Texas progressives: Coronavirus, week 5

As with the previous four weeks, this corner of the Texas Progressives is splitting the weekly Roundup of news and opinion into two parts. This is the coronavirus half. The usual interesting stuff will come later in the week.

And for April 7 week, here. Ditto for Week 6. Here's Week 7, and Week 8.

Sadly, the "interesting" part on coronavirus news is that CONFIRMED deaths in the U.S. passed 20,000 last week. Worldometer is again a great resource link. Globally, throwing out city-state sized places, Spain leads the world in cases per capita and is narrowly ahead of Italy now in deaths per capita. The US per-capita death rate is 20 percent higher than the Iran that wingnuts love to mock.


Texas

It may not be quite as bad as Florida, but the Texas Workforce Commission's current situation on unemployment filing also sucks.

Special education students, and their parents, are being especially hit by school closures.

Rural counties are likely facing more cases than limited data shows or than Gov. Strangeabbott and Death Panels Danny Goeb would like to admit.

Get your art fix online. The Observer has the details.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson are squaring off more and more on coronavirus issues, with John Wiley Price, frustrated that Jenkins has long ceased to be his puppet, pouring fuel on the flames when he can.  Jim Schutze weighs in with a piece on Johnson's general cluelessness.

The Texas Signal worries about the rise of anti-Asian racism.

The Lunch Tray deconstructs stress eating and "anxiety baking".

Jose Benavides documents how he got tested for coronavirus.


National

The virus, with fatalities, is already hitting rural areas. And not just chic ski resort rural areas. The NYT has the details.

Contra one hope held previously by some scientists, but pushed by wingnuts, it appears like that that COVID is unlike seasonal flu in another way: It appears UNlikely to substantially weaken in warm weather. That's the National Academy of Sciences weighing in.

Kelsey Atherton writes about how the Trump Administration's dysfunctional response brings us closer to the cyberpunk world of movies and stories like "Blade Runner," and how this could become a vicious circle.

National Review, in the wake of the Wisconsin debacle, supports nationwide no-restrictions voting by mail.

Fauci, trying not to be or look like too much of a Trump toady, has been making the rounds of the news channels. In a livestreamed interview, he said that he thinks we ought to permanently get away from hand-shaking, even post-COVID. That said, though speaking on his own, and though noting a number of problems in the government that may have exacerbated its spread, he refused to use the word T-R-U-M-P.

Parts of rural Virginia are turning on Trump.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has long played up his Trumpian ties and background connections. Now, it appears that, because of his Trumpian-like response to coronavirus, his popularity is caving, just as Trump's is stagnant at best, contra normal crisis politics and rallying around the president.

We don't need legends of Rousselian noble savage American Indians (or any other New Agey shit) possibly undercutting coronavirus treatment.

With Trump-Kushner grifting, to riff on Eisenhower, is it too early to talk about the coronavirus-industrial complex?

Much of Georgia has been a black hole of COVID stats. The AJC has the details.


Global

Ugly Chinese nationalism now includes attacking Taiwan, complete with Chinese Twitterbots.

It started in Belgium and has, sadly, gone "viral": the totally false bullshit that 5G wireless caused this. Shock me that RFK Jr. is peddling this.