by | March 29, 2020 · 1:42 pm

Bits & Bytes

PEOPLE CAN BE SO WONDERFUL: A Florida anesthesiologist got the bright idea to try making face masks with a material called “surgical wrap” that is used to keep medical tools and equipment sterile. It is in abundant supply in hospitals across the United States and the world. It turns out that two layers of the material have a higher rating than the N95 masks.

 

TRUMP: [19:19] – President Trump made remarks at bon voyage for USNS Comfort, which is departing for New York from Norfolk, VA.

POTUS has the authority under the Defense Production Act to order companies to do stuff, but mostly he hasn’t needed to. However, he recently had to give GM a DPA kick in the pants to stop their dickering about how much the government would pay them for ventilators.

Forgive my French, but merde on GM! Back in 2009, American taxpayers coughed up $50 billion to bail out GM and over time, the U.S. government reports it got paid back less than $40 billion. But, sure, you stinking pile of ungrateful turds, DICKER about how much PROFIT you can make off us for ventilators we need in a global crisis.

Trump also signed an executive order authorizing the secretaries of the Homeland Security and Defense departments to call up military and Coast Guard reservists to active duty for up to two years.

While listening to President Trump during the Saturday task force briefing, I was struck by how gracious he is. He’s been dumped on and had major differences with people like New York City Mayor DeBlasio and California Governor Newsom. But during the briefing, he talked in glowing terms about how well they’ve all been working together to handle this crisis.

I don’t remember anything even close to this from Barack Obama. Maybe I am not being fair to him, but my impression over 8 years was that he was a thin-skinned, vindictive and petty man who never let go of a grudge. If I am remembering correctly, there was a long and mostly positive article published about him early on in his administration. Way down in paragraph 40, there was one remark about his big ears and, something like twelve weeks after it was published, he sought out the reporter at a function to wag his finger at her for talking about his ears.

2020_03 29 checks

STIMULUS CHECKS: The money will be issued within three weeks. If the IRS direct deposits your tax refund, then the money will most likely go straight to that account. Otherwise, checks will be mailed to the address you used on your tax return. If that address has changed, contact the IRS asap.

If your 2018 adjusted gross income (or you already filed your 2019 tax return) is less than $75,000 and you filed individually, you will get $1,200. Joint filers who earned less than $150,000 get $2,400. You also get $500 per child. The amount are reduced by $5 for every $100 of income, meaning individuals who earned $99,000 or more or couples who earned $198,000 or more get no payments.

WHAT THE HELL: [4:49] – Doctors across the nation are using hydroxychloroquine with tremendous success. Inexplicably, in Michigan and Nevada, the idiot governors have banned the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients.

A recent experiment in France should give us tremendous hope. They gave 80 COVID-19 in-patients a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. Both of these drugs are extremely well-known and have been prescribed to billions of people.

All of the patients improved, and all but one survived. The one death was an 86-year-old man whose disease was too advanced by the time he came to them.

Another positive outcome was that the drugs greatly reduced the length of time the patients were contagious, which means they can be safely released from quarantine much sooner, thus freeing up hospital resources for new patients.

TUCKER: Facebook clip from March 27, summarizing the disease numbers.

 

2020_03 29 fake

FAKERS: Border Patrol confiscated a bunch of fake COVID-19 home test kits at LAX (photo). The FDA warns that there is no such thing.

The media is the only American institution with a negative approval rating. A new Gallup poll showed 44 percent of Americans approving of the way the media has covered the virus vs. 55% who disapprove, making for a -11 percent rating.

Virginia’s Gov. Northam has his Progressive priorities in order. He has decided that abortion facilities can continue killing unborn babies in elective abortions, but that people who attend a church service with more than 9 other people could face criminal penalties.

TUCKER: Facebook clip from March 26, discussing the economic impact and one vile individual who has used his media platform to cry “Wolf!”, then used the ensuing panic selling to increase his personal portfolio by billions.

 

2020_03 29 Montezuma

MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE: Trump-hating, unfunny “comedienne”, actress and media whore, Kathy Griffin, wasted zero time in blaming Trump’s allegedly poor leadership for her supposedly having contracted COVID-19 while on vacation in Mexico.

Except oops … turns out she had a tummy ache. But we can’t blame HER for her bad behavior. For one thing, she’s a Leftist. Nothing is ever their fault. And for another thing, Trump “broke” her after that whole severed head thing. Every bad she does for the rest of her life will be his fault.

 

TUCKER: Facebook clip from March 26 about one important political reason why New York City has such a bad outbreak of the disease.

 

2020_03 29 trump

MEDIA MALPRACTICE: The TDSing media wants you to believe that the coronavirus in the United States is spiraling out of control the way it did in Italy.

Fact check: it isn’t. If you’re a math nerd and are interested in this, click and read the article. I’m currently too sleep deprived to follow the argument or try to simplify it for you here. Sorry ’bout that.

This evil is not a small thing. In Knox County, Tennessee, more people have died from suicide than from the virus. If you want the best, most up-to-date virus information, watch the daily Task Force briefings for yourself. And ignore the Trump Deranged media … at all costs!

If you are struggling with anxiety, call your pastor, a friend, or a suicide hotline. The national suicide hotline is 1-800-273-8255.

2020_03 28 slime

MEDIA MALPRACTICE: The New York Times has been one of the worst news outlets during this pandemic. They’ve consistently taken partisan positions and purposely misled the public.

On March 26, NYT’s Trip Gabriel pushed this totally false story. “There are at most 200k ventilators in the US. One million are expected to be needed. Experts say the Trump administration approach – let states fend for themselves in the market rather than a central authority step in – will doom people to die.”

I have been watching the President’s Coronavirus Task Force daily briefings, which typically run more than an hour as every possible nuance of the day’s news gets dissected by the usually hostile press.

That is NOT what they’ve been saying … and saying … and saying … not just about ventilators, but about all of the pandemic relief efforts. The real story is that the states are in charge, with the active and generous support of the federal government agencies, which are being coordinated for maximum efficiency by the Task Force.

To his credit, a former Times writer named Alex Barenson absolutely eviscerated Gabriel’s lies with a detailed fact-check.

The FACT is that the United States was the most prepared nation for this crisis and is in much better shape than the rest of the world.

2020_03 29 birx

THE STUPID, IT BURNS: On Wednesday, Dan Pfieffer, who was once Obama’s top PR guy, took to Twitter to explain how he thought Dr. Deborah Birx could do her job better.

Instead of lecturing the Governors, nurses, and doctors on the front lines, Dr Birx could use her position and platform to push the President to his power to invoke the DPA to make more ventilators.”

Pfeiffer has a B.A.

Dr. Deborah Birx has B.S. and M.D. Degrees. She is also a Colonel in the U.S. Army. Under President Obama, she served as the global AIDS coordinator. She is now the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force. She appears regularly on the daily briefings where she is a steady, calm voice of information and up-to-the-minute data.

But by all means, Dan, keep telling her how you could do her job better than she’s doing it. You useless pile of ….

2020_03 29 biden

TRUMP vs. BIDEN: The Fox News special with President Trump and members of his Coronavirus task force on Tuesday was the highest rated town hall in the history of cable news with 4,409,000 viewers between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. It also has over a million views on YouTube.

On Friday, Sleepy Joe announced, “I’ll be sitting down for a conversation with nurses, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. Tune in at 4:15 ET to join us.” The event attracted 632 viewers.

2020_03 29 karma

KARMA: The director of development at a cancer center in Buffalo, NY, has been placed on leave after posting this on Facebook:

“Trump supporters need to pledge to give up their ventilators for someone else … and not go to the hospital. I think they should be the only ones in packed churches on Sunday.”

2020_03 29 grammy

GRAMMY NOTES: I saw my primary first thing Friday morning. We were told to telephone from the parking lot. I answered their questions, then was told to wait for a call back before entering the building.

Inside the foyer, there was a mask dispenser and every staff member was wearing one. In the empty waiting room, every other chair was taped off, all the magazines were gone, and there were signs about COVID-19 everywhere. I was sent straight back to the exam area where half the chairs and all the magazines were gone.

My appointment went well, but I missed seeing my doctor’s smile. I’m fine, by the way. I have chronic pain and go once a month for osteopathic manipulation, because it helps a lot to reduce my need for kidney-damaging pain pills. On Wednesday, my doc and I had emailed about whether or not to come in or tough it out for a month until the next appointment. He said my risk was fairly low and he’d support my decision either way. I hurt, so I went.

Now I’m busy sewing masks for my kids and grands. I also dug out an old box of gloves from when Dewey Poodle had an intestinal issue that required I shove suppositories up his ahem. There are enough left to share 2 pairs with each household. Even if they don’t need, want, or use the stuff, getting a care package will be as good as a hug, right?

2020_03 29 DOG family photo

5 Comments

Filed under Loose Pollen

5 responses to “Bits & Bytes”

  1. mindful webworker
    March 29, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    Virginia’s Gov. Northam has his Progressive priorities in order. He has decided that abortion facilities can continue killing unborn babies in elective abortions, but that people who attend a church service with more than 9 other people could face criminal penalties.

    Ah, a hook for my latest webwork:

    Congregation and Contagion – First Amendment, with asterisks
    Source page: mindfulwebworks.com/radical/congregation-and-contagion

    Liked by 1 person

  2. chrissythehyphenated
    March 30, 2020 at 10:30 am

    Oh great. WordPress didn’t just refuse to embed Tucker Carlson; it eliminated the URLs entirely. ARGH.

    Like

  3. Pingback: Mercy and Comfort – Other People's Videos