The Uniquely American Solution for Americans Who Won’t Wear Masks!
Are you tired of arguing with people who won’t wear a mask?
The people at Sufficiently Advanced know you can’t fix stupid, so they created the Mask Launcher!
Simply point and shoot!
Tested on Allen Pan of Sufficiently Advanced.
Makes a great gift for people who live in states where people don’t take personal responsibility for their role in spreading COVID-19.
Act now to use it at DOOR BUSTER SALES!
It’s portable. Take it to the beach. Or to your local Walmart!
This product is not available in any stores. You can’t buy it, but if you want to make your own here’s the build video from Allen Pan – Sufficiently Advanced @AnyTechnology
This humorous solution got 3 million views when it first came out. Maybe we don’t need a working mask launcher just a prop one to point at non-mask wearers, especially the aggressive anti-maskers. Will they freak out? Sure, they love to freak out and play the victim, even when they are the ones who could infecting others.
When they squawk we use the same logic as the guns everywhere people. “It’s for defensive use! I’m just trying to protect myself! You didn’t have on a mask and were coming right at me! I feared for my life! Walmart says I’m legally allowed to carry in their store, so I will!”
I don’t like confrontation. I also don’t like death by COVID.
Stanford Researchers: Trump Rallies Led to 30,000 COVID-19 Infections, 700 Deaths
According to their research, 18 rallies held between June 20 and September 22 led to more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The researchers also concluded that the rallies “likely led” to more than 700 deaths, although not necessarily among those who attended the events. -Slate October 31
The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies B. Douglas Bernheim, Nina Buchmann, Zach Freitas-Groff, Sebasti´an Otero* PDF link to abstract
Trump rallies that led to sickness and death of his rally goers and others in the community has been proven. Why are they still allowed to continue? They need to be stopped. I know people throw their hands up and say, “It’s too late, there is nothing we can do now to stop them.” Okay, if that’s the case then what’s your next step? Make the Trump campaign pay a price for this suffering and death to the communities they infected.
During Trump’s Tampa Rally the fire department was called to cool off the crowd. EMT took multiple people to the hospital for heat stroke. Who paid for that extra time of the first responders?
After the Rose Garden outbreak, when it was clear,”HE’S INFECTING HIS OWN PEOPLE!” most Democrats stopped pushing hard to stop rallies, hoping decent people would stay away from Trumpers. This might be a good strategy from an electoral point of view, but from a PUBLIC HEALTH point of view it’s still bad to let people get infected.
I’ve been writing on how and why to stop rallies since Tulsa and Phoenix in June. Read all the methods and reasons at this piece Trump’s Contact Tracing Failure. I wrote, “The people at Trump’s rallies are suicide bombers. How many will they infect and kill?” (link) We now have proof the rallies spread COVID but nobody in Trumpworld has paid a price for it yet.
The superspreader death rallies have become a joke on cable TV & late night shows, yes it’s gallows humor, but I’m tired of it. I want the organizers and their allies to pay a price for this recklessness that leads to illness and death. If you live in a city where there was or will be a Trump rally, there are things you can do to stop them now or make them pay afterwards. Let me explain why and how.
Why You Should Go After Trump’s Campaign Rallies Now
1) IT WILL COST THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN MONEY
Besides possibly saving lives now, suing Trump’s campaign for public health violations will cost them money. Trump cares about money above all else. Each lawsuit in each city can be used to hound him and the campaign after the election! It will cost his campaign people time and money to defend against this AND it might be a source of cash for the people suing.
2) It will cost Trump’s allies money Trump isn’t loyal. Campaign allies and supporters might lose power and protection after the election, making them vulnerable AND more willing to roll on the Trump organization to protect themselves financially.
I spoke to Paul DeMuro, one of the lawyers who sued to prevent the Tulsa Rally. He pointed out that the case is not against Trump, it’s against the SMG and ASM Global Parent Inc., that company that ran the venue. HOT TIP for Tulsa residents the case is still open! PDF Link to Tulsa rally case
3) Multiple laws are broken around events
Don’t just look at violations of pandemic executive orders, look for: Bribes, payoffs and threats to non-cooperating officials FEC and Hatch Act violations
4) Trump can’t pardon the staff that broke the state laws
These cases will be state by state, and Trump can’t pardon the campaign people or their local allies from state crimes.
5) It might save lives
We know that the Trump campaign DOES respond to certain pressures. They might make some changes pre-event; more likely they will AGREE to make changes then break those agreements. (Like we saw in Tulsa with the social distancing stickers when they then removed.) Cities and local activists canuse those broken agreements or stiffed vendors for civil cases post election.
I’ve followed the behind the scenes story about the rallies in Michigan, Oklahoma, Arizona, Florida and Nebraska, I KNOW there are public health directors in these states and cities who are angry. There are also attorney generals and individual activists in cities who want to go after the private groups & enablers that have helped the Trump campaign put lives at risk.
No matter their politics, all city officials care about their budget. Whether or not Trump wins, the cities need money for services. Especially now. Why should they extend credit to the campaign for months given his track record?
Sample text: “How much taxpayer money was spent for all the extra services the city had to cover for the campaign? (For example, what was the cost of sending the police out to bring rally goers out of the freezing cold in Omaha? What was the cost of the Tampa Fire Department being sent for water cooling the crowd? What is the cost to the city for EMT services for the heat strokes? Send them these link to remind them of the Trump campaign’s terrible payment record. Write today!
Come for the President, stay because the buses don’t arrive.
Post Election Action: Preparing For When Republicans Lose:
If Republicans lose they will spend the lame duck sessions in cities & states trying to grab power, hide grift and excuse their horrible actions. Now is the time to file FOIA requests on the rallies details. (NOTE: The right will focus only on the laws that do or don’t exist vs guidelines & recommendations because they care more about their liability than your life.) Things you’ll want to determine:
Who pressured whom to get the rallies? (Federal, State & Local)
Who ignored public health guidelines AND/OR blocked passing laws that would support the guidelines?
Who didn’t push to enforce laws that DID exist that were broken at events? What excuses were made when attendees didn’t follow the laws? What excuses were made for not enforcing laws?
Who paid, or didn’t pay, for which services? Were there Sweetheart Deals with elected officials?
Were activities AROUND events, that add to the superspreader nature of them, counted? For example,were bars other indoor spaces filled beyond capacity before and after the events? Was there any enforcement of those violations? Why not?
What did public health officials recommend about crowds in buses before and after the events? Were they monitoring how long people were exposed to infected people?
(BTW Georgia Tech COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool calculates there was a 99% chance there were COVID positive people at the Omaha & Tampa rallies.)
If guidelines and recommendations at rallies weren’t followed, because they weren’t laws, it’s time to make them laws. As we saw in Omaha and Tampa, poor planning and irresponsible behavior leads to endangering the lives of people. Yes, those people signed a waiver excusing Trump and this minions, but they shouldn’t be off the hook for the additional costs to the community. (Also based on my early research it’s likely these waivers won’t hold up in court.)
Trump doesn’t care about his people, but he and his grifting buddies DO care about money. Make them pay.
You can push your city elected officials to get the money city taxpayers are owed. Help your local civil lawsuit lawyers and activist groups by gathering evidence of the laws broken and external costs of rallies by tracking what happened before during and after the events.
In this Omaha TV news story they downplay number of people stranded and medical issues at the rally, but they end up explaining how many additional services the city provided to the Campaign in the form of police, medical services and city buses.
Trump’s campaign is notorious for not paying their bills while in office. Win or lose, the Trump Campaign is responsible for their debts. If they lose, the Campaign will claim they are broke. That should trigger the investigation into how the Campaign spent the money, which should lead to exposing multiple FEC violations and crimes. Taxpayers should demand clawing back money that was illegally allocated and have it sent to them. Act now to ensure your city’s debts are on the top of creditor list!
City officials can’t bring back the lives of those lost because of Trump’s reckless decision to hold campaign rallies during the pandemic, but they can make sure his organization pays a huge price with the only thing they actually care about, money.
Check out this cool new product provided to police departments by Bill Barr under “Operation Legend” This is a from Memphis.
Shelby County Sherrifs just met us with their new electronic "Tazer" shields. "Operation Legend" Funds funneled by the Trump/Barr adminstration. #ThingsAreNotOkpic.twitter.com/Cq3GvItBCw
I’m still trying to track down the manufacturer, but until then I’m going with Omni Consumer Products from RoboCop. I mean, just look at the OCP logo on that Taser™ Shield!
Apparently this is part of Bill Barr’s Project Legend that is pumping resources into cities to stop “violent crime. But in this piece from WREG on September 10th, Josh Spickler with Just City (@joshspickler @JustCity901) calls Operation Legend a “fear-based” campaign stunt.
“Many of these folks in Memphis in particular are not charged with violent crimes,” Spickler said. “In reality, crime is down. Our community still struggles with crime and with violent crime in particular. But that is no reason to invite federal agents on to our streets. That is no reason to raise fear.”
He says address the systemic issues instead.
“If the federal government were serious about helping Memphis with some of its societal problems, including crime, then they would further invest in housing, further invest in mental health care in our community, further invest in our kids’ education,” Spickler said.
Note: This is NOT a OCP product, Manufacturer TBD.
This is how Trump’s Federal government is bribing local governments to ensure help when it’s time to put down citizen protests.
The type of tools the police get shows which policing policies are encouraged.
Remember the Pentagon’s program to gave military surplus to cities for free? Communities couldhave gotten upgraded communications equipment or biohazard gear, military temporary pop-up shelters for their natural disasters, but that didn’t encourage the military mindset in the police. Then small towns competed with each other to see who had the coolest war gear to take down their 2 meth heads and then intimidate those dirty hippies and uppity black protestors.
In a era of “defund the police” the Feds coming through with money now will be remembered. It will also be used as a lever when the authoritarian Feds send out the word to put down their local citizens.
The message: Go in with MAXIMUM force! Use “Knock their eyes out” rubber bullets, toxic tear gas and heat rays.
That is the money leverage that is behind the suggested suppression techniques that the AG wants that encourages their policies.
Dominick DeJoy, Jr., who sued Louis, accused him of hiding his mail and forging his signature on bank and investment accounts
My friend Lisa Graves testified Monday in front of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations Hearing on “Postal Update.”
“I am calling on Mr. DeJoy to be fired or resign,” government watchdog Lisa Graves told lawmakers on Monday morning, during a briefing on postal operations before the House Oversight Committee. True North Research, the organization Graves heads, found that DeJoy — who runs a North Carolina shipping firm — had been sued by his brother Dominick for allegedly siphoning money from the trucking company founded by their father. –– Alexander Nazaryan Yahoo News
Lisa’s an expert on vetting people and she found out that the Board of Governors missed some doozies. Like this one she uncovered, ( Bloomberg)
DeJoy Gave $600,000 to GOP After Postmaster Job Opened Up
DeJoy gave President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee more than $600,000 over eight weeks after the opening was announced, Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research, which investigates the influence of money on public policy, said in written testimony submitted to a panel of the House Oversight Committee in advance of a hearing Monday
But the part that got my attention was how Louis DeJoy’s own brother sued him for hiding mail and money from him. From Graves’ research (link)
Louis DeJoy Was Sued by His Brother Who Alleged a Pattern of Financial Deception, which DeJoy Denied
Dominick alleged that Louis DeJoy opened three different bank accounts in his name, forging his signature without his permission, and that he did not know these financial accounts–that held millions of dollars–were in his name. Louis DeJoy claimed they often signed each other names on documents.
Dominick also alleged that Louis DeJoy hid the mailed bank statements for three different bank or investment accounts in Dominick’s name from him for more than five years, from 1994-2000, or had employees of the company hide that monthly mail from him.
Graves goes into detail based on the public information that the Board of Governors could have found if they did a simple Lexis/Nexis search.
Dominick DeJoy, Jr., who alleged that Mr. DeJoy told him certain companies were subsidiaries of the family business they owned jointly but then it turned out that Mr. DeJoy had secretly created companies with a similar name that were held only in his name and the name of another brother, Michael DeJoy, who also denied wrongdoing.
Dominick DeJoy, Jr., swore in his complaint that Mr. DeJoy cheated him out of millions of dollars of business that he helped generate through this secret arrangement, and that Mr. DeJoy was able to do so because he had trained as an accountant and knew how to structure different legal entities.
The DeJoy brothers reached a confidential settlement in 2000. There were never any charges brought for the allegations regarding signing someone else’s name. Nevertheless, the claims alleged are troubling given the position of enormous public responsibility Mr. DeJoy now holds.
Look, I don’t want to draw comparisons between the DeJoy Family and The Trump Family. Maybe Mary Trump could explain the mind of someone who manipulates financial documents to screw his brother (and family) out of millions from the family business. Raw Story has more details, like how they haven’t talked since 2001. (“You never call you never write. What, you need stamps? I’ve got a million of ’em!” )
The other big thing I learned from talking to Lisa about this is that only the Board of Governors can fire DeJoy. Congress can’t impeach Postmaster General DeJoy. so what can people do?
Tell the USPS board of governors to fire Louis DeJoy. Mail them a Postcard titled Fire DeJoy at… 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. 20260 Just kidding. Here are their emails.
Robert Duncan, Chairman: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com John Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com Ron Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com Ramon Martinez IV: roman@rmiv.com Donald L. Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com William Zollars: DirectorAccessMailbox@cigna.com
I’d suggest you tweet #FireDeJoy at the Board of Governors but none of them are on Twitter! (“We get no revenue from Twitter! Mail us a letter if you want to talk to us!” -BoG probably) Here’s the kicker about this board–they are all Trump approved! It turns out that the entire board of Governors are new! Some have served less than a year. And Chairman Duncan? Huge McConnell donor buddy.
A boy like that he’ll cheat his brother. Fire that boy and hire another!
UPDATE: Full disclosure, as I said, Lisa’s a friend and I’ve been an advisor to her and did a project for Center for Media and Democracy in the past on journalism and drones. She is working now on The Ben Franklin Project to protect the Post Office. Twitter: @ProjectBenFrank or Facebook Link
I’m always trying to figure out effective actions activists can take to have an impact. Graves’ research got in front of Congress and made the news, but that doesn’t always translate to the kind of pressure that is needed to force action. There needs to be more pressure on the Board of Governors.
Sadly in America it often comes down to money above all else. Saying “Save Democracy!” is too abstract. I would tell the millions of people who sell & buy items through Etsy and Ebay to write the Board of Governors and tell them “DeJoy is hurting my bottom line and needs to be fired right now.”
(I’m also thinking that the millionaires on the boards of those companies should make some calls to the Board of Governors too since they travel in the same circles. ‘Hey our stocks are going to take a hit this quarter if DeJoy keeps messing with the P.O.”)
If people don’t want to write postcards or send email they could donate to the Ben Franklin Project, because that is where people like Lisa are doing these kind of strategic and tactical actions to save the USPS.
On my ride during the 100 degree record breaking heat I stopped at Spreckels Lake Model Yacht Facility in Golden Gate Park to get some water.
I sat under a tree eating my almond butter and raspberry jelly sandwich when a masked little boy approached and asked if I wanted some lemonade. As a rule, when riding my bike I always stop to buy lemonade from kids. I also always over pay. I like to chat with the kids (first to make sure there is no high fructose corn syrup in the mix) and then to find out how business is going.
After he found out they used regular sugar, I asked for the strawberry lemonade. I clipped two dollars to my makeshift social distancing tool and had him put the cup down on the ground.
I told him that after I was done I was going to try the regular lemonade. Like a an excellent server he noticed when I had finished my first and brought me another. “This one is a special mix I made of strawberry and lemonade!” he proudly told me.
I wanted to take his photo so I asked a nearby parent for permission. She thanked me for asking and I told her I appreciated his mask wearing and politeness.
She told me about the girl who started it and how her friends joined in. In mid-sentence she stopped and said, “Excuse me, I need to keep an eye on one who’s heading to the far side of the lake.”
They sold so much lemonade that day they ran out of cups! Another mother, who I’m betting is in logistics said, “The staff is currently sourcing more cups.” When I left they were pre-selling lemonade for later delivery.
I told one mother I wanted to write about this because it was yet another example of empathy I was seeing from the residents of San Francisco for people who didn’t look like themselves. I follow RW media and know that in some parts of the country instead of seeing the generous spirit of these kids and their parents it would bedismissed as “Virtue Signaling.”
While most of us are thinking, ‘Aww isn’t that nice!” They would question the kids’ imperfect social distancing or mask wearing in order to flip it on its head with, ‘Those liberals tell everyone what to do but they don’t do it perfectly themselves!!!”
Why do they do this? Maybe they can’t bear seeing people showing empathy for others. They are always looking for a chance to shout “Hypocrite!” Maybe they don’t want to acknowledge that if they don’t even try to do the right thing nobody can attack them for not doing it perfectly.
To me these kids and their parents are showing the “San Francisco Values” that I know, it made me proud of my fellow citizens. In the future I expect great things from these kids because they care for others.
By the way, the lemonade was delicious, especially the special mix! Live Long And Prosper SF kids! -Spocko
Rachel Maddow gave an almost giddy recitation of all the laws that the RNC might break, from Melania Trump’s speech in the White House Rose Garden to using a Federal Building for partisan purposes. But one of the most deadly might be if they allow more than 50 people to be inside at the same time.
The current scuttlebutt is that multiple people will be attending in person at both DC AND North Carolina venues. Depending on the venue local and Federal laws on mask mandates & the number of people allowed at indoor gatherings could be broken. Who will be sent to ensure compliance? The Mayor of D.C.? The Mayor of Charlotte? The Surgeon General? UPDATE: I CALLED IT!
WSOCTV-Charlotte Several delegates inside the Convention Center could be seen not wearing masks on the floor, which drew the ire of Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris.
“I have just shared concern about the lack of mask-wearing and social distancing in the room at the RNC Roll Call Meeting with the RNC Convention staff,” she said. “I have been assured that they are working hard to address these issues. All attendees agreed to comply with the requirements prior to attending and were informed that these requirements would be enforced.”
Hermain Cain is dead. People who attended the Tulsa rally got infected. These are both facts. This information SHOULD have BEEN used by the public health community as evidence to prevent ANY more large scale, in-person indoor rallies, especially when there are no-mask requirements and enforcement of social distancing rules. The information DID lead to Pence cancelling an event in Jacksonville, but it could have led to even MORE scientific proof that these types of events are deadly and should be banned NATIONWIDE. Why wasn’t it? I detail the reasons below, and how to stop them in the future. There will be multiple Hatch Act violations coming from Trump Campaign. Will Henry Kerner, at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the agency responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, be geared up to cite the violators as they make violations? Of course not! He’ll wait for someone to fill out this form exactly then mail it in. Considering the postal sabotage I’d FAX it to them at 202-254-3700. You can alert them via tweet, but I don’t know if the tweeted form to @US_OSC counts.
What if you spot an FEC violation? Is there a FEC SWAT Team that will bust down the doors of the Andrew Mellon Auditorium and rush the stage? Nope! Ellen L. Weintraub @EllenLWeintraub the @FEC chair will wait for your complaint. Details here. In 30-90 days you might get a ruling, usually a warning. Something like, “Don’t do that again!”
The press can point out law breaking violations the moment they happen, but the citing and enforcement process takes months. In real time Trump’s Campaign will probably dispute them (and make a change so they are technically not breaking a law. )
I try to think, write and act strategically so it’s insanely frustrating when I see opportunities for the Democrats to nail Team Trump and their enablers when they break laws, not just norms.
Team Trump always breaks norms, but when they break laws (and we KNOW they are going to based on past performance) BE PREPARED to bust them by anticipating HOW they will try to weasel out of that crime by using another trick, then bust them for that! And then use that action to make news of the multiple bustings.
Rachel comments, “It’s the Trump Era, What does law mean!” It feels like the Dem strategy now is. “Let them break more laws, just vote them out in November!” We need to keep on them for law breaking, because even if we win in November the time between then and January 21 all the usually tricks will be pulled out and adapted to his lame duck status. What actually happens now is that Team Trump tries something, someone pushes back, they figure out some way around it and do it again slightly different. Here’s the process:
Legislation: Make up something, get sued, go to court, lose, change the executive order, try again. See Muslim Ban versions 1, 2 & 3.
For FEC violations they argue, it’s investigated and they pay a fine, “It’s just the cost of doing business, politics corruption.”
Bribes, payoffs, threatening witnesses: They break the law, go to court, lose and a scapegoat gets arrested to take the hit. “We’ll pardon you later if you don’t sing.” (Stone vs. Cohen)
Authoritarian acts: The question the wording of laws and actions. “It wasn’t tear gas! They used PepperBalls(™).”
Team Trump reuses tactics. As they said on Battlestar Galactica, “All of this has happened before, and will happen again.” But they do learn and adapt–so should we!
HOW THEY AVOID PROOF TRUMP’S RALLIES ARE DEADLY
Because there was no coordinated plan from the Democrats at the time to prove Trump Rallies are deadly superspreader events, we can’t use that for legal and public health pressure to prevent the Trump Campaign from doing it again. As I said, they learn and adapt. They avoid responsibility by using loopholes in different states and situations.
For example, it wasn’t illegal to be maskless inside a Tulsa venue or in Phoenix. It wasn’t illegal to go maskless in South Dakota either, but they held it outside to show they are moving on the issue. But still there was no social distancing, no testing of the whole audience and ONLY the people around Trump like Kimberly Guilfoyle got the 30 minute tests.
I’m hoping some highly-paid Dem strategists or activist group is already thinking like me and doing this, which would be great, but frankly the public health community should have done this to stop in-door maskless, no distance rallies. They didn’t because of pressure from Republican governors and they don’t want to appear partisan. They can say, “”All events like this must be banned, no matter political ideology.”
Why No Rally Pre-Test, No Post Rally Isolation and Testing? Trump Doesn’t Want to Know
The Trump campaign doesn’t want to have proof that people got the virus at an indoor, maskless, no social distancing rally. But state public health could have had proof. It could have been a perfect experiment. 1) Arrange for everyone to be tested–with a fast test– before entry. 2) People who tested negative before the rally would then isolated themselves for 2-5 days post rally to incubate. 3) Post rally testing would be followed by post rally isolation until results are in. 4) If post rally test was positive, the Public health department would be alerted in order to do contact tracing with all the people at the rally.
“But Spocko,” you lament, “The Trump people weren’t going to cooperate to show you where they got sick! They aren’t going to isolate after a rally! They weren’t going to tell their own Government who they met with before and after they tested positive! And besides, there are so many people at the Rally, contact tracing would be impossible!”
I heard you through my mind mend and I thought the same thing, that is why I wrote to the reporters and camera crews in Tulsa recommending that they ALL do this.
I did this for two reasons. First because I got to talk to several great Tulsa reporters like Whitney Bryen @SoonerReporter, Stetson Payne @stetson__payne, Cory Jones @JonesingToWrite and Trevor Brown @tbrownOKC and I didn’t want them to get sick. Second because if they DID get sick they could have PROOF where they caught it to alert others. Tragically because Oklahoma State Department of Health had no fast testing reporters had to wait days– while possible infected traveled home spreading the virus.
BTW, we COULD have hard proof about where Herman Cain caught the virus. If this was a murder mystery using modern CSI and all the data we have on people, we’d know by the end of the episode.
I keep pushing the need to build chriminal, civil and ethical cases and against this group of radicals that violate norms, break laws and don’t care if others die. I can see the future, we need to plan ahead.
Temperature tested before the rally. Masks REQUIRED during testing, then 95% of the people TOOK THEM OFF during the rally. This station COULD have been a COVID testing location, but Trump didn’t want it and OSDH didn’t provide it Image from: Dane HawkinsTV
If I was a news person attending RNC (or a union camera person, I’d demand testing before, isolation afterwards with new testing 5 days after the event. I suggest you tweet this story to MSNBC’s HR dept! (And yes, I would even say the same thing to Fox News and The Apprentice camera operators working the RNC. I’m not a monster!)
Remember that the day of the Tulsa rally, it was announced that some of Trump advance team and Secret Service were infected (we know this because people around Trump get fast tests.) I can anticipate the same will happen at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium and in the venue in Charlotte. What should be the response from the media? 1) Ask the in-person delegates if they were tested. (They might have had temp checks, but everyone should have been tested by now so results are ready before it starts Monday. 2) Ask EVERYONE in attendance at in-person events if they were tested before hand. If not, why not? If they weren’t tested–because they weren’t around Trump–why didn’t they get tested anyway? Because they were asymptomatic? That’s an excuses used to cover made because of lack of testing. Bottom line, Team Trump DOESN’T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW. The delegates will play along, but what about the workers and media? ASK THEM! UPDATE: FROM WSOCTV Note they are talking attendees, not convention staff or media
Attendees were asked to practice enhanced social distancing and get tested prior to travel, fill out a pre-travel health questionnaire and participate in a daily symptom tracker. They’re also being tested onsite, have been asked to maintain a 6-foot (1.8-meter) distance from other people and to use face coverings as a condition of participation — though many attendees were seen openly flouting those rules Monday morning. The RNC has also committed to contacting every participant five, 14 and 21 days after the event to check on potential symptoms.
How do you punish the reckless, deadly behavior of the Trump Campaign? I spoke to Paul DeMuro, one of the lawyers who sued to prevent the Tulsa Rally. PDF Link to Petition. He told me the case is still open! It’s not against Trump, it’s against the SMG and ASM Global Parent Inc., that company that ran the venue.
He said that it would be difficult to show the direct connection of infection at the event UNLESS someone did exactly as I suggested to the reporters in Tulsa before the event. (Gosh I hope someone in MSNBC’s HR or Tulsa’s News @KJRH2HD Department did!)
If ASM Global gets linked to the outbreak, they will be financial liable and if that happens they will roll on the Trump campaign that broke the protocols that were agreed to before hand. “Hey we put “DON’T SIT HERE!” stickers on every other chair. The Trump Campaign removed them! Watch the video!!!”
I spoke to DeMuro July 30th, right after Cain died, but I didn’t write about it until now. Demuro was very respectful and expressed his condolences to the family. He was clear about pointing out that at that time there was no evidence about where Cain got the virus. He had not heard from anyone from Cain’s estate or family. However, the case is still open! Who sat around him? Might they have proof they were COVID-19 free pre-event?
Make Team Trump pay. Hit them in the wallet.
It’s been proven before how COVID-19 spreads, but hard evidence from this rally could drive nationwide laws banning these events, not just “CDC recommendations.” It’s also important to bust Team Trump FINANCIALLY, because he cares about money first. Then when he goes to a friendly state without a law or a friendly venue like his golf course in a state with a law, like New Jersey, there would be be legal and financial precedent for future cases.It’s important to remember that these rallies spread infections all over the state and country. Maybe you met the criteria! And as they say in the ads, “You might be eligible for financial compensation!”
This week I hope the workers and media attending the events at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium and the Charlotte venue have thought strategically about testing and isolation after the RNC, not just for their own sake, but to help stop Trump’s Campaign from having more potentially deadly in-person events.
I talked to a teacher today. She lives in Nebraska. It’s one of the states that doesn’t have a mask mandate. Yesterday I learned that Omaha is the largest US city with neither a state nor a local mask mandate. She’s worried that the schools aren’t prepared to safely reopen for in-person learning. I agree with her.
I’m filled with rage that she is going to be subjected to an unnecessary experiment on the transmission and spread of a deadly virus. We do NOT need another human death data point to prove what the rest of the country has learned over and over again.
I’m trying to channel my anger in a productive way. I want the elected officials in the state to know how long aerosols stay in in the air. So I’ll post videos showing that.
??UPDATE on airborne—newest aerosol study (CDC journal) indicates that coronavirus is persistent and stable up to 16 hours in the air! Typical air exchange every 20 min to 4 hrs, depending on ventilation. But up to 16 hours is worrisome (HT @kprather88) pic.twitter.com/YJOQvEzu84
REPORT: Virus is stable in air: once airborne, SARS-CoV-2 retains ability to infect for at least 16 hrs
It’s hardier in aerosols than SARS-1 or MERS This helps explain why airborne route could be major culprit Wear masks, distance, ventilate buildingshttps://t.co/8zvADRf0Fx — Dr. Ali Nouri (@AliNouriPhD) July 14, 2020
I want them to understand that air handling in rooms makes a big difference on how long aerosols stay afloat and what has to be done to clear aerosols from rooms. See this thread and video.
??CLEARING AEROSOLS FROM ROOMS: Now that aerosol transmission of the coronavirus is established, the big question is how to disperse aerosols quickly enough. Well, this video explains it all. Thread ??of latest evidence. #COVID19pic.twitter.com/ZiOdMG2GPs
But what do you do when someone you love lives in a place where the Governor threatens to sue the county health director if they require masks in the state’s most populous county?
How do you help them when their Governor told the local officials in the county with the highest infection rates in the state they wouldn’t get federal COVID-19 money if they required masks? (Link) (You might remember when Rachel Maddow brought that up about the cases in Dakota County with the Tyson meatpacking plant.)
Ricketts tells local governments they won’t get federal COVID-19 money if they require masks
LINCOLN — At his regular coronavirus press conferences, Gov. Pete Ricketts makes a point of urging Nebraskans to wear a mask when they go to a store.
But when it comes to the state’s 93 courthouses and other county offices, he doesn’t want local officials to require masks. In fact, he’s told counties that they won’t receive any of the $100 million in federal COVID-19 money if their “customers” are required to wear masks.
Where are the masks? In the staff’s hands. When you control the money you can even get medical professionals to model bad behavior. From Governor Ricketts’ OWN Twitter feed August 4, 2020
“The governor encourages people to wear a mask,” according to his spokesman Taylor Gage, “but does not believe that failure to wear a mask should be the basis for denying taxpayers’ services.” The no-mask mandate has been poorly received in some corners of the state, with officials criticizing the loss of local control. It also runs counter to the advice of public health officials, who have stressed the importance of wearing masks.
In Lincoln, the state’s second-largest city, officials were preparing to require all visitors to wear masks when entering the City-County Building. But the draft rules were promptly dropped when officials were informed that Lancaster County wouldn’t receive CARES Act money if it instituted a mask requirement.
I’ve watched dozens of school board and city council meetings around the country discussing mask mandates. I’ve watched helplessly as city council people say they are “following the data” as the reason they won’t vote for a mask mandate. But there is no expert in the room to explain they are looking at outdated or the wrong data for their situation.
I’ve heard school boards quoting studies from Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark & Finland on infection rates in schools to justify in-person schooling. But they are not comparing the transmission of a virus in societies that wear masks to the US with our anti-maskers.
They aren’t comparing communities that don’t have a high rate of community spread to ones that do. They aren’t doing what Laurie Garrett says must be done to understand the infection rate in their community. First there must be baseline testing and then daily testing with fast results followed bycontact tracing.
All teachers, staff & kids need to be tested FIRST & daily during school with a tracking method in place. NOBODY has that now (Except maybe Trump’s WH). Then they need air filtration systems, spread out classrooms & more staff. They don’t have that or the money to get it. 2/5 pic.twitter.com/asZHVTfoB7
When they compare reopening the schools in the US to other countries they are also missing a bigger picture. Some other countries had leaders who understood how to use their economic system to protect human lives while they prepared for and fought the virus.
The US COULD have done the same, but instead protected corporate lives & profits. Once THEY were protected the Trump admin stopped seeing the urgency to protect human lives. The phrase “It is what it is” shows that they accept a certain number of people will die.
Ignorance & Incompetence vs Willful Ignorance & Maliciousness
We gave people the benefit of the doubt at certain points in the pandemic. In the beginning we could say, “They didn’t know better.” or “They were doing the best they could with what they understood at the time.” We believed they were acting in good faith.
But now we are seeing people who KNOW how these actions will play out. They can’t say, ‘We didn’t know that people would die!” They will work up multiple rationalizations on why they HAD to push for reopening schools in person. They don’t want to be called irrational immoral monsters because of their decisions and actions.
We need Garrett to team with former heads of the CDC
to explain this to parents.
It is IRRATIONAL & IMMORAL to ask you to send your kids back to school unless the federal government provides this level of testing, tracking, air filtration & support for teachers, admin & staff.4/5 pic.twitter.com/4afUKRFGcm
No one should be running this deadly experiment. What do we do when it’s over? Who do we hold accountable? Who knew better but argued and pushed for this unnecessary experiment to happened?
The group of people I’m raging at now are those who are actively thwarting actions that will save lives. I’m infuriated by those in power doing this, but also angry at those who see this as a experiment to run in their community with the lives of my friends and loved ones.
“Starting Monday, July 20th we will require all shoppers to wear a face covering.”
-Dacona Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Walmart U.S., and Lance de la Rosa, Chief Operating Officer, Sam’s Club (July 15th, Walmart press release)
THIS IS GREAT NEWS! This is HUGE!
I could go on about how this should have happened MONTHS ago. I could speculate how their customers will react. But what I will do instead is use Walmart’s action as leverage to GET MANDATED MASK REQUIREMENTS IN ALL OTHER RETAIL STORES IN THE COUNTRY.
Today’s action to stop COVID-19 is to contact all retail stores and ask them:
“When will you be issuing a nationwide mask policy like Walmart?”
If they say they are not, ask why. Here’s the piece I wrote two months ago on how to get retailers to pass mask requirements even if the state they are in doesn’t require them. I have a lot of good advice, but this Walmart announcement is going to help convince the other national retailers the most.
Tweet, email, post on Facebook and call headquarters. Corporate retail America now has a model from the nation’s largest retailer they can follow. Their press release on the mask policy explains why they did it and how they are dealing with customers.
I can guarantee that Walmart’s policy is going to be a huge help to other retailers to implement mandated mask policies. But they need pressure from customers asking for them to do it.
The reopening schools issue reminds me of how in many states school boards had to decide about arming teachers.
No national or state mask mandate means that decisions are pushed down to cities, counties and school boards. When there is no law and no funding city councils and school boards can be swayed by the powerful & organized people in their community.
In the past the “guns everywhere” people were better organized, had better lobbyists and catchier messages. So they won.
Lately the Parkland activists, MDA and other groups fought back at the state and local level. But they didn’t always win.
I watched a LOT of those meetings. Allowing those boards to make life or death medical decisions is crazy.
Part of the blame goes to medical professionals and scientists who say, “Just look at the data!” Elected officials can be craven cowards. They don’t make decisions based on reason alone.
The data alone isn’t going to make elected officials act the way we want, so we must use other pressures.
In Florida I watched school boards decide about arming teachers. The Governor said, “You have to do something from the options we decided on.”
The choices were cops in schools, armed security guards, or teachers/admin with guns. The school districts wanted to comply with the state law so they went with those options–even though cops in schools were proved ineffective at stopping mass shootings.
The state also used funding to get their way.
This is the same kind of pressure that cities (and by extension school boards) are getting now on opening schools in states with no mask laws.
1000’s of people die every month from gun violence and the national elected officials said “We won’t pass laws stopping guns.” State officials said, “We won’t pass state laws banning guns AND we won’t allow cities to ban guns.”
In this environment school districts had to figure out how to save student lives while their city and state elected officials passed laws that led to their communities swimming in guns.
The state said “We will give you money for School Resource Officers. We did this because they have a great slogan, “Only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns!”
The data shows that SROs don‘t prevent students from being killed 99.99 percent of the time they are present during a school shooting. The gun lobby had the best slogan and their views influenced our elected officials better than the views of the groups against it.
The attitude in America up to Parkland was, “We can’t stop the proliferation on guns outside the schools, it’s too hard. We voted to let the numbers grow and grow and now we all just need to live with a certain level of gun deaths every month.” That attitude on guns still prevails, while some of us are working on mitigation gun deaths others are still pushing for more guns.
Masks for all would help prevent COVID-19 infections inside the schools, but even better would be NO COVID-19 outside of schools. Sadly we have to deal with higher Covid rates OUTSIDE of schools because we weren’t willing to learn from other countries. Now some states aren’t willing to learn from other states! We also have an incompetent corrupt leaders at the national and state level.
But just like the way the elected didn’t pass national and state gun laws–meaning there’s a high percent of guns floating around in the state–the elected won’t pass mask laws, meaning more COVID-19 is floating around the state.
More guns in cities and states increases the odds of more school shootings and deaths. More COVID-19 in cities and states increases the odds of more school infections & deaths.
The lobbyists who want guns everywhere do it so they can make money. Yes, they will talk about “freedom” but it’s about making more money. Until recently they were a more powerful lobby than the people who didn’t want guns everywhere.
Why won’t states pass mandated mask laws? Because the lobby that says, “The economy!” and “Trump’s reelection!” is powerful now.
Here is the Mayor of Oklahoma City explaining how they will listen to experts, but also the opinions of the citizens. That’s fine. But as I have seen in Riverside & Orange counties in California, elected officials don’t always listen to public health experts on life or death medical decisions. (County With 2nd Most COVID Deaths In CA Rescinds Pandemic Orders) And that’s a big problem for the life and death of the people in those communities.
Ultimately, there are nine elected officials and in our form of government, I am just one of those nine votes. If you have opinions regarding a mask ordinance or other mitigation responses, I encourage you to reach out to your City Councilmember before Thursday’s meeting.
Parents will have to go to cities, counties and school boards to fight and explain that the lives of teachers and children are more important than “The Economy!”
The parents will be up against people who will will use lies, bribes, threats and slogans to win. They will talk about “Freedom” from mask wearing but it’s really people making money in “The 1% economy” and supporting what Trump decides.
The Trump admin have given up preventing the proliferation of COVID-19 just like many Americans have given up on gun proliferation saying “it’s too hard to stop.” Guns are everywhere because of people’s previous actions. Actions can be taken to change that.
Elected officials saw that we would accept a certain level of deaths from gun violence every month even thought they could be preventing by passing certain laws at the national and state level.
Now some elected officials are preventing certain laws at the national and state level from being passed that could prevent deaths from COVID-19. They expect us to accept a certain level of COVID-19 deaths every month just like we accepted the gun deaths. We have the data to show how mandated mask laws will save lives, but the data alone isn’t going to make elected officials do the right thing to protect lives.
When our national and state leaders fail us we need to use all our skills, and pressures to keep our students & teachers alive.
Chris Hayes was pissed last week. He raged at the Trump administration’s many failures. People have made tremendous sacrifices for months and his government still doesn’t have the testing and contact tracing capacity we need.
His guest, former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, spoke about the disaster in Florida and brought up just how bad our contact tracing is.
9,000 new cases in one day. 29,000 in the last seven days. It’s a disaster. It’s a catastrophic failure of leadership. Of our Governor, of our President. The mayors are scrambling to try to do the right thing.
We don’t have contact tracers as you pointed out. Listen. Rwanda, in Africa, has 12 million people. They have 60,000 contact tracers. We’re not even in the ball game.
I’ve been writing about contact tracing issues since the beginning of this pandemic. I wrote “Let’s Track The COVIDIOT Protesters” back in April. By now I thought I’d be writing about privacy concerns in a national database. But it hasn’t been implemented because of another massive failure of Trump admin.
In April I though the Michigan state police should have enforced the Governor’s executive orders about wearing masks and social distancing. They didn’t, possibly because the protesters were white–and armed.
The state also had the ability to trace the people protesting the lockdown in Lansing. They didn’t. However, Dr. Rob Davidson (@DrRobDavidson) and my friends at the Committee to Protect Medicare did. To be more exact, they traced the cell phones of 300 of the 3,000 at the protest. The data suggested the people at the Lansing protest spread COVID-19 throughout the state.
Contact tracing should to be used for public health and not co-opted for other uses. I attended a conference on technology, public health and the pandemic recently. (Flatten the Curve Summitt) They stressed all contact tracing programs must have oversight designed in so misuse can be detected and stopped.
They also discussed privacy and apps on smart phones but pointed out not everyone has one. The good news is the basics of contact tracing can be done with humans talking to humans.
Some worried the Trump administration would use the data in a national database to go after their enemies and deport “illegals.” Instead the Trump admin just didn’t develop a national contact tracing program at all. Contact tracing was pushed off to the states and then wasn’t sufficiently funded
Then the Trump Campaign held a big rally of unmasked people standing close together while shouting about their freedums. This is a textbook superspreader event.
6,000 at Trump’s Tulsa Rally, June 20
Dozens of Secret Service officers and agents told to self-quarantine after Trump’s Tulsa rally, June 24 (link)
The failure of Trump’s campaign to keep their own people infection free will lead to more infections and deaths.
In the Washington Post article you can already see how the campaign staff are stalling. Every day they delay more can get infected.
How long is the incubation period for the disease?
Two to 14 days, but typically five days.
When does someone become contagious?
Two days before showing symptoms.
From COVID-19 Contact Tracing course offered by Johns Hopkins University (link)
We don’t know yet if the campaign even turned over their attendee data to the understaffed Oklahoma State Department of Health.
State Plans to Hire Fewer Contact Tracers Than Experts Recommend
Trevor Brown OklahomaWatch (Maybe Campaign head Brad Parscale @parscale dumped the million ticket requests on them and said, “Sorry about all those TikToc users!”)
A functioning CDC or state department of health could use the infection rate at rallies to prove the dangers of maskless indoor shout fests. But the Trump admin does NOT want to know the results of testing and tracing of people at the rallies.
Reporter at Trump’s Tulsa rally tests positive for COVID-19, June 26 (link)
Paul Monies @pmonies was the Oklahoma Watch reporter who tested positive.
Friends, I tested positive for #COVID19. I’m pretty surprised. I have zero symptoms (so far) and I feel fine. In fact, I ran 5 miles this morning. I spent the last few hours calling people I know I’ve been in contact with in the last 14 days. Be safe out there. 😷 https://t.co/oGpKsGs5u0
Trump held two rallies in Tucson and Phoenix where about 9,000 gathered indoors to cheer and chant. Most didn’t wear masks.
When the news shows covered the Trump rallies they discussed concern about the spread of COVID-19. It was met online with classic Whataboutism. “Where was your concern when you were praising BLM protests?!!!”
I’ve always been concerned about big gathering. Was that maskless person on the left in the photo infected? If people were exposed to COVID-19 at a protest or a rally there should be contact tracing so that the people exposed can take steps to be tested and to self isolate.
Protesting the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, in Brookside neighborhood near 34th Street and Peoria Avenue, on Saturday, May 30, 2020. CORY YOUNG/ Tulsa World
Both groups should be traced. It’s not supposed to be political, it’s about public health.
In this video I combined an interview with the Director of Arizona’s Department of Health Services, Dr. Cara Christ, discussing contact tracing with video from the Phoenix rally. I then followed it with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey telling people to expect a call from public health.
Temperature tested before the rally. Masks REQUIRED during testing, then 95% of the people TOOK THEM OFF during the rally. This station COULD have been a COVID testing location, but Trump didn’t want it and OSDH didn’t provide it.
Once it was revealed people infected with COVID-19 attended the rally the contact tracing for everyone should have started–not just for Trump’s advance team and Secret Service.
Contact tracing is just another part of this pandemic Trump botched because he doesn’t want to know the number of infected, even if it will save the lives of his own followers. (Remember the attack on Saddam Hussein? “He gassed his own people!”)
If the “Right” people die–in the right way–things change
Eventually we will get a general idea of how many of Trump’s rally attendees were suicide bombers and how many were just bomb carriers. If we had enough contact tracing capacity before these events lives could have been saved.
In the future I hope Governors will ban indoor, maskless rallies. But based on their past actions they will only do so if enough of the “Right” people die (i.e. white men and women who are Trump supporters).
To make a ban happen they will need hard evidence, otherwise the right will cry “We didn’t KNOW if they got it from that event! They might have gotten it from some place else! Like a BLM protest!” They are very good at working the scientist refs. A good scientist has to acknowledge they can’t know for certain if a person was infected at the event unless that person
1) Tested negative before the event
2) Only attended the event
3) Went into 14 day quarantine
4) Tested positive following the 2-14 day incubation period.
(These steps are EXACTLY what OSDH suggested people do on June 16th!)
I don’t have a lot of hope that we’ll see any good contact tracing following the two Trump rallies. But the one good thing that has happened with all the attention on the maskless indoor shoutfest is that Mike Pence just canceled his rallies in Tucson and Florida!
There will be multiple Hatch Act violations coming from Trump Campaign. Will Henry Kerner, at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the agency responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, be geared up to cite the violators as they make violations? Of course not! He’ll wait for someone to
What actually happens now is that Team Trump tries something, someone pushes back, they figure out some way around it and do it again slightly different. Here’s the process:
