This delusional president’s personal attack dog

Dr. Saskia Popescu, who lists biodefense in her description, tweeted a chart of the COVID-19 risk index. There are four primary risk factors – whether inside, the duration of the interaction, the size of the crowd, and whether there is forceful exhalation (such as yelling or singing). Then various activities are placed into low to high risk. Click on the chart for a closer look.

Blandford Bread tweeted a pair of similar charts, one by the Texas Medical Association, the other from informationisbeautiful. These and the one above can help you decide if an activity is worth the risk.



Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that the CDC published analysis that says the true number of cases of the virus in the US is likely about 10 times the count of confirmed cases. So instead of two million active cases there might be more like 20 million. Which means there has definitely not been enough testing. While that might mean the virus has a lower death rate than previously believed – though it is still quite deadly and when it doesn’t kill it can inflict long term damage on a person – it also means there are a lot more people out there passing the virus around. As for “herd immunity” – I’ll let Sumner explain it.



Mark Sumner reviewed the latest nastiness in Portland, OR by the Department of Homeland Security. Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security (meaning not approved by the Senate), said:

Because we don't have that local support, that local law enforcement support, we are having to go out and proactively arrest individuals, and we need to do that because we need to hold them accountable.

Sumner explained:

Individuals are being “proactively” arrested, to hold them accountable, for … future crimes.
…
But there’s another phrase that works in place of arresting someone “proactively.” It’s called “without cause.”

Lauren Floyd of Kos also discussed what’s going on in Portland. She ended with a tweet from Joshua Potash that listed similar Wall of Mom’s organizations in NYC, St. Louis, and Chicago. They’re getting ready before the nasty guy’s goons show up.

Gabe Ortiz of Kos discussed the report out of BuzzFeed News that 20 anonymous DHE employees say they are worried about how state sanctioned kidnapping will hurt the agency’s reputation. Ortiz wrote:

Thanks for speaking up now, I guess. We also can’t help but notice the concerns come as agents are targeting people who aren’t migrants, because CBP has snatched mothers in front of their children before. CBP has tear-gassed other moms at the border. CBP has let migrant kids die on its watch. CBP has shot and killed an unarmed migrant, and then lied about it. If the agency is worried about reputation of all things, it should look in the mirror to see who’s to blame.

Ortiz lists several other reasons why the CBP reputation is so low.

Another CBP employee commented he wasn’t trained to be a street cop and shouldn’t be used as “this delusional president’s personal attack dog just because we happen to be available.” Ortiz wrote, no, they’re being used because they’ve already shown to be willing to disregard laws. Also, the CBP has a broken oversight system and a high number of its agents are corrupt. Perfect goons for a corrupt president.

Ortiz also reported that The Southern Poverty Law Center has added Stephen Miller to its “Extermists Files.” Miller has been the author of many of the nasty guy’s white supremacist policies.



Bree Newsome Bass tweeted:

Make sure you’re connecting, building and organizing with your neighbors because Portland is a preview of what it will look like when Trump uses military might to hold onto power. And the lack of action from Dems now is a preview of how they’ll (not) respond.

She added that it’s dangerous to assume all we have to do is vote.