Part One: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com law and the courts reporter, talks with us about how many states have been gerrymandered by Republicans, and how this will affect upcoming elections.
We discuss various gerrymandering tricks, such as “packing and cracking” and how blue districts are treated. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling that accepts gerrymandering has made it more difficult. The politicians are choosing their electorate, rather than the other way around. Because elections have been rigged, it has caused partisan politics to become more extreme, and thus preventing consensus and negotiations. The Court itself has become more divided, and there is no center that can be relied on to be moderate. There are squabbles on the Court, and less stability. This is evidenced now by the Court being more willing to overturn precedents.
How Fast Can You Put These Gerrymandered States Back T-19 ogether?https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/gerrymander-puzzles-wisconsin-maryland-west-virginia.html
The Supreme Court’s 6–3 Decision Striking Down Split Jury Verdicts Is Weirder Than It Lookshttps://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/supreme-court-ramos-v-louisiana-juries-opinion.html
Part Two: Our regular check in the Bob Hennelly, op-ed writer at Salon.com, reporter at the Chief-Leader (covering NYC public sector workers) and can be found @stucknation
We discuss how Covid-19 statistics are gathered and reported. Currently, the statistics are gathered by hospitals that report deaths. However, many deaths go unreported as Covid-19 deaths. That includes deaths at home, and congregate-care facilities such as nursing homes. Even the hospital numbers are suspect. For example, if we really looked at the deaths reported, prior to the pandemic, when there were 300 hospitalizatons for heart attacks, with 50 or 60 fatalities, now hospitals are reporting 300 hospitalizations, with 280 fatalities. But these fatalities are not reported as Covid-19 immediate causes, according to New Jersey and CDC guidance .This brings into question the role of Trump’s CDC in minimizing the number of deaths. There is no testing of those patients after they die, to determine the cause of death. Hospitals are managing to inventory (test kits, PPEs), rather than the facts on the ground.
It has been proposed by the various unions and funeral directors that bodies should be analyzed for true cause of death to get a more accurate picture of the status of the pandemic. Instead, what the public is being told is to give them a false sense of government management of the pandemic. If true information were actually cause the populace to rebel and require much more drastic measures, more testing, and a complete change of health care policy. Universal health care would become much more of an issue.
Is the official COVID-19 death count too low? Funeral directors, EMS workers say yes We’re fixated on the official data, which is bad enough. But we may be missing a bigger and more lethal picture
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/21/can-official-covid-19-death-numbers-be-trusted-funeral-directors-say-no-_partner/
aside must read
The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients
There is a way we could identify more patients who have Covid pneumonia sooner and treat them more effectively — and it would not require waiting for a coronavirus test at a hospital or doctor’s office. It requires detecting silent hypoxia early through a common medical device that can be purchased without a prescription at most pharmacies: a pulse oximeter.
