Real Patriots Eat Local, Say No to Trump’s Lies
Amid the crush of news about the protests of the Branch Covidians, people in San Diego and around the country are doing the right thing.
They’re buying local, eating healthier, and putting money back into the local economy. Enabling this positivity are local farmers and fishermen.
On Saturday, I witnessed hundreds of cars lined up on Harbor Drive, waiting to pick up pre-orders of freshly caught seafood at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Seafood Market. Dozens of people on foot waited in another line, all properly spaced. We bought some beautiful never frozen Ahi for ten bucks a pound. Black rockfish, opah, crabs, and prawns were also for sale.
On Sunday, I waited patiently outside while my partner bought produce for the week at the newly re-opened Hillcrest Farmers Market. The booths were limited (there were no crafts or prepared foods) and people waited patiently in a steadily moving line to get in.
Early on in the day, an SDPD officer on hand told farmers market organizers the number of people admitted could be increased, because customers and vendors were doing such a good job in social distancing.
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Going beyond the incredible efforts of first responders and medical personnel tending to the sick around the country, there were other news stories of incredible acts by ordinary people.
In Denver, two off duty health care workers re-enacted the famous Tienanmen square protest, where a single person stood blocking tanks.
This time around it was nurses in green scrubs, blocking the passage of “Operation Gridlock” protesters complaining about encroachments on their “freedom” as officials have attempted to shut down various parts of the economy to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
https://twitter.com/RedTRaccoon/status/1252214443729211392?s=20
From the Huffington Post:
Protesters gathered in Denver for about four hours on Sunday, carrying banners and honking horns throughout the capitol, The Denver Post reported.
President Donald Trump has continued to call for the country to reopen. He said the U.S. has adequate testing capabilities and last week unveiled a three-phase plan that governors could enact to help Americans start “our life again.” However, several governors said the U.S. does not have the testing capacity needed for states to relax social distancing measures. And many health officials have warned against jumpstarting society too soon, saying doing so could be catastrophic and result in a renewed outbreak.
“We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press last week.
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An unlikely story in the New England Journal of Medicine, penned by a health care executive, recounted the means necessary to get needed personal protection equipment around the federal government’s blockade/ confiscation programs.
From New York Magazine:
Over the last few weeks, it has started to appear as though, in addition to abandoning the states to their own devices in a time of national emergency, the federal government has effectively erected a blockade — like that which the Union used to choke off the supply chains of the Confederacy during the Civil War — to prevent delivery of critical medical equipment to states desperately in need. At the very least, federal authorities have made governors and hospital executives all around the country operate in fear that shipments of necessary supplies will be seized along the way. In a time of pandemic, having evacuated federal responsibility, the White House is functionally waging a war against state leadership and the initiative of local hospitals to secure what they need to provide sufficient treatment.
Yesterday, a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to secure the delivery into Massachusetts of equipment that had been bought and paid for. The NEJM, which featured the letter in its COVID-19 Notes series, is far from a platform of partisan alarm or hysteria — it is among the most sober and high-minded professional journals in the country...
..In this instance, the executive managed to secure the supplies, but what is most horrifying about his account is that this experience was not all that surprising to him — he expected interference from federal officials, and did everything he could (including staging the shipment in food-service trucks to avoid detection) to get around that interference.
In recent weeks public and private health care organizations have shared numerous stories about equipment and supplies being commandeered by federal authorities.
The owner of the New England Patriots lent his private jet to bring in needed supplies from China after attempts to purchase them through regular channels were foiled. From Politico:
For weeks, [Massachusetts Gov. Charlie] Baker has warned that Massachusetts is in desperate need of more protective equipment including masks, sanitizing wipes and gowns for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, especially as cases are expected to surge sometime between April 7 and April 17 in Massachusetts.
The Republican governor has raised those concerns with Trump. He told the president the federal government was outbidding Massachusetts on equipment — even after advising states to work on getting their own supplies. A week later, the Bay State was still being outbid and had only received a fraction of what it requested from the Strategic National Stockpile. Baker grew increasingly frustrated at a recent news conference, saying he’d seen confirmed orders for millions of pieces of gear "evaporate" before his eyes.
With [Patriots owner Robert] Kraft's help, it appears Massachusetts has found an alternative way to get necessary equipment.
Lest anybody not believe the rank politicization in play here, word is that the latest COVID-19 relief bill coming out of Congress won’t be including $150 billion additional in funding for struggling state and local governments.
The White House has been holding out, Politico reports "because, in part, they believe if Congress keeps cutting checks for state and local governments, they will be disincentivized to open up their economies."
This is for real. President Donald Trump wants to force governors and mayors to make the decision to infect and kill more people by "opening" their economies..
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In Case You Were Wondering
https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/1252246847915126784?s=20
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