Rent: Too Damned High

Yesterday in the Washington Post was an article about a company called Starwood that has been buying up Multi family dwellings in Florida and raising rents that has led the company to earn profits out of literally forcing people to pay rents that have increased up to 50% (and higher) over their current rent. With that it forces more into poverty, debt and/or having to relocate with few options given Florida’s own issue with regards to affordable housing. And we are seeing this play throughout America, especially in Cities that are designated “it” and have intense in-migration from nearby States/Cities of individuals looking for work or in turn looking for better taxes and less regulation. Or just because an article declared it as such as the New York Times has done with regards to Nashville, Jersey City and Weehawken. Or when the New Yorker declares your city the Most Livable that pretty much kills the place. But Americans are always in search of somewhere better aka a place that will make them “richer” Places like Florida and Texas and Tennessee promise to with low wages and low costs and even less regulation. In real estate they are referred to as “migration boomtowns.” And in exchange, they generate revenue through a “regressive tax system” that harms the working class and frankly does not fill the coffers sufficiently. Which leads to endless ways to garner revenue you will certainly vote on new ways to tax property or supplement the budget, in order to improve schools, fund arts or create parks. Jersey City has done that of late and it shows how expensive it is to fund it all from the few who have little as a high rise that pays little to no taxes rises above them.

This from Investopedia explains how this tax structure works. This is also how much development across many cities build. Nashville has their Tax-Increment Financing, or TIF which is another boondoggle to taxpayers. How? By rising property values it means you have to pay more what? Property Taxes. And that used to be great when you are rich as you could deduct those, that is no longer so. Thanks to the GOP and the Trump Administration (which ironically contributed to some of his own tax issues), a Federal tax reform enacted in 2018, it limited deductions for state and local taxes and in turn supercharging the movement of more affluent Americans from the Northeast, Illinois and California toward zero-income tax states such as Florida, Texas and Nevada. Nashville was quite proud of its kills in that but TN does not quite have that “ennui” of the other States, but hey they are trying real hard. But the steady movement toward warmer, more affordable areas was well underway before the tax incentive and will persist even if it’s repealed. But also what contributed to this was the declaration of Opportunity Zones or Investment Areas. Funny I live in one or what used to be. These are the biggest bullshit of all the ways Developers use failures by Cities to build affordable housing. So you will see a brand new luxury building next to a shiny new Storage building; Convenient as you will need it as you cannot fit all you belongings into your overpriced but small unit or be homeless and keep your belongings in them as many do. And my recent trip to Detroit confirmed how that works for rich developers by buying off properties, keeping them dilapidated and then using fed funds to finally update and improve them. ProPublica did such a story on that same issue, leading the family to immediately write press releases dismissing the story as what? Fake News. Yeah right, welcome to City Living!

I live now in New Jersey with immense taxes, in 2021 I paid more in State Taxes than I did in Federal, go figure. And it taxes that push the migration, not politics. So when you go about red vs blue I suggest you realize that money is more a factor than whom you vote for. And our voting records show that. I lived in a Blue State went to a Red on and now back to Blue. Which only a few years ago was not. And with that I live in an “It” city that is undergoing immense gentrification with little to actually show for it but numerous luxury apartment buildings and some overpriced Condos (although few of those as Jersey City has the least available single family dwellings in the State and Condos are not money makers today at all but they have a few). With that we have also been listed as one of the most expensive rents in the country and are consistently in the top 10 with regards to rents and housing costs. And we have again little to show for it. The few green spaces are few and far between, the infrastructure is collapsing and they are in the middle of trying to replace all water and sewer lines. The flood that hit Jersey after Sandy has not been fully addressed and parts of Jersey City and Hoboken still flood when there are weather issues. I look out at a Development by a company called Bozzutto which built two units, one completed during the pandemic that sit directly on a FEMA floodplain. Yes folks this is city living.

A conversation with a neighbor about Jersey and the City led to some similar complaints, the lack of interesting places to socialize, inadequate library system, amenities in the building and of course rent. We also discussed the “character” or “type” of Jersey resident, either English as a Second Language group who rarely mix outside their own and she is Asian and the lack of sophistication and education. I agree that after my incident with the Cunt Family of 946 that there are problems, but I had not witnessed what she had in the building gym when a Young Man verbally berated and abused another over weights not returned, leading him to leave the gym and the Man followed this other man out, still screaming and ranting over the weights. She said she was terrified as she recognized both men, commented on the one young man’s good looks as well as the other and he often worked out with his girlfriend, so she knew them on sight. Yet, no complaints were filed with the building as this is another issue that defines White Privilege. White people here are abusive and unkind to other white people and believe that that is an implicit contract between you that you will keep it in house, handle it and accept it. I realized that when I filed my complaint over the Karen in 946, and her husband’s subsequent threat to me about “airing out our dirty laundry”. I kept on believing he had a type of Hoover file on me about some bullshit that he had “found out” from a former employee but I actually believe that is the again the invisible agreement, contract or script that we as White people have and tacitly agree to. These include such things that many Karen’s have been busted for when accosting POC about their behaviors. That is the first rule, don’t go public. Okay. So when I did mention this to the Front Desk one asked me “What Race where they?” He is White and often is a combative type, the stereotype Jersey person. Again, the implicit contract is in that response. I wonder if I had said Asian or Indian as we have few Black residents and to my knowledge no Latin ones or if there are they are really in hiding, what his response would have been.

The Racial divide is one of both Class and Money. Poverty is the level-izer that crosses all three. I saw that in Tennessee and in my travels in the South. There is little in migration in states like Alabama, Louisiana, and Missouri. The reason being that while they are not highly taxed they are highly populated by people of color and incomes and work are largely confined to small businesses. Larger industries and business have not established outposts the same way they have in Georgia, Texas, Florida and Tennessee. The courting and fawning over industry can only spread so far like the butter that melts on the table during the relentless hot muggy summers. And so while many do relocate there and have established homes, moving is not something you can do as frequently as I. You have children, you have family and you build roots. And with that you do not move unless a Job is in the offering and guaranteed. Despite all the hybrid work, I find it interesting the few chose to move to less populated states and areas, hell many moved to NYC or Boston or LA as this was their chance to take advantage of that cheap rent and availability thanks to those leaving in the same amount for safer pastures. My favorite of all of this are all the City Slickers who bought homes in the Country and found themselves now saddled with lemons and the costs to restore them now beyond the reach, so as Mortgages climb, the ability to dump it back on the market also declines. Watch for Foreclosures and more Venture Capitalists to buy those homes to rent back to the former occupants at a much higher cost. Regrets, I have a few.

That is the circle of ownership today. We have more businesses buying residences, both single and multi family units and moving them like checker pieces on a board. Add to that the growth of AirBnB. But cities are starting to realize how that affects home availability but that again does not exempt that home from being purchased by an investor and using it as a short term rental with minimal lease requirements, or a pied a terre which allows the unit to be vacant. There are those too that are an issue with regards to housing. But the reality is that most developers are seeing money in rentals. With now home purchases on decline, and more smaller landlords worried about rising interests and other costs they are looking to sell so, the building run by one slumlord today will be purchased and run by another tomorrow. I want to point out that again both Kushner and Trump were sons of fathers who began their career as slumlords.

But they have like all rich folks divested themselves of those properties and again the checkerboard keeps moving those pieces. Today in JC, there are the Cast Iron Lofts, once run by the most infamous of Slumlord Billionaires, Sam Zell, and Equity Residential now taken over by Bozzutto that has raised rents, amenity fees and reduced maintenance and oversight. They are notorious throughout the area as the numerous complaints from Yelp, Google and Apartments.com note. Equity, along with other property management firms are part of a class action lawsuit for price fixing thanks to the algorithms they use to inflate rent and discriminate. Yes folks the rent you pay may not be the same rent your neighbor pays. And they can blame the computer for that. You know like they do in law enforcement for facial recognition and other junk science.

And here again is Pro Publica, which did a recent investigation into this practice and the software used RealPage that supposedly enables leasing agents to get more bang for the buck. In other words gauge the tenant. It also allows for greater vacancy rate as they in turn can balance the books on the backs of the current residents to raise their rents to offset the loss. If you realize that most of these buildings are also required to have leased businesses be they local or educational as in day care, Boys and Girls Clubs etc to offset the tax incentives that the city provides. So when those big spaces are empty someone has to pay. Well that are those that live above. Write off? No. Many co-ops in Manhattan are struggling with that issue and have been working to find ways to fill spaces once held by Physicians, Bodegas, Cleaners and other commercial enterprises that supplemented the buildings bottom line. And with that, there will be many a unit with new costs to their annual assessments coming soon! But they too are equally discriminatory and have even more restrictions and requirements in in which to live. This is city living folks.

Home ownership is not just taxes, it is upkeep and the same with Condos only you have neighbors that are literally on top and below you. Think an Apartment with more costs and even less security. Just ask the Board of the Condo in Toronto that had a mass shooting over “noise” the standard complaint in almost all community living. Same problems different solutions. And what applies to those applies to the multi family “luxury” builds. Same problems, no solutions. And yes as the Year ended, regrets there are a few. And they are not alone as many did find themselves out of work as we are starting to see the effects of the recession and the white collar layoffs, and with that owning a home they cannot sell but cannot afford; hey folks the reality is that the grass is not always greener. And it is these same communities under the NIMBY rules that often again cause more problems than create solutions.

So we have a problem that ties into the construction of affordable housing across the county, homes that are too big to both maintain and in turn sell, homes bought by venture capitalists and put back on the market as rentals that are again overpriced, the “flipper” mentality also contributing to this; Multi family dwellings being built but as “luxury” with few to none affordable units and exempt from rent controls, if in fact there are such laws or restrictions in place (Seattle is not allowed to have them thanks to the State Constitution). Then there Opportunity Zones and Investment tax laws that enable developers (often with former Governors fronting them as one had always washes the other) to skirt further taxes: As people who invest their capital gains in qualifying real-estate projects (usually REIT) within these tracts can defer their tax bill. And if they hold the investment for at least 10 years, they won’t have to pay capital-gains taxes on any profit from an eventual sale of the property. The states make the pick and one area can always outdo the other in the bid. As Camden in NJ found out the hard way.

And what these do is decimate revenue from communities in the ways of schools, roads, public transportation and other infrastructure needs that when population increases demand does as well. The Investopedia link above shows how that affects the overall community and their liveablity factor. I can personally point to the schools in both Nashville and Jersey City as being absolute dumpsters in ways that Seattle only comes close but have active citizens who seem intent at at least staving some of that, but that too from what I can tell is coming perilously close thanks to the pandemic and a loss of enrollment. And without decent schools cities do suffer folks and that migration to the suburbs the place you left is the place you end up returning to, if you can afford to. But can you afford not? But then again the roads and public transportation options leave few and that gas tax again in many of these same places that you once left never to return is necessary to fund the State. It either/or neither/nor folks. You cannot have it all ways. Take for example the lack of buses and public transportation, let alone sidewalks that contribute to numerous pedestrian deaths in Nashville every year. The rise in bicycle deaths another. You have to live in a city and work in a city or you commute, so how does that work when you have a car but you cannot afford to fill the tank, or the drive is literally a competitive one?

So why is the rent too damn high? Yes corporate greed and the need to feed Wall Street. Then we have personal wealth and familial wealth that dictates another level of reasoning. We have varying State, City and Federal incentives and programs that enable tax dodging and in turn find new ways to redline via gentrification and rental increases all under the guise of providing growth. The pandemic enabled many to stop rent and evictions but those moratoriums are over and in turn inflation has brought even the most tolerant of Landlords to the brink and are now selling properties as refinancing has become a challenge due to rising interest rates. And lastly we have simply not built enough homes period. The issues of regulations, of financing and of construction has made it seemingly impossible and yet some is done and others have failed. Major corporations are now looking into loaning or offsetting those costs, Microsoft and Amazon have established such funds. But the idea of Workforce Housing is also fraught with issues and again the private versus public sector seems to have always been a dance with the issue of who leads a problem. Answers, I have none, ideas I have a plenty but there are few who listen and ever fewer willing to try. We are ruled by money, and in turn by race and gender. That is the reality of our America. We refuse to listen. I read the comments on the pages and there are valid ones and some just equally so; however, just in the way they advocate their position puts them further on the side of the “others” and we rarely see or listen to the “other” so in “other” words, compromise is near to impossible. Coming to a City near you.

The Annus Horribilis

This is the last post of the year of the blog and with that it takes on a new meaning from when this phrase became a member of the popular lexicon, thanks to the Queen of England during a speech at Guildhall in 1992 to remark upon the “Family’s” year. Irony she could whip that one out right now with regards to the Royals, but let’s keep this about what matters most – me.

The pandemic enters year three as it was in 2019 we became aware of the Wuhan Flu, the Kung Flu, the Covid-SARS like virus that was or was not happening in China that year. By 2020 it was unmasked (pun intended) and in the new global economy it faced no supply line shortages to cross borders internationally and changing the way we all lived and in many cases, died. And it appears that 2022 will be much like 2021 with anger, rage, misplaced anger, Covid vaxx resistance, Booster embracing, testing woes like in 2020 only now with people demanding them in the same way they were refused them the first time, a shortage. Remember those days when you had to meet a standard that was akin to a small quiz that you inevitably failed. And with that we added a new phrase to our lexicon “super spreader” and not in a fun porno way. And currently in my new lab, aka bathroom, I have a collection of tests, from nasal swabs to spit collection that are sent to labs, as well as many types of quick tests I could get my hands on. I paid for some, some were free and some paid by insurance. Irony that on the 23rd I received a bill from RJ Barnabas Health a bill for a pharmacy visit. The only time I went to said facility (a public hospital literally a block away) was for my Covid vaccines in March and April of this year. With ID, Insurance Card and Cell phone in hand (all required or requested by them check their website) to get said Pfitzer shots I was assured that I would be fine to return to get my booster when that became available. And what was believed at the time to be approximately 10 months became a couple of months sooner and I had scheduled said follow up for next month. And then the bill arrived. Yes folks I got a bill for 60.01 dollars with a $20 adjustment, making the total bill $40.01. The bill said SINCE YOU ELECTED TO SELF PAY NO INSURANCE please pay make full payment or call us at a toll free number if you need to make arrangements. Really I did? And I do?

The Covid 19 Relief Bill passed in Congress in 2020 authorizes the Federal Government to pay for any testing and in turn amended to include vaccines and avoid any balance billing for Covid related costs in treatment, among other acts to support families and businesses affected by Covid. But the idea is that regardless of insurance, all Covid testing and vaccines are FREE. That treatments costs are debatable and there are many stories that I have written about that negate that issue but when it comes to the tests and vaccines we are sure that they are free. Again not so as I paid for several so I assume that they fall in a tax deduction in my case, but as of now my costs are minimal and my first at home round came back negative, so far so good. But it was preferable than waiting in endless lines surrounding by what I assume are sick people! Thought that then and still think that only now I am more sure of this and more concerned than I was two years ago.

So when I went online and posted my bill, I was called a liar repeatedly and told I was being taken for a ride among other verbal abuses that made me laugh. Yes folks we have come to the place in time where when something happens to us, it happens to everyone in the same way no matter where they are, who they are, you are right, they are wrong and nothing is different regardless. And with that I contacted Barnabas regarding the bill, the agent seemed surprised and started a dispute; HOWEVER, that still means I must pay in the interim. I contacted my insurer and in turn they had no record of billing or even that I had been vaccinated but as they had no bill they could not intervene or assist but they confirmed that yes, all Covid vaccinations were not part of conventional billing nor applicable to co-pay or deductibles. That said, effective Jan 1, 2022 any Covid treatments outside of testing and vaccines now fell under standard deductibles and copays. Good to know. And with that wrote the check to Barnabas, enclosed a copy of the law, my insurance information that they seemed to have misplaced and Priority Mailed it to them so that my booster shot would not be affected. Then I promptly went next door to my local pharmacy asked if they did booster shots, do they bill for them and how much they cost and could I do Moderna over Pfizter as I was mixing and matching. They informed me yes on the latter and no they don’t regarding the former. They had no idea what I was talking about and I showed them the bill. They were confused as wondered if I had used the Barnabas pharmacy that day for say another reason while there. Nope and the promptness of billing was odd as again, December when I was last there in April also seemed strange. And with that I made an appointment with them and canceled Barnabas. Why risk it. Then I went to coffee and my local Barista informed me her Grandmother had been billed as well and they auto deducted it from her bank account as she has an arrangement with them when it comes to her medications. Apparently Covid vaccine – her medication. With that I gave the kids the HHS site on filing a complaint as I had done only a few moments earlier after canceling my Booster shot. If I am one there are more than one others who are being billed these odd moderate amounts, paying with or even with question and those can add up quite nicely to fund a hospital. What is still interesting is why anyone does not believe me and are sure I am lying. To you I go, thanks for reminding me that America is full of morons and you are doing nothing to dispel that belief.

The year began when I threw down my Tarot Cards and the theme of the year was CHAOS. And as they say in New Orleans, TRUE DAT. I have been on the roller coaster through the rough rides, the climbs and the drops and with the last few days of the year coming to a close I am looking forward to a full stop. I am back working part time in the schools, the endless Covid notices, the now daily shootings here in Jersey City where the Mayor is oblivious, despite having immense time on his hands thanks to testing POS for Covid a few days ago. Maybe he could work on that or on the billion dollar infrastructure improvements needed to make this city safe from flooding and further damage due to his insatiable need to build testimony’s to big dicks in the sky that the developers love to do. As I live in a Kushner building I laughed when the company put out a full page WSJ ad thanking the banks for 41 Million dollars in lending to them to buy up existing apartment buildings in the South and SE to turn into expensive slums. Nothing says slum lord better than a Kushner building. They failed to mention the loans gained during Jared’s tenure in the White House. And this also includes the federal lending program of Freddie Mac, so yes we all pay for this. And this is why I refused to tip or do anything beyond my normal thanking behavior, which includes coffee, a treat or some such item that I buy or make to the staff here. Sorry, not sorry, after the major fuck up in my building over their mishandling my rent check. I was told repeatedly by the Mangeress of this building and her stooge assistant that they will help resolve this as a “courtesy.” Really you pieces of shit, doing your job is a courtesy? Well tipping is a courtesy so fuck that, I don’t enable a group of individuals nor compensate them for your failure to pay them a living wage or provide hazard pay during the early days of Covid. And failing to tell tenants that they were exposed by both residents and staff who had contracted it. Sorry, not sorry. Take an add out in the local paper on that one.

I feared what would happen did once the vaccines became available and with that the divisiveness and rage would permeate and the anger and fear that went unaddressed and untreated is now in full bloom. The inability to communicate rationally has only expanded as we see the issues still being faced with the January 6th Commission as more is revealed to the extent of how many elected officials participated and still do in some ways about overturning the election and threatening Democracy. Four Hours at the Capitol is a much watch HBO MAX documentary to see new footage and hear some new narratives when it comes to this issue. With that the New York Magazine did an excellent profile on three participants and their road taken since their journey to the capitol that fateful day.

And the year continues as it begun, with a new term of elections in the fall there are new people taking office and with that a new storm of events that will depend on where you live how well you will weather said storms. The great protests of 2020 seem long gone, along with some of the voices that were thought of calms during that storm are as well. The Cuomo brothers might say that 2021 was their annus horribilus as well in that they seem to show how the tides have turned. The reality is that the Police are back to killing without recourse, despite two trials that for those officers did provide some solace and sense of accountability, but those are two out of over 1,600 victims a year – three a day that die at the hands of Police.

And lastly it brings me to the other issues that we spent the year debating, Dave Chappell, Ghislaine Maxwell, Kyle Rittenhouse, Elizabeth Holmes and of course, Donald Trump. We will never stop talking about him and he loves that. That is all he cares about and yet we still pander to that asshole, why? So with that I hand it over Dave Barry in the Washington Post , he does an excellent recap of the year that for a week is still in the present.

I spent the better part of the last few weeks looking for charities that defined me. My love of theater was easy and then I looked to my other loves – animals, the environment, reading, being a woman and of course food. I donated to my local shelter and they called me to thank me and sent me the most adorable personalized card I donated more. The State of Kentucky that despite it all stood out and they too got a check, they are not all hicks and idiots. They are representative of the best and worst of us. I finally found a woman’s charity through all things a clothing line, they too took my first donation as I will never give one dime to RAIIN or any other rape or sexual assault organization as NONE helped so I cannot forgive and forget but I know that we have to put aside differences and build bridges and with that Joyful Heart got a check.

And while I have ended my year as I began this one, in anger and doubt, I still have a suspension bridge in use. I take a moment to find joy in what matters and share that with those in need. I have listed my favorites and I hope that you find time to do just that, build a bridge, open a door, a mind or a heart to someone somewhere you do not know. A stranger is just a friend you have not met – yet. Open a wallet and give it to the beggar on the street for one day you too may need a hand so why no proffer one. To the end of the year I say thank fucking Sky Daddy or God or whatever you want to call him/her. And look forward to a new year of health and wealth and finding the road you want to travel.

MTC (theater)

Salvation Army

The Whitney Museum

MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)

KNKX (Seattle Jazz Station)

WNET/PBS

High Line

The Met Museum

Governor’s Island

Human Rights Camp.

Roundabout Theater

Metropolitan Opera

WGBO (Jazz Public Radio)

Lincoln Center

Water Festival

Brooklyn Museum

ProPublica

KEXP (Seattle Radio)

WETA (Wash DC Public Classic radio)

City Center

Southern Poverty Law

God’s Love we Deliver

NOW – National Org. Women

Central Park Conservator

League Women Voters

NJPAC (Newark Theater)

Cherry Lane Theater

Planned Parenthood

World Kitchen

World Wildlife Fund

Trevor Project

Woodland Park Zoo

BAM (Brooklyn Arts Music)

St. Ann’s Warehouse (Theater)

Classic Stage Company

Actors Fund (AIDS Theater Charity)

Park Amory

National Geographic

York Street Project

City Harvest

Room to Read

Ctr Reproductive Rights

SavetheMusic

92nd St Y

Kentucky Relief

Joyful Heart

Liberty Humane Society

Amnesty Intl

Center Culinary Culture

Charities I donated to this year.

Right or Wrong

We have an insatiable need to be right and therefore anyone who challenges us or makes us feel wrong we want to lash out and do damage to right the wrong we feel. I get the scorched earth policy as I frankly react that if you fuck my pussy or my money I will come after you, anything else is frankly not worth my time. It is just how I do so that makes it less a dish best served cold or one that is how I like my Latte’s – hot.

Of late I am trying to at least sort of mend a bridge that I may or may not cross again but like an escape option. The first was the asshole who exposed me to Covid, and did so knowingly without ever admitting that he did and apologizing. I had coffee with him the other day to see what he would finally admit after over 18 months of Covid denying, anti mask rhetoric and of course anti Vaccine messaging that I heard from him in March of this year, a year nearly to the day he exposed me and the Barista at the coffee shop that day he went for testing. I had followed up with him after that day asking about his test and got a jumbled answer and vague admission that his wife had tested positive, which I knew immediately he had as well given what I understood of transmission and the efficacy rates of the virus. I knew I was actually okay as I was outside when we spoke that day and he did sort of have a mask on and was well withing the six feet distancing that was being encouraged/promoted; However, I was not sure what transpired in the shop while waiting to and for his order. The shop had cross ventilation with two doors and I had been insistent that they open them all the time, day after day to prevent any gas accumulation that could have the virus. You know the droplet thing well liquid into gas and all and that I have known from early on this was an airborne virus like TB which they finally admitted is as well. Covid only took a year or so before that so that is progress.

So upon the exit of his beverages to go to the testing site, as who doesn’t stop for takeout enroute to a test that was at that point life threatening and highly contagious, I went inside and told Ben to get tested ASAP and I went to the walk in clinic near my home to make an appointment within the next 72 hours. Again, this is not a disease that takes 14 days from exposure to symptomatic. Most diseases are within a three day time frame and this number is random and of course given what anyone knew that seemed reasonable and hence lent to the confusion that the lockdowns would be that long. Whoops! I went in 48 hours after exposure and tested negative but I definitely tested positive when it came to anger. And when I saw him a year later I was still pissed and we had a polite exchange on the street but still no admission until now. And with that I elected to keep my anger in check and discuss the logic behind some of Covid that led to the confusion, largely how the virus came into existence and that we will never know but we will be doing this forever. His anti mask vaxx position I knew so I only spoke of myself and my feelings about protecting myself and with that protecting others so I will not be responsible for another getting ill, even inadvertently. I saw the seed being planted and I went on discussing the variations in vaccine types and how they are equally safe but fundamentally different when it comes to the MRna versus the J&J one and that there are no cures only treatments which are no less experimental and equal in percent when it comes to healing this very random disease that seems to affect every BODY in varying ways. And there was another click of the switch and I was done. I have no intention of spending anytime in his company in the future, but if I do run into him I can be polite and move on without maintaining the anger that dominated my feelings about this man over the last 18 months. He is not worth it and what is tragic is that he had Covid, his wife did, and in turn his Brother-in-law and his Father-in-Law contracted it, which could have had a much more tragic ending. Maybe he will get it but there is a Reddit forum on how so many did not and they are now being laughed and mocked at. Talk about a nice memorium. Sorry, but Colin Powell had serious health issues, took a risk was vaccinated and given his health it was not enough and it killed him. That he is also a Black man does make me wonder why the Brown/Black community is so devastated by Covid and is there more to this than pre-existing conditions. Is there a cellular issue the science community is missing. And with that when the Asshole told me of his great second Uncle once removed whom he never speaks do but did the same and died too, I just said, “Well Colin Powell did as well so there you go, nothing is 100% so I would still risk a preventative over a treatment that is about the same odds.” And with that I tried to end my persuasive talk about being pro mask/vaccine as duty to the larger good, to children and to family and that is not politics in the least, it is just good sense.

The same goes with that woman neighbor who was all against Dave Chappelle and the mountain made over a show she never watched but knew that her social media “friends” (as I am sure that is what defines her social circle) had told her about and were right. Yes said the angry Trans woman who had been bashing Asians until 2018 and said she was in a “bad place.” Really? So when you are in a good place you are not a screaming Racist? That is some kind of weird on and off switch. I don’t swill a glass of wine then suddenly go all Insurrectionist and demand that Trump be President. That is a bad place I will never go. But I reached out with my copy of the Hilton family that pretty much trashes Kathy Hilton and her family. Juicy and hilarious and worth the 45 bucks I paid for this. I could tell she was very nervous with my sudden appearance and I offered to loan it to her upon completion and that I had on backorder the other tome about the Housewives that allege more bizarre antics and behaviors by the Fraus. It was like talking to the Dental Hygienist about your dental care and you fake concern and nod with the intent of improving your flossing technique and immediately being relieved when that ends and going back to your regular routine once out of the office.

Again, I have no reason to be angry at her as I wasn’t the evening she walked out of the dinner, she paid the check and I finished my wine in quiet. I admittedly lost my patience with her and had residual anger over an issue I share below, and in turn had a discussion that I should never have bothered nor disclosed my personal history to someone not worthy of sharing it to. What is the truth was that actually going in the first place as I have really not loved her company, it was a distraction during this time where I had so little sane encounters even ones that resemble one I will take. This is of course violating my No Compromises mantra I have decided to follow but again I am trying to find ones that work in that confine and in turn do little damage to my own health and sanity. She did neither really and of the two the fucker with Covid (aka The Asshole) still sits number one on the list but if I was willing to bury the hatchet, not in his head at least, only symbolically, as he has never nor will apologize for what his actions could have caused and never will. And with our “friendship” ends on my terms, so no I did not compromise. I confirmed what I suspected, he is moron and yes an asshole. The end.

So as with regards to my neighbor, will I drop of the Hilton book as promised? Yes and that is because I do what I promise and I hold no anger to a woman whom I am simply not that vested in. I do not know her last name, her telephone number or anything of import and frankly I care even less about what I do know, she is not that interesting nor intelligent. A diversion does not merit that much emotion so you move on. But gestures are larger than words and I have none for her.

But the last exchange is one that I cannot and that is the Management or what acts as such, is that of my building owned by the Kushner Company. Given what has transpired over the last two years I am pretty sure that this company that is no longer run by Jared, still however, shows how badly managed and run this company is overall. The building is run by an utter Bitch, not one employee current or former, have anything good to say about her. Those that remain are enablers of said dysfunction and are equally co-dependent on this type of behavior or why are they still here? The new CEO may sweep clean but he has been President and acting in the role for the past few years while Jared was pretending to be the President’s right hand and it there we see that hand is to say the least crippled if not utterly useless. It explains a lot right there.

On October 11 ( a banking holiday no less) I received. threatening letter from the management. Of course it is not personal one iota as it was addressed to DEAR TENANT. But in the email and the attached letter it was passive aggressive and of course questionable as to the act they were planning for my missing rent check, as currently in New Jersey the eviction moratorium stands. Needless to say I was hysterical as I pulled up my bank statement and Bill Pay and saw the Check cut and disbursed on Sept 20th. Okay I contact the Assistant Manager to ask what this means as it appears my check is lost in the mail. And with current Postal Slow downs I thought I built in the lag time to get it there well beyond the cut off date, which is five days after the due date. But alas now, here it is 10 days later and this is alarming in the best of times and these are not good times. Oh wait can I do a racist rant here? As again all of these people are not white so maybe that is it? No. But in the course of two weeks this went on and on where the check was found, immediately after I had cancelled said check, then in turn they tried to cash said check which was rejected, so they in turn sent me another threatening letter with more fines and fees. So wait, you had the check, misplaced it was in fact delivered late as all mail is recorded with a stamp upon arrival, so you went ahead and tried to cash it even though you had already cashed the other check I submitted to replace said check? This went on in a circle fuck for two weeks.

Check cut, check mailed on 10/20, did not arrive or did arrive before 18 but lost, notified on 10/11 that check not there. On 10/12 cut new check but then new check was there and 10/13 tried to return new check as they had the original check but that was cancelled on 10/12 as per the instructions of the Assistant Manager. Who had the new check, never bothered to send/deliver it to Accounting. 10/15 reissued check cleared. 10/25 received note from accounting that check that should have been voided and cancelled was in fact attempted to be deposited and failed to do so, so now being charged NSF fee. Then it began a round of email that terminated on 10/27 with me threatening to call an Attorney to resolve this. As the emails from the Accountant and the now Apartment Manager, as the Assistant has excused himself from this, telling me for what amounts to the third time, my rent is due on the 1st, if not received by the 5th late fees are charged and that they excused it this time as a courtesy and that I needed to get my rent in no later than that regardless of their error or post office delays. The term courtesy is again debatable is that again doing one’s job is not a courtesy, nor is removing said fines as we can never really tell who or what was at fault here, so let’s file this under shit happens and move on. Taking checks, filing paperwork is not something they apparently do here so I see why they see it as a “courtesy.”

Well folks as this was all going on I had already submitted my Nov rent on the 20th of October via Bill Pay and sure enough on October 28th, the check cleared. Exactly what the bank had informed me that during the tracing efforts they could see that at most it was a seven day delivery schedule with a day for them to handle/process said check. So where was the October check cut on 9/20 and likely delivered no later than October 7th? Hell if know but that is where the cookie crumbles with regards to KRE. The management of the building does not communicate with the headquarters or the accounting department, they do not process or handle any paperwork or checks for tenants and do from what I can tell little to accommodate said tenants but deny responsibility and lay blame. And when they do their job they do it with a script in hand and offer it as a favor. In other words the doppelganger to the Trump Administration and you see why and how Jared and his lovely wife were often called the “Interns.”

** I also edit to add this info, during Covid’s early stages in 2020 there were at least two units infected, that I knew on the downlow from a staff member. There was another that infected a staff member knowingly and seemingly oblivious in denial the same way my Asshole was. That staff member was never tested as he did not fit the absurd lengthy specific criteria one needed to be tested at public sites. He went to his private Doctor who had no test but was sure he was sick. After 48 hours he was showing full signs and went into quarantine per the Doctor’s instructions. He never confirmed said diagnosis until after the 14 day period passed, he was feeling better and went to the city facility that confirmed he had antibodies and that they indicated a recent infection. The building management did not contact trace or track, never set out notices and information that staff and neighbors were positive and in turn failed to protect the tenants. There were other staff members who were also infected and thanks to the former staff who I also looked after were very vocal about the tenants and staff whom they knew were no goes on the list. This is a Kushner Building, does it explain much? It should****

I leave this building in April of next year and I look forward to moving out of Jersey City. This is a transient community of larger commuter who have no interest in the city other than flop housing in the numerous expensive transient housing being constructed throughout the city to appease the developers that the Mayor is beholden. That is the case of many cities that have been designated “it” prior to and during the pandemic. The shady shit that I saw in Nashville followed me like a hurricane here and I am moving to less popular areas that have no cool third rate bars or restaurants. And trust me folks the food and bar scene here lacks, no this is not the 5th Borough or whatever bullshit hype the City pimps. Manhattan has recovered with regards to housing and it will only follow with business sooner versus later, despite what one hears, it is still fucking Manhattan. And with that I know I am not wrong.

And as I end this rant, I watched another Netflix comedy special, Bo Burnham, Inside. It was far more entertaining, provocative and frankly more clever as he filmed himself during the lockdown as he delved into his version of documenting his sanity or at least maintenance of it. But one thing he said during his riffs, was that people cannot stop sharing their opinion and they do it regardless of sense or purpose. And with that is comment one thinks when I hear “cancel culture.” He has not been without his detractors and criticisms and in reality you like it or you don’t. What it doesn’t make you is a “ist” a person who suddenly caught white male privilege, homophobia or whatever screed their act is doing to enrage or amuse. I said this to the asshole (who will always be called that in private) who could have transmitted me Covid: “We are on a very different spectrum when it comes to Covid and the issues that surround this pandemic, but I can find a bridge, a rather long one to cross with many views and I can take them all in. And hence I welcome the chance to hear or see the view from your eyes. But ultimately none of them will likely affect my crossing and reaching my destination.”

And that is why we have to accept that on life’s crossing bridges there are delays, by intent, by accident or just because the journey is a long one and hearing a fellow traveler’s story does not change the journey or the end, just the middle, so take a break an LISTEN for awhile then move on.

A Shit Show

I think of that phrase in application to many things, a bad program on television or a chaotic attempt to do something that failed miserably and that sums up the Covid response with regards to the Trump Administration. The daily shit shows or as I called them the lottery drawings held by both the Idiot in the White House or Crazy Dopey Grandfather and the varying Governors across the Country rivaled in their sheer level of arrogance and idiocy, the Siamese twins of Covid response. I cannot say what I found more repellent, the daily scolding by Cuomo and the parroting by Murphy in New Jersey with DiBlasio coming in to remind them of his dick size or that the day end was marked by some incoherent rambling with Igor and the Bride standing by making medicine taste bad faces, standing alongside the rotating crew of cheerleaders and others to somehow defend, support or just be there in case of some medical/personal mishap that would require their expertise. It was a debacle and while Rome burned the idiot fiddled. Now which idiot is debatable as we also have the Siamese Twins of Pence and Jared Kushner who were also assigned responsibilities and duties regarding allocation of resources, establishing testing sites and coordinating with states and hospitals to assure them help was on the way. Only it wasn’t.

When the Commission inevitably established on both federal and state levels begin to look back and examine the massive failures with regards to the protocol, the massive executive orders and of course the number of dead, known and unknown, and of course the economic failures that resulted from this shit show I suspect even then the truth will be buried with the ever increasing dead from Covid. And Americans are becoming immune not to Covid but to that fact as they race around the clock like Bill Haley to also ignore protocols and lie about their own failings and health. Whose Bill Haley you ask? Well that will be a common refrain soon enough when it comes to asking, whatever happened to…?

I have shared numerous articles about how events became superspreaders and in turn when did we know, how did we know, when did we believe or learn how Covid came to U.S. shores and the aftermath of what followed as we tracked the virus across the country and the globe. And we have much to learn still. Anyone who thinks we have a robust tracking and tracing program think again as in the current pandemic bill awaiting CDG signature is in fact funding for said programs as they lack. A subject I have also covered and in fact applied for a position and since learned that there is no said position as there is no actual program. I validated this when a friend found a co-worker had been tested POS and she contracted it from a family member who arranged a photo shoot and neglected to mention their own pending test that had yet come back but while waiting went ahead with their plans assuming what? Testing NEG? Well shocking, no, not really. They weren’t, but by then the damage done and of the attendees she was one who managed to get the luck of the draw. Again at this point we know transference is 1:3 but with the new strain it may in fact be more extensive and may rival its competitors, like Whooping Cough (1:4) or Measles (1:7). Either way who the fuck plans anything when they have no confirmation about their tests? What is wrong with you fucking idiot, there is optimism and there is stupidity. Clearly we know that most people fall into the latter versus the former on that one. And were any of this person’s co-workers contacted by the tracking agency? No. Why? There is not one and what exists is an extremely poorly trained and coordinated one, a problem that exists in most cities and countries. And now on the verge of a preventative drug I don’t think this will improve it will in fact utterly kill off that too. Man Covid is deadly.

I suspect the vaccine rollout to be comparable to the testing rollout, in other words as fucked up as that was only without the addition of Kushner to further screw it up. That doesn’t mean there will be anyone in place January 20th to assume the role of Covid Czar and be able to quickly assemble a team, a plan and in turn create a logistical plan that will ensure parity of distribution across state lines. Not.going.to.happen.

We have “recommendations” and suggestions but right now it is quite interesting to see varying GOP delegates who eschewed much of Covid’s havoc, line up and get their first shot, with of course the medical professionals as they get theirs being the actual and critical front line workers who are most at risk. Round two will more of a challenge as who defines “essential worker” and how they in turn will be assigned to receive their inoculation. That will end badly and the last rollout will be to the general public and once again will be a cluster fuck of a shit show with how that be allocated. Expect the 1% to buy theirs with their drug cocktails that can treat Covid successfully and in turn allow them to retire to their second homes to await the rest of the world’s eventual turn. In other words we are still fucked but some lube is available, just how we get it is another matter. It sure as hell won’t be in the numerous tubs like hand sanitizer found everywhere, that much is sure. It will be more like toilet paper, hoarded and stashed. The next set of Siamese Twins – Access and Availability. Aka the rich versus the poor, income meet inequality.

The next step is trying to find the light in the dark for the vaccination process is two fold, two shots over 28 days and during the interim and following there is to be the same protocol that we may or may not have followed earlier. Again this too is confusing and deliberately so to force compliance without understanding. The endless contradictions, misinformation, and continual changing of the guard as if that somehow is a way to build trust and secure safety is absurd. Let us not forget the overall behavior of many elected officials and that of Birx of Frankenstein whose own actions contradicted their messages. How was that dinner at the French Laundry, Gavin?

What this is about is idiocy and a lack of knowledge about basic science. Again a virus that transmits itself is like all others, close contact, prolonged exposure and of course the ability of access via numbers. In and of itself it cannot exist in a transient state. I have yet to hear anything otherwise to change that view, so I seriously doubt it flies across a room over 27 feet, lands on Amazon packages and enters your home that way or simply lays dormant in the body for 14 days and then just vacates the premises without so much as a genital wart, herpes it ain’t. And yes there are vaccines that work more quickly today thanks to the money flooding in its direction, the eyes and hands all touching (gloved of course) the endless samples and the ability to roll out a massive testing protocol as there are ample volunteers who want to do right by the world. But then again Science in not perfect, infallible or without its own inherent bias. This is why the Brown/Black community are concerned as they have been victims in many ways by the mishandling of medicine. And we have yet to test the virus on children and given the angst of the anti-vaxx crowd there will be many who simply refuse. As for the MAGA group they will be just like the rest of the GOP, lining up for there free shot and decrying government handouts all at the same time. Too bad, social Darwinism would have had a hell of test there.

Below is an article about the failures and malfeseance of our Government and the lack of leadership that led to what we have today. Over 300K dead and a vaccine that will not reach the greater good for months or longer to reach “herd immunity.”

Dire PPE shortages. Limited Covid tests. Political negligence. A Guardian/KHN investigation reveals what went wrong

Christina Jewett and Robert Lewis |Guardian | Wed 23 Dec 2020 \

Workers at Garfield medical center in suburban Los Angeles were on edge as the pandemic ramped up in March and April. Staffers in a 30-patient unit were rationing a single tub of sanitizing wipes all day. A May memo from the chief executive said N95 masks could be cleaned up to 20 times before replacement.

Patients showed up Covid-negative but some still developed symptoms a few days later. Contact tracing took the form of texts and whispers about exposures.

By summer, frustration gave way to fear. At least 60 staff members at the 210-bed community hospital caught Covid-19, according to records obtained by KHN and interviews with eight staff members and others familiar with hospital operations.

The first to die was Dawei Liang, 60, a quiet radiology technician who never said “no” when a colleague needed help. A cardiology technician became infected and changed his final wishes – agreeing to intubation – hoping for more years to dote on his grandchildren.

Few felt safe.

Ten months into the pandemic, it has become far clearer why tens of thousands of healthcare workers have been infected by the virus and why so many have died: dire PPE shortages. Limited Covid tests. Sparse tracking of viral spread. Layers of flawed policies handed down by healthcare executives and politicians, and lax enforcement by government regulators.

All of those breakdowns, across cities and states, have contributed to the deaths of more than 2,900 healthcare workers, a nine-month investigation by over 70 reporters at KHN and the Guardian has found. This number is far higher than that reported by the US government, which does not have a comprehensive national count.

The healthcare worker fatalities have skewed young, with the majority under age 60 in the cases for which there is age data. People of color were disproportionately affected, and account for about 65% of fatalities in cases in which there is race and ethnicity data. After conducting interviews with relatives and friends of about 300 victims, Guardian and KHN learned that one-third of the deaths involved concerns over inadequate PPE.

Many of the deaths occurred in New York and New Jersey, and significant numbers also died in southern and western states as the pandemic wore on.

Workers at well-funded academic medical centers – hubs of policymaking clout and prestigious research – were largely spared. Those who died tended to work in less prestigious community hospitals like Garfield, nursing homes and other health centers in roles where access to critical information was low and patient contact was high.

Garfield medical center and its parent company, AHMC Healthcare, did not respond to multiple calls or emails regarding workers’ concerns and circumstances leading to the worker deaths.

So as 2020 draws to a close, we ask: did so many of the nation’s healthcare workers have to die?

New York’s warning for the nation

The seeds of the crisis can be found in New York and the surrounding cities and suburbs. It was the region where the profound risks facing medical staff became clear. And it was here where the most died.

As the pandemic began its US surge, city paramedics were out in force, their sirens cutting through eerily empty streets as they rushed patients to hospitals. Carlos Lizcano, a blunt Queens native who had been with the fire department for two decades, was one of them.

He was answering four to five cardiac arrest calls every shift. Normally he would have fielded that many in a month. He remembers being stretched so thin he had to enlist a dying man’s son to help with CPR. On another call, he did chest compressions on a 33-year-old woman while her two small children stood in the doorway of a small apartment.

“I just have this memory of those kids looking at us like: ‘What’s going on?’”

After the young woman died, Lizcano went outside and punched the ambulance in frustration and grief.

The personal risks paramedics faced were grave.

More than 40% of emergency medical service workers in the New York fire department (FDNY) went on leave for confirmed or suspected coronavirus during the first three months of the pandemic, according to a study by the department’s chief medical officer and others.

In fact, healthcare workers were three times more likely than the general public to get Covid-19, other researchers found. And the risks were not equally spread among medical professions. Initially CDC guidelines were written to afford the highest protection to workers in a hospital’s Covid-19 unit.

Yet months later, it was clear that the doctors initially thought to be at most risk – anesthesiologists and those working in the ICU – were among the least likely to die. This could be due to better PPE or patients being less infectious by the time they reach the ICU.

Instead scientists discovered that “frontdoor” health workers such as paramedics and those in acute-care “receiving” roles – such as in the emergency room – were twice as likely as other healthcare workers to be hospitalized with Covid-19.

For FDNY first responders, part of the problem was having to ration and reuse masks. Workers were blind to an invisible threat that would be recognized months later: the virus spread rapidly from pre-symptomatic people and among those with no symptoms at all.

In mid-March, Lizcano was one of thousands of FDNY first responders infected with Covid-19.

At least four of them died, city records show. They were among the 679 healthcare workers who have died in New York and New Jersey to date, most at the height of the terrible first wave of the virus.

“Initially we didn’t think it was this bad,” Lizcano said, recalling the confusion and chaos of the early pandemic. “This city wasn’t prepared.”

Neither was the rest of the country.

Silence from the government

The virus continued to spread like a ghost through the nation and proved deadly to workers who were among the first to encounter sick patients in their hospitals or nursing homes. One government agency had a unique vantage point into the problem, but did little to use its power to cite employers – or speak out about the hazards.

Health employers had a mandate to report worker deaths and hospitalizations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha).

When they did so, the report went to an agency headed by Eugene Scalia, son of the conservative supreme court justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016. The younger Scalia had spent part of his career as a corporate lawyer fighting the very agency he was charged with leading.

Its inspectors have documented instances in which some of the most vulnerable workers – those with low information and high patient contact – faced incredible hazards, but Osha’s staff did little to hold employers to account.

Beaumont, Texas, a town near the Louisiana border, was largely untouched by the pandemic in early April.

That’s when a 56-year-old physical therapy assistant at Christus Health St Elizabeth hospital named Danny Marks called in sick with a fever and body aches, federal Osha records show.

He told a human resources employee that he had been in the room of a patient who was receiving a breathing treatment – the type known as the most hazardous to health workers. The CDC advises N95 respirators be used by all in the room for the so-called “aerosol-generating” procedures. (A facility spokesperson said the patient was not known or suspected to have Covid at the time Marks entered the room.)

Marks went home to quarantine. By 17 April he was dead.

The patient whose room Marks entered later tested positive for Covid-19. And an Osha investigation into Marks’ death found there was no sign on the door to warn him that a potentially infected patient was inside, nor was there a cart outside the room where he could grab protective gear.

The facility did not have a universal masking policy in effect when Marks went into the room, and it was more than likely that he was not wearing any respiratory protection, according to a copy of the report obtained through a public records request. Twenty-one more employees had contracted Covid by the time he died.

“He was a beloved gentleman and friend and he is missed very much,” Katy Kiser, Christus’s public relations director, told KHN.

Osha did not issue a citation to the facility, instead recommending safety changes.

The agency logged nearly 8,700 complaints from healthcare workers in 2020. Yet Harvard researchers found that some of those desperate pleas for help, often decrying shortages of PPE, did little to forestall harm. In fact, they concluded that surges in those complaints preceded increases in deaths among working-age adults 16 days later.

One report author, Peg Seminario, blasted Osha for failing to use its power to get employers’ attention about the danger facing health workers. She said issuing big fines in high-profile cases could have a broad impact – but Osha had not done so.

“There’s no accountability for failing to protect workers from exposure to this deadly virus,” said Seminario, a former union health and safety official.

A dangerous lack of protective equipment

There was little outward sign this summer that Garfield medical center was struggling to contain Covid-19. While Medicare has forced nursing homes to report staff infections and deaths, no such requirement applies to hospitals.

Yet as the focus of the pandemic moved from the east coast in the spring to southern and western states, healthcare worker deaths climbed. And behind the scenes at Garfield, workers were dealing with a lack of equipment meant to keep them safe.

Complaints to state worker-safety officials filed in March and April said Garfield medical center workers were asked to reuse the same N95 respirator for a week. Another complaint said workers ran out of medical gowns and were directed to use less-protective gowns typically provided to patients.

Staffers were shaken by the death of Dawei Liang. And only after his death and a rash of infections did Garfield provide N95 masks to more workers and put up plastic tarps to block a Covid unit from an adjacent ward. And this may have been too late.

Covid can easily spread to every corner of a hospital. Researchers in South Africa traced 119 cases in a hospital – 80 among staff – to a single ER patient. Those included 62 nurses from neurology, surgical and general medical units that typically would not have housed Covid patients.

By late July, Thong Nguyen, 73, a Garfield cardiac and respiratory technician, learned he was Covid-positive days after he collapsed at work. Nguyen loved his job and was typically not one to complain, said his youngest daughter, Dinh Kozuki. A 34-year veteran at the hospital, he was known for conducting medical tests in multiple languages. His colleagues teased him, saying he was never going to retire.

Kozuki said her father spoke up in March about protective gear rationing but his concerns were not allayed.

The PPE problems at Garfield were a symptom of a broader problem. As the virus spread around the nation, chronic shortages of protective gear left many workers in community-based settings fatally exposed. Nearly one in three family members or friends of about 300 healthcare workers interviewed by KHN or the Guardian expressed concerns about a fallen worker’s PPE.

Healthcare workers’ labor unions asked for the more-protective N95 respirators when the pandemic began. But Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines said the unfitted surgical masks worn by workers who feed, bathe and lift Covid-19 patients were adequate amid supply shortages.

Mary Turner, the Minnesota Nurses Association president and an ICU nurse, said she protested alongside nurses all summer demanding better protective gear, which she said was often kept from workers because of supply chain shortages and the lack of political will to fix them.

“It shouldn’t have to be that way,” Turner said. “We shouldn’t have to beg on the streets for protection during a pandemic.”

At Garfield, it was even hard to get tested at the facility. Tony Ramirez, a critical care technician, said he had started feeling ill on 12 July. He had an idea of how he might have been exposed: he had cleaned up urine and feces of a patient suspected of having Covid and worked alongside two staffers who also turned out to be Covid-positive. At the time, he had been wearing a surgical mask and had worried that it was not protecting him.

Yet he was denied a free test at the hospital, and went on his own time to Dodger Stadium to get one. His positive result came back a few days later. https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ChHh1rFAPA8?wmode=opaque&feature=oembed Facebook Twitter Pinterest

As Ramirez rested at home, he texted Alex Palomo, 44, a Garfield medical secretary who was also at home with Covid, to see how he was doing. Palomo was the kind of man who came to many family parties but would always slip away unseen. A cousin finally asked him about it: Palomo said he just hated to say goodbye.

Palomo would wear only a surgical mask when he would go into the rooms of patients with flashing call lights, chat with them and maybe bring them a refill of water, Ramirez said.

Ramirez added that Palomo had no access to patient charts, so he would not have known which patients had Covid: “In essence, he was helping blindly,” he said. Advertisementhttps://323e8577c39618342f3fceee3be3b764.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

Palomo never answered the text. He died of Covid-19 on 14 August.

And Thong Nguyen had fared no better. His daughter, a hospital pharmacist in Fresno, had pressed him to go on a ventilator after seeing other patients survive with the treatment. It might mean he could retire and watch his grandkids grow up. But it made no difference.

“He definitely should not have passed [away],” Kozuki said.

Nursing homes devastated

During the summer, as nursing homes recovered from their spring surge, Heather Pagano got a new assignment. The Doctors Without Borders humanitarianism adviser had been working in cholera clinics in Nigeria. In May she arrived in south-eastern Michigan to train nursing home staff on optimal infection-control techniques.

Federal officials required worker death reports from nursing homes, which by December tallied more than 1,100 fatalities. Researchers in Minnesota found particular hazards for these health workers, concluding they were the ones most at risk of getting Covid-19.

Pagano learned that staffers were repurposing trash bin liners and going to the local Sherwin-Williams store for painting coveralls to backfill shortages of medical gowns. The least-trained clinical workers, nursing assistants, were doing the most hazardous jobs, turning and cleaning patients and brushing their teeth.

She said nursing home leaders were shuffling reams of federal, state and local guidelines, yet had little understanding of how to stop the virus from spreading.

“No one sent trainers to show people what to do, practically speaking,” she said.

As the pandemic wore on, nursing homes reported staff shortages getting worse by the week: few wanted to put their lives on the line for $13 an hour, the wage for nursing assistants in many parts of the US.

The organization GetusPPE, formed by doctors to address shortages, saw almost all requests for help were coming from nursing homes, doctors’ offices and other non-hospital facilities. Only 12% of the requests could be fulfilled, its October report says.

A pandemic-weary and science-wary public has fueled the virus’s spread. In fact, whether or not a nursing home was properly staffed played only a small role in determining its susceptibility to a lethal outbreak, the University of Chicago public health professor Tamara Konetzka found. The crucial factor was whether there was widespread viral transmission in the surrounding community. Advertisementhttps://323e8577c39618342f3fceee3be3b764.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

“In the end, the story has pretty much stayed the same,” Konetzka said. “Nursing homes in virus hotspots are at high risk and there’s very little they can do to keep the virus out.”

The vaccine arrives

From March through November, 40 complaints were filed about the Garfield medical center with the California department of public health, nearly three times the statewide average for the time. State officials substantiated 11 complaints and said they were part of an ongoing inspection.

For Thanksgiving, the AHMC Healthcare chairman, Jonathan Wu, sent hospital staff a letter thanking “frontline healthcare workers who continue to serve, selflessly exposing themselves to the virus so that others may cope, recover and survive”.

The letter made no mention of the workers who had died. “A lot of people were upset by that,” said Melissa Ennis, a critical care technician. “I was upset.”

By December, all workers were required to wear N95 respirators in every corner of the hospital, she said. Ennis said she felt unnerved taking it off. She took breaks to eat and drink in her car.

Garfield said on its website that it was screening patients for the virus and will “implement infection prevention and control practices to protect our patients, visitors, and staff”.

On 9 December Ennis received notice that the vaccine was on its way to Garfield. Nationwide, the vaccine brought health workers relief from months of tension. Nurses and doctors posted photos of themselves weeping and holding their small children.

But it proved too late for some. A new surge of deaths drove the toll among health workers to more than 2,900.

And before Ennis could get the shot, she learned she would have to wait at least a few more days, until she could get a Covid test.

She found out she had been exposed to the virus by a colleague.

Covid Chronicles – The Holiday Edition

With about two weeks left to Christmas and the inevitable third wave or fourth depending on who is counting.. again we had Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day and Thanksgiving. We we warned repeatedly during each to stay long and distant and while Covid spiked in some places it declined in others and round and round we went bringing us all back to ground zero with the same hysterical warnings, the same threats, the increasing numbers of hospitalizations and deaths which have never stopped while all the world’s a stage and we are all players in this macabre scenario that reminds me of the Jerry Lewis telethon of my youth, with the never ending pleading, begging, and tears just to remember the ones being lost to a disease that could be cured. That is what we need America, a COVID telethon! Dolly Parton would be the perfect host as she is already a winner in the Covid Chronicles donating a cool Million to Vanderbilt one of the hospitals working with Big Pharma on the vaccine.

And that is where we are America the roll out of vaccine number one to hot spots in America. Undoubtedly Jared Kushner who really showed his talents and gifts for crisis management during the nascent days with the PPE and Ventilator distribution issues will perhaps hopefully take a backseat on this one and let professionals take over to distribute the drugs to those in need. Remember those days with naval ships arriving in ports, field hospitals being erected in convention centers and the charity tents in public parks? Good times folks as those numbers of cases handled and the outcomes are still in question and the costs have yet to be fully explained on how and why many hospitals remained under utilized while others were maxed out with portable tents in parking lots and refrigerator trucks for the dead left on side streets by dumpsters which became a rather significant marker to explain how we were handling Covid in Phase One.

We have had several months to improve and centralize communications, to figure out how to educate and operate schools, how to handle crowd control and compliance and yet we have done fuck all nothing other than posture and threaten. It is working out great, or not.

The issues of self responsibility continue as now violence has begun on the streets over the failed re-election of the Dr. Frankenstein who has no interest in the continuing crisis and once again Governors are assuming control, co-opting Igor for their own agenda and like the media whore he is he simply pipes in supportive yet cautious remarks which mean nothing except to remind everyone to mask up. I recall that same messaging from him back in the 80’s, no love without a glove or something like that. While I do respect Fauci I feel he is not who we need to reach a younger and more diverse audience especially faces of color and those who are not well into Science. This has been another of the more insidious issues using Fauci and Birx two white Seniors to somehow communicate to the Tik Tok age and find a voice in those larger at-risk groups that are not old folks. Fauci’s recent affirmation with Big Daddy Bully Cuomo to close restaurants with no data to back this up is again another issue across the country in California that evoked the same mandate. There is so little real contact tracing and tracking that few believe indoor dining is the cause and reason behind the uptick when the last stat mentioned by Cuomo was that 76% of the cases were tied to “small gatherings.” Okay so they were where? Homes or in a public place or again the big perp – Churches – where they can no longer mandate closures on thanks to the Supreme Court. Again, here is where religious leaders would be an effective messengers to talk to those about how one can still be a participant in a religious community without the need to congregate in a specific place. But nope, crickets.

So we can keep schools open despite the fact that few educators wish to keep open but the consultants and policy wonks and those parents who hate caring for their kids see otherwise. The constant citing of statements like “falling behind” or the “lost generation” have been used to somehow validate that opening schools and allowing full attendance is the key to something, that something again seems economic in value and not about health and safety of those who work inside said buildings, you know the Teachers and Admins as well as all the other back of the house players who keep schools operating. You know that village thing.

I have always thought it was odd that the only data we ever hear are the positive cases, the number of hospitalizations and deaths. We have no idea how many are tested a day, what the status of thier case was/is and the number of recovered. Europe does provide that but even ages, gender race are not given. If we had a robust contract tracking and tracing we would but we don’t. Jared get on that you must have time on your hands.

The overwhelming failure by our Government be it on the Federal or State level is quite clear and it is why there is little compliance and at times sheer confusion as to what the current protocol is to be on a daily basis with now the incoming Administration adding their two cents further confusing and infuriating the Trumptards.

As for the media they do their best to further lend a voice not needed to the din with their endless stating conflicting studies and data that have not been vetted and tested to the level that should be before reporting. Facts matter and the most bizarre story was one in The Washington Post about South Korea finding a patron who contracted Covid in a restaurant with limited exposure of a scant 5 minutes from another seated over 23 feet away. Really? Of course that story was a rewrite of an LA Times story. No mention in either about possible extenuating circumstances or full examination of the strain verifying it through DNA testing and complete tracking/tracing of all the participants movements, their exposures to others? Wow that South Korea is amazing that is K Pop level shit right there. Or not. The article had no South Korean sources other than a person NOT involved in the study.. okay then. As for the American scientists and doctors contacted had doubt, one saying this:

“The problem that you tend to have is one of missing information,” says Richard Martinello, an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine and a specialist in adult and pediatric infectious diseases.“They may know well what happened within that restaurant,” Martinello adds, “but they don’t know what happened on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. They don’t know what happened back in the kitchen at the restaurant. There are so many other aspects,” including the fact that one in five people infected with the coronavirus will experience no symptoms, but may still spread the virus. But then again there is a story there that will scare the shit out of everyone and in turn validate the latest round of closing just restaurants, but not anything else. I see said the reporter who upon examining his credentials I see his was one with regards to restaurant reviews not science or foreign reporting including failing to list the CDC’s findings on indoor dining. Good job, I like BimBap too!

And if you question any of this you are labeled “histrionic” as that is the man’s way of saying to a woman, “I don’t like what you have to say, it confuses me.” Ah yes my menses is the problem, shame I don’t have menses anymore. The lack of true effective communication is a bigger problem than Covid at this point and it contributes to why few are truly grasping the urgency. And that many rely upon “social” media for information, shame that social distancing can’t be applied to that as well.

I read this report in of all things USA Today about the failures of the U.S. Government from the very early stages of this disease and how the haphazard manner of coordination and control led to what we are now dealing with. There is no way of knowing if better management could of stopped or offset this entirely but there are valid issues surrounding the death toll that clearly is related to this issue.

This says it all:

The virus shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on the United States. The world’s most powerful nation, historically among the most successful at stymieing infectious illnesses, had ample lead time during which the deadly pandemic was rampaging through Asia, and then Europe.

But in an early vacuum of leadership at almost every government level, with the message from the White House that the virus was not anything to worry about, Americans unwittingly spread the lethal virus to loved ones and strangers alike.

The U.S. squandered its early advantage. Roughly one year after the virus first came into existence, the country has suffered a loss of life far worse than any other.

I have written much about Covid and kept up with many studies, theories and stories about the virus, its transmission and the issues about vaccines and efficacy. I am over Fauci but I have been for a long time frankly and would like to see new faces (not celebrities there Cuomo but actual medical professionals) who could message more effectively than another aging white man, second wave fast approaching, January 20th. I also would like real information, better and more comprehensive data in which to understand the who/what/where/when/why. Shouting out numbers like I am in Vegas is not working for me and it is not improving my histrionics in the least. There is no cure for that apparently either.

Dick Watch

Normally at this point it would be time for the weekly recap in Covid Chronicles, but alas our Dicktator sent out a crony to admit that the Great House of Whiteness has thrown in the towel when it comes to Covid and so should you. Get it, Got it, Good with it? And by that they mean just catch it, hope you are fine with the concept of herd immunity for if the entire White House can have it, what’s the problem? They got over it and so should you.

With one week left to the elections no time like the present to vote, get in a line to vote or help others do so. And so this begins the daily show of Dick Watch. Let’s see how many ways the GOP will wave their dicks to show how big they are and how they can fuck you like no other. Borat may have a tiny dick but he shows how size doesn’t matter when it comes to knowing what to do…. or that the prison sentence for 14 years he has options. I have thanks to the new “documentary” of what it would be like to experience Necrophilia thanks to Rudy Guiliani. What is it with old white men, again watching Borat at the Debutante dance it again reminded me why I am happy to have vacated Nashville when I did. The dicks there were like no other and not in a good way. Their Plumber Governor is a prime example.

This week began with the Son-in-Chief, who has more jobs than the Jamaican’s on In Living Color. A show that defined diversity, snark and humor in ways that few have since. SNL you are still white, male and mainstream . But without them we would not have a full picture of how ludicrous each debate and rally appear to those who sit not in the audience but at home trying to understand who will get us out of this and that once again an aged white man is supposed to do what the one currently in place has failed to do. And by that we mean Jared Kushner, heir and idiot. Not one book about the Administration has failed to mention that the twins, Jarvanka, have continued to make their imprint on the decision process and repeatedly made bad decisions in the process. So Jared in between resolving the Middle East conflicts, solving Criminal Justice, handling the re-election and is on Covid Team 2020, it shows that he has one job too many and the adage too many cooks in the kitchen applies. But we can safely say the Covid 2020 squad has folded its tent parked in Central Park and left town. So now Jared is turning to the election and to the idea of appealing to the electorate and getting out the message to get the vote, that is challenging given the blocks placed by the GOP to do so. Do they know those same blocks affect their voting base too? Oh I guess old white folks have special segregated polls well guarded to not have their vote impeded, or by fraud, or just done without issue. Where is that special place? Heaven, I hope.

And immediately the boy heir put his proverbial Feragammo clad loafer (Gucci is too urban in today’s world) foot in his mouth. “One thing we’ve seen in a lot of the Black community, which is mostly Democrat, is that President Trump’s policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they’re complaining about,” Mr. Kushner said in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” the president’s favorite morning cable show. “But he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful.”

He followed this up with: “George Floyd situation” — a lot of people were more concerned with what he called “virtue signaling” than in coming up with “solutions.” “They’d go on Instagram and cry, or they would put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court,” he said, an apparent reference to N.B.A. players like LeBron James who joined national protests over the issue of police brutality. “And quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward,” he said. “You solve problems with solutions.”

There are many voices more appropriate than mine to comment on this and of course the sad tropes are ones that are often shared by those who are also of color. If you follow the podcast of Sam Harris, Making Sense, he had the Professor and Linguist, John McWhorter on discussing the current focus on Critical Race Theory and those subjects brought up in the recent book by Ibram X Kendi, How to be an Anti-Racist. Again there are many voices and views on the subject and the men rightly agree that you are either in or not, there is no middle ground with regards to these concepts so in that I too have decided to not spend a great deal of my time seeking balance and do what I normally do, find those arguments that I support and disagree but not dismiss those I don’t, I simply find a way to accept that it comes from a valid place and perspective but I cannot fully stand behind something that does not apply or have reverence to me. It is like Religion, I have zero problem with it for others but like a Penis don’t wave it about and don’t shove it down my throat. Ah it’s always about the dick when it comes to men.

Professor McWhorter wrote a book, Losing the Race, on the idea that there is self-sabotage in Black America. The book contains the theory/thesis that the legacy of racism is the disease of defeatism that has affected Black Americans. He divides it into three components of: cult of victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism that have enabled Black Americans to be their own worst enemies on the road to self success and achievement. He does allow that there are barriers well established that often impede if not block the rise on the rung of the meritocracy’s ladder climb but he feels that those three elements work in tandem to enable if not encourage failure. In other words it is all “intrinsic” and this is a trope I have heard repeatedly when living in the South as they are sure all failures are due to some elemental personal failure that explains why you cannot go to Law School, become a Doctor, get decent medical care or food, or just anything and everything that those on the higher rungs of the ladder seem to access and have available without issue. Again few discuss that those two words are mutually exclusive when you are poor and the struggle to actually get fresh food or health care or a decent education is exhausting at best, impossible at worst. But for those who have done so they simply refuse to see that their struggles are not just their own, but they see their successes as solely their own. And that is the conundrum that I experienced daily in the South and saw in the people who simply had resigned themselves to this is how it is and that is the best it can be. It explains the failure to vote, the endless circle of poverty and violence and the exhaustion from protest to protest and finding little change.

Again we cannot make one sweeping presumption about an entire class/culture of people, but we do it again and again. We continue to fly flags and call us united but we seem to spend most of our times fighting the same fight, arguing the same argument over and over again like a married couple who simply seem to need the conflict to remind themselves that this is why they stay together as who wants to do this again with someone else. The dog you know….

Yesterday I wrote of the working stiff, the laborers who are not getting the acknowledgement they desire and demand for the respect of work. That in our obsessive culture of achievement we are sure that it is all down to a college degree and then even that too is not enough, as it is the type of degree of study and of course the College one attends (Ivy vs State) that again places further barriers to cross and hurdles to jump. All of it for the supposed financial gains one earns by possessing said paper. This is the most quoted bullshit I have ever read on the subject: On an annual basis, bachelor’s degree holders earn about $32,000 more than those whose highest degree is a high school diploma. The earnings gap between college graduates and those with less education continues to widen. The other day Trump who is perhaps the dumbest idiot next to his SIL hier who possesses said paper of import, mocked Representative Ocasio-Cortez about her college diploma. During one of his cult meetups rural Lititz, PA he mocked her advocacy for a carbon-free economy, telling his supporters sarcastically, “She did go to college, right?”

Well ACO has a degree, one she earned on her own. She is a cum laude graduate of Boston University, who worked as a bartender in Manhattan before being elected to Congress in 2018, said she has made it a point to hire people without degrees to staff her congressional office. “Plenty of people without college degrees could run this country better than Trump ever has,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “As much as GOP cry about ‘elites,’ they’re the ones who constantly mock food service workers, people without degrees, etc as dumb. It’s classist and disgusting.” And commented that her staff have done “incredible, effective and strategic work.” And given what we have seen of Trump’s brain trust I wonder if he could hire some of her folks, they clearly could not be worse.

But this remark she made stands out and supports what I discussed yesterday: “The more college costs soar, the more degrees become a measure privilege than competence,” she wrote. “Our country would be better off if we made public colleges tuition-free and canceled student loan debt.” And with that I can only say we are now deciding who can move towards making our country better off. I am not sure either man can but this swinging dick contest has become tedious and I for one want to find a way we can heal, literally and figuratively.

He Said She Said

I read the below article late into another sleepless night as taking to bed at 7 pm means I am up at 3 am when I use to go to bed at 8 at least 4 am seemed reasonable; but I get a lot of reading done in the dead of early dawn. Something everyone is capable of doing but oddly not doing unless you count the bullshit on social media then no.  I watched as some video of a black man going through a Grocery store stopping and opening a container of juice randomly drinking from them.  And another with an Asian man doing the same.   Well again if someone buys a juice or any item where the opening appears tampered they deserve to die.  The dude by then shows that while two people are running obviously down an aisle and filming without anyone noticing is another incident in and of itself as clearly no one cares, no security and again what is the point?  If you think that is funny at any time you should be arrested and charged with shoplifting, malicious mischief and other crimes that are applicable. And there are many like this even before the virus began.  Do we also  need to address the racial component there and what that represents?  Idiocy is not YET a crime but in our new police state it may well be.

People are stupid and they elect people who are stupid. The Oklahoma Governor out to dinner with the family denying the Virus, the Florida Governor who wanted New Yorkers banned from the State while refusing to protect the constituents he has or the Georgia  Governor who just found out that the virus transmits from asymptomatic people!  (Again all Red states so there is little math to be done there, as in very little) And let us not forget the big kahuna of this, Crazy Dopey Grandpa, who simply gets very little and sends his son-in-law in to prove that you can marry into this kind of stupid in reverse.  Like likes like.. you know the basic mathematic concept when working on polynomials.  Let me just say this “complex math” as to not further confuse you.

Again a trip to the coffee shop and as this is my only interaction with humans I am beginning to see the purpose of why we need to continue social distancing into the future. NOT physical distancing as I can cope with a line but again I do understand the difference and perhaps that may be the problem here, using your words correctly!  And there was a customer in there who got my point and said that what it has come down to is the debate format and you listen to only the one who confirms your view and belief and you shut down the rest.  Ah yes that is he said she said the basic argument behind our entire criminal justice system.  And in the case of HE that is the system as like Vegas, house always wins.  So we have a Government run by idiots, some states not and a disparate group of policies and issues that are not just again that whole blue vs red, although  it largely is becoming that with few exceptions, but that is really about career politicians, aka swamp dwellers, who understand bureaucracy and in turn legislation and law making on the state level and in turn the role of the federal government to intervene on large scale issues or matters of import – often transcending the states rights to operate accordingly and independently as established by the Constitution.  Which I am currently using as toilet paper.

**For the record New Jersey has a career businessman in office and he is slow to actually implement worthy notions as New York has such as opening the ACA site, protecting renters sufficiently and well the man is recovering from cancer surgery so I do give him a pass but at this stage I would love blowhart Tubs Tubsie to get his fat ass in there to shut this shit down.  We have our own Mayor who has secured his own tests for Jersey City so of course our positives are way up which again means nothing but scaring the shit out of us to shut it down.  Flopit needs to go… ***

But think of what the fed has done right and by that the Federal Reserve they are cranking out their own stimulus plans constantly without any oversight which in most cases would be alarming but we actually have someone competent at the helm there so this will be the true measure of economic recovery (from this which now may be a depression over a recession)  as I expect very little from the Trump Banditos.

But in the case of the endless numbers, hysterical screaming, threats, disaster predictions and the like I am not sure who the fuck to believe at this point.  If I was on a Jury I would want a mistrial.  And what is more alarming this is the panacea that Trump has only wished for – chaos and in chaos theory that is a  branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences.

And we are there in a big time way. The elections are upcoming and may be halted or the worst case scenario and that CDG will be reelected.  What a fucking frightening thought.

So like all things mathematical yes numbers do lie, dependent upon whose running them. House always wins.

Experts and Trump’s advisers doubt White House’s 240,000 coronavirus deaths estimate
Inside the White House’s effort to create a projected death toll

By  William Wan, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Joel Achenbach
The Washington Post   April 2, 2020

Leading disease forecasters, whose research the White House used to conclude 100,000 to 240,000 people will die nationwide from the coronavirus, were mystified when they saw the administration’s projection this week.

The experts said they don’t challenge the numbers’ validity but that they don’t know how the White House arrived at them.

White House officials have refused to explain how they generated the figure — a death toll bigger than the United States suffered in the Vietnam War or the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They have not provided the underlying data so others can assess its reliability or provided long-term strategies to lower that death count.

Some of President Trump’s top advisers have expressed doubts about the estimate, according to three White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. There have been fierce debates inside the White House about its accuracy.

At a task force meeting this week, according to two officials with direct knowledge of it, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told others there are too many variables at play in the pandemic to make the models reliable: “I’ve looked at all the models. I’ve spent a lot of time on the models. They don’t tell you anything. You can’t really rely upon models.”

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the vice president’s office have similarly voiced doubts about the projections’ accuracy, the three officials said.

Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University epidemiologist whose models were cited by the White House, said his own work on the pandemic doesn’t go far enough into the future to make predictions akin to the White House fatality forecast.

“We don’t have a sense of what’s going on in the here and now, and we don’t know what people will do in the future,” he said. “We don’t know if the virus is seasonal, as well.”

The estimate appeared to be a rushed affair, said Marc Lipsitch, a leading epidemiologist and director of Harvard University’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. “They contacted us, I think, on a Tuesday a week ago, and asked for answers and feedback by Thursday, basically 24 hours,” he said. “My initial response was we can’t do it that fast. But we ended up providing them some numbers responding to very specific scenarios.”

Other experts noted that the White House didn’t even explain the time period the death estimate supposedly captures — just the coming few months, or the year-plus it will take to deploy a vaccine.

Almost the entirety of what the public knows about the death projection was presented on a single slide at a briefing Tuesday from the White House coronavirus task force. A White House representative said the task force has not publicly released the models it drew from out of respect for the confidentiality of the modelers, many of whom approached the White House unsolicited and simply want to continue their work without publicity.

A representative for Fauci did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Vice President Pence declined to comment. On a Thursday call with conservative leaders, Pence said it was “difficult” to view the models but “the president thought it was important to share with the American people.”

Among epidemiologists, the estimate raised more questions than it answered — not just about methodology and accuracy but, perhaps more importantly, about purpose.

The primary goal of such models amid an outbreak is to allow authorities to game out scenarios, foresee challenges and create a coherent, long-term strategy — something some experts worry doesn’t exist within the White House.

“I wish there were more of a concerted national plan. I wish it had started a month and a half ago, maybe two months ago,” Shaman said.

Natalie Dean, a biostatistician who was not involved in the White House effort but is working on coronavirus vaccine evaluation with the World Health Organization, pointed out that “the whole reason you create models is to help you make decisions. But you have to actually act on those projections and answers. Otherwise, the models are useless.”

At Tuesday’s briefing, Trump unveiled the government’s projected death count, saying it was based on data “that has been, I think, brilliantly put together.”

The coordinator of Trump’s coronavirus task force, Deborah Birx, then projected a slide with a high-arcing mountain showing the worst-case scenario: 1.5 million to 2.2 million deaths if Americans and the government did absolutely nothing to stop the virus. And a smaller — but still imposing — hill with 100,000 to 240,000 deaths if measures such as social distancing are taken.

Birx said the projection was based on five or six modelers, including from Imperial College in Britain and Harvard, Columbia and Northeastern universities. “It was their models that created the ability to see what these mitigations could do, how steeply they could depress the curve,” Birx said.

But two models appeared to have been particularly influential: the one by Imperial College and one from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME).

At a news briefing Sunday, Birx explained the process this way: Her task force initially reviewed the work of 12 models. “Then we went back to the drawing board over the last week or two, and worked from the ground up, utilizing actual reporting of cases,” Birx said. “It’s the way we built the HIV model, the TB model, the malaria model. And when we finished, the other group that was working in parallel — which we didn’t know about,” referring to the IHME group.

The IHME model initially estimated deaths through this summer would total 38,000 to 162,000 — a lower projection than many others and beneath the White House’s own estimate. But because of its lower figure and Birx’s comments, experts believe it to be a main source for the White House’s best-case scenario of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, the White House appeared to rely on Imperial College for its worst-case scenario. That study estimated as many as 2.2 million U.S. deaths if no action was taken, 1.1 million deaths if moderate mitigation strategies were adopted, and an unspecified number if drastic measures were taken.

But as a common mathematician’s refrain goes: A model is only as good as the assumptions it is built on.

Knowing the assumptions built into the White House officials’ projected number could tell us a lot: exactly how contagious and deadly they believe the virus to be. It also would reflect their beliefs on how the federal government and states will behave in coming months and whether they will do enough to make a difference.

The IHME model assumes every state will quickly impose stay-at-home orders, which some states, including Alabama and Missouri, have yet to do. It also assumes the entire country will maintain these restrictions until summer. But Trump has extended the White House’s restrictions until only April 30 and made clear he wants to reopen the country as soon as possible.

Another key question is what time period the White House’s 100,000-to-240,000 projection covers. Imperial College’s worst-case scenario calculated the toll exacted by the virus over a couple of years. But if the White House’s projection covers only the next few months, like the IHME model does, the true death toll will almost certainly be larger because the United States will probably see additional waves of covid-19 until a vaccine is deployed.

And it is important to note, experts say, that the IHME model differs from many epidemiological models — another reason its death estimate may be lower, experts say.

Epidemiological projections are often based on what is called the Susceptible Infectious Recovered model (SIR). It is a mathematical way to represent three different populations in an outbreak: those vulnerable to infection, those who are infectious and those gradually removed from the equation by death or recovery.

IHME, however, took an entirely different approach. It is a statistical model that takes the trending curve of deaths from China, for example, and “fits” that curve to emerging death data from cities and counties to predict what might come next.

“It’s a valuable tool, providing updated state-by-state projections, but it is inherently optimistic because it assumes that all states respond as swiftly as China,” said Dean, a biostatistician at University of Florida.

In an interview earlier this week, the head of the IHME group, Christopher Murray, said his model was created for a different purpose from Imperial College’s.

“The reason we created our model is to help hospitals plan. How many beds you’ll need, how many ventilators, when the peak is likely coming,” Murray said. The purpose of Imperial’s model “is to make people realize government intervention is crucial and what would happen without that.”

For the past decade, the federal government has been nurturing a group of about 50 epidemiologists and math modelers at universities. The U.S. government launched the effort when it became apparent that U.S. expertise in disease modeling was outstripped by England’s world-class experts, said Dylan George, a former Obama administration official at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy who was involved in that effort.

Since January, the CDC has been working with that larger group of modeling teams but it has been unclear, especially in recent weeks, how much the White House was listening to their data and projections.

The handful of projections the task force has plucked from the group and used in White House discussions, administration officials said, are sometimes deployed with an audience of one in mind: Trump.

Officials have said the Imperial College’s eye-popping 2.2 million death projection convinced Trump to stop dismissing the outbreak and take it more seriously. Similarly, officials said, the new projection of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths is what convinced Trump to extend restrictions for 30 days and abandon his push to reopen parts of the country by Easter, which many health experts believe could have worsened the outbreak.

But what remains unclear and alarming to many modelers is whether the White House is using their data to create a coordinated, coherent long-term strategy.

Such a national strategy is critical because of the lag time in data that comes with outbreaks.

Any numbers we see today — confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths — lag two to three weeks behind how the virus is spreading. So decisions made by authorities based on that present-day data are, almost by definition, reactive and potentially come too late.

To get ahead of a virus like this one, authorities must use projections of the future to act in the present.

A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak by name said the administration does have long-term plans and has been addressing those concerns in the daily briefings.

“Repurposing a [car] plant to make ventilators is great, but honestly — I’m not one to cast stones — but it could have been done earlier,” said Shaman, the Columbia University epidemiologist whose models have been reviewed by the White House.

But Shaman doesn’t think the White House’s death projection is too low, nor does he think it’s too late to act decisively.

“I think we can come in under 100,000 deaths. I do,” he said. “The jury is not yet in on this.”

Ivanka Who?

The strange idolization and odd belief that the daughter of Il Douchebag-in-Chief has any real relevance or offers perspective about issues that might be of import with regards to Women, the Environment, or any type of progressive modern thinking needs to think again. 

John Oliver did an amazing takedown of both her and her husband, the dude who seems to be in charge of everything other than Health Care, the Tax Code and Human Cloning, is not only brilliant but spot on.  And to say Complicit is more than a scent it is a lifestyle.

The odd vagueness of specificity of what even job titles they have seem again to clearly confuse and obfuscate that they are mere gatekeepers. They are the listening totem poles in which to filter the confusing facts, figures and information that a President is presented with on a daily basis.  They are to dilute, simply and compound that so that Daddy bear gets it.  Ivanka cried about the Syrian babies so he bombed them. That is her role as special policy advisor.  Next up Jared picks a fight with Justin Trudeau so that we can place a tariff on Canadian lumber.  I go with who has the better hair.

Trump is in pre senile dementia.  His referring to Paul Ryan as “Ron” during a speech last week in Kenosha continues to demonstrate how stress affects the cognitive functioning.  His inability to hear that request to shake Angela Merkyl’s hand during their meet and greet was again excused and explained as well everything the Il Douchebag says and does.  Don’t expect Jared or Ivanka too they are there to provide the gloss to the ever dulling sheen on the figure head we call Trump.

This trip to Germany is again an insult and absurdity wrapped in a riddle of why?  Next up off to Africa to exploit I mean adopt a Malwai orphan. I hear Madonna has one you can borrow. Desperate times, desperate measures.

Ivanka Trump in Germany: First Daughter Leaves Some Women Scratching Their Heads

by Alexander Smith NBC News

BERLIN — Ivanka Trump was in Germany on Tuesday on her first international trip as a member of her father’s presidential team. In doing so, the billionaire’s daughter stepped into a land that prides itself on meritocracy.

This is a country run by Angela Merkel, a veteran politician with a doctorate in quantum chemistry: someone who grew up in communist East Germany, was elected German leader three times, and who is regularly referred to as the most powerful woman on the planet.

Alongside her husband, senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner, 35-year-old Ivanka Trump has emerged as one of the key powerbrokers in what has become a distinctly family-oriented White House.

The First Daughter traveled to the German capital, Berlin, on Tuesday after being invited by Merkel to participate in a panel discussion at the Women20 summit — an international event that aims to “promote women’s economic empowerment.” She arrived having become a prominent champion of working women, and after co-writing an article on the importance of the economic empowerment of women that appeared in the Financial Times newspaper.

While Ivanka Trump was in Berlin to promote women, the president himself was front and center during a panel discussion at the summit. The first daughter defended Donald Trump after a handful of attendees booed and groaned when she mentioned his name, saying he had encouraged “thousands” of women who worked for him.

“As a daughter, I can speak on a very personal level knowing that he encouraged and enabled me to thrive,” she said. “I don’t take that lightly as a parent now myself. And there was no difference for me and my brothers.”

Ivanka Trump would have reason to know how her father treats women. Before moving into the White House, Ivanka Trump graduated cum laude from her father’s alma mater, the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. And after a brief modeling career, she went into the family business — the Trump Organization.

Some commentators have speculated Merkel’s personal invitation to Trump was the German leader’s way of opening a channel to President Donald Trump, after an awkward meeting last month in which he appeared to decline her handshake.

But many German women do not share their leader’s welcoming spirit.

Some, including 49-year-old creative director Inga Meyer, question Ivanka Trump’s contribution at an affair featuring other uber-qualified speakers such as International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.

“I think it’s outrageous,” Meyer, the creative director, told NBC News on Monday. “Why does she have the power and the position to meet Angela Merkel?”

Meyer stopped to chat with NBC News before cycling to an appointment along one of Berlin’s wide, cobbled streets, where bikes and trams are given equal billing alongside compact European cars and tourist buses.

“It’s not clear exactly what her position is,” Meyer added, referring to Ivanka Trump’s role as an unpaid presidential adviser. “She obviously has more power than what her official role suggests.”

As well as her presidential duties, she still owns an eponymous clothing and jewelry line.

Insofar that Wednesday’s summit is about women in business, she is a good fit given her previous experience, according to 35-year-old Sandra Toepke.

But “on a political level — I guess not,” said Toepke, who works at the International Film Festival and spoke while walking her dog near Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.

“It’s pure nepotism that she’s in that position,” she added. “She’s partaking in negotiations at the White House and has security clearance.”

Lea May, a 22-year-old medical student walking on her way to class, added: “I just don’t know if she’s really into politics like Angela is.”

That a number of successful, professional woman in Berlin expressed dismay that Ivanka Trump was joining such accomplished set should perhaps not come as a surprise.

President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in Europe but particularly so in Germany, where just 6 percent of people said they had confidence in him when it came to world affairs, according to a Pew study last year.

Germany also has a far higher rate of intergenerational social mobility than the United States, according to a study of OECD countries in 2015. This means the future salaries of German children are less dependant on what their parents bank — they make their own way.

Merkel, 62, fits this mold. The daughter of a pastor and a teacher, she was born in the West German city of Hamburg but moved to the rural, communist East after her father was posted to a church there. She later earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry and worked at a science academy. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she climbed up the ranks of the center-right CDU, the political party she now leads.

In contrast with Merkel’s understated style, many Germans find Donald Trump’s persona-driven politics unpalatable.

“It’s ridiculous, what’s happening in U.S. politics,” said Thyra Guenther-Luebbers, a 21-year-old college student who’s also interning at an art gallery in the German capital. “It’s something that’s never going to happen in Germany or anywhere else in Europe.”

Taking a stroll down the Unter den Linden boulevard, Guenther-Luebbers gave a similar view of Ivanka Trump: Would she be so successful if it weren’t for her last name? “I don’t think so.”

That’s not to say that everyone on Tuesday’s panel is elected. Among the high-profile guests is Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, who is married to the country’s king. Like Ivanka Trump, she too has a background in business, working in banking before meeting her prince.

It would also be inaccurate to say everyone in Berlin shared dislike for Ivanka Trump and her family-boosted resume.

“I like her because she has the ability to influence Donald Trump,” said 68-year-old Molly Schultz, who runs a book stall outside the Humboldt University of Berlin. “It doesn’t matter so much to me that she isn’t so qualified.”

The ability to influence her father — or at least be a significant voice in his retinue — is something that appears to have been seized upon by Merkel.

The German leader endured an excruciating first official visit to the Trump White House last month, when the president appeared to decline to shake her hand for the cameras. In 2015, the president said Merkel was “insane” to relax Germany’s borders to welcome migrants fleeing war and persecution in the Middle East and Africa. (Although the same year he also called her “probably the greatest leader in the world today.”)

During Merkel’s visit to Washington last month, some political commentators criticized the decision to seat her next to Ivanka Trump at an official meeting with business leaders, again citing Ivanka Trump’s lack of credentials. A photo of Merkel looking at her neighbor was described by Politico as “a look of bewilderment tinged with disdain enveloping her face.”

The key relation btw #Germany & #USA is a serious matter. It shall not be family business. I disagree with #Ivanka #Trump presence. #Merkel pic.twitter.com/HcqRBYSl05
— Siegfried Muresan (@SMuresan) March 18, 2017
But it was off the back of this meeting that Merkel invited Ivanka Trump to Berlin, perhaps eager to nurture an ally in a new and unknown White House. In return, the president’s daughter would likely get to increase her international profile and champion a cause she says has long since been close to her heart.

While in Berlin, Ivanka Trump will also visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

In spite of her schedule, editorials and clear hard work, nearly everybody NBC News spoke to here remained unconvinced by their American guest.

“Everybody is someone’s daughter but the question is, ‘Is she qualified for the job?’ And I don’t think being the daughter of Trump qualifies you for this job, you know?” said 33-year-old sports science student Jennifer Benz.
ain how genital mutilation hurts women.   I can see an Malwai orphan coming into the picture soon.  Madonna has one they can borrow.  Desperate times desperate measures.

Welcome to Venezuela

I will start with this op-ed from the New York Times

Venezuela’s Descent Into Dictatorship

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD MARCH 31, 2017

A ruling this week by Venezuela’s Supreme Court stripping the nation’s legislative branch of all authority — and vesting that power in the court itself — moves a country already beset by violence and economic scarcity one step closer to outright dictatorship.

The decision means essentially that every arm of Venezuela’s government is now under the thumb of President Nicolás Maduro, whose supporters have gone to great lengths to wrest authority from the National Assembly, which has been dominated by a slate of opposition parties since early 2016. The country’s top court, which is packed with Maduro loyalists, had already invalidated every major law passed by Congress. On Wednesday, as part of a decision involving the executive branch’s authority over oil ventures, the court declared that henceforth the judicial branch would execute all powers normally reserved for the legislature.

The ruling provoked international condemnation and sent shock waves across the region. It also prompted a strikingly public rebuke from Luisa Ortega, a Maduro loyalist who serves as the nation’s chief prosecutor. She denounced the decision in a televised address during which she brandished a copy of Venezuela’s Constitution.

The court’s ruling represents a “rupture in the constitutional order,” Ms. Ortega said, speaking at the Public Ministry, which she leads. “We call for reflection so that democratic norms are followed,” she added, eliciting hearty applause from colleagues who appeared stunned by the gravity of the moment.

Other voices like hers should be heard, and soon. Venezuelan officials who have enabled Mr. Maduro’s authoritarian rule need to stand up for democratic principles, including the separation of powers and respect for the will of the electorate.

It is necessary, too, for Venezuela’s neighbors to speak out more emphatically. Mr. Maduro finds himself increasingly isolated diplomatically as traditional regional allies have turned on him. A coalition of all the major powers in the hemisphere has begun exploring potential responses to Venezuela’s economic and political crisis. Those efforts must advance with a renewed sense of urgency.

Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, characterized Wednesday’s court decision in a statement as a “self-inflicted coup d’état” against the “last branch of government to be legitimized by the will of the people of Venezuela.”

To signal his alarm, Mr. Almagro has called for an urgent meeting of O.A.S. members by invoking the Democratic Charter, a pact that members of the diplomatic organization signed in 2001 to pledge adherence to democratic principles and practices. It now seems plausible that the meeting could be the first step toward expelling Venezuela from the organization.

This prospect should be sufficient to alert Mr. Maduro and his acolytes in the judiciary to the foolishness of their autocratic behavior and persuade them to promptly restore the Assembly’s authority.

In addition, the government must establish a time frame in which to hold local elections that were supposed to be held last year and future ones that have not yet been scheduled. “The Venezuelan people want to resolve the political crisis by voting,” Henrique Capriles, a prominent opposition leader, told reporters in Washington on Friday after meeting with Mr. Almagro. “We want elections. We’ll never be able to talk about democracy if there is no vote.”

Failure to take meaningful action toward compromise will only deepen the misery of Venezuelans, fuel an even larger exodus of people leaving the country and raise the likelihood that what is now a senseless political dispute will end in violence.

This past weekend brought stories about the rise of political prisoners, the nullification of the legislature ostensibly creating a dictatorship and in turn a decision verified by their highest Court (akin oddly to North Carolina that had HB1 then revised it to HB2 which is not a real change just a wording one and a new number); the use of military to oppress protestors ; assaulting the press in a way to oppress it and all while the United States expresses concern about the increasing fragility of democracy Venezuela.

I find that either amusing or utterly ironic given our current state of the United States. A President increasingly isolated politically; or one that seems to incite if not provoke violence; staff that has little to no experience in Government  or even what there actual job is or if they do they have a well established disdain and disrespect for the very agencies they are now in charge; the sheer wealth and conflicts of interest that further confuse the role and distinction between private citizen and public employee; a prospective Supreme Court Justice who has expressed odds about the role of Government all while working for a President who has expressed an overall a disdain for the Judiciary and the free press. Then we have those who have expressed clear views that place the United States at odds with many of the Countries and organizations with whom we have long established relationships and have been strong allies.  And let alone the sheer loathing overall for the role of Government and its purpose to serve its citizenry. Which oddly the same citizens who actually think that is okay. 

The parallels to Venezuela cannot be lost. Once a powerful economic Country with a dynamic leader who was elected under that belief he would in turn restore and maintain the position of growth in a region that has struggled with what is Democracy is now one under chaos. This is what was derived from the concept of Populism. Okay, then.

How Does Populism Turn Authoritarian? Venezuela Is a Case in Point
The Interpreter
By MAX FISHER and AMANDA TAUB THE NEW YORK TIMES APRIL 1, 2017

When Hugo Chávez took power in Venezuela nearly 20 years ago, the leftist populism he championed was supposed to save democracy. Instead, it has led to democracy’s implosion in the country, marked this past week by an attack on the independence of its Legislature.

Venezuela’s fate stands as a warning: Populism is a path that, at its outset, can look and feel democratic. But, followed to its logical conclusion, it can lead to democratic backsliding or even outright authoritarianism.

Populism does not always end in authoritarianism. Venezuela’s collapse has been aided by other factors, including plummeting oil prices, and democratic institutions can check populism’s darker tendencies.

The country is feeling the fundamental tensions between populism and democracy that are playing out worldwide. Those tensions, if left unchecked, can grow until one of those two systems prevails. But although countries must choose which system to follow, the choice is rarely made consciously, and its consequences may not be clear until it is too late.

The wave of populist anger that Mr. Chávez rode into office, in the 1998 elections, was propelled by grievances over the state of democracy in Venezuela.

When Mr. Chávez became president, the judiciary was dysfunctional and corrupt. A report by Human Rights Watch found that Venezuela’s top administrative court “had actually established set fees for resolving different kinds of cases.”

Less than 1 percent of the population had confidence in the judiciary. As a result, there was broad support for Mr. Chávez’s first round of judicial reforms in 1999, which increased judicial independence and integrity, according to a survey that year by the United Nations Development Program.

But when the Supreme Court refused to allow the criminal prosecution of four generals who Mr. Chávez believed had participated in an attempted coup against him, he came to see the judiciary as an obstacle to popular will and an accomplice of the corrupt elites he had promised to oppose.

Tensions grew in 2004 when the Supreme Court ruled that a petition for a referendum to recall Mr. Chávez from office had enough signatures to go forward.

Mr. Chávez gave himself the authority to suspend unfriendly judges and to pack the courts with new ones, destroying the judiciary’s power to act as a check on his presidency.

“Over the next several years,” the 2008 Human Rights Watch report found, “the newly packed Supreme Court would fire hundreds of judges and appoint hundreds more.”

In Mr. Chávez’s telling, this meant a judiciary that was more responsive to the will and needs of the people — a message that may have appealed to supporters who had voted him into office on explicit promises of smashing the corrupt old elite’s hold on power.

‘Populism Will Always Stand
In Tension With Democracy’

Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist, wrote in a 2015 column for The Guardian that “populism is an illiberal democratic response to undemocratic liberalism.”

In other words, Mr. Chávez, like other populist leaders, told his supporters that their problems were caused by unresponsive, undemocratic elites and institutions. A strong leader, he argued, was necessary to break through those shadowy forces and impose the will of the people. That message was popular, as were initial steps.

“However, this comes at a price,” Mr. Mudde wrote. This “majoritarian extremism” reframes democracy not as a negotiated process meant to include and serve everyone, but rather as a zero-sum battle between popular will and whoever dares to oppose it — including judges, journalists, opposition leaders or even government technocrats labeled, in some countries, as a “deep state.”

This is why Kurt Weyland, a University of Texas political scientist, wrote, in a 2013 academic article, “Populism will always stand in tension with democracy.”

Populist leaders like Mr. Chávez, by deriving their authority from a promise to champion popular will, “see any institutions outside their control as obstacles to be bypassed or overcome,” Professor Weyland wrote.

This reveals a contradiction between how democracy is perceived and how it actually works.

“Despite all democratic rhetoric, liberal democracy is a complex compromise of popular democracy and liberal elitism, which is therefore only partly democratic,” Mr. Mudde wrote in an academic journal in 2004.

That requires handing power to unelected institutions, which are necessary to preserve democracy but at odds with the image of pure popular will. This contradiction leaves an opening for populists to challenge those institutions.

But when populist leaders take authority away from institutions to “return power to the people,” as such leaders often say, in practice they are consolidating this power for themselves.

“The logic of personalism drives populist politicians to widen their powers and discretion,” Professor Weyland wrote.

This is why populists often cultivate cults of personality. Mr. Chávez, in addition to hosting a Sunday talk show, held rallies and appeared almost constantly on television. This practice is typically driven by more than ego; such leaders derive their authority not from the rules-based system that governs consolidated democracies, but from raw popular support.

This works only as long as those leaders can claim to have a unique relationship with the public that enables them to attack internal enemies — say, the judiciary or the free press — on their behalf.

Populism’s authoritarian tendencies could be seen in Mr. Chávez’s early battles with labor unions, which he had entered office promising to “democratize.”

Venezuela’s union leaders were corrupt, he argued, and had failed to protect workers’ rights.

His government created a parallel system of new unions, while undermining established unions over which it had less influence. But this set up a dynamic in which pro-Chávez unions were favored and dissenting unions were punished.

Mr. Chávez also began exercising more direct control over the powerful state-run oil company, a further extension of his message that power had to be taken back for the people.

But when workers from that company went on strike in protest in 2002, he fired more than 18,000 of them and prohibited the action.

By 2004, Mr. Chávez’s government had begun to blacklist workers, identifying people who had been disloyal to his government and excluding many of them from government jobs and benefits.

This sent a speech-chilling message: To oppose the president was to oppose his project of “Bolívarian socialism” on behalf of the people. Dissent, by that logic, was a threat to freedom, not evidence of it.

These episodes show how initial populist steps — standing up to unelected institutions, paving the way for seemingly necessary reforms — can take on a momentum of their own, until the list of populist enemies has grown to include pillars of basic democracy.

In retrospect, these steps pointed squarely toward authoritarianism, culminating in the attempt this past week to muzzle the Legislature, which was among the final remaining checks on President Nicolás Maduro, Mr. Chávez’s successor.

That progression was not inevitable. Strong democratic checks can sometimes resist the pressures of populism and keep leaders in line. Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, for example, left office with a mixed record and a storm of corruption charges, but with the country’s democracy intact.

But it is rarely obvious at the time which path a country is taking, and not only because initial steps toward authoritarianism often look or feel democratic.

Tom Pepinsky, a political scientist at Cornell University, has argued that authoritarianism is often an unintended consequence of structural factors that weaken institutions — such as an armed conflict or economic shock — and of incremental steps taken by leaders who may earnestly believe they are serving popular will.

“Just as democracies can be governed by authoritarians, so too can true-believing democrats lay the groundwork for authoritarianism,” Professor Pepinsky wrote on his blog in February. Decisions that feel like shortcuts to democracy — tossing out judges or vilifying a hostile news media — can, in the long term, have the opposite effect.

Along the way, this process can be difficult to spot, as it plays out mainly in the functioning of bureaucratic institutions that most voters pay little mind to. Elections are often still held, as they have been in Venezuela, the news media retains nominal freedom and most citizens can go about their lives as normal.

Venezuela exhibits the worst-case outcome of populist governance, in which institutions have been so crippled that crime is rampant, corruption is nearly universal and the quality of life has collapsed. But those consequences are obvious only after they have done their damage.

Same Old Same Old

Well as we move towards the 100 day mark we have seen a pattern of the Trump Doctrine emerge:

• Make grandiose promises. Have confusing messages regarding grandiose promises. 
• Have conflicting messenger to deliver equally confusing and conflicting messages. 
• Lay blame on others for their failures of the inability to deliver said grandiose promises. 
• When that again fails find new targets to blame. 
• Never criticize Russia. 
• Deny Facts and blame fake news and in turn quote, cite and source fake news to validate confusing messaging and blame making. 
• Do it all on Twitter.

When I read this I thought this is the drain the swamp portion of the grandiose promises, by putting a kid in charge who has little to no more experience than the big guy, the only difference is that one’s big daddy actually served time. The guardians of the gate are now family members with a vested interest in keeping the family name as clean as possible so that once this foray into Government ends they can go back to their day jobs.

These promises of fixing what is broke has been said repeatedly by many Administrations and then the reality of Governing kicks in. The fiefdoms, the cluster fucks, the cliques and the power brokers all have their own vested interests and they too are conflicting and equally confusing but they have the messaging down to a fine art. Say what the rubes need to hear and say it repeatedly.

60 Minutes did a story last night on Fake News and profiled a strange man with a site that sounded much more like a porn site. What was interesting is  that its author/founder felt proud that he being a Lawyer some how enabled him (in between sex sessions with a male prostitute and dominatrix whose safe word is Hillary) to write whatever shit he made up in his head. Well blood flow in men from the brain drains to the penis as we know pre and post sex so that might explain it. That and the law degree. One thing he did convince me was that people confused about their sexuality and are also Lawyers are angry queens that wield big dicks. One doesn’t need to be both but wow that bar exam shows me that anyone can pass it regardless of what the ABA says. Again read a “blawg” to see how far the idiocy runs in that profession. Fake news or just assholes being assholes. In other words the same old same old.

Re-branding and re-doing what already exists by calling it something else is just that. Yes I see the Tech sectors influence all over this one. Down to the angry queen and he too went to law school, Peter Thiel, irony that he tells people to dump education however… hmm easier to manipulate perhaps?

Trump taps Kushner to lead a SWAT team to fix government with business ideas

By Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker The Washington Post March 26 2017

President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions.

The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be staffed by former business executives and is designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington, float above the daily political grind and create a lasting legacy for a president still searching for signature achievements.

“All Americans, regardless of their political views, can recognize that government stagnation has hindered our ability to properly function, often creating widespread congestion and leading to cost overruns and delays,” Trump said in a statement to The Washington Post. “I promised the American people I would produce results, and apply my ‘ahead of schedule, under budget’ mentality to the government.”

In a White House riven at times by disorder and competing factions, the innovation office represents an expansion of Kushner’s already far-reaching influence. The 36-year-old former real estate and media executive will continue to wear many hats, driving foreign and domestic policy as well as decisions on presidential personnel. He also is a shadow diplomat, serving as Trump’s lead adviser on relations with China, Mexico, Canada and the Middle East.

The work of White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon has drawn considerable attention, especially after his call for the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” But Bannon will have no formal role in the innovation office, which Trump advisers described as an incubator of sleek transformation as opposed to deconstruction.

The announcement of the new office comes at a humbling moment for the president, following Friday’s collapse of his first major legislative push — an overhaul of the health-care system, which Trump had championed as a candidate.

Kushner is positioning the new office as “an offensive team” — an aggressive, nonideological ideas factory capable of attracting top talent from both inside and outside of government, and serving as a conduit with the business, philanthropic and academic communities.

“We should have excellence in government,” Kushner said Sunday in an interview in his West Wing office. “The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”

The innovation office has a particular focus on technology and data, and it is working with such titans as Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and Tesla founder and chief executive Elon Musk. The group has already hosted sessions with more than 100 such leaders and government officials.

“There is a need to figure out what policies are adding friction to the system without accompanying it with significant benefits,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the investment firm Blackstone Group. “It’s easy for the private sector to at least see where the friction is, and to do that very quickly and succinctly.”

Some of the executives involved have criticized some of Trump’s policies, such as his travel ban, but said they are eager to help the administration address chronic problems.

“Obviously it has to be done with corresponding values and principles. We don’t agree on everything,” said Benioff, a Silicon Valley billionaire who raised money for Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

But, Benioff added, “I’m hopeful that Jared will be collaborative with our industry in moving this forward. When I talk to him, he does remind me of a lot of the young, scrappy entrepreneurs that I invest in in their 30s.”

Kushner’s ambitions for what the new office can achieve are grand. At least to start, the team plans to focus its attention on reimagining Veterans Affairs; modernizing the technology and data infrastructure of every federal department and agency; remodeling workforce-training programs; and developing “transformative projects” under the banner of Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, such as providing broadband Internet service to every American.

In some cases, the office could direct that government functions be privatized, or that existing contracts be awarded to new bidders.

The office will also focus on combating opioid abuse, a regular emphasis for Trump on the campaign trail. The president later this week plans to announce an official drug commission devoted to the problem that will be chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). He has been working informally on the issue for several weeks with Kushner, despite reported tension between the two.

Under President Barack Obama, Trump advisers said scornfully, some business leaders privately dismissed their White House interactions as “NATO” meetings — “No action, talk only” — in which they were “lectured,” without much follow-up.

Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemical, who has had meetings with the two previous administrations, said the environment under Trump is markedly different.

After he left a recent meeting of manufacturing chief executives with Trump, Liveris said, “Rather than entering a vacuum, I’m getting emails from the president’s team, if not every day, then every other day — ‘Here’s what we’re working on.’ ‘We need another meeting.’ ‘Can you get us more input on this?’ ”

Kushner proudly notes that most of the members of his team have little-to-no political experience, hailing instead from the world of business. They include Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council; Chris Liddell, assistant to the president for strategic initiatives; Reed Cordish, assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives; Dina Powell, senior counselor to the president for economic initiatives and deputy national security adviser; and Andrew Bremberg, director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and Kushner’s wife, who now does her advocacy work from a West Wing office, will collaborate with the innovation office on issues such as workforce development but will not have an official role, aides said.

Powell, a former Goldman Sachs executive who spent a decade at the firm managing public-private job creation programs, also boasts a government pedigree as a veteran of George W. Bush’s White House and State Department. Bremberg also worked in the Bush administration. But others are political neophytes.

Liddell, who speaks with an accent from his native New Zealand, served as chief financial officer for General Motors, Microsoft and International Paper, as well as in Hollywood for William Morris Endeavor.

“We are part of the White House team, connected with everyone here, but we are not subject to the day-to-day issues, so we can take a more strategic approach to projects,” Liddell said.

Like Kushner, Cordish is the scion of a real estate family — a Baltimore-based conglomerate known for developing casinos and shopping malls. And Cohn, a Democrat who has recently amassed significant clout in the White House, is the hard-charging former president of Goldman Sachs.

Trump’s White House is closely scrutinized for its always-evolving power matrix, and the innovation office represents a victory for Wall Street figures such as Cohn who have sought to moderate Trump’s agenda and project a friendly front to businesses, sometimes in conflict with the more hard-line conservatism championed by Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

The innovation group has been meeting twice a week in Kushner’s office, just a few feet from the Oval Office, largely barren but for a black-and-white photo of his paternal grandparents — both Holocaust survivors — and a marked-up whiteboard more typical of tech start-ups. Kushner takes projects and decisions directly to the president for sign-off, though Trump also directly suggests areas of personal interest.

There could be friction as the group interacts with myriad federal agencies, though the advisers said they did not see themselves as an imperious force dictating changes but rather as a “service organization” offering solutions.

Kushner’s team is being formalized just as the Trump administration is proposing sweeping budget cuts across many departments, and members said they would help find efficiencies.

“The president’s doing what is necessary to have a prudent budget, and that makes an office like this even more vital as we need to get more out of less dollars by doing things smarter, doing things better, and by leaning on the private sector,” Cordish said.

Ginni Rometty, the chairman and chief executive of IBM, said she is encouraged: “Jared is reaching out and listening to leaders from across the business community — not just on day-to-day issues, but on long-term challenges like how to train a modern workforce and how to apply the latest innovations to government operations.”

Trump sees the innovation office as a way to institutionalize what he sometimes did in business, such as helping New York City’s government renovate the floundering Wollman Rink in Central Park, said Hope Hicks, the president’s longtime spokeswoman.

“He recognized where the government has struggled with certain projects and he was someone in the private sector who was able to come in and bring the resources and creativity needed and ultimately execute in an efficient, cost-effective, way,” Hicks said. “In some respects, this is an extension of some of the highlights of the president’s career.”