open or not, we must do something fast to help the kids in crisis. Just as the kids in cages must be saved.
Yesterday I had an appointment with the NP, Janie, in my doctor's office. This is an integrative practice that treats many patients with difficult illnesses and compromised immunity. They administer various IV infusions to boost the immune system. While I was there and discussing Covid with Janie, I asked her how patients were coping with everything. Janie said that she's encountered some patients who come for the infusions and refuse to wear masks. She is adamant with them about compliance, and they give her crap about it. She's even offered to isolate them outside on the porch (the office is in a large house in the country), so Janie can administer their infusions in the fresh air. Now mind you, that's more work for her, but she's trying to accommodate them. Right now it's brutally hot outside, so of course, they don't want to do that. So Janie refuses service to them, and some walk away in a huff. Fortunately it's not the majority of patients, but
still ...
Un-friggin-believable.
@jewels There's news today that the Houston Chronicle published obituaries in a separate 43-page section
Yes, it is true. I am looking at a copy of it now, to see if there is anyone i know in it. But it is not 43 pages of complete obituaries, just tiny thumbnail pics w names and dates. Row after row, page after page. Hundreds of them. Horrifying.
Florida is running out of ICU beds
Florida was running out of ICU beds at numerous hospitals Wednesday as COVID-19 cases continued to pile up by the tens of thousands and the Trump administration appeared powerless to stop it.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1233899
In Texas and Arizona they are requesting Morgue Trucks.
Teachers Count Too
The idea that teachers will be exposed to classrooms that have Covid 19 this fall lacks compassion. Governor DeSantis says children will not die from exposure. Even if we continue at the current infection rate of 1% of the Florida general population every school in Florida will likely have at least one Covid vector in each school. Currently at the rate of 1 % infection, and a 1 % death rate in that one percent, we will have 10 dead COVID exposed teachers even with the current sheltering in place. The 200,020 teachers and support staff that have served our children well have been sheltering in place for months, and still they can die from this. Please do not forget to count them. They work. They have families too. Many of them are in a physically risky demographic. The price of exposing education workers to more Covid, is not worth teacher’s lives.
@firstcat 100% agree. I "liked" the post to support, but I don't like anything about it. I was just talking about this tonight. My brother and I were texting and I happened to mention how dismal the return to school plans are (even ours). He wrote back "But hey, at least the days of 30+ students in classroom are over, that's a plus, right?" I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
School that resumes in person next year, at least in Michigan, is going to look exactly like school looked every other year. Everything that could slow the spread is listed as strongly recommended or recommended. And no district is going to implement them because there's no money attached. The CARES act money barely covers a month of hand sanitizer. The only time there are requirements is if you're in Phase 4 or below. (Phase 4 allows instruction in person but things like masks, distancing, staying in one room, etc. all become required). If a state region moves to Phase 3 and below and you're out of school again.
There was a massive substitute teacher shortage in Michigan before COVID-19. Exactly no one new is going to want to sign on for $80 a day to replace the teacher who was diagnosed with COVID while they quarantine.
There is a massive new teacher shortage in Michigan before COVID-19. That certainly didn't get better.
There is currently a massive wave of retirements or retirement considerations taking place. Last year broke so many great veterans. There's no one to "tag in" when they go. And many districts, because of budgetary concerns aren't replacing them -- which again, increases class sizes for everyone else and leads to an easy breeding ground upon which COVID can feast.
From the looks of the stats, about 1 in 5 adults who gets hit with COVID gets hit badly enough that they require hospitalization.
Where are the reinforcements going to come from? And why does everyone including Betsy Devos seem to think they can just will COVID away from those public schools and declare them safe from the virus' path?
Governor DeSantis says children will not die from exposure.
Really?
I guess he is forgetting about the children who have died from exposure. Every school has children who would be at high risk also. But our educators and staff, well, the are expendable. That is what we pay them the big bucks for anyway right? They are the first line of defense during a school shooting and are expected to teach in unsafe conditions during a pandemic.
Excuse me as I go throw up now.
There are two problems in the US with pandemic (or other) interventions:
1. Everything is couched in voluntary terms - meaning precautions are strongly recommended but never really enforced meaningfully. Similar for both health care and gun control.
2. Patchwork - whether related to healthcare or education (or politics), everything in this country is a patchwork down to individual municipalities. Since the end of WWII there has been little to no unifying principles coming out of the federal government. The neo-cons have clawed away at federalism bit by bit, this country is dying a death of a million cuts.
Because the Regime's only justification for anything is to hold onto power, they are using "states' rights" as the leverage point, basically punting (if you prefer sports terms) so they don't have to take the blame.
Remember, the Founders said - If you don't like the government, overthrow it.
But by the early 1800s we got the Sedition Act - which means it's illegal to overthrow it.
It appears the system is working as planned.
Your entry (and this one) really belong under the COVID-19 thread, as this thread is meant more for predictions for 2021 related to US politics.
@jeanne-mayell - ?
This is so interesting to read - thank you! I am also in MI (southeast) and have kids in middle school, so I was especially interested in your take on school this fall here. I am skeptical as well on how this will all pan out. I agree that we will know more as July goes on, how any surges affect things after the holiday weekend, etc. I just can't imagine how in-person school will manage, esp. with colds/flu going around at the same time. It just feels like utter confusion and chaos trying to sort out what is what and who stays home (both teachers and students.) I look forward to following your posts about this and other sources about our state as we proceed.
I was also very interested in your thoughts on Biden. I just posted a long Tarot read yesterday on the Random Predictions thread that you might be interested in (if you haven't already seen it.) I was focusing on Biden and also Kamala Harris. I am fairly new to Tarot, but feel like it is a really helpful tool for my own personal intuition. Guess I'll find out this fall if it is all coming from my imagination or my intuition! I was sensing Biden as possibly at transitional president as well - setting up whomever is his VP choice as the next long-term leader.
@laura-f One thought in regards to your comment: don't assume liberals will be outgunned. Out"bombed" ... probably; liberals aren't really into indiscriminate destruction; out"crazy"ed ... likely. But outgunned? Not necessarily. My husband is a liberal, loves guns and shooting (has his whole life; he wanted to go into the military to be a sniper but his mom talked him out of it), and is willing and able to defend. One of his closest friends is even more liberal, even more into guns, former LEO, and former member of NRA ... he quit when it went off the rails. But from his experience in both law enforcement and the NRA, he knows that there are many more liberals with guns than people assume. My sister and her husband are both military, and they also have commented that there are more left-leaning people in uniform than people realize, especially now, with how much Trump has betrayed them. We DO have strength on our side, as well as rationality.
So Trump's new directive to hospitals to stop reporting covid data to CDC and only to HHS Protect, and TeleTracking , has more darkness in it than just to cover up the virus. The depths of Trump and GOP depravity keeps boggling the mind:
From Health Cox Richardson July 15, 2020 (Wednesday) posted on her FB page:
This move has met with widespread condemnation as observers worry that Trump is trying to take control of information about the coronavirus in order to conceal it. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has hidden information this way, and Trump has made it clear he believes that if only he downplays the numbers, he can convince people to go back to work and resurrect the economy.
Richardson points out even more sinister reasons for this change:
HHS Protect is developed by Palantir Technologies, a data-mining firm that works with the Pentagon and law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Peter Thiel, a billionaire Trump supporter, co-founded the company, which last week confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. An initial public offering (IPO) would have made bucketloads of money in any case, but a federal contract to compile coronavirus information is a sweet addition to its portfolio.
The TeleTracking system also raises suspicions of a financial deal. On June 3, Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote to the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Robert P. Kadlec, to ask why HHS had awarded a $10 million no-bid contract to create this data system that duplicated the one the CDC already had. Why indeed?
It gets worse: The administration is blackmailing hospitals now by withholding a key drug for treating Covid unless they follow this reporting:
They wrote to hospitals: “We will no longer be sending out one-time requests for data to aid in the distribution of Remdesivir or any other treatments or supplies. This daily reporting is the only mechanism used for the distribution calculations, and the daily [sic] is needed daily to ensure accurate calculations.”
Remdesivir is one of the two drugs proven effective at combatting Covid-19. Two weeks ago, the Trump administration bought up almost all of the world’s supply of the drug for the next three months.
Now, it appears, in order to get access to it, hospitals will need to use the private data systems the administration supports.
Russia has been trying to hack US UK and Canada for the Covid vaccine. Don’t worry T will say not his comrades no way they good people on that side. They are just trying to help.
A "cyber espionage group" associated with the Russian intelligence services has attempted to hack into coronavirus vaccine research in the U.S., Britain and Canada, according to a report from the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Center.
The U.S. National Security Agency agreed with that report.
"Throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines," the NCSC report said.
APT29, also known as "the Dukes" or "Cozy Bear," is one of the Russian Intelligence Service entities identified in the FBI's assessment of malicious cyber activity in the 2016 presidential election.
"It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic," Dominic Raab, the U.K.'s foreign secretary, said in response to the advisory. "While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the U.K. and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health."
APT29, also known as "the Dukes" or "Cozy Bear," is one of the Russian Intelligence Service entities identified in the FBI's assessment of malicious cyber activity in the 2016 presidential election.
"It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic," Dominic Raab, the U.K.'s foreign secretary, said in response to the advisory. "While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the U.K. and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health."
All part of the genocidal plan, IMHO.
As for Palantir - they are a very evil company. My husband used to work for one of their main competitors, and even now, when either of us says their name it's preceded by a strong "GRRRR".
If I was a hospital director, I'd nod, smile, say ok and then send stats to both, and then shrug in ignorance when confronted, just like Dear Leader does. Ad if I was the person at the CDC in charge of receiving said data, I'd deny all knowledge, "I never got any data? What data?"