Category Archives: Fail!

How Russia’s Troll Farm Is Changing Tactics Before the Fall Election – The New York Times

The Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency, which interfered in the 2016 election, is using different methods to hide itself better.

Florida governor: sick passengers on cruise ship cannot be ‘dumped’ here | US news | The Guardian

Four people have died on coronavirus-stricken Zaandam liner and health of passengers and crew has worsened in past week

Source: Florida governor: sick passengers on cruise ship cannot be ‘dumped’ here | US news | The Guardian

June 4, 1939:  Jewish refugee ship turned away from Florida coast http://www.floridahistorynetwork.com/june-4-1939—jewish-refugee-ship-turned-away-from-florida-coast.html

So on June 4, 1939, the MS St. Louis anchored four miles off Miami Beach and was sighted by the Coast Guard, which immediately dispatched boats to the ship, as recounted in the Miami Daily News.

“Soon after the arrival of the coast guard craft the St. Louis hoisted anchor and put to sea, accompanied by the guard detail,” the story said. “The coast guard patrol boat C-244, out of Fort Lauderdale, stood by the ship as it slanted down the coast, barely making way, to prevent any possibility of attempts of refugees to jump off and swim ashore.”

A Coast Guard crewman told of running in close to the ship. “‘It doesn’t seem possible that so many people could crowd aboard one ship,'” he said.

Two days later, the St. Louis was heading north — and back to Europe. It did not return to Germany. Jewish organizations negotiated with four European nations to accept the passengers. Great Britain took 288, but the other 620 were taken by France, Belgium and the Netherlands

Opinion | Covid-19 Brings Out All the Usual Zombies – The New York Times

The bottom line is that as with so many things Trump, the awfulness of the man in the White House isn’t the whole story behind terrible policy. Yes, he’s ignorant, incompetent, vindictive and utterly lacking in empathy. But his failures on pandemic policy owe as much to the nature of the movement he serves as they do to his personal inadequacies.

Trump’s narcissism has taken a new twist. And now he has American blood on his hands | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

The US president always was capricious and vengeful, but now that character flaw is a matter of life and death. State governors are crying out for federal help, not for themselves but for the people they represent: the nurses and doctors who need protective equipment and testing kits, the patients who need ventilators. But instead of leaping to their aid, Trump tells the governors it’s their responsibility, even though they have a fraction of the procurement power of the US government – adding that if they want help, they’d better grovel. “It’s a two-way street,” Trump said this week. “They have to treat us well.” Even when lives are on the line, his ego with its paper-thin skin comes first. Americans are paying the price for his lack of foresight, his closure of a pandemic task force for no better reason than it was established by Barack Obama – he hates anything with his predecessor’s name on it – and his failure to heed the warnings of a pandemic preparedness exercise, codenamed Crimson Contagion, that identified glaring gaps as recently as last October.

Source: Trump’s narcissism has taken a new twist. And now he has American blood on his hands | Jonathan Freedland | Opinion | The Guardian

US private health insurance companies clog system amid Covid-19 pandemic | US news | The Guardian

In the past two weeks the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the country. States and cities have been weighing public health measures, making changes to government health plans, and pushing sweeping changes to everyday life. Physicians have largely sought to reschedule and cancel elective surgeries and other patient visits deemed non-essential to free up resources to handle the virus. But with a history of restrictive and confusing policies, private health insurance companies have lagged behind: making incremental changes to plans even as health providers seek to change course.

Source: US private health insurance companies clog system amid Covid-19 pandemic | US news | The Guardian

Opinion | Boris Johnson Isn’t Cut Out to Handle Coronavirus – The New York Times

As the virus spread into Europe in mid-February, an alert prime minister would have taken immediate charge, turbocharging preparations, aware that a possible pandemic posed a grave danger to Britain. Instead, he vanished from public view for 12 days, most of it spent on a private holiday with his pregnant fiancée at a palatial country house.