The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days

[Highlord Laan]

So, after rolling my eyes and walking away from my brother's meandering bullshit arguments of "muh freedom" and "THIS IS AMERICA" over lockdown orders due to a fucking pandemic, and how it's all a liberal conspiracy to undermine trump (lower case intentional) and turn america (again) communist. I came to a startling conclusion.

I used to be a fairly patriotic individual. Army family, and all that. Now I hear "patriot" or see the flag flying and I automatically assume the person being described or the people flying the flag are a pack of mindless, dipshit trump cultists unworthy of anything even approaching respect or consideration. I see the american flag as nothing more than a war banner of the trumpservative, the stupid, the greedy and the temperamental. I used to stand for the anthem, take pride in my country, and wanted it to prosper. Now I roll my eyes and ignore the music, scorn the nation I live in, and want it and it's people to be battered and beaten into a crying and broken heap.

When it comes to the good ol' US of A, I no longer believe, I no longer care, an all there is left is nothing but cynicism, disgust, and scorn. I'm actually trying to think back to when this change took place, because I'm honestly at a loss.

[The Romulan Republic]

In other news, a former Federal prosecutor has argued that once out of office, Trump could (in addition to the existing cases for campaign finance violation and obstruction of justice) be potentially charged with Negligent Homicide in every jurisdiction in America where people have died of Coronavirus due to his actions, and anticipates that charges will likely be filed in multiple states once Trump leaves office

It's more likely that Cuomo of NY gets executed for murder.

As if you could make it any more clear that your goal and wish is an armed revolution to execute/murder Democrats.

[MKSheppard]

As if you could make it any more clear that your goal and wish is an armed revolution to execute/murder Democrats.

Did you even read the article i quoted TRR?

On Cuomo's orders, COVID positive patients were sent to Nursing Homes in the State of New York which were KNOWN TO BE FREE OF COVID.

And to top it all off, they even included free body bags with the COVID positive patients!

Who could have seen the outcome from something like this? Certainly nobody!

EDIT: Hey, MR FRIENDLY GUY. This is EXACTLY what someone would accuse the CCP of doing -- deliberately starting COVID19 infections to fix China's population pyramid problem AND emerging retiree problem

[The Romulan Republic]

So, after rolling my eyes and walking away from my brother's meandering bullshit arguments of "muh freedom" and "THIS IS AMERICA" over lockdown orders due to a fucking pandemic, and how it's all a liberal conspiracy to undermine trump (lower case intentional) and turn america (again) communist. I came to a startling conclusion.

I used to be a fairly patriotic individual. Army family, and all that. Now I hear "patriot" or see the flag flying and I automatically assume the person being described or the people flying the flag are a pack of mindless, dipshit trump cultists unworthy of anything even approaching respect or consideration. I see the american flag as nothing more than a war banner of the trumpservative, the stupid, the greedy and the temperamental. I used to stand for the anthem, take pride in my country, and wanted it to prosper. Now I roll my eyes and ignore the music, scorn the nation I live in, and want it and it's people to be battered and beaten into a crying and broken heap.

When it comes to the good ol' US of A, I no longer believe, I no longer care, an all there is left is nothing but cynicism, disgust, and scorn. I'm actually trying to think back to when this change took place, because I'm honestly at a loss.

Despising a corrupt government is one thing. Desiring to see over three hundred million individual people suffer for their nationality is another.

With all due respect, and I mean this sincerely, seek professional psychological help.

[The Romulan Republic]

Because the New York Post is a completely biased and non-partisan source, Yes Sir. Definitely an even-handed and non-biased account, and not an attempt to incite wingnuts to call for the murder of Democrats.

[Zaune]

I don't want to sound like I'm doing the #BothSides thing here, but it is entirely conceivable that Governor Cuomo has also been appallingly incompetent and got people killed as a result. The GOP doesn't have a monopoly on it.

Besides, so far as I'm aware he's not on the same level of "consequences happen to other people"-grade ludicrous personal wealth as Trump, so Shep's statement is not actually factually incorrect as such.

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't want to sound like I'm doing the #BothSides thing here, but it is entirely conceivable that Governor Cuomo has also been appallingly incompetent and got people killed as a result. The GOP doesn't have a monopoly on it.

It doesn't fit with Cuomo's record overall, from what I've seen. But in that case, the appropriate course of action would be to investigate further and seek corroborating evidence. Not jump straight to gleefully speculating about the likelihood of executing him for murder.

Plus, you know, its Shep. Just a few days ago he posted saying that half the politicians in America should be executed, and given his obvious political leanings, its pretty clear which half he's referring to. So yeah, guy who's made thinly-veiled calls for the execution/murder of all Democrats looking for a pretext to execute a particular Democrat.

Why he's still on this board is frankly beyond me.

Besides, so far as I'm aware he's not on the same level of "consequences happen to other people"-grade ludicrous personal wealth as Trump, so Shep's statement is not actually factually incorrect as such.

Maybe I missed something, but I'm not sure what Cuomo's relative wealth or lack thereof as to do with it.

[Zaune]

I meant that Cuomo is much less able to spend his way out of taking the blame than Trump.

[The Romulan Republic]

I meant that Cuomo is much less able to spend his way out of taking the blame than Trump.

True.

I expect that if Trump is ever gotten out of office, he will immediately be buried under a few dozen indictments.

I also think there is a very real possibility that he will never actually serve time, as his money and lawyers will drag out the appeals process until he dies of old age (or Putin arranges a "heart attack" to tie up the lose end).

[The Romulan Republic]

You know, something just occurred to me.

One of my favorite Batman stories is No Man's Land, specifically the novelization by Rucka. But I always felt that its premise (the United States decides a major city isn't worth saving and cuts it off from the rest of the country) was too implausible.

But now, with this President... it wouldn't be that big a stretch to imagine Trump just saying "New York is on its own, blow the bridges". Hell, he outright threatened to deploy the military to blockade New York City and other parts of the country.

So yeah. Trump is now shitty enough to be President of DC Comics America.

[aerius]

Because the New York Post is a completely biased and non-partisan source, Yes Sir. Definitely an even-handed and non-biased account, and not an attempt to incite wingnuts to call for the murder of Democrats.

Uh-huh. So now the NY Post is "fake news" because it's reporting shit that you don't like. Guess what fuckface, 5 minutes of digging around pulls up the NY Department of Health's order with Cuomo's name on it that backs up everything that Shep has said.

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/syste ... 032520.pdf

Excerpt:

During this global health emergency, all NHs must comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NHs. Residents are deemed appropriate for return to a NH upon a determination by the hospital physician or designee that the resident is medically stable for return. Hospital discharge planners must confirm to the NH,by telephone,that the resident is medically stable for discharge. Comprehensive discharge instructions must be provided by the hospital prior to the transport of a resident to the NH. No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.

Every nursing home that had a covid-19 case forcibly admitted needs to sue the fuck out of the NY Department of Health along with Andrew Cuomo. They're directly responsible for more deaths than 9/11.

[mr friendly guy]

EDIT: Hey, MR FRIENDLY GUY. This is EXACTLY what someone would accuse the CCP of doing -- deliberately starting COVID19 infections to fix China's population pyramid problem AND emerging retiree problem

That's rather inefficient way. The ideal way is for retirees to join their relatives in rich Western countries, like say, Australia. While awaiting permanent residency, they still have to see doctors, where we charge them the private fee. Their relatives are only too willing to pay.
----------------------
Now back to other news on covid

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/corona ... 881525659z

Australia will resume elective surgery after the ANZAC day long weekend ie 27th April and review again whether we need to change plans on May 11. Normally each state is responsible for its hospitals which will include elective surgeries, but this appears to be a coordinated push.

While we haven't paid attention to the numbers for a while, here is that website again.
https://dash-coronavirus-2020.herokuapp.com

Of note Russia has a spiking case load. Its almost as much as China.
Germany who had initial success keeping their numbers low, has a fatality rate of 3.75%, which is around the 3.4% the WHO warned people about. This is still way better than its European counterparts though, with Italy, Spain, UK, France in the double digits.

[loomer]

Because the New York Post is a completely biased and non-partisan source, Yes Sir. Definitely an even-handed and non-biased account, and not an attempt to incite wingnuts to call for the murder of Democrats.

How about NBC? The New York Times? Business Insider? The DoH itself? The Post Star? NPR and CALTCM and SPALTCM? Are they all biased partisan sources with a grudge against Cuomo?

Spend five fucking minutes on google before you dismiss something as fake news, especially when it's as serious as this. This is a potentially catastrophic policy that will selectively impact the elderly and disabled above and beyond any other population if even the slightest thing goes wrong.

[mr friendly guy]

I am not defending TRR or Cuomo, but I am going to add a bit more nuance to the case. I am just going to add I have read Shep's article, and not have the time to read the ones Loomer posted, so if there is some points I have raised and those articles already discussed them, apologies.

My point is, we need to know what hospitals did prior to discharging those patients sent to nursing homes. The article Shep posted stated they were medically stable, so presumably pulse rate, blood pressure and temp were all good. Not sure of the discharge criteria in the US, but China and what is done in other countries I have seen reports on, patients must have two tests, a day apart and both must be negative before discharge. There have been suggestions that patients "reinfected" were really ones who didn't clear it out, hence the proposal to use 3 tests to lower the risk of falsely clearing someone.

Now the tests usually are swabs up the nose, and it can be uncomfortable, so it the patient pulls back you might get a crappy sample. Combined it with the fact that staff most probably do lots of them, there is a risk that an error occurs in some of them. But obviously less likely two in a row, and even less likely three in a row.

I am not medical defense lawyer, but... if the hospitals did follow the country's usual discharge criteria and assuming it is at least two tests a day apart and no temperature (which I suspect is what most countries are doing), then Cuomo's lawyer could argue the law was still following best medical practice. In which case, with hospitals overflowing its best to send them back to their homes (I assume its these nursing homes) and free up the beds in the hospital.

[loomer]

Unfortunately, the New York model is to put patients with active coronavirus infections back into the nursing homes so long as they're stable. The other states that're taking a 'back to the nursing home' model are a little less reckless.

[Ace Pace]

Cuomo may interview well and does a great presentable face, but him and the leaders of NYC have a lot of blood on their hand compared to the staff workers and politicians in California and Seattle.

This is the same state that after California went into lockdown continued being merry.

[The Romulan Republic]

Because the New York Post is a completely biased and non-partisan source, Yes Sir. Definitely an even-handed and non-biased account, and not an attempt to incite wingnuts to call for the murder of Democrats.

Uh-huh. So now the NY Post is "fake news" because it's reporting shit that you don't like. Guess what fuckface, 5 minutes of digging around pulls up the NY Department of Health's order with Cuomo's name on it that backs up everything that Shep has said.

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/syste ... 032520.pdf

Excerpt:

During this global health emergency, all NHs must comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NHs. Residents are deemed appropriate for return to a NH upon a determination by the hospital physician or designee that the resident is medically stable for return. Hospital discharge planners must confirm to the NH,by telephone,that the resident is medically stable for discharge. Comprehensive discharge instructions must be provided by the hospital prior to the transport of a resident to the NH. No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.

Every nursing home that had a covid-19 case forcibly admitted needs to sue the fuck out of the NY Department of Health along with Andrew Cuomo. They're directly responsible for more deaths than 9/11.

The NYPost is Right-wing propaganda, and making some snide "fake news" comment to Both Sides me and the Trumpers isn't going to change that.

What you or Shep could have done is actually post corroborating articles from less biased sources, in which case, guess what- I might have taken it seriously. loomer actually did do that which is why, despite his needlessly hostile tone toward me, I actually have a modicum of respect for him, as opposed to you, who I would describe as a troll and as functionally a sock puppet of Vladimir Putin, if that wasn't giving you too much credit.

As to loomer's point: I will acknowledge, based on the evidence that you provided, that Cuomo is likely pursuing a risky strategy that could result in unnecessary deaths. That is something that should be investigated thoroughly, although I will also give Cuomo the benefit of the doubt that he has a reason why he is doing so other than "to kill people".

Shep's suggestion that Cuomo should be executed for murder based on this policy is still partisan insurrectionist bullshit inciting/glorifying the murder of Democrats. Which is what I'm mainly objecting to here.

And again- why is all the focus always on attacking me, while other blatantly dishonest and offensive posts get ignored? It seems that there is so much personal hostility toward me on this board that the moment I post something, the entire focus of the thread, even from people who should know better, is immediately on "calling me out"- while the truly vile comments get completely ignored. You did this in the election thread too- post after post criticizing my views and demanding accountability from me while only occassionally, grudgingly acknowledging the dishonesty and hypocrisy of others after I practically shoved it in your face- and you are probably the most honest and intelligent person participating in both threads.

Whatever anybody thinks of me, that response is intellectually dishonest and hypocritical. I should not be a distraction so that everybody else on this board can post vile bullshit without consequence or notice.

[loomer]

Shep's suggestion that Cuomo should be executed for murder based on this policy is still partisan insurrectionist bullshit inciting/glorifying the murder of Democrats. Which is what I'm mainly objecting to here.

Except he didn't suggest he should be. Read it again.

And again- why is all the focus always on attacking me, while other blatantly dishonest and offensive posts get ignored? It seems that there is so much personal hostility toward me on this board that the moment I post something, the entire focus of the thread, even from people who should know better, is immediately on "calling me out"- while the truly vile comments get completely ignored. You did this in the election thread too- post after post criticizing my views and demanding accountability from me while only occassionally, grudgingly acknowledging the dishonesty and hypocrisy of others after I practically shoved it in your face- and you are probably the most honest and intelligent person participating in both threads.

Whatever anybody thinks of me, that response is intellectually dishonest and hypocritical. I should not be a distraction so that everybody else on this board can post vile bullshit without consequence or notice.

Bluntly, it's really simple. You don't read what people post and then fly off the handle, spout some bullshit about how people are making arguments they aren't, dismiss news articles and evidence, and try and position yourself as some kind of sensible human being morally superior to everyone else while retreating to tired old rhetoric, shrieks of persecution and cries of whataboutism (usually while actually doing some whataboutism of your own for maximum irony), and the kind of nonsense that if I didn't know better I'd call bad faith bullshit on. Stop doing those things and people will stop smacking you, because it is very annoying, hypocritical, and sanctimonious.

Let's take this post here. You've actually done it yet again.
1. You've declared Shep is suggesting Cuomo should be executed for murder. He hasn't - he's said it's more likely than Trump getting charged, which isn't him saying 'no, kill Cuomo instead'. I don't particularly care for Shep, but it takes an enormous reach or a snap judgment based on who he is to read it as what you have rather than what it is, which is the equivalent of 'when pigs fly, given the precedent it'd create and the ripple effects'.

2. You dismissed a legitimate piece of reporting because of its source rather than spending five seconds to verify it. Even the Post usually doesn't completely fabricate major stories, and when other less propaganda-focused outlets are reporting the same, then going 'it doesn't count because the Post did it!' is enormously intellectually dishonest.

3. You've then moved straight into your standard routine of 'boo hoo I get attacked, I shouldn't be the focus'. Well, stop twisting things, attacking people, and being a smug prick and then wondering why people are beating on you back.

There's a great example of your tendency to twist things in this very post, where you've tried to spin my posts on the issue of whether you support a rapist for POTUS as only 'occasionally, grudgingly acknowledging' the conduct of others when literally anyone can go check and see that any time you raised that, I happily agreed without you having to draw it out of me by hook or by crook. That's that thing you do where you try and spin literally everything towards your position and use it to further paint yourself as the one moral person in the room.

This is why people give you the posting equivalent of a slap upside the head, TRR. You're the annoying guy at a bar who won't shut the fuck up about how he could totally solve world hunger in a week but can't formulate a semi-coherent economic policy when someone asks. It's a really simple thing to avoid: Spend five seconds on google. Ask questions instead of asking someone to hold your beer and immediately wading in to declare that someone's position (which isn't what they've actually said) is immoral. Don't dismiss people's sources because they're conservatives unless those sources are actually wrong. Stop escalating your rhetoric at every possible turn.

Until you do, you can expect people to keep giving you the smack upside the head.

[loomer]

Cuomo may interview well and does a great presentable face, but him and the leaders of NYC have a lot of blood on their hand compared to the staff workers and politicians in California and Seattle.

This is the same state that after California went into lockdown continued being merry.

This is also a large part of why I give the claims about DeWine's great performance side eye. His and the Ohio DOC's failures to keep it out of the prison system and minimize its impact where it's gotten in (and when you have 80%+ of a facility infected it's hard to say you did a good job reducing the spread) are a particularly galling failure given their duty of care - and the fact that any prison system outbreak will almost inevitably become a new cluster for the surrounding community. Which it now has, by the way.

He's getting a lot of love because he's managed to minimize spread in the general population - but that doesn't count for shit if you also fail to keep it out of populations of special vulnerability and high risk.

[mr friendly guy]

Unfortunately, the New York model is to put patients with active coronavirus infections back into the nursing homes so long as they're stable. The other states that're taking a 'back to the nursing home' model are a little less reckless.

Now that I had time to read Aerius's link, yeah its is troubling. There are some questions obviously. They referred to confirmed and suspected covid cases. So..

1. For the confirmed coronavirus cases, did they have other discharge criteria ie 2 negative tests a day apart other than medically stable. If they did, then they may be on firm ground since this appears to be the best practice. Its not clear from the dispatch what other criteria they used. It does link to a website, however its one that appears to be updated, so I can't see what their practice recommendations were on 25 march when the dispatch was sent.

2. For the non confirmed covid cases ie those in hospital for some other reason, I can understand why adding those extra tests would delay discharge. As someone who has felt the pressure of discharging patients from hospital, I can understand. And if US NH behaved like Australian ones, yeah they might play games and ask for delays in residents based on staffing levels rather than actual medical reasons (and I know this, because they are upfront with us over this).

However, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to test for coronavirus even in these patients who presented with unrelated ailment given the lack of PPEs afflicting US hospitals and the fact that NH residents are particularly vulnerable.

As I see it, if the hospitals maintained a separate ward for suspected covid patients, had adequate PPEs, and the patient has displayed no symptoms, then maybe they could argue its not medically necessary to test for coronavirus before discharging someone.

At best this would be negligence rather than malicious murder. But hey, doesn't the US have negligent homicide as a charge?

[The Romulan Republic]

Snip.

I don't claim to be able to solve any of these problems. I have a few broad moral principles which my education, experience, and reason, such as they are, lead me to believe are generally correct. I do not claim to have the expertise to produce detailed policy plans on every issue, and I don't try- nor do 90% of the people who post here.

As to Shep... maybe you're not aware, despite my mentioning it repeatedly, but earlier in this thread, a few days ago, he posted:

Half our politicians need to be executed.

And, given his usual political biases, I can take a good stab at which half he thinks should be executed. So, he has a history, a recent history at that, of calling for the mass execution of politicians he opposes. That context is important when understanding why I reacted to him the way I did.

And again- why do people devote pages and pages to "calling me out", while ignoring or even defending far more repellent posts by others? I'm annoying sometimes, okay. I'm an asshole sometimes, okay. Why does that make criticizing or dumping on me the priority of the whole board, to the point that absolutely anything else will be ignored or even condoned the moment someone shouts "But TRR!"

Aside from everything else, I should probably leave for the simple reason that there is so much animosity toward me here that my mere presence provides near-perfect cover for every asshole, troll, fascist and sociopath on the board. But that shouldn't be the case.

I honestly get the impression sometimes that if I condemned the mass murder of civilians on this board, half a dozen posters who would normally never condone such a thing would rush forward to downplay it and accuse me of being "hysterical". While someone else cheering the massacre in the background would probably go entirely ignored, or even defended.

All I'm asking for, all I'm ever asking for, is honesty and consistency from others on this board. But because I'm asking, that's apparently too much to ask for.

[J]

Food supply chains are breaking.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronaviru ... story.html

Nearly 2 million chickens at Eastern Shore farms set to be destroyed because of coronavirus-related plant shortages
Lorraine Mirabella
By Lorraine Mirabella
Baltimore Sun |
Apr 24, 2020 | 5:00 AM

Nearly 2 million chickens at farms in Maryland and Delaware will be destroyed instead of processed for meat, a result of coronavirus-related staffing shortages at processing plants.

“With reduced staffing, many plants are not able to harvest chickens at the pace they planned for when placing those chicks in chicken houses several weeks ago," before social distancing measures took effect, a trade group for the Delmarva poultry industry said in a statement.

In some cases more birds are awaiting harvesting than processors can handle, said the group, Delmarva Poultry Industry. One company, which the group did not name, has been left with no other option than to tell some of its growers they would need to “depopulate.”

The trade group declined to identify the company, but animal rights activists who formed a coalition to save the birds believe it is processor Allen Harim and are calling on officials at the Seaford, Delaware-based company to stop the practice.

Officials at Allen Harim did not return calls seeking comment.

Every poultry plant on the Delmarva Peninsula, which includes Maryland’s Eastern Shore as well as Delaware and part of Virginia, has struggled with reduced worker attendance because of cases of the COVID-19 illness, testing for the virus and people following guidance to stay home if sick, according to Delmarva Poultry.

The association said one company has become the first on the peninsula to turn to “depopulation" amid the health crisis. It’s taking the measure as a last resort after exhausting other options, the group said.

"Depopulation has been done in the past on Delmarva and in the U.S. in response to cases of infectious avian disease,” said James Fisher, a spokesman for Delmarva Poultry.

Salisbury-based Perdue Farms, which like other poultry processors has installed temporary partitions at all facilities and given workers face masks, is not depopulating farms, said Diana Souder, a company spokeswoman.

Company leaders, she added, “do not have any current plans to do so.”

Other companies either did not respond or did not answer questions about depopulation.

The extermination methods to be used on the 2 million chickens have been approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association for handling cases of infectious avian disease, the trade group said.

But the animal activist coalition, Save Delmarva Chickens, argues it’s inhumane to use measures designed to control avian flu on healthy birds. The group’s online petition drive now has more than 2,000 signatures.

Agustina Sosa, one of four activists in Delaware and Pennsylvania who organized the drive, said approved methods include ventilation shutdown or flooding a chicken house with water-based foam.

“We were concerned that the chickens were still being talked about as commodities,” Sosa said. “Their lives are on the line. They’re the victims. They’re not infected. They are healthy. ... It’s about profit and losing money."

The group would like to see chickens released to sanctuaries, starting with 10 birds.

The Delmarva peninsula is home to more than 5,000 poultry houses, including more than 2,200 in Maryland, which grow broilers, roasters and Cornish hens, according 2019 figures on the meat chicken industry from Delmarva Poultry. Those chicken houses have a capacity for 145 million birds. More than 608 million birds were grown on the peninsula last year, with 4.3 billion pounds processed.

In general, the virus outbreak has not brought a lot of change to the 1,325 family farms in Delmarva that raise meat for the chicken industry, Fisher said. The number includes 614 in Maryland. Growers already followed health and safety measures, such as wearing personal protective equipment in chicken houses and requiring visitors to wear the gear.

Poultry companies in Delmarva employed nearly 20,400 people last year.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, processors have revamped plants to allow for social distancing, monitored workers’ temperatures and handed out more personal protective equipment.

Perdue, for example, has redesigned break rooms and cafeterias to allow for social distancing, in addition to installing installed dividers between workers on production lines. Tyson Foods has increased distance between workers on the production floor and installed workstation dividers, and it allows more times between shifts to reduce worker interaction.

Some processors that saw demand drop because of restaurant and hotel closures have been selling larger packages of chicken to consumers from trucks stationed at volunteer fire departments around the Eastern Shore, Fisher said.

The Delmarva Poultry trade group said the impact of COVID-19 on the chicken industry has become more apparent as the disease has spread, with reduced attendance at plants across the peninsula.

“Some of Delmarva’s processing plants are operating below their normal capacity, although other plants are operating normally,” Delmarva Poultry said in a statement. “Plant capacity can change day to day, depending on attendance, and predicting capacity is difficult.”

The trade group called depopulation a “difficult but necessary decision.” The birds are killed in chicken houses on farms instead of being taken to plants.

If no action were taken, the birds would outgrow the capacity of the chicken house to hold them, the group said. Chicken companies coordinate in-house composting of the birds. Composted material is then handled in accordance with farm nutrient management plans, which states regulate. Chicken growers will be compensated for their contracted work in raising the chickens.

Fisher said the company asking its farms to depopulate was unable to find other options, including allowing another chicken company to transport and process the chickens or taking a partially processed product to rendering facilities to use as animal feed.

The processor continues to run its lines and has not closed plants, though it has adjusted processes, hatcheries and capacity to meet market demands and reduce the oversupply of chickens to be harvested, Fisher said.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture was told about depopulation plans last week and said it is monitoring for any developments. The agency is only involved in depopulations done in response to animal health concerns, said Jason Schellhardt, a department spokesman.

“This particular case was a private decision made by an individual business,” Schellhardt said.

Note the highlighted part at the end. The entire supply chain has been affected and they're already hatching & raising fewer chickens. If this trend continues in the food industry, we're going to have a meat shortage at some point.

[The Romulan Republic]

Lap Dog Barr threatens legal action against states for lockdowns, accusing them of putting citizens under "house arrest":

https://vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/wil ... use-arrest

The coronavirus’s continued spread throughout the U.S. has not stopped President Donald Trump’s desire to get back to normal already, as the president has emphasized in recent days the importance of immediately reopening the economy. “We’re starting a very very powerful, important process,” Trump said at his press briefing Tuesday about reopening states. “You see that people are getting very anxious, they want to get going, they want to get back to their jobs ... the light is getting brighter and brighter every day.” Trump's push to reopen the country ASAP as coronavirus cases remain high—and without increased testing—has faced widespread opposition, however, with public health experts, many governors, and the majority of the American public wary of restarting daily life too soon and spurring a new wave of infections. But Trump’s premature move to get things going again does have one unsurprising supporter: U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

Barr, who has often been criticized for his sycophantic support of the president’s agenda, praised Trump’s approach to reopening the U.S. Tuesday, telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the president had issued “superb and common-sensical” guidance to the states. “I think the President’s plan for getting the country back to work is really a very common-sensical approach that is based on really assessing the status of the virus in each state and each locality, and then gradually pulling back on restrictions,” Barr told Hewitt in an interview. While the attorney general said that the government was justified in using “temporary and reasonable restrictions on rights if really necessary to meet the danger,” Barr defended starting to lift some restrictions as soon as possible, likening continued stay-at-home orders to governors putting their constituents under “house arrest.” “These are unprecedented burdens on civil liberties right now. You know, the idea that you have to stay in your house is disturbingly close to house arrest,” Barr told Hewitt. “I’m not saying it wasn’t justified. I’m not saying in some places it might still be justified. But it’s very onerous, as is shutting down your livelihood.” These “very, very burdensome impingements on liberty” were only adopted “for the limited purpose of slowing down the spread, that is bending the curve,” Barr added. “We didn’t adopt them as the comprehensive way of dealing with this disease.” (It should be noted that stay-at-home orders in the U.S., which are largely based around closing non-essential businesses, are still far less restrictive and carry lighter penalties than those of many other countries.)

Echoing Trump and other conservatives’ view that the coronavirus “cure cannot be worse than the problem itself”—though the current economic issues are intrinsically intertwined with the public health crisis—Barr likened the coronavirus restrictions to “chemotherapy” when “cancer is spreading.” “The question is you can’t just keep on feeding the patient chemotherapy and say well, we’re killing the cancer, because we were getting to the point where we’re killing the patient,” Barr said. The attorney general’s belief that restrictive stay-at-home policies aren’t worth the potential public health benefit could even inspire him to take legal action, as Barr warned Tuesday that “we'll have to address” governors who don’t follow Trump’s reopening guidance “and impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerce, our common market.” When Hewitt brought up the possibility of citizens suing their states over stay-at-home restrictions, Barr said that the Justice Department “would take a position” on lawsuits if “justified.” “We’re looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place. And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them,” Barr said. “And if they’re not and people bring lawsuits, we file statement of interest and side with the plaintiffs.”

Barr’s suggestion that the DOJ could side with anti-social distancing constituents over a state government comes as the president and others on the right have openly expressed their support for the vocal minority of protesters fighting against social distancing policies. (“These are people expressing their views,” Trump said Friday, after he tweeted in support of “liberat[ing]” states.) But the opinion that social distancing needs to end ASAP, despite Trump and Barr’s rhetoric, isn't one that most Americans agree with. Multiple polls have shown a majority of Americans are practicing social distancing and are wary of getting back to normalcy too soon, including an Axios/Ipsos poll released Tuesday that showed 72% of respondents (including 62% of Republicans) are of the opinion that “returning to my normal pre-coronavirus life right now is a moderate/large risk.” While Barr stressed the need for “targeted approaches” to live with the coronavirus instead of blanket stay-at-home orders, some of the key approaches that have been singled out by experts to enable some return to normalcy—particularly widespread testing—have been downplayed or bungled by the Trump administration, and are barely mentioned in the administration’s reopening guidelines.

Nevertheless, some governors are going along with the Trump administration’s reopening effort, with multiple states, including South Carolina, Tennessee, Alaska, and Georgia, announcing that at least some businesses will soon reopen. But while the governors may declare their states open for business, it remains to be seen whether businesses and citizens will actually go along with it. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s move to start reopening his state has been met with widespread criticism and skepticism, with even Senator Lindsey Graham tweeting he was afraid the state is “going too fast too soon.” And those affected by the lifted restrictions so far aren’t necessarily heeding Kemp's call: Many local businesses are announcing their intention to remain shuttered, and some Georgia mayors are urging constituents to continue to stay home. “We are not going to be a vector of death and suffering,” Savannah gym owner Mark Lebos told WSLS 10 News about his intention to keep his business closed. Trump and Barr may be insistent that Americans want to get back to daily life—but until Americans once again feel safe enough to leave their homes, no amount of political rhetoric will get Trump the fully reopened economy he so badly desires.

I sincerely hope that if this goes through, some governors have the balls to simply ignore the rulings. Trump ignores the law every day, and the Senate ignored it when they placed him above it, so why should we uphold it at the cost of potentially hundreds of thousands of lives?

[mr friendly guy]

In some good news, Western australia has eased lockdown measures along with South Australia. NSW isn't following yet.

Italy has also made plans to ease the lockdown, but the first phase of the easing will still be weeks away.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-27/ ... n/12187896

[The Romulan Republic]

In some good news, Western australia has eased lockdown measures along with South Australia. NSW isn't following yet.

Italy has also made plans to ease the lockdown, but the first phase of the easing will still be weeks away.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-27/ ... n/12187896

That's only good news if conditions there warrant easing restrictions. The state of Georgia is easing restrictions too, but doing it while the number of cases is spiking dramatically.