Maru Kitteh
Maru Kitteh's JournalDeep in Trump Country: Small-town ICU overwhelmed as 35.5% of tests return positive for COVID19
From April 14:
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday that St. Francis Hospital in Grand Island counted four or five patients in its intensive care unit one week ago. Now, more than a dozen of its ICU beds are occupied.
Hospital President Edward Hannon said that as of 4 p.m. Monday, 21 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized there, including 13 who are on ventilators to help them breathe. Last week, the hospital said it had 13 ventilators in its ICU and two more in its neonatal intensive care unit, plus several anesthesia and CPAP machines that could be used in a pinch.
The Central District Health Department oversees Hall, Hamilton and Merrick Counties, where, as of Monday afternoon, 211 people had tested positive for the coronavirus. That’s a whopping threefold increase from a week earlier, when 68 cases were counted. Four people in Hall County have died.
The ages of those with the coronavirus range from 11 to 88, with an average age of 45, the Health Department said.
Only 559 people had been tested in Hall County as of Monday, out of a population of roughly 61,000, according to figures from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. But 35.5% of those swabbed are testing positive. That’s far higher than the 7.65% positive rate statewide.
From today:
Grand Island's rate of COVID-19 cases is higher than Michigan's, close to Louisiana's
The Grand Island area — by far Nebraska’s biggest coronavirus hot spot — now has rates of illness comparable to some of the hardest-hit states in the country.
Not only does surrounding Hall County now have more cases than any county in Nebraska, its per capita case rate is almost 12 times that of Douglas County and more than 25 times that of Lancaster County, a World-Herald analysis found.
And as eye-popping as such numbers are, Grand Island, Nebraska’s third-largest metro area, is still likely weeks away from its peak of cases and deaths. The sixth death in the local three-county health district was reported Thursday.
“Our expectation is that every day we will see large numbers of new cases and every day we will see a number of deaths,” Central District Health Department Director Teresa Anderson said Thursday. “If we take our lessons from what’s been happening in other parts of the country, I’m going to say the writing is on the wall.”
Ricketts said the state has provided Grand Island help with testing and with tracing the contacts of people who test positive. And he said he has been on the phone with Grand Island employers to make sure they are taking steps to reduce the spread of the virus. “We are paying attention to Grand Island,” he said during his daily coronavirus briefing.
He and Dr. Gary Anthone, Nebraska’s chief medical officer, also noted that the health care system in Grand Island has been up to the task of handling the surge of patients.
“All in all, things seem to be fairly well under control in Grand Island,” Anthone said of the health care landscape.
Hours later, the local health agency reported 61 new coronavirus cases in Hall County, bringing the total there to a state-leading 339. That’s despite the fact that Hall has one-ninth the population of Douglas County.
The number of cases in Hall County is essentially doubling every four days. That’s more than twice the rate of Nebraska as a whole, which is currently doubling every nine days.
Hall County’s rate, when measured per 10,000 people, has also reached a point that is comparable to the rates seen in states hit hardest by the pandemic.
County Hall Cases 339 Rate per 10,000 people 55.3
There have been a number of cases in Grand Island centered on large employers, including a meatpacking plant. And there also are a large number tied to nursing homes and long-term-care facilities, with 40 workers and residents at nine facilities having already tested positive.
But in the end, Anderson said, the disease has now spread so much that it can’t really be linked to any one employer, facility, family or part of town.
“What do (cases) have in common?” she said. “At this time, we can tell you they really have nothing in common. That leads us to believe the virus is truly everywhere.”
My Trump-loving MIL/FIL who initially sputtered the "Dem hoax to hurt Trump" like parrots live in this town and they're terrified now. They should be. I'm glad they're terrified because hopefully it will stop them from just sauntering forward with Ricketts/Trump's "grand opening." Who knows, there may even be hope they could wake from the Trump stupor. Probably too much to hope for, but either way, I still don't want them to die like that.
I am NOT IMPRESSED with Gov Cuomo's message today - DON'T GET TESTED.
Seriously, WTF? He's having a presser, explains that his own sister called him, her daughter (his neice) 1) had a fever 2) had flu-like symptoms (he did not specify) and his sister was asking him where to get tested. He asked his sister if the niece had come into known contact with someone who has tested positive or if she had traveled to a hot-spot (NY IS A HOTSPOT, IMO) and his sister said no. He said DON'T GET THE TEST. Just keep her at home for two weeks but don't let her anywhere near grandma.
Cuomo knows DAMN WELL this is a community spread disease and that is why all these social distancing measures are being put in place. He must believe it's possible that his niece HAS COVID because he placed extraordinary emphasis on "Don't let her anywhere near Mom."
So he is telling people, if you are sick with CV19 symptoms, and you are afraid that you may have acquired it in the community, DON'T GET TESTED, WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW.
This to me is NO BETTER than Trump's wanting to keep the cruise ship off our shores because he "didn't need his numbers to double."
We NEED TO KNOW how extensive the spread in the community is. Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus of the WHO has said that the first key to flattening the curve is TESTING, TESTING, TESTING. Find the cases, isolate them, treat them and do contact tracing on EVERY CASE. You have to test them for that to happen. TIME has a nice article about it here https://time.com/5804899/u-s-coronavirus-needs-follow-s-korea/
Telling any clearly symptomatic person NOT to test is an absolute disgrace.
EDITING TO ADD: NOT TESTING is TRUMP's PLAN TO HELP HIMSELF, while harming and killing more of us.
STOP expecting The Media to save us: The Wilderness podcast w/Obama's
Whitehouse Director of Speechwriting has a truly remarkable series of podcasts that really transformed the way I'm thinking about this primary, our message, what kind of strategy we need to win, how we even got here in the first place.
One of the greatest takeaways for me: We need to stop arguing about whether we should be leaning into a more purely economic message and stay away from race/minority issues for fear of alienating white/Trump voters, or should we be making social justice front and center to try to energize and get out our base. The messages that get through, the ones that poll the best, even with Republicans, are those that address both of those elements in a way that brings us together.
Also - as my header would suggest, the media is not here for us. We need to stop sitting here passively, expecting them to be woke, point out all his lies, every time, tell our story for us, and take down Trump for us. That's not their job, that's our job.
The Wilderness podcast is done by Jon Favreau, who is also part of Pod Save America along with Daniel Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor.
Anyway - If I might humbly suggest, Chapter 5 (The Midwest) and Chapter 6 (The Path) from season 2 are especially brilliant. All are worth your time, in my opinion.
The WIlderness
https://crooked.com/podcast-series/the-wilderness/
Episode 5
https://crooked.com/podcast/chapter-5-the-midwest/
Episode 6
https://crooked.com/podcast/chapter-6-the-path/
And Finally - VOTE SAVE AMERICA where you can register to vote or check your registration status, sign up for volunteer efforts, learn about your own state's vote and others, and find tons of great ideas to make your time matter in 2020.
https://votesaveamerica.com/
P.S. Jon Lovett also does Lovett or Leave It, which is frequently just hysterically funny, while also being very informative.
Stephen Miller; 900+ emails promoting white genocide novel, white power websites and Mein Kampf
endorsed eugenics policies to Breitbart from about 2015-16 (and who knows how much longer, and to who else.)
https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1194316047383433227
Check in here if you still love Kamala AND Joe . . .
Or, you know, Joe AND Kamala - whichever way you like.
This is a primary folks. This is what they sound like. This is what they look like.
I'm still with Joe. I hope he's our nominee. That said, I would be DAMN PROUD to put my time, energy and treasure forth to see President Harris sworn in. 
That's where I am. . . . Go! DEMS! 
The Mueller Report is BAD for Trump. It's the only explanation for his silence this weekend - and -
I defy anyone to tell me with a straight face that Trump's hand-picked AG did not speak with him the entire weekend to map out a spin strategy. It had to be just bad enough to be plausible. That probably required more work than anything. We can be sure Trump wanted the full Ronnie Jackson "medical report" treatment, but Barr and advisors knew full well that wouldn't be believable to anyone, and would backfire.
It took them a weekend to manage the cherry-picking and concoct the proper spin.The reason why they took so little time?
a) The truth was neither important, nor an objective.
b) They needed to get control of the narrative FIRST.
How does that saying go? A lie can run around the globe a dozen times while the truth is still putting on its shoes?
The full report will be seen. It is not going to be good for him. One possible upside to all this is that we will be deeper into election season when the inevitable, actual truth is revealed. In the meantime - our Democratic candidate will present the country with a vision of sanity, restored self-respect and hope.
Take heart y'all; we got this one! And politely tell those who feel they simply must engage in defeatism to keep that shit to themselves. We've got a job to do. Let's get on with it.
The presence of such a divisive figure on our Democratic stage will only harm us.
History is a fine tutor if we will listen.
Do we believe the Russians will just whistle on by this time, choosing not exploit a cadre of plug-and-play separatists? 
This is DEMOCRATIC Underground, and I for one am so very glad we have many excellent and true DEMOCRATS running who have carried the mantle of our party proudly at ALL times, not just use us when it suits them.
Totemic figures of division must not be allowed to repeat their poisonous and selfish dischord, and facilitate once again the existence of the Trump regime.
Montana problems, and/or facts: Please add yours
I'll start.
1.) Most days of the year, someone is splitting wood in their underwear. (Today, it was Mr. MaruKitteh.)
2.) How the hell did I end up with so much sap in my hair today? (This instance may be related to #1 in this series)
I guess now we know what Tiny Toadstool fantasizes about during executive naughty time
Apparently, he's recounted slightly varied versions of a sick, depraved fantasy featuring women "with tape around their mouths so they can't shout or scream, tying up their hands behind their back and even their legs" at least 10 times this month.
Powerless women unable to speak, unable to reject or rebuke him, unable to humiliate him in public the way his wives have, the way Rosie O'Donnell did, the way Nancy did this week.
“Women are tied up, they’re bound, duct tape put around their faces, around their mouths, in many cases they can’t even breathe,” he said in the Rose Garden while discussing a deal to temporarily end the partial government shutdown. “They’re put in the backs of cars or vans or trucks.”
Experts say Trump’s claims are ‘divorced from reality.’ His comment Friday was at least the second time he has mentioned taped-up women since The Post initially published this story on Jan. 17, bringing the total number of statements on taped-up women to at least 10 times in 22 days.
More at link: (WaPo) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/17/trumps-stories-taped-up-women-smuggled-into-us-are-divorced-reality-experts-say/?utm_term=.9e861d7ba810
FBI & Congress looking into relationship between Ivanka & Russian weightlifter
Amid intense scrutiny of contacts between Donald Trump's inner circle and representatives of Vladimir Putin, Ivanka Trump's name has barely come up. But during the campaign, she connected her father’s personal lawyer with a Russian athlete who offered to introduce Donald Trump to Putin to facilitate a 100-story Trump tower in Moscow, according to emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News and four sources with knowledge of the matter.
<snip>
FBI and congressional investigators, two of the sources said, are still trying to determine the relationship between Ivanka Trump and the Olympian.
more at link https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anthonycormier/ivanka-trump-putin-moscow-meeting-michael-cohen-tower?bfsource=relatedmanual
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