A horribly sad series of events a little north of here:

With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal.

The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south.

But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and business remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.

So they went ahead with it.

Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes.

Yes but…it’s singing. It involves a lot of deep breathing and projecting. I’ve been finding myself holding my … Read the rest

Amnesty UK decides the important thing to talk about right now is gender identity.

That’s not how their how-to guide starts though. How does it start? With a pack of lies.

THE BASICS

Your anatomy doesn’t determine your gender identity and neither does the “gender binary”.

Scare quotes on “gender binary” but none on gender identity. What is “gender identity”? The fatuous idea that sex is not determined by the body but by thoughts in the head. Translated into non-nonsense that sentence would read “Your anatomy doesn’t determine your sex and neither does the fact that humans are sexually dimorphic”…which is far more recognizable as an absurdity. Your anatomy does determine your sex, and the fact that humans are … Read the rest

Even in a pandemic – we must always put the boss first and everyone else after. Hospitals are firing medical workers who talk about shortages.

Ming Lin, an emergency room physician in Washington state, said he was told Friday he was out of a job because he’d given an interview to a newspaper about a Facebook post detailing what he believed to be inadequate protective equipment and testing. In Chicago, a nurse was fired after emailing colleagues that she wanted to wear a more protective mask while on duty. In New York, the NYU Langone Health system has warned employees they could be terminated if they talk to the media without authorization.

This is America, where health … Read the rest

Florida godbotherer busted for flouting quarantine:

An arrest warrant for a Tampa Bay pastor was issued Monday, and the pastor was taken into custody after the sheriff said the church violated a countywide “safer-at-home” order.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said the River at Tampa Bay Church violated the county’s order related to large gatherings and social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. A live stream from the church on Sunday showed the building packed with worshippers.

Worshippers who would go on to infect thousands of others.

Chronister saw photos of the crowd and he was pissed.

“We received an anonymous tip that Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne refused a request to temporarily stop holding large gatherings at his church,” he said.

The Guardian lays out with excruciating clarity just how thoroughly Trump made sure that hundreds of thousands – or millions – of people would die of the virus.

January 20 – the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in the US, and in South Korea.

In the two months since that fateful day, the responses to coronavirus displayed by the US and South Korea have been polar opposites.

One country acted swiftly and aggressively to detect and isolate the virus, and by doing so has largely contained the crisis. The other country dithered and procrastinated, became mired in chaos and confusion, was distracted by the individual whims of its leader, and is now confronted by a health emergency of daunting proportions.

You don’t say. The CBC notes that running may be healthy for the people doing it but not so much for the people they race up to and pass with a couple of inches to spare.

As the arrival of spring has brought warmer and sunnier weather to Vancouver, runners have once again taken to the seawall, but experts warn the narrow path could be the perfect transmission zone for COVID-19.

Hey guess what that applies to any narrow path so get off it. I’m finding it more maddening every day the way runners seize the middle of the sidewalk and refuse to deviate, so that we inferior walkers are forced to hustle into the street, or if there … Read the rest

Oh that certain group of people.

How on earth would this work? Is there going to be a security guard on every toilet door checking ID/the contents of everyone's pants? Or is purely designed to make a certain group of people feel unsafe, unwelcome and unwanted in society pic.twitter.com/bMRUhoSk9j

— Toby Moses (@tobymoses) March 31, 2020

I guess he’s never heard of women? I guess he has no idea that women have felt, and been, unsafe and unwelcome in society? I guess he has no idea that one of the many reasons women feel that way is that some men take advantage of isolated spaces to assault women? And that men are stronger than women, which means that women … Read the rest

The latest scandal is much scandal, very shock, many outrage.

Elton John referred to the boring show biz “personality” Sam Smith as “him” and “he” and the world lurched out of orbit and crashed into the sun.

There are calls to cancel Elton John because, during his 'living room concert' to raise funds for front line coronavirus staff, he introduced Sam Smith by using male pronouns when Sam identifies as non-binaryhttps://t.co/Aur6xhiWyP

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) March 30, 2020

Sam Smith is the one with the beard.

How are people supposed to remember to call him “them” when he looks so exactly what we’ve all grown up calling “a man”?

He looks like a man, and he has always been a … Read the rest

Jonathan Chait notes that it’s been difficult to get Trump to take the virus seriously. He’s not the only one; Republicans elsewhere are brushing it off as a mere case of the sniffles.

Republican governors in several states have downplayed the virus, either refusing to enforce social-distancing measures or even overruling local officials who attempt to do so. A new study finds that the single factor that best explains the speed of state-level reaction is its governor’s partisan identity. “States with Republican governors and Republican electorates delayed each social distancing measure by an average of 2.70 days,” the authors find, “a far larger effect than any other factor, including state income per capita, the percentage of neighboring states with

Of course he did.

On #NationalDoctorsDay, we recognize the remarkable men & women who treat their fellow Americans, find cures for the diseases & illnesses we face, and never waver in their efforts to treat every patient with the dignity, respect, and empathy they deserve. https://t.co/7PRogpEVTP

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2020

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by latsot on Put out that light!

The one guy should have just visited his dad without posting about it on social media

Should? Why? He did nothing wrong.

While no harm was arguably done in this case, this kind of oppressive, bullying security theatre should concern us greatly. Panopticon-based policing is always open to abuses of the worst kind and to institutionalised inhumanity.

We tread a fine line with surveillance, particularly when it’s technologically-enabled. Having CCTV cameras everywhere is one thing when they are only used to forensically examine crime scenes (even when they radically expand the notion and boundaries of crime scenes) but CCTV linked to face-recognition software and used for pre-emptive police action is … Read the rest

Boxing instruction:

World champion Billy Joe Saunders has had his boxing licence suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control after he released a video advising men how to hit their female partners.

In the video, Saunders uses a punch bag to explain how to react if “your old woman is giving you mouth” and showing how to “hit her on the chin”.

Woman talks, man beats her up. Fair?

He later apologised, saying he would “never condone domestic violence”.

Well that’s just silly. Telling men to hit women who talk is more than condoning domestic violence aka male violence against women, it’s giving men instructions in violence against women.

Speaking to Talksport on Monday, he said it was

This is the kind of labyrinth of circular reasoning people get themselves into when they decide reality is all in the mind.

There's no baseline standard woman they are all different the thing they all have in common is that they have an affinity with/see themselves as being members of the category woman.

— Owen Thompson (@Technicallyowen) March 30, 2020

Women are all totally different, there is no one thing that defines them, they can be anything, everything, nothing, they can be dandelion fluff or the scent of grilled mushrooms or a dream someone had but doesn’t remember – you can’t pin them down, you can’t say what they are, they are infinite – except for just this one magically … Read the rest

He’s confirmed that the “press briefings” are not about the pandemic but about his “ratings” and the beautiful music he makes with that fiddle.

Polls are showing tremendous disapproval of Lamestream Media coverage of the Virus crisis. The Fake News just hasn’t figured that out yet!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

See you at 5 pm for more showboating and lying and … Read the rest

“President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of ‘The Bachelor.’ Numbers are continuing to rise…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

…alone attracted 6.2 million viewers for the president’s briefing — an astounding number for a 6 p.m. cable broadcast, more akin to the viewership for a popular prime-time sitcom…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2020

… Read the rest

Big cop is watching YOU.

Hello @SKinnock we know celebrating your Dad’s birthday is a lovely thing to do, however this is not essential travel. We all have our part to play in this, we urge you to comply with @GOVUK restrictions, they are in place to keep us all safe. Thank you. ^cy

— South Wales Police (@swpolice) March 29, 2020

But it was essential.

I felt that this was essential travel as I had to deliver some necessary supplies to my parents. I stayed long enough to sing ‘happy birthday’ to Dad, and then I was off. All the best, Stephen.

— Stephen Kinnock (@SKinnock) March 29, 2020

Wales Online has more details:

South Wales Police has

Seriously? Now?

“Boosting the immune system” into a cytokine storm maybe?… Read the rest

Spot the problem.

I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing “hot spots”, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2020

… Read the rest

Meanwhile fans of “the boss” succeed in getting a woman fired for being critical of Trump in public.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center [in Buffalo] has terminated a top executive for Facebook posts that bashed President Trump’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Laura Krolczyk, Roswell Park’s vice president for external affairs, was initially placed on administrative leave from her position but was fired following the conclusion of an investigation into her remarks, spokeswoman Annie Deck-Miller confirmed Saturday.

I did a search on Facebook and found a slew of posts demanding her firing. I wonder how many of them are Russian influencers.

Laura Krolczyk, Roswell Park’s vice president for external affairs, was initially placed on administrative leave from her position but