Cybergulag
Like "pineapple pizza" those are two words which should never meet. But we live in interesting times (yes, I know, it's not a real Chinese curse but it should be). In the name of fighting coronavirus, Russia is putting together a surveillance system undreamed of by Stalin and the KGB. And when the plague is over, why not keep using it?
Here in the West, we're happy to let apps spy on us with no government participation. Millions of people are working and attending school via the conferencing platform Zoom, which may be doing Facebook-like things with their personal information. When the time comes, Khrushchev famously said, the capitalists will sell us the rope we hang them with. Khrushchev and his system are gone, so we'll have to hang ourselves. Here's a link to some laughing foxes!
Viruses thrive when humans -- who imagine they are the bosses of this planet -- assist them. In 1918 the hot spots were troop ships, army bases and refugee camps. In 2020 they zero in on nursing homes, prisons, Amazon warehouses and other places people can't escape. Then they head for the sites where the foolish insist on crowding together despite all warnings, like the beaches of Florida (now closed at last, along with the rest of the state), churches, and this football match in Liverpool. Mardi Gras (February 25) is looking especially unwise, though both the mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana say they would have cancelled it on serious warnings from the federal "government." In 1918 Woodrow Wilson was too busy waging war and curtailing liberties to warn Americans about avoiding movie theaters and parades. Trump is too stupid. On balance, I find myself coming down harder on Wilson (who may have been sick himself when he sailed to France after the war). He was a historian. He knew better.
In 1918 there were no ventilators, among many other things. In 2020 they have become the super weapon that means life or death for tens of thousands. First Stupid said there were plenty, then that he would provide all those needed, then that GM would build them overnight (in a factory it no longer owns), then that hospitals were somehow responsible for their own shortages, then that governors should get their own three years ago, then that a hundred thousand are practically delivered. Yes, says FEMA, in June. It's April. How long can you hold your breath? By June, there might be enough personal protective equipment, too. It's comparatively easy to make.
If you want a historical parallel, our hospital personnel are like Russian soldiers at the front in World War I. Each man got a handful of bullets per day because of incompetence and corruption back in St. Petersburg. The state of their other supplies can be imagined. There was a revolution. Sometimes it's the only thing you can do. If you get sick in New York City, something everyday like a stroke or appendicitis, there's every chance you will die in a tent and be stored in a truck until the crematorium or mortuary can get around to you. If you think it will be better in Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, welcome to our failed state. (Fifty, in fact.)
Wilson didn't put his son-in-law in charge of the influenza response. This is unfortunate, because on the evidence William G. McAdoo would have been an excellent choice. He was Secretary of the Treasury, set up the Federal Reserve and served as Director General of Railroads. Meet coronavirus czar Jared Kushner. You may remember him from such triumphs as "Middle East All Better Now," "Opioid Free!" and "Pay Your Rent or Hit the Bricks." Now he's apparently running FEMA, with opportunities for graft and grift that Nicholas II's councilors could only dream of. Maybe it's time to start calling it the Jared Germ.
Nevertheless, the "Dem panic" (get it?) has reached the red(neck) states. Mississippi, Georgia, Texas and Florida have finally enacted stay-home orders, the latter two exempting religious gatherings, which is like putting a porch on your fallout shelter. Georgia's Brian "I Stole the Election Fair and Square" Kemp was astonished to learn what the rest of humanity has known for months, that the asymptomatic can spread coronavirus. ("A game changer," he said, out loud.) Georgia is projected to have over 32,000 cases by the end of the month, many in rural counties. As someone observed, "Brian Stump is dumber than a kemp."
By the way, Governor Stump, that big ol' building in Atlanta, where you live, is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's where Dr. Anthony Fauci works when he isn't forced to stand next to someone possibly even dumber than you, certainly with the ability to harm far more people. You may be interested to know that his refusal to participate in the daily corona-lingus of Dear Leader has caused some Trumpanzees to threaten him with violence. That's right, the one indispensable person has had an armed security detail since last weekend.
Governor Cuomo says New York will exhaust its supply of ventilators in six days. If you're planning to get COVID-19, do it now. Be warned: his brother Chris described a harrowing night of fighting the coronavirus, and he isn't even sick enough to be in a hospital.
Trump at yesterday's mini-campaign rally: "Did you know I was number one on Facebook? I mean I just found out I'm number one on Facebook. I thought that was very...nice." Not even close to true, but very nice. The world is thrilled.
Dr. Li Wenliang, the Wuhan ophthalmologist who tried to alert the world to a new coronavirus last December, has now received a posthumous "solemn apology" from the Chinese government, which initially treated him like a criminal. Between December and the end of February, 759,493 people entered the United States from China, while others traveled to Italy, Spain, Iran and other countries. Most of them were asymptomatic or thought they had a cold.
No government is innocent.
Here in the West, we're happy to let apps spy on us with no government participation. Millions of people are working and attending school via the conferencing platform Zoom, which may be doing Facebook-like things with their personal information. When the time comes, Khrushchev famously said, the capitalists will sell us the rope we hang them with. Khrushchev and his system are gone, so we'll have to hang ourselves. Here's a link to some laughing foxes!
Viruses thrive when humans -- who imagine they are the bosses of this planet -- assist them. In 1918 the hot spots were troop ships, army bases and refugee camps. In 2020 they zero in on nursing homes, prisons, Amazon warehouses and other places people can't escape. Then they head for the sites where the foolish insist on crowding together despite all warnings, like the beaches of Florida (now closed at last, along with the rest of the state), churches, and this football match in Liverpool. Mardi Gras (February 25) is looking especially unwise, though both the mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana say they would have cancelled it on serious warnings from the federal "government." In 1918 Woodrow Wilson was too busy waging war and curtailing liberties to warn Americans about avoiding movie theaters and parades. Trump is too stupid. On balance, I find myself coming down harder on Wilson (who may have been sick himself when he sailed to France after the war). He was a historian. He knew better.
In 1918 there were no ventilators, among many other things. In 2020 they have become the super weapon that means life or death for tens of thousands. First Stupid said there were plenty, then that he would provide all those needed, then that GM would build them overnight (in a factory it no longer owns), then that hospitals were somehow responsible for their own shortages, then that governors should get their own three years ago, then that a hundred thousand are practically delivered. Yes, says FEMA, in June. It's April. How long can you hold your breath? By June, there might be enough personal protective equipment, too. It's comparatively easy to make.
If you want a historical parallel, our hospital personnel are like Russian soldiers at the front in World War I. Each man got a handful of bullets per day because of incompetence and corruption back in St. Petersburg. The state of their other supplies can be imagined. There was a revolution. Sometimes it's the only thing you can do. If you get sick in New York City, something everyday like a stroke or appendicitis, there's every chance you will die in a tent and be stored in a truck until the crematorium or mortuary can get around to you. If you think it will be better in Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, welcome to our failed state. (Fifty, in fact.)
Wilson didn't put his son-in-law in charge of the influenza response. This is unfortunate, because on the evidence William G. McAdoo would have been an excellent choice. He was Secretary of the Treasury, set up the Federal Reserve and served as Director General of Railroads. Meet coronavirus czar Jared Kushner. You may remember him from such triumphs as "Middle East All Better Now," "Opioid Free!" and "Pay Your Rent or Hit the Bricks." Now he's apparently running FEMA, with opportunities for graft and grift that Nicholas II's councilors could only dream of. Maybe it's time to start calling it the Jared Germ.
Nevertheless, the "Dem panic" (get it?) has reached the red(neck) states. Mississippi, Georgia, Texas and Florida have finally enacted stay-home orders, the latter two exempting religious gatherings, which is like putting a porch on your fallout shelter. Georgia's Brian "I Stole the Election Fair and Square" Kemp was astonished to learn what the rest of humanity has known for months, that the asymptomatic can spread coronavirus. ("A game changer," he said, out loud.) Georgia is projected to have over 32,000 cases by the end of the month, many in rural counties. As someone observed, "Brian Stump is dumber than a kemp."
By the way, Governor Stump, that big ol' building in Atlanta, where you live, is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's where Dr. Anthony Fauci works when he isn't forced to stand next to someone possibly even dumber than you, certainly with the ability to harm far more people. You may be interested to know that his refusal to participate in the daily corona-lingus of Dear Leader has caused some Trumpanzees to threaten him with violence. That's right, the one indispensable person has had an armed security detail since last weekend.
Governor Cuomo says New York will exhaust its supply of ventilators in six days. If you're planning to get COVID-19, do it now. Be warned: his brother Chris described a harrowing night of fighting the coronavirus, and he isn't even sick enough to be in a hospital.
Trump at yesterday's mini-campaign rally: "Did you know I was number one on Facebook? I mean I just found out I'm number one on Facebook. I thought that was very...nice." Not even close to true, but very nice. The world is thrilled.
Dr. Li Wenliang, the Wuhan ophthalmologist who tried to alert the world to a new coronavirus last December, has now received a posthumous "solemn apology" from the Chinese government, which initially treated him like a criminal. Between December and the end of February, 759,493 people entered the United States from China, while others traveled to Italy, Spain, Iran and other countries. Most of them were asymptomatic or thought they had a cold.
No government is innocent.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 2:33 PM
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