Corona Virus Daily Information Update: 4 March 2020

HERE ARE TODAY'S links to what seem the most reliably informative (and therefore presumably useful) Internet reports on the rapidly spreading Coronavirus epidemic: 

Feds investigate nursing home as U.S. death toll hits 11
AP reporting with its usual scoop-the-world excellence.

 

High cost of health care, lack of paid time off, leave US workers vulnerable to coronavirus outbreak

 Unsparingly truthful analysis, vital despite its ideological context.

In Italy and beyond, virus outbreak reshapes work and play 

Another AP report, its headline self-explanatory.

Virus death rate still uncertain as mild cases are missed 

And more: this AP report is a vital antidote to fear-mongering.  

Capitalism’s disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic 

More unsparingly truthful and therefore vital analysis, this time on a global scale.

(As always, headlines are reproduced in their original up-style and down-style formats.)

*****

Why do I so often link to AP reports? Because as a near-lifelong professional journalist I know that while it is U.S.-based, it is also a non-profit news media co-op with an international organization that leaves it notably better able to escape the mandatory censorship and  disinformation that define the U.S. Mainstream Media Propaganda Machine (MMPM), which in the most bitter of truths is in fact the world's first privately owned, for-profit copy of Josef Goebbels' infamous Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. 

LB/4 March 2020 21:57 PDT

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Coronavirus Daily Information Update: 3 March 2020

HERE ARE TODAY'S links to what seem the most reliably informative (and therefore presumably useful) Internet reports on the rapidly spreading Coronavirus epidemic: 
 

Tensions rise as U.S. death toll from coronavirus reaches 9

Lack of preparedness puts US health care workers at greatest risk from coronavirus

A disconnect between Trump and health officials on virus

How the Senate Paved the Way for Coronavirus Profiteering, and How Congress Could Undo It

Governments skimp on funds to fight the coronavirus, open cash spigots for the banks

 

Asian stocks higher but Dow sinks 2.9% after rate cut fails to stem market's dread

Pence and Azar’s Coronavirus Media Tour Revealed That Their Main Concern Is Protecting Trump

This is a bit later than usual because I encountered a formatting problem -- obvious to anyone with a discerning eye -- that I gave up trying to solve after an effort of nearly two hours led to naught but failure. Hence the lack of descriptive commentary on the reports; hence too my apology.

LB/3 March 2020 22:15 PST

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Coronavirus Daily Information Update: 2 March 2020

HERE ARE TODAY'S links to what seem the most reliably informative (and therefore presumably useful) Internet reports on the rapidly spreading Coronavirus epidemic: 
  

China's crisis wanes as epidemic takes hold in US, elsewhere
International roundup by Associated Press.

Federal Way postal worker tests positive for coronavirus
Thanks to RD for sending me this story.

NOT REAL NEWS: An outbreak of virus-related misinformation
Associated Press at its international best. 

AP FACT CHECK: Trump's false assurances on coronavirus

 

How US Sanctions on Iran Helped Coronavirus Spread Undetected

Note another possible explanation for Iran's highest Coronavirus death rate is the nation may have many more cases than are officially diagnosed. 

China's Coronavirus Lockdown Sees Surge in Abandoned Pets
Thanks to Tigerlille for sending me this sad story.

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And then, thanks to my sister Elizabeth Bliss, we have something to help us smile:  Belgian Malinois And Tiny Owl Have The Most Unlikely Friendship, And Their Photos Are Adorable

(As always, headlines are reproduced in their original up-style and down-style formats.)

LB/2 March 2020 21:56 PDT

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Coronavirus Daily Information Update: 1 March 2020

BEGINNING TODAY, I'LL post links to what seem the most reliably informative (and therefore useful) Internet reports on the rapidly spreading Coronavirus.

For as long as I am able (or until the crisis ends), I'll upload these brief anthologies -- seldom (if ever) more than a half-dozen reports -- each day around 10  p.m. PST, with supplemental postings as required by breaking stories.

 

As I do in more routine times, I'll reduce the sometimes awkwardly long Dispatches URLs to TinyURLs. This is  both for readers' convenience and to reduce opportunities for ideologically hostile internet service-providers (ISPs) to block the material. (As always, headlines are reproduced in their original up-style and down-style formats.)

Authorities announce 2nd coronavirus death in US  

New virus: Nearly 89,000 infected, over 3,000 dead

How Does the Coronavirus Compare With the Flu?
Thanks to Deputy Director Laurie Jinkins of the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department for Tweeting this useful report out from behind the NewYork Ttimes' paywall. (Ms. Jinkins, a Democrat, also represents Tacoma's 27th District in the legislature at Olympia, the Washington state capitol.)

The US Is Not Prepared For Coronavirus; We Need To Take Action
A detailed analysis of how bipartisan Neoliberal austerity has severely crippled our ability to deal with the crisis, plus useful hints for protecting our individual and community health and wellbeing.   

Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the US Is Your Civic Duty
Informative reporting from Scientific American.

LB/1 March 2020 21:57 PDT

*****

(Also, for context, I have reproduced below my first two reports in this series. These were originally transmitted as personal emails to friends and colleagues.)

29 February 2020

Breaking: https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/61611-as-a-doctor-ive-watched-republicans-make-the-us-more-vulnerable-to-coronavirus-than-it-ever-should-have-been

Latest figures: death rate seems around three percent at present save in Iran, where it is hitting seven percent; coincidence? (I doubt it):  https://apnews.com/fd006734bacfb34a9dba966694359e5f

Best single source on the overall crisis: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/02/29/coro-f29.html

First death in US is 35 miles north of Tacoma, close to a senior assisted-living facility at which everyone has grave preconditions, is already infected and will therefore presumably be killed by the virus: https://apnews.com/f175d89567a26d59cab27725c9e8a0d7

Measures of gravity (I): already the worst financial crash since '29: https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/76381/5-trillion-wiped-out-from-world-stocks-amid-fastest-collapse-in.html

Measures of gravity (II): more financial analysis: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/02/29/econ-f29.html

Analytical note: thinking as the Army taught me to think at Fort Holabird (Jan-July 1960), there are only two possible explanations for the seemingly vector-less outbreaks -- i.e., those with no connection to known sources of infection: these are (1) -- unknown vectors (which further underscores our helplessness and therefore hopelessness in coping with the disease); and (2) -- aerial dispersion, which is the most effective form of CBR attack.  Given the givens, particularly the truly infinite Evil repeatedly evidenced by our Masters --  I am way more inclined toward the latter explanation than the former.

(As before, those of you who no longer want these gleanings please let me know and I will omit you accordingly.)

///loren

*****

28 February 2020
Most reliable and detailed reports I can find: 

(Note there is no longer any doubt our Overlords are severely downplaying the magnitude of the crisis.) 

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/61585-a-corrupt-response-and-cover-up-trump-admin-appears-to-have-sparked-coronavirus-outbreak-in-us
(See my comment)

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/02/28/very-important-that-you-read-this/

https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/nouriel-roubini-on-coronavirus-this-crisis-will-spill-over-and-result-in-a-disaster-a-e811cf3b-d495-4c52-bf79-d872c8f164ac?sara_ecid=nl_upd_1jtzCCtmxpVo9GAZr2b4X8GquyeAc9&nlid=bfjpqhxz

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/02/28/pers-f28.html

https://apnews.com/f8c382a5234bc12ec6d4f5430f8ec2e3

(I will keep doing this as long as I am able. If you want me to stop emailing these stories as they break, please let me know. Thank you.)

///loren

(For earlier posts go here.)

Republicans Join Democrats to Forcibly Disarm U.S. Civilians

Fearing Revolution, the Plutocrats Unite for Class War 
against Legal Gun Owners, Retaining 2nd Amendment as Propaganda but Imposing Prohibitive Fees and Taxes, Thus Redefining Self-Defense as the Exclusive Privilege of Our Masters and Their Collaborators

*** 
Still Doubt DemoPublican Back-Room Unity? Read On

*** 
Plus See Below for DfD's Long-Promised New Format

WHAT I HAVE ASSEMBLED  here is hitherto obscured but nonetheless compelling proof the Trump/Pence Regime -- secure behind its ever more crippling effluent of Nazi-style Big Lies and other Josef-Goebbels-type deceptions -- is so terrified by the intensifying likelihood of socialist revolution, it is now collaborating with the Democratic (sic) Party to forcibly disarm all U.S. Working Families. 

The proof is in the following jig-saw puzzle of reports...

(To read the rest, go here.)

The ChristoNazis Want Greta Thunberg Burned as a "Witch"

Condemning All Environmentalists as "Pagan Barbarians," a Leading Fascist Journal Damns Greta as a New "Joan of Arc," Thus Implicitly Threatening Her with the Martyr's Hideously Painful Death by Fire

I MISSED THIS STORY when it broke last September because Wonkette -- the website that chose to ignore The Federalist's terrifyingly obvious lynch-mob agitation but otherwise scooped the world by sarcastically reporting that publication's potentially murderous accusations -- is unfortunately but justifiably disreputable for its identity-politics vindictiveness and is therefore almost never taken seriously by the Internet sources¹ on which I am most dependent for my daily doses of relevant information.

But before we can acknowledge the full horror of The Federalist's position, we need to understand the magnitude of its threat: yes, dear readers, there truly are masses of alleged humans out there in Neo-Confederate White Christian America who intend to bring back public executions including witch-burnings and the stoning of adulterers, adulteresses, persons of nonconforming sexuality and so-called "heretics," disobedient small children included.

And these days their de facto neo-Confederate nation -- for which see the color charts linked below -- is nearly all the geographical U.S.A. save parts of 13 coastal states² and perhaps a few more cities.³

 

Quoth Joe Bageant in a 2004 Dissident Voice report that today is recognized by most of us on the Real (socialist/pagan) Left as terrifingly prophetic:

Christian Reconstruction...calls for the death penalty in a wide range of crimes, including abandonment of the faith, blasphemy, heresy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, striking a parent, and ''unchastity before marriage'' (but for women only). Biblically correct methods of execution include stoning, the sword, hanging, and burning. Stoning is preferred, according to Gary North, the self-styled Reconstructionist economist, because stones are plentiful and cheap. Biblical Law would also eliminate labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools...Reconstructionist doctrine calls for the scrapping of environmental protection of all kinds, because there will be no need for this planet earth once The Rapture occurs...

Its impact on politics and religion in this nation have been massive, with many mainstream churches pushed rightward...Other mainstream churches...flinch and bow to the Reconstructionists at every turn. 

Lest the Christian Reconstructionists be underestimated, remember that it was Reconstructionist strategists whose "stealth ideology" managed the takeover of the Republican Party in the early 1990s. That takeover now looks mild in light of...

(To read the rest, go here.)

Forget the Impeachment Charade; Here's a Taste of Real News

NO I DIDN'T STUTTER; yes I regard "impeachment" as an archetypal Neoliberal crusade, infinite noise and zero action, intended to preserve the ecogenocidal Big Lie of USian "democracy" by protecting the perpe-traitors whether governmental or cor-pirate while providing sufficient circuses to distract Moron Nation from its ever-worsening lack of bread whether edible or spendable.

(For detailed elaboration of my views about impeachment -- which thus far is the Democratic (sic) Party's scam of the century -- go to comment threads here,  here and here. ) 

Now on to an anthology of reports I recommend as essential to our understanding of the ever-more-nightmarish era in which we Working Class folk abide (upper and lower case -- "upscale" and "downscale" in newsroom parlance --  as in originals) : 

Dangerous Levels of Warming Locked In by Planned Jump in Fossil Fuels Output
As I concluded last year and have been saying ever since -- no doubt why I am the target of (thus far) low-intensity electronic harassment -- the ever-more-blatantly obvious explanation for such deliberately ecogenocidal policies is that our Neoliberal Masters have weaponized terminal climate change to serve their Shock-Doctrine agenda of perpetuating their technological omnipotence by radical population reduction. Which if you read their ideological sequels to Mein Kampf is to be by elimination of 90  to 95 percent of the present 

(To continue reading, go here.)