Government Response to Coronavirus 5: We're On Our Own

[WiseGirl]

I'm very glad I live in one of these states but we must remain vigilant. Oh and guess what, we wear masks, amazing how that works.

These U.S. states have tamed Coronavirus even after reopening...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/health/coronavirus-under-control-states/index.html

[Ozlsn]

Facebook post by an epidemiologist about reopening schools (screenshots in spoiler).

Spoiler

Tl;dr: the level of community transmission is the important factor - get that under control and schools can reopen relatively safely. 

[Cartmann99]

 

 

[47of74]

14 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

 

US government needs California fuck of a lot more than California needs the US.  If I were Newsome I'd be preparing a doucment that included the following statement

Quote

...The history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this State. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world....

Along with a fuck you you dumb ass Orange Fuck Muppet, we're splitsville.  (And use precisely those words too).   

[GreyhoundFan]

I guess the 140K+ dead wouldn't agree with Shapiro.

 

[WiseGirl]

I'll take a slow and cautious approach any time...

[47of74]

Meanwhile the latest dumb fuckery from our fucking idiot of a Governor here in Iowa....

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Operations at the Dubuque Test Iowa site will be dramatically reduced starting Tuesday, July 21. 

The Dubuque County Public Health Incident Management Team reports that the governor's office directed Epic Health and Wellness, 1075 Cedar Cross Road, Suite 1, to not take more than 100 COVID-19 test samples per day going forward. 

As a result, the hours of the Test Iowa site at Epic have been reduced to 6 to 7 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday of this week. No testing will be offered Friday.

"If the site reaches the maximum of 100 tests before 7 a.m., testing will be suspended until the next scheduled day," states a press release.

And after hearing about some of the dumb fuckery that fuck nugget and complete fucking idiot Missouri governor is doing these days I told my manager that no I'm not relocating to Missouri now even though it means my job would be going away.

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I guess the 140K+ dead wouldn't agree with Shapiro.

 

Go fuck yourself Ben.  And any farm animals you rode in on too.  I am so fucking sick of these young douche cannons who don't give two shits about human life unless it hasn't yet exited the womb. 

[47of74]

Just got this from American today in my email about the steps they're taking...

 

I almost replied to ask them if that includes members of Congress like that Texas fucknugget Ted Cruz....

CovidKimmy is saying no to mandating masks.  Iowa City is going to do one anyways

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Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague has announced a citywide face mask mandate.

This announcement comes despite Governor Reynolds saying that city and county officials in Iowa do not have the authority to implement mandatory mask wearing unless the governor says they can.

Teague confirmed with KWWL that any business open to the public will have to make their customers wear masks.

Teague says he has talked with new interim police chief Denise Brotherton about enforcement relating to wearing face coverings. He says it will be a simple misdemeanor if people don't abide but that will be a last resort. Teague mostly wants to focus on educating people.

 

[clueliss]

Accidental Governor does the Hoof in Mouth two step ("I didn't do a good job of explaining the point")

 

[47of74]

1 hour ago, clueliss said:

Accidental Governor does the Hoof in Mouth two step ("I didn't do a good job of explaining the point")

 

If Parsons did a good job of anything it would be an enormous shock of epic proportions. 

He's like Kimmy here in Iowa.  Both of them have their heads so far up #BubonicDonald's ASS that when he yawns they see daylight.

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "The new season of Trump’s pandemic reality show is headed for early cancellation"

Spoiler

The instructions for President Trump could not have been clearer: Stick to the script. Talk about the virus. Be serious and sober. Don’t go off on tangents.

And for a few minutes, Trump did as he was supposed to do at Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing, his first in nearly three months. He admitted, “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better — something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is.” He encouraged people to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

If only he hadn’t taken the bait when Steven Nelson of the New York Post asked him about Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman accused of aiding Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual abuse of minors.

“I just wish her well,” Trump said.

You could almost hear palms being smacked against foreheads in unison throughout the West Wing. “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and they lived in Palm Beach,” Trump continued. “I wish her well,” he repeated.

Using a nationally televised briefing from the White House to offer good wishes to the accused procurer for a convicted sex criminal? The new season of Trump’s reality show is off to a shaky start.

Last season, Trump, with his supporting cast of aides and medical advisers, treated the nation to nightly, rambling sessions that offered little information about the spreading pandemic but enthralled viewers with attacks against Democrats and the media and unorthodox advice about fighting the virus — such as ingesting hydroxychloroquine and Clorox. Trump frequently boasted about his “ratings.”

In the new season, the villainous virus is back, this time attacking the South and Southwest. After weeks of denial and false assurances, Trump gave his season opener on the very day that deaths again crossed the 1,000-per-day threshold. His Five O’Clock Follies returned at their original hour — “a good slot,” Trump explained. But in the time off, the show had lost its spark.

The supporting cast was gone, and Trump stood alone on the podium. The star read woodenly from a script he obviously did not want to read.

“Get a mask whether you like the mask or not — they have an impact,” he read, with enthusiasm more commonly seen in hostage videos. We’re “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene,” he added, eyes seldom straying from text. “We are imploring young Americans to avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings, be safe and be smart.”

He put a happy spin on things — he’s building a “very, very powerful” strategy, has made “tremendous moves,” “did a lot of things that were very good” and has “great people, logistic military people” ready to get vaccines to those “high-risk, wonderful people” — but for once didn’t entirely deny reality. He allowed that there are “I guess you could say also things that we can do better on.”

Earlier in his presidency, people would react with amazement when Trump behaved in a similarly “presidential” fashion. But it’s a difficult act to maintain for Trump, even over a half-hour-long news conference.

ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked about White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s claim hours earlier that Trump is tested “multiple times a day” for the virus.

“I don’t know of any time I’ve taken two tests in one day,” Trump said.

Trump was asked about the contradiction between his new claim that "it will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better” and his previous claim that the virus would “disappear.”

“The virus will disappear — it will disappear,” Trump reprised.

Does he want Americans to judge him on the ballot in November by how he has handled the pandemic?

Trump replied that “next year’s going to be a record year and I think they’re going to judge me on that.” He then went into a long, unbidden boast about taxes, regulations and “Veterans Choice.” (“It’s called ‘choice,’ ” he explained.)

Trump’s call for mask-wearing would be more persuasive if he were wearing a mask himself, or if he had worn one at a fundraising event at his Trump International Hotel Monday night after tweeting a photo calling mask-wearing “patriotic.”

Asked about the mixed message, Trump pulled a presidential-seal mask out of his hip pocket. He explained that he puts it on in close quarters to protect others. “Anything that potentially can help — and that certainly can potentially help — is a good thing,” Trump said.

This is the right thing to say. Too bad the new season of his pandemic reality show is headed for an early cancellation — not because of the ratings, but because the lead actor clearly hates his role.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[CTRLZero]

I've been calling it the "Trump Era Virus," as I hope that his administration is historically associated with dark times. 

Our daughter just learned that her college has made the final decision to go on-line only, with significant reductions in tuition, etc.  Her salary has also been reduced, which is not too much of a hardship at this point.  We feel she's fortunate to have a job for the time being.  Apparently some students are still opting to live on campus (not many, I assume), but the classes will still be totally on-line. 

[47of74]

Governor Walz is set to mandate masks in Minnesota later today

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Gov. Tim Walz is expected to announce a statewide mandate on Wednesday requiring Minnesotans to wear face masks in stores, public buildings and other places where people gather indoors, a dramatic extension of his emergency powers in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that still appears on the upswing in many states.

The DFL governor said Tuesday that he expected to issue the order in the coming days. A spokesman confirmed to the Star Tribune that a 2 p.m. Wednesday news conference is related to masks.

"If we can get 90 to 95% mask compliance over the next four to five weeks, we think the statistical numbers make it so we can maintain and continue to open," Walz said Tuesday in a briefing on the state's continuing efforts to battle the pandemic.

The new mask rule has been recommended by public health experts and already has been adopted in some form in several Minnesota cities and more than two dozen other states.

Meanwhile here in Iowa #BubonicKimmy is trying her best to pretend the pandemic doesn't exist anymore. 

[47of74]

And the state of Iowa's health department way under reported an outbreak at a Tyson Foods pork processing plant.

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The department announced at a May 5 news conference that 221 employees at the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction had tested positive for COVID-19.

But records show that days earlier, Tyson officials told workplace safety regulators that 522 plant employees had tested positive to their knowledge.

Ugh.  We need to clean house here in Iowa and send BubonicKimmy and her enablers packing.  Even if I'm no longer living in Iowa by then.

[Cartmann99]

4 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Governor Walz is set to mandate masks in Minnesota later today

Meanwhile here in Iowa #BubonicKimmy is trying her best to pretend the pandemic doesn't exist anymore. 

You, me, and @clueliss could start the 'Jackass Governor' club.

Do you think Joni Ernst will run for governor once Kimmy's out of the picture, or pull a Lyin' Ted and go straight for president? The thought of her, Cruz, and Greg Abbott squabbling over which one of them is the 'true conservative' in 2024 makes me want to invest in a case of Tums.

[JMarie]

Just watched Rep. Chip Roy (TX) arguing on CNN about COVID. He thinks we should all get back to work, the flu is more deadly than COVID, and Mexicans are bringing COVID across the unsecured border. Oh boy.

[47of74]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

You, me, and @clueliss could start the 'Jackass Governor' club.

Do you think Joni Ernst will run for governor once Kimmy's out of the picture, or pull a Lyin' Ted and go straight for president? The thought of her, Cruz, and Greg Abbott squabbling over which one of them is the 'true conservative' in 2024 makes me want to invest in a case of Tums.

No shit.  I think she looks at some of the things other GOP ass wipe Governors like those down in Florida and Georgia are doing and then tries to out dumb fuck them. 

Hopefully by the time Kimmy is out of the picture Joni will be another has-been like Sarah Palin and out of a government job for a couple years due to her endorsement of fuck face.  It had been quite a while since I had heard or even thought of Palin and her family (and since I googled her our google algorithm overlords will probably start shoveling shit about her in my direction now).

Gah, I hope by the time 2024 rolls around pretty much every GOP fuckstick out there is so damaged by the reign of fuck face that they'll put even less effort into their campaigns than Bob Dole did in 1996.  (It was almost 25 years ago but I don't remember him putting too much effort into the campaign, that even he seemed to recognize it wasn't likely to happen and just went through the motions towards the end.  I was pretty busy with school but it just didn't seem like the election took up too much attention). 

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[WiseGirl]

Hope it stays this way for the little green state.

Edited July 22, 2020 by WiseGirl

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

Hope it stays this way for the little green state.

Chris Murphy represents that little green state (Connecticut).

[clueliss]

Payroll tax cut dropped in next round stimulus plan.

 

[47of74]

Does this fancy new program come with a mandate CovidKimmy?

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The Iowa Department Of Public Health, along with Governor Kim Reynolds are announcing a new campaign to encourage everyone to wear a mask to slow the spread Of COVID-19. The initiative is called #StepUpMaskUpIA.

This new campaign encourages Iowans to follow important public health mitigation measures such as wearing masks when in public.

“COVID-19 is far from over, and I don’t want to go backwards,” Gov. Reynolds said. “Whether it’s wearing a mask, social distancing, practicing good hygiene, or staying home when we’re sick, these simple steps continue to be the best defense against the virus. So, let’s step up Iowa!

Jesus Fucking Christ Kimmy either issue the mandate or let local officials do so.  Enough with these goddamn feel good programs that people in Vichy Iowa will never follow.

[GreyhoundFan]

Shaking my head