How not to solve a problem. "Most schools in California will not be reopening for in-person education this month -- but one superintendent in the Los Angeles area has come up with a plan to welcome some students back to class. And it doesn't involve their teachers… But instead of the traditional 24 students per classroom, there will be no more than 12. School officials are calling the group a 'technology pod,' which will be supervised by a single substitute teacher or district staffer… The staffers won't be teaching the students -- they will instead be present to offer computer technical assistance, monitor students' mask use, enforce social distancing and keep students focused on their work." If the problems they're attempting to solve are the "students don't have reliable internet broadband or computers", "our only mechanism to deliver many social services is the school", and "we need parents to go to work" this works. Somewhat. If it's "let's halt the spread of COVID" this won't work.
"The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the largest schools in the country to bring students back to campus and attempt in-person teaching, said Monday it will suspend in-person instruction for undergraduates in a dramatic turnaround just a week after classes began. The school has been struggling with coronavirus clusters." One. Week.
"A controversial South Korean pastor tested positive for COVID-19 after participating in an anti-government mass rally on Saturday that drew tens of thousands of people in calling for the ouster of South Korean President Moon Jae-in." Second wave in S. Korea.
"Fever checks have widely become the first level of coronavirus detection as businesses, stores and schools try to reopen, but a new study cautions that relying on them as a single screening tool could lead to a false sense of security… While a temperature check can detect people who are showing symptoms, there are a significant number of people who could be contagious that don't develop a fever, said study co-author Peter Kuhn, a professor of biological sciences, medicine and engineering at USC." Ta-da!
"Getting a flu vaccine this year is even more important than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to public health officials."
"During an American Society for Microbiology briefing, Fauci said, according to CNN: 'We'd better be careful when we say "young people who don't wind up in the hospital are fine, let them get infected, it's OK." No, it's not OK.'"
How go the Trade Wars? "United States President Donald Trump has promised to create 10 million jobs in 10 months, in part by setting up tax credits for American companies that relocate manufacturing facilities to the US from China." There already are tax credits to bring jobs onshore. And at this point, all that could happen before the election (and this is all about the election) is promises.
"'Historic'; 'A breakthrough'; 'A game-changer'; 'A betrayal': there is no shortage of epithets for this month's sudden announcement - by President Trump - that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to fully normalise its relations with Israel… After Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan's in 1994, this makes the UAE only the third Arab country to normalise relations. It is the first of the six Arab Gulf states to do so. Oman. Bahrain and possibly Morocco are widely expected to follow." Here's an interesting exercise, find those countries on a map. I'll wait.
And what could have precipitated this agreement? "Israel has not softened its opposition to any U.S. arms sales to the United Arab Emirates that could diminish its military superiority as part of the U.S.-brokered normalization of their ties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Tuesday… The statement followed a report in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the Trump administration planned a 'giant' sale of advanced F-35 jets to United Arab Emirates as part of the Gulf country's move last week to normalize ties with Israel."
"Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked closely with a Russian intelligence officer who may have been involved in the hack and release of Democratic emails during the election, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a bipartisan report released Tuesday… It’s the furthest U.S. officials have gone in describing Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort associate, as an agent of the Russian government. The disclosure was part of the committee’s fifth and final installment of its report on the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 presidential election." For there being no collusion, there sure are a lotta fuckin' Ruskies about. Also, they're setting up Manafort as the fall guy. I believe in mafia parlance, he's the mule.
"President Donald Trump on Sunday night retweeted Russian propaganda about former Vice President Joe Biden that the US intelligence community recently announced was part of Moscow's ongoing effort to 'denigrate' the Democrat ahead of November's election."
"The unemployment rate was 9.4 percent that month. The need for stimulus was desperate. But led by McConnell, Republicans blocked Democrats’ every attempt at further support. The GOP didn’t have a better plan for restarting the economy, but they didn’t need one… Today, unemployment stands at 10.2 percent — higher than during the peak of the previous financial crisis, and that’s almost certainly an underestimate of the true employment calamity… But McConnell — and, to be fair, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — is acting as if the most important thing to achieve is for President Trump to be a one-term president." That's an interesting take when just plain incompetence and lack of empathy could also explain it. Occam's razor and all.
"Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will testify before the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, the committee announced Tuesday… Democrats on the House Oversight Committee announced earlier this week that DeJoy and USPS Board of Governors Chairman Robert Duncan would testify before their committee on Monday." That's called a "soft rollout" and an attempt to control the narrative over the weekend before the hard questions comes.
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "Trump seeks to starve post office to limit mail-in voting." Would ya look at that news dump? It's like they're trying to say, "But we were right (on this deep article that got no push)."
"'Ninety-nine percent of absentee ballots categorized as 'returned and submitted for counting' were ultimately counted in the 2016 election. The most common reasons for rejection in 2016 were missing the deadline, the signature on the ballot not matching the signature on the state's records, and the ballot not having a signature.'" Follow the rules (they're complex) and complete your ballot correctly.
"The poll finds that 45 percent of voters are not confident that the results of the election will be counted accurately, up from 34 percent who said the same before the 2016 election." Everywhere there are polls.
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