By spocko, on May 1st, 2020% Yesterday I watched Rachel Maddow talk about the Mayor of Grand Island Nebraska begging the Federal government to help them.
https://www.spockosbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/Mayor-needs-help.mp4
It reminded me of an EPIC battle my friends at Nebraskans Against Gun Violence won to defeat a bill in which the state would preempt any local gun laws.
Back in the spring of 2017 NAGV’s Danni Layne and I both talked to Grand Island city attorney Jerry Janulewicz about the bill prior to the vote. We focused on safety. The preemption law would have prevented safe storage of guns, gun powder and ammunition. Laws would have to be changed or face lawsuits from NRA lawyers.
Besides a meat packing plant, Grand Island has a major ammunition manufacturer. We spoke with the public safety officials in the city and pointed out that local control is important, especially when the conditions in their city are different than in the rest of the state. For example fire safety laws around ammo storage.
The local fire marshal noted that if the gun preemption law was passed the city legally couldn’t enforce fire safety laws around ammunition storage.
The bill was defeated. The city was able to keep its safety laws.
. . . → Read More: How can we help Grand Island protect its citizens from coronavirus, state and federal government?
By spocko, on April 30th, 2020% VA orders $300,000 of body bags.
The Department of Veterans Affairs ordered nearly $300,000 worth of body bags this month, according to a contracting document reviewed by POLITICO.
By Betsy Woodruff Swan, @woodruffbets Politico 04/30/2020 06:48 PM EDT
I don’t think Trump will change his “Sir,we don’t have ammunition” story? to “Sir we don’t have body bags” anytime soon.
Interesting side note in the story. FEMA paid $51 per bag when they bought 100,000. But you can get them for the low low price of $16.80 each if you get them from the Body Bag Store! Or just ignore social distancing rules and get one for free.
States with tight budgets have an alternative!
Due to extremely high demand for body bags during this COVID-19 pandemic, you may wish to consider our mortuary shrouds as a body bag alternative. From The Body Bag Store website.
I’m, sure Trump will find a way to get credit. “These are the best body bags. Very strong. Powerful body bags. When I came into office we had a broken body bag system. Now we are the top user of body bags for Covid-19 in the world!”
. . . → Read More: VA to Trump, “Sir, we don’t have body bags.”
By spocko, on April 27th, 2020% I read a letter yesterday that made my face go numb. Congress doesn’t know where critical pandemic supplies are going, what the criteria are for sending them, what gets sent to which states and who makes the final life or death decision about the supplies.
Today, April 27th, the House Energy & Commerce Committee‘s Health, Oversight and Investigation subcommittee chairs expects a detailed accounting from HHS and FEMA of the critical supplies the federal government is obtaining and distributing. These questions are from a letter sent by the House Energy & Commerce Health, Oversight and Investigation subcommittee on April 20th 2020 to Alex Azar of HHS and Peter Gaynor of FEMA.
These two questions made the tips of my ear go numb.
Who are the members of the Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force? Who makes the final decision on where and how many supplies to distribute to a particular area or state?
HHS and FEMA need to deliver the following information by Monday, April 27th.
No later than April 27, 2020 provide daily reports to the House Energy & Commerce Health, Oversight and Investigation subcommittee the following information: The total number of the following supplies that the federal . . . → Read More: Who makes the life or death supply decisions for your state?
By spocko, on April 20th, 2020% Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 15, 2020. Composite by Spocko Original Photo: Jeff Kowalsky /Getty Images
It’s time to start tracking the people who are gathering to protest stay at home orders. Tracking & contact tracing is one of the ways other countries control the spread. We can start with these people, the #MichiganMorons. They’re in public, so they have no expectation of privacy. They aren’t wearing masks, so the facial recognition software will work. They chose to risk their health when they traveled and meet in groups, but when they went home they risked the health of others who are unaware of their protest. All of those people might be exposed without their consent.
If these protesters don’t want their face being seen they can wear a mask! (I really would like it if that would be their response to facial recognition being used on them, because that would be a win for public health!)
The general public should be able to find out who these people are for multiple reasons. First so we can keep OURSELVES away from THEM if they live in our state. Second, so people in other states can . . . → Read More: Let’s Track The COVIDIOT Protesters
By spocko, on April 11th, 2020% Trump wants to measure how he’s doing on this pandemic based on the numbers he chooses. To counter this we must actively promote legitimate metrics of success and failure that come from trusted entities. Then we frame his numbers with numbers that matter. Like how many died who didn’t have to because of his actions.
Trump has always picked the numbers he wants to measure his success. First he wanted it to be inauguration attendees. When the media pushed back Sean Spicer had to go on Dancing With The Stars for not being a good liar. Next Trump used numbers the media couldn’t deny like the electoral college vote. When the stock market was up it was tweet, tweet, tweet! When unemployment was down? He bragged about it in every rally, especially in a category that he was weak in–African American employment.
Thursday he picked a number he believes shows he is winning the fight against the coronavirus. TV ratings. I’m not going to let him, so I’ve physically–and linguistically–framed the metric he chose with one the people care about.
Picking a number you are a leader in is a classic technique used by marketing and PR people for . . . → Read More: Don’t let Trump pick how to measure his pandemic response
By spocko, on March 26th, 2020% Soon we will have data on states that did NOT keep people apart and did NOT issue stay at home orders. I will share that data with a plea for people to act appropriately. When it comes: .
Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
I WILL NOT gloat when Fox News watchers die. The network they followed featured Trump’s “hunches” instead of pandemic experts.
I WILL NOT cheer when people in Red States get sick. Even those who voted for Trump and kept supporting him.
What will I do? Keep pleading for them to listen to healthcare experts.
I want them to change their actions in order to save their lives. If they don’t, they might get sick and die. Part of that change is for them to understand that what Trump is saying and doing has made the situation worse. Will they stop supporting him and change? Yes. Some will. I will welcome them to a community who believes in science. But some won’t.
If I’m wrong and they are right how will they respond? By mocking me. “See? I told you it wasn’t that big of a deal. I didn’t social distance . . . → Read More: There’s no joy in saying, “I told you so!” to a corpse
By spocko, on March 19th, 2020% Trump is calling #COVID19 the Chinese Virus. Read Kurt Eichenwald’s great Twitter thread and Amanda Marcotte’s excellent article on why he’s doing it and how to react. My thoughts on what we can do about it. Make Trump’s Racist Comments Unprofitable For Him.
Trump’s behavior changes when he knows it will impact him positively or negatively financially. Instead of hoping he will suddenly care about that Americans are endangered by his comments let’s use our understanding of his psyche and focus on what he cares about–money–then come up with multiple legal methods to take it away from him. The goal:
Make Trump’s businesses lose millions in revenue whenever he makes statements that reasonable people consider racist.
Close up of Trump’s notes where he crossed out “Corona” and replaced it with “Chinese” Virus as he speaks with his coronavirus task force 3/19/20 at the White House. Image from: Jabin Botsford, Washington PostAs Eichenwald points out, we know how Trump and the right plays the game of “trolling the Libs” then following it up with bad faith arguments and definitions.
2…the purpose was SPECIFICALLY (according to the political consultant’s strategy”) to lead non-scumbags to react “That’s racist!” Then they . . . → Read More: 5 Ways to Financially Hurt Trump & Help Americans During #Coronavirus Pandemic
By spocko, on March 13th, 2020%
All 4 retail executives shook hands with Trump. None of the health care or lab executives did.
By spocko, on March 5th, 2020% When Warren dropped out it became the cue for the Biden vs. Sanders fight to begin.
The media LOVE a two person fight. The main stream media can do horse races and “Dems in Disarray!” stories.
The cable news can dig into the numbers of voters and delegates by percentage points and demographic and go back to 2016 numbers. (I watched Rachel Maddow question Bernie on specific numbers of voter percentages by demographics on Super Tuesday vs. 2016 for an hour last night.)
The right-wing media love to see democratic candidates fight each other and will hype old fights and emphasize new ones. They use the classic. “Let’s you and him fight.” When I see this happening my first impulse is to ask three questions,
1) Who wants ALL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FAIL?
Trump, the GOP establishment, Russia’s propaganda social media machine and Right Wing media.
2) What can we do to weaken THOSE people and groups?
Demand reinvigorated investigations into Trump’s crimes.
We have seen the democratic establishment slow down on investigating Trump’s crimes. They are giving a number of reasons like, “The conviction didn’t work.” or “The public has investigation fatigue.” Some are giving the reason that the . . . → Read More: Who are you arguing with today? Fight the real enemy.
By spocko, on February 28th, 2020% During Trump’s press conference he said a vaccine would be developed “fairly rapidly” Then Dr. Anthony Fauci went to the podium and said we are moving fast, but it will still take a year to a year and a half for a working vaccine.
I watched Trump’s eyes narrow as he figured out that Dr. Fauci had just contradicted him. It doesn’t matter that Dr. Fauci is one of the country’s leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. What mattered to Trump was it looked like he wasn’t in control.
With this White House it’s not about trying to figure out best how to stop the spread of the virus. It’s about how to stop the spread of “disloyalty” among people who work for Trump.
The next day in the New York Times we see how Trump punishes disloyalty, he told Pence to control the scientists and the message about the virus.
Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials.
“Dr. Fauci has told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.”
Watch this video where Trump says the vaccine is . . . → Read More: Pence muzzles Dr. Fauci for contradicting Trump on the speed of making vaccine
|
Subscribe to Spocko's Brain Blog via Email
|
Comments are closed 