Now For Some Neuro-Babble: "Teens Ignore Covid Restrictions Because Their Brains Are On A Dopamine High"

"Gimme da dopamine so I can ignore da mask orders!"

"I'm pretty much fighting two wars. A war against Covid and a war against stupidity.  The problem is the first one I have some hope about winning. But the second is becoming more difficult to treat.  Why do I say that?  Because people are not listening.   Whether backed up by science or plain common sense, people are not listening - throughout the country. 

I've been in every possible catastrophe you can imagine, from tsunamis to earthquakes and by far this is the worst. This is the worst because it is a continuous catastrophe.  The thing that annoys me the most is we keep on doing our best to save all these people and then you get another batch of people who are doing exactly the opposite of what you're telling them not to do. - Dr. Joseph Varon, Chief Medical Officer, United Memorial Medical Center, Houston, Texas

"There are all these night club scenes like pop ups that people find out about on instagram. And then they go and party. No masks, lots of booze, everybody having lots of fun. We're seeing this thing everywhere across America. And you can't stop a pandemic if you can't stop that kind of activity."  Laurie Garret, on All In, Tuesday night.

The Wednesday headline on page 5A of The Denver Post appeared two days before the new projection of 300,000 dead from the virus by December. Impossible? No!  Too many millions are still not taking the Covid virus restrictions seriously. Even to the point of some of the rebel lunatics making threats on medical experts' lives,  causing nearly 11 to resign already in as many states.  This has elicited an impatience and even outrage at the level of utter selfishness  and colossal stupidity - as reflected in the words of Dr. Joseph Varon.  As well as medical journalist Laurie Garret (appearing on All In Tuesday night)

In the case of the Post article, the refrain of the medical experts watching this national stupidity take hold -  like a mind virus - is that we know damned well what works.  It is social distancing, mask wearing and lockdowns - if need be - especially when there is a surge and there is no vaccine as yet.   This is not rocket science.  Yet, because of the lack of a coordinated national response, where 2 in 5  'Muricans believe the thing is a hoax or "plandemic", we can't get it under control to the point of really opening the economy - or our schools.  In the words of Rachel Maddow Tuesday night:

"This is not rocket science. Without a cure the only interventions we have are these simple, dumb hard things that we fight over.  Masks, and social distance and keeping schools closed and keeping work places closed and having rules about gatherings. That's what we've got.  You do the things that work and when your numbers show the new  things you're trying don't work you stop trying them,"

Then add to that new memetic horse shit finding it's way into print or on the tube.  Balderdash such as spouted in today's WSJ by the clown Bobby Jindal ('The Biden Bait -and-Switch', p. A13), e.g.:

"Mr. Biden, liberal activists and the media are holding the country hostage, threatening voters with exhausting crises, refusing to reopen schools and the economy..."

Let's face it, only a total idiot could write such claptrap.  And just when you thought the excuses for ignoring  Covid-based restrictions couldn't get much more lame, we beheld this WSJ article entitled:  'Why Some Teens Ignore Coronavirus Restrictions' (Aug, 4, p., A9).  The gist of it is that we are wasting time, and doing much harm, by shaming or getting after party - obsessed teens in the Covid era. 'Let them do their own thing!' is the new refrain. Oh, and besides there's the dopamine, which "peaks in adolescents".  Therefore, it "drives them to value immediate gratification over future gains, which can lead to risky decisions."

Hence:  "Motivation is influenced by rewards like novelty, thrills and the presence of peers.  As a result, something that hits multiple buttons can be particularly enticing - such as the opportunity to attend a party that will be viewed on social media."   

Or, launching a Harvard College Class of 2021 Facebook group, i.e. '“Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens”   in which some of the most despicable and degenerate dopamine-aroused brain expulsions ever  to see the light of day appeared.  The debased antics were first reported by the Harvard  Crimson  and included:

"students sending each other memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children, according to screenshots of the chat obtained by The Crimson. Some of the messages joked that abusing children was sexually arousing, while others had punchlines directed at specific ethnic or racial groups. One called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child “piñata time.”

 "After discovering the existence and contents of the chat, Harvard administrators revoked admissions offers to at least ten participants "

Clearly  the brain -dictated, dopamine choice turned out to be risky indeed.  Yet not all the prospective Harvard students were in thrall to their dopamine cravings-  which one researcher actually compared to  (WSJ, ibid.) "how a starving person craves food."    For example, then incoming freshman Jessica Zhang.  She initially  joined both chats and liked the original group because the shared messages were "mostly lighthearted",  but she bailed from the split off gr0up which wallowed in hate and mockery.  So did  Cassandra Luca,  who joined the first meme group but not the second, after seeing the garbage spewed.   Like Zhang, her offer was not revoked.

What likely set Luca's alarm bells sounding  is when the founders of the “dark” group demanded students post "provocative" (e.g. execrable) memes in the first group before being allowed to join the second.  This was too much for Ms. Luca, to her credit, and perhaps her upbringing which allowed her to transcend her brain's dopamine imperative.

Of course, on the scale of repercussions from bad decisions (due to overload of dopamine in the brain) the loss of a Harvard admission is nothing compared to the loss of a life. Say arising when teens - instead of sharing debased memes -share coronavirus particles instead.  This, whether from being in party crowds without masks, or without social distancing, or worse, kissing up strangers.  That is like playing Covid roulette and while it may seem like sport at the moment, it won't be if you find yourself on a dialysis machine -- because your kidneys failed as the virus attacked them.

When I consulted my psychology postdoc niece Shayl about this dopamine-brain explanation and the related WSJ piece,  she shrugged, and said:

"Well, it's basically what you would call 'codswallop'.  Look at those Harvard teens that didn't go the route of joining the horrible meme group. They clearly exerted control of their dopamine drives and brain "mandates"  and weren't booted from Harvard. If they could do that one could argue any teen could, given the right guidance."

Indeed, and in the same WSJ piece one finds (at the very end) one Ruben Valera, a med student at Tufts University who has not been tempted to break Covid restrictions "because if all the information he reads about Covid 19".    He also believes other young adults would behave more like him "if they had better guidance and information."

Also, to his credit, "while he agrees there is a biological drive toward socialization in people his age, he can't see it as a valid argument."

So the question becomes:  What's left when powerful arguments or pleas (like Dr. Joseph Varon's) no longer work? Well, in that case the evident solution to lower the stupidity levels is to cut power and water to the offending residences where party crowds gather - as LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has vowed to do, e.g.

https://www.businessinsider.com/la-mayor-warns-water-shut-off-houses-hosting-gatherings-parties-2020-8

Something serious, with enforcement potential and sanction, needs to be done to get people's behavior re-oriented to the crisis we're in.  If they won't do it themselves then external means need to be applied.

See Also:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump | Education Policy

Schools Aren't Safe, and Parents Won't Believe President Bleach-Injector When He Claims Otherwise

Make Trump Sit A Mensa Entrance Test -Then We'll See What A "Stable Genius" He Is

"Doh! I'm a very stable genius!  So I don't believe that stupid book! And I'll even take the Mensa test to prove it!"


The soon to be released book by Trump niece, Mary Trump ('Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man') ,  includes some real blockbuster revelations, many of which haven't appeared in earlier  Trump expose books  such as: 'Fire and Fury', by Michael Wolff,  'FEAR: Trump In The White House', by Bob Woodward,  'A Warning' by Anonymous, and 'The Room Where It Happened' by John Bolton.

Of particular interest to me was Trump having to hire a substitute kid (a Joe Shapiro) to sit the SAT for him.   This was necessary because as a HS kid Trump had visions of "the best school in the world" and that was UPenn's Wharton School of Business. Trouble was, his less than stellar academic grades (according to Mary Trump) would not have enabled him entry on their own merits.  

The high score  (over 1400) the chosen proxy earned, assured Trump of an acceptance he'd otherwise never have had.   In the wake of the release of the book to journalists, some have debated whether the account is true.  But I have no doubt it is, first because I trust Mary Trump's word - and certainly over anything Trump or his retinue of liars says. And secondly because it fits in with his abysmal character traits as a narcissistic, compulsory cheat (who even cheats at games like golf) and a general moral reprobate.  A reprobate with no moral compass, period.  So why wouldn't he cheat?  It makes perfect, logical sense, especially for a crook and traitor who's already racked up over 5,000 lies. Oh, and sought sundry ways to enlist the help of other nations (like Ukraine, Russia) to help him win re-election.

Cheating by hiring a proxy to sit the SAT for him? A no brainer.  Here  are also some other explosive reveals about the maggot fouling the highest office:

1) Trump’s niece revealed how she leaked hordes of confidential Trump family financial documents to the New York Times in an effort to expose her uncle, whom she portrays as a dangerous sociopath,” This, according to Rachel Maddow's reporting on the book last night.  Maddow also reported that when  NY Times reporter Susanne Craig showed up at her door, Mary Trump “initially turned Craig away, telling her that she didn’t talk to reporters.” But she reconsidered,  especially after seeing how her uncle was "shredding every norm" and being enabled at every step.  So she decided to work with the Times, which directed her to the likely venue for Trump's tax records, and she hauled out 19 boxes worth.  from the law firm, Farrell Fritz,” Swan notes.

2) Trump’s world view was shaped by a desire to avoid his father’s disapproval. Here, Mary Trump paints a damning picture of Fred Trump, Sr., saying that he came to envy his son’s “confidence and brazenness.”   In the Washington Post, reporters Shane Harris and Michael Kranish explain that Donald Trump’s “view of the world was shaped by his desire during childhood to avoid his father’s disapproval, according to the niece, Mary L. Trump.”

Trump still claims,  despite his obvious mental -cognitive infirmities,  that he's a stable genius.  Well, let's see how he does on the Mensa entrance test, for which he will not be able to hire a substitute to try to gain admittance.  Of course, Mensa entry, i.e.  at the upper 2%  of IQ level, or roughly 132 on the Stanford -Binet scale, is "gifted" - but not genius.  That  level is at least 15 points higher.   

In any case, given Trump's severe mental deficiencies,  it is as likely he'd make either cut  (gifted or genius) as it is he sat that SAT himself ca. 1964. 

See Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqBIQhh927M

https://mymodernmet.com/mensa-iq-test/

This is what a Mensa IQ test looks like - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h36cpwlslHk

Trumpies Want To Make Post-Covid Symptoms "Pre-existing Conditions" As They Try To Get The Court To Scrap The ACA

At risk Covid patients (From WSJ, today, p. A14)

"The president showed off his sociopathic flair by demanding the repeal of Obamacare — just because he can’t stand that it was done by Barack Obama. Millions losing their jobs and insurance during a plague and he wants to eliminate their alternative? Willful maliciousness.
And this at the same time he has been ensuring more infections by lowballing the virus."   Maureen Dowd, NY Times, Sunday

"Turns out even people in Oklahoma really want health care.  They still voted for Medicaid expansion through Obamacare despite scare mongering that if they did  vote for it roads and bridges as well as public safety and education funding would be at risk. Oh, and 'AOC'  will send  her radicals to 'control Oklahoma's health care'.  Didn't work! Oklahomans statewide still voted to expand Medicaid to a few hundred thousand people'"   Rachel Maddow, last night on MSNBC

"If Donald Trump has his way those who have complications from Covid 19 could see them become the new pre-existing conditions. Some survivors have experienced lasting health impacts like lung scarring and heart damage.  If Trump prevails in court insurers would be allowed to strip away coverage or jack up premiums simply for the battle they survived.fighting ccoronavirus.  So these victims would now have their peace of mind stolen after needing it the most."  - Joe Biden,  speaking about the effects of Trump's effort to repeal the ACA

If it didn't actually happen, few would have believed it.   Barely 10 days ago,  the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. This is incredibly stupid and dangerous. Not only do 23 million Americans get their healthcare coverage through the ACA, nearly half a million Americans have enrolled in Obamacare after losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Apart from that nearly half a million others may be suffering from residual symptoms in a post-Covid recovery that the Trumpies now want to declare a new pre-existing condition.  A point brought home with force on Rachel Maddow last night.

 To expedite this perfidy Trump  filed a  brief with the Supreme Court to challenge the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  This would transpire  when the court hears the case this fall. Just before the election. In a pandemic.   How about timing? To see this as an actual Trump move, god knows why, you'd think the man has a permanent wish for political suicide.  How else explain it when we're still in the midst of a pandemic and over 30 million are set to see their unemployment insurance added benefit expire at the end of the month, and 18 million more see their moratorium on evictions go in three weeks.  

Yes, folks, this is the government we have, a band of criminals, vipers and grifting predators whose only objective is to let citizens die (including military picked off by Taliban compliments of  Russkie bounties) as they line their own pockets.  How else explain the fact the Repukes and their Fuhrer Dotard have no intention of helping 50 million people who now stand to lose their healthcare because of so many getting laid off and furloughed (WSJ,  June 27-28, p. C4)  and losing  their employer-linked health coverage. Worse, Trump and his gangsters (including Republican governors across the country are literally petitioning the Supreme Court to knock down Obamacare which will effectively gut the health care of 27 million who now depend on it.   This happened on the same day we learned of a half million new signups for Obamacare, clearly because the fear of Covid illness is now real and too many can no  longer get coverage under their employers.

But these new entries may be in for a shock.  This is given  the brief filed by the Trump administration in concert 18 Republican state governors specifically asks the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare, also arguing the Affordable Care Act's rules for pre-existing conditions must be overturned as well.
 
According to Rachel Maddow last night:

"Dig into this a little bit. A lot of people have gotten sick from coronavirus which has left them with conditions they may be dealing with for the rest of their lives.  So coronavirus infections are poised to become the next pre-existing conditions.  And if the Trump administration has its way pre-existing conditions will be used to deny you health insurance.  ...

Remember Obamacare was the way we made sure that anyone with preexisting conditions could still get health care.  Now think of all the Americans that will get Covid 19 and survive it. It's just staggering.  If we have 100,000 new cases a day, as Dr. Fauci warns we could, that means tens of millions of  infected Americans who may not be able to get healthcare, not now, not ever.  Literally tens of millions of us may have new preexisting conditions now thanks to the other catastrophic, almost existential failure of this administration which is an absolutely, out of control coronavirus pandemic that is infecting 50,000 of us a day now."


Indeed, many long term symptoms are in dispute by the medical community.  As noted in a WSJ piece today (p. A14, 'Patients Struggle With Long Term Covid Symptoms')

"The lack of certainty around causes and even symptoms has created challenges for people suffering  from longer term effect. In interviews with more than 20 long haul patients ranging in age from 22 to 62 years old, a portrait emerged of patients struggling with wife-ranging symptoms. For some it comes in waves, for others it's constant.  Some say they are slowly getting better while others add new symptoms ever week."


The latter group would definitely find themselves in a world of hurt (physical, mental and financial)  if Trump and his cabal succeed in their nefarious plans to destroy the ACA.  In effect,  the country would  revert right back to pre-ACA days. Begging the question: What form of health care, if any, would Covid survivors with residual symptoms be left with?  Well, that would largely be in short term, high deductible mutations of Obamacare invented by the Trumpies and Repuke tight-fisted allies.  The same degenerates who have no intention of extending any stimulus for the tens of millions still struggling and now on the cusp of being evicted from homes and losing their unemployment bonuses that kept heads just above water.

These short term plans (WSJ, 'Gaps Found With Short Term Health Plans', June 26, p. A4) are literal disaster and presage what's in store if the Supremes bend to the will of Der Fuhrer and his minions. Specifically:

"Numerous examples were found of patients who were denied coverage for treatment and were left on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Worse (ibid.):

"Coverage limitations vary widely from plan to plan and limits are not made clear in marketing materials.  This makes it extremely difficult for consumers to understand what they are purchasing."

What can those now under the gun do?  There is no question: Focus singly on getting Trump out of office in November!  Do not lose focus over distractions or refuse pumped out about Joe Biden's gaffes or other short comings. Never mind!  No Biden shortcoming or gaffe can compare to Trump's continued brain farts, authoritarian delusions and treason.    Keep eyes on the ball and ensure this orange fungal growth doesn't see the daylight in the Oval Office after Jan. 20 next year!


See Also:

Healthcare Policy

In the Middle of a Pandemic, Trump Argues to Supreme Court That 'the Entire ACA Must Fall'

And:

Covid-19

In the U.S., the Second Wave Is Already Here

And:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

As COVID Burns Through the South and West, Trump Fans the Flames

Imbecilic Mask-Social Distancing Tribalism: The Best Way To Ensure Another National Shutdown

"Just because you're tired of something doesn't mean it's gone. And we are gonna pay for it. We're paying for it now.  And it's just going to continue to get worse.  Prepare for not being able to get into the hospital  if you have a car wreck or a heart attack- and there won't be a ventilator to put you on."   Dr. Thomas Dobbs,Mississippi Public health officer to Jackson Free Press, yesterday.

"I think a lot of Americans suspected this leader chosen in the last election might not have the right stuff to lead the country well.  But this level of multivariate, simultaneous, existentially threatening mass catastrophe ...this is what we've got. Economic disaster, rule of law disaster, health disaster, none of which are abating.  They're all getting worse with every passing day. And all of which are cresting simultaneously now onto us."   Rachel Maddow, last night.


"If we don't have widespread mask use as we head into the fall as cases are going up we're going to end up shutting down the economy."  Dr. Chris Murray, Univ. of Washington Institute of Public Health


"There's no economy when you have a virus out of control. We learned this lesson earlier and now apparently, we have to relearn it... We started to get it under control with tremendous sacrifice that we all made together as citizens of civil society. But it was squandered by our leadership and we're going right back up again, All that pain and suffering, all that staying indoors, they threw it all away."   - Chris Hayes last night, on ALL IN

In my March 23rd post I wrote:

"The question, however, is whether mere reason and persuasion can work given we inhabit a nation loaded with entitled people who have little sense of common cause and generally see individual liberty as their personal right.  Even in a deadly pandemic which has every capability of wiping them out if they put that personal liberty before cooperative action."

This was in the context of a NY Times piece by Robert McNeil who had written in regard to the potential American response to the pandemic:

"It was not at all clear that a nation so fundamentally committed to individual liberty and distrustful of government could learn to adapt to many of these measures, especially those that smack of state compulsion."

Within two days of reaching (successively) the most cases ever, over 38,000  yesterday and 36, 358 the day before,  with 29 states experiencing exponential increases, i.e. R0  > 1.0  we  have now seen the enemy and it is us.   Americans have fractured into 2 political tribes, which will be to the detriment of us all. I define one of the tribes as faithful to science - namely related to the biology of this virus - and who show it by wearing masks, and social distancing.   

The other tribe I define as knuckle dragging imbeciles who reject the concept of public health, and refuse to learn the science underlying the virus.   These (mostly Trumpkins) also believe their fake "liberty" trumps the virus impositions  and any science related to it. These demented kooks call the mask wearers "sheep" and "slaves" as they harass public health officials to the point of forcing them to resign (like Dr. Amy Acton in Ohio).  This is because like children,  put into time out for their own good, they rebel against any restrictions. Hence,  they hate the mandates - for protective measures - they regard as infringements on their entitlements....errr.. "liberties".   Do these whack jobs even know that Texas has now peaked its ICU capacity at 100 %?  I doubt it!

These are crazies and extremists like the "Freedom Angels" who recently called out to public health officials in a live video (cf. WSJ, 'Threats on Public Health Officials Rise', p. A6, June 24):

"Hey public health officers you're in our cross hairs!"

According to the Journal piece, 

"One of its leaders, Denise Aguilar, demanded the repeal of mask-wearing mandates and called public health officers 'public enemy number one'"

Process that for a second: This virulent virago is calling those who'd move heaven and hearth to save her sorry ass from Covid, 'public enemy number one'.  And why is this? Because she interprets a mandate to wear a freaking mask an excessive incursion on her precious freedom.  So presumably she prefers to be free and dead if she gets the virus and has to be intubated.   Adding insult to injury these misfits have live -streamed their protests outside public health officers' homes - and dispatched this to their 22,000 followers. No, folks, you cannot make this shit up and this is one huge reason - with non-compliant goofballs like this- the nation's Covid cases are spiking and the opening of the economy in numerous states could come to a crashing halt.   Indeed, barely ten days ago, the extent of the U.S. deplorable response compared to other nations was already circulating, e.g.

This is Christopher Wilson's chart - from Yahoo News  - of how U.S. Covid cases are spiking precipitously (by 36.46%) and more than any other nation in the world.  And it's gotten much worse since that appeared on MSNBC June 13.

You can thank Trump and the Right who  have incited their zombies into treating masks as political submission  and a part of identity politics. So all who wear them are  "sheep"  or "slaves" and  those who mandate them are "Nazis" or "commies", opposed to "our" liberty as "sovereign citizens".  So the red state Trumpers refuse to comply with this simple precaution, taking it as a sign of being a "slave" or submission.  (Some of the "arguments" used by the anti-mask bunch is that they "afford little protection" (hint: they protect others from you) and they lead to "oxygen deprivation" (False).   Again, these examples merely show how a lie or mind virus can spread to gullible and weak brains as easily as a biological virus.  As the Santa Cruz , CA director of public health put it (last night on Maddow) , this makes them "Ungovernable".

The tragic result is that even in states where the case incidence is trending exponential they happily help the virus to spread further.  The political backlash is so virulent now that we behold medical doctors like Dr. Nicole Quick being forced to resign in Orange County, CA after being called a Nazi and receiving a death threat over an order to wear masks.  This, despite the fact that mask wearing is the key to staying safe in any large reopening. Oh, and definitely preferable to continuing in lockdown mode!  

 But even among more intelligent news and media consumers I will admit there is wide confusion,  as a result of bilge sown often by the media Rightists and reactionaries.  A case in point is yesterday's WSJ editorial 'Coping With Covid 19' (p. A16) which insists:

"Flare ups are inevitable but new lockdowns aren't the answer".

But  they may have to be the answer - as in Texas now (under Gov. Greg Abbott's reopening pause)  - if hospital  ICUs are being overrun, as in  Houston and three other TX cities. A particularly vile remark in the above editorial was:

"There's no denying the flare ups, even if some in the media seem to enjoy the rise in cases and the hospitalizations in Arizona, Florida, Texas and other hot spots in the South and West."

But if these knotheads saw recent episodes of Chris Hayes 'All In' or Rachel Maddow, they'd not see any jubilation but a terrible regret this nation was unable to rise to the challenge of containing this virus like other nations, such as Spain and Italy.   The biggest  face plant in the piece is when the WSJ editors claimed (presumably with straight face):

"The mistake is thinking that in a country of 330 million people a single top-down Washington  plan would crush the virus."

Except it just might have, as opposed to a hare- brained "no coordinated plan" - allowing a misplaced "federalism" and each state going its own way, competing with all others for ppe and reopening even when the minimal criteria to justify it are not in place.  Case in point a new University of Washington study shows 33,000 lives can be saved through October by way of mandated mask wearing. What the reopening fanatics, anti-mask dregs and their allies don't yet understand is that the ultimate fate of this nation is not in their hands but the vast silent majority who simply will refuse to participate in any aspect of the economy if they feel that would be fraught with risk.  As Chris Hayes observed last night (All In): "You cannot force people into an unsafe situation in the midst of an outbreak."

The fallout even at this stage -  barely halfway into the 'first quarter' of the pandemic  -  is evident, i.e. the Commerce Dept. "affirmed the U.S. economy contracted  by - 5% of GDP"  in the first quarter alone (WSJ, p. 1A today).  Further: "economists project the 2nd quarter will see the biggest quarterly economic contraction in records dating back to 1947."   This is depression level carnage if we don't get this virus under control by the fall.

More collectively organized societies grasp that accepting more rigorous governance is needed in a national crisis and self interest must take a backseat. You simply don't get the luxury of governing yourself when the welfare of the nation or community is at stake.  It's time the current crop of rabid "liberty from health mandates"  did too -   especially when we are in a similar war mode as my folks were in World War II - in terms of mobilizing critical  resources, especially medical equipment.  In this regard I am always reminded of my folks' sacrifices.  Did they pout and cry because they had to adhere to strict curfews,  gas and food rationing and state rules?  Of course not,  because they put on their 'big boy' pants and  understood they were all in that great moment together, to subdue a common foe.  We can do less now. Less thought of "me", much more of  "WE".

If we are to emerge whole from this "multivariate" crisis (in the words of Rachel Maddow) we need all citizens to cooperate and that means accepting public health mandates like adults, not hurling poop against the walls and screaming like toddlers.

See Also:

 Trump Has Sabotaged America's Coronavirus Response

And:

• Trump believes anyone who dies from Covid-19 is a 'loser' 

And:

Healthcare Policy

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Kill the ACA While Biden Calls out His Covid-19 Failure, 'Cruelty'

And:

Covid-19 | Economic Policy

Red-state Reopening Has Been a Disaster — and Republican Hopes for a Comeback Are Collapsing

And:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

Trump’s Bullish Take on COVID-19

Yes, We Desperately Need Images Of Patients & Organs Ravaged by the Novel Coronavirus - To Break Through The Wall Of Trumpie BS And Propaganda

We need more images like this of a 20-something's damaged left lung to show the havoc this disease can wreak and that is not the same as seasonal flu!

Among the most horrific images to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic has been that of the diseased left lung (see graphic) of a 20-something young woman whose lungs were destroyed by the virus. She had received a double lung transplant  at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. This marked the first known lung transplant in the United States for Covid-19.

The 10-hour surgery was more difficult and took several hours longer than most lung transplants because inflammation from the disease had left the woman’s lungs “completely plastered to tissue around them, the heart, the chest wall and diaphragm,” said Dr. Ankit Bharat, the chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of the lung transplant program at Northwestern Medicine,

He said the patient, who had no serious underlying medical conditions, was recovering well:  However, one of the damaged lungs removed had the appearance of a glob of rotten hamburger and showed clearly that those who dismiss Covid as "not that severe" are detached from reality.  It is severe and is even now filling up hospital ICUs  in at least a dozen states. But that is why we need more images of its horrors.  To get into people's craniums that this is nothing to play around with or take lightly.

If a twenty something woman with no underlying conditions could end up with lungs like the one shown, then so could Bill Maher, Holman Jenkins Jr., Kayleigh McEnany, Ron Desantis or the clowns (from the Hoover Inst.) who wrote an op-ed in yesterday's WSJ (p. A17) proclaiming "the data is in" and we need to open everything up already. This, despite a same  day WSJ  story ('New Cases Grow In Over A Dozen States',  p. A6) noting:

"New coronavirus cases have accelerated in more than a dozen states as summer weather and reopenings have prompted throngs of people to gather across the country."

And let's note many of those gathering refuse to take even minimal precautions, including mask wearing, social distancing.  It's as if they believe just because a yahoo governor says 'Let's open!" a state can do so and all will be well.

Why lurid Covid disease images, aren't news reports enough? No, not when so many proclaim they are fake news or the medical personnel are just play acting.  Of course, it is also possible that assorted mental invalids will also insist the image shown above is "faked" or photo-shopped, but hey, there's a limit of lower IQ for convincing - so we must halt at the idiot level.

 Meanwhile, many of us have assembled a representative, visual archive of the staggering human toll of the crisis from which we all to hope to emerge.  These images are as necessary as those of the Holocaust many of us have also archived, to ensure at some future date no cynical political monster or his zombies attempts to deny the respective reality  - or minimize the pandemic. . Besides, for society to respond in ways commensurate with the importance of this pandemic, we have to see it.   At least its effects on sundry organs if not the patients themselves. For us to be transformed by it, it has to penetrate our hearts as well as our minds.

As my Psychology post doc niece Shayl put it: Images force us to contend with the unspeakable. In this case the unspeakable nature of this virus. The images also help humanize clinical statistics, to make them comprehensible. They step unto the breach.  Sarah Elizabeth Lewis author of   'Where Are The Photos Of People Dyng Of Covid'?  has written that:

 "Visualization is a powerful tool — it can help us more deeply understand the severity of the situation as we work to curb the virus. But the visuals we need most in this time are difficult to come by. What are we missing by not having images that represent the full impact of the coronavirus crisis? In the United States, the frequently recurring pictures in the media are of the president, the virus itself represented as a spiky ball, health care and front line workers deemed essential and visuals conveying economic disarray (empty businesses, winding unemployment lines)."

While there have been some professional images from inside medical zones, ICUs they remain rare. “Make note of what we can’t see,”  CNN commentator Brian Stelter said in March, adding:

 “That’s the suffering happening inside hospitals.”

He went on to discuss a video that was taken covertly in a hospital. What it means, he said, “is that we’re not seeing this crisis with our own eyes.”

Clearly, a backward state like Georgia isn't, having allowed opening of restaurants to full capacity yesterday.  This despite being one of 23 states that saw a rise in Covid cases over the last week. (At least a dozen of them surging by more than 25 percent,)  All of this translates to an ongoing plateau reflecting our "terrible leadership" in Rachel Maddow's words.  This while other nations (Italy, Spain, Germany, UK) cycled through a clear rise, peak and decline.  Meanwhile, in another backward state- Arizona - we learned total hospitalizations have doubled since April and the new daily cases reported has reached record levels.

The two bonehead Bozos - Trump and Pence - insist it's all a reflection of more testing, not grasping that the rate of disease infections exceeds the rate of testing. But then I never believed either of these clowns could do the math anyway.  As Jeanne Marrazzo, Director of Infectious Diseases at Univ of Alabama noted: "It's a real increase in cases we're finding"

In the meantime, a new projection model out of the Univ. of Washington has more deaths in the next 127 days than in the previous 129. (As Maddow reported last night).  This was in the wake of Pence claiming  the Trump gov't response is "cause for celebration".  Really, Pence?  Hundreds and thousands of rotting lungs and 230,000 dead by October 1st is 'cause for celebration'?  What are you smoking anyway?  Especially when the clown spouted:

"Thanks to the leadership of President Trump we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy".

Well, if that's winning, I'd hate to see losing!

All of which shows me we need many more graphic images of the virus effects on fellow citizens to break through the reams of propaganda.  This will not be easy. Medical privacy laws in the United States can present obstacles to this kind of viewing. Instead of images, we have had daily briefings of statistics presented in pie charts and bar graphs. During news conferences, officials such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany have illustrated how social distancing can flatten the curve through clear numerical analysis.

Statistics alone, however clear, are not historically how we have communicated calamity on this scale. There is an inverse relationship between high numbers and comprehension: It is much harder to picture tragedy of the kind we are now witnessing than it is to visualize one person in pain, or an image that connects with a familiar aspect of the human condition, what psychologists have termed the “identifiable victim effect.”

This is why, as Shayl put it: "We need a lot more personal pain narratives and the grisly images to go along with them.  Americans can't allow themselves to be bamboozled by the ongoing foolishness that Trump and Pence have it all under control."  Indeed, and by October - with two million more pairs of rotted, blown out Covid lungs - it may be too late.  Above all, people need to recognize that a 2nd lockdown is still possible if hospitals - even in Texas- are overwhelmed by the infected.

See Also:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

Coronavirus Is Resurgent — and Trump Is to Blame

by Amanda Marcotte | June 17, 2020 - 7:58am | permalink

— from Salon

Excerpt:

Donald Trump wants to pretend the coronavirus is in the rearview mirror, but reports over the weekend suggested that instead the U.S. is witnessing a resurgence of the virus after weeks of decline. Twenty-one states have seen an increase of new cases in recent days. Most of the spikes are in Republican-controlled states like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Arizona, where governors curried favor with Trump by lifting restrictions long before meeting even some of the criteria recommended by public health officials. On Sunday, the death toll from the virus, now at 118,000, surpassed the number of American lives lost in World War I.

In response to this surge, Americans living in our polarized political culture are pointing the finger at each other. Conservatives are opportunistically blaming the anti-racism protests spreading across both big urban areas and small towns. Liberals, on the other hand, are casting a gimlet eye on Americans who have crowded into outdoor spaces at bars and restaurants in states that have allowed those establishments to reopen.

And:

Economic Policy

Coronavirus Consequences: Evictions Expected to Spike

by Thomas Neuburger | June 17, 2020 - 5:18am | permalink

— from Down With Tyranny!

Tanking Stock Market Thursday A Harbinger Of COVID 19 Resurgence & Economic Collapse: Will 'Muricans Heed It?

"The worst case projection I saw last year is we might see negative four percent GDP in the world. But just this week the World Bank predicted the entire global economy - every single country on Earth collectively - is  going into a negative 5.2 percent GDP.  That's 5.2 percent of the wealth of the planet just shrinks.  And in the midst of all that we have a pandemic and it's not just going to go away, And here in the United States we have no national policy, no consistent strategy across the nation, and no guidance coming to states in any coherent way from the CDC.

And the whole entire stock market has been hanging by its finger nails until today when reality started  to set in. They were thinking 'Okay we gotta have a vaccine gotta have a vaccine and that's gonna get us out of this.  Well what happens if one of the front line vaccines doesn't work properly - Well what does the market do? Stand back and watch the dust settle."  - Laurie Garret, on Rachel Maddow, Thursday night

- There has been solid research that it makes a difference to have more women on boards and in grass-roots positions, but evidence that they make better presidents or prime ministers has been lacking — until Covid-19 came along. It’s not that the leaders who best managed the virus were all women. But those who bungled the response were all men, and mostly a particular type: authoritarian, vainglorious and blustering.  -  Nicholas Kristoff, NY Times, 'What The Pandemic Reveals About The Male Ego'

The headline on the front page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal screeched:

'DOW Falls 1,800 On Virus Worries'

Noting:

"Growing fears of a surge in coronavirus infections sent the stock market falling Thursday pulling the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 1,800 points or 6.9 %.....For months investors have been betting the U.S. and other countries will be able to reopen their economies without seeing an increase in coronavirus cases that might force them to backtrack... But in the past few days investors have gotten more signs that the smooth reopening they had been hoping for might be increasingly difficult to achieve- throwing into doubt their hopes for a nascent economic recovery..

'It was a wake up call' said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, of Thursday's pullback"


Which begs the question of why these investor goobers didn't spot or attend to the growing exponential increases of Covid cases in states -  exposed by Rachel Maddow Thursday night-  states including; North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, South Carolina, Florida and others.

 I mean, as Maddow pointed out (as well as her guest Laurie Garrett) the signals leading to this moment were hard to ignore, even for the most bullish of investors. Coronavirus infections are rising in 21 states. Congress is divided on extending more aid. And on Wednesday, even the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, warned that the depth of the downturn and pace of the recovery remained “extraordinarily uncertain.”

For investors, who often make buying and selling decisions by looking at the future, it was altogether too much, but as Ms. Garrett said, that's because their brains are full of too much irrational exuberance. Not enough common sense and attending to the data before them, opting to go with wishful thinking.

Stocks suffered their worst drop in nearly three months as the S&P 500 stock index fell 5.9 percent — just days after it had recouped its losses for the year oh and oil prices also cratered, reflecting the sudden unease that swept across financial markets.  According to Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, an asset management firm:

“Chairman Powell threw a bucket of cold water on the thought that the economy is going to go back to where it was in 2019 any time soon,”

But is anyone paying attention?  The biggest contribution of Maddow last night- apart from having pandemic writer Garrett on  -   was showing Christopher Wilson's chart - from Yahoo News  - of how U.S. Covid cases are spiking precipitously (by 36.46%) and more than any other nation in the world, e.g.



This is god -awful and also exposes the WSJ editorial lies from yesterday ('The Second Wave Covid Scare', p. A 14) in which it was claimed  "The numbers are better than the headlines"  which the chart shows - as well as Maddow's exponential case curves- are flat out not true.  As the Yahoo News document states:

"In a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document dated June 9, the  U.S. had the highest spike of percentage change in daily cases, with a 36.5  percent jump in recent days. Of the top 10 countries in total cases, that is the  biggest spike by a significant margin, compared with drops in cases in Brazil,  Spain, Italy, Germany and Iran and growths of under 5 percent in Russia, India  and Peru. A June 9 Federal Emergency Management Agency document shows the same spike in  cases. The rolling average of deaths in the U.S., per the FEMA document, is  starting to trend up over 1,000 per day."

This is serious, folks, and as Maddow took pains to point out the 36% -plus increase was in THREE days.  That is a freaking disaster no matter which way you cut it and all the WSJ editorial efforts at happy talk and spin  (including misusing statistics) are going to fail.  At least for those who've retained some gray matter during this pandemic and Trump's insane response to it.  As Maddow put it:

"If' you've got the largest epidemic on Earth, and two million cases and 110,000 people dead  and twenty -one states where cases are rising - and your case numbers are rising 36 percent in three days when you're already this bad, if that's your economy, that's your market  that is your politics, then that is a national disaster. And it's not a national disaster we've been through and we're trying to get out of,, it's a national disaster right now."


Laurie Garrett also noted the insanity in the fact a number of states have never been in total lockdown yet now are planing to go into Phase III reopening,.   Case in point, Tex-ASS, now plans to go to a 75 % allowed capacity for in house dining in restaurants despite exponential increases in case numbers.

As she put it, using another less noted facet, commerce and travel between states:

"Reopening across state lines? This is just irrational.  Here in New York you're going to hear a hue and cry from people who've sacrificed so much being in lockdown for weeks  and and now what? Travelers are going to come in from Florida where those restrictions have all been lifted?  And they reintroduce Covid?   You see here is where the insanity is, we don't have a national strategy.  So what you're go to see is more animosity between states, more and more tension within states - between counties that have low levels and those with skyrocketing levels  So the kind of solidarity that's essential to conquering  disease is evaporating before our eyes.

Garrett then noted how -  during the Swine flu pandemic - (by contrast with today), the CDC was "fully in charge" doing at least one press briefing per day - and without any presidential  interference, spin, gaslighting and pill pushing.   So back then we knew what supplies everyone needed, but 'we don't have any of that now."

What we do have is lots of lying and misrepresentation by the Rightist op-ed and FOX news zombies that all is A-ok and the left and media are just inflating the stats. In the words of the already cited  WSJ editorial (ibid.)

"Liberals and the media demanded more testing before states could reopen, yet now are criticizing states because more testing has revealed more cases"

But they have it ass- backwards. What we said was the extent and aggression of reopening must be contingent on the test results.    IF  then more testing reveals more cases you have to apply more controls, more brakes, more precautionary measures to continue to open.   You cannot just rush pell mell into reopening any way you want, devil take the hindmost. Hell, those states with spiking numbers aren't even initiating enough contact tracing.  As Maddow put it, "hoping for things to get better is not a plan."  

To which Ms. Garrett added,  referencing the response to the H1N1 pandemic in 2009:  "The level of engagement was enormous" in contrast to now, where the head of the CDC - Redfield - has become another Trump lapdog.   The result of the Obama plan and CDC was that "there was a consistent policy across all states and the territories".  But what has Trump done? He's turned even the sane act of wearing a mask into a culture war - where his zombies instantly lose it when they see anyone walking while masked - taking them for a socialist, leftist Antifa thug or god forbid, Democrat.

As Dr. David Agus explained yesterday morning:

"People who go out in crowds should all wear a mask. They need to block the spread of droplets from one person to another We have a new way of life these next months until a vaccine comes. We need to behave differently Wearing a mask is different, it's not in our DNA to focus on others but we need to."


Indeed, this attention to mask  -wearing,  as Dr. Ashish Jha explained on 'All In' Thursday night, is one way to open up in a judicious - as opposed to reckless- manner-  and  hence to ensure a downturn in infections as opposed to the spikes we're seeing.   It then becomes a practical alternative to extended lockdown, and a means to reopen the economy while still maintaining protections, precautions - in addition to social distancing and hand washing. 

The problem is that Trump and the Right have incited their zombies into treating masks as political expressions and a part of identity politics. So all who wear them are "commies", "Nazis" or "leftist thugs", opposed to "our" liberty as "sovereign citizens".  So the red state Trumpers refuse to comply with this simple precaution, taking it as a sign of being a "slave" or submission.  Hence, even in their states where the case incidence is trending exponential they happily help the virus to spread further.  The political backlash is so virulent now that we behold medical doctors like Dr. Nicole Quick being forced to resign in Orange County, CA after being called a Nazi and receiving a death threat over an order to wear masks.  This, despite the fact that mask wearing is the key to staying safe in any large reopening. Oh, and definitely preferable to continuing in lockdown mode!

 Last night on 'All In' Chris Hayes played clips of these fake liberty besotted nitwits decrying local health officials.  I could scarcely believe my eyes and ears and Janice was apoplectic - ready to hurl a shoe at the TV.   In the case of an Orange County council meet one heard the following  eruptions from the assorted aggrieved nincompoops:

"I've been discriminated against five times in the last three days, unable to go into businesses without a mask!"

"I'm being told by these Nazis to breathe in CO2 when God...gave me the ability to extract that from my body! So now you want me to put it back into my body!"

"By continuing to keep people in masks without any legitimate cause you are kneeling on the necks of the people! You are continuing to act in a thuggish manner!"

"I mean like it's over! Are we still talking about this?"

To which Chris Hayes responded:  "Yeah, we're still talking about this. People are still dying from it. But that's the view of the White House and these people imbibe it."

Hayes then referenced how this idiocy is happening in Ohio too, in similar venues  - despite the fact the state has been a leader in containing the virus.  But now the Trumpian peanut gallery is getting restless and has taken to sounding off and complaining,  even leading to the resignation of Dr. Amy Acton who had advised Gov. Mike Dewine on the need for an early lockdown, Now the state's Reeptards and their minions are depicting her as the bad guy- even carrying guns and signs with anti-Semitic messages outside her home.   As Chris Hayes noted,  after playing the clip:  "Dr. Amy Acton has guided Ohio through this pandemic and now has become the target of reactionary idiots."

 This is what a good segment of the nation has descended to:  degraded, regressed, non-toilet trained infants with serious mental issues.  Look, if a second wave arrives (see: 'Get Ready for the Second Wave',  WSJ today, p A13)  and another lockdown has to be imposed, you can thank imbeciles such as the ones blowing brain farts out of their asses and forcing medical experts in the different states to resign or go into hiding.    

As for Bill Maher's continued harping about "eating better"  as the key to avoiding the virus ("It only takes 4 to 6 weeks to get healthier!")  that is airy fairy opining which will not help  us with the population we have here and now. (Only 12 percent metabolically healthy according to his latest nutrition guru guest doc.)  Here's more concrete advice  and one thousand times more practical: wear a damned mask when you go out and deliver the middle finger to any toads who object. Oh, and be sure to social distance!   (My technique when I go into an establishment with a mask on and after a jaundiced look from non-mask wearers,  is to commence my deepest, most spasmodic coughing - in response to which the Trumpies move away, slinking like shamed dogs.  My unspoken message? "Hey, I am protecting you idiots!")

 Against all this misfiring and deranged politicization in countering the pandemic we behold a cratering economy which is on the cusp of a full fledged depression, yet few seem to notice.  If the core of a depression is collapsing economic output the writing is already on the wall.  Commerce Dept data show ((WSJ today, p,A1, 'Global Economy Faces Steep Climb To Recover')  Americans saved $6.15 trillion of income (much of it coming from the gov't in the CARES act) in April, but that savings rate increase of 33 % cratered consumption(which props up  70 % of GDP)  and sent the economy into a tailspin --as Laurie Garrett described.  To avoid a depression (a recession has already been evident since February) means much more money must be infused to increase demand, e.g. for goods and services.  Americans, unless they see the government come through, will simply close their wallets to  further spending  so they can hold out against the  debt headwinds.  Which  penny pinching will spell disaster.  The Dems have offered $3 trillion in the HEROES act but the GOP is saying "No way!"

I mean, another 1.5 million (from the Friday unemployment report) are now seeking government support and yet most programs are set to terminate next month. For example, a moratorium on evictions will expire on July 23rd, and the unemployment bonus $$ that has propped up so many millions and helped the economy will follow on July 31st.  Is anyone besides the House Democrats doing anything to help? Nope.  McConnell and the pukes are still sitting on the House bill, convinced they can just wait it out and soon everyone will be back at work so...no problemo.  "We don't need to shovel any more government dollars at the needy millions".  

Well, guess not, so long as you're prepared to face a depression level economic contraction as Laurie Garrett pointed out with 5.2 percent of the world's wealth sucked out. She pointed also to a World Bank estimate of - 8.5 %  in U.S. economic activity, compared to  +1 % at the end of the great recession;  The former is a depression warning, make no mistake.
  See Also:

Hospitalizations climb, cases spike in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, N.C.

And:

Donald Trump

Trump Unmasked

by Steven Harper | June 13, 2020 - 6:57am | permalink

— from BillMoyers.com

Excerpt:

Medical professionals agree unanimously that wearing a mask in public prevents the spread of COVID-19. In violation of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control guidelines, Trump refuses to wear one.

Trump says that it’s because he is tested for COVID-19 regularly and so are those around him. That doesn’t explain why he mocks former Vice President Joe Biden for wearing one. Even apart from the FDA’s warning that the tests may return false negative results, ordinary Americans don’t have the luxury of weekly tests with immediate results.