[American Military News] A Florida man is accused of stealing more than 11,000 pounds of copper wiring from Dobbins Air Reserve Base and then pawning it for just over $18,000, according to Cobb County police.
Eric Tavarus McCray, of Fort Walton Beach, stole multiple spools of the wire and then sold it in Florida, his arrest warrant states. He has been charged with felony theft by taking, according to police.
"Said accused made approximately 70 transactions at the Metal Recycling company totaling over 11,564 pounds of copper and was paid $18,352.95," McCray’s arrest warrant states.
The alleged thefts happened between March 2019 and December while he was on temporary duty orders at Dobbins in Cobb, police said Monday. McCray sold all of the copper at the same company in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, according to police.
Cobb detectives are assisting the Air Force Office of Special Investigation, according to a spokesman for Cobb police.
If a penny = ~5g of Cu, wouldn't he have been better off collecting 10,000 pennies and selling them to the scrapyard?
Guaranteed return of ca. 50%, no?
[MAIL] A report claims to have evidence that this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas played a key role in spreading the coronavirus throughout the US.
The event, held in January, carried on amid the outbreak happening in China, which experts say created 'an ideal venue for transmission.'
Multiple attendees became seriously ill following the days after CES, but was dismissed as nothing more than having the 'CES flu' that occurs every year.
However, these individuals suffered different symptoms than previous years including fever, shortness of breath, dry cough, pains and body aches – all of which are caused by COVID-19.
A professor who attended the conference came down with a sickness after the event and recently tested positive for the coronavirus – making his case 'the first clear evidence that the virus was likely circulating at the conference.'
The conference was attended by more than 180,000 people, many of whom were from outside of the US, and more than 100 of the people traveled from Wuhan, China where the coronavirus first began.
#2
Seriously? Going "made it happen on purpose"? A trade show with lots of Chinese vendors turns out to be an event where a virus from China was spread. That doesn't require any conspiracy.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/24/2020 7:50 Comments ||
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#3
Different show, but when I used to attend COMDEX in Vegas, the running joke was "The geeks bring one clean shirt and a $10 bill and they don't change either one all week."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/24/2020 7:51 Comments ||
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#4
Many thousands in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, were exposed to this virus in December and January, when there was neither a travel ban nor any sort of lockdown or any public health precaution at all.
San Jose International during that non-lockdown period was receiving hundreds of visitors each week from Wuhan itself, and thousands more visitors from other cities in China. SC Co. health officials announced yesterday that the first COVID death in the county occurred on Feb 6.
So we can see that the disease was spreading, over at least a 6-week period, across a county that has 2 million people, with no lockdown whatsoever.
How many of those 2 million people have died so far as a result of this? 95.
Repeat: 95 deaths -- out of 2 million population. And only 1,987 infections total as of 4/23/2020.
So a deaths:population ratio of 1:20,000, in the US epicenter of the virus's spread -- and this minuscule death rate has occurred after nearly 2 months of completely unrestrained travel, back and forth from San Jose, to Wuhan itself and to many other cities in China, with zero social distancing, let alone lockdowns
And this minuscule death rate has occurred in a county whose population is 38% Asian, with a Chinese population that includes, minimum, 100,000 people who have direct ties to people living and working in China - including thousands with a direct connection to Wuhan.
How on earth can this data be reconciled with the data being collected around the world?
Either Santa Clara County's data is garbage, or other jurisdictions' and nations' data is garbage (or both are garbage). But it cannot be the case that this epidemic is as lethal as claimed if the American epicenter for the virus -- Silicon Valley, with its close connection to China and its many thousands of traveler's to Wuhan and the rest of China -- if the epicenter only has a 1:20,000 death rate after FOUR MONTHS of exposure including near-total exposure for almost three months. Not possible.
From which we can also conclude with certainty that
- the statistics being gathered around the world, about infection rates and actual COVID-caused deaths per population are largely inaccurate, inconsistent and not comparable across geographies, time periods, nursing homes, hospitals and other venues and certifying authorities;
- we have no idea about the degree of causality between lockdowns and either the infection rate or the death rate;
- the decisions made by policymakers have almost no connection to reality.
Draw your own conclusions, but most rational people would look at the above and conclude that much of the world has gone insane.
They knew. We may have known as well. No one said, 'hey WAIT....Wuhan attendees, perhaps a postponement is in order." Criminal negligence at a minimum, but no worries. Nothing will come of it. Nothing much comes of anything these days.
#6
^ a combination of garbage data; panicked officials; conformism; irresponsible, sensationalist, stupid reporters; and the usual human cognitive errors of ascertainment bias, confirmation bias, confounding bias and every other sort of bias.
None of which invalidates Besoeker's thesis. When all of the above are present, there is no more opportune or target-rich environment for plots and inductions dangerous.
The world's best spy agencies would be foolish not to seek to take advantage of such an unprecedented time of collective unreason, hysteria and false information.
#7
#4 To me it proves that California is different than the rest of the World - at least in infection rates*. But don't worry Lex, judging by the slope of the covid cases it is coming to California.
*I'd assume the rich & famous, while condemning Trump_Hitler's stupid HCQ, consume it like candy.
But now it has reached the poorer areas.
#12
The IHME model says Cali passed the peak deaths four days ago, with 1400-odd deaths yesterday out of a projected 1700-odd. Jus' sayin'.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 8:57 Comments ||
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#13
BLUF: there is no f---ing way that this country or any place that observes intelligent sanitary precautions, esp re washing hands, not embracing etc and taking special care around the elderly and frail -- no f---ing way that we can exceed a deaths:pop ratio nationally of 1:3,000.
Long version:
The only way this country could exceed 100,000 deaths from this virus this year would be if our incompetent leaders did stupid things that made the situation worse - like shutting down ORs, or diverting scarce urgent-care resources in order to uselessly stuff intubation tubes down the throats of elderly patients on death's door.
Downstate New York's death rate is almost certainly attributable to a set of systematic, catastrophic errors made by its policymakers, its residents and its health care practitioners. NY cannot and should not have a death rate higher than Santa Clara County - let alone as high as the Diamond Princess.
The Diamond Princess and its "ideal incubation environment" showed us the doomsday scenario, with real empirical data. That was a 1:1,000 deaths-to-exposed population rate.
Santa Clara County shows us a worse than middling but not dire case, over not 24 days but four months, not a closed environment comprising 3,711 confined passengers & crew but a 2 million, heavily Chinese and racially diverse, mixed urban/suburban (and a few rural) population of whom a large percentage were directly exposed to the virus.
That pessimistic but not doomsday case has resulted so far, four months later, in a death rate of 1:20,000, which will rise to s.t. like 1:2,000 at most.
Most places that observe basic precautions - wash your hands, protect the elderly and frail, but not shut down the eeconomy over this -- other places will not exceed that 1:1,000 deaths:pop. ratio, most likely stabilizing at 1:3,000 or 1:4,000.
#14
^According to this graph, plague started getting serious in Florida at the end of March. Possible, started by one infected person who went to Superbowl.
That's how exponential from a small initial value looks, remember?
#15
Why Lex, some of those ratios are somewhere in the range of seasonal flu rates, amirite?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 11:26 Comments ||
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#16
That generic graph right there, that's what some people call gospel.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/24/2020 11:37 Comments ||
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#17
Yes they are, Bobby. Bad flu season = 80,000 deaths. That's where we're headed.
The lockdown in Santa Clara County is almost totally irrelevant to that outcome. We'd have the same result if we'd just committed everyone to washing hands, some distancing and reasonable precautions esp around the elderly and the frail.
Again, there was no lockdown in Santa Clara County during the first 12 or so weeks of direct exposure, in the US epicenter where literally thousands of people fresh off a plane from China including around 1,000 from Wuhan were circulating freely, spreading the virus to colleagues and neighbors all over the county.
And still we have a death rate of only 1 per 20,000 population.
No f---ing way we will come anywhere close to those ridiculous projections from the Imperial College guy or the UW team. They were off by orders of magnitude and never should have been used as the basis for policy.
#18
#16 That generic graph right there, that's what some people call gospel.
Posted by M. Murcek
I thought that was a pyramid?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/24/2020 11:59 Comments ||
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#19
One infected person - that was the San Francisco 49rs in that game.
The other team, Kansas City Chiefs, had an assholes to elbows ticker tape parade with people drinking each others beer a la famous playoff end zone dance, straight chugging other peoples' beers. That was not a warm sunny day in KC, but cool wintery no precipitation.
The Greater KC Area counties on the Kansas side are Wyondotte and Johnson. Huge Chiefs following in Douglas County, home of University of Kansas and a shitpot of bars, sports bars, restaurants etc for game watching, yelling, cheering, food and drink consumption. And a decent Chinese demographic in both community and academia.
#21
The parade was a week or so after the game, giving some extra time to spread about. The city closed for that parade. KC area is about 2.5 million. That's 100s of thousands of people screaming in each others' mouths and licking hot wing sauce off their fingers. Or that KC style BBQ on 8 hour smoked meats, its instinctual finger licking. Winter time too, nothing else to do then go to the sports bar and talk Chiefs and watch college basketball and prepare to host the Big 12 conference.
As of today, those four counties have a total of 1061 confirmed cases, 107 deaths attributed.
#22
Even the NY City deaths percentage is questionable. Initial antibody testing indicates they may have as many as 1.8 MILLION who have had the virus. And the assignment of a death to COVID-19 may be inflated by incorrect cause due to CMS reimbursement money being greater in a COVID-19 case than for, say, a heart attack or stroke.
The numbers may seem high because all the cases have piled up in a short time. Spread them over a typical length 6-8 month "pandemic flu" season (like 2009), and you lose the headline numbers.
The US Government and state governments have done what the Chinese and Russians have dreamed of for decades, yet were never able to achieve on their own: The decimation of the US Economy.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
04/24/2020 16:21 Comments ||
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#23
decimation
You mean devastation. 1/3d, not 1/10th, of the economy.
USA's energy supremacy: gone
USA's small-medium businesses supporting ca 50 million households: cratered
USA's next generation of high-achieving college grads: permanently in debt now, if they can even manage to scare up funds to pay for college
It's become really simple: we can't have 32% unemployment and still have a peaceful democracy.
Either this lockdown ends, and ends very soon, or we will see mass violence in this country. Our elites are sleepwalking, drifting, blind.
Question. After this all ends, will we be able to try Swedish government for crimes against humanity?
Or will Swedes, descendants of Vikings, rise and tear them to pieces before that?
Or, like in Cambodia, will their neighbors invade them to put an end to their crimes?
Marc Lamparello, 38, of New Jersey, was arrested April 17, 2019, after entering St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters
He was released from Rikers Island prison March 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak and was to undergo rehabilitation
But he had been released from a secure psychiatric hospital last month and told to quarantine because of the spread of COVID-19
He jumped off the Verrazzano bridge on April 17 after telling his mother he felt cooped up in the house
'My son went a whole month without any treatment whatsoever. They cost my son his life' his mother Dolores Lamparello said about the hospital
#1
I wonder what he though as he fell to his death. Maybe it was a happy thought of meeting St Peter, Maybe he was thinking of the freedom of flight. Or maybe it was "Oh shit! What did I do!!!" We will never know....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/24/2020 11:26 Comments ||
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#4
Dangerous Cities You Should Never Tour Alone | HuffPost: Rio is dangerous but it's not even in the Top 4 of most dangerous cities in Brazil. Manaus, known for its beaches and adventure tours, is because it has the highest number of homicides in 2016. The danger zones are located mainly in the eastern part of the city.
#2
[caption] As Tyson adds another plant to its list of closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are fears about a break in the food supply and a shortage of fresh meat. Pictured is an empty chicken and poultry food case in New Jersey on March 13
Meanwhile, April 22, my shopper (Mrs. Bobby) found plenty of meat at the store. But let's show the earlier pandemic photo to stoke the panic!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 15:33 Comments ||
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#3
Was at Smart & Final this AM. TP, Meats, Tito's Vodka all stocked
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/24/2020 15:44 Comments ||
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#8
Mr. Wife came home from shopping at Krogers to announce that while rotisserie chicken has gone up to $7, they were on sale today at two for $10. I’m not sure what that means, but there it is.
#9
Read one account that a farmer had to destroy over 60,000 of his chickens because of the low demand for eggs, and the farmer could not afford to continue to feed them.
In the two months since the continent began mobilizing to fight the outbreak, less than 500,000 tests have been conducted on a population of more than 1 billion. That’s just 325 people tested per 1 million people, Nkengasong said. That’s far lower than Italy, one of the world’s worst-hit countries, he said by way of comparison.
African governments reported nearly 26,000 cases as of Thursday, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up from just over 16,000 a week ago. Although those figures are still relatively small in the global picture, the sharp increase is a cause for concern, said Nkengasong. The previous week saw an increase of 29%.
The study examined the electronic health records of 2,634 patients
It found that overall, roughly 20 per cent of COVID-19 patients died
Of those placed on ventilators, 88 per cent died. This rose to 97 for over 65s
The study also indicates that those who have become the most severely ill have had some sort of underlying condition, such as high blood pressure or diabetes
Hong Kong researchers says China virus cases may have been four times higher than reported
[IsraelTimes] The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China may in fact have been four times higher than reported, according to a study conducted by researchers at Hong Kong University’s school of public health and published in the British medical journal The Lancet. As of February 20, China had reported 55,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, but had Chinese authorities used a case definition adopted later in the outbreak, the number of number of confirmed cases by that date would have been as much as 232,000. The researchers go on to say that even that figure would be an underestimate of the number of infections up to that point, because it would not have captured some mild or asymptomatic cases.
China has currently reported 82,798 confirmed cases and 4,632 deaths.
Also note that no red state has hit a 1000 fatalities yet, unless you're counting LA as a red state. (although that will surely change)
Courtesy of Woodrow:
Coronavirus on the borders [Worldometers] MEXICO
Coronavirus Cases:
10,544
Deaths:
970
Recovered:
2,627
CLOSED CASES
3,597
Cases which had an outcome:
2,627 (73%)
Recovered / Discharged
970 (27%)
Deaths
================== CANADA
Coronavirus Cases:
42,081
Deaths:
2,143
Recovered:
14,748
ACTIVE CASES
25,190
Currently Infected Patients
24,633 (98%)
in Mild Condition
557 (2%)
Serious or Critical
CLOSED CASES
16,891
Cases which had an outcome:
14,748 (87%)
Recovered / Discharged
2,143 (13%)
Deaths
======================= UNITED STATES
Coronavirus Cases:
878,408
Deaths:
49,742
Recovered:
85,549
CLOSED CASES
135,291
Cases which had an outcome:
85,549 (63%)
Recovered / Discharged
49,742 (37%)
Deaths
For g(r)omgoru and anyone else interested in visualizing the data, Watts Up With That has been posting graphs daily based on Worldometers data. Link. Enjoy!
Mossad chief said to allege Iran, numerous Arab states lying about virus stats
[IsraelTimes] Mossad chief Yossi Cohen told health officials during a briefing today that the coronavirus pandemic is more serious in a number of Arab states and Iran than the governments there are acknowledging, Channel 13 news reports.
“In Lebanon, Iraq and Syria there is large morbidity and they’re lying,” the network quotes Cohen as saying. “The number of infected and dead that the Iranians are reporting is also not true. The numbers I’m familiar with are much higher.”
[FoxNews] A federal judge blocked a California gun law on Thursday that required people to undergo a background check before purchasing ammunition.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego called the regulations "onerous and convoluted," adding that they violate a citizen's Second Amendment rights, the Associated Press reported.
Benitez ruled in favor of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, which had asked him to halt the background checks with a preliminary injunction.
"The experiment has been tried. The casualties have been counted. California's new ammunition background check law misfires and the Second Amendment rights of California citizens have been gravely injured," Benitez wrote in his 120-page opinion.
Criminals, tyrants, and terrorists don't do background checks," he added. "The background check experiment defies common sense while unduly and severely burdening the Second Amendment rights of every responsible, gun-owning citizen desiring to lawfully buy ammunition."
Benitez reportedly claimed the law blocked legitimate sales to law-abiding citizens, about 16 percent of the time. He also ruled that California's ban on importing ammo from outside the state violates federal interstate commerce laws.
California became the first state in the country to require background checks for ammo purchases when the law took effect back in July.
Ammunition sales jumped 300 percent in June before the regulations took effect. Voters originally approved the measure back in 2016
The state attorney general's office told the AP it is reviewing the decision but did not immediately say if it would appeal the decision or not.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/24/2020 10:14 Comments ||
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#2
It's a prelim injunction, but that's a start...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/24/2020 11:33 Comments ||
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#3
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California
In office June 21, 2004 – December 31, 2017
Appointed by George W. Bush
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 11:35 Comments ||
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[Wide Open Spaces] These five timeless rifles will probably always have a place in deer hunting. Your grandfather's generation was introduced to some of the finest deer hunting rifles ever made.
These five classic deer rifles have a near perfect blend of form and functionality. The power and reliability of these accurate rifles like the Winchester Model 70 or the German-made Mauser M98 are hard to beat even by today's standards.
They were quite simply the best hunting guns put to market in those times, and they jumped off the store shelves during North American deer seasons.
And if your grandpa owned one of these guns, and passed it down to you, consider yourself lucky. While they may not all be worth a lot today, they can still take down big game just as good as they did last century.
#2
I had a pre-1965 Model 70 stolen from me and hocked for $200
I don’t need to say what that wonderfully accurate weapon was worth
Sad day when I found out it was gone and too late to redeem
Texas man Aaron Swenson, 36, was arrested on April 11 and charged with terroristic threats and fleeing officers
He posted a Facebook Live video saying he was hunting for a police officer to 'ambush and kill' as he was driving through Texarkana
Cops eventually found him, launching a car chase, before he surrendered
He was found wearing an armored vest and with several loaded weapons
A sweep of his social media revealed he belong to an internet subculture group called the 'boogaloo boys' that shares anti-government and pro-gun views
#1
Now that the kind of things I worry about - psychotic bitches like that having authority over our children. Not a government doing that's necessary to keep its citizens alive.
#7
The Oxford team has three manufacturing partners in Britain, two in Europe, one in India and one in China. They are already making the vaccine at commercial scale, in the expectation of success of the clinical trials.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/24/2020 14:30 Comments ||
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#8
The Indian partner is the Serum Institute of India, which is making 5 million doses a month and scaling up to 10 million a month. Serum is the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/24/2020 14:31 Comments ||
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#9
The vaccine is called ChAdOx1 NCoV-19. Stands for Chimpanzee Adenovirus Oxford 1 novel Coronavirus -19. There is a version called ChADOx1 MERS which is in clinical trials in Saudi and immunizes against MERS. Other versions for Rabies, Nipah etc. These all use the chimp adenovirus which has been made replication deficient. They inserted the gene for the Spike protein of the Wuhan Coronavirus. Other vaccines express other proteins. Their animal trials show good antibody and T cell production. They may do a clinical trial in Kenya and another in India. The Indian Council for Medical Research is fast tracking clinical trial approvals and inviting vaccine developers to test.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/24/2020 14:47 Comments ||
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#10
From g(r)om's BBC link (#3) - The only way the team will know if the Covid-19 vaccine works is by comparing the number of people who get infected with coronavirus in the months ahead from the two arms of the trial.
That could be a problem if cases fall rapidly in the UK, because there may not be enough data. [Bobby's emphasis, and irony]
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 16:18 Comments ||
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A Long March-2F rocket may soon be rolled-out to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Mission: to launch an experimental space plane.
[ZDNet] RIPE speaks out against China and Huawei's "New IP" internet upgrade plan, says internet standards should be left to the IETF, not the UN.
EU-based Internet governance body RIPE is opposing a proposal to remodel core internet protocols, a proposal backed by the Chinese government, Chinese telecoms, and Chinese networking equipment vendor Huawei.
Named "New IP," this proposal[1, 2, 3] consists of a revamped version of the TCP/IP standards to accommodate new technologies, a "shutoff protocol" to cut off misbehaving parts of the internet, and a new "top-to-bottom" governance model that centralizes the internet and puts it into the hands of a few crucial node operators.
The New IP proposal was submitted last year to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
"Do we need New IP? I don't think we do," said Marco Hogewoning, the current acting Manager Public Policy and Internet Governance at the RIPE NCC.
"Although certain technical challenges exist with the current Internet model, I do not believe that we need a whole new architecture to address them."
Hogewoning says that any endeavors to revamp internet protocols should be left to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the international body that has been in charge of defining internet standards for decades. Such issues should not be left to the ITU, which is the United Nation's telecommunications body, and an agency where political influence rules, rather than technically-sound arguments.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/24/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
[Hot Air] Americans’ expectations of whether their increased use of each of these services will continue after the coronavirus situation is over vary from service to service. For all six items, a majority of more frequent users say they will continue to access these services.
18% of Americans say they are having virtual visits with a doctor more often than in the past — an increase of seven percentage points from recent weeks. Moreover, 70% say they are likely to continue using telemedicine services — including 35% who say they are very likely — suggesting that more of these new users are being converted into permanent patients.
Conversely, 7% of respondents report having medicine or medical supplies delivered more often than usual. Seventy-one percent of these more frequent users say they will continue to receive medical supply deliveries even after the coronavirus situation subsides.
#2
My son-in-law, who has more American Airlines miles than ... anybody, said yesterday AA is considering removing some seats on their planes to make travel 'safer'. [giggle]
I ain't holdin' my breath.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 9:02 Comments ||
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#3
/\ Unless they remove 50 or more coach seats from each plane, the difference may go unnoticed.
Steerage is the lower deck of a ship, where the cargo is stored above the closed hold. In the late 19th and early 20th century, steamship steerage decks were used to provide the lowest cost and lowest class of travel, often for European and Chinese immigrants to North America. With limited privacy and security, inadequate sanitary conditions, and poor food, steerage was often decried as inhumane, and was eventually replaced on ocean liners with third-class cabins.
Sad when I think of Penney's, Sears, Kresge's, May Company--stores/chains from a long-gone era--going under. No surprise, and that's "horse & buggy" economic life. But as mentioned the other day, this CV crisis is definitely the final nail in the coffin for these already fragile organizations. More to follow...keep an eye on Europe (banks) as well if you are bored.
[ZeroHedge] It's finally here. After a decade of management turnover, near misses, last minute rescues, and one valeant (sic) if disastrous attempt at an activist turnaround, one of the most iconic US retailers and mall anchors, J.C. Penney, is preparping to file for bankruptcy.
According to the Journal, J.C. Penney is in advanced talks for bankruptcy funding with a group of lenders, a sign the troubled retailer about to make a visit to 1 Bowling Green. JCP is in discussions with existing lenders including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan for a debtor-in-possession loan that would keep the department-store chain's operations funded during a court-supervised bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the matter.
The DIP loan would be roughly $800 million to $1 billion, with some of that money potentially including existing debt, and priming all the other unsecured creditors who will end up with a chunk of the post-petition equity, assuming of course it is not a Chapter 7.
The Journal sources said that a bankruptcy filing could take place within the next few weeks, and certainly before May 15 as JCP entered into a 30-day grace period after missing an interest payment due to bondholders on April 15. It is possible creditors enter into a forbearance agreement if the company needs additional time to iron out negotiations before filing, but the endgame is clear.
Along with Sears, J.C. Penney was one of the dominant department-store chains of the last century. But the 118-year-old company has been losing money for years. With its mall-based stores closed and unlikely to reopen any time soon, the company has been forced to put aside its latest turnaround strategy and face its creditors at the negotiating table.
While department stores were struggling before the pandemic, the coronavirus quarantine forced the closure of most U.S. stores. The result has been a deluge of imminent bankruptcy filings in the retail space, including that other stalwart, Neiman Marcus, which as we reported previously is planning to file for bankruptcy any day.
Retailers are far from alone in seeing their businesses walloped by the pandemic and the collapse of business activity. Energy companies have been pummeled in recent weeks by the combination of a market downturn and plummeting oil prices, leading several to seek restructuring advice or bankruptcy protection. A total of seven U.S. oil-and-gas drillers filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2020, and more are expected to do so.
Should the shutdown of the economy last for several more months, or should a second wave of coronavirus infection strike the US, companies in all other industries are expected to follow suit.
#2
...We have several amazing mini-breweries here in the Columbia area - I can particularly recommend Steel Hand and the Curtiss-Wright as amazing and worth the effort to seek out - and it would truly be a shame to see them lost.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/24/2020 6:45 Comments ||
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#3
Incidentally, farmers in Israel pressuring the Gov to give them money so they can pay unskilled agricultural workers - Israel has a large population of third world refugees who worked as cleaners etc... before covid.
#8
I am not so senile that I can't remember back just one year. Remember all those floods in the Midwest and how we were going to have massive food shortages last fall since farmers in the Midwest couldn't plant?
I can't tell if this article is something to be concerned about or not. But the media's constantly--and I mean constantly--doom and gloom crying wolf makes me doubt just about everything I read.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/24/2020 16:00 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] Two asylum-seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos were shot and injured after apparently violating coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... quarantine rules, officials said Thursday.
The two men, an Iranian and an Afghan, reported to the camp's infirmary with buckshot wounds late Wednesday, sources at the Moria camp said.
They were taken to the local hospital but their condition was not deemed serious.
The men told police they had ventured out of the camp, which is under lockdown alongside the rest of Greece's migrant facilities to limit the spread of the virus.
There have been coronavirus cases in two camps and a migrant hotel on the Greek mainland, where 150 people tested positive this week.
So far, no cases have been reported in camps on the islands, with no widespread screening conducted by authorities.
Something tells me that mass migration movement is over.
I think when the detained masses can discern "I'm going to die from this disease if I don't get treated" is different from "I may get shot trying to escape to get treated", and if when they get shot they will be treated anyway...huh?
[Yahoo] The liberal candidate in Wisconsin’s hard-fought state Supreme Court race this month prevailed in voting by mail by a significant margin, upending years of study showing little advantage to either party when a state transitions from in-person to mail voting.
The gap suggests that Democrats were more organized and proactive in their vote-by-mail efforts in an election conducted under extraordinary circumstances, with voters forced to weigh the health risks of voting in person against the sometimes unreliable option of requesting and mailing in their ballots. Still, it is likely to add to the skepticism President Donald Trump and Republicans have expressed about mail voting, which they worry would increase Democratic turnout at Republicans’ expense.
The liberal jurist, Jill Karofsky, performed 10 percentage points better than her conservative opponent in votes cast by mail than she did in votes cast at Election Day polling places, a gap that powered a surprising 11-point victory overall in a state both parties view as crucial to winning November’s presidential election.
The voting data, collected by The New York Times from 27 Wisconsin municipalities that segregate ballots cast on Election Day from those sent by mail, shows that Karofsky’s advantage in mail ballots over the conservative incumbent, Justice Daniel Kelly, was consistent across communities of varying size, geography and partisan lean. In a state with little history of voting by mail, more than 1.1 million of 1.55 million votes cast came by mail.
The Times analysis of Wisconsin records shows a staggering gap between in-person and mail voting in some communities. At a single precinct, Beloit’s 11th Ward, Kelly won 64% of the Election Day vote while Karofsky took 70% of votes cast by mail.
#7
Someone reiterated the "If you are getting flak" truism in regard to this. Further, I'd say, if dems want it, it's probably a very bad idea. If the usual suspects are saying "it won't be a problem," then look out...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/24/2020 11:46 Comments ||
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#8
The Dems also talked a Madison District judge (uber-liberal - what else?) into extending the vote counting a week to accomodate mail-in ballots that 'didn't arrive by voting day' (in other words, ballots not requested by the individual voters until after the normal cutoff for doing so - usually 2-weeks prior). The extra time allowed the usual suspects to do their deeds.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/24/2020 13:48 Comments ||
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#9
Fair mail-in votes would tend to be equal but actual mail-in ballots are one of the main ways the Democrats steal elections.
[News.Grabien] The EPA and Earth Day were born when the air and water got too foul for everyday Americans to ignore;
...actually, by the time Congress established the first and the murderer established the second, things were already getting better...
50 years later, science is warning that the storms, floods, and fires of the climate crisis are growing too frequent and too severe to ignore.
Actually, significant weather events of all sorts are fewer in number and weaker in total effect these days, but do go on...
Saving what's left will take everyday folk everywhere deciding their planet deserves more than one minor holiday like a dead president, deciding that to save life as we know it, every day should be Earth Day."
WEIR (on camera): "Virologists for years tried to warn us that an invisible enemy would come out of the jungles if we just kept cutting all of them down Trump's fault?
...not to dampen the fellow’s enthusiasm, but bats come from caves, and influenza comes from domesticated ducks and pigs. Still, Ebola does come from jungle monkeys, so our gentleman is not wholly wrong...
and they were right. So if anything good can come of this, Alisyn, maybe it's an understanding that the climatologists who're warning about the invisible enemy up in our sky and in our seas, maybe we should take them seriously too."
So... are you the FIENDS that bought up all the toilet paper, towels and Kleenex because the masses need to learn to not use trees?
#4
There are more trees west of the Mississippi than when Lewis and Clark went up river. It was a largely a prairie. Now some of that is preserve in its original condition in designated state and federal lands. Get close to nearly any human habitat and you'll see trees, woods, forests.
#5
Yes. Yesterday, I drove past was was 500 acres of pasture five years ago, now covered in houses. Trees are good for the air, but roofs and pavement not so good for the water. Progress.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 8:51 Comments ||
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[JP] The government approved an additional and significant relief package on Friday morning, including allowing hairdressers and beauty salons to open. However, shopping malls will remain closed.
The government has been under pressure by business owners who say they are in need of economic relief or may have to close. Another motivation factor for the government is said to be increasing fear of business owners operating under the radar, without supervision or following Health Ministry guidelines.
According to a draft presented to the government by the Health Ministry, all stores outside of shopping malls will open, including restaurants and cafes for pickup and takeaway, florists, jewelry shops and money changers, Israeli media reported.
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces is scaling back its participation in the national fight against the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... as the crisis appears to calm after its first deadly wave, the army’s spokesperson says.
Though the IDF Home Front Command plans to continue distributing food and other assistance in the cities of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, the combat troops that had been taking part in the effort are being released back to their normal training schedule, IDF front man Hidai Zilberman says.
The number of soldiers assisting police enforce the national lockdown has also been halved, from some 1,400 soldiers to 700, he says.
In the coming weeks, the IDF also plans to begin releasing the roughly 2,000 reservists that had been brought into the Home Front Command, beginning with a 10 to 20 percent cut next week, followed by a more gradual reduction thereafter, according to Zilberman.
[IsraelTimes] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and some other Moslem-majority nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, declare that the holy month of Ramadan — when the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast — will begin tomorrow, based on a moon-sighting methodology. How about "Look in the sky ya dumbf*cks"?
This year, the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic has cut off the world’s 1.8 billion Moslems from their cherished Ramadan rituals as health officials battle to ward off new infections during Islam’s holiest month, when large gatherings and family celebrations are a tradition.
The Saudi statement comes on the kingdom’s state-run Saudi Press Agency while the Emiratis make the announcement through their state-run WAM news agency.
Oman says the fasting month will begin on Saturday as the sultanate’s religious authority did not sight the crescent moon this evening. In Iran, Ramadan is expected to begin on Saturday as well.
Moslems follow a lunar calendar, and a moon-sighting methodology can lead to different countries declaring the start of Ramadan a day or two apart.
The Ramadan fast, in which food and water are prohibited during daylight hours, is intended to bring the faithful closer to God and remind them of those less fortunate. While fasting, Moslems must also abstain from sex, gossip and cursing. The faithful are encouraged to spend time in contemplation, prayer, reading the Koran and charity during the day.
[Red State] The Veterans Health Administration released the results of a study on the efficacy of the drug hydroxychloroquine on patients being treated for COVID-19. The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Health and the University of Virginia. Researchers found that not only did the drug show no benefit, it may have actually caused harm. Study results can be viewed in the medRxiv online depository.
Researchers included data from 368 COVID-19 patients. 97 were treated with hydroxychloroquine, 113 were administered a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin and 158 received “standard supportive management” for COVID-19. Here’s what they found:
The two primary outcomes analyzed in the study were death and the need for ventilation.
About 28 percent who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11 percent of those getting routine care alone.
About 22 percent of those getting the drug plus azithromycin died too, but the difference between that group and usual care was not considered large enough to rule out other factors that could have affected survival.
Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a breathing machine, either.
The researchers said, “In this study, we found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with Covid-19. An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs.”
Researchers did not track side effects but noted hints that hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs. The drug has long been known to have potentially serious side effects, including altering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death.
This was not a peer-reviewed study.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs issued a statement by email to Fox News which read, “This was not a clinical trial. It is simply an analysis of retrospective data regarding hospitalized patients. The findings should not be viewed as definitive because the analysis doesn’t adjust for patients’ clinical status and showed that hydroxychloroquine alone was provided to VA’s sickest COVID-19 patients, many times as a last resort.”
Sounds pretty grim considering the promising results we’ve seen from other studies.
#2
Researchers found that not only did the drug show no benefit, it may have actually caused harm. Study results can be viewed in the medRxiv online depository.
This must account for the extremely high demand for the relatively inexpensive hydroxychloroquine. Keep up the good work Dr. Raoult.
#3
The first major flaw is that President Trump even uttered its name. The second is that it probably saved lives, when clearly people were supposed to die so internationalism and 'global cooperation' could be promoted.
#8
They gave the HQC too late. Ingraham translates: “The later you take HCQ, the worse the outcome will be.”
The second problem: “Incomprehensibly, the ‘untreated group’ actually received azithromycin in 30% of cases,
but results did not reflect that, almost like they wanted the "study' to fail.
This is science?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/24/2020 8:46 Comments ||
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#11
The findings should not be viewed as definitive because the analysis doesn’t adjust for patients’ clinical status and showed that hydroxychloroquine alone was provided to VA’s sickest COVID-19 patients, many times as a last resort
These aren't findings unless by 'findings', you mean here is some data we found laying on the floor so we, like, analyzed it and stuff. It will get endless play on the Orange Man Bad news channels, which is to say pretty much all of them.
#14
OK so the VA says its bad. This is the same VA stat told our Korean vets asbestos was safe, told our Viet Nam vets Agent Orange could never cause cancer, told our Desert Storm vets that Desert Storm syndrome was all in their heads, Told us the Anthrax vaccine was safe, told the Afghan vets that burn pits were healthy, and lastly that PTSD was a be existing mental condition. Now I am supposed to believe these guys on this? Their batting average shows to bet the opposite.
Me thinks whoever released this report needs to be removed from any government position.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/24/2020 11:21 Comments ||
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#15
VA is an absolute disgrace. And that word isn't strong enough.
#16
Sadly, I think comments #15 and #16 are correct. The VA is my primary care provider. The quality of care is mixed. One doctor won't take calls or respond to written inquiries. In the same hospital, my other doctor calls me at home, checks up on me, and chats weekly. Night and day, in adjacent offices. It also depends on which VA hospital you use. If I had been using the closer one, I would likely be dead. By driving 3X as far, I live. Seemed like a worthwhile trade off.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/24/2020 12:04 Comments ||
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#17
Sorry to hear, Whiskey Mike, but I am not surprised. I, too, know of someone who would rather drive one hour to a VA facility and deal with a doctor he knows and trusts, rather than visit a closer VA facility.
#18
Gorb, the too little, too late or too much is the story of care at the VA hospitals I have used.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/24/2020 12:11 Comments ||
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#19
The mechanism by which hydroxyquinoline supposedly works is to reduce the ability of the virus to replicate quickly, so that it slows the damage to something the body can handle, giving the immune system time to recover and work properly. Giving it after ARDS sets in would have ZERO effect, because the damage is already done and its the immune response of a cytokine storm, SIRS (Look it up), DIC and organ failure that kill the patient, not the virus itself.
This study is like saying that having a fire department is useless because your house burned down even though you called 911. When actually your kitchen was on fire and you waited until it spread to other rooms to call.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
04/24/2020 16:31 Comments ||
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#21
was the medicine only given as a last chance effort for the sickest persons who were dying. That was what it was officially approved for. Were the 'control' patients the less sick ones who were to whom the medicine was not considered needed?
Posted by: daniel ||
04/24/2020 21:59 Comments ||
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#22
It was a retrospective report, an observation, not a controlled study. There were NO control groups, no patient tracking, no criteria for selection bias or anything else. They simply pulled the charts for everyone at that particular hospital with a COVID-19 diagnosis within an arbitrary 30 day period. It was largely composed of males, over 65, and with multiple commodities. And the hospital was giving the medication as a "last resort", rather than sooner as has been done in the real clinical trials and previous treatments.
In other words, its scientifically invalid, and so poorly thought out that there are no viable conclusions to draw from it other than the VA has had trouble treating patients too late.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
04/24/2020 23:01 Comments ||
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[JustTheNews] Little noticed research on oleandrin extract from flowering plant gaining steam.
Though often omitted from public conversations about pandemic solutions, the U.S. military has a huge stake in fighting deadly infectious diseases and quietly has been researching novel treatments for years at its secretive biodefense lab at Fort Detrick.
The reasons are mission obvious. With soldiers deployed in exotic locations around the world where novel viruses like Ebola, Zika or bird and swine flus can strike with lighting speed and alarming fatality, the Pentagon wants to make sure it has treatments to keep its forces from being disabled
It’s from that body of research that an intriguing potential remedy, an organic extract, has emerged. And of all sources, it comes from the common but toxic flowering plant oleander.
Dr. John Dye, chief of viral immunology at the USAMRIID lab at Fort Detrick, confirmed to Just the News that his team began testing the extract known as oleandrin a few years ago and found it was effective in fighting the Ebola and Marburg viruses. The Army lab is now ramping up a rapid plan to test oleandrin against COVID-19.
"We found that at non-toxic concentrations, oleandrin was efficacious at slowing and halting viral growth in tissue culture assays" for the Ebola and Marburg viruses, Dye said in emailed answers to questions.
Because those viruses are enveloped, just like COVID-19, the lab is pressing ahead to do similar tests on the theory that the extract may have similar effects on the coronavirus at the center of today's pandemic, he said
Oleandrin has been used for many years in China and Russia for its properties as a cardiac glycoside, for both suicidal and therapeutic purposes as in treatment of cardiac insufficiency.
#2
Until the satellites trace it back primarily to third world sources. Then we'll just get another stupid lecture and the banning of something trivial, like condiment packages.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/24/2020 7:00 Comments ||
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#3
Provide some images of the vast garbage patch and then we'll talk.
[Jpost] The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... imposed a sentence of lashes and prison on Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi, one of Iran’s most famous converts to Christianity, because she allegedly "disturbed the public order."
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal government commission, slammed Iran’s regime on Wednesday writing "USCIRF condemns Iran’s sentencing of Christian convert and social activist Mary Mohammadi. No peaceful activist should be targeted on the basis of their religious beliefs."
Iran’s authorities arrested the 21-year-old Mohammadi on January 12 near a protest where Iranians demonstrated in connection with Tehran’s downing of Ukrainian Airline passenger Flight 752.
Mohammadi said on Instagram that her sentence is a result of "protesting against the slaughter of human beings; because of showing sympathy for the families of those who perished on the Ukraine airline crash; because of defending the rights of all humans."
Iran's regime faced international criticism for shooting down the airline. All 176 passengers and crew aboard were killed by the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran.
The International Christian Concern (ICC) wrote on Tuesday that "it has learned that on April 21, 2020, Christian human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activist Mary Fatima Mohammadi received a suspended prison sentence of three months by the Iranian government. The sentence included a directive ordering Mary to receive a flogging of 10 lashes."
According to the ICC, "After her arrest, Mary disappeared for nearly a month before she was discovered in Qarchak Women’s Prison, a jail with a reputation for various types of gender abuse. While there, Mary reported that she was beaten and suffered other kinds of mistreatment at the hands of the officials, including being strip-searched twice. She was eventually released on a bail of 30 million tomans ($2,250 USD) and charged with ’disrupting public order by participating in an illegal rally."’
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/24/2020 02:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[NewsMax] President Donald Trump's new executive order banning immigration to the United States will last 30 to 90 days with the chance of renewal and apply to those seeking permanent immigration status, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.
Other workers such as those on so-called H-1B visas would be covered in a separate action, the official said.
By stripping that more complicated element out of the order, the official said it could be ready for Trump to sign as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.
Trump announced in a tweet on Monday night that he would be banning immigration because of the coronavirus and to protect American jobs.
Opponents saw the move as an attempt to use the crisis to fulfill a long-term Trump policy of goal of reducing legal and illegal immigration. Any move by Trump to restrict legal immigration will likely trigger legal challenges.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the order will include exemptions for people involved in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, including farm workers and those helping to secure U.S. food supplies.
The official said as the country begins to open up its economy, immigration flows were expected to increase, and the administration wanted to ensure that employers hire back fired workers rather than giving jobs to immigrants at lower wages.
[Campus Reform] St. Olaf College in Minnesota plans to host three virtual graduation ceremonies for different groups of minority students, while others must wait until next year to celebrate their completion of college.
"Self-identified domestic students of color, international students and LGBTQIA+ students" at the Minnesota school will receive their own virtual graduation ceremonies at the conclusion of this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, per an administrative email. Meanwhile, graduation for the rest of the class of 2020 has been "rescheduled for a date in late May/early June of 2021," according to the school's website.
The three virtual graduation ceremonies for students in minority groups were announced by and will be hosted through the Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion. This project of the school exists to help "students of color," "LBGTQIA+" and international students "celebrate" their "awesomeness factor," per the center’s website.
#1
This project of the school exists to help "students of color," "LBGTQIA+" and international students "celebrate" their "awesomeness factor,"
This sounds like a participation trophy, the t-shirt everyone gets for playing in the summer soccer league.
Maybe a better way to celebrate their "awesomeness factor" might be to do something awesome. Or at least useful.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[American Military News] A Florida man is accused of stealing more than 11,000 pounds of copper wiring from Dobbins Air Reserve Base and then pawning it for just over $18,000, according to Cobb County police.
[Worldometers] 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
[News.Grabien] The EPA and Earth Day were born when the air and water got too foul for everyday Americans to ignore; 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
[Red State] The Veterans Health Administration released the results of a study on the efficacy of the drug hydroxychloroquine on patients being treated for COVID-19. The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Health and the University of Virginia. Researchers found that not only did the drug show no benefit, it may have actually caused harm. Study results can be viewed in the medRxiv online depository.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
