https://t.co/cQ2LpKgpn4

— Dr Beyer 🇪🇺🔶 (@beyer_char) February 28, 2020

Second U.S. coronavirus case of ["]unknown origin["] confirmed in Santa Clara County; third reported in Oregon

And Oregon health officials late Friday reported their own coronavirus case of unknown origin, which would be the country's third [?]. The patient is from Washington County, but no other details were immediately available.

The Santa Clara County woman had not traveled to Solano County, site of Travis Air Force Base[!]'s quarantine of Diamond Princess passengers. That news is alarming because it suggests the coronavirus earlier cohorts released from quarantine may be spreading undetected in the Bay Area
[...]
"But we don't know to what extent," [Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer for Santa Clara County] said. "It could be a little, it could be a lot."
[...]
The Santa Clara County Public Health Laboratory received the specimens Thursday and conducted the test on site, confirming the infection on Thursday evening. The county just gained the ability to do such rapid confirmation Wednesday; previous tests have had to be analyzed in a center in Atlanta, creating a time lag that had caused deep concerns.

< wipes tears >
APsplainin | testing raises tough questions, 27 Feb

most of the [CDC] kits proved to be faulty, providing inconclusive results to test samples that should have tested positive. ... Only about a half dozen [6, six] state and local public health labs had fully functional kits as of early this week.

NEW: California Gov. Gavin Newsom says 28 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are currently living in the state: "We have 33 confirmed positive tests for the virus. Five individuals have subsequently moved out of state." https://t.co/iRCCX1eRgM pic.twitter.com/dLK0SOq7jo

— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2020

< wipes tears >

lordhavemercy. When will these ppl get their stories straight?

"This is a national crisis. It is even worse in South Carolina."

The IRS is currently testing different standard deductions on infected patients, to determine which amount cures the virus. https://t.co/yPSC8xqn2I

— Andy Grewal (@AndyGrewal) February 29, 2020

## Mental disorder is a communicable disease.

Swear to god I did not stage this 😂
My niece just wants to get started really early apparently pic.twitter.com/hCe3BJInnc

— Mikeyoke (@karaokecomputer) February 28, 2020

< wipes tears >

early childhood ed, I swear by it.

This is a must-see video that serves as a reminder that "the best health care system in the world," like everything else in neoliberal USA is only a profit center for the few; Remember Rumsfeld & Tamiflu; now Gilead makes $$ from use to treat CoronaVirus . https://t.co/MAbjAyb2mI

— Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) February 28, 2020

< wipes tears >

So what? This bull has been running unchecked for (8) eight years with MBS and CDS arbitrages between those assets' holders.

Peter Daou speak with fork tongue as usual

Fox News just interviewed a Pennsylvania man who went through the coronavirus quarantine process -- but he couldn't stop coughing during the interview 😳 pic.twitter.com/kzoIYQM8x6

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2020

other than that...

• my associate sag a 2-pack of N95 ($50) on ebay for me and a $100 respirator for herself despite REUTERS Thurs Night fire sale
  
• I spent the day in Annapolis with National Nurses Union (NNU) in a crowded presser and a hearing in the state House to support The Medical Debt Protection Act HB1081 and will return 5 March for Finance Committee hearing of SB873
  
• I walked 12 blocks without my walker, didn't fall over, and got a dinner in a diner with youthful, invincible company

now the bad news...

• US gov is all in on the ponzi
  
• choose your crowd wisely
  
• demand a CT scan
  
• avoid remdesivir (JAMA)

"What for many must have seemed an abstract concern - Donald Trump's assault on facts, experts and science - is now a matter of life and death." My latest [_link]

— Jonathan Freedland (@Freedland) February 28, 2020

"The problem facing us is we do not know who is ill," Rep. Garamendi says. "CDC has refused to allow the state of California to use its very high quality, very capable labs... It is reprehensible. It is dangerous. And God help us, it could be deadly."
[_link]

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 28, 2020

Diagnosis of Coronavirus Patient In California Was Delayed for Days

Combination of a good debate performance
➕
Endorsement from @WhipClyburn should secure a SC Democrat primary win for @JoeBiden.

Time will tell if he can derail the @BernieSanders train!

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 26, 2020

Thx Lindsey ... duly noted! 😎

Why Bernie Sanders won the week in US politics - and Mike Pence lost [_link]

— The Guardian (@guardian) February 28, 2020

The Stocks pundits on Bloomberg and CNBC all agree a Sanders win would shave 20% off the value U.S. stocks. Total value was $33 trillion at the beginning of the week. This amount is 50% of the global stock markets put together. This is the worst week for Wall Street since the financial crisis of 2008/2009. It's also the highest point loss in a week by far and the fastest decline ever! The loss is across ALL indices of a minimum 12% up to 14 - 15%.

We're almost there!! Wall Street is ready for a Bernie Sanders presidency and it's already factored in the value of U.S. stocks ending the month of February.

FUNDSTRAT: "This market is not NORMAL, .. and despite mounting fears and no 'end date' odds still favor V-bounce and bottom this week ... Even as the bad news continues and the risk of an eventual US outbreak is high." @fundstrat pic.twitter.com/Y8TDnAZ7wI

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) February 28, 2020

Articles from CNBC at the start of 2020 ...

○ The stock market is starting to worry about Bernie Sanders - Jan. 27

○ Wall Street might actually be fine with Sanders moving to the front of the Democratic pack - Feb. 4

○ Bernie Sanders is saying 'millionaires' less often, one way his 2020 message has changed - Feb. 13

○ Sanders leads by double digits in latest NBC/WSJ poll as Biden sinks, Bloomberg rises - Feb. 18

As the coronavirus spreads across the globe, fear in Wall Street and by investors from New York though London/Frankfurt to Asia: Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Radar: "All else equal, this would imply a short-lived global contraction that stops short of an outright recession" [_link] #stockmarket #vix #volatility #investors

— Ava Schiffer (@AvaSchiffer) February 28, 2020

Posted earlier in my diary ...

○ Sanders Heading To SC and Super Tuesday

The Stocks pundits on Bloomberg and CNBC all agree a Sanders win would shave 20% off the value U.S. stocks. Total value was $33 trillion at the beginning of the week. This amount is 50% of the global stock markets put together. This is the worst week for Wall Street since the financial crisis of 2008/2009. It's also the highest point loss in a week by far and the fastest decline ever! The loss is across ALL indices of a minimum 12% up to 14 - 15%.

We're almost there!! Wall Street is ready for a Bernie Sanders presidency and it's already factored in the value of U.S. stocks ending the month of February.

FUNDSTRAT: "This market is not NORMAL, .. and despite mounting fears and no 'end date' odds still favor V-bounce and bottom this week ... Even as the bad news continues and the risk of an eventual US outbreak is high." @fundstrat pic.twitter.com/Y8TDnAZ7wI

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) February 28, 2020

Articles from CNBC at the start of 2020 ...

○ The stock market is starting to worry about Bernie Sanders - Jan. 27

○ Wall Street might actually be fine with Sanders moving to the front of the Democratic pack - Feb. 4

○ Bernie Sanders is saying 'millionaires' less often, one way his 2020 message has changed - Feb. 13

○ Sanders leads by double digits in latest NBC/WSJ poll as Biden sinks, Bloomberg rises - Feb. 18

As the coronavirus spreads across the globe, fear in Wall Street and by investors from New York though London/Frankfurt to Asia: Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Radar: "All else equal, this would imply a short-lived global contraction that stops short of an outright recession" [_link] #stockmarket #vix #volatility #investors

— Ava Schiffer (@AvaSchiffer) February 28, 2020

BREAKING: @WHO upgrades #coronavirus alert level to 'very high'.[_link] pic.twitter.com/OBFCLndhe0

— DW News (@dwnews) February 28, 2020

Coronavirus: A longer incubation period is cause for concern

Bloomberg defends Muslim surveillance, later dismantled by judicial order, saying the religion of the 9/11 attackers justified infiltration of mosques & putting all NYC Muslims under surveillance. Shameful Islamophobia. [_link]

— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) February 28, 2020

Sanders is closing the gap with Biden in support from Black voters. However in most recent SC polls, Biden is poised to win in SC. Sanders has most support from younger generation AfroAmericans. Unfortunately, this group has a much lower turnout to vote.

Will South Carolina be Biden's firewall after all? [_link]

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) February 28, 2020

Not much room for adult conversation when one side is throwing a tantrum, screaming "IF YOU DON'T DO WHAT I WANT I'M GOING TO HOLD MY BREATH UNTIL I TURN BLUE AND THEN YOU'LL BE SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ongoing propaganda campaign being waged by the Leavers is to convince people in the UK they are being attacked and so must rally around their leaders, uniting to defend the country from foreign aggressors.  Thus the horsepucky about The Miracle of Dunkirk, the Plucky Spitfire pilots of The Battle of Britain, & blah-blah-blah.

It's all pathetically standard authoritarian nationalist BS.  

The reason it is pathetically standard authoritarian nationalist BS is that it works.

Definitely!

Makes sure none of the radical right gives you their vote.

Voter delete: bigots - white supremacists - anti-Palestinians denying their home state.

Hmm so being Jewish is Bernie's alibi for being an atheist? or something?

Think about it. It works. (does it?)

Advisory.com

New research from China has found that men, particularly middle-aged and older men, are having a harder time fighting off the virus than women. Chinese researchers found that while the infection rate among men and women is the same, the death rate among men is 2.8% compared with 1.7% for women.

From hanging around very demoralized Labour supporters I get the sense that none of them are particuliar inspiring. Stammer gets the support of the UK equivalent of the helpful Republican good faith advisor. I suppose they call them "Guardian columnist". There is quite the possibility that his election would lead to a purge of left-leaning elements. RLB as the Corbyn candidate proposes open selection of MPs which would be a significant weakening of the PLP. Lisa Nandy seems to take "concerns about immigration" a bit too seriously.

All in all Labour is in a bad way. Stammer might get in on "electability". Of course the day the votes are in it will be discovered that he actually was an anti-semitic Judeo-Bolshevic after all.

CNN

A 10-year-old boy was accidentally shot by his babysitter when she was taking selfies while holding a gun, a Texas sheriff's office said.

The boy was taken to a hospital in critical condition, but is recovering.

Both sides in talks on Britain's future relationship with EU expect early bust-up

Seeking to strengthen its position going into the talks, Britain has made a clumsy attempt to put a few cards back into play in the hope that it can wring concessions from the EU in return for keeping commitments it has already made.

This helps to explain Gove's doublespeak about the Northern Ireland protocol in the Commons on Thursday, when he promised to respect it but insisted that there would be no border in the Irish Sea.

---<snip>---

Gove said he hoped there was clarity that the government would implement the withdrawal agreement and respect the protocol. Yet suspicion runs so deep in Brussels that senior officials were scrutinising the preposition in Gove's assurance that Britain would undertake the negotiations "without prejudice and with full respect to" the Northern Ireland protocol and wondering why he said "to" and not "for".

This is, of course, exactly the kind of confusion London is hoping to sow but by playing with the protocol in this way Johnson's government risks unnerving an already anxious community in Northern Ireland.

It is also likely to erode further any confidence in European capitals that the prime minister can be trusted to keep his word, encouraging other leaders to insist on the strictly binding commitments Britain is seeking to avoid.

Britain is uncomfortable because Ireland has the upper hand for the first time

The UK - unable to conceive of Ireland as a nation realising its voice on an international stage - instead has found it easier to resort to long-held stereotypes, casting Varadkar and Coveney as naive slaves of the EU, unwittingly preparing themselves for sacrifice at the hands of the Brussels elite later down the line.

And as Brexiteers realised the error of their own ways - not in trying to leave the bloc but in underestimating precisely how difficult it would be - they have attempted to blame a nasty and vindictive EU, or a foolish and naive Ireland, for the all the difficulties they have encountered. But ascribing the mistakes made by the UK government to bad faith negotiating from the EU, and reducing Varadkar to the image of an idolatrous Taoiseach begging for help from the malevolent forces in Brussels is a stunningly unsubtle attempt at a get-out, designed to detract from the UK's own errors.

And as the next phase gets under way, with the likelihood of striking a trade deal looking vanishingly unlikely, we are left with an unavoidable conclusion: that attacks about "little Ireland's ridiculous leaders" and the "naive", "dishonest" approach they took to negotiations comes not from a place of confidence but insecurity about what lies in store for Brexit Britain.

Authoritarian top down "leading" to control the coronavirus outbreak ...

"Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials."
Dr. Anthony Faucci, one of the world's leading virologists and one of the federal government's most senior medical experts, has been muzzled by "Doc" Pence. [_link]

— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) February 28, 2020

And Boris also ditto too.