George Packer also says the US is a failed state. (“Also” because I say that too…though not every ten minutes, as I would like to.)

When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms. It took the scale and intimacy of a pandemic to expose their severity—to shock Americans with the recognition that we are in the high-risk category.

Not all Americans, it didn’t. Trump’s reign of terror has done wonders in that direction. A country that can elect a Donald … Read the rest

Ok that’s enough of this pesky social distancing shit, time to get back to the gym!

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday that certain businesses in the state would be able to reopen this week in a “small step forward” out of the social distancing measures meant to mitigate the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Kemp, a Republican, said specifically that fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, hair and nail salons, and massage therapy businesses can reopen as early Friday, April 24.

Because gyms and bowling and hair/nail salons are such vital industries.

Notably, no local ordinance can restrict the openings, which will be implemented statewide.

Goodness, yes, that is notable. It means those pesky big-city liberals in Atlanta can’t … Read the rest

In case you’re keeping track of the pattern of men calling women various words suggesting infestation/contamination – here’s one from NZ:

Men have been starved for the joy of calling women germs, viruses, insects, plagues, for decades, so naturally they greeted the advent of Trans Activism with sobs of joy and relief. At last at last it’s ok again to call women garbage and a virus in one sentence.… Read the rest

I’m impressed by that. She’s not dropping in to play Lady Benevolent and then go away again, she’s doing scut work with no trace of glamour to it.

Princess Ivanka? Not so much.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rob on A table.

There is ample evidence (and in some quarters acknowledgement) that the US is undercounting deaths in retirement homes, amongst the homeless and especially just deaths at home. NYC acknowledged they simply stopped counting those because they were not testing bodies, yet the home death rate went from around 25 per day to 250 per day. Do the maths on that one.

So far NZ has had 12 fatalities. One at home, 10 in hospital of which I think 9 were associated with rest home clusters (7 from a dementia care facility in my city), which just shows how awful the disease is when it hits such places.

We have been very … Read the rest

The “protests” are being orchestrated.

Conservative activists are demanding governors lift orders designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, despite the recommendations of public health officials. Trump, who has clashed with Democratic governors over how soon to reopen the US economy, tweeted his support on Friday, in an unprecedented endorsement of civil disobedience by a sitting president.

Civil disobedience and violence. Unprecedented indeed.

Yet while organisers claim the protests are grassroots- and people-driven, a closer look reveals a movement driven by traditional rightwing groups, including one funded by the family of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos.

The rallies have drawn comparisons to the Tea Party movement, which sprang into life in 2009 following the election of Barack Obama

What governors have to do to keep the president from stealing supplies they need to deal with a pandemic:

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker organized secret flights bringing millions of masks and gloves to the state from China on charter jets in an effort to bypass potential Trump administration efforts to seize the products, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Trump not only doesn’t help governors (Democratic governors at least) get needed PPE, he actually steals it from them after they’ve procured it.

The Sun-Times cited a source familiar with the purchases, who said the details were kept secret “because we’ve heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States.”

…

“The supply

The football must go on.

On March 6, at 2:43 p.m., the health officer for Public Health — Seattle & King County, the hardest-hit region in the first state to be slammed by COVID-19, sent an email to a half-dozen colleagues, saying, “I want to cancel large group gatherings now.”

The county’s numbers — 10 known deaths and nearly 60 confirmed cases as of late morning — were bad and getting worse. Many local events had already been called off for fear of spreading the coronavirus. Oyster Fest. The Puget Sound Puppetry Festival. A Women’s Day speaker series at the Gates Foundation. King County had ordered a stop to in-person government meetings unless they were considered essential.

Duchin had … Read the rest

I’ve been meaning for days to find a source for per capita stats as well as totals, and a certain annoying drive-by commenter gave me the prod to do it. Here’s one that gives deaths per 1 million people as of now:

Spain 440

Italy 391

France 302

Germany 55

UK 237

US 122

On the other hand it gives China 3, which doesn’t seem very plausible.

Anyway…per capita we seem on the low side, which is worth knowing but not something to give Trump credit for.

I read somewhere the other day that Sweden went for the “herd immunity” approach and that’s why its numbers are twice Norway’s.… Read the rest

Trump has been screeching that the WHO failed to warn us, but the reality is that there were US health people at the WHO who did warn us. The Post reports:

More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials.

A number of CDC staffers are regularly detailed to work at WHO in Geneva as part of a rotation that has operated for years.

Not unexpectedly, the #COVID19 #ReopenAmerica deniers are now uniting with antivaxxers ands even appropriating their language (“I do not consent”/“I do not comply”). Add to that conspiracy theories, including antisemitic ones, and it’s truly a toxic alliance, a death cult. https://t.co/i0UEE7YTj8

— David Gorski, MD, PhD (@gorskon) April 19, 2020

And many informed people think it’s very likely that Putin is doing his bit to fan the flames.… Read the rest

Brazen grifter orders people to give him their emergency money.… Read the rest

From the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday:

As a chief physician executive, I rarely get involved in my health system’s supply-chain activities. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed that. Protecting our caregivers is essential so that these talented professionals can safely provide compassionate care to our patients. Yet we continue to be stymied by a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the cavalry does not appear to be coming.

Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. 

They put together a very convoluted deal to get a large shipment of three-ply face … Read the rest

Crazier every day.

The clip starts in medias res with “…real information, and responsible and thoughtful dialogue from their elected leaders n from [he lifts his head from the page he’s been reading and exclaims] the media!” And with that he abandons the script and repeats his moth-eaten rant about the media, which reminds him of his moth-eaten obsession with Haberman, and away he goes. It’s loony tunes.

An unhinged Trump trashes Maggie Haberman: "She came out and said Mark Meadows was crying. And they made it sound — and it's okay if he did. I mean, look. But I think he was crying probably really for the wrong reason. They had it down. But he's not a crier …

It would be nice if everyone could grasp this point.

Males can ONLY ever experience life in a male body. Males can't ever experience what it's like to exist as female. Males may desire to appear feminine, but it doesn't mean that they have any understanding of the lived experience of being female. This, they can NEVER access.

— Amy E. Sousa (@KnownHeretic) April 18, 2020

It’s the truth. I can’t experience life in a lizard body or an eagle body or an elephant body (and neither can any other human). We can try to imagine what it’s like, but that’s the limit of what we can do.

People who are not born X can’t experience what it’s like to … Read the rest

Baby Don is having another Twitter tantrum.

No matter what you do for the Do Nothing Democrats, no matter how GREAT a job you are doing, they will only respond to their Fake partners in the Lamestream Media in the negative, even in a time of crisis. I thought it would be different, but it’s not. In fact, it’s even worse…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020

….them happy, or even a little bit satisfied. They were RUDE and NASTY. This is their political playbook, and they will use it right up to the election on November 3rd. They will not change because they feel that this is the only way they can win. America will not be

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Soz nomination canceled.

Lumping race and religion/”faith” together is exactly the kind of thing that causes problems for women within Muslim families who disagree with the conservative tenets of the faith, who need support, and who are too-often ignored by UK “progressives” who are far too concerned about “Islamophobia” to listen too closely to the issues raised by liberal Muslims and Brits with Pakistani/Indian heritage.

Subsuming women’s rights entirely into the category “gender” is such blatant sexist bullshit, it’s clear these “awards” are a joke.

And indeed, of course class isn’t mentioned. I’m sure these are comfortably well-off young people, the kind of people I’ve had to work and live alongside my whole … Read the rest

Congratulations to Trump adviser Stephen Moore on a comment at once strikingly stupid and deeply offensive.
“I call these people the modern-day Rosa Parks — they are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties.” https://t.co/2V1mhWFDC9 pic.twitter.com/TJIa4EZnap

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 18, 2020

I call these people the modern-day Hitler – they are protesting against democracy and the common good.

Rosa Parks was not protesting some generic “injustice and loss of liberties”; she was protesting Jim Crow laws that kept slavery in place in all but name for almost a century. The segregation of public transportation was insulting and racist, yes, but it was also part of a larger system that kept African-Americans captive despite the official end of … Read the rest

More of this kind of crap:

On Tuesday 21st February 2020, we were surprised and delighted to find that Woman’s Place UK had been nominated for something called the National Diversity Awards.

Congratulations! You have just been nominated for the Community Organisation (Gender) award at the National Diversity Awards!

Woman’s Place UK felt honoured by the nomination.

We were invited to accept the nomination and to create a profile page.

In the meantime, why not create a profile page so others wishing to nominate you can find you! Please click the link below to confirm you accept this nomination.

They clicked on the link below but it didn’t work. The password they’d been issued was rejected. They tried … Read the rest