This is the worst reply I’ve seen here in the last days. Because it is absolutely true.
I think will need to cuddle up and weep a bit.
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Ignorant theorizing on my part, but seeing the photos of how much clearer the air is around major cities because of the worldwide lockdown, and experiencing significant snowfall in mid-April (which I can remember from childhood, but our temperatures have been warming for decades now) makes me wonder if there is a connection:
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Can’t speak for Sweden, but we have some similarities in Germany.
We did have an amendment to our constitution in 1968. It is commonly known as Notstandsgesetze and has never been triggered. The weird thing is: the Notstandsgesetze exist because of really strong allied pressure, and against a strong and vocal opposition in Germany, because the collective experience of the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.
For the record, have a go at the German Wikipedia, the english version linked above is rather not cutting the mustard.
I fully expected the Gouvernement to trigger a national emergency on March 18th. And I am very critical about the Notstandsgesetze. I have to admit that I am deeply impressed that we so far manage to do without them, but I am actually holding my breath like an freediver. The Kontaktbeschränkungen work, but if theyhold against legal scrutiny is still unclear.
Make no mistake: there is an overwhelming consensus in German society now that the measures are needed. Today, the federal government and the Länder decided to extend most measures while easing some others (shops < 800 m² may open, etc.) We are very much at the beginning of a discussion, and I hate to see that economics and not fundamental rights are the driving force. To be clear: I will fight for keeping social distancing measures against my own conviction in regard to the general legality of curtailments of fundamental rights written in the German Grundgesetz.
This whole situation is unprecedented. And sadly, many, many people do not realise the full extent of it. But then, it is the worst sort of cognitive dissonance I ever experienced, so I can’t blame them. I can’t even properly discuss it without loosing my shit.
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COVID relief checks (well, direct deposits) are starting to go out, and this is a trending topic on Twitter. Good sign…
I recommend checking your status if you haven’t gotten a deposit yet. Despite receiving a refund in 2018 and making a payment in 2019 from the same checking account, my status indicated that the IRS didn’t have “enough information” to process a direct deposit, so I had to punch in my bank account info. Now I have to wait until tomorrow to see when the deposit will come in, because they only update the site once a day.
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Give America Braaaaiiiiins Again.
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Oh fuck. I looked up the source:
Iconic image, indeed. And in the worst possible way.
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Check came in. We’re going to sit on most of it (who knows how things will go for us in the next few months?), but used a third of it to support the local food bank, a support fund for the nursery staff where our kid used to go and Mark Kelly.
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A secret drug against covid 19 is about to be tested in Brazil, says minister, According to Mr. Pontes, the test will last 4 weeks and the drug is 94% efficient against the virus and it seems it doesnt causes side effects.
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Wow, they know how effective it will be before the test!
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He used to be an astronaut (or cosmonaut, as he was taken to the ISS by a russian spaceship), probably it is an off world drug.
Now seriously.
This drug was developed in a national research center and destroyed the virus in laboratory tests.
This is precisely the problem.
Many things can kill the virus in a test tube, but many times they end up not working very well in the human body.
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Well it does. Just not them.
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The new constitution was not directly in response to WWII (as I understand it), but rather to how the way the country was actually governed was not really according to the prior constitution, especially during WWII. In particular with respect to the role of the king. The powers of the king were removed completely in the 1974 version, before he still had some actual political power.
But both WWII and the Soviet invasions of Easter Europe would obviously have been very much in the immediate past, and in the minds of everyone involved in the constitutional process. “It could happen here” was a very real thing. (Especially with respect to the Soviet threat by the 60s, when most of the work was done.) So the constitution was written to make any kind move towards dictatorship as hard as possible. Basically, avoid all sliding toward dictatorship, and make any would be dictator have to openly go against the constitution.
Thus the thing was written leaving out emergency powers since it seemed that there was a greater risk that such powers would be used for evil, rather than their absence would cause a greater danger. That might actually have been true, and is maybe still true.
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The new fake news about coronavirus:soda as a cheap and accessible alternative treatment to chloroquine.
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The way this was handled here in Norway was the legislature gave the PM special extra powers, but limited it to 1 month and added a provision that they could be revoked with a vote of only 1/3 of the legislature.
The measures here have been softer than in many other countries, but quite a bit harsher than Sweden. Most of the countries hereabouts have been looking at Sweden with jaws appropriately dropped, though Sweden is still below Norway and Iceland in per capita cases. (They’ve well raced past us in deaths per capita.) It does seem (from the Oslo news coverage) however that Sweden was following directives of its Health Ministry, so it isn’t clear that it is either a political failing or a structural problem stemming from constitutional guarantees.
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Not that it’ll convince the COVID Truthers.
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And the 39 other Water Displacement formulas.
Good lord. I just thought she was another know nothing Trump talking head, and I come to learn she’s got a fucking JD from a reputable school. I can’t even. I’m surprised she doesn’t demand that people call her Dr. Conway.
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No reputable study has done otherwise…
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TIL what the WD in ‘WD-40’ stands for.
Thanks.
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What…
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