Coronaviral

[Vesper 28,818]

Seeing The “Open the Economy” Protests In Their Proper Light

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/seeing-the-open-the-economy-protests-in-their-proper-light

Hundreds of New Hampshire residents rally at the State House, calling on the government to re-open the state for business as the coronavirus shutdown continues, in Concord, New Hampshire, on April 18, 2020. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images) 

 

The protests we’ve seen in a handful of locations around the country have bamboozled a lot of the national press. Look closely and a lot of the turnout is heavily stocked with militia types and the kinds of groups who turned out for the Charlottesville protests a couple years ago. But the bigger thing is that for now they appear highly orchestrated. In Michigan, they appear to be in part in reaction polling showing severe declines in public support for President Trump. They’re organized by groups funded in large part by the DeVos family. These are basically Trump loyalists supporting Trump at his request and mobilized by key rightist groups. The key question, as TPM Reader TS explains, is whether what starts here as orchestrated and largely inorganic takes on a life of its own and gains political traction. They now have Fox and an incumbent President cheering them on as a demonstration of political identity.

As for the “open the economy” protests right now, I am keeping an eye on them. A modest number of places so far, and participants in the tens to hundreds to around a thousand apiece. These early events look very orchestrated by a few key national professional organizations – and more electorally aimed than early Tea P or resistance protests were in 2009 and 2017. The orchestrators are Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, Club for Growth, and the Trump reelect campaign, all national professional operations. The advocacy groups are all ultra-free-market operations that most certainly do not want most Americans to become reliant upon public benefits or more trusting of government.

This is an ideological worry for them. Of course there are also real grassroots participants carrying signs and honking car horns. They might be activists signed up with FW, AFP, Club etc, and certainly they are Trump Twiitter followers. They look exactly like the kinds of people who attend Trump rallies. I do not mean to signal disrespect for them. They feel what they feel. But they are a tiny minority – and you can bet that a lot of their wives and mothers are worried about them going out in public to cluster and perhaps catch the virus. Also, these are such a minority of people that they are hardly going to crowd any shopping malls if those reopen. Keeping an eye on what women think is relevant to the revival of consumerism.

What I will be watching will be to see if these protests spread to hundreds of locales – as Tea Party and resistance protests did in the past – and whether there seem to be regularly meeting local clusters. I don’t think either will happen, given the virus realities/risks, but I do think there are genuine hard-core Trump enthusiasts, all white and heavily middle-aged males, who for a while will pursue this instead of traveling to his big rallies. They love him and want to show it publicly – want to attract TV cameras. They see the pandemic as more of a political threat to their Guy than as a heath risk.

The national orchestrators will try hard to control the targeting and media coverage of all this, aiming it at Democratic governors. That may not entirely work. We have seen a number of these rallies in GOP-run states, too, and probably will see more. Trump is a new factor in all of this, because earlier wildfire local protests were not egged on from the White House in Twitter and in daily TV shows.

The big question will be whether national media fall for the presentation of this as “economic frustration.” That seems dubious to me. Just like the Tea Partiers in 2009-10 were more about enthonationalist resentments than economic suffering, these folks seem similar. They are partisans, and they are also angry that non-big-city areas of states face restrictions for what I strongly suspect many of them see as a virus that hits big cities and minority populations. They want to go about their business and pretend the cities do not exist (not very economically realistic, but very much in line with current partisan polarization).

The catch of course is that viruses do not target demographically or (for long) geographically that much, and this one is spreading to new hot spots in the Midwest, South, etc. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, deserves a lot of attention.

One neat project that maybe the TIMES should do is look to see if these protests are happening in states, regions, cities that are truly on the downslope of infections, or not. I doubt it. Jacksonville FL is a relative virus hotspot, for example, and we see opening the beaches there. Certain GOP governors and cities area really playing with fire, and their people may soon be burned, including the white middle-class ones.

Key Coronavirus Crisis Links

Josh Marshall’s Twitter List of Trusted Experts (Epidemiologists, Researchers, Clinicians, Journalists, Government Agencies) providing reliable real-time information on the COVID-19 Crisis.

COVID-19 Tracking Project (updated data on testing and infections in the U.S.).

IHME Projections Site (COVID-19 epidemic model which has become the canonical model for many states and hospitals.)

Johns Hopkins Global COVID-19 Survey (most up to date numbers globally and for countries around the world).

Worldometers.info (extensive source of information and data visualizations on COVID-19 Crisis — discussion of data here).

[11Drogba 2,000]

 

[11Drogba 2,000]

 

[Fernando 6,463]

Apple and Google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology

Across the world, governments and health authorities are working together to find solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, to protect people and get society back up and running. Software developers are contributing by crafting technical tools to help combat the virus and save lives. In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design.

Since COVID-19 can be transmitted through close proximity to affected individuals, public health officials have identified contact tracing as a valuable tool to help contain its spread. A number of leading public health authorities, universities, and NGOs around the world have been doing important work to develop opt-in contact tracing technology. To further this cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing. Given the urgent need, the plan is to implement this solution in two steps while maintaining strong protections around user privacy.

First, in May, both companies will release APIs that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores.

Second, in the coming months, Apple and Google will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms. This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities. Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders. We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyze.

All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems. Through close cooperation and collaboration with developers, governments and public health providers, we hope to harness the power of technology to help countries around the world slow the spread of COVID-19 and accelerate the return of everyday life.

 

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/04/apple-and-google-partner-on-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/

[11Drogba 2,000]

 

[11Drogba 2,000]

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

14 minutes ago, 11Drogba said:

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

8 hours ago, 11Drogba said:

 

If all the idiots were in America it would be bad enough, but they're everywhere.

[11Drogba 2,000]

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

9 hours ago, 11Drogba said:

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

250 million now to face starvation because of Covid 19 and 30 million to possibly die in next few months according to UN and World Food Programme

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

Questions mount over Christian group behind Central Park Covid-19 hospital
Facility run by Trump ally Franklin Graham’s organisation requires staff to sign statement opposing gay marriage
....... 
 
Despite all the outrage, Graham, 67, told the Guardian in an interview on Thursday that he believed “the vast majority of New Yorkers are glad that we are there” and that the organisation would remain in Central Park for as long as it was needed.
The preacher, who lives in Boone, North Carolina, added: “It’s just a small handful of people who are opposed. And I find in life there’s always somebody who’s opposed to whatever you do and they’re just naysayers who disagree with our difficult positions and take exception to that.”

Defending the statement of faith, he said: “We are an evangelical Christian organisation and we want to have people of like mind.”

He said “a handful” of qualified people had been turned away because they could not sign the statement of faith, which he said was non-negotiable. “If they agree with it they’ll sign it, if they don’t agree with it then they move on. That’s just who we are and we’re not going to change who we are.”

But he insisted that all patients were treated the same “regardless of their sexual orientation, their race or their religion, it doesn’t matter”.

He also claimed he was not homophobic or Islamophobic, but added: “I certainly disagree with homosexuality and I believe the Bible’s very clear about what it has to say about homosexuality, and that’s my opinion and that’s what I believe, but I’m not anti-gay.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/19/questions-mount-over-christian-group-behind-central-park-covid-19-hospital

That's so stupid. When Christian's in the first few centuries stayed to cart for the sick on cities which had been emptied by those who could move, did they ask those who hoped whether they agreed with same sex marriage first?

Stupid.

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[Supermonkey92 1,428]

250 million now to face starvation because of Covid 19 and 30 million to possibly die in next few months according to UN and World Food Programme

Which is why the question of how long the lockdown remains is a necessity. We are trading off scenarios which will end in death either way. Direct death from the virus and indirect death from crippling poverty. The question is the extent of death from either case.

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[11Drogba 2,000]

7 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

 

[Vesper 28,818]

16 hours ago, 11Drogba said:

 

unfortunately for that fat cunt yank traitor Barr, there is a little thing called the 

 

Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

 

[Vesper 28,818]

Brutal breakdown of why Governor Kemp is sending Georgians to die

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nations ranked by most deaths per 1 million of population

and the US is dramatically undercounting cases and deaths due to a horrid testing rate

they are only in 42nd place in terms of testing per 1 million pops, 30th if you pull out microstates

now that many of Red states (Republican governor-led especially)  are opening up, Trump will truly try to sabotage testing in a huge, coordinated effort to keep the case and death count down

Belgium's rate is so high because they are by far the most truthful with their stats, I would say the US rate is around the UK's in reality (the rate shown here for the UK, I think the UK is undercounting too)

 

[Fernando 6,463]

3 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

250 million now to face starvation because of Covid 19 and 30 million to possibly die in next few months according to UN and World Food Programme

Yeah that was inevitable. 

It's sad, because we in the wealthy nations can sustain a lockdown for 40 days or more. But not the poor countries where people make a living outside. 

Let's not even talk about not having money for food and what not to buy at groceries.