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The Wires
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Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Friday
Mar132020

"Two Very Big Words"

Following are links to reports about Donald Trump's declaration that the coronavirus pandemic was a national emergency.

New York Times (from the live updates on coronavirus): "President Trump on Friday afternoon officially declared a national emergency that he said would give states and territories access to up to $50 billion in federal funds to combat the spreading coronavirus epidemic. In a live address in the White House Rose Garden, he also gave broad new authority to the health secretary, Alex Azar, who he said would now be able to waive regulations, giving doctors and hospitals more flexibility to respond to the virus, including making it easier to treat people remotely. 'I am officially declaring a national emergency, two very big words,' he said. 'I'm urging every state to set up emergency operations centers effective immediately,' he added. Mr. Trump said he was waiving interest on student loans, and that with oil prices low, the government would buy large quantities of crude oil for the nation's strategic reserve. His comments marked the first time he has addressed the coronavirus as a problem within the country's borders, not just something that needed to be kept out with travel restrictions. But the optics of the address offered a contrast to the social distancing that many experts recommend: Mr. Trump and the top advisers he invited to speak crowded together around the lectern and shared a microphone. Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both lauded the administration's efforts, and the president particularly praised his own measures to keep the virus from entering the country. However, some Americans returning from coronavirus hot spots say they are not being screened for symptoms." Emphasis added.

"He said that millions of virus testing kits would become available, but added that he did not think so many would be needed. 'We don't want everybody taking this test,' he said. 'It's totally unnecessary.' 'This will pass, this will pass through, and we will be even stronger for it,' the president said. Asked if he would be tested for the coronavirus because of his contact at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, with an infected Brazilian official, he said, 'most likely, yeah,' countering earlier White House statements that he would not be tested. 'I think I will do it anyway. Fairly soon,' he said. Even as he spoke, news emerged that a second person who was at Mar-a-Lago had been found to have the coronavirus." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: "... around midnight [Friday, Trump's] physician, Sean P. Conley, said testing [Trump for the coronavirus] was 'not currently indicated.'" ~~~

~~~ Washington Post (from the live updates): "President Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic Friday as public life in America continued to grind to a halt. Trump's announcement sent the Dow soaring nearly 2,000 points.... When pressed by Yamiche Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, about the White House dismantling the office on pandemics, he called the question 'nasty' and suggested that Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, knew something he didn't. 'I didn't do it,' he said. 'I could perhaps ask Tony about that because I don't know anything about it. I mean you say we did that but I don't know anything about it.' Fauci, who works under the National Institutes of Health, does not have purview over the National Security Council, which the team worked for.... In May 2018, after John Bolton became national security adviser..., a team working on global health security under him was disbanded, The Post reported at the time. Beth Cameron, the former senior director for global health security..., said in a Washington Post editorial Friday that the decision most likely slowed the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic."

~~~ Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday to offset lagging coronavirus testing and unlock billions of dollars -- accelerating a response plan that has faced weeks of criticism. Trump touted partnerships with private companies that he claimed would allow patients to learn if they need to be tested and locate a testing site, some of which will be drive-thru facilities at big box retailers across the country.... Trump insisted the move would eradicate the testing shortcomings that health experts say hindered the country's ability to contain the virus when it first appeared on American shores. Yet even as Trump unleashed $50 billion in government funding, the announcement had a distinct market-first flavor. Trump outlined a series of agreements with private companies, including Google, Target and Walmart, to facilitate swifter coronavirus testing for Americans. Target and Walmart said they will set aside parking lot space for testing sites, while Google pledged to set up a website to determine whether a person needs a test, and where one is available.... 'I don't take responsibility at all,' Trump said of the government' struggles to produce enough tests, blaming existing rules set by prior administration for limiting his options."

~~~ Marina Fang of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but spent much of the announcement refusing to take responsibility for testing delays and praising his own inadequate response that helped let the coronavirus spread rapidly throughout much of the country.... Trump opened his press conference Friday by praising his response to the pandemic, claiming it was better 'when compared to other places around the world,' touting 'our closing of the borders' and claiming experts told him his ban on travel from China 'saved a lot of lives.' He also invited Vice President Mike Pence to speak, who praised Trump's 'decisive action.' When asked about his demolition of President Barack Obama's pandemic response team, Trump called it 'a nasty question.' In announcing the increase in tests, Trump still appeared to downplay the public health crisis. He said that five million tests would be available 'within a month,' before adding: 'I doubt we'll need that.'"

If you'd like a better sense of the "atmospherics" of Trump's announcement, without actually having to watch, Akhilleus has done the honors: ~~~

By Akhilleus:

Just listened, slack-jawed, to the latest abomination of a press conference, brought to you by Fatty Productions. It was like some kind of weird pep rally unreality show. Lots of vague promises, peppered, comme d'habitude, with the usual yuuuuge pats on the back for his own amazing wonderfulness, and interrupted, just like a TV show, for commercials for huge corporations.

Representatives of giant private sector businesses were trotted out (Fatty having basically farmed out the work of the federal government to for-profit operations) to take a bow and kiss Trump's ass. "Hey, let's bring up Joe Blow from CVS, Joe's been a great friend for a long time [three hours] and he'll be blah, blah, blah. C'mon up Joe. Say a few words." "Well, thank you Mr. President. I'd like to suck your dick for the rest of my time on stage, but I see that there's a line up of other CEO's waiting to do that." "Well, thank you, Joe. You can blow me later. Let's hear from Google. They're doing blah, blah, blah, and it will be the greatest blah, blah, in the history of the world. Of course, I invented it all."

No word about when Google's greatest blah, blah, blah will be available or even what it will do, but hey, that would only interrupt the Giant Trump Jerk Off.

And on and on. One woman (didn't get her name) went waaaay out on a limb in offering her unearned encomiums to Fatty, lying that "The president realized that the old fashioned (read: Obama) way was not up to the present situation so he personally directed us to blah, blah, blah..."

Directed you to what? Make sure he doesn't continue to look like a fucking schmuck who couldn't find a communicable disease in the Black Hole of Calcutta. That's what.

It was disgusting. A smoke and mirrors Trump pep rally where he got to do things he loves to do....praise himself for being wonderful, declare a National Emergency where I Trump will save everyone! At one point, he slid into his trademarked form of self praise about how he has personally created the situation for the US energy self-sufficiency. (How did we get to energy while talking about a medical emergency??) "They all said it couldn't be done, but I did it in six days. No one else in the history of the world could do it, but I did it."

Did what? Oil prices are at rock bottom because of a pissing contest between two dictators on the other side of the world. Trump had NOTHING to do with anything. But somehow that gets translated into "energy sufficiency" created personally by the Orange Menace. Just incredible.

There were zero details. Lots of bullshit. The half-pence was led out on his leash (embroidered by Mother, no doubt) to announce that there would be hundreds of thousands of testing kits available. At some point. Soon. Sometime soon. Maybe. Hundreds of thousands? How about tens of millions? This is a huge step forward? Hell no. This is something that should have been accomplished a fucking month ago. This is a FIRST STEP, not the final solution for which they should all be crowned with laurel wreaths. "Oh look at how wonderful we all are!" It's like telling troops going into battle that a tenth of them will have a weapon. Soon. And they might even get ammunition! So, good luck. And don't forget to thank us.

Ronald Reagan had it half right. Government IS the problem. Government run by Republicans, that is.

Appalling.


Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you have some masochistic desire to see the annoucement, here's a less-then-10-minute YouTube video of an ABC News report. It doesn't include the Q&A. For the whole thing, which runs more than an hour, here's another YouTube video.

More on Trump's press conference in Saturday's Commentariat below.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (3)

Timing is everything.

Just as people will surely sicken and die, many of whom could have lived had Trump acted with more competence and professionalism than the guys at the car wash who scrub dead bugs off your windshield, at some point in time, Covid-19 will run its course.

The healthcare industry and the CDC will all get their acts together, though with zero help from Trump, who has already decided that a great victory is in the bag now that he’s shrugged off any responsibility and handed off the job of trying to contain this deadly disease to local governments, hospitals, CVS, Walgreens, Target, and Google.

And when life returns to normal, and people aren’t knucklng each other for a roll of toilet paper at the Stop & Shop, and washing their hands seventeen times a day, Fatty will crow like he’s never done before that he saved the world from the worst plague in human history and demand that everyone acknowledge his amazing victory over the “foreign” virus.

And you know what? The media, supine and moribund as ever, will do exactly that. “Today, President* Trump announced Victory over the Covid-19 pandemic. Praise for his great feat came from...blah, blah, blah...” as usual, the stenographers who pass for journalists will line up to bow to his astonishing, if self-described, greatness and the early fuck-ups and criminal lapses will be forgotten by all but those who lost loved ones who would still be alive had that fat fuck done his job instead of running off to play golf.

And if this comes about in time for the election, even if there is, as there must be at some point, a slow down in the rate of infection and death, he will praise himself to the heavens and likely get his fat ass re-elected. If the election were next week, it likely would go the other way.

Timing is everything.

March 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Covid-19 may run its course; but with the number of deaths projected, my guess is that even stupid people will not forget who allowed this to happen.
"Bring out yer dead! Bring out yer dead!"
I really think Trump is toast.

March 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria

Victoria,

I certainly hope you’re right, about people not forgetting, that is. Although up to now, the Orange Monster has not been held liable for anything, up to and including treason. At least 40% of the electorate simply don’t care what he does or doesn’t do. He hates the people they hate and he tries to make their lives miserable, which sends them into spasms of orgasmic delight. And now he’s seeing to it that some of them won’t have a life.

We shall see. If he is toast, I will most happily pass the butter.

March 14, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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