"An early Friday morning earthquake near Tonopah, Nevada, was strong enough to be felt over 300 miles away in areas such as Bakersfield, California. The 6.5 magnitude quake struck at 4:03 a.m., PDT, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and had a depth of 2.5 miles. The USGS upgraded the quake’s magnitude to 6.5 from 6.4 about an hour after the initial strike."
"The US’s uncrewed X-37B military spaceplane is expected to launch from Cape Canaveral air force station, in Florida, on 16 May."
"It's the moment international aid groups have been dreading for months—the coronavirus has reached the sprawling refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district of southern Bangladesh, home to roughly a million Rohingya refugees."
"The Food and Drug Administration is cautioning the public about the reliability of a widely used rapid test for the coronavirus. The test, made by Abbott Laboratories, has been linked with inaccurate results that could falsely reassure patients that they are not infected with the virus." Jazz hands. Also, these machines which were built quite hastily have been being used 24/7 for the past 2 months. Besides the fault in the tests, the machines are also starting to fault on their own.
"U.S. employers have cooled to the idea of testing workers for possible immunity to the coronavirus as they prepare to reopen factories and other workplaces." Have we talked about how surface temperature monitors are also for shit?
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of documents on Thursday designed to provide guidance on how child care centers, schools, restaurants and bars, and other establishments could begin the process of reopening in the face of the coronavirus. The direction comes after calls from lawmakers and state officials mounted for the CDC to weigh in on how regions should reopen their economies." You mean after the Trump Administration shelved the full CDC report and guidelines on how to reopen.
"'We're mobilizing our military and other forces but we're mobilizing our military on the basis that we do have a vaccine. You know, it's a massive job to give this vaccine. Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year we're going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly,' the president said." There's a year's worth of work for an industrious fact-checker.
The Daily Beast, but… "In a quote attributed to an unnamed Trump confidant who is said to speak to the president frequently, it’s claimed: 'Jared [Kushner] had been arguing that testing too many people, or ordering too many ventilators, would spook the markets and so we just shouldn’t do it... That advice worked far more powerfully on [Trump] than what the scientists were saying. He thinks they always exaggerate.'" (Grokked from Anne Wheaton)
"The reopening — after six weeks of lockdown — is important, Montgomery says. 'It's our culture,' he adds. 'Southern California here, the beach is where people go to not just recreate but just take a piece of mind off.'" And catch a potentially deadly infection. All about the culture.
"Google has significantly rolled back its diversity and inclusion initiatives in an apparent effort to avoid being perceived as anti-conservative, according to eight current and former employees." That pretty much lays it out on the open. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"In two, terrible, months the coronavirus pandemic has driven unemployment in the US to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression. Did it have to be this way?" No.
What's that whistling noise? "U.S. retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, threatened the viability of stores across the country and further weighed down a sinking economy." Oh. Tired of winning yet?
"Our weird behavior during the pandemic is messing with AI models… Machine-learning models trained on normal behavior are showing cracks —forcing humans to step in to set them straight." I guess then they aren't so I as they are A.
"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses are the target of a federal lawsuit filed Thursday claiming that the changes would "inflict significant harm" on victims and 'dramatically undermine' their civil rights… The suit, filed on behalf of four advocacy groups for people who have been sexually assaulted, including Know Your IX and Girls for Gender Equity, is the first that seeks to block the Education Department's new provisions before they go into effect on Aug. 14." Just a reminder this administration continues its heinous fuckery undeterred by the coronavirus.
"The Trump administration on Friday moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, in an action that could ramp up tensions with China."
"U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a further deterioration of his relationship with China over the coronavirus outbreak, saying he has no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping right now and going so far as to suggest he could even cut ties with the world’s second largest economy." But I thought Trump and Xi had a great relationship. Trump said so himself. But China's insistence on the facts threatens the president's world view. So even though it'll sink our economy, China has to go. Good luck getting parts.
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Fox News contributor Karl Rove joined 'The Daily Briefing' Thursday to discuss a new poll that shows President Trump topping Joe Biden by seven percentage points in 15 battleground states ahead of November’s general election." You remember Karl "I have The Math" Rove. I wonder how few states they think they need to win to keep the White House. He's already righting off Pennsylvania as Wisconsin. You might remember that Trump needed those 2 states to make it over the electoral college hump. This only works inside the bubble where Trump won by a landslide, and you don't listen to what the other side is saying or doing.
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded Thursday night that he was wrong to claim that the Obama administration had not left behind a plan to deal with a pandemic in the US." Don't worry, that won't change your crazy Nazi Uncle from making the same claim. Also, and let me say this clearly, it is year 4 of the Trump presidency. Even if the Obama administration didn't leave Trump anything, that should have been remedied by now.
"Over Mother’s Day and then through Monday—and who knows, perhaps continuing today—Trump has fired off hundreds of rounds of weapons-grade lunacy on Twitter. When Trump does this kind of thing, many are ready with an explanation: He’s rallying his base; he’s distracting his critics; he’s challenging the existence of reality itself."
"President Donald Trump claimed the coronavirus pandemic has proven his America-first economic philosophy correct, slamming the competing financial theories espoused by those he dismissed as 'globalists.'" How's that "businessmen in government" philosophy working out? Also, nobody outside Trump's circle is saying anything close to this.
"The US Senate has voted to give law enforcement agencies access to web browsing data without a warrant, dramatically expanding the government’s surveillance powers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic… The power grab was led by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as part of a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which gives federal agencies broad domestic surveillance powers. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT) attempted to remove the expanded powers from the bill with a bipartisan amendment." (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)
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