finally, this has nothing to do with the virus, but I thought it was funny
Nature Hit A Reset
Coronavirus: Air pollution and CO2 fall rapidly as virus spreads
Researchers in New York told the BBC their early results showed carbon monoxide mainly from cars had been reduced by nearly 50% compared with last year.
Emissions of the planet-heating gas CO2 have also fallen sharply.
With global economic activity ramping down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, it is hardly surprising that emissions of a variety of gases related to energy and transport would be reduced.
One more way the world wasn’t prepared for coronavirus: Air pollution
In three coronavirus hotspots, satellite imagery revealed a dramatic decline in air pollution in recent weeks as China, Italy, and Iran were brought to a standstill. One Stanford scientist estimated that China’s coronavirus lockdown could have saved 77,000 lives by curbing emissions from factories and vehicles — nearly 10 times the number of deaths worldwide from the virus so far.
As Italy quarantines over coronavirus, swans appear in Venice canals, dolphins swim up playfully
With the canals in Venice empty of its usual boat traffic, photos on social media show clear waters and the return of wildlife
“Nature just hit the reset button” in the suddenly clear waters of Venice canals and off the coast of a locked-down Italy.
Speaking of nature, here is a list of animal cams you might enjoy.
People Doing Good
Two 20-somethings extend ‘invisible hands’ in virus outbreak
Elkind, a junior at Yale, and a friend, Simone Policano, amassed 1,300 volunteers in 72 hours to deliver groceries and medicine to older New Yorkers and other vulnerable people. They call themselves Invisible Hands, and they do something else in the process — provide human contact and comfort, at a safe distance, of course.
Yang nonprofit announces coronavirus relief effort for the Bronx
As Congress and the White House work to pass an emergency economic stimulus bill in response to the coronavirus pandemic, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is taking matters into his own hands.
Yang’s new nonprofit organization, Humanity Forward, announced Friday it will be distributing at least $1 million in $1,000 cash payments to 1,000 working poor households in the Bronx as part of a coronavirus relief fund in partnership with other organizations.
“Given the nature of this crisis, we thought it was imperative to act now and get money into people's hands, and also demonstrate that this is exactly what our government should be doing,” Yang told NBC News.
In one day, 1,000 NYC doctors and nurses enlist to battle coronavirus
If you call them, they will come.
In just a single day, one thousand retired and private practice doctors and nurses answered City Hall’s cry for help, volunteering to join the Big Apple’s medical reserve and help treat their fellow New Yorkers stricken with coronavirus.
“I think that’s so inspiring, so many people are coming forward to help and that’s how we’re going to beat this back,” Hizzoner told radio station WCBS-880AM.
Eight Acts of Goodness Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak
- People are self-organizing to help those in need
- Stores designate certain hours for at-risk shoppers
- Chinese medical staff bring supplies to help Italy
- Quarantined residents sing from their balconies
- Health care workers get a round of applause
- NBA players chip in to pay arena workers while games are cancelled
- Companies offer free services and entertainment for the homebound
- Penguins enjoy a private tour of the aquarium
I love this one from quarantined Israel. The song is a popular kids song and the lyrics include:
"Next year we will sit on the porch and count migrating birds. Children will play tag between the house and the fields. You will see, you will see, how good it will be next year." ❤️
I’ve never been a big Cuomo fan, but he is killing it. As are other New Yorkers!
Grassroots effort to 3D print masks to fight coronavirus is starting in a tiny N.J. shop
One layer at a time, one mask at a time. Inside a fabricating co-op in Totowa known as the Maker Depot, 29-year-old mechanical engineer and lab manager Shweta Thapa is hoping to make a difference.
The Newark resident is part of a new initiative encouraging the 10,000 members of Women in 3D Printing, a global technology organization, to use their hardware and software skills to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by making some of the products that are in short supply.
You have the power to make a difference
You Can Help Break the Chain of Transmission
The basic message: Very simple interventions, such as working from home and severing even one link, have an exponential effect. Every individual acting preemptively can make a huge difference.
“I started working from home a long time ago,” Dr. Hanage said.
“It was just a week ago,” Dr. Jenkins noted.
“Right, it was just a week ago,” he said.
Talking of a “wartime situation” might sound scary, but remember: This is an opportunity for everyone to unite against a common enemy. I’ve been incredibly moved by how much important work everyone is doing to help one another. If we can harness that effectively, then I can start to feel more optimistic.
Good News in Our Fight
Can You Get Coronavirus Twice?
The race is on to develop an immunization against COVID-19.
Dozens of companies and public labs around the world are working to develop a vaccine to prevent the spread of the flu-like virus. Over the last 48 hours, three biotech companies, in particular, have been thrust into the spotlight for their promise: BioNTech, CureVac and Moderna.
A Coronavirus Treatment Worth Watching
Regeneron is one of the few drugmakers to have successfully developed a treatment for an outbreak, and it's ahead of schedule on Covid-19.
There's still a long road ahead and a lot of uncertainty. Even in a best-case scenario, a drug won't be tested for months and broad availability is even farther away. But if Covid-19 sticks around, there's at least a chance a Regeneron drug will be a tool used to fight it. In addition to developing blockbuster medicines, Regeneron has a demonstrated ability to respond to outbreaks
A little politics: We Can Win the Senate in November
Susan Collins’ Obama-Era Vote Against Pandemic Funding Comes Back to Haunt Her
or Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a lifelong Republican who believes in limited government, funding for pandemic flu preparations didn’t belong in the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan. She lobbied hard to kill the money, and as one of only three Senate Republicans supporting the package, she had a lot of leverage with an administration desperate to show bipartisan support in a global economic crisis.
President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in February of that year. Two months later, in April, as a new influenza outbreak, H1N1, known as swine flu, got underway, Democrat David Obey, who chaired the House Appropriations committee at the time, took Collins to task:
“Whether or not this influenza strain turns out to have pandemic potential, sooner or later some strain will. We are not prepared today. Let’s hope we don’t need to be.”
Ebola Fears Helped Elect Trumpist Senator Thom Tillis. Coronavirus Fears Could Help Oust Him.
The North Carolina Senate race hasn’t been as high on Democrats’ lists of possible pick-ups as Maine and Colorado. But that seems to be changing fast.
Incumbent Republican Thom Tillis has been taking some heat over the discrepancy between his coronavirus response and his response to an earlier outbreak when Barack Obama was president. Tillis is all in when it comes to Donald Trump. He says the president is “taking every step he can to help the safety of the people in the United States” despite complaints from governors around the country, including his home state governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, that they have not received the testing supplies they need. It’s China’s fault, Tillis says, that Trump wasn’t quicker off the mark.
Tarheel voters are starting to notice Tillis’ lapdog loyalty to Trump. Morgan Jackson, a Democratic consultant based in Raleigh, North Carolina, says voters take cues from how elected officials and candidates handle themselves during a major crisis, and Tillis has some explaining to do.
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A little more politics: We Can Win the Presidency in November
The Pandemic Is the End of Trumpism
Trumpism as a style is defined not just by boasting and bluster; his triumphalism depends on projecting certitude. The president early on acted as if he could indeed create reality by proclamation, when he assured the public that U.S. infections would soon be down to zero.
For a rising generation, a crisis fueled by frightening science foreshadows the coming conflicts.
The coronavirus pandemic does not remotely have the cataclysmic shock and violence of 9/11. For many people, however, the virus’ actual day-in, day-out impact will be more pervasive. 9-11 was followed by a period, which turned out to be short-lived, of national connection and goodwill. Trump, who has made mockery and castigation of opponents his signature, surely did not conjure fuzzy feelings from many quarters with his appeal at the White House on Wednesday that, “We are all in this together.”
We all know that running on healthcare is a winner for us and he is more evidence that it will help us win:
Ten years later, Obamacare is as popular as it's ever been
As the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, turns 10 years old on Monday, the health care law is as popular as it has ever been, according to new numbers from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll.
If only the guy who was vice president when it was put into law was running as our candidate! 😉
Will a recession doom Trump? A new forecast says yes.
If the economy slips into a serious recession, will it doom President Trump’s reelection chances?
Only time will settle whether this prediction is correct. But the very possibility that a recession could doom Trump — which is plausible — has major implications for what’s now about to happen, in political and substantive terms.
A brutal new ad uses Trump’s own words against him
It’s often argued that we must avoid “politicizing” crises like the current coronavirus catastrophe. But if anything can bury this cliche once and for all — “politicizing” a crisis really means debating our differences over what to do about one — this one should get the job done.
Indeed, in this case, Trump’s own words tell much of this story. They illustrate those stakes, and those failures and pathologies, as clearly as anything else does.
A new ad campaign from the Democratic-aligned super PAC American Bridge, which has been sent my way, uses those words in just this way.
The group is set to air digital spots in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — the three “blue wall” states Trump cracked in 2016 — that document an extensive array of times that Trump minimized coronavirus, falsely downplayed the threat it posed and absurdly hyped his own handling of it.
here it is if you want to watch:
Bloomberg gives $18 million to DNC in lieu of starting his own group to beat Trump
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is transferring $18 million left in the accounts of his now-defunct presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee and forgoing, for now, creating his own independent political group to help Democrats in November.
“While we considered creating our own independent entity to support the nominee and hold the President accountable, this race is too important to have many competing groups with good intentions but that are not coordinated and united in strategy and execution,” Bloomberg’s campaign said in a memo to the DNC. “The dynamics of the race have also fundamentally changed, and it is critically important that we all do everything we can to support our eventual nominee and scale the Democratic Party’s general election efforts.”
Worried what you are going to do in all these hours stuck in your house? Here are some ideas:
Here are some ideas of ways to donate your time from the comfort of your own home (click on the links):
- Get involved with Postcards to voters. Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
- register voters in key battleground states. Vote Forward has active campaigns going in 8 key states to encourage under-represented (potential) voters to register
- Text voters in key Senate races Payback Project has a comprehensive, four-pronged approach to make sure Republicans Senators are held accountable for their actions
Here are some ideas for donating:
- Donate to a fund for Democratic candidates that run in the 2020 Senate elections Fund for the Democratic candidates that run in the 2020 Senate elections in flippable seats.
- Donate to the Unify or Die fund for WHOMEVER our nominee will be 100% of your donation to the Unify or Die Fund will go to the eventual Democratic nominee for President.
- Donate to Swing Left Swing Left connects you with the most effective actions you can take to help Democrats defeat Trump and the GOP in 2020.
- Donate to the ACLU Donate to the ACLU today to help protect the rights and liberties of people across the country.
Don’t Worry About Everything
I had this in last week but I STILL see people worrying about Trump subverting democracy and staying president without an election. So to remind you HE CAN’T DO THAT. Let’s listen to an actual constitutional law professor and expert on this issue:
More from his tweets:
This assumes, of course, that the elections for the House, or at least some of them, manage to go forward even if the full presidential election does not. The Speaker, however, is not constitutionally required to be a member of the House.
There is at least a colorable argument that the designation of Speaker outlasts any particular House (this would depend on House rules, which, of course, could be changed).
If the position of Speaker is vacant, next in line is the President pro tem of the Senate. In the event of a delay in Senate elections, the Senate would consist of the 2/3 of the Senators who are not up for re-election. (The terms of the other 1/3 having expired.)
Since 23 seats held by Republicans are currently up in the election, and only 12 seats held by Democrats, that truncated Senate would be in Democratic control, so the President pro tem would be a Democrat.
The point is, no matter who ultimately ends up filling the vacancy, it will not be Trump, and will almost certainly not be a Republican. In the absence of an election, Trump hasn't been legally re-elected, and the presidency will become vacant at noon on January 20, 2021.
In short, an election delay has no benefit to Trump. If he wants to hang on to the presidency, he has every incentive to make sure the election happens as scheduled.
Again, he is one expert and I have seen others say that they Rs might try to take it to the courts so that McConnell would take over temporarily or maybe it would be Pompeo. But you know what not one expert thinks? No one thinks that Trump or Pence would be in office without an election. And no one thinks the election could be put off without Pelosi signing off. So relax. We have enough on our plates.
Also, people are also losing their minds about one poll that showed that 53% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of this. Please relax. We don’t lose our minds about one poll. From 538
In this week’s Reuters/Ipsos poll, respondents were split 47 percent to 47 percent on whether they approved or disapproved of the way Trump was handling the coronavirus. That’s an improvement from March 2-3, when Reuters/Ipsos found that 38 percent approved and 47 percent disapproved. Similarly, the most recent YouGov/The Economist poll gave Trump a 45 percent approval rating on the coronavirus and a 46 percent disapproval rating. In the pollster’s March 1-3 survey, 37 percent approved and 47 percent disapproved. Interestingly, both polls showed little change in the number of Americans who disapproved of Trump’s performance on the issue, just more people approving of it.
That said, other polls, including some very high-quality ones, still found Trump underwater on the issue. For example, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from March 11-13 found that 45 percent of registered voters approved of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, while 51 percent disapproved. And the aforementioned NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey gave Trump a 44 percent approval rating on the coronavirus and a 49 percent disapproval rating (among all adults). And Trump’s overall approval rating remains in the low 40s, where it has hovered throughout almost all of his presidency.
And if his numbers do go up? Who cares. In times of crisis people WANT to believe in their leaders. Remember how W’s ratings went up to like 90% after 9/11? It didn’t last. Yes, he may see a bump from this. Yes, that is nuts. But it won’t last and it won’t save him. Eyes on the prize, my friends, eyes on the prize.
To close, another poem:
In the Time of Pandemic
And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised,
and made art, and played games,
and learned new ways of being, and were still.
And listened more deeply.
Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.
*
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
*
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images,
and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
Stay safe and have a great weekend. I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you! ❤️ ✊ ❤️