There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Linkee-poo Wednesday 10-21

"A Nasa spacecraft has successfully landed on an asteroid, dodging boulders the size of buildings, in order to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for analysis back on Earth."

"Two new peer-reviewed studies are showing a sharp drop in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drop is seen in all groups, including older patients and those with underlying conditions, suggesting that physicians are getting better at helping patients survive their illness." As with other studies, this is a small one (just one health system), and the death rate is still 7.6% for hospitalized patients.

"Ireland will be the first European country to return to a nationwide shutdown as COVID-19 cases rise, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Monday… Nonessential retail businesses are ordered to close. Residents are expected to stay within about 3 miles of their homes, except for work and other essential activities."

"Despite widespread concerns, two new international studies show no consistent relationship between in-person K-12 schooling and the spread of the coronavirus. And a third study from the United States shows no elevated risk to childcare workers who stayed on the job." Note these studies were not on US schools, but in countries with widespread testing and contact tracing (And where the infection rate had been controlled).

"California will allow large theme parks to reopen with modifications when the counties where they’re located move into the state’s least-restrictive 'yellow' tier, a change that likely puts theme parks at least weeks — and potentially months — away from resuming operations."

"A grand juror in the Breonna Taylor case has spoken out, challenging statements made by the Kentucky attorney general and saying that the jury was not offered homicide charges to consider against officers involved in Taylor’s killing… In a written statement, the grand juror, who was not identified, said that only wanton endangerment charges were offered to them to consider against one officer."

"COVID-19 has been a massive disaster. But it has also been like a massive natural experiment. During the last nine months, we've learned a lot about the coronavirus, its economic effects and effective interventions to help manage the pain of another wave. So we decided to sum up some of the economic research."

"A federal judge scrapped a settlement Tuesday over the Trump administration’s slow processing of loan forgiveness for borrowers who have accused their colleges of fraud, ruling that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undermined the deal… U.S. District Judge William Alsup said in a sharply worded decision that DeVos undercut the settlement by denying large swaths of the claims without sufficient explanation."

"Protests against police brutality in Lagos turned bloody on Tuesday despite a state-wide curfew, with eyewitnesses telling CNN that multiple demonstrators have been shot by soldiers… Demonstrators have taken part in daily protests across the country for nearly two weeks over widespread claims of kidnapping, harassment, and extortion by a police unit know as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Tuesday saw the state governor impose a 24-hour curfew and deploy anti-riot police to the city."

"Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say that they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children and that about two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union." Heads should roll over this.

"The U.S. and Russia on Tuesday came closer to extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty for one year in exchange for a freeze on all nuclear weapons, a breakthrough as President Donald Trump seeks a foreign policy win ahead of the election." And there you have why it actually happened. Trust, but verify.

"President Donald Trump's tax records show he has pursued expansive business projects in China for years and even maintains a Chinese bank account, The New York Times reported Tuesday, disclosures that deal a blow to the President's efforts to paint Democratic nominee Joe Biden as the presidential candidate who is soft on China."

"President Trump on Tuesday renewed his pitch to Pennsylvania voters, painting himself as the only candidate who can save the country from Washington corruption, the degradation of the American dream and a decimated economy."

"'We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,' Trump said in a telephone interview with 'Fox & Friends' when asked whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to probe unverified allegations against the Bidens. 'He’s got to act. And he’s got to act fast. He’s got to appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election.'" As a reminder, there is no law for appointing a "special prosecutor." The GOP let that expire during GW Bush's administration.

"Dozens of voters in a heavily Democratic county in Florida and across several states reported receiving emails on Thursday purporting to come from a right-wing group threatening to "come after" them unless they vote for President Trump… But an examination of the messages, which are now under investigation by state and federal authorities, shows they were sent via servers located overseas, raising questions about their origin amid concerns about voter intimidation just two weeks before Election Day."

"President Donald Trump abruptly ended a solo interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" Tuesday and did not return for an appearance he was supposed to tape with Vice President Mike Pence, according to multiple sources familiar with what happened… The President later accused Stahl of not wearing a mask and tweeted out a brief clip of her without one while at the White House." Hey, remember the president tweeting about he was now "immune", so this is a bullshit reason. The president has also threatened to release his own tape of the interview before the 60 minutes segment. My guess is he thought it was going to be a softball interview and just didn't want to answer any of the questions Stahl was bringing up. Also it sets up his excuse, that the media was out to get him.

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