TREASON IS A DANGEROUS WORD: When You Accuse Someone of Treason, Be Careful What You Wish For.
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Archive for 2020
May 11, 2020
THE INDEFENSIBLE CULT OF CUOMO:
In a “historic move” on April 30, Cuomo announced that the New York City subway system would temporarily cease 24-hour operations so that cars could be disinfected. The governor himself made a conspicuous trip to New York City’s unfortunately named Corona Maintenance Facility for a tour and a photo-op. This was an important directive, but one that likely came months too late.
On April 13, a working paper published by an economist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology indicated that, by early March, the subways were a “major disseminator” of coronavirus. According to new research, New York City’s outbreak had become so bad that, by late March, the city was responsible for seeding much of the country with this virus. Even if those connections are speculative, the death toll among MTA workers is hard to ignore. By April 22, 83 transit workers had died as a result of complications from COVID-19 infections. For this tragedy, MTA chief Patrick Foye blamed “the CDC and the World Health Organization” for falling to prepare them for the scale of this disaster.
“All nursing home staff must now be tested for COVID twice a week,” Cuomo tweeted on Monday. “This rule is not optional — it’s mandatory.” The governor assumed this authoritative and overdue position amid a nightmarish death toll in Mid-Atlantic homes for the aged. Over 5,300 residents of nursing homes have died from this virus, but this death toll was no doubt exacerbated by the governor’s March 25 directive that forced senior-care facilities to accept new admissions even if they come from hospitals and could be infected themselves. Even as the governor described his state’s nursing homes as a “feeding frenzy for this virus,” the directive remained in place. Only on Sunday did Cuomo rescind the order.
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No elected official got this pandemic entirely “right.” States like Ohio, which had one of the most aggressive and preventative early responses to this outbreak, are seeing cases increase. Meanwhile, states like Georgia and Florida, which were ruthlessly attacked for relaxing restrictions too soon, have seen their caseloads stabilize or decline. There’s a lot we still don’t know about this virus, and it is incumbent on observers to forgive some of the mistakes that are being made along the way. But even a cursory review of Andrew Cuomo’s record during this event should disqualify him from the excessive adulation he’s received. Whatever it is that’s generating the sycophancy Cuomo has enjoyed, it is not his performance.
And note this:
Cuomo is now describing the coronavirus pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China as a “European virus.” He said this in today’s presser multiple times. Last month he lavished praise on the Chinese government for their efforts in combatting the virus.
As Karol Markowicz of the New York Post tweets, “Does…he realize the rest of the country will start calling it the New York virus if we’re just going by where it most recently came from?”
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Texans Put ‘Welcome To Texas’ Signs Around Oklahoma So Californians Will Move There Instead.
CHANGE. LATE, BUT CHANGE: NY Nursing Homes Can FINALLY Turn Away COVID-Positive Patients, Must Report Staff Cases.
INFLAMMATION AND MITOCHONDRIA HAVE GENERATED A LOT OF INTERESTING DISCOVERIES LATELY. NOW THIS: Team finds link between blood vessel inflammation, malfunctioning cellular powerhouses.
THIS WOULD BE VERY GOOD NEWS: Have Stockholm and Other Places Already Reached Herd Immunity? Nicholas Lewis argues that the Covid modelers’ doomsday predictions were off because they wrongly assumed that the “herd immunity threshold” is 50 to 60 percent of the population, whereas there is reason to believe that it’s actually much lower and has already been reached in Stockholm and probably in some other places. This paper and other encouraging developments — like the downward trend for infections in Germany despite the easing of the lockdown — are discussed in Toby Young’s daily roundup at Lockdown Skeptics.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Sacramento State professor apologizes for argument with racial slur caught on video.
DEEP STATE OPERATIVES SELF-IDENTIFY: DOJ Alumni Call on Barr to Resign Over Flynn Charge Dismissal. Hang on to the list of names.
Meanwhile, here’s what doesn’t get DOJ alumni in an uproar: Obama Pardons James Cartwright, General Who Lied to F.B.I. in Iran Leak Case.
SKYNET SMILES: The U.S. Navy Wants To Fill Its Fleet With Robo-Ships.
THEY SHOULDN’T BE PLAYING WOMEN’S SPORTS UNDER ANY LABEL: Biological Males in Women’s Sports Cannot Be Called ‘Males,’ Must Be Called ‘Transgender Females,’ Judge Says.
JOE BIDEN’S BINDERS FULL OF WOMEN:
Now, as Mr. Biden considers his options for prospective vice presidents, his position mirrors Mr. McCain’s in 2008, to an extent: a septuagenarian statesman-candidate, primed to face a political celebrity in the general election, hoping that his choice can inject urgent energy into his campaign while sending a powerful signal to female voters who might have hoped to see a woman atop the ballot in November.
It is not lost on Mr. Biden that whomever he chooses might well be elected the nation’s first female president after his turn, or at least become a new front-runner for the distinction. He has called himself a “bridge” to the next generation of Democratic leaders, a transitional figure whose chief goal is the removal of President Trump. That Mr. Biden is a 77-year-old man likely to accept the nomination during a pandemic has attached even weightier stakes to his decision.
At this point, the New York Times and/or Biden appears to have a touch of gender confusion:
In private encounters before this campaign, Mr. Biden has likened running-mate evaluation to deciding among calendar models, with three broad categories (and outdated honorifics): Contenders can be a “Mr. August” (a shot of momentum in the summer), a “Mr. October” (a reliable and effective campaigner for the fall) or a “Mr. January” (a governing partner, politics notwithstanding).
Some close to Mr. Biden say that his process will be informed by one intuitive, if often overlooked, fact: He thinks he was a very good pick — a combination of Mr. October and Mr. January, at minimum — and views his own blend of résumé and campaign chops with high regard.
“It was a governing pick with political benefits,” Anita Dunn, a top adviser to Mr. Biden in 2020 and to Mr. Obama in 2008, said with a laugh. “The best kind of governing pick.”
The “said with a laugh” comment is a nice touch.
Note that Joe Biden will have the help of Chris “Waitress Sandwich” Dodd to help rifle through his binders full of “calendar models” and make the final selection.
THEN, TO CONTROL THE WOLVES, WE INTRODUCE VELOCIRAPTORS! Introducing wolves leads to fewer wildland coyotes, researchers find.
WEIRD. SHUT DOWN THE CLINICS AND THIS HAPPENS: Measles vaccinations in U.S. children fall up to 60 percent since pandemic, CDC says.
DID THE CELL PHONES IN THE WUHAN INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY GO DARK FOR 17 DAYS? “Rarely do you see a network put so much effort into downplaying their own potential scoop as NBC News does here.”
Earlier: “Comcast Corporation is not only the participator of the increasingly close cultural exchanges, but also the contributor and beneficiary of deeper economic exchanges between China and the US. The NBC and the Universal Studios Theme Park in Beijing are witnesses of the in-depth development of Sino-US economic and trade relations and increasingly close cultural exchanges.”
FASTER, PLEASE: Durham moving ‘full-throttle’ on Russia probe review.