Friday, May 29, 2020

'Toontime: Stayin' Shaggy

credit A. Zyglis, Buffalo News
Yes, US Person feels it too! His hair was already two months long before the lockdown, so now it has grown to sixties length. TOTAL DOUCHE does not have this problem; for a politician so vain about his appearance that he wears makeup, it must be a relief.
credit: A. Zygis, Buffalo News
Wackydoodle sez:  Hell, jist shoot em!
One of the many, many lies TOTAL has spewed in his endless propaganda (more than 22 a day in 2019 according to WaPo) is that a vaccine will be available by the end of this year. Unfortunately the Pentagon does not seem to agree. Who are you going to trust in this deplorable truth contest?  A memo written by Kenneth Rapuano, Assistant Secretary of Defense and leaked to the press, says the Pentagon should plan for a prolonged pandemic since a vaccine will not be publicly available until “at least the summer of 2021.” So much for a "warp speed" program to develop a vaccine by the end of the year.

The head of this "Star Trek" program, Moncef Slaoui, a former executive at Moderna, which is developing a vaccine in coordination with the government, said, “Frankly, 12 to 18 months is already a very aggressive timeline.” Slaoui benefited from a bump in his company's stock price in response to encouraging news about vaccine development because he still had millions invested even after he was appointed to head the government's vaccine effort. In response to criticism about this gross conflict, he sold Moderna stock and donated the gains to cancer research. “In the best of circumstances, we should have a vaccine—or let’s say vaccines—between 12 and 18 months,” says Stanley Plotkin, the individual credited with creating the rubella vaccine in the 1960s. Even if a vaccine is widely available by January, 2021 polls indicate only 50% of 'Mericans would be willing to take it. Herd immunity, USA!

US COVID Deaths (est.): 142,300

No more Mr. Nice Guy....

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Creature Feature: Kashmiri Goats of Llandudno

There are upsides to the pandemic if you look hard enough: less traffic, more quiet, cleaner air and more wildlife visible to the eye.  Animals seem to be enjoying the lockdown as they wander into our streets and yards in the absence of humans.  You probably have seen this video of goats roaming the empty streets of Llandudno, Wales:



The goats are Kashmiri, Capra markhor, given by Queen Victoria to start a kashmir wool industry in the area. She kept a large heard at Windsor. The goats have impressive horns and a strong odor. They usually roam Great Orme, which towers over the town, but came to town when humans made themselves scarce during the lock down, perhaps for curiosity or for a fondness of privet hedges. They still behave like the mountain goats from their native land. Mothers leave their offspring on tiny ledges for safekeeping while they forage. They avoid humans when they can, melting into the vegetation, and only occasionally venture into town, especially when foul weather approaches. Generally they are good neighbors who keep to themselves. Attempts to cull the herd has meet with stiff resistance from townsfolk. A study found unique characteristics have evolved during almost two centuries of isolation making the Llandudno goats a distinct subspecies worth preserving.

The freedom enjoyed by our wild neighbors and perhaps some humans too, will end soon with the resumption of frenzied economic activity, so, like the goats, enjoy this brief respite while it lasts.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

'Toontime: Voodoo Medicine

BC Idonwanna sez:  Inject bleach under UV lamp, too. I call medicine man!
credit: N. Beeler
Still More: Staying on the subject of miracle cures there is a drug currently being hyped for market roll-out that does next to nothing for COVID-19 infections. That drug is Remdesivir manufactured by Gillead Science.  The balm they created that costs about $10 to make will sell for many times that amount.  It was originally developed with $79 million in US government funding  to treat Ebola.  States have come with plans to triage limited amounts of the drug the company donated to the federal government.  Announcement of the drug's distribution for COVID-19 has driven the company's stock price up and buoyed a stock market looking for good news amid the pandemic.  People are already standing in lines for the drug.

A scientist who worked on the US government's response to the HIV epidemic said remdesivir is far from a miracle cure. “Remdesivir doesn’t work at all, as far as I can tell, or has only a minor effect,” according to William Haseltine.  Haseltine compared remdesivir to tamiflu, which has been available by prescription for twenty years.  Haseltine founded the departments of biochemical pharmacology and human retrovirology at Harvard. A Chinese study of the drug published in the Lancet, showed that the drug did not have any anti-viral effect. “That’s why I call it the fuzzy-wuzzy drug,” Haseltine added.  What the drug does do, based on results of a study conducted by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Disease, is shorten by 11 days the recovery time in patients suffering from COVID-19.  It did not reduce the risk of death, or help severely ill patients on respirators.

Once more, a combination of other drugs appears to be more effective than Remdesivir. Patients who took interferon beta-1b, lopinavir-ritonavir, and ribavirin got better in seven days as opposed to 12 days for those who didn’t take it.  The combination also has a measurable anti-viral effect that Remdesivir does not have, according to a study published in the Lancet on May 8th.  No one is standing line for this treatment for good reason.  Gillead stands to earn millions for years to come off of Remdesivir, so it is carefully orchestrating its rollout, dolling out minute amounts of samples, dripping tailored press teasers, and highlighting its compassionate use program.  Gillead has been criticized before for its drug sales promotion, particularly for the exorbitant pricing of its HIV medicine Truvada and hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir, which sells for $1,000 a pill.  Remdesivir received emergency use authorization from the FDA on May 1st, despite an indication that the new drug could have adverse side effects on the kidney and liver. More research on this issue was called off by the NIAID. The current climate of power politics and unrestrained greed in a time of plague is distorting the regulation of new drug and vaccine treatments to the detriment of the public they are supposed to be helping.

Dow 25,000: It's how they do...

{26.05.20} After the Lancet study was released showing no beneficial effects from COVID-19 treatment with hydroxychloroquine and increased risk of death, France moved to ban use of the chemical except in clinical trials. Shortly after that announcement, the country's drug regulator banned its use in clinical trials WHO announced Monday that it was suspending clinical trials of the drug.  If the mendacious Total Douche was taking the drug--US Person thinks that claim like many he makes is open to doubt--he increased his risk of heart dysfunction. He is already in a high mortality category (obesity) if he contracts COVID-19, Perhaps fear of death motivated him to to self-administer a potentially dangerous prophylactic.  Awesome dude?  Not so much.

Meanwhile® the former state epidemiologist for Sweden cast doubt on her country's decision not to impose a mass quarantine. Sweden is now experiencing one of the highest mortality rates in the world reports AP. Annika Linde told AP that in retrospect an early lockdown could have saved lives. Linde was Sweden's Dr. Fauci from 2005 to 2013 and led the country's response to swine flu and SARS.  Her criticism of the country's relatively lax strategy for combating SARS CoV-2 virus was prompted by a current health minister claiming Sweden's strategy was "the best in the wolrd".  Linde said, “I felt this can’t go on. Such a denial may prevent us from acting rationally.” Ditto, Dr. Linde.

{23.05.20}Another study, published in the respected English medical journal, Lancet, explodes the myth of hydroxychloroquinine as a treatment for COVID-19,  finding no beneficial effects, and a link to increased rates of mortality and heart rhythm complications in 96,000 hospital patients. The Veterans Affairs department revealed that it has administered the anti-malaria drug to 1,300 veterans suffering virus infections at VA medical centers without a discernible beneficial effect. When asked why it was using the untested drug to treat COVID-19 by Senator Schumer, the agency responded it was doing so in accordance with FDA guidelines permitting experimental use, and because veteran families were requesting the treatment.

Obese, older patients such as Total Douche (240-280lbs; BMI 30.4) are in a high risk mortality category if they contract COVID-19. Someone should check his bloodlines before its too late.

US Death Toll (est.): 133,800.

 credit: Tom Toles, Washington Post


What is the truth?...

Monday, May 25, 2020

COTW: Vote By Mail Works

Oregon voters shattered previous turnout records in the primary held January 19th. Look at this chart:


1.3 million residents voted in the 2020 primary. The state has enjoyed the advantages of permanent vote-by-mail since 1987.  Oregon is a safe blue state like the rest of the left coast, but in rust belt states like Michigan, which Total Douche won in 2016, he is desperate to prevent vote by mail because it has such a positive effect on turnout. (Q himself weighed in with dismay: “These people are sick! Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing.”) Repugnants are confronted with this stark fact: they are outnumbered by Democratic and progressive independent voters in most of the country except the South.  Consequent they rely heavily on the skewed effects of the Electoral College, gerrymandering, and voter suppression efforts directed at minorities under the cover of preventing practically non-existent 'voter fraud'.

US COVID-19 Death Toll (est.): 130,000

I'd rather be golfing....

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Trumpland Under Water

credit: Getty Images
Another horrendous example of the failure of providing social goods for private profit--the modus operandi of small government Repugnants--occurred in Michigan this week.  Two private dams failed sending flood waters downstream to ravage a large area along the Tittabawassee River near Midland, MI. [photo]  Ten thousand residents of the city of forty thousand were told to evacuate their homes on Tuesday. Rather than a "mistake", an explanation offered by Total Douche for the failures, the dams owned by Boyce Hydro have a record of mismanagement and neglect.  The country's aging infrastructure is being put to the test of catastrophic climate change and it is failing. The Army Corps of Engineers says fifty-six percent of the nation’s 91,458 dams are privately owned, and a majority of them are more than 50 years old.  The infamous Johnstown, PA flood that took 2,208 lives occurred when another private dam failed in 1889.

The Edenville dam, rated a "high hazard" structure by the Corps, collapsed unable to contain torrential rain, sending waters that drained Wixom Lake downstream to overwhelm the high hazard Sanford dam.  Edenville's operating permit was revoked in 2018 for an inability to handle flood waters.  The state took over regulatory responsibility for the dam in 2018.  The dam was red-flagged for its inadequate spillway as early as the 1990's.  Federal regulators (FERC) wrote, "Boyce has repeatedly failed to comply with the orders of the Regional Engineer and other Commission staff or to work with Commission staff to resolve these instances of noncompliance, notwithstanding being given many opportunities to do so.”  The state's environmental quality agency said in a public statement, Lack of investment in dam infrastructure is not uncommon in Michigan dams, which have suffered from deferred maintenance over the course of decades. That, combined with the historic rainfall and flooding, were factors in the Edenville Dam failure."  Edenville was ninety-six years old.

Boyce Hydro is headed by Lee Muelller who is a public supporter of the Total Douche.  He also emulates the business practices of his hero.  Not wanting to undertake expensive upgrading, Mueller sold four dams including Sanford to a consortium of residents from four surrounding counties who wanted to make the needed retrofitting. The sale agreement stipulated that Boyce or the Four Lakes consortium would make the necessary repairs; apparently the citizens group was counting on Boyce to act. Unfortunately, the sale came to late to spare Midland.

Trumpland is paying dearly for laissez-faire capitalism as practiced by grifters and raiders.   Ironically, if irony was still alive at this late date, Total Douche campaigned on a promise to spend a trillion on infrastructure.  That policy has not materialized other than to build an entirely useless barrier against brown- skinned immigrants. He awarded the largest federal building contract of his entire term in office this week for the border's wall of shame. The $1.3 billion deal to build just 42 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border was awarded to Fisher Sand & Gravel headed by another public toady of Trump.  Total Douche repeatedly urged the contracting agency to award construction contracts to Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. Jared Kushner, whom President Trump recently named as the White House lead for border construction projects, has also reportedly supported the company’s selection. 

Friday, May 22, 2020

Damn the Virus, Full Speed Ahead!

Resorting to quoting popular TV science fiction, Total Douche wants to ignore the scientific testing of vaccine candidates in favor of rapid deployment.  Project "Warp Speed" is a catchy phrase sure to further enthrall his delusional voting block but ignores the risky business of vaccine development in this country.  US Person is sure Douche does not read the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, so it is worth exposing him to the tragedy of the "Cutter Incident" in a few words here at Persona Non Grata.

For your edification, go back to April, 1955.  Two hundred thousand children in five western and midwestern states received the newly developed polio vaccine.  Undoubtedly their families were relieved that their children could be inoculated against the scourge of polio myelitis that paralyzed generations of American children. There was an undetected problem with the vaccine; within days of administration there were reports of paralysis setting in. Within a month the vaccine program had to be abandoned.  A subsequent investigation of the event revealed that the vaccine manufactured by Cutter Laboratories in California contained live viruses.  Forty thousand cases of polio were attributed to the faulty vaccine, which caused 400 cases of paralysis and ten deaths.

Polio was a deadly disease that affected mostly children, first identified by Karl Landsteiner in 1908.  It killed hundreds every summer in the 1950's; second only to the atomic bomb, polio was the thing that Americans feared the most according to historian Paul Offit.  One of America's most respected presidents, Franklin Roosevelt was a victim of the paralytic disease in his youth.  Consequently there was great pressure to rapidly develop an anecdote to this plague. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin both developed vaccines, both were brilliant both flawed personalities, and bitter enemies.  The Cutter incident led to the replacement of Salk's formaldehyde treated vaccine with Sabin's attenuated strain. Sabin's vaccine also had the advantage of being administered orally, fostering wide community application. Unfortunately, passage through the human gut could reactive the virus. Every year the Sabin vaccine paralyzed a few children until a safer, modified version was introduced in the 1980's.

The Cutter incident prompted two reactions.  One, it improved regulation of vaccines in the United States by the FDA, until today where the country enjoys the safest vaccines on the planet, despite near hallucinatory distrust of vaccines by fringe, often fundamentalist critics.  The Cutter company was found liable for the accidental deaths, even though there was no finding of negligence, opening a floodgate of litigation that almost closed down vaccine development in the US. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was introduced in 1986 to protect vaccine manufacturers from overwhelming liability, but still many developers opted out of this high risk, low profit field, leaving only a few firms to meet the demand for vaccines. Before proceeding at 'warp speed', in which pop culture is substituted for scientific caution, rational political leaders should consider the risks of nationwide administration of rushed vaccines that could have more serious side effects than the disease itself.

Wackydoodle sez:  He's strong to the finish...

Thursday, May 21, 2020

COTW: Let Them Inject Bleach!

You can lead them to a restaurant, but you can't make them eat.  This chart tells the story about the great and powerful dictator who thought he could open up the economy by fiat:

Faced with the reality of the highest death rate in the world, the continued partial quarantine is proving popular with 'Mericans.    Or is it they are enjoying the previously meager free-time?  Deaths from COVID-19 (est.): 127, 600.

The European countries ahead of the US on a per capita basis have more extensive testing and tracking regimes in place.  Now you know why the Total Douche does not care or want extensive testing to take place.  So go ahead and take your "miracle drug", Douche, 'Mericans have moved on.


Wednesday, May 20, 2020

China Offers Buyout to Wildlife Farmers

US Person thinks that the consumption of wildlife in China  provided the bridge for development of the SARS CoV-2 virus responsible for the current pandemic among humans. Scientists have already commented on the probable zoonosis of the novel corona virus whose genetic predecessors occur in bats. This scenario is much more likely to be the explanation for the origin of the novel corona virus than some half-baked, politically motivated propaganda attempting to blame a Wuhan research lab for the escape of the virus into the wider world.  In recognition of this dangerous bridge over the inter-species gap, the Chinese government is taking steps to phase out human consumption of wildlife. The buyouts are voluntary.

Farmers who raise wildlife for human consumption in several provinces including Hunan and Jiangxi are being offered government buyouts for at least 14 species including bamboo rats, palm civet cats [photo], and ratsnakes.  The buyouts are intended to help farmers transition to raising vegetables, fruits and herbs for traditional medicine, or to begin raising domesticated animals such as pigs and chickens. There still exist exemptions for the fur, entertainment and traditional medicine trades. The novel virus which has infected more than 5 million people worldwide is considered to have originated in a Wuhan market that sells wildlife as well a domesticated animals, fruits and vegetables. The government responded to the outbreak by banning the consumption of wild animals. There is a suggestion based on preliminary research not yet published that the virus passed through a temporary host, the shy and harmless pangolin, a critically endangered species, which is suffering from huge black market demand for its meat and scales used in folk medicine.  The World Health Organization recently released hygiene standards for these types of markets, which exist worldwide. 

China was not developing a super biological weapon as implied by the paranoid regime in power in the US, but it does have to answer for its abhorrent record on animal welfare.  A policy specialist at the Humane Society International said, “Chinese farmers not only have an opportunity to leave a trade that poses a direct threat to human health--something that can no longer be tolerated in light of COVID--but also to transition to more humane and sustainable livelihoods such as growing plant foods popular in Chinese cuisine.”

 

Monday, May 18, 2020

'Toontime: Idiot at the Wheel

Update: New reporting from NBC says the fired IG for State, Steve Linick was investigating Secretary Pompeo in regard to arms sales made to the Saudis without Congressional approval. Previous reporting suggested that Linick was on Pompeo's tail for using a political appointee to "walk his dog" and perform other menial personal tasks--relatively minor violation of ethics rules. Bipartisan majorities in both House and Senate voted last year to block arms sales to the Saudi government after after that country's air war against Yemen produced a humanitarian disaster. Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engle (D-NY) told reporters he had asked Mr. Linick to investigate a "phony" declaration of emergency to evade the Arms Export Control Act. Linick's report on the matter was largely completed prior to his firing by the corrupt Antichrist in Office at the request of Secretary Pompeo. Whether the report's findings have anything to do with Linick's dismissal remains to be determined according to Mr. Engle.  Democrats in Congress have raised the possibility that his firing might have been an “illegal act of retaliation” requiring an investigation into the circumstances.

credit: Bors
Latest: The latest casualty in the Fake President's war on the Republic: the State Department's Inspector General, Steve Linick. Total Douche informed Speaker Pelosi Friday night of his decision to fire the Obama appointee and replace him with an ally of VP Mike Pence. A Democratic lawmaker wrote, "Another late Friday night attack on independence, accountability, and career officials. At this point, the president's paralyzing fear of any oversight is undeniable." If the Antichrist wins in November 2020, it will be March 1932 in "Merica. US Pandemic Dead (est.): 117,000

The fake president at the VWH lashed out against his enemies, powerful and perceived with dozens of twits dripping venom.  His targets: Dr. Fauci, Dr. Bright, Obama, 'fake news' reporters, corona virus testing, vote by mail, the Radical Left, and anyone else or thing that contradicts the endless self-aggrandizement of the huge and powerful Chosen One.  One outstanding example of his often incoherent blather, which he uttered while visiting a Pennsylvania medical equipment distributor: “Don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world,” Total Douche boasted. “But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases." Jaw-dropping ignorance caused by his pathological preoccupation with falling re-election poll numbers. "Risk disease and death for capitalists", would be a less deceitful campaign mantra for the cult of death he leads.

Some developments which should grab his minute attention span: a federal appeals court allowed an emoluments lawsuit brought by the District of Columbia and Maryland to proceed. The conservative Fourth Circuit rejected en banc (9-6) a summary judgment motion to dismiss the case. The lawsuit claims that Total Douche violated the Constitution's emoluments clause by accepting foreign government money for official stays at his DC hotel.  His minions will appeal to the Supreme Court, which is also deciding whether he has to release his tax returns pursuant to congressional subpoena. A Brookings Institute report says that the virus is spreading rapidly to Trump country--rural rust belt and southern communities. Doctors, who struggled throughout March and April to counteract COVID-19’s attack on the human respiratory system, have discovered in recent weeks that the virus is also attacking kidneys, the brain, circulatory system and musclesAlthough rare, an inflammatory disease resembling Kawasaki disease that affects young children has also been linked to SARS CoV-2.

 "You're fired....!"

Friday, May 15, 2020

Rome's Bees Enjoy Lockdown

Today is Endangered Species Day says the World Wildlife Fund.  So, in honor of the day, US Person posts this story about Rome's bees in a time of pandemic. Honey bees are not endangered, but face many environmental threats to their existence, one of which is sudden colony collapse syndrome. [26.08.08} Their populations have decreased world-wide.

credit: AFP
A colony of honeybees lives on the roof of a carabinieri building.  The police have been monitoring the 150,000 bees living in three hives during Italy's strict, two month quarantine. Their caretakers found the bees are enjoying a "Roman Holiday" of sorts.  They have beneficially reacted to the lack of vehicle traffic, pollution, and noise in the sprawling city of 2.8 million.  “They’ve been happy,” said Raffaele Cirone, president of the Italian Apiculture Federation says.  Their numbers have increased and they appear healthy, an indication of the good nutrition they are receiving. Honey has also improved in appearance and taste. Tests show that the bees are visiting 150 different flowers up to 2 kms away.  That is an increase from 100 flowers before the lockdown began.  Bees are now able to smell flowers farther away because of a cleaner atmosphere. Before quarantine, the urban bees only foraged up to a kilometer away.  Cirone is particularly interested in the effects of particulates of heavy metals and microplastics, PM10 and PM2.5, on bee health.

There are an estimated 1000-2000 hives in the Eternal City. Urban bees may have an easier life than their rural relatives, which have to contend with intense use of pesticides on crops. {18.03.13}  Quarantine conditions provided a unique opportunity to study the affect of drastically altered human activity on rooftop hives.  Although it might appear strange military police should study urban bees, part of the carabinieri's jurisdiction is protecting forests and the environment.  They are sharing information with thirty other groups studying Rome's bee colonies with a view towards increasing their number of colonies to aid pollination needs. Data from the quarantine period included in a three year project,is expected to be reported this summer.  It seems that these"sentinels of Nature"are telling us something important.

Thursday, May 14, 2020

LBBs Fighting Hard

Little brown bats, (Myotis lucifugus), are fighting back against the white nose syndrome caused by the P. destructans fungus.  The disease has wiped out colony after colony of the indigenous specie in North America {26.05.22)  90% of the endangered bats have succumbed to the fungus which robs them of hibernation and thereby depletes their fat reserves.  New research shows survivors have developed adaptive gene changes that regulate arousal from hibernation (GABARB1) and breakdown of fats (cGMP-PK1). Whether these apparent adaptations will allow the specie's survival of the plague remains unknown.  The disease was introduced to bats by humans in the northeast of the US in 2006, probably by spelunkers who tracked the fungus into their roosting caves.

The researchers found a large amount of genetic drift in surviving populations  of bats.  Genetic drift is non-adaptive genome changes associated with declining populations affected by the disease.  This result indicates a very strong selective process acting on standard gene variation. Such rapid evolution is not unprecedented in nature.  Steelhead trout, an ocean going fish introduced into the central US, have rapidly become adapted to fresh water despite small founder populations.

Two of the four genes mapped in the study regulate histamine response, which are released in response to tissue damage caused by the fungus. The researchers think that bats genetically predisposed to release fewer histamines, or prevent arousal induced by histamines, are better able to conserve their energy stores during winter and survive a fungal infection.  The fat metabolism gene studied is linked to obesity in animals; bats with this gene variation might allow bats faced with premature energy depletion during winter to survive.  These findings suggest that little brown bats are developing tolerances to the disease through evolutionary genetic changes.  More research is needed to determine if genomic changes in little brown bats provide tolerance to the P.destructans fungus, or if the survivors are developing resistance to the disease.

New Research Shows Corona Virus in Europe by December 2019

Latest: Dr. Bright, the vaccine expert ousted from his job at the federal government premier vaccine development agency, BARDA, is testifying before the House Health Subcommittee on the regime's corona virus response. Two takeaways from his testimony so far: 1. the regime was not prepared to respond when the first indications of a pandemic arrived at the VWH, so that without better planning the nation may face, “the darkest winter in modern history.”; 2. it will take longer than eighteen months to deploy a vaccine. He said the optimistic 12-18 month timeline usually mentioned for the development of an effective vaccine is only accurate if the development goes perfectly, and even then it would only be available on an emergency basis until clinical trials are completed.

The Antichrist in Office has predictably begun to attack Dr. Bright with this tremendously powerful and huge TWITS that are a miracle cure for COVID-19.  Of course Total Douche has "never met the man", so ispo facto that makes him unimportant and incredible, and worse, he is a "disgruntled" employee, which is an unforgivable moral failure that makes him "unliked" and "unrespected". i.e. a pariah. The witness was attacked by a plumber from Oklahoma cum congressman who was only interested in the Doctor's elevated blood pressure resulting from his recent experience, which a federal agency found to be probably a result of illegal retaliation.  US COVID Death Toll (est): 111,000)

More: (8.05.20}0In his morally bankrupt effort to restart the capitalist economy, 'Merica has suffered 2,260 deaths per 100,000 residents. But the Antichrist’s mishandling of the crisis has killed per capita far more than Canada (1,120), Germany (830), Denmark (870), Finland (450), Norway (400), Australia (40) and New Zealand (40). Most of the thirty states that are reopening do NOT have the recommended fourteen day decline in case numbers. Testing on a per capita basis is below other countries that are restarting economic activity like Italy and Germany. Quite simply Total Douche is the merchant of death, willing to sacrifice vulnerable lives for profit.  Since the death toll is impacting the poor, the elderly, minorities, and essential low-wage workers (immigrants) the most, his criminal calculus is that his gun loving, white nationalist base in swing states will allow the Electoral College to award him re-election. US Death Toll (est.) 98,000.

{6.5.20} New research by French scientists shows that the novel corona virus, SARS CoV-2, infected a 42 year old fishmonger who had not traveled to China by December 27th when he was tested. The fact that he had not traveled abroad indicates the virus was already circulating in his community months before the United States took any action concerning the global virus spread. A report from Florida indicates SARS CoV-2 may have been circulating there in January before the first confirmed infection was reported by Florida health authorities at the beginning of March. Patient zero is considered to be a 55 year-old man in Hubei Province who contracted the virus in mid November, six weeks before the World Health Organization announced the detection of a cluster of atypical pneumonia cases in Wuhan. US intelligence first briefed the Anticrhist in January, warning of a world pandemic. He went golfing.

The French finding shows that travel from Europe, which was not restricted until March 19th, contributed to the disease spread in the United States. New York City, a common point of entry for European travelers, is hard hit by the pandemic. 139,000 travelers came to New York from Italy in the month of February while “the outbreak was spreading wildly and rapidly " according to Gov. Cuomo. To fully understand the global spread of the "great and powerful plague" [Trump], epidemiologists must construct a phylogenetic tree, which involves sampling RNA from around the world and making comparisons to China's samples to see how the virus transmuted as it spread. So far scientists have sequenced 15,000 samples of virus RNA. Detection of the virus is made more difficult by the fact that infected persons who can transmit the virus to others may be completely asymptomatic. This characteristic emphasizes the need for mass testing to determine the actual extent of virus spread.  A regime publicity hack recently told the press, mass testing was "nonsensical".

In more corona virus related news, Dr. Rick Bright filed a whistle blower complaint against his demotion from head of the HHS advanced research unit (BARDA). Bright alleges in his complaint he was pressured on numerous occasions to give a government contract to Aeolus Pharmaceuticals headed by a CEO who is a friend of Jared Kushner, Il Douche's son-in-law. Aeolus is the client of lobbyist John Clerici who has long standing ties to Dr. Robert Kadlec an assistant secretary at HHS. According to Bight, Dr. Kadlec became frustrated with Bright's refusal to award Aeolus a contract.

Tensions between Bright and his agency superiors increased when they ordered him to transfer $40 million from BARDA to the National Stockpile in 2018 for purchasing a drug manufactured by another of Clerici's clients, Alvogen. His superiors eventually wanted him removed as head of BARDA when he objected to the promotion of untested choloroquine and hydroxychloroquine by the Antichrist in Office. Dr. Bright also says in his eighty-nine page complaint that he encountered indifference from Secretary Azar and his staff when he raised urgent concerns about the need to obtain genetic sequencing information about the virus, and to acquire viruses and clinical specimens from people infected for sharing with researchers. Dr. Bright is scheduled to testify before Congress as early as next week about his complaint. The regime has already blocked congressional testimony from Dr. Fauci and members of the corona virus task force.

"Live and Let Die...."

'Toontime: In Like Flynn

credit: D. Summers

More: The presiding judge, Emmet Sullivan, in the Flynn case has made an unusual move by refusing to dismiss the case against Flynn as requested by the Barr Department and appointed a retired colleague to brief why the case should not be dismissed in the interests of justice.  This request for an amicus curie brief is highly unusual in a criminal case.  Judge Sullivan was visibly perturbed by Gen. Flynn's guilty pleas to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian diplomat.  There are reports that Judge Sullivan might consider a new perjury or contempt charge against Flynn pending the brief by retired judge John Gleeson.  He has already authored an op-ed piece in the Washington Post critical of the Attorney General's motion to dismiss the case after guilty pleas were entered by the defendant.   He wrote that the record in Flynn's case, "reeks of improper political influence.”

(08.05.20} After pleading guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian diplomat, Gen. Michael Flynn, the former National Security Advisor to the Antichrist for a month, was resurrected from the convicted by the Department of Barr, which dropped the case against him. The stunning reversal caused the lead government attorney on the case to withdraw, and another apparently refused to sign the pleading ending the prosecution. The 'Merican people have learned that this regime has no scruples, moral or otherwise, when it comes to undoing the findings of the Mueller investigation.  Flynn was offered the opportunity to withdraw his plea when his lawyer raised concerns about entrapment before federal District Judge Emmet Sullivan.  Flynn's lawyer replied, he "stands by his plea."  There has been persistent speculation that Totale Trumpillini would pardon Flynn at some point. 'Consiglieri' Barr made that politically fraught decision moot by burning down the Justice Department's facade pf impartiality.

credit: D. Granlund
 Wackydoodle sez: Y'all forgot the Nelson Mandela Badge!

"I learned a lot from Richard Nixon..."

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

West's Mega Drought Coninues

A new study of the western United States' continuing drought published in Science concludes that it is the driest in 1200 years. Prolonged drought is made worse by man-made global warming the scientists state. Using tree ring and soil moisture data, they compared the current drought that started in 2000 to four previous mega-droughts since 800 AD. Only one other was bigger and drier, which started and in 1575, ten years after the founding of St. Augustine, and ended before the Pilgrims arrived in 1620.  Other megadroughts have averaged 28 years in length; the current one is just in its second decade.  Some scientists think it has not lasted long enough to be classified as a "megadrought" event.

Last year was relatively wet, but not enough precipitation fell to make up for moisture deficits. What could have been a moderately prolonged drought is made worse by 2.9℉ higher temperatures than before climate change, which sucks moisture from the ground through evaporation.  Comparing several computer model scenarios of a world with and without global warming, researchers think 47% of the current severe drought in the West can be attributed to global warming. The U.S. drought monitor [map] puts much of Oregon, California, Colorado, Utah and Nevada and good chunks of New Mexico, Arizona and Idaho in abnormally dry, moderate or severe drought conditions. Wyoming is the only state studied that does not have large areas of drought.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

COTW: Light At the End of the Tunnel--NOT

Latest: Total Douche emits more gaslight than a flatulent old horse. Perhaps his biggest whopper, among many, is his so-called "miracle cure"--hydroxychloroquinine. Published Monday in the Journal of the AMA, are the results of a New York study of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquinine and the same drug coupled with the antibiotic azithromycin for the treatment of COVID-19. The FDA authorized emergency use of the drug despite the lack of scientific evidence of efficacy. The study found no noticeable advantage for patients treated with the anti-malaria drug alone, or in combination with the antibiotic. Previous trials had suggested the drug can cause serious heart problems, especially when paired with azithromycin, and the latest study backed up those findings. The study included 1,438 COVID-19 patients, but was not a randomized sample, considered to be the gold standard for scientific research. The state is also conducting a random sample study; those results are expected to be similar. So go ahead listen to the mad Gaslighter-in-Chief, and enjoy a cardiac arrest! What do you got to loose?

US COVID-19 Deaths (est.): 104,000. Called to account for his outrageous bullshit by reporters, the Antichrist showed his back to the audience at his press rant in the VWH Rose Garden on Monday. Contrary to his repeated assertion that everyone could get a COVID-19 test, you still need to exhibit symptoms or be in contact with a known carrier. Despite his assertion that cases were going down everywhere, infection spikes are occurring in the Midwest. Heartland communities, often in areas following Trump's advice to relax restrictions, have recorded surges of 72.4% or greater just in the last week. Along with rural areas, they include Nashville, Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa, Amarillo, Texas, and topping the list with a terrifying 650% increase, Central City, Kentucky home to über Trumpist, Moscow Mitch McConnell.


"..they forgot to be modest, that was all, and thought
that everything was still possible for them; which presupposed
pestilences were impossible. They went about doing business,
arranged for journeys, and formed views.  How should they
have given thought to anything like plague, which rules out
any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views."
--A. Camus, The Plague

{04.05.20}Faced with the possibility of an unmitigated disaster--up to 3,000 new deaths per day in June due to premature ending of quarantines--the Antichrist in Office doubled down on his big lie that China is responsible for the novel corona virus  escaping the Wuhan Virology Laboratory and infecting the world. The big lie was repeated by Secretary of State Pompeo who again made unsubstantiated allegation against China. The astounding death toll prediction is contained in new internal estimates from the CDC and provided to the press.

Already there is talk of unspecified retaliation intended to satisfy the regime's rabid nationalist voting base. Their propaganda is eerily familiar to the allegations of WMD by an earlier US regime. Those proved to be totally false, but only after Iraq was invaded. What the stepped-up rhetoric proves is that the current regime is frantic to deflect responsibility for an incoherent early response to disease transmission in this country. Early banning of European travel where the disease was already rampant could have saved thousands of lives. China's state-owned Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that Secretary Pompeo, a former CIA director, had "stunned the world with groundless accusations."

The chart shows the projected death rate calculated by John Hopkins University. A staggering figure of 3,000 per day is twice the current rate and is due primarily to the premature relaxation of social distancing encouraged by the Antichrist.  According to health experts, no state is in a safe condition to end quarantines.  Despite this medical advice several red states--Georgia, Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma--have begun relaxing social distancing rules. One reporter wrote on-line, "Keeping dire internal projections private while publicly pushing states to 'reopen' due to electoral considerations is kind of like large scale negligent homicide".

A model favored by the VWH from the University of Michigan predicts 95,000 to 243,000 disease fatalities by August.  If the most dire predictions are borne out, the corona virus will join the 1918 swine flu virus as the most deadly in US history.  This model's updated prediction is partly based on mobile phone data from four different companies showing 'Mericans increasingly going public.  The model also assumes that for every one degree Celsius increase in temperature there will be a 2% drop in transmission, an effect which experts say is not assured.
Mourning in America

Monday, May 11, 2020

COTW: The People's Depression

Here is the chart of Week Seven in the curious economic collapse that only affects the working classes:

Total unemployment benefit claims reached 33.48 million, five times the previous 1982 spike according to the the Department of Labor.  Large companies are continuing to layoff workers even as the nation struggles to re-open for business. As US Person posted before, the pandemic was the trigger event for what many analysts saw as the impending financial crisis surrounding unprecedented levels of corporate debt.  Once again, the government was forced to dump huge piles of fresh, fiat dollars to prevent total economic collapse.  The central bank plowed $2.3 trillion into Wall Street in seven weeks.  It also handed out $440 billion to foreign banks, notably the Bank of Japan. $2,000 for you? Not so much.  But we may be charitable enough to let you mortgage your Social Security benefits for a hamburger today.

Apparently, this "helicopter money" from the Fed encouraged investors to subscribe to new corporate bond issues, which helped out a lot of companies like Boeing to avoid a liquidity squeeze.  According to Wolf Richter, "investors bought up everything with ravenous appetite, in part lured by the higher yields, and in part lured by the hope that they could sell it to the Fed for a profit."  The Fed never actually bought private junk securities, it only said it could.  But nothing like the possibility of profits to attract a ravenous capitalist.  Now, previously debt-laden corporations are even farther down the hole.  What will the plutocrats do next time a crisis rolls around?  Can they simply pile debt upon debt, ad infinitum?  Corporations are not sovereign governments, which can create money as needed. So, the great financial experiment continues.

US Death Toll (est.): 102,000. "Unmatched and unrivaled testing"--Total Douche at Monday press rant:

Saturday, May 09, 2020

Wall Street to 'Merica: F*ck U!

Here are a couple of statistics you don't need to be a mathematician to understand:  The stock market had its best month since 1987 in April.  In April 20.5 million and more of you lost your jobs, and a third of you cannot pay your rent or mortgage. Unemployment has reached Great Depression levels. Why this apparent paradox? The stock market is not the economy, dummy.  It measures corporate profits not human suffering.  Bernie Sanders wrote, "This is what a rigged and corrupt economy looks like..."  Those tech-intensive companies that insulate themselves from a human workforce like Amazon are the ones that benefit the most from eliminating labor costs.

These companies claimed the lion's share of the S&P 500 before the pandemic reached 'Merica. Eric Levitz observes at the New Yorker magazine: For years now, America’s corporate sector has been preparing for an economy fueled by the consumption of white-collar shut-ins, the labor of dis-empowered service workers, and the human-proofing of various industrial processes— without quite realizing that it was doing so. You are familiar with this pernicious process: robots in the warehouse and on the line, self service check-out in stores, at-home screen work, and export of jobs to low wage zones. Levitz is mistaken on one point, this was a conscious goal.  So the next time Total Douche takes credit for another disconnected stock market gain, tell him to go off himself because all he has to say to you is: "You're fired!"


Thursday, May 07, 2020

Nature's Forest Gardeners


camera trap photo showing macaws gathering palm seeds
Blue Macaws are not only beautiful residents of the Amazon rain forest, but they help it grow by dispersing 18 species of seeds a new study has found. Blue or hyacinth macaws (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) and Lear’s macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) were observed in 1700 seeding events by camera traps and direct observation.  The study conducted by researchers from five institutions and published jointly, disputes the previously held view that only extinct Pleistocene megafauna dispersed large seeds in the forest.  Other macaw species only eat the outer pulp of fruits and discard the seed.  But the macaws studied [photo credit: Doñana Biological Station] are capable of extracting palm seeds from their hard, protective shells and ingesting them.  Both species have the strongest beaks in the Psittacidae family of true parrots. 

Lear's macaws; credit S. Brooks
Macaws were observed carrying seeds up to a mile away from were they gathered the fruit, an important factor for the dispersed plant's genetic health.  This includes large fruits previously thought to be dispersed only by Pleistocene herbivores; 98% of the fruits gathered were from 6 large palm species.  The birds also engaged in what is known as tertiary dispersal, where macaws picked up fruit previously regurgitated by cattle.  Even though the parrots eat the seeds, enough of the seed survives their digestive systems to germinate.

Extinction of these parrots would also endanger the tree species that depend on their dispersal activity.  Currently the hyacinth is listed by the ICUN as vulnerable and Lear's as endangered.  There are an estimated 6,500 hyacinth macaws surviving in scattered pockets of habitat in the Pantanal, Cerrado, and Amazon regions. About 1,200 Lear's macaws live in the Caatinga region in isolated forest fragments.  The region has been heavily deforested by clearance for cattle pasture.  The licuri palm, (Syagrus coronata), is considered the Lear's main food source. Macaws can survive in disturbed forests, but without the symbiotic relationship of parrot and plants, a forest's ecological functioning is disrupted beyond recovery. 

Wednesday, May 06, 2020

Microbe Blocks Malaria in Mosquitoes

Researchers in the UK and Kenya have found a microbe, Microsporidia MB that completely blocks malaria in disease-carrying mosquitoes living on the shores of Lake Victoria.  The discovery has enormous potential to provide a means of controlling the scourge that kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly children under the age of five living in sub-Saharan Africa.  The microbe lives in the guts of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito.  Researchers could not find a single mosquito with Microsporidia that also carried the disease protozoa Plasmodium.  Laboratory experiments confirmed the protection given Anopheles by the microbe; results are published in Nature Communications.

P. falciparum  gametocyte
x1125
Large scale distribution of insecticide treated netting over the past fifteen years has reduced the number of malaria cases by 40%.  However, the number of cases has plateaued in recent years, indicating the need for additional control measures.  The new discovery promises an additional effective method of disease control if mosquitoes can be effectively inoculated in the wild. 

Microsporidia MB, a form of fungi, is a symbiant that is transmitted maternally and occurs in wild populations.  When a malaria carrying female mosquito bites a human, Plasmodium sporozoites are injected into the bloodstream. Microsporidia prevents a mosquito's salivary glands from being colonized by Plasmodium, and interferes with the protozoan's development in the mosquito's gut.  What methods can be used to increase the presence of the fungi in wild mosquito populations to sufficient levels to be an effective prophylactic requires further research.


Monday, May 04, 2020

Four Dead in Ohio

US Person ranks the Kent State murders with the JFK assassination as events that changed 'Merica forever. The killing of unarmed college students by Ohio National Guardsmen certainly changed US Person's attitude. The culture war is still going strong fifty years later.

Kerala Leads the Way in India

Bernard's presidential challenge was doomed when years ago he audaciously praised the great demon, Fidel Castro, for his regime's social equity advances.  US Person wishes to point out the achievements of another communist-led state in fighting the corona virus pandemic.  The Indian state of Kerala is governed by the "Left Front", [map] a coalition led by the Communist Party of India since the 1950's.  Its first corona virus case was detected in January; since then Kerala has made impressive progress controlling the pandemic.

Many Kerala residents travel and study abroad, a circumstance that made public health more vulnerable to infections.  Early on, the state engaged in a massive tracking effort using cell phone information and CCTV cameras.  It created a flow chart widely circulated on TV that residents could use to report possible contacts with infected individuals, which filled in the data gaps.  People identified for possible infection were then asked to come in for testing, or remain at home for 28 days depending on the situation.  Also, on April 13th Kerala imposed a "reverse quarantine" in which vulnerable population segments such as the elderly and those with respiratory illness are isolated at home. It has taken other widespread measures such as deploying a 235,000 health worker army to widely distribute PPE and perform testing. The state announced a $2.6 billion economic stimulus package in March.  As a result of these herculean collective efforts, Kerala has one of the highest recovery rates in the world.  Of 497 recorded cases, 383 patients have recovered so far, and only four have died.

Significantly, Kerala has achieved other impressive statistics of social equity.  The state had a 90% literacy rate compared to India's 52.2% by 1990, infant mortality is a fifth of the national average, and life expectancy 10 years greater than the national average. The Kerala Sathra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), a peoples' science movement, has come out against the use of hypochlorate (bleach) in so-called "sanitizer tunnels" set up by the government. It has conducted a number of useful studies including a household survey on the impact of aerial spraying of endosulfan, a pesticide used on cashew crops.

Would such intensive collective intrusions into privacy and freedom of movement work in the US?  Probably not.  'Mericans are accustomed to great individual liberty and rebel--even brandish firearms, a delusional symbol of liberty that in reality is deeply antisocial--when relatively lax voluntary measures are put into place for a month. But 'Mericans have come to realize, at great loss, that the private sector cannot deliver health care efficiently, or cost effectively when profit is its driving concern. Think Tory Boris Johnson might be thankful for the NHS in Britain?

Medicare for All is not a fiscal pipe dream, it can work in a country that spends more on war than the next five countries in the world. This truth is why the entrenched corporate plutocracy is fighting Medicare for All so ferventl; imense profits are at stake. Making universal health care a reality will take mass engagement in electoral politics beginning at the local and state level, and not just one socialist presidential candidate defeated in a rigged capitalist party system; a future democratic socialist running for president can expect the same treatment Bernie got. Even more fundamental that electoral politics is the radical formation of class consciousness, something only dimly felt by 'Mericans during the crisis. This much is clear: class struggle is glaringly reflected in the world's highest pandemic death toll, claiming most the poor and the dispossessed; rest assured the virus makes no ideological preferences. It is rightly embarrassing when a developing state outperforms the world's richest nation in so vital an undertaking.  US Covid19 Death Toll (est.) 84,000.

Wackydoodle sez: Out of touch, out of mind.

Friday, May 01, 2020

'Toontime: Cue 'Yerllow Peril'

credit: M. Wuerker
Wackydoodle sez: Infected!
More:  Hoaxer in Chief, Total Douche, committed another late Friday night firing, this time an inspector general at Health and Human Services who had the incredible independence to report shortages of medical supplies and testing delays. Christi A. Grimm was publicly assailed for exposing her boss to criticism during a regime propaganda session three weeks ago.  Douche's attacks on public officials are quickly becoming a mark of honor in Washington.  Douche is only repeating in real-time his favorite tag line from "The Apprentice" TV show: "You're fired!"  It is a real tragedy for this nation that he has extreme difficulty separating fiction from truth. People are dying due to his detachment from reality.

 credit: E. Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune
BC Idonwanna sez: Easy to do, Orange One!

{1/5/20}The fake president is desperate to blame China for the pandemic, but he has a problem: the US intelligence community will not go along with his propaganda line. The top intelligence office ruled out a man made virus as the source of the pandemic, essentially corroborating what scientists have been saying about SARS CoV-2, in a statement released Thursday by the Director of National Intelligence. Apparently the Director is concerned the intelligence community may be pulled into the anti-Chinese propaganda campaign underway at the VWH to divert public attention from the regime's failed corona virus response.

Reportedly it has been pressuring intelligence analysts at the CIA to find a connection between the virus and a Wuhan, China virology lab which the World Health Organization allegedly helped to cover-up.  The Antichrist in Office was asked by reporters on Thursday, whether he had seen anything that gives him “a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of this virus,” President Donald Trump replied, “Yes, I have. Yes, I have. And I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves, because they are like the public relations agency for China.” He refused to reveal the nature of that alleged information. The silent implication is that the Chinese unleashed a bio-weapon on the world in error or worse, deliberately, to evaluate its effectiveness*.  The statement is more intentional misinformation intended to serve his re-election prospects that is hampering the nation's erratic efforts to combat the disease, as well as diminishing the country's reputation as a reliable world leader. 

Intelligence officials admit they continue to investigate the possibility the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab, but are not hopeful a definitive answer will be found. The US funded the lab's research with grants from 2014-19, so the US would share some responsibility if the virus did leak out accidently. (WIV has a high P-4 bio-security level and has collaborated with the Galveston National Laboratory, part of the University of Texas, and France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)) Prominent intelligence officials who normally remain silent concerning the regime have publicly criticized it for what they see as a continuing effort to "politicize" the national intelligence apparatus.

Total Douche recently fired the inspector general who informed Congress of the whistle blower complaint for the Ukraine affair. Last week the Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously endorsed the findings of the Special Counsel that the Russians influenced the 2016 election and are continuing to do so.  Totale Trumpillini [photo below] immediately labeled that conclusion "a hoax". The question of the moment in the Swamp, broached by the ever perceptive Ms N. Pelosi, is: what does Putin have on Total Douche?

*This shameful fabrication is circulating in the overheated rumor mill known as social media.  It is similar to the falsehood of WMD that George Bush used as a pretext for the disastrous invasion of  Iraq in 2003.  The propaganda flies in the face of what international science knows about the virus.  SARS CoV-2 genome was mapped by Chinese scientists and revealed to the world as a similar corona virus naturally occurring.  If one is to fault the Chinese, it is the existence of so-called wet markets were wild meat is kept and sold in proximity to domestic animal meat, conditions which may have allowed zoonotic transfer to occur.  Bats are consumed in China too, a cultural preference, not a war policy.  Their is a solid international scientific consensus concerning the origin of the novel corona virus regardless of the lurid conspiracy mongers on both sides of the partisan division in the US.  American and British scientists writing in the respected science journal, Nature, said Our analyses [of the genome] clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”  Zoonotic transfer of disease to humans is not unknown to science--both the original SARS virus and HIV virus began in animals. If the pandemic teaches humanity anything, it is that humans should only consume domestically raised animals that live in a healthy environment checked for disease.  According to physicians writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Many animal RNA viruses can evolve by more than 1 percent in a matter of days. It is not difficult to understand why we increasingly see the emergence of zoonotic viruses.” 
 
Trumpillini, the Hoax