It’s a busy day, here in the CatBox. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a very brief Personal Update, because I have to leave home at 7:30. WWWendy is taking me to the hospital for my next infusion and to discuss what we need to change to extend my life without killing me. I’ll try to let you know when I’m home safe.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:12). To do it, click here. How did you do?
From Crooks and Liars: Almost certain to be an enduring meme, that Trump decided that going golfing was appropriate and more important than honouring Americans that have died due to COVID-19. That he did so doing Memorial Day weekend makes it even worse.
President Trump, who has faced mounting criticism for his administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis and his lack of empathy throughout, decided to leave the White House on Saturday to play golf.
According to several reports, today’s trip to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, is likely his first outing to one of his private golf courses since early March. However, during the two “working weekends” the president spent at Camp David in May, it is unknown whether or not he played golf.
Trump going golfing is consistent with his reopen theme that he’s been pushing of late, but it still shows a tone-deafness and a lack of empathy. The U.S. pandemic death toll is approaching 100,000, and on top of that it’s Memorial Day weekend, a solemn occasion meant for tributes to Americans lost at war.
What Trump did today is much worse. He insulted fallen heroes by taking his ersatz bone spurs to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Sharply disagreeing with critics of Donald J. Trump’s weekend visit to the Trump National Golf Club, Dr. Anthony Fauci has urged Trump to remain on the golf course until the pandemic is over.
“The people who are giving you a hard time about your golf trip are just haters,” Fauci told Trump on Sunday. “It’s in the best interest of everyone in the country that you keep golfing, Mr. President.”
“Please,” he added.
Andy, I have to admit that Fauci’s point could not be more valid. RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the Past): 500 miles – Peter, Paul and Mary [Original Audio]
The world is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by a new virus. With new insights in the way COVID19 spreads, in the way the virus behaves and in the way to deal with the pandemic every day, it is now more important than ever to safeguard the information we share is accurate and fact-based. We have to inoculate ourselves against the fake news and misinformation that infect our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment by fact-checking.
For the duration of the pandemic, I will try to give you an overview of the main issues in CoronaCheck, an Australian email newsletter with the latest from around the world concerning the coronavirus.*
The stream of misinformation surrounding 5G technology and the coronavirus seems to be exponentially increasing, so much so that it has prompted Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, to address the issue at a recent press briefing where he noted there was “absolutely no evidence about 5G doing anything in the coronavirus space”. Dr Murphy added, “I have unfortunately received a lot of communication from these conspiracy theorists myself it is complete nonsense.”
It prompted the UK government to seek partnership with Twitter; users searching for 5G conspiracy tweets will see a pop-up with the text “the UK government has said there is no evidence of a link between 5G and coronavirus (COVID-19)” and directing them to further information.
Recent 5G misinformation consists of a video, viewed thousands of times, which shows a supposed telecoms engineer who is erecting 5G masts in the UK holding up an electrical circuit board and claiming it is “a piece of kit that has COV-19 on it”.
Reuters found that this video was staged; the circuit board isn’t used in 5G technology but was taken from a Virgin Media box for cable television. Virgin Media told Reuters the board was from a “very old set-top box” and had never been inscribed or imprinted with “COV-19”. Virgin maintained
“[The board] has absolutely no relation with any mobile network infrastructure, including that used for 5G.”
Another claim that “radiation pneumonitis”, allegedly caused by 5G, was being misdiagnosed as COVID-19 was also found to be false by Reuters.
REMDESIVIR FACTS
Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral drug, manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Gilead and recently approved as a COVID-19 treatment in the US. In Australia, the drug is not yet being used in any clinical trials, although it is expected some hospitals are to receive doses of the drug for use with COVID-19 patients.
Misinformation around many COVID-19 treatments, including remdesivir, has spread rapidly throughout the pandemic. For example, a Facebook post claimed that hydroxychloroquine, another touted COVID-19 treatment mentioned here before, was “91 per cent effective” and cheap, while remdesivir was effective in just 50 per cent of patients and cost US$1,000. “Why is Fauci pushing Remdesivir? It was invented by Fauci and Gates. Its stock is now soaring. Always follow the $$$$$$$.” the post stated, pointing to US infectious diseases expert and White House adviser Anthony Fauci and the much-maligned Bill Gates.
But as USA Today found, neither hydroxychloroquine nor remdesivir had been proven effective against COVID-19, with clinical trials ongoing. Further, Gilead Sciences is the only organisation that could profit from the sale of remdesivir and neither Mr Gates nor Dr Fauci had any involvement in the development of the drug.
Another Facebook post imagines a remdesivir conspiracy centred around Unitaid, which it suggests is Gilead’s “drug patent sharing subsidiary branch”. According to the post, Unitaid has an office in Wuhan and is backed by Bill and Melinda Gates, billionaire investor George Soros and the World Health Organisation. Hillary Clinton, Dr Fauci and Wuhan’s Institute of Virology are also mentioned.
Snopes found these claims to be false. Unitaid is not linked to Gilead and does not have an office near Wuhan. And while the organisation, which invests in innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat several global health issues, is supported financially by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it has no ties to Mr Soros or Dr Fauci. Unitaid is a “hosted partnership” of the WHO but receives no financial support from the organisation.
PNEUMONIA VS THROMBOSIS
Image source: AP/Zhang Yuwei Via Xinhua
Some news stories lately have raised concerns that COVID-19, which has been viewed mainly as respiratory disease, may also have patients die through thrombosis (the formation of blood clots).
Full Fact took a look at claims posted on social media that COVID-19 patients were being misdiagnosed with pneumonia when in fact they were suffering from thrombosis. The posts propagated to fight the disease is with “antibiotics, antivirals, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants”.
The fact-checkers found that patients were not being “misdiagnosed” with pneumonia. Rather, both pneumonia and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), which leads to thrombosis, was present in COVID-19 cases. Indian-based BOOM also found that respiratory failure rather than thrombosis was the leading cause of COVID-19 deaths with thrombosis of the lungs “a factor that can further complicate the course of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients,” they said.
Full Fact found that antibiotics were not recommended for treatment, as they are effective for bacterial infections only and no specific antiviral has been shown conclusively to be effective against COVID-19. Anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen could help treat COVID-19 symptoms at home, and there was evidence to suggest anticoagulants facilitated the treatment of some patients.
EXERCISE
Many are turning to exercise to relieve boredom and stay fit and healthy during the coronavirus restrictions. Some online claims, however, have suggested that exercise may weaken the immune system. One advertisement linking to an article claims that a “window of opportunity” exists in the hours after strenuous exercise which can leave people vulnerable to infection from viruses.
USA Today’s fact-checkers found that the “window of opportunity” theory has been around for decades, supported by at least one study that found “vigorous workouts could have a temporary negative effect on the immune system”. But as to the long-term effects of exercising, several scientific studies suggested regular exercise promotes good health and reduces the risk of infections.
John Campbell, of the University of Bath’s Department of Health, told USA Today that “People should not fear that their immune system will be suppressed by exercise, placing them at increased risk of coronavirus.”
FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.
As the US grapples with soaring numbers of COVID-19 cases and the highest number of deaths in the world, Republicans are blaming former Democratic president Barack Obama for having left the current administration poorly placed to cope with the pandemic.
During an online discussionhosted by President Trump’s re-election campaign, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it may no longer be that pandemics are a once-in-100-year occurrence, and he wanted to be ready for the next one.
“Clearly, the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this.”
But fact-checkers at the Washington Post, CNN’s Fact First and Politifact found that claim to be false, and that the Obama administration had left behind a 40-page National Security Council “playbook” on fighting pandemics.
“McConnell is wrong to say the Obama administration left “no game plan” to deal with a pandemic,” the Washington Post concluded. “The Obama team crafted a detailed document setting forth questions and policies that should be considered, as well as put in place programs that might have helped spur action sooner.”
#26: Brown sugar “There is no official cure for COVID-19 as of May 21, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There are several clinical trials being conducted to test potential cures, but consuming brown sugar is not one of them.” – Rappler
*The facts in this article are derived from the Australian RMIT ABC Fact Check newsletters which in turn draw on their own resources and those of their colleagues within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which RMIT ABC Fact Check is a member.
It’s a very busy day, here in the CatBox. WWWendy should be here in half an hour, so I’d better burn rubber. This is today’s only article. Have a great holiday weekend. If you must travel, please protect yourselves.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
From Alternet: …A new study shows that when it comes to forcing workers to go back into offices, stores, and factories, almost half the online voices shouting for the “reopening of America” were, and are, bot accounts. Of the accounts that have tweeted most on this topic, more than half are bots. Of the most influential, almost all are bots. And behind the bots … is someone still unknown.
The report comes out of Carnegie Mellon University. Digging through over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus, researchers focused in on the most influential accounts—those most active, most retweeted, and most liked. Out of the top 1,000 accounts, 62% are bots. Perhaps even more amazing: of the 50 most influential accounts on this topic, 82% are bots.
The bots may be numerous, but their message isn’t varied. They’re not being used to pass along accurate news about COVID-19, to encourage social distancing, or to support state government calls for preventive measures. In addition to pushing false cures, like Trump’s much-pushed hydroxychloroquine, and spreading general false information about the dangers of COVID-19, there’s one point where bots are driving the whole of social media. According to the report, they are “dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and ‘reopening America.’”… [emphasis added]
We can be sure of one thing. Those bots are smarter than the Republican sheeple they influence. Even artificial intelligence is more than no intelligence at all. RESIST!!
From CNN: With restaurants closed or open with limited capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic, a certain subset of those establishments’ “patrons” is struggling.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that certain areas across the country are reporting “an increase in rodent activity,” as rats search for sources of food other than restaurant dumpsters.
“Jurisdictions have closed or limited service at restaurants and other commercial establishments to help limit the spread of COVID-19,” the CDC said. “Rodents rely on the food and waste generated by these establishments. Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas.”
As a result, rats are scampering elsewhere — including residential areas. Given the circumstances, they may even exhibit “unusual or aggressive” behavior, the CDC said.
We need to do some heavy duty pest control to kill those rats. Not only do they spread disease, but also, you know they’ll vote Republican in November! RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the past): If I Were a Carpenter
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Another week, another postponement. But I do think this article is important, and has implications far beyond its immediate subject – which I see as being “What good does it do to have an official in place to oversee government activity when the very person they are investigating has the power to fire them?” That is certainly an important question.
But an even bigger question with wider application, in my opinion, is this: There is no guarantee that an elected official will have integrity. Many people who lack it manage to coax enough votes from the electorate to get into office. There is also no guarantee that an appointed official will have integrity. Officials appointed by someone who lacks integrity will probably lack it also. Even a confirmation process – as we have seen – will not guarantee integrity on the part of officials appointed by someone who has none. How, then, should we design our processes to ensure the maximum possible integrity in officials?
There is an ongoing debate in America as to whether judges should be elected, or appointed – federal judges by the president, state ones by the governor. And, once appointed, to whom should they be accountable? Our different states and the federal government have come up with various answers, none of which is even close to perfect.
Then there is the matter of decennial redistricting after each census. Different states have different answers to this too – but it’s a similar problem. A redistricting should have integrity, just as an official should. Some states’ solutions work better than others. Perhaps looking at how states handle redistricting would give us some ideas, if not firm answers.
Perhaps if we can manage somehow to answer this question with regards to inspectors general, the answer may provide some assistance in answering it with regard to judges as well. I hope so. ================================================================
Congress may not like it when Trump fires an inspector general – but it can’t do anything to stop him
Executive departments and agencies – like the Departments of State or Defense – often butt heads with inspectors general over access to documents or investigation of high-ranking appointees. But Trump’s challenge is the broadest and the first to ground dismissals in response to investigations into his own conduct or the conduct of his administration.
Saving taxpayer money
The Inspector General Act of 1978 was one of the many post-Watergate government reforms. It aimed to increase government accountability and prevent waste, fraud and abuse in agencies and programs.
Whether ferreting out fraud in defense contracts, investigating Medicare scams or identifying government employees who submitted false expenses, inspectors general have played a major law enforcement role.
Beyond that power wielded by the president, inspectors general are independent. While they are under the “general supervision” of the head of the department or agency where they work, they do not report to and are not subject to supervision by any other officer in the government or agency.
In fact, the law says that “Neither the head of the establishment nor the officer next in rank below such head shall prevent or prohibit the Inspector General from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit or investigation, or from issuing any subpoena.”
The president must communicate in writing the reasons for removal of any inspector general. In the removal of the State Department inspector general, President Trump sent a terse letter to Congress, saying that he his reason for firing Linick was that he “no longer” had the “fullest confidence” in him.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a decades-long champion of the role of inspectors general, stated that a “general lack of confidence simply is not sufficient detail to satisfy Congress.”
Despite congressional uproar over these dismissals from Democrats and some Republicans, there is serious doubt about what conditions or limits Congress could place on the president’s power to remove the inspectors general.
Under Supreme Court precedents related to the principles of separation of power, Congress – one branch of government – cannot remove an official in the executive branch – another branch of government – except by impeachment. That has been interpreted to mean, by inference, that Congress has no power over the president’s ability to fire an executive branch official, including inspectors general.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Republican from Iowa, criticized the reason Trump offered for firing Linick.Getty/Drew Angerer
For example, the law that created the position of inspectors general requires them to report immediately to their agency head when they become aware of particularly serious or flagrant problems, abuses or deficiencies in agency programs.
No president until Trump had asserted that by reporting findings to Congress, inspectors general were making unconstitutional intrusions into presidential and executive branch prerogative.
The president’s signing statement accompanying the CARES Act was dominated by objections that the legislation “violates the separation of powers by intruding upon the President’s power and duty to supervise the staffing of the executive branch.” Trump argued that he would not heed the CARES Act requirement that an inspector general report directly to Congress on the law’s administration. They would only do so, he wrote, under “presidential supervision.”
This argument – that as president, he is beyond accountability – echoes the claims Trump has raised as he fights congressional subpoenas for his tax returns and private records from his businesses in two cases argued before the Supreme Court recently.
Whatever answer the court delivers in those cases, it’s not likely to stop the president from firing another inspector general. And it doesn’t look like Congress has the power to stop him.
================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, it is probably impossible to design a system which excludes all candidates (and systems) who lack integrity from public office. But surely we can do better than we have so far. If anyone knows integrity, dear Furies, it’s you. Please help us.
Since TC only promised a Personal Update, I got this prepared – and then he asked for it. Great Minds. There are four videos available this week.
Monologue – Not that Bill isn’t witty, but whoever put together his virtual (and visual) laugh track deserves an Emmy.
Friedman – Friedman is the expert on how tightly connected we all are globally – and ties together several events with global effects, and addresses information overload. (This clip wouldn’t give me CC.)
Moore – It surprised me that the possible need to drag Trump* out of the White House didn’t come up, since both are keen on that idea (not without reason.) But the things that did come up are probably more likely,\.
New Rule – Bill is correct, of course. Well, except his implication that liberals don’t notice. A lot of us do. If he knows how to get legislation past #MoscowMotch, that would be constructive! I do think he estimate the complexity of the situation, though. For one thing, I have shopped exclusively on line for years, and maybe my needs are different, but it’s very rare that I can’t avoid Amazon. For another, much of what one can buy at amazon, one is actually buying from small businesses through Amazon. What are the economic implications of that? I am old enough (as is Liz, and probably Bill) to remember when Ma Bell was broken up. That was challenging enough – and at that time they were only selling one service. Now – now that all the companies have merged and need to be broken up again, and bundling is a thing – I shudder.
Last Tuesday I was so sick that I could not stand up. WWWendy called my oncologist and called 911 on her instructions. They has to haul me out of here on a gurney. My chemo knocked out my immune system and I picked up an infection. The resulting Republicosis was so severe that I was pumping out fluids faster than I could rehydrate. I became so dehydrated that I ended up in Intensive Care, where they pumped fluids into me through my port and two other IVs. On Wednesday night, they released me from Intensive Care, but kept pumping we full of Ringers Lactate and Antibiotics. They never did identify the bug, but after my white blood count returned to normal, they released me yesterday afternoon with three more antibiotics. Obviously, we’ll need to make some changes in my chemo. WWWendy is going in with me Tuesday. JD, would you do Bill Maher? Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, so please expect only a Personal Update.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Contact Tracings Show Risk Of Coronavirus Spread Through Churches
As a Christian, (authentic Christian, not Republican supply-side pseudo-Christian [anti-Christian]) I believe in freedom of religion, as defined in the First Amendment. That does not include murdering innocents by infecting them with Trump* virus. RESIST!!
Like other similar venues across our nation, the world-famous J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was closed to visitors because of COVID-19. So its staff decided to engage the public with an actual “Life Imitates Art” challenge. And the results were pretty amazing!
We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home.
🥇 Choose your favorite artwork 🥈 Find three things lying around your house⠀ 🥉 Recreate the artwork with those items
There were so many creative and wonderful ones it was hard to choose. Some of them were quite abstract, so I limited myself to ones that a non-arts aficionado could enjoy.
But even that left me with over 40 selections. So I decided to group them in very broad themes. There will be some overlap as one submission could qualify for more than one theme.
Let’s start with Animals. Proving yet again that cats are free-spirit critters (and confirming the old adage that they cannot be herded) there wasn’t one employing a kitty cat. A ferret – YES, but no cat.
One popular painting was “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. But I decided to go with “Male with a Pearl Earring”.
I was a bit surprised that Frida Kahlo self-portraits was such a popular subject. I thought these were the two best.
There were a few of the “Ugly Duchess” by Quentin Matsys which were quite well done. (One wonders if the subject knew the title of the painting they were portraying – although the two I picked were both males.)
Far away the most common theme simply involved people. Because there were so many, I made three GIFs; but I didn’t do a very good job dividing them up.
There were a couple cute Rockwell ones.
And I thought we should end with a selection memorializing what generated this “Life Imitates Art” challenge – the Coronavirus Quarantine. So the last one features artworks employing Toilet Paper and Masks.
I’m not sure if all those submitted are at the above Tweet – but there are quite a lot more there for your viewing pleasure.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: I always select “Do NOT Stack Frames” – but have never been successful in getting it applied. So I apologize that there are remnants of previous ones that annoyingly hang around.]
I haven’t found much news, and what little I have found is petty. Ted Cruz had a hissy fit. Tara Reade’s attorney dumped her. Another youth pastor has been caught soliciting a male sex worker. Ho hum. But it’s Friday. Someone with a modicum of integrity will probably get fired tonight. Meanwhile, here’s an article to hang comments on.
Never-before-seen Trump photo. No one can safely get a haircut in a salon right now, including the president. Here’s proof, a photo of his overgrown pandemic hair, sent to me by a White House official and verified by a second administration source. “The hair is his real hair from quarantining and not being able to get a haircut,” the first official tells me.
There’s a new ad out, not from the Lincoln Project, but from a PAC called “Lindsey Must Go”
I don’t generally impose information about operas I’m watching on people here, and I”’ try to keep this relevant, but the Opera I watched Wednesday night left me a little unsettled. and made me realize something I’d never thought about. It wasn’t the music, or the cast, or the sets and costumes – all were brilliant. Yet it was painful to watch. It was like watching an asteroid come in headed straight for you. Impending doom and no way to avoid it. But here’s the thing. I cannot think of another opera, or another play, or another book, story, ballet, any narrative form, in which ALL the characters were trying so terribly hard to do the right thing. Hate comes into it but no one who has it is a hateful person. They’re not motivated by greed, or cruelty, but for justice as they see it. And – as a result – there is no one to blame. No one for the viewer to be angry with. It was a revelation to me to realize how much focus – how much closure – I lost by not having that. It’s no excuse, but it may give me a little insight into where some (not all) Trump* supporters are coming from … it’s true they were unfair to pick people to blame who were in no way at fault, and also true that they were – let’s say misguided – to seize on people to blame that Trump* handed to them. But I certainly can understand the craving.
