Ted Rall for April 15, 2020

They are always lying to us. You can tell. Their mouths start moving. Like wings of a bat. Flap. Flap. Flap.

Rall: It’s not necessary to invoke “they lied” when it’s perfectly feasible to invoke “they have been learning about it, and they’ve changed their minds”. If you keep doing that, some might say that you’ve squandered your credibility. The possibilities are endless.

Hippies been saying you don’t need money for 50 yrs.

We don’t need Republicans, they are worse than useless.

A president that only an ardent dedicated Fox viewer could appreciate,

I particularly like not to listen to the GasPasser dressed up like Generalissimo Francisco Franco – replete with unearned medals.

Ted, 2 different kinds of masks were involved.

The cloth surgical ones are indeed useless except to keep spray from a sneeze or cough contained: the viral body is 125nm in diameter, and requires a special filter to trap it.

The medical N95 mask/respirator is sufficient for the purpose, but they are in short supply and the most-available substitute (KN95) comes from China and is being counterfeited by opportunistic Chinese Capitalist-criminals.

This is why Ted Rall is a national treasure.

Anybody else notice that thousands of recent news stories, opinions, editorial cartoons, and millions of snarky posts failed to even mention the great mask hoax?

As usual, their lie is sprinkled with half-truths and ‘good’ [for whom?] intentions.

N-95 masks, properly used by trained professionals, protect the wearer from contamination and also prevent the wearer from contaminating others.

Any mask covers your mouth & nose will help prevent you from infecting others, and used properly, somewhat lessen your chances of someone directly contaminating you.

Thanks Ted, for the welcome and timely reminder:

The roots of our problems with government goes way, way deeper than Trump. They all lied about masks when we should have been advised to wear them all along. I seriously doubt that — with this particular issue — it would have been different under any president.

My wife has made about 30 masks so far, for friends and family. Right now the only thing holding her back is lack of elastic.

That being said, it should not fall on her to cover for Trump’s failure.

Loans of a trillion dollars a day for the banksters, so they don’t have to pay higher rates, and $4.5 trillion to be lavished on whoever Trump, through Mnuchin, feels like. That’s on top of the $13 trillion or so after the 2008 financier coup.

Anyone using the phrase “how you gonna pay for that?” should be tarred and feathered.

@heavyduty •

The CDC started recommending the public use masks on April 1st, appropriately enough. They discouraged mask use for two full months before the CDC — or anyone else — recommended them.

And of course, lest they accidentally lead by example, they all appear in public without masks.

The characteristics of covid-19 are only beginning to be learned. The large % of asymptomatic carriers was somewhat of a surprise, and was a factor in changing the mask recommendations, which now include the home-made fabric masks that should be carefully washed after every use. We have little knowledge of why the virus is so very broad in the severity of symptoms, from none through moderate to life-threatening. I have been following the literature on this question, which seems to be indicating that the lethality is associated with what is termed a cytokine storm, an overactivity of the immune system in response to the virus, and that approaches to control this storm may be essential to controlling the virus. We do not know yet why some are more likely to go into the storm response than others. The evidence is that the entry point for coronaviruses into the cell is through the cell surface ACE2 protein (angiotensin converting enzyme 2) of which there are a number of genetic variations. One of them, the ACE2 I/D variant, is correlated with a cough, observed in about 8% of those taking ACE2 inhibitors to control high blood pressure, that is thought to be produced by excessive cytokine activation. A recent letter to BMJ recommended that patients who are taking such a drug should stop taking it when/if they contract covid-19. You can expect that as we learn more about it, recommendations will change.

The Reds will definitely use this to claim we need to eliminate Medicaid, medicare, and social security

I’m just surprised, y’all… he’s normally pro-Trump!