A little afternoon Show & Tell from the RaceDayCT headquarters on this splendid Friday.
So apparently these days you’re not anybody in racing if you don’t have a list of simulation racing wins.
Just want to make sure I get in on the action.
I don’t have any sort of iRacing rig at home. The extent of my experience on iRacing is doing a lot of laughing and crashing during some limited experiences with it in the New Hampshire Motor Speedway infield media center and a various racing shows years ago.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t vouch for being a one-time simulation racing champion. And I hold the hardware to prove it.
Well before there was iRacing there was still the old arcade style connected simulators and NASCAR used to have a hoot of a time setting these up at Cup Series events. During one weekend covering an event at Pocono Raceway in June 2004, yours truly was invited to compete in the Nextel Media Challenge. Let’s just say I was a natural. It wasn’t even a competition.
To this day this sparkling glass trophy, which could also double as a weapon, sits proudly on the trophy shelf at the RaceDayCT headquarters.
For Real Though?
On Wednesday Georgia governor Brian Kemp sounded the alarm bells in his state by announcing that he had been made aware in the previous 24 hours that COVID-19 can be spread by asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
Apparently Kemp has been living in a bunker, since July.
Just wait for his astonishment should anyone on his staff dare tell him soon that world is also not flat.
And to think, this guy is the governor of the state where within its borders lies Atlanta, you know, where the headquarters for the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is located.
iRacing Alert
Don’t forget, Stafford Motor Speedway is back in action live again tonight on YouTube with some iRacing.
After a successful Friday night opener last week, tonight marks the launch of their eSeries.
Ugh
A sobering moment of racing misery this morning. Life for me revolves around iPhone calendar notifications. The one that popped up this morning was just a bummer to see.
At 9 a.m. my good old iPhone decided to tell me that this is Icebreaker Weekend at Thompson Speedway.
If only that could be true.
When Binge Watching Goes Bad
Made a total rookie mistake in recent binge watching protocol.
In the last week I’ve begun four new series’. I’m interested in all of them, but struggling to figure out a proper focus.
In the last seven days or so I’ve begun watching Ozark, season two of Sunderland Til I Die and How To Fix A Drug Scandal on Netflix and Take Us Home Leeds United on Amazon Prime.
I know, two documentaries at once about English soccer teams. I’m just gonna say this, I’m by no means a huge soccer fan. I’ll watch an English Premier League game on a Saturday or Sunday morning, but I’m definitely not immersed in the culture of it all.
But oddly, I can’t get enough of documentaries about soccer teams, especially English soccer teams. Season one of Sunderland Til I Die was amazing. And I fell hard for All Or Nothing: Manchester City on Amazon Prime.
And thanks a lot Netflix for dropping How To Fix A Drug Scandal on Wednesday. Hooked from the first five minutes on. It’s currently dominating the viewing.
Enjoying jumping into Ozark, but I’m taking it slowly. Quite honestly, my viewing habits tend to be swayed to True Crime or “true” anything. Non-fiction drama I sometimes have a hard time getting hooked into hard. But I’m not giving up. Keep the faith DiMaggio, I’ll be there soon.
Binge Watching Rankings
While I struggle through the current selections, let’s take a look on some completed work for today’s binge rankings. For today’s theme we’ll go with True Crime offerings.
Let’s start today with Don’t F**k With Cats on Netflix.
I’ll admit when I first saw this title flash on Netflix, it didn’t catch my interest at all. Figured it must be some odd celebration of domesticated felines.
And then at some point in moment of Netflix desperation for something new I read the description and jumped in.
If you to use one word to describe, creepy would probably best fit the bill. But if you’re a true crime buff, it’s certainly a grabber.
The series follows a group of Facebook watchdogs looking to shine a light on a animal abuser who unwittingly stumble into the middle of the hunt for a psychopathic jet setting internet influencer. Don’t want spoil any of the fun more than that.
Don’t F**k With Cats earns three out of five snacks on our Quaratine Snacks Rankings.
Don’t F**k With Cats
Next up is The Pharmacist on Netflix, which follows the efforts of Dan Schneider, a small town pharmacist near New Orleans, Louisiana.
The series begins by fantastically documenting Schneider’s efforts to find out who killed his son in a drug deal gone bad. And the series documents further how Schneider’s rabid efforts in becoming an amateur investigator of the drug trade around New Orleans ended up with him going into a head battle with a pill mill doctor fueling the Opioid addictions in Louisiana.
It’s a wild and mesmerizing look under a microscope at so many facets of Opioid epidemic in this country, while also following the hugely passionate efforts of one little guy making a huge difference.
The Pharmacist earns four out of five snacks on our Quaratine Snacks Rankings.
The Pharmacist
Next up is Abducted In Plain Sight on Netflix.
You want weird, this is the one for you. The series documents the story of an Idaho teenager who was abducted, twice, by her neighbor in the 1970’s.
The twists and turns of the story are jaw dropping and truly live up to the cliché “stranger than fiction.”
Abducted In Plain Sight earns four out of five snacks on our Quaratine Snacks Rankings.
Abducted In Plain Sight
Stay safe everyone. Keep positive. Help your neighbors if you can. And wash your damn hands.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on April 1: “Individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad, but we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours.”
Who else is he talking about????
We?????!!!?!?? WE????!!?!?!?!? There are more than just this idiot?
According to the NYS Gov. Cuomo daily press briefings that have been going on for several weeks, the Governors were briefed on this a long time ago by Federal authorities. The fact that there are so many UNKNOWN asymptomatic carriers has been one of the confounding factors to stopping the spread, and why we needed a total national lockdown a long time ago.
Lock yourselves down folks. Protect yourselves. Nobody is gonna do it for you.
IRacing has taken off big time, and seems to include all forms of Motorsports. I don’t have the capability to do iracing, I’d be in if I did. I have PlayStation and have been playing Grab Turismo, getting good at it too. It’s something to pass the time. Before this pandemic, it seemed as time was flying by, now the hours creep by. Besides PlayStation, I’ve been watching allot of the Discovery channel, science and Smithsonian channels as well. Smithsonian has a show aerial America, which is somewhat interesting. Otherwise, I try to limit News consumption, only watching a half hour of local news and both Governor’s Cuomo and Baker’s daily updates. Watching Trump just tends to piss me off. Everybody stay safe, strong and sane, we’ve got a long way to go in this fight. And all you hoarders, now that you’ve got your 5000 rolls
(13.7 years at a roll a day) of toilet paper, how about leaving some for the rest of us.
Ozark is right up there with the Saprano’s, Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, and Justified in my view. However if you watch a few episodes of anything and feel no desire to binge then it probably not your cut of tea.
If you can afford it, and will have time once this passes, I suggest you get a pet. My cat Hampton is a godsend, giving us hours of joy and entertainment.
Keep in mind though, that health professionals have not determined wether or not a cat or dog is affected by Covid 19.
Also keep in mind, that you don’t nessesarily need to get a kitten, or puppy to have a fun pet. Older cats and dogs can provide just as much joy and companionship.
The Honorable Gov. Ned Lamont made very solemn press briefing today. CT looks like it won’t see the peak until late May. And then there will be a few months of tapering down after that.
We have months of social distancing to go. Many months. And it will only get more restrictive from here on.
If Trumpty Dumbty had been as concerned about this virus as he is about his great Wall, things might have been different.
We need a national lock down. These handful of states are putting us all at risk. It should be common sense for these governor’s holding out, but isn’t. Nothing short of a national lockdown is going to help in getting beat the curve, as now it is impossible to get ahead of the curve. Our dumbass president continues to let us down, and that’s something we should all get used to as it will never change.
I really hope, that come November, people remember these bleek days and just how uncaring Trump and all his Senate buddies are. People need to vote to drain the swamp in D.C. and beyond of these reptiles who call themselves the Republican party.
New York, New York City to be precise are not getting the federal help they need because…wait for it… The Governor, and Mayor are both Democrats. This is what some news media are claiming. Could it be true? You decide.
This virus is taking a huge psychological toll on people. There are people sitting home worried wether or not they have the virus. People are afraid to leave their homes. Stricken people are unable to say goodbye to their loved ones and vise versa. The effects on first responders and medical staff is tremendous. Nobody in either proffesion feels safe when they clock in. Many are unable to return home to their families after clocking out. At work the shear mayhem takes its toll. No one is imune. The shear number of deaths is overwhelming. Most of all they are forced to watch people die, unable to cure this virus. Some workers have been stricken with the virus, gone through it, healed and returned to work, again knowing they are helpless against this virus. The shortages of PPE and ventilators adds to the stress. And probably most of all, knowing there is absolutely no support on the federal leval weighs heavy on everyone’s mind. They feel they are alone. Now because of the lack of leadership, there are shortages of PPE, and doctors nurses and other workers are dying. Yet for the most part, come shift change they clock back in for another trip to He’ll.
Everyone should be thankful that these workers haven’t said F… It, it’s not worth it, but instead return day after day, fighting on the front lines.
So to all the people out there, putting their lives on the line, trying their best to save ours all I can say is THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Let’s all say a prayer for the people on the front line. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.
I don’t know if the party affiliation has anything to do with the allocation of resources. It’s a fact NY has received thousands of ventilators from the Federal Government as well as other supplies. They’ve gone into the States strategic stockpile to be issued where needed as the number of cases grow. There is a question of having the space for patients to deploy them when and where they are needed.
The Federal Government may or may not be giving NY the help they need but it is giving them help.
For your viewing pleasure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh4uS4f78o&feature=youtu.be
Just watched that Dareal. Wow there are allot of very very STUPID people at Fox News. That one guy who said I hope I get it cause I’ll beat it, man, I really hope he gets it. With media like that, no wonder we can’t get this under control. Unfortunately there are millions of STUPID people who take what they see on Fox News as the word of God, so as long as this misrepresentation goes on, unfortunately more people will get sick, putting us all in jeopardy. All you STUPID people…WAKE UP… This is not a cold, this is not the flu, this is a virus for which there is no cure, that is killing people at an unprecedented rate. Your STUPIDITY puts you and those around you at a high risk.
In a little bit of racing news, Iowa Speedway let go of most of their staff (great timing). They are still operational but the Kansas Speedway will help run the track now. The 2020 schedule is still a full go as of today.
The Trumpster is meeting with all the sports heads today (and Vince McMahon). We should get some news out of that later today.
Watching the Coronavirus Task Force press conference… Listening to Trump give a speech is like watching that kid in school give a verbal book report on a book he didn’t read.
In honor of our mentor and one time sim racing champion how about a review of the race last night?
Staffords sim races are evolving and for the better. Last night was pretty impressive in my book. The new rules eliminating resets has reduced the disappearing cars that are distracting. They still disappear and reappear. Do drivers have the choice to disappear as they are heading toward a wreck? If they do take that away. The race director with the power to boot a driver worked out well too.
The field is gravitating toward the young guns and that’s as it should be. They’re the ones that have grown up with this stuff and know what it’s about. Seeing Narducci and Hodgdon end up racing each other at the front is no accident. It shows how real this racing is. There’s a ton of movement in the field and cars can come from the rear. In the end there was a wreck and if I saw it right Narducci pulled a very real appearing move to the high side as the wreck played out and went on for the win.
Enthusiasm was high with chatter about Stafford doing a series over the winter at some point. Speaking of chatter we could use a gal like Alana Bessette in this forum. Maybe not the best decision maker at times last year but enthusiasm off the charts that can give as well as she gets judging from her social media posts.
You can get a DOF Reality Motion Simulator Platform at Ebay or Amazon for not much over $2000. Doesn’t include computer or monitor but man that rig with all the driver controls plus motion looks like it can give the driver a very real experience.
Preece in action tomorrow looking to continue the success he had last week. A cyber car is not as good as the real thing cracking the top ten but I prefer to think it shows his driving skills quite vividly when the cars are equal.
How does a place like Iowa Speedway survive with 6 events? I hope they have more going on than those six events, I couldn’t find a facility schedule.
Investigations are already being initiated into how the #TrumpPandumbic started so late and bigly wrongly. So Trump has been rather agitated at the recent pressers.
Trump had the perfect call with the heads of the major sports, and Trump is insisting on restarting the economy, even though NYC is projected to peak in the next two weeks, along with other major metropolitan areas across the country spread out over the next several months.
Folks, do you notice that the news just keeps getting worse and worse? I’m talking the factual news, the facts like the COVID-19 statistics. And now we are advised to wear masks.
How many of you still believe Donald J. Trump?
Rob P. – Exactly! Thanks to anyone in the medical field, first responders and essential workers.
I’m in telecom and we’re absolutely essential. All of you need current information, and we’re doing our best to keep your access to it seamless. We’re modifying processes on a daily basis based on current info and doing our best to make sure your internet, mobile, and cable / IP / satellite TV service is as good as it’s ever been. We’re not packing it in or running and hiding.
Thank and respect your grocery and restaurant workers for being there for you!
Has anyone checked on Earl lately?
“With media like that, no wonder we can’t get this under control. Unfortunately there are millions of STUPID people who take what they see on Fox News as the word of God, so as long as this misrepresentation goes on, ”
Remember when news wasn’t only what you agreed with?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine
Trump likes to make like nobody ever thought something like this pandemic could ever happen. Even though he regularly talks about the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic 😷. His grandfather died of the Spanish Flu.
Watch this: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/george-w-bush-2005-wait-pandemic-appear-too-080830555–abc-news-topstories.html
And add NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to the list of idiots that just learned that the virus 🦠 is asymptomatically transmissible.
Given that people are still hoarding toilet paper, it appears that is the most important factor at this time. But to expand on what Barry said, there are more, plenty more.
Electricity. Try to intentionally not use it for a couple hours. Well, there are plenty of people working at the power stations and on the distribution network. Same for natural gas.
Water. You still think that faucet is like magic, eh? Go ahead, don’t flush your toilets for a few days, see how that goes. Yep, plenty of people bring that wonderful water to you.
Communication systems. Cell phone, landline, cable, satellite services, etc. Unplug it all, see how long you can go without it.
Antenna TV: Yes, it still exists, and is going strong. Brought to you by people.
Delivery Services. USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc. Brought to you by people, people, and more people.
Convenience stores are still open. Crucial. People.
Gasoline and diesel fuel. Yep, all those oil fields, refineries, oil depots and the distribution network, out to the point-of-sale stations. All those people.
Things you take for granted are the essentials. All of that brought to you by people.
Instead of treating these people like they are there to serve you, show some appreciation.
Instead of thinking all about yourself, think about what you can do for someone else. And then do it when safe to do so. It might make you feel good.
DaReal you aren’t talking the factual news as you say because NOBODY has the factual stats. Of course we are going to keep getting higher numbers as the tests become more available and the number of people taking the test gets higher. The actual number may have been much higher much earlier on and we never knew it because people weren’t being tested or because there were no tests. The cities that have it bad have it bad for sure. That is non debatable.
Making this a political issue which you and everyone else(including Washington) are doing just shows how broken our country is.
Barry, calling half the American people stupid because they don’t agree with your position is childish. I take it CNN is the word of God?
JD, I think the point trying to be expressed by Barry is that for quite a few weeks many of the personalities and guests on Fox News have been telling viewers not to worry about COVID-19. That is fact. We all know 24-hour cable news channels all have an agenda, we know CNN leans left, we know MSNBC leans hard left. And yeah, there’s certainly a lot of people on one side that might think CNN and MSNBC were in a full panic mode pretty early. But I’d certainly take undue panic any day over people telling viewers a deadly virus is nothing they should really worry about. I think if you read what’s below you’d be hard pressed to say Fox News wasn’t downplaying concerns to an extreme.
Pete Hegseth, Fox News, March 8: “This is one of the cases where the more I learn about Coronavirus the less concerned I am. There’s a lot hyperbole.”
Tomi Lahren, Fox News, March 10: “The sky is falling because we have a few dozen case of Coronavirus on a cruise ship? I am far more concerned with stepping on a used heroin needle than I am getting the Coronavirus, but maybe that’s just me.”
Jeannine Pirro, Fox News, March 7: “It’s a virus, just like the flu. All the talk about Coronavirus being so much more deadly doesn’t reflect reality.”
Geraldo Rivera, Fox News, February 28: “The far more deadly more lethal threat right now is not the Coronavirus, it’s the ordinary old flu.”
Jesse Waters, Fox News, March 3: “You want to know how I really feel about the Coronavirus? If I get it, I’ll beat it. … I’m not afraid of the Coronavirus and no one else should be that afraid either.”
Matt Schlap, Fox News, March 11: “It is very very difficult to contract this virus.”
Dr. Drew Pinsky on Fox News, March 2: “It’s milder than we thought. The fatality rate is going to drop.”
US Rep. Devin Nunes on Fox News, March 15: “If you’re healthy – you and your family – it’s a great time to just go out and go to a local restaurant. Likely you can get in very easily.”
Director of the US Economic Council Larry Kudlow, Fox News, Feb. 25: “We have contained this. We have contained this, I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.”
White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, Fox News, March 6: “It is being contained. Do you not think it’s being contained?”
Sean Hannity, Fox News, Feb. 27: “They’re now sadly politicizing and actually weaponizing an infectious disease. In what is basically just the latest effort to bludgeon President Trump they’re scaring the living hell out of people and I see it again as like ‘Let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.’”
Sean Hannity, Fox News, March 18: “By the way, this program has always taken the Coronavirus seriously. We’ve never called the virus a hoax.”
JD wrote, “DaReal you aren’t talking the factual news as you say because NOBODY has the factual stats. ”
Do you deny that humans landed on the moon? Do you deny the Sandy Hook/Adam Lanza massacre? Do you deny the Katrina hurricane disaster? Do you deny that there are manmade rovers on Mars? Do you think Elvis is still alive?
Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot does that even mean, “… NOBODY has the factual stats.”? Are you truly trying to opine that it is impossible to know the facts and therefore this can never be discussed from a fact based position?
Here’s some facts: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Conclusion from those facts: The Trump Administration management of this pandemic is a total abomination. And we’re just getting started.
Are you denying the CDC websites that are publishing data, data that is factual?
So when the facts are all stacked against a certain political party, you think you can declare there are no facts and it is a political condition?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
We know facts, we know statistics. The statistics and facts are being published daily, updated throughout the day. Might not be all of them, there certainly could be more, it would certainly be better if there were more, much more facts and data, but whatever it is is FAR better than no facts. And whatever facts there are are certainly pointing to ample idiocy. And coincidentally, they are almost all from the same political party.
I’m not politicizing at all. I’m having a blast dragging idiots through the coals. Trump, de Blasio, Earl, Kemp, McCarthy, the Governors from the nine states that refuse to impose a lockdown, and so on. That just about all of them are REPUBLICANS does not make it political. It is a fact that these people are behaving like idiots, and almost all of them are from the same political party.
Watch this again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh4uS4f78o&feature=youtu.be
Are these people presenting facts?
I get it it’s sim racing but as far as I’m concerned the race today proved how good Preece is. In the heat he was smooth as glass nearly winning it at the end. Don’t know what happened at the start of the feature hitting the wall but he rallied back nicely.
Nascar may have something here. We’ll see what the viewership numbers are but sponsors are coming on board for these races. There’s an entertainment vacuum and Nascar may have a unique monopoly. They need to do a few things like eliminate resets and convince some of the drivers to take it seriously and announcers it’s real competition. They need to create a world where this is perceived as real and the announcers need to stop comparing it to “the real thing”. It is real, there are skills involved and since it’s what we have now treat it like people are watching because they are.
Keep it short track. A lot of energy and conflict we don’t see in “the real thing” and if they manage it property it could be better then “the real thing” bringing the racing back to grudges and personalities.. Bubba Wallace did a great 12 minutes on Youtube that exposed him uniquely as a tremendous personality.. Very entertaining. It’s not “the real thing” but it’s entertainment product that has it;s own strengths and value.
FDR 83% soon after Pearl Harbor, Truman 87% soon after nuclear bomb attack and Japans surrender, Kennedy 83% soon after Cuban Missile Crises, GHW Bush 89% soon after attacking Iraq in Kuwait, GW Bush 90% soon after 9/11 and Obama 67% after taking office in economic crises.
People rally around the president in a crises and they rallied to Trump raising his approval number to around 50%. Then it eroded. Rasmussen the bastion of Republicans went down to 44%. I can only conclude that given the fact the polling never reached other presidents in a crises and it started to go down on the whole the public is not happy with his performance so far.
To be kind most would agree Trumps skill set was never designed to handle any crises and this one is about as big as they get. My view he has about as much chance of winning the election in November as Hoover had of beating Roosevelt in 1932. There is of course the hope that turnout will crash based on fear as Republicans block measures to loosen write in ballots. Otherwise I can see no way Trump wins.
On the other hand I’m not wild about a 77 year old Biden either. To bad we can’t have a reset to get a Republican like Charlie Baker and Democrat like Cuomo. Younger, more vital and capable of dealing with the challenge ahead. But we can’t so Biden’s VP pick will be critical.
Argue about politics, Trump and all the rest. We need to look to a post Trump world. One that will not be pleasant at all from pretty much any perspective but leadership will be critical. One where Biden can bring in a lot of the best and brightest many of which Trump fired including those with military background.
The people on the front lines are managing the crises they are dealing with now and there are some glimmers of hope on a number of fronts. The smartest thinkers not burdened by critical responsibilities are thinking about later this year and 2021 and what will be needed then. Those people and what they do hold the key to our future.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Post Trump world…
Pay attention. See all the plum assignments Jared Kushner is getting? Trump will win in November. The Trump machine will grind any opponent to a slurry. The lemmings will believe anything Trump says.
Trump knows how to work the media, he gets the views, he gets the mindshares. People do not pay attention to content, just that he’s constantly in the news. Trump convinces people daily that the acres of cow 💩 at a dairy farm does not stink. So Trump will win again and that is when Jared Kushner will be packaged and sold for 2024.
As long as Trump is in office, he can not be prosecuted. He needs to win again. And then with Jared in office, Trump will also be protected.
Here’s another idiot Governor, this is from The Washington Post,
But those precautions were abruptly scrapped on Thursday, when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) enraged local leaders by reopening all the state’s beaches
“As the Pentagon ordered 100,000 body bags to store the corpses of Americans killed by the Coronavirus, Governor Brian Kemp dictated that Georgia beaches must reopen, and declared any decision makers who refused to follow these orders would face prison and/or fines,” Tybee Island Mayor Shirley Sessions wrote in a furious denunciation on Saturday, referencing a request that the Federal Emergency Management Agency made last week to the Defense Department. “The health of our residents, staff and visitors are being put at risk and we will pursue legal avenues to overturn his reckless mandate.”
The CDC is posting factual evidence of those tested. I don’t deny that but how many sick people are out there who haven’t been tested Nobody knows. How many people had it a month or two ago and never knew it and are now immune. Nobody knows. How many people did they spread it too. Nobody knows. The stats are only reflective of those who have tested.
I read an interesting article this weekend. President Bush had become obsessed with pandemics back in 2005. He had been putting a plan in place. Unfortunately, the administrations following his failed to keep up with it.
The GA Governor really should be unemployed today.
Some great reading about Remington & Governor Cuomo.
Gun manufacturer Remington recently offered the state of New York use of their facilities to help with crucially needed medical supplies for healthcare workers on the frontlines battling the Wuhan coronavirus. The state government has yet to accept Remington’s offer.
New York, and New York City in particular, has been hit hard by COVID-19. As of Thursday, the city has 47,439 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,374 deaths. Since New York has been an early hotspot, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has highlighted the state’s need for personal protective equipment and medical equipment, such as ventilators.
Cuomo, a strong proponent of gun control, said on March 26 the state has enough PPE for the foreseeable future, but as reports indicate, some hospitals are still experiencing critical shortages.
In a video posted on March 23, Ken D’Arcy, the CEO of Remington, said he wrote a letter to President Trump and Cuomo to say the company is willing to help with production and distribution of PPE and ventilators. The company has a plant in Ilion, totaling 1 million square feet, that is now freed up since they have been designated as a non-essential business.
“Remington products have served in every U.S. military conflict for 200 years. And while the coronavirus is a new type of war, we’re not sitting this one out…We’re standing by ready, willing, and able to support in any way we possibly can. It would be an honor for our company to donate space for the manufacture of mission-critical products, such as ventilators, hospital beds, or anything else deemed necessary,” D’Arcy said.
Eric Suarez, communications and media manager for Remington, told Townhall on Friday that to his knowledge, the state still has not accepted Remington’s offer to help.
New York’s Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Cuomo tweeted again on Friday about the state’s need for supplies and said, “If you can manufacture PPE I implore you to do so. NYS will pay a premium.”
First, we have Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has highlighted the state’s need for personal protective equipment and medical equipment, such as ventilators.
Then we have Cuomo, a strong proponent of gun control, said on March 26 the state has enough PPE for the foreseeable future, but as reports indicate, some hospitals are still experiencing critical shortages.
And finally, we have Cuomo tweeted again on Friday about the state’s need for supplies and said, “If you can manufacture PPE I implore you to do so. NYS will pay a premium.”
So, do you need PPE or have enough PPE, which is it? Or is it because it is Remington making the offer?
Maybe you should not let your ego and agenda on gun control get in the way of doing what is in the best interest of the safety of the citizens in your State.
Thanks to Remington for the offer and I hope for the safety of the citizens and life saving ability of the ventilators someone comes to their senses and takes Remington up on their offer.
JD, Obama continued that pandemic plan that GW Bush started. Actually, Obama did so much more with it that he was thought to have started it. Then Trump annihilated it.
JD, you mentioned earlier that grocery store employees weren’t dying… consider this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/06/supermarket-workers-deaths-coronavirus-/?utm_campaign=wp_to_your_health&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_tyh&wpmk=1
Here’s the article Earl was talking about:
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2020/03/24/remington-arms-plant-may-switch-guns-coronavirus-supplies-ny/2913736001/
Earl,
I think there’s been some interestingly vague reporting from certain outlets on this topic.
Yes Remington Arms offered their “space” as a manufacturing area for ventilators.
The key word being “space”. Many have twisted this into Remington Arms offered to make ventilators and Cuomo hasn’t responded. No, not true at all. But there are some in the media that are twisting this into a story of “Liberal Politician Ignores Gun Manufacturer’s Offer Of Help” which it’s not anything of the sort.
Remington Arms isn’t going to make ventilators. Remington Arms doesn’t have the means, machinery or trained personnel to make ventilators. They offered their space. The business of “building ventilators” is not something you just reformat a gun manufacturing plant into in a week or even a month. There are thousands of buildings that Cuomo – or many other governors – could find to make ventilators, but if you don’t have what you need to manufacture them then it’s just open space. Just because I buy an empty warehouse tomorrow doesn’t mean I can be building cars in it next month. It’s not a feasible answer within the time constraints of demand.
Earl, a ventilator is life critical equipment. In reality, only the companies that have been manufacturing them for years and years should be making them under these dire circumstances. Trump should have directed the companies with the DPA about three months ago. Instead, companies that have no experience with ventilators are jumping in trying to make life saving ventilators. The ventilators are needed NOW, not in 3, 4, 5 or more months as these new suppliers are expected to start delivering. The ventilators would be here now if Trump did his damn job some three months ago. Cuomo has deployed thousands and thousands of ventilators, and per a recent presser, only has a few hundred left in stores waiting for the pending hot spots to get worse and pull demand. If predictions are accurate, the demand for ventilators is growing quickly will outstrip supply.
JD wrote, “The CDC is posting factual evidence of those tested. I don’t deny that but how many sick people are out there who haven’t been tested Nobody knows. How many people had it a month or two ago and never knew it and are now immune. Nobody knows. How many people did they spread it too. Nobody knows. The stats are only reflective of those who have tested.”
It is well known and accepted that there are many more people infected people out there that have never been tested. So what? Many will get it and self recover.
Many people might have had it a month or two ago and MIGHT now have some level of immunity. This is not completely accepted by the medical community. The scientists are drawing blood from those that have been infected and recovered to see if these recovered people are immune.
And for sure they spread it to many others while they were contagious. 😷 That is the big problem with this virus in that a person is contagious long before symptoms ever show.
Indeed the stats are only reflective of those that have been tested. doh. So what does that mean? Well, for one, it shows that Trump was full of 💩. He has said from early on, when he finally realized he can not deny the pandemic, that there will be all the tests you can eat, everyone that wants a test can get a test.
YOU GET A TEST! YOU GET A TEST! YOU GET A TEST! YOU GET A TEST! YOU GET A TEST!
That is far from the truth. We have tested very few people. And that is even worse when you realize what a great, advanced country we are supposed to be. We aren’t showing that right now at all.
When you realize that indeed we have only tested very little of the American population, it shows how we are an abomination. So many other countries are doing a far better job at testing and protecting the population than we are. And that shows that the Trump Administration is the TrumpPandemic. Trump is the pathos.
Trump operates by obfuscation. He can’t do that here, he can’t control what is going on all around the world. He can’t hide that huge, rapidly growing pile of bodies.
It is stunning that Trump keeps talking it up that he’s gonna unlock the country while the pandemic is raging and accelerating. This president is truly a narcissistic megalomaniac.
How about some non finger pointing glimmers of hope?
Washington Post 4/5/20
“Ford said it aims to produce 1,500 ventilators by the end of the month. GM, which brought its first group of 100 project workers into training this week, said it will start producing 10,000 units per month by as early as mid-May.
Scrambling to get production underway, the workers took apart a ventilator and 3-D scanned each of the roughly 300 parts, creating computer simulations of how the device could be assembled efficiently. Ford, which has partnered with a ventilator-maker and GE Healthcare, has been rushing to train workers and obtain the parts to have its first prototype ready early next week.”
USA Today 4/5
“Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Sunday that the Pentagon will deploy more than 1,100 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to New York City to help combat the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 9,000 Americans. ”
USA Today 4/6
“New York is getting 1,000 lifesaving ventilators from China to aid in its battle against the new coronavirus threatening to overwhelm New York City hospitals, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.
Another 500 of the breathing machines will be moved from upstate New York to downstate hospitals being hit hardest by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Cuomo said during a press briefing.
The state of Oregon is also sending 140 ventilators to New York where thousands of new COVID-19 infections are confirmed daily.”
Newsweek 4/3
” A potential vaccine for the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 appears to kickstart the immune system of mice.
The PittCoVacc, a patch the size of a fingerprint covered in 400 tiny needles, triggered the creation of antibodies against the new coronavirus in mice, according to the authors of the paper published in the journal EBioMedicine. The antibodies were created “as early as 2 weeks after immunization,” the team based at the University of Pittsburgh wrote.”
Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gotleb on Face the Nation 4/5
“Mitigation’s clearly working. We’re seeing cases slow in the Northeast and the northern states.
I think the New York City health system is going to be brought right to the brink, but they’re not going to go over.”
:” Well, the massive surveillance system that we need to detect infection quickly, we’re going to have- we’re hopefully going to have in place. We should have that in place. We’ll have the tools to do that. So we’ll be able to identify cases when there are small outbreaks in the fall and use case-based interventions, basically isolating people with the infection and their close contacts.”
“. There are about four or five drugs that I would say are in advanced stages of development that could be available by this summer. We need to place significant bets on each of those drugs and try to pull them through more quickly. This is a time for placing bets. This is a time for an industrial approach to this.”
Reuters 3/30
” The U.S. government has cut deals with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc and said it is in talks with at least two other companies to prepare them to produce massive quantities of coronavirus vaccines even before safe and effective ones become available.”
Bezinga 4/3
“The second phase of the clinical trials of the novel coronavirus vaccine of Moderna Inc. could begin in spring, the biotechnology company’s chairman Noubar Afeyan told CNBC on Thursday.”
Popular Mechanics 4/3
“A promising development has come from the University of Pittsburgh, where researchers at the school’s medical center (UPMC) might have developed a vaccine (PittCoVacc) against COVID-19. According to a news release, the team who worked on the vaccine development “were able to act quickly because they had already laid the groundwork during earlier coronavirus epidemics”—including the SARS and MERS outbreaks in 2003 and 2014, respectively.”
YAHOO FINANCE 4/6
“Microsoft (MSFT) founder and philanthropic billionaire Bill Gates is spending billions of dollars on seven possible vaccines for the coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, in hopes of finding an end to the pandemic.”
“Our early money can accelerate things,” Gates told The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. “Of all the vaccine constructs, the seven most promising of those, even though we’ll end up picking at most two of them, we’re going to fund factories for all seven, and just so that we don’t waste time in serially saying, ‘Okay, which vaccine works?’ And then building the factory.”
Gonna take a flier here. I’m willing to bet what Gate’s does has far more impact on our well being then any cable tv or talk radio pundit bending facts to feed a base and sell commercials.
Doug, what in God’s name are you doing trying to post anything positive on this thread and induce a glimmer of hope to a world of humans that have been beaten down? You better be prepared to be taken to the wood shed by the band of jackals for this!
A jackal is as a jackal does.
The Remington story was a nice local story. Kind of a nothing muffin. With Ford, GM, Tesla and others well into ramping up production an empty factory space was never a thing. Cuomo never considered it as a thing because he needs stuff now, not in six months. To his credit and with help from all over including the much maligned Federal Government he’s getting the stuff and help he needs.
What happened with that nice little local story was it was picked up and filtered through right wing talk media that attached the anti gun, anti Cuomo theme to it and they have been using it as a bit from Breitbart to talk shows all across the country. Then it ended up parroted here.
I was grateful Mr. Courchesne put it in the proper context.
Very informative:
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/intelligence-report-warned-coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources-080111894–abc-news-topstories.html
Doug, and Dareal, you both bring up food factual points. Positive news is always a welcome sight these days, as is the truth
How about Bill Gates spending billions trying to come up with a viable vaccine, knowing he’ll lose billions in the process.
Dareal, to your points in testing. From day 1, in this case early March, Trump has said anyone who wants a test can get one, total lie, even now a month and half later, only first responders can get openly tested, unless you have accute symptoms. We still don’t know if once over the virus, wether or not your imune.
Now Trump is blaming the WHO, and is trying to cut financial aid to them. He just can’t admit he screwed up and get past it. What does Jim Comey have to do with this virus, nothing yet Trump keeps bringing him up.
Governor Cuomo is doing a excellent job leading in New York, governor Baker the same in Massachusetts. Ned Lamont is getting caught up in Connecticut. The State legislatures in most states will ultimately be the ones who help beat this as the federal government continues to pull their pudds. Has anyone received their stimulus money? Do you think we will? Or is the government gonna keep jerking us around. McConnell threw a temper tantrum and adjourned the Senate till Monday after a few Democrat senators wanted to revise and add to the 250 billion he requested for small businesses. This is not the B.S. we need in these desperate times, but Mitch will be Mitch, and act like a 3 year old when he doesn’t get his way. Remember all of the Republican B.S. that’s gone on sinse this started, come November, even though some of you will be stupid enough to vote for Trump again, despite how bad he’s screwed this all up.
I hope everyone is safe, strong and sane, hang in there and stay home please.
Trump holds daily campaign TV rallies, and sometimes discusses the pandemic.
Well, the major networks won’t broadcast his daily campaign rallies anymore.
CDC Estimates of 2009 H1N1 Influenza Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths in the United States
During the pandemic, CDC provided estimates of the numbers of 2009 H1N1 cases, hospitalizations and deaths on seven different occasions. Final estimates were published in 2011. These final estimates were that from April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010 approximately 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (8868-18,306) occurred in the United States due to pH1N1.
Earl, I’m curious. What’s the point of your post about H1N1?
Good data Earl. Now, officials are saying that the numbers related to Covid 19 may be significantly higher due to misdiagnosed cases of pneumonia as far back as December 2019.
I’ve tried to tune out. I can’t stand to sit here and watch Trump lie, and boast about how great he is ECT… I get some information from the local news, and try to catch both Governor’s Baker and Cuomo’s daily briefings.
The Democratic governor of Kansas issued a “stay at home” order. The Republican led legislature overturned it. What is wrong with these Republicans? All over the country Republican lawmakers refuse to take this virus seriously. Look at what happened in Wisconsin Tuesday. These Republicans have blood on their hands. Why are they so Stupid?
Rob p., COVID-19 hospitalizations are down in NYC, but DOA’s are soaring. The EMT’s have picked up thousands of DOA’s lately, several times more than historical data shows. These DOA’s are NOT counted towards the COVID-19 death tally. Only previously diagnosed living people that then die are counted as COVID-19 deaths. The actual death total for COVID-19 is higher, way higher. I hope this statistical anomaly gets fixed. We can’t test fast enough. We have tested only about 0.5% of the population. Trump wants to stop testing.
And Texas suddenly has 5x more pneumonia cases now and very little COVID-19. The Texas Governor is a buddy with Trump.
It’s perfectly obvious what’s going on in our little world. Of the most active people commenting some are Trump supporters and some Trump haters. The battle ground is the RaceDayCt forum and the weapons news blurbs from the spectrum of news media sources. Across all of media we want the theme to be public health and well being but it’s being over ridden and/or used as weapons motivated by pure partisanship. RaceDayCt is a microcosm of the larger battle.
One of the ways the Trump supporters are defending Trump is by using Obama’s response to the H1N1 pandemic. It’s all over right wing media like this article.
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/03/01/in-april-2009-h1n1-became-a-pandemic-six-months-later-after-1000-u.s.-deaths-obama-declared-it-a-public-health-emergency
The logic being that Trumps response was more timely and forceful so he’s better and should be re elected. It’s got a lot of holes but we’re in a info war so it’s fair game.
I like to think I can see the other side even if I don’t agree with it. There is an argument from rural red States that they don’t have the infection rates of more densely populated States so why should their economies be crushed with the rest of the country. I can see that. They’re spread out with natural social distancing built in. I don’t agree they can escape the damage in the longer term but understand why they would think they are different in the shorter term.
I can see why if you are young why you may not be as sympathetic to the plight of older, less fit people. The key being old, have a short shelf life anyway so that’s the way the cookie crumbles. If they are in a nursing home or are shuttling from specialist to specialist to stay breathing with a crummy quality of life how big of a loss is it. They may feel we geezers are sucking the life out of Social Security and Medicare they pay for while having zero chance of getting the same benefits. If there are fewer of us then maybe the programs last longer. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
Perhaps some may remember an original Star Trek episode where two guys have black and white faces the only difference being the black and white being on the opposite side of each face. Arguing about how different each is while a war rages and people die. It’s really cynical but I kind of think that’s where we are now.
I do what I can but accept the political war will rage on no matter how many people die or how bad the economy is affected. We like to think we’re all in it together but we aren’t. There is no way ardent Trump supporters in rural anywhere from New Hampshire to Oklahoma are going to genuinely empathetic with the plight of those dying in large numbers in poor and densely populated areas that are for the most part not Trump supporters.
So the battle of news blurbs will continue.