Things that were unimaginable just weeks ago
OK. Maybe this isn't totally unimaginable, but it is unimaginable that this is being ignored.
As per WaPo:"The U.S. government is in active talks with Facebook, Google and a wide array of tech companies and health experts about how they can use location data gleaned from Americans’ phones to combat the novel coronavirus, including tracking whether people are keeping one another at safe distances to stem the outbreak."
What action, exactly, would stem from that info is another consideration altogether (punishments for those who fail to maintain adequate distance?), but the idea is that by accessing specific location marker info from the tech giants, the Government would be in a better position to understand how the disease might spread, and how communities could be impacted by the same.
The approach has solid foundations - both China and South Korea have effectively slowed the spread of COVID-19 by using smartphone location data to track the movement of their citizens.
...
As explained by Wired:"In South Korea, the authorities have sent out texts detailing the movements of specific people infected with COVID-19, stirring up public shaming and rumor-mongering. The government is also using a smartphone app to ensure that people stay home when they've been ordered to quarantine themselves. The ubiquitous Chinese apps WeChat and AliPay have been used to assign people “color codes” to determine whether they should quarantine themselves or may move around freely. But some citizens say the codes appear to be applied arbitrarily or based on which province they are in. There is also evidence the apps feed data back to the authorities."
It makes Orwell's 1984 look modest in comparison.
I find this story to be almost unbelievable.
In California, where more than 100,000 homeless people live on the street—at extra risk from the new coronavirus, and without any way to easily wash their hands or self-quarantine—the state government is now working to procure hotel and motel rooms and deploy hundreds of RVs to provide temporary shelter.The problem exists nationwide, though it’s particularly bad in California, where half of the country’s unsheltered homeless population lives. Across the state, more than 300 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and many more surely have the virus but haven’t been tested. If the virus spreads into homeless encampments, it would be devastating. Diseases already spread rapidly in these settings; L.A.’s Skid Row, overrun with rats, has seen recent outbreaks of typhus and Hepatitis A.
Some cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, have started installing handwashing stations at homeless encampments. San Francisco has temporarily leased RVs that will be used to isolate people who test positive for the virus but don’t need hospitalization. The city is also extending shelter hours and increasing meal services, so people in shelters can spend less time outside. (Most homeless shelters close during the day, forcing people out.)
Imagine caring about homeless people all year long.
To combat a looming health crisis among this vulnerable population, Gov. Newsom has allocated $150 million to local governments to help move homeless people into shelter, both AP and the L.A. Times report. Another $50 million in state funding will go toward buying travel trailers and renting hotel rooms to act as temporary housing for the homeless who show symptoms of COVID-19 and to safely practice social distancing.
While Nancy Pelosi blocks #EmergencyUBI and #DementiaJoe stands against #M4A, Trump suspends foreclosures and evictions and wants to send direct payments to desperate Americans. Trump is going to be the most progressive candidate on the ballot.
We are living in a simulation.
— Eric (@Talking_Monkeys) March 19, 2020
Comments
All of a sudden
the homeless matter! All it took was a little lo’ virus.
Take your battery out of the phone or leave it at home.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Exactly on the cell phones.
Personally I think a positive outcome of this would be people ditching the constant cell phone use and maybe, oh I don't know, looking around and actually talking to other people? How about listening to the person talking to you instead of having your head in some dumb game on the phone? Oh but wait, we're not supposed to talk to each other, not only due to the virus, but we should all be buried 24/7 in our social media feeds as good Americans.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Not so easy to hide
Technology will find you.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZMItxUc7Sk]
Good use of tech during a pandemic
(I'm assuming the quarantine bracelets are also used for those who test positive and aren't hospitalized.)
Wow.
So, is the government going to hire nannies to come and chide us if we're not standing the right amount of feet apart? That's gonna be a lot of nannies. Wouldn't that constitute a big government spending program?
I note that we have the money for that but not for M4A, nor for...aw, hell.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
something else that was once unimaginable
link
Oh, great.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Israel has been logging phone data of their
citizens to track the coronavirus outbreak since last week (that we know of). The US will probably use Israeli tech to track in America because they already have such technology in place. One hell of a lot of US data already moves through Israel.
The US has just passed Germany and Iran in confirmed cases. The country now stands at #4. At the current rate, unless something drastic is done immediately, it will surpass China to become #1 in the world within a week. I watched the Trump presser today and he has nothing to offer within the next 10 days. Trump & Company: "Too little, too late." sums it up.
I wonder what will happen to the 1.4 million prisoners now locked up in the country's overcrowded penitentiaries? Scary thought.
I also don't think a large percentage of Americans can handle this situation as well as the Chinese did. Yanks will be much harder to herd than the Chinese. That "independent spirit" may wreak havoc when push eventually comes to shove. The country has way more guns than respirators and even face masks at this time.
We live in interesting times. Gonna be some great stories that our children will tell their grandchildren.
Democrats
and neo libs are easy to herd. Ask the DNC.
herd
Which is why the rest of us Americans who have guns feel they need them.
"The Second Amendment: the one that guarantees the other Nine!"
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I agree
Especially about Trump but its the whole fucking corporate governing system and we shouldn't let the system off the hook just becuz Trump. My 2 cents anyway. edited for spelling
The South Korea government approved
individual tracking through credit cards, cctv, etc in response to the MERS outbreak in 2015. Early in the COVID-19 epidemic, high tech tracking was implemented, but it's my understanding that it has since been junked because it was ineffective and resulted in Patient #31 coming into contact with hundreds of members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Those church members weren't cooperative with the GSK, but since many have contracted the virus and at least 34 died, nearly all have since been tested.
That was only one of two missteps by SK government and health officials.
I have been following the outbreak in Asia
almost from the beginning.
The government of South Korean was highly proactive from day one. They only fell down on the job with the religious groups because the country has a VERY strong freedom of religion clause in their constitution. This is why there are so many nut bar religious fanatical groups in the country.
The following is a good read to see why Korea has the best performance in the world in battling COVID-19.
I'm inpressed with SK's handling
not without missteps, but strong on the basics; isolation, contact tracing, and testing. (Without the testing, they'd have over 300,000 in quarantine for up to four weeks each; still better than locking down whole cities and regions.)
China didn't have those options at the time
South Korea benefited from china's experience AND assistance. China supplied South Korea with almost all the materiel and experience they needed to get a quick handle on the situation. Korea took advantage.
Those countries that refused to acknowledge China's lead in handling this global pandemic, like the US, are now doomed to suffer needlessly.
China's experience in combating the pandemic has been financed, written up and distributed by Jack Ma of Alibaba fame.
Handbook of COVID-19 Prevention and Treatment
Yes, indeed!
I don't think any other country could have moved any faster than China did from the clinical recognition through the RNA sequencing and development of a test. Of course these days the slowest component is the clinical recognition and only China had that handicap.
South Korea obviously had a test kit available by 20 Jan and Japan had one by sometime between 11 and 14 Jan. Japan hasn't been as open and transparent as SK, and it's handling of the Diamond Princess cruise ship raises many questions for me.
However, by the time China knew what it was and how to test for it, it couldn't test and isolate its way out of it as it was raging out of control in Wuhan. Leaving them no choice but to use a sledgehammer, lock-down on 23 Jan. The numbers there had to have been eye-popping. So, the world looked on as China built new hospitals in a few days and shrugged.
The latest from Fauci is that test kits are to be reserved for medical staff and only for those patients if a positive test would change the treatment. Sounds like close to zero patient testing to me. They've given up on containment and will rely instead on lock-downs. The most expensive option, but if the resources don't exist to manage it as SK and Japan have done, the sledgehammer is all that's left. Two months on Wuhan is still in lock-down.
Korea & Japan got their first test kits from China
China has been the leader in confronting this disease by far.
But China won the battle.
China saved the world from having to go through it's experience. Too bad countries like the US didn't appreciate and learn from this sacrifice. The US is in for a big lesson.
BTW, the US has now passed Spain in confirmed cases. It is now #3 in the number of cases worldwide. The pain the US will now go through is just beginning. There is payback for hubris. The US is one of the few countries that has not taken this pandemic seriously w/o the fucking stinking bullshit from it's government.
Thanks for the info on Japan
someday we might know if the CDC was really trying to develop the Rolls Royce of COVID-19 testing kits or was merely too snooty to use the one China developed or too inept not be believe that it wouldn't happen here.
Not sure we should speak of winning against COVID-19 before either 1) a vaccine becomes available or 2) most of the population has developed an immunity by contracting it. A Korean official has stated that they fully expect new outbreaks in the future but are now better prepared to contain those if they happen. China and SK still have over 5,000 active cases and both reported additional deaths and new cases today and therefore, the latter won't be resolved for many weeks.
On reflection, wonder if the latest Do Not Test order is to minimize the recognized number of US cases? If it becomes out of control similar to that in Italy, that would mean twenty-three million cases and 200,000 deaths.
Or, people could stop whining about "Big Brother" invading
"their" privacy & just stay home. When folks go out in public & ignore CDC guidelines, they jeopardize everyone's health.
If you want to complain about something, focus on the idiots in Congress-- who need to start sending out checks so that people don't starve.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
How about sending out toilet paper?
haven't seen any for three weeks.
I agree with another old guy I was talking too during Jewel's senior hour "There's always the shower." No we weren't six feet apart. The store was mobbed. Practically a food riot.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Are these store senior hours
a good idea? Sounds a bit like those cruise ships.
A Facebook friend
Posted some photos from a senior hour at a store in Saugus, MA.
Empty shelves and long lines...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
It's easy to be for civil rights in good times
It's hard to be for civil rights in a crisis.
Imagine if more people were for civil rights after 9/11.
It's not about being for civil rights. It s about irresponsible
not people putting everyone else at risk. YMMV
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
Unbelievable comment
Giving up your civil rights just to be safe. Yeah it's not like they have been waiting for moments like this for people to just roll over. This is why it was so easy for them to create the TSA that has invaded almost every event people go to. And like the body scanners and facial identity cameras popping up everywhere. And the patriot act and the NDAA that ended habeaus corpus. Hey guess what? The state department is asking congress to allow them to arrest people and then hold them indefinitely without trial or access to a lawyer just like the 2012 NDAA signed during Obama's allows.
Y'all know what Franklin said about those who would willingly give up their freedoms just to be safe. Guess what? Martial law is coming and there ain't a damn thing we can do about it because of comments like this. I'm not giving them my permission to do this. But then the hell with what I want.
BTW. Some returning veterans have been arrested and put in mental hospitals since the NDAA was signed in 2012 which I have been commenting on since Barry signed it. Oh well huh?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
But I can't risk spreading the disease
to my mom or Kate (or anybody else, really).
And no, I don't believe the government has my best interests at heart; I'm hoping that they at least still value some concept of order, so that they will do something other than just get some popcorn and watch us die. And yes, using this situation as an excuse to become even more jack-booted is wildly immoral, and I don't condone it. But I haven't been able to stop all the shit they've done with far less excuse. And I don't want to get anybody else sick.
I'm open to suggestions. I mean it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
As for the veterans...
is this being done to shut them up?
I've somehow missed your work on this.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Irresponsible?
What about all those people still working to put food on the table? What about all "those people" who simply cannot just stop working and stay home without risking homelessness? Do you think living on the street or their car will help them fight the virus? Will it keep them from getting it and spreading it once they're on the street?
I get completely that staying home is the "right" option but your comment quite frankly, to me, borders on just the type of social shaming that will be used to divide and conquer once again, laying the blame on "irresponsible" workers who do what they HAVE TO DO to merely survive. Sounds like a damned Democrat to me, one of those liberals who love to shame others who do not have the same options they themselves do. If you want to stay completely safe then stay home, but I'm sorry, you don't get to lecture those barely surviving about being irresponsible.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I'm in favor of civil rights and liberties.
I don't want to spread infection.
These have to be compatible aims somehow.
Also, I don't know what action to take. Tell the government I don't like them being jack-booted thugs? They already know I don't like it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I will admit I'm not thrilled
with the fact that the authoritarian "government" I live under now has a spiffing excuse to be more authoritarian. But there's nothing to be done about it. Infection is a serious concern; I'm not an idiot.
And anyway, I couldn't stop them doing creepy shit like listening through our cell phones when they're off or our TVs when they're off or using satellite imaging to track where we're going or capturing all our commercial interactions and every conversation using any kind of technology and sending the data to giant servers in Utah "in case they need it," or even inventing crap that can discern what people are saying to each other OUTSIDE if there are plants nearby (they analyze the movement of the leaves, I guess in response to breath, and can somehow figure out from that with a reasonable chance of accuracy what words are being said).
As I said once, "Isn't the issue that the United States government has, without provocation, adopted an adversarial attitude toward its citizens?"
So no, I'm not thrilled that this gives them more excuses to be assholes. But I'm not an idiot. It is what it is.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well--
maybe we're confusing two different things. It's one thing to go outside, stand close to people, etc. I mean, I'm not doing that. It's quite another to be OK with the government using technology to track whether or not we're being good boys and girls.
My comment stands: what the hell are they going to do with this information that could be in any way useful or helpful? Create a big government spending program to send nannies to tell us not to do it? Or send their military in to drag people to jail if they're non-compliant? will that help? Jails are breeding grounds for the thing.
The really helpful thing would be for the government to take a page from FDR and talk to the people, using inspiration and encouragement to convince as many as possible to do the right thing. That includes taking very serious precautions when you do need to go out: gloves, masks, travel clothes that you wash immediately afterwards, hand-washing, showers afterwards. The government, run properly, could convince very large numbers of Americans to stay home. Of course, they'd also have to make it possible for them not to go to work. Which means socialism.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thanks--will start removing battery (when not using). EOM
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Just turn off the cellular connection
On an iPhone it is right next to the airplane mode toggle when you swipe up. Dunno about android but I’m sure it has something similar.
This is why we need strong data privacy laws: so when we have to do this stuff for the common good, no one gets a gold mine. Just like all that other socialist stuff like universal health care and unemployment insurance.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Thanks, Hawkfish--much handier to toggle on
Airplane mode, than remove battery. (Thought I read that simply turning off a cell phone, wasn't enough to stop location from being picked up.)
Guess it shows--can't believe everything you read on "the internets."
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Noticed my battery runs down fast even when I'm not using it.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I'm not sure
But I think your phone can still be tracked using the lithium base memory battery.
IIRC Snowden said something about that capability.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
What about Faraday bags?
Once inside one the phone is said to be inaccessible.
Many sold to those protecting cards that make it possible
to open newer cars electronically
another neoliberal asshat pipes up
Guess Summers doesn't expect anyone to remember all his efforts to off-shore US manufacturing, including the equipment.
No problem
Jack Ma and Ali Baba are only too willing to supply America what it needs during this crisis.
How many masks and coronavirus test kits do you need? Just place an order and Ali Baba will deliver. Of course the US will not take advantage of this embarrassing offer. It's USA! USA! until 10% of the population is dead and buried.
Am I being too cynical? Nah, I understand the US political mindset.
You are right.
But though you are VERY right--and you are--it begs the question of whether capitalism can do what it says it can do: efficiently respond to demand.
It hasn't looked to me for a long time like capitalism responds to demand, in general. Only to some people's demands.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What's demand?
where does is come from?
That's not a facile question, and in complex societies the answers are complicated. We tend to think that needs are static and innate, and when the usual social/economic organization fails to supply and satisfy the need for all, the "have nots" and the "haves" with a social conscience "demand" their government steps in to fix the problem. But how? The private sector already satisfies such a need for some people, if it didn't the need wouldn't exist.
Take something seemingly simple like fires in an urban setting. (Much of London was destroyed by a fire in the seventeenth century.) Volunteer, ad hoc, bucket brigades became insufficient. So, there was an innovation -- what was labeled fire insurance that included a dedicated fire suppression brigade and compensation for a customer's loss. Then when a fire broke out at house #1, his/her insurer's fire brigade showed up to extinguish it. But if owner of house #2 was also on fire and had no insurance or a different insurer, that fire brigade at house #1 watched #2 burn down. (This was a real situation for a while.) This didn't even work well for those that could afford to buy the insurance. (Note: this model has recently been reprized for the uber wealthy in CA in wild fire prone areas.) Absent government intervention, there was no viable and reliable fix. Splitting the fire brigade from fire insurance and making the former permanent and funded by property taxes was a half-step that works well for the occasional fire for the community and well enough for those able to afford full fire insurance. The less affluent are generally under-insured and have big fights with their insurer when the worst happens and also turn to government to help them. Theoretically the most efficient model would be a government run, socialized, fire department and loss payer because the need remains 1) fire suppression and 2) full loss compensation. A major problem with that is insurance premiums are collected today and not paid out until some future time, and governments spend what comes in today on other stuff (such as tax cuts). (That's why the architects of Social Security set it up as "pay-go," but in 1981 Republicans and neoliberal Democrats concocted their "better idea;" get more out of the "have nots" today and hand it over to the "haves.")
Turn off location tracking and setting all apps location
access to "when using the app only" is the easiest first step, other than an RFID wallet/farady cage for the damn thing.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Are we prepared for martial law in the US?
Interesting report
With the Trumpeter as Commander in Chief, I would argue that “all constitutional successors are incapable” is fait accompli.
We're all supposed to forget the Catfood Commission
Larry Summers, Erskine Bowles, Pat Simpson and everyone who tried to cut Medicare and Medicaid under the Barack Obama administration. That never happened.
"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian