Cont: The all-new "US Politics and coronavirus" thread pt. 2

[carlitos]

They've changed the threshold for how light blue, blue etc. are picked. First map, light blue is 1-620. Second map, light blue is 1-949. The red starts at 2961 in the first map, 3769 in the second. IOW the red "hot zone" is not comparable to the red in the first map. One of these maps on its own would show you the rankings among counties, but comparing the maps is highly misleading.



Counties that were red in the first map can fall out of red in the second map, even if they have increased transmission. If the parameters were kept the same there would be more red counties in the second map.

Yes the thresholds were changed. But that may be just the default distribution for the map program. It doesn’t mean that it’s nefarious.

The question I would ask is who is showing that graph to whom and why? It’s a heat map of counties — which are doing better and which are doing worse per 100k of population. If it’s just one out of several standard graphs that get issued issued every week, I have zero issue with that. If it’s like that Mis-ordered data that Georgia showed when they first opened up, then obviously that’s a ridiculous misuse of numbers.

IIRC, when they first opened the state, they showed a chart of daily cases, which some moron had re-sorted, rather than showing the days in calendar order.

 

[Resume]

Yesterday the United States reported an all-time high for new cases with over 75,000. Almost 15,000 of those cases were in Texas. Below are some quotes from NBC affiliate KXAN-TV in Austin. The news story was filed last night and it is very grim:

Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, you know, the guy who says Fauci doesn't know what he's talking about, who says there are more important things than living . . . he's on the front lines with the medical professionals and first responders, right?

He said he's no hero; no **** Sherlock.

 

[newyorkguy]

Dan Patrick isn't backing down or backing off. This is from a column published two weeks ago in the Texas Tribune:

This week, as Abbott was trying to find the handle on the alarming escalation of the coronavirus in Texas, Patrick was going the other way in television interviews, saying the Texas numbers aren’t bad, that news organizations are picking on states with Republican governors and giving a pass to those with Democratic governors...Patrick was more combative in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “Fauci said today he’s concerned about states like Texas that ‘skipped over’ certain things. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We haven’t skipped over anything. The only thing I’m skipping over is listening to him.” Texas Tribune link

Back in May Patrick even posted bail for the owner of a hair salon who was arrested after opening up for business in defiance of a state mandate that hair salons, among other businesses, remain closed.

 

[Lurch]

Can't remember if I posted this here, but I did in some YT video comment section. .

Imagine if all these 140,000 deaths were at the hands of crafty pop-up terrorists, crying "Allah u ackbar!", blasting the victim with an AK, then disappearing into the woodwork. The US would be alternating between apoplectic rage and paralyzing fear. The Government would bend every effort and spend untold treasure to fix the problem.

But for a virus? Meh.

 

[Puppycow]

White House seeks to block funds for coronavirus testing and tracing in relief bill, report says

The White House is trying to block billions of dollars for coronavirus testing and contact tracing in the upcoming stimulus relief bill, according to a new report in The Washington Post, even as infections surge across the country and Americans face long wait times to receive test results amid high demand.

The Trump administration also wants to block billions of dollars that would go toward bolstering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pentagon and the State Department to combat the pandemic, the Post reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the deliberations.
. . .

The Post report comes just hours after a piece in The New York Times detailed how the White House sought to shift responsibility for dealing with the pandemic to the state governments with disastrous results. The Times’ report was based on interviews with state and administration officials as well as emails and documents.

President Trump has publicly called coronavirus testing a “double-edged sword” and even suggested at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma that officials should slow testing down. White House officials later said Trump was joking.

However, the Times report portrayed a president who feels boxed in by testing because cases counts inevitably increase as more people are tested, jeopardizing the reopening of the economy and potentially damaging his re-election chances.

 

[timhau]

So much for Trump's "Deaths are down" BS. Hospitalization and deaths follow infections with a lag, exactly as predicted by everyone that isn't drinking his kool-aid.

 

[varwoche]

White House seeks to block funds for coronavirus testing and tracing in relief bill, report says

Assume for a moment, for the sake of discussion, that Trump is not an agent for a hostile foreign power.

I'm unable to distinguish Trump's actions from those of an agent of a hostile foreign power, determined to wreak destruction, suffering, and destabilization.

 

[Meadmaker]

White House seeks to block funds for coronavirus testing and tracing in relief bill, report says

I read that headline yesterday and it seemed so unbelievable to me, even when one considers Trump. What possible justification could there be for this?

 

[Minoosh]

I read that headline yesterday and it seemed so unbelievable to me, even when one considers Trump. What possible justification could there be for this?

He maybe thinks he can sweep all this under the rug? He's so self-centered that if he's not personally affected, he thinks no one is?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Can't remember if I posted this here, but I did in some YT video comment section. .

Imagine if all these 140,000 deaths were at the hands of crafty pop-up terrorists, crying "Allah u ackbar!", blasting the victim with an AK, then disappearing into the woodwork. The US would be alternating between apoplectic rage and paralyzing fear. The Government would bend every effort and spend untold treasure to fix the problem.

Building on this: imagine if this happened and Obama was president. The intelligence community is worried about islamists in some foreign country and how they could strike in the US. Obama says it's a hoax by his political opponents to damage him. Terrorist attacks and killings reach the US. Obama says it's "just one guy coming in from Saudi-Arabia" and that they have everything under control. The death toll mounts. Obama says the terrorists will go away like a miracle. He advises people to do something equally stupid and dangerous as drinking bleach, getting multiple people injured and several killed, then says he was just joking to get a rise out of the conservatives. As tens of thousands die every day, he orders airports to relax security, because tight security just leads to more terrorists apprehended, and the terrorist threat is bad for his ratings. He then says he was just joking to trigger conservatives. He rails against whatever everyday safety measures would be equivalent to wearing a mask and performing social distancing. He boasts that he knows more about islamists than anybody, and that the intelliengece community is corrupt. He disregards intel that islamists are placing bounties on US soldiers. He retweets a video where an islamist shouts "allahu ackbar". He says there are fine people among the islamists.

You-know-who would not just protest outside the White House like the triggered libruls are doing, they'd storm it and string up Obama from a lamp post.

 

[Craig4]

He maybe thinks he can sweep all this under the rug? He's so self-centered that if he's not personally affected, he thinks no one is?

I think the answer is in Mary Trump's book. Trump engages in toxic positivity. If you don't acknowledge the bad news there isn't bad news. Testing forces you to notice the bad news.

 

[newyorkguy]

As one expects, the White House and trump have refused to respond to inquiries from the media about their reported efforts to block funds for testing. But CNBC (and some others) have reported:

Some White House officials reportedly believe new money shouldn’t be allocated for testing because previous funds remain unspent. CNBC link

However

The Trump administration also wants to block billions of dollars that would go toward bolstering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pentagon and the State Department to combat the pandemic, The Washington Post reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the deliberations.

Forbes business magazine reported that testing is not as wonderful as trump continually says it is.

A lack of testing has beset the U.S. since the beginning of the virus outbreak. Now, the main problem appears to be a backlog at labs across the country. This week, the Washington Post reported that some testing sites are taking five to seven days to deliver results to patients...Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney penned an op-ed in CNBC this week in which he argued the U.S. still has a “testing problem.” “Any stimulus should be directed at the root cause of our recession: dealing with Covid,” Mulvaney writes. “I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country.” Forbes link

Yet trump doggedly sticks to the 'party line,' as he recently told Fox News' Chris Wallace:

“No country has ever done what we’ve done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world,” Trump said. CNBC link

 

[newyorkguy]

The real danger from this is just around the corner. Health officials have been warning for months, we need to flatten the curve over the summer and get people out of the hospitals before the Fall flu season rolls in. Instead, as July winds down the U.S. is daily reaching new highs in cases and hospitalizations have been rising since mid-June. This is setting the stage for a disaster come September, one that trump seems oblivious to.

That's what has always scared me about trump being president. I watched in real time as trump insisted the United States Football League abandon its successful Spring schedule and move to the Fall, to go head-to-head with the NFL. Most observers told trump he was making a huge mistake only trump ignored them. Of course, it turned out they were right, trump was wrong. When the league played in the Fall and the numbers tanked, the league collapsed. What did trump do then? Did he stay and try and figure out a strategy to keep the league going? Of course not. trump just walked away.

That doesn't exactly inspire too much confidence in donald trump. Now I'm seeing him setting up the United States for a major health catastrophe. I know if it happens, trump will probably lose the Fall election and, come next January 20th, he'll walk away. Like he did with the USFL. Let the next guy figure out what to do.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

And of course, the next guy will be blamed for every problem he's inherited from Trump, the same way Trump is praised for inheriting a low unemployment rate from Obama.

 

[Meadmaker]

I would like to think that this rise in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have doomed Donald Trump. Until that happened, it could be a dispute between those who say we shouldn't open up, and those that say we should.

I think even his supporters are being forced to acknowledge that no matter what they think the best course of action would have been, Trump has flopped around on it, said things that are obviously untrue, and been grossly incompetent. The best case for him is not that people will think he did a great job on the pandemic, but that people will think it's not his fault and there are more important issues. (i.e. I don't care if everyone dies, as long as they don't raise my taxes.)

As long as that holds, I don't think he can be reelected. However, the election is still a long way off in a very volatile world. A lot can happen. If there is an effective vaccine by then, will people either give him credit or decide that his bungling doesn't matter anymore?

I just find myself thinking, "Please, Joe. Don't say anything stupid!"

 

[Belz...]

White House seeks to block funds for coronavirus testing and tracing in relief bill, report says

If I didn't know better I'd think Trump and the GOP are deliberately trying to kill as many Americans as they can.

 

[Stacyhs]

Trump does not live in reality. Plain and simple.

 

[carlitos]

If there is an effective vaccine by then, will people either give him credit or decide that his bungling doesn't matter anymore?

"

There is not going to be an effective vaccine by November. That is a fantasy be repeated by the president. Even Fauci is
just being optimistic at this point.

 

[Meadmaker]

There is not going to be an effective vaccine by November. That is a fantasy be repeated by the president. Even Fauci is
just being optimistic at this point.

There certainly won't be one going into the public's arms by then.

I suppose the worst case scenario, politically, would be that there is a vaccine that shows some promise, and people give Trump the credit for that.

It was weird trying to decide whether to call that the best case or the worst case. In reality, I really, really hope that there is a vaccine at that stage by election time. That would be the best case. I just hope people don't give Trump credit for it. That would be the worst case.

I look at the things that he has done right in this scenario, and what I see are things that any president would have done. He really did take steps to ensure ventilator capacity. He really did take steps to increase hospital capacity by setting up temporary facilities in New York, Detroit, and elsewhere. He overdid both of those things, and that is good. He really did shove money toward vaccines. He really did shove money toward testing capacity. Those are all good things. In my mind, those are all obvious things. I don't think they should override the mixed messages, falsehoods, bad advice, and lack of clear messages on masking, or failure to ramp up production of N95 masks that would be more effective.

So, I think, people are going to see through his incompetence, and won't give him credit for doing something that anyone ought to have known should be done. We'll know in November.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I think the answer is in Mary Trump's book. Trump engages in toxic positivity. If you don't acknowledge the bad news there isn't bad news. Testing forces you to notice the bad news.

It also goes along with his big lie, there aren't more cases just more testing.