Go for it Alabama:
Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski cleared his throat as he started describing the dire situation created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance. “It’s been a long day, I apologize,” he said.
“The units are full with critically-ill COVID patients,” Saliski said. About 90% of them are Black. He said hospitals are able to manage for now, but it’s not sustainable. “This mask slows that down, 95% protection from something as easy as cloth. … If this continues the way it’s going, we will be overrun.”
More doctors followed him to the microphone, describing the dead being carried out within 30 minutes of each other, and doctors being disturbed when people on the street ask them if the media is lying about the pandemic as part of a political ploy.
***Instead, the council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie, mostly along racial lines, with Councilman Tracy Larkin absent. Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members — Calhoun, Oronde Mitchell and Audrey Graham — in favor of the ordinance. Lyons, Charles Jinright, Richard Bollinger and Glen Pruitt voted against it.
A trio of doctors, who had waited hours to speak, got up and left the chamber in disgust. “Unbelievable,” Saliski said.
Welp.
While I am not happy with the diminished wearing of masks in WV, I still see a lot of them, and people are, for the most part, keeping distance and being somewhat responsible here. Even seen a few stickers that say “Fucking follow the guidelines,” and I wonder how much of that played a part in things.
TomatoQueen
Finally. What? oh yeah, experts saying fuckit let’s get some beer. Long overdue.
Meanwhile, some of us are so desperate for proper football we’re watching Villa v Sheffield, without fans but with this weird piped-in crowd noise. 0-0 in the 70th minute. As a TOON supporter I hate Villa fans so it’s nice not having to look at them, masks notwithstanding (they wouldn’t wear them I’m sure). John Terry, Known Asshole, is not wearing a mask.
germy
City Enters Phase 4 Of Pretending Coronavirus Over
TaMara (HFG)
Ooo, that’s a really large photo. But I’ll leave it, ’cause I really like it.
NotMax
Wondering how much of that can be attributed to being in a college town.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
I’ve seen many strange, horrible things, but a city council that’s trying to put a whole city in the running for a Darwin Award is beyond special.
Nicole
I just don’t understand. I want to shout at the rest of the nation that NYC went through hell and why won’t you learn from what we went through?
I have finally broken free of my addiction to the Cuomo daily briefings. Though I appreciated him stressing over many weeks, that Covid-19 came to NY from Europe, not China, the fact that he says “China” exactly the same way fellow Queens boy Trump does would make my eye twitch every time I heard it.
TaMara (HFG)
Soooo….Trump’s team put out the “memo” this a.m. about where is Joe..
Biden’s on my TV right now telling the American people what’s what. Hit him again, Uncle Joe, hit him again.
bbleh
@NotMax: Concur. In my family’s part of WV, fewer than 1 in 4 are wearing masks, and the large majority of stores don’t require it of staff (although some staff still wear them). And it’s back to open sneering by some people at those of us who do wear them
And when the rates spike again, it’ll be the usual mix of denial (unless it hits someone in their close family) and bending themselves into pretzels explaining (angrily) why it’s somebody else’s fault.
Welcome to Trump Country.
Just One More Canuck
@TomatoQueen: Valladolid vs Celta Vigo in La Liga
Baud
@TaMara (HFG):
different-church-lady
@TaMara (HFG): “The country needs to see more of the guy who’s whipping our ass!” seems like a dubious political strategy.
JKC
If it wasn’t for the collateral damage to innocent people, I’d say that this is a fine opportunity to cull the herd.
germy
Krope, the Formerly Dope
I don’t understand this line of attack on Biden. We’re supposed to be minimizing our contact with other people as it is. But he’s not simply campaigning from home, he’s meeting with protesters. He’s getting out there. Just because the press chooses to ignore it in favor of sexier news, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening (see also: Hillary Clinton and Dems more broadly running on issues but only making the news when responding to a question about Trump outrage of the day).
Baud
@JKC:
I hate when they use humans as human shields.
Baud
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
It’s harder for Trump to focus on attacking Joe when Joe isn’t in the news. That’s all this is about.
gvg
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): Ahh..I think you missed the little detail where 90% of the dead were black. The white council members voted not to mask. When I type that out, I have to work hard not to suggest something illegal. Those people are evil, but not Darwin award because they aren’t the ones dying. It really needs to spread more. Maybe it will if the black residents chose to mask and the white residents don’t.
There needs to be consequences at the ballot box sooner.
Kay
@germy:
I’m so wary of the Trumps. It would be a shame of this shitty, sleazy family made money coming and going. The book better be actually damning. If this is just more bullshit from them I’ll be mad.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
So did Trump never establish the notion of object permanence or did he just lose it?
Kay
Biden should do a health care event at a Covid testing facility.
dmsilev
Meanwhile, in EvilTown,
Makes perfect sense, especially how getting hit by a foul ball is infectious.
germy
Peter Baker got his hands on an advance copy of the bolton book:
PST
Speaking of something that belongs in the Onion, TPM is reporting about Michael Flynn’s attack on the appointment of John Gleeson to lay out the case for not dismissing:
Irony is dead. Everything is projection. Somehow I don’t imagine Bill Barr will bat an eye at this even though it describes him perfectly.
germy
Baud
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Trump does have object permanence problems, but Joe is living in Trump’s head right now.
Trump can and is attacking Joe, but I think they aren’t getting traction because it’s all old stuff that no one care about given everything else that’s going on. Trump is a show biz guy, and he’s desperately looking for new material on Joe.
catclub
is this an open thread?
Atlantic – can they really not find better writers?
I did not read, because David Brooks.
Baud
@germy: I have no intention of giving Bolton money, but it sounds like it’ll drive Trump up the wall and that the media will love talking about it.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
I suppose it’s too much to hope that a critical mass of people have finally noticed that Republicans don’t criticize Democrats based on objective reality.
germy
MisterForkbeard
@TaMara (HFG): Right, I see this a lot in the past two days: “Where’s Joe?”
Right where he has been, you idiots. Giving addresses. Forming policy. Making statements and appearances. And only getting covered by the media when he makes a gaffe.
NotMax
@germy
Admit it, sounds like an especially weak entry in the James Bond film library. Maybe starring Jimmy Carr as 007.
;)
Baud
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Yes.
Subsole
@Nicole:
TL;DR: Cleek’s law.
Mommy Democrat says wear a mask. I am bigboypants manlyman. I do what I want. Fuck alllllllay’all.
That’s literally all it is.
Conservatives are addicted to hating us. If you give them half a chance, they’ll be right back with the Oppositional Defiant Needle hanging out of their tracks. A liberal said this is necessary, ergo it must be avoided. Everything else is overthinking it.
Martin
@gvg: Yeah, I was wondering what the point of the 90% statistic was. That seemed like a dumb thing to mention.
White Alabama city council member: [in foghorn leghorn voice] You say the virus is killing colored folk much faster than white folk? [takes off face mask] Why I think we need to allow regular citizens to show they aren’t antifa and leave their masks at home. Jesus will take care to protect us from this wicked urban disease.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy:
i’m torn between wanting to know all the damning stuff Bolton knows and the desire not to contribute to him after he failed to testify during the impeachment, but saved his info until now and then profiting from it.
jl
There are continuing problems even in right minded liberal nanny state regions of this country.
Cases are climbing in California, but most of that is institutional (nursing homes, prisons, staff in large corporate work places, agricultural work crews) Big explosions of cases in SW San Joaquin and Imperial Valley, where you have huge corporate ag presence and large immigrant work crews. Though it is true LA county is a continuing problem.
SF Bay Area Counties are very slow in getting outbreak control programs ready. Santa Clara county is having particular problems in getting enough testing, getting adequate contact and tracing and isolation programs staffed. SF has made huge progress in protecting homeless population, but so many homeless, that in itself is causing problems. Lawsuits have been filed because homeless tent cities on the sidewalks are causing big problems.
Around SF Bay Area, from what I see, population compliance with guidelines is very high. But shit, the population can wear ten masks at a time and stay home forever, but the covid-19 problem won’t be solved enough to get a sustainable economy and society going.
The ability of the public sector in the US to solve any social problem has so decayed, that we seem unable to deal with a crisis that cannot be swept under the rug. The sustainability effort of the US is not necessarily proceeding as well as expected.
Edit: forget about mentioning news reports that primary care providers still having problems getting PPE, and when they can get it, paying 4 to 5 times price compared to pre-epidemic. PPE provided to nursing home staff so decayed and ruined it is useless. CA state and local government provision of foreign language info is very uneven and many places non-existent.
Edit2: and ever more European countries showing the society and the economy can start serious reopenings, including schools, small scale social actitivies, gyms and rec centers without big second waves and spikes. Several countries started opening schools over a month ago, with no big spike yet. Our society has been so hollowed out with grift and swindler culture, it can no longer function in the face of a serious crisis that cannot be evaded or tolerated by shoving the costs onto the ‘lesser people’ marks and cash cows
Edit3: main drama that I’ve heard about from Santa Clara county is public health department and private health providers and insurers fighting over who will pay for stuff.
Subsole
@TaMara (HFG):
What network?
I’m worried they’re gonna try that same shit they pulled on Hillary – ignore his events, then ask why he isn’t talking to them.
Miss Bianca
@catclub: I’m not planning to waste a free Atlantic read on it because, right, David Brooks, but on the other hand, if even *David Brooks* is tut-tutting over it, maybe Totebag America really is starting to think police violence is actually a problem it should be concerned about, so yay? Yay-ish?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So in addition with Officer Puffy Widebody and his krewe (along with Officer Munchadonut) harassing a young lawyer does being in his monthly paid parking lot in shorts yesterday, we had this little thing happen, too.
It’s straight out of the Third Reich.
MisterForkbeard
@Martin: I suppose it makes some sense in the moment: The nation is really concerned about BLM and black deaths. Shouldn’t we also care when white councilmembers decide that it’s okay when disease hits 90% black people?
The problem is that the audience are those racist white guys, so this does nothing to help in the immediate situation. They don’t care – we KNOW they don’t care.
Subsole
@Kay:
What are the odds she’s the only one that family DIDN’T fuck up?
glory b
C’mon guys, what part of 90% African American don’t you understand/snark/?
I’m sure that every black person reading that went directly to that line. The white representatives know they can’t be seen to care for them.
And yes, I think evil covers it.
Emma from FL
@Kay: It seems she wants his hide on a platter. That gonif in the WH robbed her dad of his inheritance, mocked his dementia (Alzheimers?), and threatened to take health insurance from her brother who was severely ill.
germy
Martin
@dmsilev: Look, just because a single foul ball hasn’t ricocheted between 31,000 people at Fenway doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
ronno2018
@TomatoQueen: I wish the piped in crowd noise could be turned off without muting the commentary as well…
Krope, the Formerly Dope
I’d argue that yes, we should care, but I’m pretty sure basically everyone here already knows that. This is why every office and the person holding it matters.
Martin
@Miss Bianca: David Brooks tut-tuts over whatever gets him clicks. Next week he’ll gladly tut-tut that we’re under-policed.
NotMax
@Mister Forkbeard
“Covid t’day, covid t’mahrrah, covid fo’evah.”
//
VOR
The Onion nails it: https://local.theonion.com/city-enters-phase-4-of-pretending-coronavirus-over-1844037065
jl
@germy: I don’t think anyone with any common sense, high risk or not, would attend a rally like Trump is planning,
There was a news story about a 20 something women in good health, covid-19 so ruined her lungs, she needed a transplant. Covid-19 is a high risk disease for everyone.
The Moar You Know
Some folks see a problem, some folks see a solution. I wonder why Larkin didn’t show up. Seems like a pretty important vote.
Jeffro
@germy: “Hey GOP – show us the votes to convict and we’ll give you a do-over, just this once. It’s worth it to us for trumpov to be the first president* in American history to be impeached and removed from office.”
They won’t do it, and we shouldn’t, but a guy can dream. It would be even more just, and even more humiliating to trumpov, than a mere shellacking in November.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Holy crap. Was Trump speaking at the same time? This tweet has a FOX screen cap showing Biden. Are pigs flying?
Ladyraxterinok
@JKC:
There are people lined up outside the BOK Center in Tulsa waiting to enter when doors open at 3pm on Saturday. One man came from MA ‘to support the great job Trump is doing’
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: They took Trump’s campaign memo seriously.
jl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: ratings and marketing research is forcing someone’s hand. Trump shouldn’t be telling one of his core support groups to suck it up and die so he can win re-election.
Martin
@jl: CA cases are climbing, but that’s from a pretty low floor. We’re 4% of the nations fatalities and 12% of the population, so we’ve done pretty well.
It’s clear that the strategy is to hold at this level until a vaccine shows up – basically just below the point that hospitals blow up.
That’s been informing my work – I have to remind myself that students are supposed to get sick under this strategy, just not fast enough that it turns into an outbreak. That results in a very different set of solutions than we were previously been assuming – reaching a state like China where there are effectively no infections. Our goal is R0=1 at the threshold that hospitals can manage.
This is the most depressing work I’ve ever done.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: you can count on the juicy bits coming out in news stories. No need to give Bolton any coin.
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is the Kremlinology phase of the campaign. Finding Biden’s potential health vulnerabilities while hiding Trumps obvious ones.
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve realized that this book, this very moment, is why libraries were invented. It’s all been in preparation for this.
germy
@Ladyraxterinok:
They’re out there waiting on Wednesday for a Saturday event? Where do they pee and poop?
Betty
@Kay: The promo I saw for the book indicated that it is very hard-hitting. Talks about Trump mocking his father when he developed Alzheimer’s, for example.
jl
@Martin: From what I see reading the policies and reopenings at WHO European Health Observatory, and looking at the stats at Our World in Data, an ever growing number of countries are not having to deal with our tragic dilemmas. Too much of this crisis is us, rather than the new bug. I think that is a sad fact that we need to face and fix.
dmsilev
@Martin: That’s good for roughly 10,000,000 points on any pinball table ever made.
cain
@glory b:
I sure did. 90% black. Yeah.. assholes. Of course, it hurts the others so why not, right?
sherparick
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): Someone may mention this below (or above), the key to the article was the statement that “90% of the patients are Black.” Right there the majority of White Alabamans and apparently 4 members of the Montgomery City council believe why should they give a fuck and wear a mask to help “those people.”
Kevin the Hen
@TaMara (HFG):
Need someone to make me a mask with a condensed version of this on it
mad citizen
I just put a hold on at my library for the Bolton book (thanks for the library suggestion!). This ebook he authored was listed and I was reminded was a tremendous asshole the guy is: “How Barack Obama Is Endangering Our National Sovereignty”
Mart
@gvg: When it was confirmed that the virus is disproportionately impacting the blahs, Fox and Repubs immediately switched from caution to let’s open up!!! Not sure why that is.
Ruckus
@bbleh:
It’s not just trump country. Which is BTW becoming a very entrenched, vocal minority. I don’t think they like being treated the way they’ve treated every other minority over the eons. I digress.
I live in socal, in an area tending towards the conservative side of socal, so just not flaming. I’m seeing a lot more people without masks. On my walk this morning, masked and distancing, a white woman, no mask, stopped in a red zone and as she was getting back into her jacked up 4×4 she looked at me and acted like she was going to say something. She didn’t. She was part of the traffic that has built up over the last 2 to 3 weeks. The stores are full again, with masks as that’s still required. LA county could be the 8th largest state by population so it should expected that some are going to be crazy but the disregard for the pandemic is insane. It’s not a few, it’s a sizable portion. Oh well at least in the end it won’t be as crowed. If it was a disease that only effects morons……
jonas
@gvg: Oh, this basically explains the official state and county-level responses across the South and a lot of the West — this is a problem for “those people.” Good, white Christian folk are somehow immune or something.
Ruckus
@germy:
I don’t want or need to read the book but if the money would go to any legal defense fund to defeat shitforbrains, I could always use another door stop.
Ruckus
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Never is the right answer.
Jerry
I love the Onion and all that jazz, but with their fawning adoration of Wilmer, I would like to see someone create a bot that comments on a political story with, “That’s hilarious. Now do Bernie.”
Mohagan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I suggest you follow my plan and get on the wait list for the book at your local library. May take a while to get your hands on it but they’ll be clean.
Brachiator
I’ll throw in that the UK has some of the best health experts, scientists, math analysis people in the world. They have provided info to international agencies during the pandemic, and yet their government’s response has been abysmal. Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings were both ignorant and deliberately sabotaged best efforts.
It’s like watching James Bond jump in his car to chase a bad guy, and the car immediately has a flat tire and runs out of gas.
I would also think that India has a ton of medical and health experts, but again the government tripped over itself.
Thank the deity for Iceland, Scotland, New Zealand and other countries that knew what they were doing.
Ramalama
@catclub:
Rick Perlstein has a new book out. He said in a facebook post that while he was finishing this book, he had not realized that more paying gigs have disappeared. I guess he was hoping to shop around a chapter or two to an outlet.
If I were Rick, I’d be so mad at David Brooks.
jl
@Brachiator: “Iceland, Scotland, New Zealand”
And Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Greece, Nordic countries excepting Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, Latvia, a growing number, that have shown how to make real progress towards social and economic sustainability in the face of the new disease. Very hard to deny our lying eyes.
After a friend of mine from Latvia told me her relatives back home are happy with how the country is getting things running again without a spike, I suggested she move back home for a while, since things would probably be very messed up here in the US for quite a while. Why hang around in a shithole country when you can get back to an advanced industrial nation?
Caphilldcne
Incidentally the Montgomery mayor just issued an executive order requiring masks.
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/06/17/montgomery-city-council-masks-alabama-coronavirus-steven-reed/3209016001/
My family lives down there. They were pretty disgusted.
low-tech cyclist
When the Dems are in charge again, they should kick Alabama out of the Union*, and pay the relocation expenses of any Alabama residents who are willing to move out of state in order to continue to be part of an Alabama-less America.
*Yes, I know this can’t be done. A pity, that.
Mary Ellen Sandahl
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Good question. I think he doesn’t understand object permanance. How something looks is what he understands, not that something exists independently. Remember he thinks that virus testing causes the number of “cases” to rise, and that no testing means pretty soon there wiil be no “cases”. Exactly what he means by “cases” I’m not sure. It’s hard to believe he actually thinks that infections are somehow caused by testing, but that what his statements — delivered with emphasis on at least 2 separate occasions, the second one just the other day – amount to.
jc
Trump doesn’t wear a mask because he thinks he’s too butch, he likes to pretend he’s a tough guy. But it’s really because he’s contemptuous of others, or rather he can’t be bothered to give a damn about the health of others. And he’s too stupid to realize that he looks like a callous asshole.