Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

I really should read my own blog.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

He really is that stupid.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Oct. 24-25

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Saturday/Sunday, Oct. 24-25

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73Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack

    Just struck me that this daily thread is like the early morning farmers’ market report, which we were discussing recently. Only instead of soybean futures it’s how many people died.

    But thank you, Anne Laurie, for putting this together. It takes a lot of work, and you have been indefatigable.

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    In a ‘study’ of people at a hospital and had Covid-19 those who took aspirin were 44% less likely to be placed in the intensive care unit, 44% less likely to be hooked up to a mechanical ventilator, and 47% less likely to die compared to hospitalized patients who were not taking aspirin, according to the study, published Thursday in the journal “Anesthesia and Analgesia.”

    Normally I avoid single studies that do not include a placebo group; however, the methodology of action of aspirin makes perfect sense to why it would most likely dramaticly reduce deaths and serious medical side effects in very ill Covid-19 patients. Blood clots caused by the Covid virus in the blood stream is the biggest danger for most people – aspirin reduces the clotting ability of platelets – this mechanism by aspirin on clotting is welll understood (however, the virus might compromise this action so this might not be the actual reason.) Do note that these people were, of course, taking the ‘baby’ size dose. These results are priminary and have not been put through the “Gold Standard” test, so this study could be wrong or the resuilts due to other factors – not highly likely but possible. In all things, caution towards intial results is essential. Read the results and draw your own conclusion.

    See: https://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-ana … 95423.aspx

    If a pharmaceutical gaint had just released such results for a drug that cost a few $K per treatement, the media would be highlighting it as a major breakthrough treatement.

  3. 3.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Yesterday, China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases and 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, at Shule County in Kashgar Prefecture, in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region. The case was found via periodic screening of personnel working in high risk occupations, source of transmission is not yet known. As the case is reported to be a 17 years old girl living in a village in the county, not sure what kind of high risk occupation she would be working in. Kashgar Prefectural Health Commission has reported that all close contacts of the case has been identified and placed under quarantine (quantity unknown), and Kashgar Prefecture will conduct 100% mass screening of all residents (started already). Flights into and out of Kashgar are cancelled as of the afternoon of 10/24. The authorities reported that flights and other mass transportation have resumed normal operations on 10/25, but passengers need to furnish a negative RT-PCR test report to be able to leave, which would greatly affect anyone who had planned to leave today, or in the next couple of days.

     

    Yesterday, China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases and 18 imported asymptomatic cases and 1 imported suspect case:

     

    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national returning from the Philippines , 2 British national coming from Hungary (via Schipol), an Argentine national coming from Argentina (via Germany), and a French national coming from France (via Germany 1 suspect case, no information released 
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh and 1 from Saudi Arabia; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh, and 1 from Lebanon
    • Dalian in Liaoning Province – 3 confirmed cases, 3 Indian crew members off a cargo ship
    • Taiyuan in Shanxi Province  – 2 confirmed cases, no information released
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, an Ukrainian nationals coming from the Ukraine (via Warsaw)
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UAE; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the UAE and 1 from Senegal via (Lisbon)
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 6 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from Malaysia, 2 from Pakistan and 1 from Germany 
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from the US, Japan and Indonesia
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Iraq (via Dubai and Seoul)

     

    Today, Hong Kong reported 6 new cases, 1 from local transmission, source of transmission unidentified.

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    Protesters in Naples, Italy, opposed to stricter coronavirus measures clash with police

    The mainly-young crowd defied a late-night curfew – some threw smoke bombs and firecrackers, while police responded with tear gas

    What’s “dumb motherfuckers” in Italian?

    Unbelievable.

  5. 5.

    jl

    @Cermet: Thanks for link, I heard a news report, but it gave no reference. Not sure a placebo controlled RCT for baby aspirin will ever get off the ground for such a low cost and low risk intervention. In emergencies, sometimes need to depart from a rigid gold standard fetish.

  6. 6.

    Splitting Image

    Here the president falsely claims frontline healthcare workers are profiting by claiming false #COVID19 diagnoses.

     

    As usual, this is projection. The way they say COVID diagnosis works is the way the pro-life movement actually works. They flat-out lie about how often third-trimester and “partial-birth” abortions happen, reclassify contraceptives as “abortifacents”, make up stories about Planned Parenthood selling aborted baby parts, and then fundraise off of the resulting panic. And the scam is the centre of an enormous movement to take away civil rights that they don’t want other people do have.

    So they assume the panic about COVID must be their political enemies trying to work this scam in reverse, and congratulate themselves for being too clever to fall for it.

  7. 7.

    jl

    Thanks to AL for the economist article. I’ll look into their serology model. Economist reporters should be careful about calling others ‘snide’ though. That article was full of breezy unsupported assertions. Whatever the weaknesses of European countries contact tracing, they are doing miles better than we are. Enough to turn previously reported new waves into outbreaks that have been controlled.

  8. 8.

    jl

    A great weakness of some  European countries’ control polcies has been weak mask requirements. I was very surprised to see how loose they were. Second probably has been poor control of worksites that have produced superspreader events. Seeding from poor control of cross border infections from travel, this was big factor in resurgence in Balkans earlier this summer so surprised lessons weren’t learned. And, bars and nightclubs. So, now I am making unsupported assertions, sorry. I’ll try to find an article on the outbreak data bases. But, point being, they have far better knowledge of where outbreaks start and how they move through their countries.

  9. 9.

    p.a.

    Too bad Europe is trending bad, for its citizens of course, but also selfishly because its success was a nice club to beat the magat administration with. Of course for your garden-variety magat, “Europe, Socialism, *ptooie*.”
    And it’s still doing better than us.

  11. 11.

    jl

    @p.a.:  some reporters should be reminded that, like Africa, Europe is a continent not a country. About half of W European countries are running into serious trouble, half are not. But even Spain shows signs of controlling its very serious outbreaks, and how are we doing by that standard? Very badly.

  12. 12.

    jl

    Also, it is very difficult to evaluate the significance of European and many Asian countries’ test confirmed cases numbers. This is because of better contact tracing and test capacity, they can quickly pulse their per capita testing up by factors of 50, 100, up to 500 percent or more in order to do serious surveillance and outbreak control in addition to diagnostics. I don’t see it mentioned much, but US per capita testing was static from middle of July to end of Sept. Unfortunately with data available, takes about a month to see if hospitalizations and deaths rise with preceding cases.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Number of countries with cumulative reported cases of 500k or more goes from 13 to 15.

    U.S. ~8690k
    India ~7865k
    Brazil ~5381k
    Russia ~1514k
    France ~1086k
    Argentina ~1081k
    Spain ~1046k
    Colombia ~1008k
    Mexico ~887k
    Peru ~886k
    U.K. ~856k
    South Africa ~714k
    Iran ~563k
    Italy ~505k
    Chile ~501k
    .

  15. 15.

    J R in WV

    I just want to thank Anne Laurie for publishing this compiliation of facts every day. It has provided us with the information we need to keep ourselves as safe as possible. Here later today I have to go to town, I’m out of a prescription and low on spirits and wine, out of onions (oh noes) etc. At least I know to wear my fuqin mask~!!~

    I posted in a recent thread about my 3M industrial respirator, which is way better than a fabric mask hanging from my ears. FYI it is an n100 particulate mask which also filters for industrial gases like Carbon Bisulfide, formaldyhyde, which isn’t relevant to Covid of course, but speaks to the quality of the respirator and it’s replacable filters. The filters are 3M 60926. A pair of filters appears to work in a clean environment like Kroger’s or the Farmer’s Market for quite a few trips into town. I replace them when the effort of inhaling becomes apparent, meaning the filters are becoming clogged with particulates.

    I do have a beard, which interferes a little with the gasket effect, but the mask has a wide soft rubber fitment which seems to seal pretty well, certainly a much tighter seal than a disposable or fabric mask. So glad I went into the woodworking shop and dug this tool out. Available from Amazon in just a couple of days, I click on the Amazon link on the B-J front page so Cole gets a bit for the server squirrels.

    One downside is I can’t smell the onions to tell if they’re about to go bad, nor the lemons or fruit to see if they’re ripe. Early in the spring I was loading groceries into the back hatch of the car, and in the hot weather, there was an old Suburban next to me with its engine running, poorly. It was spitting blue smoke on my feet, but it was OK because I couldn’t smell that either. This mask really works!

    You guys all take care, and keep in touch!!

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. The Ministry of Health’s Twitter feed reports  823 new cases today, about a third down from yesterday’s record four-digit number. That brings the cumulative reported total to 26,565 cases. MoH also reports nine new clusters, and eight new deaths for a total of 229 Covid-19 deaths — 0.86% of the cumulative reported total, 1.32% of resolved cases.

    All new cases today are from local infection. Sabah has the most again, 533 cases: 160 in all clusters including new clusters Titir (12), Omadal (nine), Bandaran (five), and Jambul (one); 270 close-contact screenings; and 103 other screenings. Penang is next, with 97 cases: 96 in all clusters including the new Bayan cluster (two), and one close-contact screening. Selangor has 88 cases: 39 in all clusters including the new Mentari cluster (five), 28 close-contact screenings; and 21 other screenings. Labuan has 26 cases: 22 in existing clusters, three close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Negeri Sembilan has 22 cases: 13 in all clusters including the new Jernih cluster (11).

    Johore has 15 cases: 14 in existing clusters, and one person back from a high-risk zone in Sabah. KL has 10 cases: five in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and four in other screenings. Terengganu has seven cases, all in the new Makekar cluster. Perak has six new cases, five in existing clusters, and one close-contact screening. Kedah has one case, in an existing cluster.  Kelantan has one case, a close-contact screening. And Putrajaya has one case, in an existing cluster.

    579 more patients recovered and were discharged today, for a total of 17,134 patients recovered — 64.50% of the cumulative reported total. 9,202 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 99 are in ICU, 30 of them on ventilators.

    The eight deaths, all reported in Sabah, are a 77-year-old man; a 59-year-old man; a 70-year-old woman with iabetes and chronic heart failure; a 58-year-old man with diabetes, hypertension and dislipidæmia; a 77-year-old man; a 34-year-old man with obesity and apnœa; a 74-year-old woman with hypertension and pulmonary tuberculosis; a 68-year-old man with hypertension, dislipidæmia and gout; and an 80-year-old woman.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    When TWO of @KamalaHarris’ staffers tested positive for Covid-19, she canceled her campaign travel for 4 days to protect the public. In contrast, FIVE of @VP Mike Pence’s staffers have now tested positive — including his chief of staff — but he’s continuing his campaign travel.— Jon Cooper ?? (@joncoopertweets) October 25, 2020

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    Yesterday thousands gathered at the Robeson County Fairgrounds, outside Lumberton NC, to rally for trump Robeson County sure didn’t need this. It has the 3rd highest Covid-19 rate of all North Carolina’s counties; test positivity is 11%, twice the state average. Next door Scottland County is just as bad.     I think trump is going down November 3, but his rallies will leave a large trail of disease and death before they’re over.

  22. 22.

    Wag

    All I can say is “Fuck”
    Fuck because I’m so angry with the GOP and their continued denial of the pandemic
    Fuck because Trump is bringing back an oldie but goodie, falsely accusingly health care workers of “profiting” off of the virus, when in fact, it is his family that self deals and enriches themselves
    Fuck because cases are rising, even where governors are diligently trying to do the right thing
    Fuck because I’m so sad at what’s happening
    Fuck

  23. 23.

    TS (the original)

    @rikyrah:

    The idea that “essential workers” are exempt from quarantine is itself a ridiculous concept. No-one should be exempt from quarantine regardless as to who they are or what they do.

  24. 24.

    LurkerNoLonger

    Governor Reynolds “has called mask mandates ‘feel-good’ actions and refused to issue a statewide directive…At the same time, she has blocked municipalities from enforcing their own mask edicts.”

    This fucking Republican bitch.

  25. 25.

    Searcher

    @Cermet: A friend of mine likes to say “nothing works but asprin ever” for how often other long-term interventions (eg, various vitamin megadosing or even supplementing) fails to show any statistically positive benefits.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    A sign of just how quickly spread can take place.

    Lanai will be placed under a stay-at-home order on Tuesday amid a rapidly growing COVID-19 outbreak on the island, Maui County’s mayor said.
    [snip]
    The rush of testing comes as the rural island had a confirmed case count of 63 as of Saturday, health officials said.

    And the state Education Department announced 15 cases among students at Lanai High & Elementary.
    [snip]
    The first four cases on the island were reported Tuesday and new infections have been identified daily. Before this week, Lanai (population: 3,000) had seen no COVID-19 cases. Source

  30. 30.

    zhena gogolia

    Has anybody seen the commenter, I think his name was Joel S, who was very concerned about Covid and used to post a lot? I don’t think I’ve seen him lately.

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    I have to say, based on the experience at my university, that the Trump administration is monstrously evil and incompetent. Testing and tracing are the key, along with firm leadership mandating masks and distancing. Everybody has to be tested, whether or not they’re symptomatic. It costs money, yeah, but so do OVERWHELMED ICUS AND MASSIVE DEATH AND ILLNESS.

    The Federal government should have been on this last January. By now everyone in the country should be tested regularly and positive cases traced. Then it would be under control.

  32. 32.

    debbie

    Yesterday was the first OSU game of the season. About 2,500 new cases were reported in the state yesterday. Can’t wait to see the number reported for November 7th.

  33. 33.

    frosty

    I didn’t make it past the first tweet yet. This isn’t just a lie. This is absolutely vile. What a despicable human being.

    Here the president falsely claims frontline healthcare workers are profiting by claiming false #COVID19 diagnoses.

  35. 35.

    Weetabix

    @jl: I sometimes forget that the Economist, while not particularly conservative by US standards, is decidedly right-of-center on the European spectrum and doesn’t miss a chance to take potshots at lefty Euro coalitions

  36. 36.

    Cermet

    @Searcher:  starting to look very true. Aspirin (for heart health) and now, possible benifits against covid (here note these people admitted were taking aspirin before they got sick. So taking aspirin before getting very sick would be critical -again, assuming this study is fully valid.)

  37. 37.

    zhena gogolia

    @frosty:

    He’s a sadistic monster

    And yet my “nice” neighbors across the street have a sign saying, “The XXX Family support TRUMP-PENCE.”

    When did you ever see a political sign like that? It’s a cult!

  45. 45.

    Ramalama

    @J R in WV: 
    What make and model respirator do you have exactly? My brothers both interact with humans for their jobs in Wisconsin. While they’ve been on top of following Fauci protocols since March, they have co-workers who decidedly have not followed anything other than GOP trail of scorn. I think your kind of respirator is the thing of Christmas presents (early), if I can buy them. Maybe that’s easier to do with me in Canada?

  49. 49.

    frosty

    @J R in WV: I’ve got a respirator like that one somewhere in the basement. I used it when I was rolling out WEST System epoxy on my sailboat. It worked great, I had my face a couple feet from the hull and couldn’t smell a thing.

    I’m signed up for poll watching. I wonder how freaked out people would be if I wore it!

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    @frosty:

    I’m signed up for poll watching. I wonder how freaked out people would be if I wore it! 

    You could also come off as a dick like Matt Gaetz.  (No, I’m not linking to that dick’s picture.)

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    His Majesty the Agong, after consulting with his fellow Malay rulers, decided today that Malaysia does not need a state of emergency to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the recommendation presented to him by PM Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday.

    A statement issued by Istana Negara, the National Palace, said the Agong was satisfied that the Government was handling the pandemic effectively, and had great faith that it already had the policies and enforcement in place to defeat the pandemic. The Agong also urged political parties to desist from their ongoing maneuvering for power, because it was potentially disruptive to national stability.

    A declaration of emergency would have meant the suspension of the Constitution, with wide discretionary powers given to the PM and Cabinet. It has been invoked before, in the Communist insurgency, and in the racial unrest after the general election in May 1969.

  52. 52.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    May there soon be no need for those signs.

    Somewhat related a couple of good polls this morning

    Biden +3 in Texas (my dream win)

    NY24 held by GOP – is even.

  53. 53.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @frosty: But do these masks prevent you from spreading Covid to others? I’m pretty sure that they are valved – filtered coming in, bare nekkid lung exhaust going out.

  55. 55.

    Sloane Ranger

    So, yesterday in the UK we had 23,012 new cases, up about 2500 from the day before. This makes a total of 854,010 since the pandemic began. The new cases are distributed as follows,

    England – 19,332 (up @2000)
    Northern Ireland – 923 (down @200)
    Scotland – 1433 (up 32)
    Wales – 1324 (up @500).

    Deaths – 174 new deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded yesterday making a total of 44,745. 141 of the new deaths were in England, 6 in Northern Ireland, 11 in Scotland and 16 in Wales. There has been a decline in deaths nationwide over the past few days. May it continue!

    Testing – 340,132 tests were processed out of a capacity of 361,573.

    Hospitalisations – 7850 people were in hospital on Thursday, 22 October, 743 were on ventilators on Friday, 23rd. Both figures trending upwards.

    General – There is a row in Wales, which is subject to a nationwide lockdown, about the Welsh government banning supermarkets from selling non-essential items such as clothing and household goods. The government have said this is to be fair to those shops which are required to close because they are not selling essential goods, but there is a massive petition going the rounds demanding this prohibition be removed.

    Meanwhile, in England, the free school meals issue continues on. The issue is whether the government should provide money for families whose children are eligible for free school meals during half term and school holidays. The government did provide vouchers to such families during the first lockdown but are now saying that the changes they have made to the benefits system makes it unnecessary now. Marcus Rashford, the English footballer, is leading the charge against this, arguing that the help isn’t enough. He has the support of a coalition of child poverty and other groups. A number of local councils and businesses have stepped up and said they would provide free meals for eligible children in their area. In a less than helpful intervention, a Tory MP (I think Benjamin Bradley), has tweeted that any financial aid to such families would be frittered away on beer and drugs. Shades of the 19th century there!

  56. 56.

    The Moar You Know

    What’s “dumb motherfuckers” in Italian?

    @mrmoshpotato:  “il cittadino”

    Not being funny. I lived there for six months. Couldn’t wait to leave after the first three weeks. Italy is beautiful, the people are interestingly decent in some ways, frustratingly idiotic in many ways, and in matters of criminal justice and women’s rights, the most backwards-ass motherfuckers on the planet.

    It does not surprise me, sadly, that they’ve chosen masks and party restrictions as their hill to die on.

  57. 57.

    Ramalama

    @Steeplejack:

    Only instead of soybean futures it’s how many people died.

    As a child, I spent many a cold dark morning with my father in the car listening to pork & soybean futures on AM radio. Sunday newspaper deliveries. Plus those times when he was manic and wanted to go for a drive and needed a companion (me). Hours and hours the smell of black coffee from his thermos. The peeling plastic from the passenger seat. The soothing midwestern timbre from the newscaster discussing farming on parcels of land that used to be rows of corn, and are now tracts of housing.

  58. 58.

    StringOnAStick

    I talked to a friend who works at the small yet exclusive engineering U here in town. Their policies are working and the students are very much complying with all that has to be done to keep it that way, the student and staff positivity rate has stayed at 1% or less since the semester started. Over the summer the HVAC systems were all modified to increase the air exchange rate, and there was lots of heavy planning for how to make the fall semester work. It’s working. The kind of student body there helps a ton too, this is the very polar opposite of a “party school”.

  59. 59.

    Fair Economist

    @Sloane Ranger:  I don’t think there is much benefit from closing dry goods stores. With capacity restrictions and mask requirements shopping should be fairly safe. The killer issue seems to be people eating and drinking together, especially indoors. If we stop that, including home parties, I think we will be OK with the other sensible measures like masks, handwashing, and social distancing.

  60. 60.

    The Moar You Know

    I posted in a recent thread about my 3M industrial respirator, which is way better than a fabric mask hanging from my ears. FYI it is an n100 particulate mask which also filters for industrial gases like Carbon Bisulfide, formaldyhyde, which isn’t relevant to Covid of course, but speaks to the quality of the respirator and it’s replacable filters. The filters are 3M 60926. A pair of filters appears to work in a clean environment like Kroger’s or the Farmer’s Market for quite a few trips into town. I replace them when the effort of inhaling becomes apparent, meaning the filters are becoming clogged with particulates.

    @J R in WV:  I lived in one for five years, 12-14 hours a day.  The VOC filters are impressive; they don’t protect against a lot of things (like the exhaust gas of the vehicle next to you; you’re still getting a full load of carbon monoxide, you just can’t tell because it’s odorless) just render you unable to smell them, which is a concern if you’re working in an environment with unknown gases.  But for typical paint fumes, that sort of thing, a known environment with toxins that the mask is rated for, they protect you.

    What they don’t do is the very thing we ask people to mask for in the first place; they protect you.  They don’t protect others.  The valve.

    it just sprays all your virions all over the place.  No outbound filter at all.  So, they look impressive, and they do great on the intake side, but if you happened to be asymptomatic you’re simply be hosing down any room you go into with virus.

    You’d be far better off from a comfort and breathability standpoint with a standard N95/N100 mask, and much less risk to your fellow citizenry.  I have two of those 3M masks.  They stay in the garage.

  61. 61.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Was Benjamin Bradley also the one who said that Marcus Rashford, MBE only got those free meals under a Labour government, and that a Conservative government would never have offered any such meals programme?

  62. 62.

    Ohio Mom

    Ohio Family’s lifestyle hasn’t changed very much since the lockdown — we venture out for necessities, but not for socializing or entertainment (or my summertime favorite, yard sales).

    We did eat out on Fridays during the summer, at restaurants that have outside seating and during non-peak hours. Now we are back to take-out for a treat.

    The big exception has been doctor visits, including Ohio Dad’s kidney stone procedures and my upcoming gum surgery. But these are not optional.

    That’s all we can do. The rest has to be government’s responsibility. I can’t fine people who won’t wear masks, or close down bars and restaurants, or set up testing and tracing.

    We are living examples of the limits of personal responsibility for solving societal problems.

  64. 64.

    cain

    @Splitting Image: 

    If roe vs wade is gone – that scam is going to go out – so I’m curious to know what will be the new one issue voter scam that they will pull off next? If you ask me it ‘s going to be all of us – eg liberals. Qanon already has some of that going – when you have 30% of the population who believe that democrats are all pedophiles – I think that’s enough for a movement against all of us.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @Kathleen:

    Apparently it also attracted some “MAGA nuns” (UK Daily Mail; paywall, so can’t link). //

    I missed the local news last night. Hopefully, they’ll have a headcount.

  67. 67.

    nclurker

    beware daily baby aspirin.
    did it for a year and went to the hospital for a severe,but ultimately self -correcting
    g.i. bleed.
    losing a pint or two out of your ass kinda focuses your attention.
    as the small print, says,”with a dr.’s supervision”.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Sloane Ranger: That was an informative post, worth rereading. This Benjamin Bradley sounds like  a very dry Tory.    Its too bad your country doesn’t have regularly scheduled and more frequent elections. The U.S. elected even worse leadership in 2016, but the 2018 mid term election has made a big difference as far as limiting the damage.

  69. 69.

    West of the Cascades

    I see all those MAGA masks behind trump in the Wisconsin rally, and scream at my computer WHY THE FUCK COULDN’T YOU HAVE DONE THAT BACK IN APRIL, YOU WOULD HAVE MADE A GADZILLION DOLLARS AND SAVED THOUSANDS OF LIVES?

  70. 70.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @The Moar You Know:  …[I]n matters of criminal justice and women’s rights, the most backwards-ass motherfuckers on the planet.

    Ever checked the attitudes of Italian-Americans? Pretty much the same. When they came over they were treated as criminals and anarchists, not fully human – & once they got “godfathered**” into whiteness they (by & large) turned around & did the same fucking thing to whoever was below them on the totem pole.

    **And just FTR, I’m sure there are many Jackals who recall the pre-Godfather&Sopranos days when gli italoamericani screamed bloody murder ;^D about how we*** were unfairly discriminated against as criminals because there was no such thing as the Mafia. Well, guess what? We were consciously lying through our teeth all that time. Every fucking one of us.

    *** 100% Italian-American here – half Sicilian. The Feds arrested my father’s stepfather (also Sicilian) in 1940 for growing marijuana on a back acre of his farm. They offered to let him off if he just fingered the guys who put him up to it. He kept his mouth shut, did a year in prison, lost the farm to the fine & never owned a thing in his own name again. But he lived into his late 80s. Don’t fucking tell me about the Mafia.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cain: The anti-abortion scam itself can always be escalated–overturning Roe is weaksauce. There’s always declaring fetal personhood in 50 states, banning contraception, criminalizing any behavior deemed to cause a miscarriage, rolling back feminism in general, etc., etc. It’s a rich vein.

  73. 73.

    GrueBleen

    The James Pethokoukis tweet reminds me of an old ‘cold war’ Russian joke.

    A party official was visiting towns throughout Russia to instruct the locals in town meetings on war preparations and how the government would install alarms that would sound out if a nuclear attack was happening.
    “So”, said the official, “if you hear this alarm, don a white sheet and walk slowly to the cemetery.”
    “Comrade”, interjected an audience member, “why walk slowly ?”
    “Why”, replied the official, “to avoid panic !”

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