Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm**

Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 8:11 am**

Zaxxon wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.

Their Supreme Court has gone full MAGA recently. Luckily the people fought back on election day.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 8:12 am**

Kraken wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 6:49 pm
Daehawk wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 5:15 pm I thought they once were saying if the US reopened that the death count could be 80,000. Its not even reopened yet and there are over 83,000 dead now.
The administration's favorite model was updated today to predict 143,000 by August 1.

Pulled from the non R&P thread. What? I thought it was the big push from the Flu kills 60,000 and this isn't as deadly as flu line to 100,000 is some sort of victory just a week ago, using the 2-3 million (leaving out the fact that we have been quarentining for over 7 weeks) as their bogeyman to move the goalpost.

Can I get a cite on this?

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 8:18 am**

Wherein I am reminded that it's not nearly half the nation. Sometimes I need this.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 8:54 am**

Zaxxon wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.

The Wisconsin petri dish is open for business.

But in Wisconsin’s hyperpartisan political environment, it’s unclear how well the Democratic administration will work with the Republican-majority legislature to compromise on public health, a concern [Governor] Evers shared on Wednesday night. He said as far as he could tell the Republicans didn’t have a plan, but would be speaking with them Thursday.

"We have no authority right now,” he said on MSNBC. “It’s been taken away."

“Different counties are saying, ‘Bring it on.’ Other counties are saying, ‘No, we don’t want this to happen,’” Evers said. “So suddenly it’s a 72-county affair, which is going to be very confusing to people in the state."

The bar scene was crowded in counties apparently without immediate health orders to replace Evers’s.

At the Iron Hog Saloon in the town of Port Washington, drinks flowed but masks and social distancing were lacking, WISN reported. The owner, Chad Arndt, said he had put more cleaning protocols in place and that if people felt uncomfortable, they didn’t have to come and he would respect that. “I hope they respect my feelings [that] I would like to come out and I would like to start getting the economy going again,” he said.

Divide, conquer.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 9:04 am**

Scraper wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 8:11 am
Zaxxon wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.
Their Supreme Court has gone full MAGA recently. Luckily the people fought back on election day.

They fought back and still lost. This is a look into the chaos we are starting to see internally across various states.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 9:10 am**

NBC doctor, expert recovering in hospital from COVID-19: 'I can barely breathe'

This is a doctor that helps NBC and shows like The Today show with their info. He said he flew on a plane and got it. Said he was wearing gloves and a mask and wiped down his seat and all he used. He suspects though he got it through his eyes as the plane did not distance its passengers and he had no sealed eyewear to use or shield. Kinda scary. He said he felt the symptoms 4 days later but passed 4 different COVID tests. Even the one the White House shows in its briefings and yet he did have it. Used to be able to run 5 and 10 miles and can now barely breath. Was guessing he was getting 25% his normal oxygen. Ugh.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 10:15 am**

malchior wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 9:04 am
Scraper wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 8:11 am
Zaxxon wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.
Their Supreme Court has gone full MAGA recently. Luckily the people fought back on election day.
They fought back and still lost. This is a look into the chaos we are starting to see internally across various states.

Not entirely, they did show up to vote and replace a MAGA justice with a non Maga justice. It's just that they had to risk infection to do it. Which in my mind should motivate them even more to show up in the fall.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 11:20 am**

malchior wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 9:04 am
Scraper wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 8:11 am
Zaxxon wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.
Their Supreme Court has gone full MAGA recently. Luckily the people fought back on election day.
They fought back and still lost. This is a look into the chaos we are starting to see internally across various states.

?

They won on election day by ousting one of the conservative justices. But there weren't enough justices on the ballot to swing the majority. Only helps so much for now though, of course.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 11:21 am**

LordMortis wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 8:12 am
Kraken wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 6:49 pm
Daehawk wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 5:15 pm I thought they once were saying if the US reopened that the death count could be 80,000. Its not even reopened yet and there are over 83,000 dead now.
The administration's favorite model was updated today to predict 143,000 by August 1.
Pulled from the non R&P thread. What? I thought it was the big push from the Flu kills 60,000 and this isn't as deadly as flu line to 100,000 is some sort of victory just a week ago, using the 2-3 million (leaving out the fact that we have been quarentining for over 7 weeks) as their bogeyman to move the goalpost.

Can I get a cite on this?

Sure

A key model of the coronavirus pandemic favored by the White House nearly doubled its prediction Monday for how many people will die from the virus in the U.S. by August – primarily because states are reopening too soon.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine is now projecting 134,000 coronavirus-related fatalities, up from a previous prediction of 72,000. Factoring in the scientists’ margin of error, the new prediction ranges from 95,000 to 243,000.

(I had the digits reversed -- I said 143k, the model says 134k.)

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 11:28 am**

Kraken wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 11:21 am
LordMortis wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 8:12 am
Kraken wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 6:49 pm
Daehawk wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 5:15 pm I thought they once were saying if the US reopened that the death count could be 80,000. Its not even reopened yet and there are over 83,000 dead now.
The administration's favorite model was updated today to predict 143,000 by August 1.
Pulled from the non R&P thread. What? I thought it was the big push from the Flu kills 60,000 and this isn't as deadly as flu line to 100,000 is some sort of victory just a week ago, using the 2-3 million (leaving out the fact that we have been quarentining for over 7 weeks) as their bogeyman to move the goalpost.

Can I get a cite on this?
Sure

A key model of the coronavirus pandemic favored by the White House nearly doubled its prediction Monday for how many people will die from the virus in the U.S. by August – primarily because states are reopening too soon.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine is now projecting 134,000 coronavirus-related fatalities, up from a previous prediction of 72,000. Factoring in the scientists’ margin of error, the new prediction ranges from 95,000 to 243,000.
(I had the digits reversed -- I said 143k, the model says 134k.)

I read more in to this than was stated.

The favorite model of the White House and what the White House are different. Thank you for the link, it's an interesting read to see the revision and why.

Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of IHME, told reporters on a call Monday the primary reason for the increase is many states’ “premature relaxation of social distancing.”

For the first time, Murray explained, the model is factoring in data from four different cell phone providers showing a major uptick in Americans’ going out in public.

This rise of mobility in the last week or 10 days is likely leading to an increase in transmission, he said.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 11:32 am**

El Guapo wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 11:20 am
malchior wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 9:04 am
Scraper wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 8:11 am
Zaxxon wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 7:43 pm Boy, Wisconsin's sure on a roll lately.
Their Supreme Court has gone full MAGA recently. Luckily the people fought back on election day.
They fought back and still lost. This is a look into the chaos we are starting to see internally across various states.
?

They won on election day by ousting one of the conservative justices. But there weren't enough justices on the ballot to swing the majority. Only helps so much for now though, of course.

Yeah this was more a comment about the realpolitik here. They are in a no win situation when our politics apparently have tipped into full Jim Jones kool aid mode.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 11:42 am**

The Dr. Bright whistle blower hearings have been more of the same we see generally. The Democrats are digging into the details including minor grandstanding about the response in general. The Republicans are ignoring the spurious whistle blower report to ask the real important questions such as perhaps chloroquine *is* effective. The Congresspersons were playing dumb but I'm sure they collectively queued up the right questions to get the material to allow disinformation clips to be produced...we should be hearing the canaries talking about them later tonight.

Edit: Holy shit - he just said out loud - when I raised up the alarm to the highest levels after he got an email from a mask producer that said 'that we were in deep shit' and he heard nothing back he knew we were as a nation in big trouble. Jesus.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 3:55 pm**

Trump has this thing figured out.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1261 ... 61826?s=20

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 3:57 pm**

Holman wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 3:55 pm Trump has this thing figured out.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1261 ... 61826?s=20

TRUMP: "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."

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 4:06 pm**

Man....like, he's so close to making a valid point. There is a degree to which new reported cases can be misleading if you're not also disclosing changes in the numbers of tests. So if 'reported cases' goes from 1,000 to 2,000 in an area, but the # of tests also doubled, you can't totally be sure whether that's new cases or just new detected cases.

So....I think that might be what he's feebly trying to get at? But he's definitely also aware that new tests --> new cases --> bad reporting for Trump. So I'm not sure whether he's ultimately getting at the first thing, the second thing, or both.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 4:16 pm**

He loves calling them "warriors" because when they die it's a heroic sacrifice to Mother America, not a tragic failing by an inept administration. Doctors shouldn't have to be warriors to go into a fucking hospital to treat patients.

But hey, when you fuck it up, just call them warriors and celebrate their "sacrifices."

That part about their gowns flapping as they go through "the doors" * and they're kind of unprepared but they go anyway... What the fuck was that? My wife's 101 year old grandfather is smoother and more coherent than Trump when talking bullshit, and he has officially diagnosed dementia.

* The front doors? Negative pressure room doors? The swinging OR doors from Trapper John MD or ER?

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 4:31 pm**

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 4:34 pm**

El Guapo wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 4:06 pm Man....like, he's so close to making a valid point. There is a degree to which new reported cases can be misleading if you're not also disclosing changes in the numbers of tests. So if 'reported cases' goes from 1,000 to 2,000 in an area, but the # of tests also doubled, you can't totally be sure whether that's new cases or just new detected cases.

I'll tell you what. Let's leave being a President up to the President and when it comes to infectious disease control, let's have epidemiologists and public health professionals at the microphone, dispensing the details. This man is a danger to himself and others. If he was talking this way in a subway terminal, he'd be collected by the police and put into a mental health facility for evaluation.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 4:35 pm**

Smoove_B wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 4:34 pm
El Guapo wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 4:06 pm Man....like, he's so close to making a valid point. There is a degree to which new reported cases can be misleading if you're not also disclosing changes in the numbers of tests. So if 'reported cases' goes from 1,000 to 2,000 in an area, but the # of tests also doubled, you can't totally be sure whether that's new cases or just new detected cases.
I'll tell you what. Let's leave being a President up to the President and when it comes to infectious disease control, let's have epidemiologists and public health professionals at the microphone, dispensing the details. This man is a danger to himself and others. If he was talking this way in a subway terminal, he'd be collected by the police and put into a mental health facility for evaluation.

It's sometimes kind of a fun game to listen to Trump talk and try to reverse engineer back to what he was actually told in his briefings.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 5:14 pm**

El Guapo wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 4:06 pm Man....like, he's so close to making a valid point. There is a degree to which new reported cases can be misleading if you're not also disclosing changes in the numbers of tests. So if 'reported cases' goes from 1,000 to 2,000 in an area, but the # of tests also doubled, you can't totally be sure whether that's new cases or just new detected cases.

So....I think that might be what he's feebly trying to get at? But he's definitely also aware that new tests --> new cases --> bad reporting for Trump. So I'm not sure whether he's ultimately getting at the first thing, the second thing, or both.

https://twitter.com/GQMagazine/status/1 ... 63651?s=20

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 5:35 pm**

Holman wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 5:14 pm
El Guapo wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 4:06 pm Man....like, he's so close to making a valid point. There is a degree to which new reported cases can be misleading if you're not also disclosing changes in the numbers of tests. So if 'reported cases' goes from 1,000 to 2,000 in an area, but the # of tests also doubled, you can't totally be sure whether that's new cases or just new detected cases.

So....I think that might be what he's feebly trying to get at? But he's definitely also aware that new tests --> new cases --> bad reporting for Trump. So I'm not sure whether he's ultimately getting at the first thing, the second thing, or both.
https://twitter.com/GQMagazine/status/1 ... 63651?s=20

Yup. I just can't tell from his comments whether he's saying this part out loud, or whether he's giving a poorly translated version of someone telling him at a briefing that "yes, cases are going up, but only because you're doing such an amazing job at testing and we're the best testing country in the world because you are so great!"

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 10:19 pm**

McConnell had to admit today that Obama did, in fact, leave behind a detailed plan for a pandemic.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2020 10:58 pm**

hepcat wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 10:19 pm McConnell had to admit today that Obama did, in fact, leave behind a detailed plan for a pandemic.

"Obama planned Chinese Flu pandemic while still in office!!!!"

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 7:40 am**

OBAMAGATE!

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 9:36 am**

Oh hey, look at that:

Wednesday afternoon, 14 college presidents from around the country gathered in front of their computers. On their screens they saw their peers, along with Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who asked what they needed to reopen their campuses in the fall.

...

“They were mostly in listening mode, wanting to hear what the federal government could do to be helpful,” said University of Texas at El Paso president Heather Wilson, who was on the call. One way it can help, said Wilson, a former Republican congresswoman from New Mexico and secretary of the Air Force, “is to have some kind of liability protection.”

Colleges, in seeking that protection from Pence and from a Senate committee this week, aren’t alone. Manufacturers and business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been pushing to be freed, at least temporarily during the pandemic, from being held liable if workers, customers and others get sick on their property -- something a lawyer for Texas Christian University told senators is “foreseeable, perhaps inevitable.”

...

Part of the problems facing both employers and workers, labor and business leaders agreed at the hearing, is that there are no clear standards for what businesses are supposed to do.

Under liability law, businesses are freed from being responsible if they are deemed to be taking reasonable steps to protect people. But as the nation continues to struggle to find a way to stem the spread of coronavirus, there is no definition of what steps would protect colleges from being held legally liable.

“There is no playbook. There are no established best practices, and this uncertainty is impacting our decisions,” Larry Leroy Tyner Jr., Texas Christian University’s general counsel, told senators at the hearing.

It's almost as if...no one is thinking about any of this and is instead, just throwing caution to the wind.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 9:42 am**

How about the Trump administration come up with a playbook with reasonable steps for businesses? That would be the reasonable thing to solve the problem.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 9:44 am**

A friend of mine yesterday was at Kroger when a couple came in. They had no masks. The security at the front of the store (yes my kroger now have security in response to Covid 19) gave them masks to enter the store. They proceeded to enter the store, remove their masks, and ignore spacial requirements and the "flow of traffic" set up by the store. They were invited to leave the store. They refused until eventually removed by the police. To date 68, people have died in my small municipality due Covid related illness. I am so angry right now. I can only hope Kroger and the Police take in to account 68 lives lost when they decide what to do about this act of civil disobedience. I know everyone has their own shoes. I know I can't experience whatever it is they are going through but people in my neighborhood are literally dying every day. The even... I can't...

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 9:57 am**

One of my conservative canary friends (the pediatrician) posted this yesterday:

Here's my idea for how we proceed:

- If you want to wear a mask, wear one. If you dont, don't.

- If you want to open your business, open it. If you don't, don't.

- If you want to leave your house, leave it. If you don't, dont.

We all make our own choices and live our own lives. The end.

I mean, I suppose we could ask that every person over 65, every person with a risk factor, or any person who may come in contact with either of the above simply stay home forever in order to avoid "inconveniencing" the rest of us. OR, we could ask folks to do an extremely minor thing for the sake of others and cover their face for a few minutes while they shop. Apparently the latter is a bridge too far these days because “MUH FREEDOM!!”

The selfishness and utter disregard for other human beings that I'm seeing from so many people (who I thought were better than that) continues to be wildly depressing. My faith in humanity in general seems to be plummeting by the hour these days.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 10:13 am**

It's gotten to the point that when I am compelled to interact with these types, I'm just honest with them. If this was about them getting sick and dying, I'd be all for it. Not only do I not care if they get sick and die, at this point I'm actively rooting for it. What I do care about is the people that they will murder with their reckless indifference.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 10:24 am**

This might be the best Twitter thread analogy (I love analogies) I've ever seen:

https://twitter.com/JeremyKonyndyk/stat ... 1189342208

Alright. There is a LOT of chatter on this website bashing those who are saying most of the country still isn't ready for a safe reopening.

So, as we approach what would normally be summer pool season, here's a short analogy about pooping and accountability.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 10:34 am**

That's a pretty shitty analogy.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 11:02 am**

Ahh, the comments. I will never understand why I read them.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 11:11 am**

Perhaps you'll like this one more (history isn't repeating, it's rhyming)

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/stat ... 2692803586

London 1665, The Black Death "All kinds of handicrafts in the city, etc. tradesmen & mechanics, were...out of employ & this occasioned the putting off & dismissing an innumerable number of journeymen & workmen of all sorts, seeing nothing..."
MORE

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 11:48 am**

Smoove_B wrote:Perhaps you'll like this one more (history isn't repeating, it's rhyming)

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/stat ... 2692803586

London 1665, The Black Death "All kinds of handicrafts in the city, etc. tradesmen & mechanics, were...out of employ & this occasioned the putting off & dismissing an innumerable number of journeymen & workmen of all sorts, seeing nothing..."
MORE

As I grasp for some bit of levity in this whole situation I am going to try to find a way to use the name "John Cock" in something.

“Yeah, you could open your shop again but you don’t want to end up like poor John Cock!”

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 11:52 am**

If I was an artist, I'd make a T-Shirt for these protestors "I support John Cock" that has a medieval skull getting a haircut. Because apparently monetizing flair during a pandemic is working out for some people.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 11:55 am**

I was cheering for the maid. Hope she was able to nick some of the family silver as severance pay when the Cock family passed on.

That would be a cool t shirt. And have all sorts of plague imagery in the background since plague art is really creepy cool!

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 11:56 am**

That was a cock up.

Anyways I seem to have more cars passing on the road near my home today.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 12:37 pm**

Experts’ 7 best ideas on how to beat Covid-19 and save the economy.

Seems generally sensible.

Posted: **Fri May 15, 2020 12:52 pm**

You know how in Mad Max Fury Road they sprayed their mouth with shiny stuff? I wish there was a gif of that with Lysol.

Octopus Overlords

Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

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Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Re: Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint