Lotsa alligators all wanting immediate attention. Sorry.
"The NASA chopper set to be first aircraft to fly on Mars now has a name -- thanks to a 17-year-old girl." Could we be a little less sexist, CNN? Ingenuity is great. But you might remember CNN's headline when they announces Perseverance, "Mars 2020 rover is officially named 'Perseverance'." And Alexander Mather, who named Perseverance is a 7th grader, whereas Vaneeza Rupani who submitted the name Ingenuity is a Junior in high school.
So much for "kids don't get corona…" "The urgent alert, sent to UK general practitioners by National Health Service (NHS) England warned that over the last three weeks, 'there has been an apparent rise in the number of children of all ages presenting with a multisystem inflammatory state requiring intensive care across London and also in other regions of the UK,' the Health Service Journal first reported Monday."
"The medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital who worked with COVID-19 patients died by suicide this week… If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. It is free and confidential." I'm not one for this "hero" thing, but it does take a toll on us.
On why working from home sucks. "'When we're actually face to face, we don't stare at each other's eyes for that long,' Bailneson says. 'But the default setting on a lot of these video conference technologies is a Brady Bunch grid, where everybody's staring at you right in the face.' It's exhausting and super weird to have disembodied heads just staring at you for hours."
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom intends to order the closure of all state beaches and parks starting Friday, according to a copy of a memo provided to CNN by a senior law enforcement official."
"Donald Trump has said the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire on Thursday, even as the number of Americans who have died of coronavirus surpassed 60,000." This way he thinks he wins by "opening the economy", except the states are still controlling the timeline and he never had the ability to initiated the orders to begin with (which also happened after most states had already enacted them). This is just another, "I'm in charge!" play to the masses.
"South Korea, which waged an early battle against COVID-19 after the disease emerged from China, said on Thursday that it had no new domestic cases for the first time since a surge nearly 10 weeks ago."
"Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to wear a mask during his visit to the prestigious Mayo Clinic this week was potentially dangerous and sent the wrong message about the federal guidelines he regularly touts, doctors and health care officials said." The optics on wearing a mask weren't good. The optics of not wearing a mask doesn't change his poll numbers with the Trump administration core base. "While Pence was widely mocked for suggesting that a mask would stop him from looking workers in the eye, doctors and health care workers said it was a serious breach of safety regulations."
"Musk on Twitter this week criticized lockdown measures put in place in the United States to slow the spread of COVID-19, demanding in one, 'FREE AMERICA NOW.' He applauded Texas for its plan to begin reopening the state's economy, and said the U.S. should 'reopen with care and appropriate protection, but don't put everyone under de facto house arrest.'" You may remember Mr. Musk from the time he sent bi-PAP machines to California claiming they were ventilators.
"First-time filings for unemployment insurance hit 3.84 million last week as the wave of economic pain continues, though the worst appears to be in the past, according to Labor Department figures Thursday." Well, the weekly numbers are coming down (strained smile here). "Last week’s initially reported figure was revised up by 15,000 to 4.4 million, meaning that the most recent total is a decrease of 603,000."
"Twenty-six million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits as of April 23, as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. And many of them are discovering what plenty of people already knew: our system is dysfunctional… Although unemployment programs are run by the states, which means the quality varies from place to place, across the country, the broader social welfare system in the United States is generally hard to access: riddled with red tape, and plagued by pointless burdens." Funny how conservatives never want to remove those regulations or red tape.
"The Small Business Administration on Wednesday will temporarily allow only the smallest financial institutions to access the small business coronavirus relief program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program… The move to restrict access comes after concerns that the smallest of businesses, and particularly those owned by people of color, were shut out of the first round of the program, which ran out of money in 13 days." No word on how well that went.
"This is the worst economy ever. That's according to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who previewed some truly awful economic data headed our way when he spoke to reporters Wednesday." Jazz hands.
"On Monday, the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to reject a Republican effort to sabotage parts of the Affordable Care Act. The upshot of this decision is that health insurers will receive payments owed to them under Obamacare’s 'risk corridor' program… Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s majority opinion in Maine Community Health Options v. United States, relies on 'a principle as old as the Nation itself,' according to the opinion. That principle: 'The Government should honor its obligations.'" Funny how republicans have to keep being reminded of that.
The crazy increases. "Someone opened fire using an assault rifle outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington early Thursday and was arrested, authorities said."
"Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has just led his country, and indeed all of Latin America, to the end of a long cycle… Almost two decades ago, the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — a union leader perceived as an extreme left-winger — to Brazil’s top job created one of the biggest buying opportunities in recent financial history. Having collapsed at first as investors took fright, the country’s stock market went into orbit, growing at more than two-thirds per year from Lula’s election in 2002 until the global financial crisis in 2008. For years after that, it continued to outpace the U.S. S&P 500 Index." Same here.
"The White House has ordered intelligence agencies to comb through communications intercepts, human source reporting, satellite imagery and other data to establish whether China and the World Health Organization initially hid what they knew about the emerging coronavirus pandemic, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News." You mean the same intelligence agencies that have been sounding the alarm on this coronavirus since October?
"President Donald Trump said in a new interview that China's handling of the novel coronavirus was evidence that Beijing "will do anything they can" to have him lose the 2020 US presidential election." You mean President Xi, whom you said you got along with and really liked, is trying to fuck you over and is willing to kill his own citizens and much of the world to do it? This is what's known as "choosing your opponent". Too bad China isn't on the ballot in November (but they will try to tie Biden to China).
"China's military has said it 'expelled' a U.S. navy vessel from the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea this week. It said the "USS Barry" had illegally entered China's Xisha territorial waters on Tuesday." So, they "expelled" us by (checks notes) following us very closely and letting our ships traverse the South China Sea without molestation.
"President Donald Trump vented outrage Thursday over the FBI’s treatment of Michael Flynn following the release of government records and recent media reports regarding the the bureau’s 2017 investigation into his former national security adviser." The new notes are nothing, they're contemporaneous notes on how to proceed with investigating Flynn, either to hold their cards or press him directly. As to Flynn being an American Patriot, just remember Flynn has been awarded the "Friend of Russia" medal by Putin himself. Flynn was in trouble long before he was hired by Trump. Trump was even warned against hiring him. He lied under oath. He betrayed his confidences and the government he swore to defend. Fuck Flynn.
"The California Republican Party is suing Governor Gavin Newsom to prohibit the practice of ballot collecting or 'ballot harvesting' during two upcoming special elections in the state, arguing it stands 'in direct conflict' with social distancing guidelines and Newsom's shelter-in-place mandate to slow the spread of the coronavirus." I am so tired of this election fraud conspiracy thing. Especially since the majority of people prosecuted for election fraud are Republican. Also, "ballot harvesting" is a well researched intentional smear that polls well with conservatives.
"Senate Republicans are preparing to fire up the nominations engine when they return to Washington next week… GOP senators are discussing ways to advance several key nominations after a five-week recess temporarily threw the future of President Trump’s picks into limbo. To accomplish that, they plan to press ahead with confirmation hearings, committee votes and floor votes."
"Coronavirus cases are still rising in the District of Columbia, where more than 200 people have died of the disease. The House decided it was too dangerous to return to the Capitol… But Mitch McConnell’s Senate is coming back anyway." Because they can't continue to pack the judiciary unless they have committee votes and the full Senate in session. Hey Mitch, why don't you follow your own advice and hold up on judicial nominations in this presidential election year and let the voters decide? Hello? Is this thing on?
But then… "The Kentucky Senate race between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his likely Democratic opponent Amy McGrath is shaping up to be one of the tightest, most contentious and expensive contests of the 2020 election cycle… Polls have shown the race to be incredibly close, with the candidates either being tied or separated by single digits."
"According to the New York Times, Pompeo is making a legal argument that the United States is still a 'participant' in the Iran nuclear deal. As such, he is saying, Trump will soon invoke a clause in the deal, known as the 'snapback clause,' which requires the U.N. Security Council to reimpose economic sanctions if Iran is found to be cheating. Since, by its own admission, Iran has violated some aspects of the deal in recent months, the sanctions will automatically be reimposed once Trump raises the transgressions." We formally withdrew from the agreement. We can't make this call. Trump is a fucking idiot.
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