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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

White House should've been slammed shut months ago.
No tours, no visitors of any kind.
President and his family should've been in isolation, for protection.
Now look what's happened.

Vaccine about next Feb...it'll be a changed world until then.

Next February is the earliest, I would think.

And why on Earth would putting the Prez in isolation have helped anything (except for the people he might have contaminated personally)?

[josh]

News Item

President Trump tests negative for Covid-19

Maybe.

This morning he said the results would be back in a day or two. Less than a day makes this seem less realistic.

[bambu.]

White House should've been slammed shut months ago.
No tours, no visitors of any kind.
President and his family should've been in isolation, for protection.
Now look what's happened.

Vaccine about next Feb...it'll be a changed world until then.

Next February is the earliest, I would think.

And why on Earth would putting the Prez in isolation have helped anything (except for the people he might have contaminated personally)?

He and his family would not be able to be infected.
He could work from home.

People over 70 in Australia are being advised to 'stay home'...stay home at their houses.
U.S. President is over 70. He'd be well advised to stay home, and not let anyone into his house until there's a vaccine, or he leaves office.

[bambu.]

News Item

President Trump tests negative for Covid-19

Maybe.

This morning he said the results would be back in a day or two. Less than a day makes this seem less realistic.

[LarryBnDC]

News Item

President Trump tests negative for Covid-19

Says who?

[kiidcarter8]

Stephanie

[josh]

Mike Pence sent a letter to the White House staff:

It’s imperative each one of us do our part to take the proper precautions to keep ourselves and our colleagues safe," Pence wrote. "As an employee aboard the White House Complex, we have an additional duty to protect the health of our Executive Branch and those working with us."

Some of the steps listed to reduce transmission included:

Washing hands for 20 seconds
Social distancing, or limiting oneself to large, in-person gatherings
Avoiding physical contact
Wiping down personal work stations
Staying home if sick

I wonder if he mentioned it to the Prez, so Trump would stop shaking people's hands!

[josh]

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

[LarryBnDC]

Stephanie

Says who?

[josh]

Coincidence?

I think not!

[bodiddley]

My favorite blocked-letters hidden-message was during the first time the US killed Iraqis.  The first President Bush went to the Raytheon death factory to praise those who made the Patriot war missiles.  So the front page of the NYT featured a picture of the President with a giant missile looming in the background, with the word RIOT visible on it [Bush presumably blocking the first 3 letters]. 

I thought this was just genius.  And despite some research/googling, I've never been able to find a copy of that photo.  Of course, in China, now I have both google and the NYT blocked.   But I'd love to have a copy of that.

[bodiddley]

Ashish Jha, who runs the Harvard Global Health Institute, says the response to the coronavirus has varied dramatically around the world. "Some countries have been very aggressive and have actually done quite a good job," he says. "Other countries have been quite lackadaisical and, I think, have suffered immensely from it. And I think there are lessons to be learned for all of us."

So how has the United States' response been?
"Our response is much, much worse than almost any other country that's been affected," Jha says.
He uses the words "stunning," "fiasco" and "mind-blowing" to describe how bad it is.

"And I don't understand it," he says incredulously. "I still don't understand why we don't have extensive testing. Vietnam! Vietnam has tested more people than America has." (He's citing data from earlier this week. The U.S. has since started testing more widely, although exact figures still aren't available at a national level.)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started screening overseas travelers for coronavirus in mid-January. But the initial test kits developed by the CDC were flawed, and it took weeks to sort out the problems. It's only this week that wide-scale testing has started to become available in the United States.

Jha believes that the weekslong delay in deploying tests — at a time when numerous other tests were available around the world — has completely hampered the U.S. response to this crisis.

"Without testing, you have no idea how extensive the infection is. You can't isolate people. You can't do anything," he says. "And so then we're left with a completely different set of choices. We have to shut schools, events and everything down, because that's the only tool available to us until we get testing back up. It's been stunning to me how bad the federal response has been."

[bodiddley]

When Bolton became Trump’s national security adviser in 2018, he quickly moved to disband the White House National Security Council’s Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which former President Barack Obama set up after the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak to lead federal coordination and preparation for disease outbreaks.

In April 2018, Bolton fired Tom Bossert, then the homeland security adviser, who, the Washington Post reported, “had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks.” Then, in May of that year, Bolton let go the head of pandemic response, Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, and his global health security team. The team, the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, was never replaced.

the work of a global health security team, or something like it, is crucial to responding to any disease outbreak. Since the federal government is sprawling and large, it helps to have centralized leadership in case of a crisis. That leadership could ensure all federal agencies are doing the most they can and working toward a single set of goals.

But it’s important to have this kind of agency set up before an outbreak. Setting up an agency takes time; it requires hiring staff, handing out tasks and expected workloads, creating internal policies, and so on. A preexisting agency is also going to have plans worked out before an outbreak, with likely contingencies in place for what to do.

The cuts are part of Trump’s broader policy agenda, focused largely on trimming the size of the federal government. He has repeatedly proposed cuts to agencies, like the CDC and NIH, on the front lines of the federal response to disease outbreaks. Trump’s most recent budget proposals asked for similar cuts — and the administration has stood by them.

[luee]

Was he thinking that rich people do not need health programs only tax cuts? There have been significant health threats recently;ebola, sars, etc. What a guy! Finally got to see "1917" bleak surroundings reminds me of present. Can Sbucks survive? My favorite had a handful of brave souls for the past few days. They should speed the vaccine testing process for the emergency. Was thinking of sitting it out in Maine or W. Virginia.

[barton]

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

These are the indicators of dementia.   As eminent Yale psychologist Bandy Lee pointed out,  you don't have to conduct an interview to diagnose some forms of mental illness.  The poor man is unfit for office.