"Part of a bridge collapsed in Pensacola as 30 inches of rain and storm surge turned streets into white-capped rivers Wednesday morning after Hurricane Sally lurched ashore the Gulf Coast… Sally's strong winds battered Alabama and Florida as the center moved over the Panhandle by afternoon. In Pensacola, Florida, a section of the Pensacola Bay Bridge collapsed, and downtown was largely underwater." We're almost out of names for this hurricane season… and it's only September.
"Giant flares and eruptions from the sun can cause space weather, and stormy space weather can interfere with everything from satellites to the electrical grid to airplane communications. Now, though, there's good news for people who monitor the phenomenon — the sun has passed from one of its 11-year activity cycles into another, and scientists predict that the new cycle should be just about as calm as the last."
"Two of Antarctica's most important glaciers are breaking free from their restraints, a new study reports… This potentially has major consequences for rising sea levels around the world."
"More than 7,400 patients likely caught the coronavirus while seeking care for other conditions in U.S. hospitals between mid-May and mid-July, data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided The Wall Street Journal shows… The data, reported by half of U.S. hospitals to the CDC, indicates hospitals have struggled to prevent contagion within their walls, but experts don't want people to panic. Hospitals are still considered safe and seem to be improving at containing the virus, and the risk of becoming infected has remained low throughout the pandemic. Dr. Meghan Baker, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, told the Journal that avoiding hospitals out of fear of becoming infected with the virus is actually the 'bigger public health risk.'" Ta-da! And I guess relaxing standards of precautions is somehow "improving at containing the virus."
"Top Trump administration health officials testified Wednesday that a vaccine for COVID-19 is not likely to be widely available until next spring or summer, and that wearing a mask, in the words of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, remains 'the most important, powerful public health tool we have.'" Jazz hands.
"Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to push for in-person instruction across the Sunshine State. Even though his administration has released county-level data that indicates the 26% jump, it has not released school-level Covid-19 data for all K-12 public schools, which CNN began asking the state Department of Health for on August 31. On September 2 -- nearly two weeks ago -- state officials said by email the data would be released in the coming days and weeks… But still, the state hasn't provided this key information."
"British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted that the U.K. does not have enough testing capacity but said that the government was hoping that capacity will be up to 500,000 tests per day by the end of October." Just like in the US, adequate testing is coming Real Soon Now™.
"Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended the coronavirus testing system, saying it is trying to meet a 'colossal spike' in demand." We didn't know there would be such a run on cake…
"Eight people in Indonesia who refused to wear masks in public were ordered by a local official to dig graves for COVID-19 victims." Yet here, we can't force you to wear a mask.
"Florida‘s Republican governor will end a Trump program to boost unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans because the state’s bare-bones jobless program is too poor to continue qualifying for the federal boost."
"'We think about ourselves in terms of being on a certain rung with some people above us, and other people below us. Where we think we stand on that ladder tells you a lot about a person's life and their life outcomes'… This week on Hidden Brain, we explore the psychology of inequality."
"The Justice Department announced charges on Wednesday against five Chinese nationals in connection with the hacking of more than 100 American and foreign companies as well as of nonprofits and universities."
"Barbados wants to remove Britain's Queen Elizabeth as its head of state and become a republic, the Caribbean island nation's government has said, reviving a plan mooted several times in the past."
"In a stunning podcast released by the Department of Health and Human Services, two top officials at the department repeatedly downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic, railed against mitigation efforts, called closures of in-person schooling 'nonsense,' and said US journalists do not '[give] a damn about public health information.'"
"A sweeping congressional inquiry into the development and certification of Boeing's troubled 737 Max airplane finds damning evidence of failures at both Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration that "played instrumental and causative roles" in two fatal crashes that killed a total of 346 people."
"GOP senators, during floor speeches and press conferences this week, are pointing to chatter that a Democratic-controlled Senate could nix the 60-vote filibuster to make their case to voters that the party has shifted too far to the left in the run up to the election." I wonder what it means when they were discussing nixing the filibuster just 4 years ago, or that they eliminated the filibuster for most appointments (especially judgeships).
"(Trump) recently renewed his promise to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. He drew bipartisan praise for brokering an agreement that’s expected to boost Israel’s influence in the Middle East. And he released an updated list of Supreme Court nominees on Wednesday… But so far, President Donald Trump’s overtures to religious voters appear to be falling flat."
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "That is why we are announcing our Commitment to America with three specific objectives: restore our way of life, rebuild the greatest economy in history, and renew the American dream." That's part of the problem, those aren't specifics. Those are generalities. There's no definition of those things, and there's no roadmap to achieve them. Also, they could have done all these things already. But conservatives just don't give a shit. "To restore our way of life, we will work to triple rapid testing nationwide, deliver a vaccine that is safe, effective, and available by the end of the year…" Even if you win back the majority, Rep. McCarthy, the new congress will not sit until after January. How the fuck will your new majority deliver that vaccine by the end of the year (and isn't this already in the works)?
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