How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Beebo Brink]

A rare feel-good virus story. I'll take it.

A woman was hospitalized with covid-19. One of her aides turned out to be her long-lost sister.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I've binged Supernatural on Netflix and that's never come up.

ETA: Demon sperm I mean. Angel [and archangel] sperm has indirectly.
ETA2: FWIW, Angel sperm includes the term "spawn of Satan" [broadly speaking] since Lucifer is an archangel.

For context, the White House recently promoted the claims of an actual doctor - a Texas pediatrician, no less - who declared hydroxychlorquine to be both safe for everyone and the literal cure for the coronavirus. It was quickly found that she also believes that vaccines are made using alien DNA and that most gynecological problems are caused by "deposits from spirit husbands"; i.e., incubus.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

For context, the White House recently promoted the claims of an actual doctor - a Texas pediatrician, no less - who declared hydroxychlorquine to be both safe for everyone and the literal cure for the coronavirus. It was quickly found that she also believes that vaccines are made using alien DNA and that most gynecological problems are caused by "deposits from spirit husbands"; i.e., incubus.

I just want to know where my incubus/i is, because you know, I've had the problems, but never any of the fun.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Dean Koontz Demon Seed (1973) superintelligent computer goes round impregnating women with synthetic semen, no actual demons involved. Not one of Koontz' best. I would recommend The Haunted Earth (also 1973) if you want to give Koontz a try. Urban Fantasy Space Opera Detective at its best.

Disclaimer: I haven't read Demon Seed in over 40 years, so my memory might be agley. I've re-read The Haunted Earth recently and it's still a fun romp.

 

[danielravennest]

In other Twitter news, former presidential candidate Herman Cain posted how this was a hoax, a few hours after dying from COVID-19, and after attending Trump's Oklahoma rally without a mask.

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

How could Cain Tweet something AFTER he died?

One interesting side effect of Covid is that my company has decided it LOVES work from home - especially those of us who have been doing it for a long time. They weren't so sure about us when we first got outsourced. So, now we're not only able to apply for jobs that were previously closed to us - unless we were willing to relocate - we're being encouraged to apply.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

For context, the White House recently promoted the claims of an actual doctor - a Texas pediatrician, no less - who declared hydroxychlorquine to be both safe for everyone and the literal cure for the coronavirus. It was quickly found that she also believes that vaccines are made using alien DNA and that most gynecological problems are caused by "deposits from spirit husbands"; i.e., incubus.

More detail on the story

Trump’s New COVID Doctor Says Sex With Demons Makes You Sick

The president is pushing the coronavirus theories of a Houston doctor who also says sexual visitations by demons and alien DNA are at the root of Americans’ common health concerns.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[detrius]

Oh. My.

Herman Cain Movie

hermancain.com

I can't help but think that if he hadn't died, he would have continued to downplay the ongoing pandemic and that he would have used his personal experience to do so.

So even though I try to avoid feeling Schadenfreude, I'm not going to feel sad for him passing away - especially since he probably contracted the virus at Trump's Darwin Award rally in Tulsa, which he attended without protecting himself and others.

Cain's legacy will consist of junk food, creepy campaign ads and a reminder that Republicans will always be more tolerant of sexual misconduct when it's done by white men like Trump. His role in the Republican Party was that of the guy who tells people that they have their entitlements and privileges because they deserve them, not because they got lucky - but if anything, his life and the circumstance of his death show the brokenness of American Capitalism, in which success is more about chance than about ability, which is why he will be quickly forgotten by his compatriots who post run-of-the-mill references to holy books.

 

[detrius]

Does he have the kind of "Doctor Feelgood" who hands out questionable prescriptions to celebrities?

This guy has a reputation for being the dumbest person in Congress and he's 66 years old. How did he manage to stay alive until now?

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

How did he manage to stay alive until now?

Didn't Trump just have his 74th?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Masha Gessen compares the US response to Covid-19 with Soviet and post-Soviet Russia

I’ve been plagued by a nauseating sense of recognition lately. Story after story of the pandemic response in the United States reminds me of the country that I spent most of my professional life writing about: the Soviet Union and also the Russian state that was born after its collapse but which couldn’t shake many of its traits.

Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State

The callous nihilism of contemporary Russian society is everywhere in the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.newyorker.com

Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State | The New Yorker

Skip to main content Our Columnists Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State By Masha Gessen July 29, 2020 The callous nihilism of contemporary Russian society is everywhere in the Trump Administrat...

www.evernote.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”

This spring, a team working under the president’s son-in-law produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control. So why did the White House spike it in favor of a shambolic 50-state response?

www.vanityfair.com

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan [for Covid-19 testing] was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

 

[Rose Karuna]

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”

This spring, a team working under the president’s son-in-law produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control. So why did the White House spike it in favor of a shambolic 50-state response?

www.vanityfair.com

I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that our country could have had a comprehensive federal response to COVID, saved thousands of lives and then decided to dump it because of this. Unthinkable! Trump and all his cronies should be run out of office on a rail and then tar and feathered.

Worried about the stock market and his reelection prospects, Trump also feared that more testing would only lead to higher case counts and more bad publicity. Meanwhile, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, was reportedly sharing models with senior staff that optimistically—and erroneously, it would turn out—predicted the virus would soon fade away.

Against that background, the prospect of launching a large-scale national plan was losing favor, said one public health expert in frequent contact with the White House’s official coronavirus task force.

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

That logic may have swayed Kushner. “It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out,” the expert said.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that our country could have had a comprehensive federal response to COVID, saved thousands of lives and then decided to dump it because of this. Unthinkable! Trump and all his cronies should be run out of office on a rail and then tar and feathered.

Genocide by negligence and spite.

 

[Beebo Brink]

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”

This spring, a team working under the president’s son-in-law produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control. So why did the White House spike it in favor of a shambolic 50-state response?

www.vanityfair.com

I'm not the least surprised by Kushner's reaction. Blue states, old people in nursing home, black & Hispanic people, all irrelevant and expendable.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Considering that I'm on edge constantly these days, I can see where the stress would be de-stabilizing to people with mental health issues. It also reminds me to take a more compassionate view of what seems, at first glance, to be deliberately horrible behavior.

Arizona woman who destroyed Target mask display in viral video says she regrets behavior

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, Rein Lively, the CEO and founder of a public relations firm, said she lost all of her clients and her husband filed for divorce after the videos of her expletive-filled rants went viral.

"I think mental illness has been really something that has not been addressed as a result of this pandemic," she said. "Because what happened to me was scary and it changed my life forever. I felt I had absolutely no control over my actions."

Her husband, Jared Lively, told the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, that he started getting text messages from friends who had seen the Target video on Instagram on July 4.

He said he feared it was an escalation of a days-long decline in his wife’s mental health and a continuation of a problem that he said had manifested itself the year before.

“There’s a lot of people that have a manic episode like this,” Jared Lively said during an interview with the Republic, noting he had received death threats. “They just don’t film it.”

 

[Pamela]

Masha Gessen compares the US response to Covid-19 with Soviet and post-Soviet Russia

Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State

The callous nihilism of contemporary Russian society is everywhere in the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.newyorker.com

Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State | The New Yorker

Skip to main content Our Columnists Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State By Masha Gessen July 29, 2020 The callous nihilism of contemporary Russian society is everywhere in the Trump Administrat...

www.evernote.com

Thank you for this! I recently read Gessen’s latest book, Surviving Autocracy which more concisely and accurately explains what we are going through than anything I have read. As in this article she describes the bizarre practice of an entire administration just making up their own version of reality. I highly recommend,.

 

[Pamela]

How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”

This spring, a team working under the president’s son-in-law produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control. So why did the White House spike it in favor of a shambolic 50-state response?

www.vanityfair.com

I hope I survive this virus so I can see this reptile dragged off to prison.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Thank you for this! I recently read Gessen’s latest book, Surviving Autocarcy which more concisely and accurately explains what we are going through than anything I have read. As in this article she describes the bizarre practice of an entire administration just making up their own version of reality. I highly recommend,.

I've long been a fan of Masha Gessen, and I agree about Surviving Autocracy -- it explains so well how what's happening in the US looks when seen in the context of what's been happening in Russia and much of Europe, and they (which I think is Gessen's prefered pronoun) is so well qualified to judge.