Bits and pieces from Jeffrey St. Clair's
Roaming Charges of April 3, 2020:
+ Matt O'Brien: "New rule: anyone who thinks the cure is worse than the disease should be given the disease first."
+ NBC News: Week of April 13 is earliest Americans will see direct deposit relief payments from the government; paper checks could take as long as 20 weeks – nearly 5 months – for some Americans.
+ The Trump Administration is now saying seniors on Social Security must file a tax return to get a $1,200 check. This extra hurdle means millions of Americans will likely miss out on the payment.
+ At the onset of a pandemic outbreak of a virus that viciously attacks the lungs of humans, the Trump administration is rolling back the clean cars rule, permitting a billion more tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
+ The Thalidomide Solution: On March 11, the Food and Drug Administration said that it was postponing most inspections of foreign manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, medical devices and food imported into the United States.
+ Trump's new rule gutting the Migratory Bird Treaty Act could end up killing billions of birds. The American Petroleum Institute suggested in a regulatory filing that "the birds themselves are the actors, colliding or otherwise interacting with industrial structures."
+ The federal government has listed the coal industry to its list of critical infrastructure that's considered vital to public health, the economy, and national security, which is kind of like saying "virus" is essential to the public health.
+ It's not like the Trump administration is totally incapable of taking prompt actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Case in point: they moved swiftly to add firearms to the list of critical pandemic infrastructure.
+ While searching for something else, I came across this article in the Washington Post headlined: "Trump Administration Ill-Prepared for Pandemic." The date: April 8, 2017.
+ FEMA is warning states not to expect any shipments of ventilators until they are within 72 hours of a crisis. Crisis? What crisis?
+ After announcing he is finally utilizing the Defense Production Act to make ventilators, Trump says, "C-O-V-I-D 19. You know what that is. Right? Become a very famous term. C-O-V-I-D. COVID." [Yes, he really said that.]
+ I understand why Don Jr. and Eric didn't volunteer for military service (brain spurs). But that incapacity should in no way deter them from volunteering as human guinea pigs in clinical trials of untested potential COVID vaccines.
+ "We don't do body counts": The Pentagon this week explicitly barred military commanders from publicly reporting COVID-19 cases.
+ We don't do body counts, but we do place body bag orders: 100,000 for FEMA alone. Since our own funerals will probably be DIY affairs, I wonder how many are left on the shelves at Costco.
+ Only the Best People: The White House wanted to give Native American tribes $0 in the $2 trillion emergency stimulus bill. (Better than infected masks, I guess.)
+ Carnival Cruise CEO Arnold Donald is pleading for a bailout:
•They're registered in Panama
•5% of their workforce are American
•They pay less than 1% federal tax
•Many of their workers earn $500/mo despite working 12 hour days 7 days a week
+ Mike Pence Wednesday on CNN: "We think Italy may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point." ... [L]et's be clear what he's admitting: Italy currently has the WORST death COVID-19 death rate in the world at 218 deaths per 1 million people ... That's an admission of staggering incompetence and negligent homicide. [The US is currently at 25 deaths per 1 million people. If the US had Italy's death rate, the toll would be at 72,800 right now.]
+ In the areas worst hit by the pandemic, Italy is undercounting thousands of deaths caused by the virus, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows, indicating that the pandemic’s human toll may end up being much greater, and infections far more widespread, than official data indicate.
+ South Korea had the same "intelligence" about China's COVID-19 crisis as Trump, yet skillfully and methodically managed to shackle the spread of the virus two weeks ago, while it rages here like a climate-change driven wildfire.
+ Biden surrogates have spent the last couple of days going back in their timelines to delete Brett Kavanaugh-related Tweets and Facebook posts in order not to have their "Believe the Women" standards invoked against Joe the Groper. But, hey, our sexual predator isn't as crude as their sexual predator.
+ Some things Biden doesn't equivocate about. For example, his unyielding opposition to single-payer health care. ... Joe Biden says he still opposes Medicare for All as the coronavirus crisis grows: "Single payer will not solve that at all." (Please go back to sleep, Joe. No one except Trump wants to hear you talk.)
+ Biden was asked by Chuck Todd if there's blood on Trump's hands. He responded: "I think that's a little too harsh."
+ Inmates at Rikers Island are being offered $6 an hour and protective gear to dig mass graves. Who will they get to dig the gravediggers' graves?
+ A rural Minnesota county has unexplained spike in coronavirus cases. Local public health expert thinks it's because of Fox News coverage dismissing the danger of the virus.
+ At some point, the people of Detroit and Flint are going to risk up and exact a mighty vengeance for two decades of unconscionable misery that has been inflicted upon them, as water shut-offs continue during a time of pandemic.
+ The National Zoo has euthanized Ambika, the elephant. She was 72 years old and had lived in DC for 59 years. ... Her keepers called her "The Queen." They gave her bok choy as her final meal.
Smithsonian Magazine:
The Zoo's other elephants Shanthi and Bozie, who had long bonded with the elderly female, were not present for the procedure, but were offered time to be with their deceased herd mate.
Scientists have long suggested that elephants undergo a grieving process that includes the exploring of the body as recognition of the death. "Elephants will commonly touch the temporal glands, ear canal, mouth and trunk tip. Often, they will make a rumble vocalization while inspecting the body. For approximately 15 to 20 minutes, Shanthi and Bozie walked around Ambika. They sniffed and touched her with their trunks. Although the pair usually communicate with squeaks, honks and trumpets, they were fairly quiet during this encounter."
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