Read the fine print

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos goes through all the details to show wearing a mask in public significantly – as in at least 85% – reduces the spread of the coronavirus. Hand washing helps too.

So why aren’t people wearing masks? One reason is early in the pandemic the US Surgeon General declared the public shouldn’t wear masks, though he also said the reason is to reserve masks for health care workers who desperately need them. That last part didn’t get properly out to the public. Other reasons are that it makes the wearer look weak and cowardly. Or not sufficiently manly. Or wearing a mask is like slavery. Or that God will protect them. Or the nasty guy doesn’t wear one so I’m not either. Or something.

Sumner wrote:

If 70% of Americans wore masks in public, it would provide an effect that mimicked the much-sought after “herd immunity” until a vaccine becomes available. If 80% of Americans wore masks in public, it might push the rate of transmission so low that, well before the end of the year, America would be in the position of China or South Korea or Japan—fighting the occasional local flare up, rather than going forward in a fog of rising cases and impending doom.
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We don’t need guidelines on mask use. We don’t need more FDA suggestions about mask use. We need a nationwide requirement that all people wear masks over both mouth and nose while in public areas, always, for the duration of the emergency. And keep them on, even when there’s a television camera pointed your way.
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If everyone would wear a mask, it would save tens of thousands of lives in the next few months.

But Republicans are instead chasing people who are wearing masks, and sometimes assaulting people who are wearing masks, and even barring people from their stores if they are wearing masks. It’s almost as if they’re determined to rack up the biggest body count available. But at least they’ll die knowing how they owned those libs.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos created a chart showing the percentage of where new cases are reported. The states and counties where Clinton won in 2016 have been dropping in the percentages. The states and counties where the nasty guy won have been rising.

Back in March the nasty guy declared he was the “wartime president.” Now as the pandemic rises in red America the nasty guy has abandoned the field.

That poses the question of why the nasty guy thinks killing off his voters will benefit him. Of course, I know the answer – to him the election doesn’t matter, except to trumpet big numbers to stroke his ego.



States and cities are passing laws to curb police brutality. Yay! Laura Clawson of Kos says read the fine print.

The question is how seriously they’re responding, and whether the reforms being announced will ever be enforced. In too many cases, the loopholes are going to be big enough for police officers to use to get away with murder.

For example, California is calling for the end of training of neck restraint techniques, not banning their use. Broward County, Florida did ban neck restraints – except when deadly force is justified (and George Floyd’s killer would have justified it to himself). There are several other examples.



Moscow Mitch has a policing reform bill for the Senate. It doesn’t do much. However, it can be used as a dare to Democrats to oppose it.