We’ve got a whole lot jammed into one single hour of The BradCast today. So let’s take this one step at a time and hope for the best. You may wish to stay away from anything that is breakable over the course of the hour. [Audio link to show is posted at end of summary.]
Among the stories covered on today’s program…
- Hydroxychloroquine, the magical “100% cure!” for COVID-19 that Fox “News” promoted endlessly for weeks on end along with their stooge President in the White House, is, according to a new study of hundreds of patients at Veterans Health Administration medical centers across the country, not a cure at all. In fact, 28 percent of infected patients given the malaria drug along with regular care died, while only 11 percent who received the same care but without the hydroxychloroquine died. That’s just one of the reasons you likely haven’t heard either Fox or Trump, who encouraged folks to take it (“What do you have to lose?,” he repeated over and again) mention it at all lately;
- A new analysis of UK data by the Financial Times finds the number of coronavirus-related deaths there are likely more than twice as high as the officially confirmed count, which only tallies those who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the virus. The analysis confirms other similar studies of inexplicably high death rates (for any reason) in countries around the world, far in excess of average numbers this time of year, even after official COVID-19 are removed from the statistics;
- While that study and others like it suggest the NUMBER of deaths, both directly and indirectly attributable to the pandemic, are likely at least twice as high as officially recognized, the death RATE for the coronavirus may be much smaller. A new study by USC and Los Angeles County, examining those with antibodies for the virus present in their systems, suggest that infections are far more widespread than previously understood. Infection rates appears to be as much as 28 to 55 times higher than previously understood in L.A. That study appears to confirm a similar one in Santa Clara County in Northern California, finding the rate of infection there to be as much as 50 to 80 times higher than previously known;
- In short, there is a LOT that is not understood about this deadly virus, making it all the more insane that Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp (now followed by several other GOP Governors across the country) is planning to re-open the state’s hair salons, tattoo shops, bowling alleys, massage parlors and other places of business this Friday, with movie theaters and restaurants set to be opened on Monday. During his stunning Monday announcement, Kemp claimed that “health care professionals” agreed with his action, even though members of his state’s own COVID-19 task force and the mayors of its largest cities were never consulted and are reportedly furious. CNN reported on Wednesday morning that both Trump and Vice President Pence called Kemp on Tuesday to express their support for the move (even though mere seconds after we got off air today, Trump apparently flip-flopped during the White House briefing to claim he “strongly disagreed” with Kemp and thought it was “too soon” to reopen.);
- Definitely not consulted in any of this were the state’s front-line health care workers like Lawrenceville, GA physician Dr. Karla Lorraine. We share her moving “viral” video — shot at work, while still in some of her personal protective equipment after hearing news of Kemp’s announcement — in which she begs people, through her own tears, to “please stay home!”;
- Next, as we do, we turn to what the hell people can do about all of this madness, beginning with VOTING these madmen out of office this year. To that end, we’re joined today by attorney COURTNEY HOSTETLER, counsel at Free Speech for People, one of the groups representing the NAACP in a new lawsuit filed in North Carolina to prevent the use of new, “insecure, unreliable, unverifiable, and unsafe” (yes, now infectiously dangerous) touchscreen voting systems in more than 20 counties across the very closely divided battleground state this November.
The lawsuit [PDF] is one of many being filed in state after state as jurisdictions move to change voting procedures in the wake of a global pandemic. Aside from being a vector for spreading disease in many rural and urban counties (including Mecklenberg, the state’s largest, most diverse and Democratic-leaning) Hostetler explains how the specific new systems in question, the ES&S ExpressVote, creates barcoded “paper ballot” summary cards that can never be verified as accurately reflecting the intent of any voter. The same systems, she explains, are also insecure and prone to failure, as seen in several states where those systems and very similar ones made by ES&S — the nation’s top supplier of voting systems and the largest private vendor in the country — have failed in recent elections and were found vulnerable to hacking and manipulation in test labs.
She also details a number of other maddening reasons that these expensive, dangerous, insecure and unverifiable new voting machines must be replaced with hand-marked paper ballot systems before the state’s critical Presidential election this November.
- Finally today, a few thoughts on crashing oil prices amid a worldwide glut that has led producers to literally pay people to take oil off their hands for lack of storage. One analyst suggests this moment is “probably going to be the final dagger in the heart of the U.S. shale oil industry.” Yes, he means this could be the end of fracking in the U.S., at least for oil, if not natural gas. So, maybe something good after all can come out of all of our ongoing disasters…
In other news, representatives of ISIS expressed frustration that the Republican Party is now being called “A Death Cult”.
“You guys in the American media used to call us that! Where’s the love?”, exclaimed an ISIS representative who wished to remain anonymous. “Before we were the Islamic State we were the old Iraqi military, and we used chemical weapons on our own citizens! That was ours!”
The ISIS representative continued, “The Republicans sent their own citizens to vote in a pandemic. While that’s technically germ warfare it’s still an idea inspired by us!”
When reminded that germ warfare was first used by the US against Native Americans, the ISIS representative demurred and said, “You got me there.”
Yes, fracking has crashed for now. But fracked gas was two thirds of “natural” gas in 2019 in the US (think, heating cold cities in the winter). Fracked oil is two thirds of domestic production. If and when the economy bounces back from the coronavirus shutdown we will immediately run into the energy limits we were bumped up against last year. Colin Campbell, the geologist, warned a quarter century ago that a sign of peak would be wilder oscillations in energy prices, although he didn’t anticipate this wild of a shift.
Fracking postponed rationing.
Meanwhile, Dr. Trump gets loopier and loopier. Sure would be nice to see Democrats call for him to resign and/or have the 25th amendment used. Waiting for November to try to “vote” him out seems like a mistake to me. Maybe if / when CV cases spike in rural Republican areas there will be pressure to do this.