[Garden & Gun] Flint Theriot got the call in the wee hours of the morning last September 19: An elderly woman confined to a wheelchair was trapped in her Vidor, Texas, home, and the water was rising fast. Theriot, a thirty-one-year-old crane operator from Lake Charles, Louisiana, had been in Southeast Texas for a few days by then, rescuing people with his flat-bottomed boat from houses flooded by Tropical Storm Imelda, one of the United States’ wettest storms on record.
When Theriot arrived at the woman’s house, the water was up to her neck, and her television—still on—was floating alongside her. "I could feel the electricity in the water," says Theriot, who had previously taken his boat on rescue missions during the devastating Louisiana floods in 2016, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and Hurricane Barry in 2019. The electricity, he says, "knocked my breath away." He continued in anyway and pulled the woman to safety, loading her in the truck of a local constable, who took her to a hospital.
Theriot is a member of the nonprofit Cajun Navy Relief and Rescue, one of a number of disparate groups—mostly comprising volunteers organized through Facebook and mobile phone apps—who have taken on the moniker "Cajun Navy," a title inspired by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when hundreds of boats rescued thousands of people from flooded houses and nursing homes in New Orleans. When major weather events strike across the South, members of such groups take their airboats, bay boats, bass boats, pirogues, and even kayaks to the highways, forming a great river of relief that flows into disaster areas. The various Cajun Navy groups have provided invaluable assistance during and after Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, Florence, Michael, and Dorian, as well as various tropical storms, floods, and tornadoes.
Through all of this hell and high water, the Cajun Navy groups have brought to light the best impulse of humanity, of people selflessly helping others. "When you have the means and opportunity to help relieve suffering, you do it," says Clyde Cain, who has taken part in rescue missions since Hurricane Rita in 2005 and is the CEO and founder of another such group, known as the Louisiana Cajun Navy. "Compassion is love in action."
[MassPrivateI] The story about how DHS fans the flames of fear is nearly as old as the terror attacks of 9/11.
In 2014, an article in The Council on Foreign Relations revealed how DHS told a scared public that Al Qaida could weaponize Ebola and spread the virus across the country.
"At present, we have no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the homeland of the United States, but that is not by any means the end of the story," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.
Fast forward 16 years and that same scenario is being played out again, except this time it is with the coronavirus.
Despite having no evidence that terrorists are weaponizing COVID-19, the Department of Homeland Security's Assistant Director for Infrastructure Protection, Brian Harrell issued a nationwide alert, warning people that terrorists could purposefully infect grocery stores and gas stations with the coronavirus.
An ABC News article titled, "COVID-19 is changing potential terror targets; grocery stores, even testing sites should be vigilant" explained that since most businesses across the country are closed, terrorists 'could' decide to target grocery stores and gas stations.
"That's why federal authorities want grocery stores, gas stations and even COVID-19 testing sites to know that they now could be targeted by terrorists determined to strike inside the U.S. homeland — even if such an event is unlikely."
Despite not having a shred of evidence to back up their claim, DHS's latest Minister of Propaganda, Brian Harrell said, "now is the time to engage community businesses and other stakeholders to encourage vigilance and awareness."
Asking law enforcement to remain vigilant during a pandemic is one thing; but it crosses the line when their mission appears to have changed to becoming harbingers of fear.
DHS has crossed the line of credibility and entered into the world of fake news by asking law enforcement to warn the public of potential COVID-19 grocery store and gas station attacks.
"On Friday, Harrell’s division within DHS, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, issued a nationwide notice saying, it is imperative that law enforcement be alert for potential individuals triggered by the pandemic to inflict further harm, and [that agencies] provide residents with information that can augment community safety and security."
Two weeks ago, the FBI and DHS issued the same warning but in a less dramatic fashion.
"Two weeks ago, the FBI, DHS and National Counterterrorism Center issued a joint intelligence bulletin that similarly mentioned grocery stores and still-operational businesses as potential targets."
The UK's Daily Mail said,
"Law enforcement personnel enforcing stay-at-home orders or interacting with citizens, as well as soft targets such as grocery stores, hospitals, and other essential businesses, will probably remain potential targets for [domestic terrorists] during the course of the pandemic."
An article in 850 WFTL warned, "we have no information to suggest such attacks are imminent or even likely, instead we are looking to provide you with useful information for planning for restoration of normal operations, whenever that may be."
Government agencies like the FBI and DHS have a moral responsibility to provide accurate and truthful warnings and not spread fake news.
How can we have any faith in our government when federal agencies use words like 'could', 'possibly', 'potentially' and 'likely'? They might as well say, it is 'likely' people who go outside during the pandemic 'could possibly' get the coronavirus and 'potentially' spread it to everyone.
We should not let our government use our fear of COVID-19 to justify creating more national surveillance programs like a national coronavirus tracing program, a real-time national coronavirus surveillance program and a new national AI surveillance program.
Using fake news to grow the surveillance state affects everyone and will have long term effects on generations of Americans.
[AmGreatness] The coronavirus crisis in the United States is largely a New York City crisis. One reason why many governors are afraid to fully reopen is over the fear that virus-carrying New Yorkers will flee to their mostly unimpacted states.
#3
But the left's religion is equally distributed misery.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/22/2020 8:10 Comments ||
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#4
From the comment section:
If Cuomo was serious he would have stopped travelers leaving his state and made sure his subway systems were cleaned/protected for those who need to use. Too little, too late.
Cuomo was simply following the Xi Jinping model. Other communist democrat traits include Mayor Bill de Blasio doubling down on his controversial push to get New Yorkers to rat on their neighbors.
I would strongly urge the Orange Man to keep an eye on these two worthless SOB's.
#6
Cuomo is, at a minimum, tacitly approving of Wilhelm's actions. Hopefully that'll be remembered for the next gubernatorial election (unless Cuomo has "other aspirations").
#7
Despite what Cuomo says, he most likely has other aspirations. I doubt Blasio, The Doofus, has a snowball's chance in hell of getting into any other offices to cause damage.
#9
Dennis Praeger recently asked if Montana had a huge WhuFlu outbreak,would NYC shut down? A sane nation would have closed off the NYC/NJ metroplex, Seattle and perhaps Nawlins and let herd immunity play out with social distancing elsewhere. Commuting national economic suicide seems a steep price to pay since excluding just NY metro area moves the US on the global scale of pandemic cases from 1st to 13th.
#11
A sane nationwould have closed off the NYC/NJ metroplex, Seattle and perhaps Nawlins and let herd immunity play out with social distancing elsewhere.
#12
I believe our Governor put DPS on the Louisiana's border at check points. Gave all of La's drivers coming into Texas citations with orders to quarantine at their destinations. Could not arrest them or send them back to Louisiana legally I guess.
[CBN] A Harvard Law professor raised eyebrows with comments critical of homeschooling in America, calling for a "presumptive ban" on the practice and taking it a step further, claiming it is "dangerous" for parents to have "authoritarian control over their children" from ages zero to 18.
The article begins with an image of what appears to be a homeschooled child inside a home with bars on the window while other children run around outside playing.
Readers pointed out the irony in this image, noting that it’s homeschoolers who are more flexible in their schedules and able to experience society and life at their leisure while students in public school are forced to stay in a building.
The article employs and appeals to many common anti-homeschooling tropes in lieu of relevant factual and statistical information. For starters, Bartholet demeans homeschooling as depriving children of a "meaningful education" while claiming it would keep them from "contributing positively to a democratic society." Note the "Arithmatic" book?
#5
She is Harvard Law, which is 95% commie/fascist/moonbat. Contrast this to Harvard College, which is ~85% commie/fascist/moonbat. Pick the right major (Physics and/or Chemistry) and you'll hardly get a whiff of them.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/22/2020 10:16 Comments ||
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#6
If it wasn't obvious, I was being sarcastic. Any of the hard sciences, and 50% of the math were good.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/22/2020 10:22 Comments ||
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#10
All of the undergraduate calculus was reputed to be okay. I placed out of all the intro math because I took it at MIT (18.01, 18.02, 18.03, etc. Note that I had a hard time initially). I spent my time in advanced calc, topology, quaternionic analysis, etc. I had delusions of using it at Northrop in inertial guidance systems, my intended first job, but they ended up using me to fix everything that was broken. I really liked MIT's approach better, to be honest. Where else would you get to TA for George Thomas? I was his black sheep. He told me that the best way to learn something was to have to teach it. He was right. Advanced classes are Very small at either school. I remember RPI being touted as good as well. I am not a good source of current info though.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/22/2020 11:45 Comments ||
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#11
Intro Calc for poets at MIT is a hoot.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/22/2020 11:47 Comments ||
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#12
Thanks, Mike
Do you have any info on Stony Brook's Math Dept.?
#14
Sorry no. I only really know what I saw or experienced. KBK might be a more current source. Just guessing though.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/22/2020 12:51 Comments ||
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#15
Lex, I looked it up. Based on some rankings, it produces a lot of Applied Math majors, and came in at number one. Also:
"The Stony Brook AMS major has also been ranked for several years as one of the top five U.S. undergraduate programs in applied mathematics by College Factual, as cited in USA Today. The 2020 ranking is:
CalTech 1st, Brown 2nd , Stony Brook 3rd , Stanford 4th, and Harvard 5th .
This ranking is based on earnings of graduates, quality of faculty in the department and related departments, and popularity among students."
Best I could find.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/22/2020 12:58 Comments ||
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#16
G(r)om - I spent a few minutes trying to find that out; so far, no mention of a family, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.
#19
I read a little about her. Seems like an altruist sort. Her mostly genuine concern is for children of abusive, bad parents. In her line of work, with victimized children she must have seen an abundance of maddening cases. I can understand.
There are some bad people, posing as parents in the world. Of course, it'd be daft to systematize the separation of every child just to be sure, but that's where the lines blur. We live in a very grey world, gentlemen.
#21
A law professor should be capable of more detached, careful, fact-based analysis though. The myth that homeschoolers are fire-breathing flat-worlders was put to rest at least a decade ago. Plenty of briefs from court cases attest to this.
#23
All I know - having taught school - most school teachers are incompetent: both in the subject matter they're supposed to teach and in dealing with kids. In fact, I'll go with Jerry Pournelle "schools are for teachers, not students".
#24
They're being deprived of their indoctrination and grooming raw material.
It's very upsetting for them.
That said, these trial balloons always end up becoming policy initiatives at some point, so look for this "presumptive ban" to become a thing pretty soon.
As an aid to that effort, I bet there'll be lots of narrative-shaping stories about child abuse in the time of lockdown within the next few months.
[Arutz 7] - ...if you count the number of deaths per million. Israel has 20, well behind France (302), UK (237), Italy (391), Spain (437), Belgium (490) and Holland (215).
It is too early to make a balanced analysis of what happened, it will be a very long battle to contain and defeat the "Wuhan Virus". But it not premature to say that, among the Western countries, Israel has been the only one succeeding in containing the pandemic. The per capita mortality rate in Israel is among the lowest in the OECD. The mortality rate among the sick in Israel is among the lowest in the OECD.
The perception is that the virus is well on the way to being "beaten" in the Jewish State.
Israel’s health care system has not shown obvious signs of crisis. Israel was the first Western country to enforce targeted quarantines and travel restrictions. Israel conducted 17 tests per 1,000 people, like Germany (16) and much more than South Korea (10), France (5), and the UK (4).
Israel dealt with the crisis as a security issue also, involving its secret service and intelligence to track the infection, advise the government and find medical supplies abroad.
The Israeli public, on the whole, behaved very well, respecting the rules.
The Israeli scientific research world — Weizmann, Tel Aviv University, other facilities — is working hard to find a vaccine.
Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Japan are Asian countries which have been able to contain the damage. Europe and the US — with the only exception of Germany — almost totally failed. But for the West, mimicking the Asian countries is impossible, since the latter are a mix of collectivist culture and authoritarian policy, where individual rights and freedoms never flourished anyway.
Israel — our Western oasis in the East — is our only successful example. I would suggest the Europeans stop defaming the Jewish State and start looking at it as a model. Especially these moronic Northern savages of Sweeden - for whom critique of Israel is a major export item.
CJ via Instapundit
In June 1981, the rapid-response newsletter of the Center for Disease Control, the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, published news of an unusual pneumonia in otherwise healthy young men in Los Angeles. It would take four years from those first recorded cases of AIDS to the first FDA-approved test for HIV, and over a decade before the first rapid test. And so, if just a year ago, any of my colleagues had told me that we could have a point-of-care rapid test after mere months of a new pathogen’s emergence, I would have regarded it as hopelessly optimistic.
Yet that is what the first-of-its-kind alliance between the U.S. biotechnology industry and the federal government has delivered. Just four months after the emergence of Covid-19, a dizzying array of tests is available to patients, physicians, and researchers. The initial tests, dependent on identifying the viral genome, have now been supplanted by much faster, much less expensive antibody tests. Unlike genomic tests, which require laboratory equipment and take several hours to complete, the new antibody-based tests are portable, and some don’t require any special materials other than saline. The antibody tests may answer questions not only about a patient’s current state but also about whether he has been exposed in the past by measuring antibodies that the immune system creates in response to the coronavirus. Finally, just today, the FDA announced that it is granting authorization for the first Covid-19 test that can be taken at home, affording an opportunity for many people in at-risk groups who have forgone testing up to now. By all measures, the emergency regime set up by the FDA has opened the floodgates of innovation on one of the most vexing problems of responding to a viral outbreak, and with great success.
Unlike bacteria, which can be cultured conveniently in a petri dish, a virus is not easy to detect. The most reliable method uses a technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the genomic material. But for this to be possible, at least part of the viral genome must be known. It wasn’t until the early days of 2020 that the first sequence of the coronavirus causing Covid-19 was published.
PCR testing is time-consuming, expensive, and requires specialized equipment and expertise. While many university labs have both the personnel and gear to perform small-scale testing, the throughput of PCR diagnostics for identifying viral infections has always been limited. Perhaps the most frequent indication for viral PCR diagnosis—HIV testing and viral-load quantitation—accounted for only 3.13 million tests per year in 2017. By comparison, coronavirus testing exceeded this number by April 17.
For sustainable, large-scale testing and sentinel surveillance—the periodic testing of vulnerable populations to act as bellwethers for resurgence—antibody tests are required. These tests can often be transported easily, either administered in the field or at bedside, and the results returned in as little as five minutes. More important, some antibody-based tests require no ancillary equipment. They can yield valuable information on whether the patient has ever been exposed to the virus.
It often takes years to create a viable antibody test as accurate as PCR-based testing. But in less than six weeks, biotech companies—approached by the U.S. government through the White House-created public-private partnership—have already seen their efforts bear fruit. This is a tribute to the incredible creative potential of the biotech sector, but it also shows the power of free enterprise, unshackled by government bureaucracy. It took more than America’s best scientists to rise to the occasion: it took a regulatory regime to let them do so. The FDA—long derided by the biotech industry for its tedious and costly approval procedures, out of proportion with what’s necessary to protect public health—has stepped up its game in this time of need. If any good is to come out of the loss and heartbreak of this pandemic, we can hope that this newfound flexibility by America’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology regulator will be part of it. This is, IMO, very important - because, IMO, bioweapons' wars are just starting.
#3
Ignoring the fact that it was the govt (CDC/FDA) failure in contracting to do a national test device that led to the approvals for the private sector to create their own.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/22/2020 9:43 Comments ||
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#4
This is, IMO, very important - because, IMO, bioweapons' wars are just starting.
Most likely. The disinformation, propaganda and fake news are nearly as damaging as the reality of bioweapons.
From the Article: For sustainable, large-scale testing and sentinel surveillance... antibody tests are required.
They touch on the required part, but don't elaborate in How they will make it required, the methodology of. I have my theories. But they do touch on the modeling they call sentinel surveillance.
WHO Website: A sentinel surveillance system is used when high-quality data are needed about a particular disease that cannot be obtained through a passive system. Selected reporting units, with a high probability of seeing cases of the disease in question, good laboratory facilities and experienced well-qualified staff, identify and notify on certain diseases. Whereas most passive surveillance systems receive data from as many health workers or health facilities as possible, a sentinel system deliberately involves only a limited network of carefully selected reporting sites.
My Emphasis: a sentinel system deliberately involves only a limited network of carefully selected reporting sites. Much like the global warming model.
#8
Ignoring the fact that it was the govt (CDC/FDA) failure in contracting to do a national test device that led to the approvals for the private sector to create their own.
A LONG time ago, and far, far away, I was trained to code lightbulbs (Univac). Toggle switch up, lamp ON. Toggle switch down, lamp off.
That was the user interface.
Easy enough for 16 switches.
Then some code (mine!) didn't work.
I was beaten by the instructor, them slammed by my classmates. I hadn't 'tested' the lamps before I released the code. The test usecase was 'turn each lamp on and verify it lights.
Ever since then, no code without a test case plugged into the test framework.
Why would anyone build and release a bug like this without the ancillary testing.
Happy Earfday. Please don't kill/mummify your girlfriend like Einhorn did
[Babylon Bee] In a gesture meant to call people to action on climate change and the environment, Al Gore took to the skies in a private jet to write "Save the Planet" in the sky, sources confirmed Monday.
Gore flew from coast to coast and wrote the message in the sky above dozens of metropolitan areas in a courageous move to ask people to stop burning jet fuels, gasoline, and other carbon-emitting products.
"I just want to call everybody else---not me, of course, but the rest of the country---to take action before it's too late," Gore said of the message he wrote in the sky above the nation. "And the best way to do that is with a big message in the sky in this luxury jet."
"Hello, commoners!" an excited Gore said as he waved at the window at all the tiny people he condemns for flying commercial once in a while and running their air conditioners when it gets really hot.
At publishing time, Gore had confirmed he was having a new mansion built---one that spells out "Save the earth!" when viewed from the sky.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/22/2020 14:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Snopes check!
The one about Baptists wearing masks as to purchase booze is hilarious.
[Aljazeera] Sometime in the future, maybe two or three centuries from now, when historians and other social scientists begin to write the first books about the failures of the defunct American experiment, they will all confront a basic truth: That despite American proclamations of freedom and equality, the realities of racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and gross economic inequalities as practised in American society constantly belied these ideals.
Future experts will have to consider whether America's ultimate virtues really ever had a chance to flourish, or were simply myths meant to soothe the American ego.
These future researchers will have a list of events to point to that signalled the death knell of America as a superpower, a nation-state, and as an idea worth pursuing. And that list is long:
The squandering of trillions of dollars from 1945 through the 1980s on the Cold War, Vietnam and the nuclear arms race. The presidency of Richard Nixon, Watergate, and craven government corruption. The disinvestment from the American social safety net and the massive deregulation of corporations that began during President Ronald Reagan's rule in the 1980s - all while proclaiming "it's morning in America again" - and continued unabated under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama. The First Gulf War in 1990-91 and the new US commitment to endless, preemptive wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the decades since. The 2008 housing bust and the Great Recession that only further benefitted corporations while grinding millions down into poverty and the gig economy.
All this has led the US to its current calamity, the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, one that at publication, has claimed more than 40,000 American lives and sickened at least 700,000 others. It is an epic crisis which America's leaders from President Donald Trump down could have blunted by heeding advanced warnings from the World Health Organization, from the Centers for Disease Control, and from the Obama administration, making preparations and taking action.
Trump could have mitigated the crisis but he failed miserably, opting first for denial, declaring the COVID-19 warnings the Democrats' "new hoax".
The COVID-19 outbreak has highlighted another epidemic that has plagued American society - American narcissism, a disease that has been growing since the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in 1607.
America's narcissism was and remains more infectious than any virus, as the attraction of presumed wealth and unlimited success has been a salve for many Americans for generations, no matter how fantastical.
Let us look at how the US has responded to the coronavirus since the first reports of patients dying of severe pneumonia came out of the city of Wuhan in China in early January. The federal government never mobilised its authority and resources to provide kits for testing the potentially and actually infected here within the US (but apparently sent respirators, masks and other medical supplies to China in early February).
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/22/2020 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
Funny how this prediction looks amazingly like the global warming / cooling bullshit - so far out into the future the author of such world-class codswallop won't be called out on it.
My prediction - this guy sucks a mean c*ck - he could do the chrome off a trailer hitch.
Both predictions are of equal merit; mine's more believable.
#4
Adjunct professors barely make minimum wage when all the outside class time is added up. The poor man has to supplement his income somehow, and this kind of thing is at least legal. Looking at him it’s clear he’ll never marry for money.
#5
"Future experts will have to consider whether America's ultimate virtues really ever had a chance to flourish, or were simply myths meant to soothe the American ego."
Future experts will note that the door was always open and yet oppressed minorities chose to stay.
#17
Next time somebody tries to tell me that Rantburg is all far-right Neandertals and Trump supporters I can show them this post.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/22/2020 13:09 Comments ||
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#18
far-right Neandertals and Trump supporters
Don't judge me! OK, but don't say it like there's something wrong with that :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/22/2020 13:27 Comments ||
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#19
If the experiment fails, it will be because of people like Donal Earl Collins, and the fact that we allowed his ilk to infest the commanding heights of our cultural, political and economic power.
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.
[Garden & Gun] Flint Theriot got the call in the wee hours of the morning last September 19: An elderly woman confined to a wheelchair was trapped in her Vidor, Texas, home, and the water was rising fast. Theriot, a thirty-one-year-old crane operator from Lake Charles, Louisiana, had been in Southeast Texas for a few days by then, rescuing people with his flat-bottomed boat from houses flooded by Tropical Storm Imelda, one of the United States’ wettest storms on record.
[MassPrivateI] The story about how DHS fans the flames of fear is nearly as old as the terror attacks of 9/11.
[CBN] A Harvard Law professor raised eyebrows with comments critical of homeschooling in America, calling for a "presumptive ban" on the practice and taking it a step further, claiming it is "dangerous" for parents to have "authoritarian control over their children" from ages zero to 18.
[Aljazeera] Sometime in the future, maybe two or three centuries from now, when historians and other social scientists begin to write the first books about the failures of the defunct American experiment, they will all confront a basic truth: That despite American proclamations of freedom and equality, the realities of racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and gross economic inequalities as practised in American society constantly belied these ideals.
