StupidiNews!

• Indian President Nahrendra Modi has ordered a complete lockdown for all of India's 1.3 billion people for three weeks in the largest quarantine in human history.
• After a six-month trial eight members of a neo-Nazi organization have been convicted in a German state court on terrorism charges.
• Aerospace giant Boeing says it plans to restart production of its troubled 737 MAX jetliners in May after the planes were grounded worldwide for software issues that crashed two planes.
• Targeting Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the White House says all New York residents should self-quarantine for at least two weeks and should not leave the state.
• The US Supreme Court has sided with North Carolina in a dispute over the wreck of famed pirate Blackbeard's ship, and has ruled that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement.

Last Call For Trump Goes Viral, Con't

Trump now says he expects America back to work by Easter weekend as Congress says they are close to a COVID-19 mega-package and the stock markets loved it.

President Trump on Tuesday said he hopes to have the country’s economy back up and running by Easter — Sunday, April 12 — his most concrete goal to date for easing off restrictions meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Trump in a Fox News virtual town hall doubled down on his push to reopen businesses in a matter of weeks in order to reinvigorate the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“It's not built to shut down. Our people are full of vim and vigor and energy. They don’t want to be locked in a house or an apartment or some space,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall Tuesday afternoon.

“You can destroy a country this way, by closing it down, where it literally goes from being the most prosperous,” Trump said, remarking on the strength of the U.S. economy just three weeks ago before the coronavirus started to have severe impacts in the United States.

"I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” Trump later added.

The markets jumped up by more than 10%, their best day since 1933.

But here's the reality: Americans aren't going back to work without massive testing.  And increasingly it's looking like massive testing is never coming.

The ability to test at scale appears to have been a crucial—though far from the only—means by which China, South Korea, Singapore, and other countries have been able to control their epidemics. In the U.S., the imposition of lockdowns in Washington, New York, and California have only amplified the demand for a comprehensive testing program that would, ideally, allow for a more targeted strategy of contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine. During an interview on CNN on Monday night, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “That’s how we’ll restart the economy.” But multiple public-health officials told me that the supply-chain constraints mean that such a program will be, for the near future, impossible to implement. And if there’s anything worse than not having tests for covid-19 broadly available, they say, it’s treating what testing capacity we do have like an unlimited resource.

“Had we had access to high-volume, quality testing prior to there being community transmission,” Rakeman, the director of the New York City lab, told me, “a lot of testing would have been helpful, and maybe would have helped containment.” But, given the prevalence of covid-19 in the city, she said, test results for people who are mildly or moderately ill have little therapeutic or epidemiological value. “When we talk about testing capacity, it sort of gives this tacit message that people should be tested, and feeds into that anxiety: ‘I need to get tested. I need to know my status,’ ” Rakeman said. “You don’t need to know your covid status.” Anyone who suspects they have covid-19 should call a doctor, but in New York, unless you belong to a high-priority category, the recommendation will likely be the same regardless of whether you have the test: stay home for two weeks, or until you’re fever-free for seventy-two hours. In any case, Rakeman said, “If you have a cough and a fever and a sore throat, or any of those, you probably have it.”

A larger problem, Rakeman told me, is that widespread demand for testing is exacerbating the critical shortage of masks and other P.P.E. The supply of available P.P.E. in New York is currently so low that, on Friday, Cuomo put out a public call to manufacturers to address it: “We will pay a premium for these products,” he said. As Rakeman told me, “Hospitals are going to run out of P.P.E. in the next couple of weeks, if not sooner. And any mask that is used now at a doctor’s office or a pop-up tent that’s providing ‘drive-through testing’ is a mask that’s not going to be available for a health-care worker in a couple of weeks.”

Patients seeking testing can also be potent vectors for the disease. “Take a scenario where, say, I have a cough, or a sore throat and a fever, but I’m not sick enough that I need to go to the hospital,” Rakeman said. “If I travel from my home to an urgent-care facility, I’m going to spread the virus to whomever I come into contact with. When I get there, the person who collects my specimen has to wear P.P.E. I’ve also exposed that health-care worker and everybody who works in that office, and all of the other patients, who may not be there for flulike illness.” She added, “By going out and getting a test, you’re potentially killing somebody’s loved one.”

Even outside of New York City, Khani told me, “You have to prioritize who gets tested. We don’t have the testing capacity that we need, and that’s why we want to make sure that those who need testing most have access to testing.” In Missouri, where the odds that someone has covid-19 are still likely lower than they are in other states, Bill Whitmar said that he understands why the first instinct for someone suffering covid-like symptoms would be to seek out confirmation. The tests “give people a feeling that they’re being taken care of. It’s a step that will make you feel a little bit better in this time of unease.” Nevertheless, he said, it was crucial to suppress this urge, at least for the time being. “I understand that the policymakers are trying to help their constituents. However, by doing that, you’re actually reducing the ability for people who really need the test to be able to get the test.”

And yes, as Jon Chait points out, Trump can definitely coerce governors who defy him on an Easter end to closures.

The question, though, is exactly what Trump can do to reopen the country. He can announce a date. But Trump didn’t close anything down to begin with. The closings have been directed by state and local officials. They will retain the legal authority to keep schools, restaurants, and other gathering places shuttered.

Yet his lack of a legal authority doesn’t make Trump helpless. He has several tools he could use if governors and mayors fail to come around to Arthur Laffer’s public-health theories:

1) Refuse to back more federal aid. States are only able to sustain their closures because they have the federal government as a fiscal backstop. States have to balance their budgets, which makes them helpless during a sharp contraction, when tax revenue plummets and social spending needs rise. The federal government, which can borrow, is needed to keep them operational. If Trump withdraws his support for fiscal stimulus to support the states, they will lose their ability to maintain public-health shutdowns.

2) Call on his followers to ignore the bans. Trump can’t open the schools, but he can get his supporters to flout the bans on aggregating in groups. The social distancing requirements depend on voluntary compliance. If Fox News tells its audience to listen to the president rather than their governors, many of them will.

3) Punish the states. Trump has always played favorites between red and blue states, showering those that supported him with attention and cash, and denying aid to blue states that anger him.

Trump has continued to openly state that his level of cooperation depends on governors showering him with praise. “Usually we’ll have 50 governors that will call it the same time,” he said on Fox News today. “I think we are doing very well. But it’s a two-way street. They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”

States are dependent on help from FEMA, the military, and other arms of the federal government. New York’s Andrew Cuomo is pleading for Washington to send him ventilators, which he will need within days, or New Yorkers will begin dying for lack of treatment. As the coronavirus spreads, more and more governors will find themselves in this position. Trump has made clear his willingness to use government spending as a political weapon. He could bring recalcitrant governors to heel by withholding aid. What are they gonna do, impeach him?

What, indeed.

Big Sister Is Listening

If you're working from home like many of us, and you have an Amazon Alexa or other voice-activated internet appliance like Google Assistant, you should burn the thing. You guys know how I feel about these corporate surveillance devices, but if you do own one absolutely turn it off while you're working.

Those not used to working from home must be going through several stages of spiritual discomfort.

Yes, ZDNet's more experienced hands can help you acclimatize to the new working style, now that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted modern working life.

Yet some professionals may not be so able to deal with life sans their office perks. Lawyers, for example.

Many are used to sitting in their enclosed chambers, closing their doors and holding vital conversations about lawyerly matters. There, they feel secure.

Working in their homes, they worry who may be spying on them. Alexa, for example, and her band of vastly intelligent speakerpersons.

Bloomberg reports that famed UK law firm Mishcon de Reya -- motto: "It's Business. But It's Personal." (seriously) -- is telling its fine employees to mute or even totally disable domestic smart speakers for confidential business calls.

Joe Hancock, the Mishcon de Reya partner who leads its cybersecurity discipline, offered these words: "Perhaps we're being slightly paranoid, but we need to have a lot of trust in these organizations and these devices. We'd rather not take those risks."
Paranoia is one of the three essential skills every lawyer should have. The other two are, of course, an aggressive billing department and a cataclysmic ability to out-lie even a politician.

When Hancock refers to devices, he means every gadget you've bought to fully express your inability to make an effort around the house and your comfort with the surveillance state. Yes, even the devastatingly ineffective Amazon Ring doorbell.

The law firm conceded there may be a lesser chance of being spied on by, say, an Amazon Echo or Google Home than some tawdry facsimile, but paranoia is paranoia. It really can't be slight.

Assume someone's listening.

Because they probably are.  Again, if you needed yet another reason to not buy one of these, there you are.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

Donald Trump is plowing ahead with plans to find a way to force states to lift school and work closures and "get everyone back to work" next week.

President Trump egged on by a growing number of advisers and business leaders, believes the economy will crater absent a strong signal, and wants to stagger the reopening of work nationwide, people who’ve spoken to him tell Axios. 

Behind the scenes: Trump has been hearing from lots of people in the business community and conservative media telling him the economy can't survive this shutdown much longer. The sources say that "horrific," "truly scary" economic consequences were described to Trump. 

"We have to get this going," Trump said during a dinnertime briefing that lasted nearly two hours. 

"[T]he faster we get it going, the more likely it is that those stores, little businesses, big businesses, medium-sized businesses open up." 

"And we'll get [the economy] going very fast. ... As soon as we say 'let's go' — and it's gonna be pretty soon. ... It's gonna be sooner than people would think." 

What's next: Nothing has been decided yet. But Trump has been persuaded, in line with his instincts, that the economy can’t sustain this shutdown for much longer. 

The administration is discussing different tiers to ease Americans back into normal life after the 15-day period that ends next Monday. 

People with underlying health issues or in the highest risk age range will likely be asked to stick with isolation. 

But others could be encouraged to get back into a more normal routine. 

Between the lines: Remember that Trump has no public health professionals in his circle of informal advisers. Those are not his go-to calls when he's in the residence late at night. They’re all business or media folks. 

The president wants an end date to give businesses, markets and consumers — hence his fixation on the 15-day deadline.

There are a lot of ways Trump can make governors miserable right now and everyone knows it.  The question is will he next week?

StupidiNews!

• Some 13,000 Americans are stranded overseas as COVID-19 lockdowns, international travel restrictions and flight cancellations are making it tough to get home.
• Texas is joining Ohio in banning all abortion procedures in the state during COVID-19 restrictions as "elective procedures" taking up hospital beds needed for virus patients.
• A massive $2 trillion economic package remains stalled in the Senate for a third day as Republicans continue to insist on a $500 billion business slush fund overseen by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin.
• House Speaker Pelosi has introduced a $2.5 trillion Democratic version of the COVID-19 relief bill that would put a national moratorium on rental payment, mortgages, and credit card bills.
• The Justice Department says it's going after COVID-19 scam artists as a top priority to prevent Americans from being ripped off or harmed medically by bogus "cures" for the virus.

Last Call For Trump's Race To The Bottom, Con't

Meanwhile, Chinese-Americans are now being openly assaulted thanks to the Racist-in-Chief.

Yuanyuan Zhu was walking to her gym in San Francisco on March 9, thinking the workout could be her last for a while, when she noticed that a man was shouting at her. He was yelling an expletive about China. Then a bus passed, she recalled, and he screamed after it, “Run them over.”

She tried to keep her distance, but when the light changed, she was stuck waiting with him at the crosswalk. She could feel him staring at her. And then, suddenly, she felt it: his saliva hitting her face and her favorite sweater.

In shock, Ms. Zhu, who is 26 and moved to the United States from China five years ago, hurried the rest of the way to the gym. She found a corner where no one could see her, and she cried quietly.

“That person didn’t look strange or angry or anything, you know?” she said of her tormentor. “He just looked like a normal person.”

As the coronavirus upends American life, Chinese-Americans face a double threat. Not only are they grappling like everyone else with how to avoid the virus itself, they are also contending with growing racism in the form of verbal and physical attacks. Other Asian-Americans — with families from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar and other places — are facing threats, too, lumped together with Chinese-Americans by a bigotry that does not know the difference.

In interviews over the past week, nearly two dozen Asian-Americans across the country said they were afraid — to go grocery shopping, to travel alone on subways or buses, to let their children go outside. Many described being yelled at in public — a sudden spasm of hate that is reminiscent of the kind faced by American Muslims and other Arabs and South Asians after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But unlike in 2001, when President George W. Bush urged tolerance of American Muslims, this time President Trump is using language that Asian-Americans say is inciting racist attacks.

Mr. Trump and his Republican allies are intent on calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus,” rejecting the World Health Organization’s guidance against using geographic locations when naming illnesses, since past names have provoked a backlash.

Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he was calling the virus “Chinese” to combat a disinformation campaign by Beijing officials saying the American military was the source of the outbreak. He dismissed concerns that his language would lead to any harm.

On Monday evening, Mr. Trump tweeted, “It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States.” He added they should not be blamed for the pandemic.

“If they keep using these terms, the kids are going to pick it up,” said Tony Du, an epidemiologist in Howard County, Md., who fears for his son, Larry. “They are going to call my 8-year-old son a Chinese virus. It’s serious.”

If it's not "Mexican rapists" or "The Blacks" or "Jewish globalists" it's now the "Chinese virus" among us who are the enemy we should hate in order to distract the people from Trump and the GOP literally looting the US Treasury.

After all, the White House position is that Americans are going to have to be sacrificed to the almighty Capitalist Mammon Machine.

Officials have said that the initial 15-day period for social distancing — limiting close contact between people by banning gatherings, closing schools and offices, encouraging remote work and urging people to maintain a six-foot distance from one another — is vital to slowing the spread of the virus, for which more than 30,000 people in the United States have tested positive. The 15-day period would end Monday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious diseases expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has said in interviews that he believed that it would take several more weeks until people can start going about their lives in a more normal fashion. Other infectious disease experts suggest even harsher measures than social distancing are required to truly beat back the outbreaks in the United States.

But at the White House, in recent days, there has been a growing sentiment that medical experts were allowed to set policy that has hurt the economy, and there has been a push to find ways to let people start returning to work. Some Republican lawmakers have also pleaded with the White House to find ways to restart the economy, as financial markets continue to slide and job losses for April could be in the millions.
Vice President Mike Pence indicated on Sunday at a White House briefing about the virus that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would issue new guidelines on Monday, allowing some people who have been exposed to the coronavirus to resume working outside their homes if they wear masks.

The move could set the stage for states with relatively low numbers of cases to begin to unfreeze their economies, while large states like California and New York — where there are more cases and where state officials have ordered nonessential businesses to close for the time being — could continue remaining in a holding pattern.

The assumption that there are states with "small numbers of cases" means the Trump regime is more than ready to feed their corpses to the economy, and they already have their scapegoat to blame, the evil Chinese among us who "brought in this plague".

It's racism that's literally going to kill people.

Trump Goes Viral, Con't

There's nothing in the big stimulus "phase 3" bill to protect the nation's 40 million rental households, and nothing really being discussed, and whole hell of a lot of people are going to get evicted come middle of April.

As millions of Americans are being told to stay inside their homes, eviction notices are still being issued by landlords across the country.

President Trump on Wednesday declared that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would be “providing immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April."

But Trump misstated what is actually occurring.

The federal actions announced last week would protect more than 30 million homeowners from eviction, but they do not cover the nation’s 40 million renters. HUD issued a 60-day moratorium on evictions for homeowners who are unable to pay their federally backed mortgages. The Federal Housing Finance Agency also granted relief to homeowners with loans backed by two government-controlled companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Some public housing authorities, including New York, the largest in the nation, also imposed moratoriums on evictions, but that reprieve only applies to tenants in federally subsidized apartments.

While some governors, mayors, city councils and judges are taking action, most state- and municipal-wide moratoriums on evictions last only a few weeks. The day after Ferguson received her eviction notice, a Milwaukee judge ordered that sheriff’s deputies stop serving eviction orders in the county, but only until April 9.

Without a national moratorium on evictions, housing advocates say, some of the country’s most vulnerable people will lose the homes that could keep them from contracting the virus. Black and Hispanic Americans, who are more likely to be renters and work low-wage jobs, would be disproportionately affected.

“It’s important that there be a uniform policy that gives everyone in America an assurance that we won’t lose our home in the midst of a public health emergency,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

It's almost assuredly not going to happen.  People are going to be tossed out into the street starting a few weeks from now, and the nation's big rental management companies, that own hundreds of properties and tens of thousands of units, are going to start tossing thousands, maybe millions into the streets.

Unless Congress and Trump do something about a national moratorium, you're going to have millions of people told to shelter in place with no shelter to be placed in, and they will start dying. Not all of them from COVID-19, either.

There will be no help from the GOP.  Increasingly the plan is to force states to end shelter-in-place and "restart the economy" at the end of the month.

President Trump and some of his senior officials are losing patience with the doctors’ orders.

The state of play: Amid dire predictions for jobs and the economy, the White House is beginning to send signals to business that there's light at the end of the tunnel — that the squeeze from nationwide social distancing won't be endless. 

Trump tweeted at 10 minutes to midnight: "WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD [which began a week ago, March 16], WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!" 

Vice President Pence, who heads the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, had signaled the change in tone earlier when he said the CDC will issue guidance today allowing people exposed to the coronavirus to return to work sooner by wearing a mask for a certain length of time.

Why it matters: Taken together, Trump’s tweet and Pence's comment supply the strongest public signals we've seen that the administration is looking for ways to get people out in the world again to fire up the economy — perhaps much sooner than Dr. Fauci would like. 

Trump is responding both to his own instincts and to messages that key outside allies have been sending for days. 

He retweeted a number of those outside allies echoing similar stances on Monday morning.

Between the lines: Senior Trump officials, including the president himself, have only limited patience for keeping the economy shut down. They are watching stocks tumble and unemployment skyrocket.

I fully expect Trump to make things extremely difficult for states that do not end emergency measures like school and work closures by April 1 at the latest, and he's going to make that clear this week, regardless of how many COVID-19 cases and deaths are evident by then.

Never mind that millions don't have jobs to go back to right now.  Rent's due, gotta pay up.

Get back to work during the pandemic, you lazy parasites.  We have profit to make!

Our Little Domestic Terrorist Problem, Con't

White supremacist terrorist groups in the US have been openly plotting using COVID-19 as a makeshift bioweapon, deliberately spreading the illness into black, Hispanic, and Asian communities with the intent of killing as many non-white people as possible.

White supremacists discussed plans to weaponize coronavirus via “saliva,” a “spray bottle” or “laced items,” according to a weekly intelligence brief distributed by a federal law enforcement division on Feb. 17.

Federal investigators appeared to be monitoring the white nationalists’ communications on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that has become popular with neo-Nazis. In the conversations, the white supremacists suggested targeting law enforcement agents and “nonwhite” people with attacks designed to infect them with the coronavirus.

“Violent extremists continue to make bioterrorism a popular topic among themselves,” reads the intelligence brief written by the Federal Protective Service, which covered the week of Feb. 17-24. “White Racially Motivated Violent Extremists have recently commented on the coronavirus stating that it is an ‘OBLIGATION’ to spread it should any of them contract the virus.” 

The Federal Protective Service, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is a law enforcement agency responsible for protecting buildings owned or leased by the federal government.

The intelligence brief, marked for official use only, noted the white supremacists “suggested targeting … law enforcement and minority communities, with some mention of public places in general.” According to the document, the extremists discussed a number of methods for coronavirus attacks, such spending time in public with perceived enemies, leaving “saliva on door handles” at local FBI offices, spitting on elevator buttons and spreading coronavirus germs in “nonwhite neighborhoods.” 

The February document appears to show that at least some white nationalists were already taking the threat of the coronavirus seriously at a time when some in government were downplaying the threat. On Feb. 26, President Trump said that he expected the cases to go down to zero in the United States in “a couple of days.” The Washington Post reported on Friday that intelligence agencies were issuing “ominous” warnings about the virus in January and February.

Three things:

One, feds took this seriously only because they were targets too.

Two, the feds took this seriously because they were targets and they didn't buy Donald Trump's lies. Intelligence agencies have been warning about a pandemic scenario for months and were ignored.  Now we know federal law enforcement treated the threat of COVID-19 seriously as well.

Three, feds sure didn't tell anyone in my neighborhood that neo-Nazis were trying to deliberately infect non-white folk in order to try to kill us.  This bulletin was five, six weeks ago.  You think anyone got a heads up?

I didn't.

Again, that was five weeks ago.

They knew.  They did nothing.

StupidiNews!

• New York state, California, and Washington state have all activated their respective National Guard along with FEMA funding to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
• Global COVID-19 fatalities topped 13,000 over the weekend as some one billion people worldwide are under shelter-in-place orders in over 100 countries.
• The Trump regime eliminated a CDC position last year that was supposed to train Chinese doctors in dealing with pandemic conditions.
• Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a tentative agreement with election winner Benny Gantz's party to form an emergency government that would keep Netanyahu in power for 18 months.
• NOAA says April showers could bring major spring flooding to much of the US as warmer temperatures means the US is at a higher risk of heavy rains.

Last Call For Trump Goes Viral, Con't

The official position of the Trump regime on COVID-19 is now "It's all Communist China's fault!"

As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast. 

The cable, sent to State Department officials Friday, lays out in detail the circumstances on the ground in China, including data on coronavirus cases and deaths, the local business environment and transportation restrictions. But it also issues guidelines for how U.S. officials should answer questions on, or speak about, the coronavirus and the White House’s response in relation to China. 

The talking points appear to have originated in the National Security Council. One section of the cable reads “NSC Top Lines: [People’s Republic of China] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic.”

“Chinese Communist Party officials in Wuhan and Beijing had a special responsibility to inform the Chinese people and the world of the threat, since they were the first to learn of it,” the cable reads. “Instead, the... government hid news of the virus from its own people for weeks, while suppressing information and punishing doctors and journalists who raised the alarm. The Party cared more about its reputation than its own people’s suffering.”

If this sounds like the Trump regime is projecting its sins onto Beijing, that's because they are.  It doesn't mean Beijing didn't lie about COVID-19 and allowed it to escape globally and that they endangered the globe, but it doesn't let Trump off the hook for the same thing, you know?

The cable was disseminated to officials at a time when the administration is engrossed in a communications battle around how to disseminate the flow of crucial health information to the American public while at the same time deflecting criticism that the White House was unprepared for the pandemic and that President Trump is at odds with members of his coronavirus task force.

One of the results of those internal deliberations appears to be a renewed focus on underscoring China’s missteps. Two U.S. officials working on the administration’s coronavirus response said the White House is pushing federal agencies to stick closely to the national security council’s talking points, especially when senior officials take to the podium, to ensure continuity with President Trump.

“These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now,” one official said. “Everything is about China. We’re being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances.”

It's also a ready-made vehicle to attack Joe Biden with for being "soft on China" the way "soft on Russia" is a problem (and Trump is soft on Russia, and it's a problem.)  Expect Trump to attack China relentlessly and for Chinese-Americans (and Asian-Americans in general, because racist prick Trump voters can't tell a Laotian from a Laplander) to bear the brunt just like American Muslims have since 2001 and black folk have since 1619.

It's comically obvious, and it will work to keep Trump slavering hordes on his side through the deaths and the economic collapse. He'll need it too.  He's the least liked incumbent since Truman at this point, and Truman literally nuked two Japanese cities. CNN's Harry Enten (formally Nate Silver's numbers guy) gives Biden in 2-in-3 chance at this point.

Of course, Hillary had even better numbers...and lost.

Oh, and top of everything else, Sen. Rand Paul, the lone Senate vote against the COVID-19 packages so far, has now tested positive for the virus and most likely has exposed several members of Congress to it.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has tested positive for the coronavirus, his office announced on Twitter Sunday.

Why it matters: He's the first U.S. senator to test positive. According to his office, Paul is asymptomatic and was not aware of making direct contact with an infected person.
Paul, a licensed physician and notorious deficit hawk, was the only senator to vote against a bipartisan $8 billion deal to provide emergency coronavirus funding earlier this month. 

He sought to introduce an amendment that would take the funding from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, but it was voted down 80-16. 

Paul may be considered a high-risk patient for coronavirus. In August 2019, the senator tweeted that he had part of his lung removed during surgery after it was damaged in a 2017 assault by his neighbor.

What they're saying: 

"Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person. He expects to be back in the Senate after his quarantine period ends and will continue to work for the people of Kentucky at this difficult time. Ten days ago, our D.C. office began operating remotely, hence virtually no staff has had contact with Senator Rand Paul."— Rand Paul's office on Twitter

But senators have come in contact, particularly Republican senators.

The Senate is set to vote on a massive "Phase 3" coronavirus relief package on Monday. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) have proposed a resolution calling for remote voting, which could potentially be prioritized now that a senator has officially tested positive for the virus.

Bet this will get passed.

The Tri-State Area Shuts Down

Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine is joining several large states in issuing a statewide shelter-in-place order beginning Monday night through April 6.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in his update Sunday Ohio Health Director Dr. Amy Acton is ordering a stay at home order or shelter in place order for all Ohioans. The order is in effect beginning 11:59 p.m. Monday and is in effect through April 6.

"We are at war," he said. "And in a time of war we have to make sacrifices."

He said we are at a crucial time in the war and what we do now will slow the invading virus and buy time for hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients.

Ohio stay-at-home order exceptions include leaving home for essential activities for health and safety, necessary supplies and services, outdoor activity (but playgrounds closed), "essential" work to take care of others such as a family member, friend or pet in another household.

The governor is also ordering nonessential businesses to close.

This follows orders a week ago to bars and restaurants, and other businesses, such as barber shops, hair and nail salons and movie theaters, bowling alleys and other recreation venue.

There are health, safety, and food exceptions:

• If it's a matter of health and safety: This includes seeking emergency services, obtaining medical supplies or medication, or visiting a health care professional.
• For necessary supplies and services: To obtain groceries or food, household consumer products, supplies needed to work from home get auto supplies (including dealers, parts, repair and maintenance).
• For outdoor activity: These include walking, hiking, running or biking. Individuals may go to public parks and open recreation areas, however, playgrounds are closed.
• Certain types of work: To perform work providing essential products and services
• To take care of others: Including a family member, friend or pet in another household and to transport those as allowed by the order. This includes weddings and funerals.

We'll see how seriously people take this order.  I expect that for the most part, everyone will comply, but I also expect a hell of a lot of panic buying and people in the Cincinnati area driving to Indiana and Kentucky to do things.

Speaking of Kentucky, Gov. Beshear is also shuttering all non-essential businesses "to in-person traffic" as of Monday night, but stopping short of shelter-in-place.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced 16 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky Sunday as the number of cases rose to 103, reaching triple digits for the first time with more cases expected to come. He also said all non-essential businesses in Kentucky must close to in-person traffic by 8 p.m Monday.

At least three of those novel coronavirus cases are in Fayette County, bringing the total in Lexington to 15. There were five new cases in Jefferson County, one in Christian County, one in Hardin County, one in Henderson County and one in Northern Kentucky. The location of four new cases has not yet been reported.

“The number of people that get the coronavirus isn’t going to be nearly as important as the number of people who get better after getting the coronavirus,” Beshear said.

Beshear’s numbers do not appear to include new cases reported Sunday in Jessamine and Madison County. Also Sunday, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 despite having no symptoms.

While grocery stores, pharmacies, drug stores and gas stations will be allowed to stay open, Beshear’s order will shutter places like clothing stores, book stores, sporting good stores and all other places that sell items that aren’t considered critical.

Beshear said unemployment applications are up 30 times compared to this time last year, which he said is a good thing because there should be no stigma in receiving public assistance.

Oh, and there's still no test kits in the area.

We'll see if any neighboring states follow suit.  Pennsylvania already has. Michigan would probably be next but Gov. Whitmer is not considering going that far.  For my Ohio and Kentucky readers, stay at home, stay safe, follow the guidelines.  Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has issued a similar order for his state effective 5 PM tomorrow, I would expect Indiana to get around to it at some point too.

Every needs to pay attention, the situation is moving quickly.

Sunday Long Read: Passing The Test

Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant has been fighting the world's deadliest communicable diseases for decades, and his interview with Wired Magazine's Steven Levy is both informative and sobering. Our Sunday Long Read is on what to expect from COVID-19 from the man who helped eradicate smallpox.

LARRY BRILLIANT SAYS he doesn’t have a crystal ball. But 14 years ago, Brilliant, the epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox, spoke to a TED audience and described what the next pandemic would look like. At the time, it sounded almost too horrible to take seriously. “A billion people would get sick," he said. “As many as 165 million people would die. There would be a global recession and depression, and the cost to our economy of $1 to $3 trillion would be far worse for everyone than merely 100 million people dying, because so many more people would lose their jobs and their health care benefits, that the consequences are almost unthinkable.” 

Now the unthinkable is here, and Brilliant, the Chairman of the board of Ending Pandemics, is sharing expertise with those on the front lines. We are a long way from 100 million deaths due to the novel coronavirus, but it has turned our world upside down. Brilliant is trying not to say “I told you so” too often. But he did tell us so, not only in talks and writings, but as the senior technical advisor for the pandemic horror film Contagion, now a top streaming selection for the homebound. 

Besides working with the World Health Organization in the effort to end smallpox, Brilliant, who is now 75, has fought flu, polio, and blindness; once led Google’s nonprofit wing, Google.org; co-founded the conferencing system the Well; and has traveled with the Grateful Dead. 

We talked by phone on Tuesday. At the time, President Donald Trump’s response to the crisis had started to change from “no worries at all” to finally taking more significant steps to stem the pandemic. Brilliant lives in one of the six Bay Area counties where residents were ordered to shelter in place. When we began the conversation, he’d just gotten off the phone with someone he described as high government official, who asked Brilliant “How the fuck did we get here?” I wanted to hear how we’ll get out of here. The conversation has been edited and condensed.

Steven Levy: I was in the room in 2006 when you gave that TED talk. Your wish was “Help Me Stop Pandemics.” You didn't get your wish, did you? 

Larry Brilliant: No, I didn't get that wish at all, although the systems that I asked for have certainly been created and are being used. It's very funny because we did a movie, Contagion— 

SL: We're all watching that movie now.

LB: People say Contagion is prescient. We just saw the science. The whole epidemiological community has been warning everybody for the past 10 or 15 years that it wasn't a question of whether we were going to have a pandemic like this. It was simply when. It's really hard to get people to listen. I mean, Trump pushed out the admiral on the National Security Council, who was the only person at that level who's responsible for pandemic defense. With him went his entire downline of employees and staff and relationships. And then Trump removed the [early warning] funding for countries around the world.

SL: I've heard you talk about the significance that this is a “novel” virus.

LB: It doesn't mean a fictitious virus. It’s not like a novel or a novella.

SL: Too bad. 

LB:It means it's new. That there is no human being in the world that has immunity as a result of having had it before. That means it’s capable of infecting 7.8 billion of our brothers and sisters. 

SL:Since it's novel, we’re still learning about it. Do you believe that if someone gets it and recovers, that person thereafter has immunity? 

LB: So I don't see anything in this virus, even though it's novel, [that contradicts that]. There are cases where people think that they've gotten it again, [but] that's more likely to be a test failure than it is an actual reinfection. But there's going to be tens of millions of us or hundreds of millions of us or more who will get this virus before it's all over, and with large numbers like that, almost anything where you ask “Does this happen?” can happen. That doesn't mean that it is of public health or epidemiological importance. 

SL: Is this the worst outbreak you’ve ever seen?

LB: It's the most dangerous pandemic in our lifetime.

Stay safe out there, folks.

Social distancing is important, but communicate with your friends and loved ones.  Check up on them, really check up on them.   We don't know how long this is going to go.

We don't know how long any of us might have.

Testing America's Patience With Patient Testing

When we look back at 2020 and the COVID-19 epidemic, when those of us who wish to learn about what went horrifically wrong in America and how we can better deal with the next inevitable pandemic, we can start with the story of Natasha Ott's death at age 39.

On March 10, Natasha Ott, 39, felt the beginnings of a cold coming on.

She had a slight fever. CrescentCare, the medical clinic where she worked, had only a handful of tests for the new strain of coronavirus on hand. She initially passed on the chance to take one, after being told she was low-risk for the serious disease. 

When her symptoms didn't shake, she did take the test on Monday. By Thursday, she felt "something in her lungs," she told longtime partner Josh Anderson. But she still felt well enough by then to join Anderson as the pair walked her dog.

On Friday, Anderson found Ott dead in her kitchen.

Her test results have still not come back. The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office has not released a cause of death; state health officials have not said whether they believe it was a case of coronavirus. 

Anderson, 40, believes that's exactly what it was. What happened to his girlfriend, he said, should be a wake-up call for anyone who still believes COVID-19 isn't as deadly as experts have claimed. 

Speaking in an interview Saturday, after his social media post recounting Ott's experience was shared hundreds of times, he said the dearth of tests shows how ill-equipped New Orleans is to handle a pandemic that has already claimed 16 lives and infected nearly 600 people across the state. 

"She could have gotten a test last Friday, but they only had five tests, and she didn’t want to use one of them," Anderson said. 

Less than a week ago, he was one of those who believed younger, relatively healthy people like Ott and himself would be fine amid the outbreak.

"I believed that people should stay home, but I don’t think I fully understood what the consequences could be if they didn’t," he said. 

Noel Twilbeck, the CEO of CrescentCare, confirmed on Saturday that Ott was a former employee and that she had died, but he declined to say anything more, citing respect for her family.

Ott tested negative for the flu before being swabbed for COVID-19, Anderson said. Her symptoms — respiratory cold, fever and loss of appetite — persisted as she tried to take care of herself while waiting for the swab results, up until she died.

New Orleans health care professionals have complained about similar long turnarounds for results as well as the paltry number of test kits provided to the state by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The situation forced them to turn away sick people who didn’t qualify for what until recently was a fairly high bar for a test. At first, only recent travelers with fever and respiratory trouble that required hospitalization could be swabbed, although the government has since allowed doctors to use more of their own discretion. 

But private testing has finally started to ramp up, and with that should come far more tests and shorter wait times for test results. “What we are really hoping for is to have a much faster turnaround than what we have seen so far,” Dr. Robert Hart, Ochsner’s chief medical officer, said Wednesday.

Again, if the Trump regime had chosen to ramp up testing six weeks ago, Natasha Ott would probably be alive.  Maybe COVID-19 wasn't the cause of death, but the clinic she went to was overwhelmed and couldn't get the treatment she needed in the middle of a pandemic.

People are still going to die of seasonal flu, strokes, trauma, accidents, heart failure in the age of COVID-19.  But because we have to spend so many resources on it, because this administration was more worried about politics than people?

Those people would be far more likely to survive. Medical resources, personnel, bed space, these are all limited things. COVID-19 cases overwhelming your local hospital means non-COVID-19 problems may not get treated either.

And people will die from that, too. It's a cascade effect.

But you can trace the source all the way to the Oval Office.

Last Call For Trump Goes Viral, Con't

Another dismal Trump press conference, another weekend limit down in Dow futures for Monday, and now news that Trump is seeking to suspend habeas corpus in anticipation of a national martial law declaration

The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States.

Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted. POLITICO also reviewed and previously reported on documents seeking the authority to extend deadlines on merger reviews and prosecutions.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the documents.

The move has tapped into a broader fear among civil liberties advocates and Donald Trump’s critics — that the president will use a moment of crisis to push for controversial policy changes. Already, he has cited the pandemic as a reason for heightening border restrictions and restricting asylum claims. He has also pushed for further tax cuts as the economy withers, arguing that it would soften the financial blow to Americans. And even without policy changes, Trump has vast emergency powers that he could legally deploy right now to try and slow the coronavirus outbreak.

The DOJ requests — which are unlikely to make it through a Democratic-led House — span several stages of the legal process, from initial arrest to how cases are processed and investigated.
In one of the documents, the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.”

The proposal would also grant those top judges broad authority to pause court proceedings during emergencies. It would apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings,” according to draft legislative language the department shared with Congress. In making the case for the change, the DOJ document wrote that individual judges can currently pause proceedings during emergencies, but that their proposal would make sure all judges in any particular district could handle emergencies “in a consistent manner.”

The request raised eyebrows because of its potential implications for habeas corpus –– the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release.

“Not only would it be a violation of that, but it says ‘affecting pre-arrest,’” said Norman L. Reimer, the executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “So that means you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over. I find it absolutely terrifying. Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government.”

Again, this is a flat-out abuse of power and is wildly unconstitutional, and of course the House will block such nonsense, but at some point Trump will try to use COVID-19 to assume extraordinary emergency powers and move forward with autocratic measures between now and the election.

If there is an election.

Massie In A Mess

I've mentioned a number of times how Rep. Thomas Massie, glibertarian asshole, is a national embarrassment, but his comments on COVID-19 here necessitate his resignation.

Northern Kentucky U.S. congressman Thomas Massie blasted novel coronavirus precautions taken by governments on his social media platforms this week.

His posts from Facebook and Twitter knocked the cautionary steps governments took to slow the spread of the pandemic. He called for the private sector to solve testing issues, said eliminating dine-in options at restaurants would "lead to worse public health outcomes than if they had remained open," and was one of the 17 Republicans who didn't vote on the Coronavirus Relief Bill.

"When this is over, I fear FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans is going to look like a 'light touch.'" he wrote on Facebook Monday morning. President Trump announced at a press conference later in the afternoon that people should avoid crowds larger than 10 people.

The candidates who want to unseat Massie denounced his comments as the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Kentucky rose to a total to 25, as of Monday evening.

Todd McMurtry, a Republican running against Massie in the rescheduled June 23 primary election, called his actions "shameful," in a statement sent to The Enquirer and added "Frankly, he should resign."

"I stand by all of my social media posts," Massie told The Enquirer.

Massie said McMurtry's comment was "laughable," defended his comments and pointed to the thousands of likes and shares the posts got as a sign that they were well received.

McMurtry said Massie's posts weren't appropriate for a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

"He brags about his 'sass,' calling himself 'Sassy Massie,' but these times and our current needs demand someone who is serious," McMurtry said. "What we need from our representative is competence and hard work. Massie has failed us. It’s time for a change."
The two Democrats vying for the Democratic party nomination for the congressional seat, Alexandra Owesnby and Shannon Fabert, also criticized Massie.

A day after he missed the Coronavirus Relief Bill vote, Massie tweeted from his farm in Garrison, Ky., home to 866 people, about the mini ecosystem on his land and his canned pickles and peaches.

Massie told The Enquirer he would have voted no on the bill even if he had been in D.C. because he was concerned the bill would impose hardships on small companies and "put them out of business." He also claimed the bill wasn't fully written yet.
He added that he did vote for the $8 billion coronavirus package in early March, which aimed to combat the spread of the virus. President Trump signed that deal in early March as well.

Massie is not self-quarantining, he told The Enquirer, even after learning one of the attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference tested positive for novel coronavrius.

"I do think people should exercise caution," Massie said.

Caution he's not willing to engage in himself.

The man is not just a joke, but a dangerous example of what not to do, and he has no business being anywhere near Congress. It really takes something to get both Republicans and Democrats in NKY on the same side, but there you go.

And if you want proof Massie is 100% wrong, you have only to look next door in Tennessee.

Look at the difference between how the Kentucky Governor and Tennessee Governor handled the Coronavirus

And look at the results of those policies pic.twitter.com/U3T4WMuF5a

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 21, 2020

Resign, Congressman Massie.

Do the right thing for the first time in your career.