News of the Week for May 31st<\/sup>, 2020<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What We Can Learn from Coronavirus Per Capita Death Rates<\/a> A deadly “checkerboard”: Covid-19’s new surge across rural America<\/a> A second hairstylist who worked while symptomatic potentially exposed 56 clients to Covid-19, officials say<\/a> Arkansas Gov. Defends Not Issuing Stay-At-Home Order: ‘Modeling Has Lost a Lot of Credibility’<\/a> Authorities in China Underreporting CCP Virus Cases: Leaked Documents<\/a> The Reopening Debate Is Progressing Slower Than the Actual Reopening<\/a> COVID law review paper promotes “ableism and eugenics,” activists say, demanding retraction<\/a> Hong Kong, Coronavirus, and the Specter of Tiananmen<\/a> Hannity: C’mon, People, Protect Your Grandparents By Wearing The Mask<\/a> Canada Activists Warn: Social Distancing Is Creating A Social-Disease Outbreak<\/a> Amidst the Pandemic, Our Fellow Citizens Are Self-Medicating with Self-Righteousness<\/a> Why Does the CDC Think the COVID-19 Fatality Rate Is So Low, and Why Won’t It Tell Anyone?<\/a> Vendors from Wuhan’s infamous live wild animal market linked to COVID-19 pandemic have reopened their stalls elsewhere<\/a> The World Is Still Far From Herd Immunity for Coronavirus<\/a> Let’s Focus on China\u2019s Origin Story Again<\/a> Coronavirus: Monkeys ‘escape with COVID-19 samples’ after attacking lab assistant<\/a> COVID-19: China says Wuhan wet market was site of ‘superspreader’ event, not ground zero<\/a> Manufacturing plants, grocery stores, delivery companies all have COVID-19 outbreaks in GTA<\/a> Coronavirus task force chief Mike Pence: You did it, America<\/a> LA County Official, a Former Child Actor, Says Minority Communities Can’t Meet Reopening Guidelines<\/a> Sweden’s COVID Death Rate Now Ten Times Higher than Norway’s<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Growing Tide Among Democrats Against Klobuchar As VP<\/a> McCarthy yanks endorsement of California candidate over social media posts<\/a> What We Can Learn from Coronavirus Per Capita Death Rates<\/a> Against Jo Rae Perkins<\/a> Justice Department closing stock investigations into Loeffler, Inhofe, Feinstein<\/a> Authorities in China Underreporting CCP Virus Cases: Leaked Documents<\/a> Could The GOP Really Lose The Senate?<\/a> Strib Poll: Biden Struggling In Minnesota?<\/a> Study finds amazing predictor of timing and scale of coronavirus outbreaks: Feces<\/a> A congressman caught in the 1970s Abscam sting is now at the heart of a Philly election fraud probe, sources say<\/a> This is Curious and a Bit Bothersome<\/a> Nevada Senator Withdraws from the Biden Veepstakes<\/a> Conservatives Pan Kushner Plan to Shrink GOP Platform<\/a> GOP operatives worry Trump will lose both the presidency and Senate majority<\/a> COVID-19 cases spike in South Korea, Russia, Iran as global deaths pass 360K<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NZ Gun Crime Rates Soar Following Gun Bans<\/a> The Left’s Latest Dilemma: Ban Guns or Ban Police?<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Destroying the environment to save it<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oklahoma Bans “Quality of Life” Health-Care Rationing<\/a> Strange Math: More means Less, ACA-syle<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
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<\/a>Corona Virus<\/h1>\n
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\nThe main takeaway from the massive disparities in death rates so far is their regional patterns.<\/p>\n
\nThe novel coronavirus arrived in an Indiana farm town mid-planting season and took root faster than the fields of seed corn, infecting hundreds and killing dozens. It tore through a pork processing plant and spread outward in a desolate stretch of the Oklahoma Panhandle. And in Colorado\u2019s sparsely populated eastern plains, the virus erupted in a nursing home and a pair of factories, burning through the crowded quarters of immigrant workers and a vulnerable elderly population.<\/p>\n
\nThe stylists and clients wore face coverings<\/p>\n
\nOn Sunday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) defended his decision against issuing a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, noting that projections and modeling have lost credibility and pointing out the economic devastation of the lockdowns in other states. While Arkansas is experiencing a second spike in COVID-19 cases, the governor noted that the increase is “fairly modest” and that the state has fewer than 100 people hospitalized with the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
\nThe Jilin provincial government in northeaster China is underreporting the number of CCP-virus-disgnosed patients, leaked internal documents recently obtained by The Eppoc Times reaveal<\/p>\n
\n“Spike in South Korea virus cases shows perils of reopening,” declares the ominous Associated Press headline. You have to go to another article to find the number of cases and deaths in the country: “The Asian nation reported 40 new cases for Tuesday, the biggest one-day increase since April 8, according to data from Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, or KCDC, with most of the cases connected to a distribution center of an e-commerce firm. This takes the total tally to 11,265 cases while the virus-linked deaths were unchanged at 269.”<\/p>\n
\n“Untenured professor of color” accuses law students of intersectionality faux pas<\/p>\n
\nNot since the eve of the 1989 Tiananmen slaughter have we seen China\u2019s communist regime more clearly girding to demolish a vibrant democracy movement. Thirty-one years ago, China\u2019s Communist Party shut down democracy protesters in Beijing by shooting them in the streets. This time the CCP’s target is the former British colony of Hong Kong, where protesters turned out in huge numbers last year to defend the rights and freedoms that China promised them for at least 50 years after the 1997 British handover. Now, while the world grapples with the China-spawned coronavirus pandemic, China is preparing a national security law that would override Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous system. Under this law, as previewed by China\u2019s authorities, Beijing could criminalize any activity in Hong Kong it deems a threat, and send mainland security operatives into Hong Kong as enforcers. Hong Kongers have richly demonstrated that they are a freedom-loving people, unlikely to bow down en masse and obey. The stage is set for a nightmare showdown.<\/p>\n
\nHe deserves a pat on the back for this, although I had to laugh at the idea of making a plea to young adults on a cable news network. The average age of Fox’s primetime viewership is 66! The Fox audience isn\u2019t at risk of infecting grandma and grandpa because they behaved recklessly at a pool party over the weekend. They are grandma and grandpa.<\/p>\n
\nThe mechanics of this defy explanation … except as an attention-grabber. Thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak, people keep their distance and remain masked even when they do venture outside, both here and in Canada. So how can venereal disease outbreaks intensify in a lockdown, unless someone’s doing one or the other very badly. <\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: some people need to get rid of their superiority complex; Dan McLaughlin writing on Gregg Jeffries; a new paper saying the virus didn’t spread from a patient in Washington State; and two astronauts are set to blast off today.<\/p>\n
\nLast week I was searching the Internet for some COVID-19 statistic or other, and I came across a new CDC website. The site featured some numbers the federal government is using to model the spread of the epidemic. One in particular caught my eye: 0.4 percent, the \u201ccurrent best estimate\u201d of the disease\u2019s \u201ccase fatality rate.\u201d The document also said that 35 percent of infections are asymptomatic, which suggests the infection fatality rate is just 0.26 percent.<\/p>\n
\nFormer traders of Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market have relocated<\/p>\n
\nThe coronavirus still has a long way to go. That’s the message from a crop of new studies across the world that are trying to quantify how many people have been infected. <\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: a return to the topic of the Wuhan labs and the origin of the coronavirus, as China’s top epidemiologist declares the Huanan Seafood Market was not the origin point of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the primates was reportedly later spotted up in a tree, chewing one of the sample collection kits.<\/p>\n
\nChinese health authorities say animals for sale at the market were tested and found not to contain the novel coronavirus<\/p>\n
\nPublic health officials watching for more cases in workplaces as businesses reopen<\/p>\n
\nIt was early in the virus fight when only a few in the United States had died of COVID-19 that White House coronavirus task force leader Vice President Mike Pence and Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx went into the Oval Office with bad news.<\/p>\n
\nLA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl came out this week in opposition to a plan to allow individual cities to allow commercial activity to resume in some cities around the county. The reason? \u201cIt would be difficult for any city with a high minority population to meet these guidelines,\u201d Kuehl said. California has only recently begun to reopen after an almost complete lockdown in response to the CCP coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
\nThere have now been ten times as many COVID-19 deaths in Sweden than Norway on a per capita basis.<\/p>\n<\/a>Election 2020<\/h1>\n
\nIt’s hard to tell if Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is actively angling for a shot at being Joe Biden’s veep pick. She’s certainly never said she would turn down the honor, but if she\u2019s pushing for it, she’s doing it in the background and far more subtly than Stacey Abrams. (Of course, that’s a pretty low bar to surmount.) The two seem to get along well enough, and they had one of the least acerbic relationships during the debates. But Joe Biden is reportedly coming under a lot of pressure to keep her off the ticket. And at least according to some recent reporting from Politico, that pressure is coming almost entirely from Black voters, activists and strategists. So how does race factor into Klobuchar’s popularity or lack thereof?<\/p>\n
\nHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday rescinded his endorsement of Ted Howze, a candidate for a California House district, after social media posts expressing anti-Muslim sentiment and accusing prominent Democrats of murder and drug use came to light.<\/p>\n
\nThe main takeaway from the massive disparities in death rates so far is their regional patterns.<\/p>\n
\nOn Tuesday, Jo Rae Perkins won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Oregon. The Oregon GOP says it will back her candidacy notwithstanding her associations with the \u201cQAnon\u201d movement. That\u2019s a mistake. Perkins is an unreconstructed exponent of a batty and corrosive conspiracy theory running a longshot campaign that carries only political downside for Republicans. They should do what they can to distance themselves from her candidacy.<\/p>\n
\nThe Justice Department is closing investigations into the recent stock sales involving Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that were made earlier this year in the lead-up to, or the start of, the coronavirus pandemic. <\/p>\n
\nThe Jilin provincial government in northeaster China is underreporting the number of CCP-virus-disgnosed patients, leaked internal documents recently obtained by The Eppoc Times reaveal<\/p>\n
\nWhile everyone is focusing on the Presidential race and the electoral college this year, some GOP strategists are getting a bit nervous about the Senate. Of the upper chamber seats up for grabs, the GOP is defending more of them that look potentially vulnerable if Democrats get some momentum going. This is probably even more important than the question of who wins the White House. If Donald Trump manages to lose his bid for a second term, a GOP Senate majority is the only thing that would act as a check on the new Democratic president\u2019s agenda, whether that winds up being Joe Biden or somebody else.<\/p>\n
\nHe’s leading \u2014 but not by much, in a polling series noted for its leanings toward Democrats. In the latest Star-Tribune\/KARE11 poll in Minnesota, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump among registered voters, but barely outside the margin of error. Biden also fails to get to a majority, and has real problems once outside the friendly confines of the Twin Cities proper.<\/p>\n
\nFinally, finally, we know how to avert a second wave of the disease. And not a moment too soon.<\/p>\n
\nA central question lingered after federal authorities last week disclosed that a South Philadelphia poll worker had admitted taking bribes to stuff ballot boxes in local elections: Who was the unnamed campaign \u201cConsultant #1\u201d described in court filings as the man who paid Domenick DeMuro, 73, to inflate vote totals on behalf of favored candidates between 2014 and 2016?<\/p>\n
\nIt was funny to see this story crop up in Politico this morning because it is something I wanted to talk about on radio even before seeing the story. Outside groups are concerned that the Trump team is not doing enough to stop Joe Biden now.<\/p>\n
\nNevada Democratic senator Catherine Cortez-Masto, a darkhorse to be Joe Biden’s running-mate, says she doesn’t want to be considered for the job<\/p>\n
\nIt is no secret that Donald Trump remade Republicans in his own likeness, casting aside old orthodoxies and introducing new doctrines to transform the Grand Old Party into a more protectionist, more populist entity. What Jared Kushner wants to do, however, was secret. That is, until last week.<\/p>\n
\nA little more than three months ago, as Democrats cast their ballots in the Nevada caucuses, Republicans felt confident about their chances in 2020. The coronavirus seemed a distant, far-off threat. Democrats appeared poised to nominate a self-described socialist for president. The stock market was near a record high. The economy was roaring. President Donald Trump looked well-positioned to win a second term, and perhaps pull enough incumbent Republicans along with him to hold the party’s majority in the Senate.<\/p>\n
\nSouth Korea struggled to contain a spike in new COVID-19 cases while Iran and Russia each logged significantly higher numbers Friday as the worldwide death toll from the pandemic surpassed 360,000.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nAmerican gun control activists looked at New Zealand\u2019s response to the Christchurch massacre with a high degree of awe. They desperately want the United States to follow that lead after the next mass shooting. They would love for our government to swoop in after such an event and snatch away all our guns, but particularly those nasty so-called “assault weapons” that they don’t think we have any business owning.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the offshoots of the protests and riots that have erupted in most American cities over the past few days has been a growing call on the left to defund law enforcement and end policing. Search Twitter for the hashtag #DefundPolice and you’ll see thousands of people urging an end to law enforcement as a radical, yet necessary step to eliminate injustices perpetrated by police officers.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nPseudo-green energy will wreak devastation, pretending to prevent exaggerated climate harm<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nAs many in the bioethics movement push various schemes to ration health care based on “quality of life” \u2014 such as the odious QALY (quality adjusted life year) system beloved of the New England Journal of Medicine \u2014 some are pushing back and insisting that health-care coverage and treatment public policy be predicated on the intrinsic equal dignity and moral worth of all patients.<\/p>\n
\nSo, another day, another TwitterSpiration\u00a9: “ACA Marketplace Plan Affordability Is Likely To Decrease For Subsidized Enrollees In 2020”<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n