Good morning. DOJ makes his move on commie governors..

The Trump administration on Friday weighed in on a lawsuit brought against Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s coronavirus stay-at-home orders, with a rare federal court filing in support of the legal challenge he faces over his emergency powers.

The U.S. Justice Department’s filing in Illinois marked another escalation by the administration in confronting state governors it sees as going too far with restrictions meant to quell the coronavirus pandemic.

The Justice Department asserted that Pritzker, a Democrat, acted improperly when he removed the case in question from state court, where it was filed by Republican state Representative Darren Bailey, to a federal court.

A similar lawsuit filed in state court by Republican legislators against Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and his top public health officer led to a state Supreme Court ruling last week invalidating stay-at-home orders there.

The Justice Department said it was intervening under an edict issued by Attorney General William Barr in late April directing his civil rights division to review the legitimacy of state and local government policies related to the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department sent a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, saying his lockdown orders discriminated against religious freedom by prohibiting indoor services while allowing some workplaces, including film studios, to reopen

A similar letter on Friday to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer questioned whether their local restrictions “may be an arbitrary and heavy-handed approach” to stay-at-home requirements.

Both letters and the Illinois federal court filing were signed by Eric Dreiband, assistant U.S. attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

Pritzker’s lockdown order, like California’s, bars indoor gatherings at places of worship, but has already survived federal court challenges brought on religious grounds.

And in removing Bailey’s lawsuit from state court, Pritzker asserted his case also belonged in federal court because Bailey was alleging a violation of rights under the U.S. Constitution.

May 22, 2020 / 6:14 PM / Updated 7 hours ago

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-illinois/u-s-justice-department-backs-lawsuit-challenging-illinois-coronavirus-restrictions-idUSKBN22Y2ZH

The Remdesivir Study Is Finally Out: Drug Only Helped Those On Oxygen, Finds Mortality Too High For Standalone Treatment

Remember when the market soared on several days in April on the Facui-touted Remdesivir study which, according to StatNews and various other unofficial sources of rumors, was a smashing success only for the optimism to fizzle as many questions emerged, and as the Gilead drug quietly faded from the public's consciousness and was replaced by various coronavirus vaccine candidates such as those made by the greatly hyped Moderna (whose insiders just can't stop selling company stock).

Meanwhile, those who were waiting for the official version of Remdesivir's effectiveness had to do so until 6pm on a Friday before a long holiday, and for good reason…

… According to a pivotal study published in the New England Journal of Medicine late on Friday, Remdesivir, which was authorized to treat Covid-19 in a group of 1063 adults and children (split into two groups, one receiving placebo instead of remdesivir) who need i) supplemental oxygen, ii) a ventilator or iii) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), only significantly helped those on supplemental oxygen.

Meanwhile, and explaining the 6pm release on a Friday, the study also found no marked benefit from remdesivir for those who were healthier and didn’t need oxygen or those who were sicker, requiring a ventilator or a heart-lung bypass machine.

The NEJM, almost apologetically, stated that "the lack of benefit seen in the other groups might have stemmed from a smaller number of patients in each group."

Still, as a result of the partial benefit for patients in the supplemental oxygen group, the study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was evaluated early and led to the authorization of remdesivir before the full trial was completed.

Some more details on the study, which was a "rank test of the time to recovery with remdesivir as compared with placebo, with stratification by disease severity":

The primary outcome measure was the time to recovery, defined as the first day, during the 28 days after enrollment, on which a patient satisfied categories 1, 2, or 3 on the eight-category ordinal scale. The categories are as follows:

not hospitalized, no limitations of activities;

not hospitalized, limitation of activities, home oxygen requirement, or both;

hospitalized, not requiring supplemental oxygen and no longer requiring ongoing medical care (used if hospitalization was extended for infection-control reasons);

hospitalized, not requiring supplemental oxygen but requiring ongoing medical care (Covid-19–related or other medical conditions);

5, hospitalized, requiring any supplemental oxygen;

hospitalized, requiring noninvasive ventilation or use of high-flow oxygen devices;

hospitalized, receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); and

death.

The results are summarized below, highlighting the only group that showed a statistically significant improvement in outcomes as a result of taking the drug vs placebo.

The study found that overall "mortality was numerically lower in the remdesivir group than in the placebo group, but the difference was not significant", in other words the alleged "miracle drug" has largely the same effect as a placebo in terms of overall disease mortality.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/remdesivir-study-finally-out-drug-only-helped-those-oxygen-finds-mortality-too-high

Michigan Gov Extends 'Stay At Home' Order 2 Weeks

Update (1800ET): Get ready for another round of "reopen now" protests in Lansing.

Roughly 24 hours after announcing a relaxation of the state's stay at home order to permit appointment-only shopping and gatherings of under 10 people, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended the state's stay at home order for another two weeks, giving the stock market something to panic about when it reopens on Tuesday.

Many had expected Whitmer to extend the order, albeit with fewer restrictions. During a press briefing, she insisted that while the data are moving in the right direction, "We are not out of the woods yet." The order, which was set to expire on May 28, will instead expire on June 12.

Notably, Whitmer is making this decision - which will lead to more economic devastation and destroyed livelihoods in a critical midwestern swing state that President Trump narrowly won in 2016 - one day after President Trump, who has repeatedly lambasted the governor on twitter, paid a visit to a Ford Factory in the state, where he again refused to wear a mask (something he insists would be "un-presidential"), arousing the anger of the state's attorney general.

The order has been partially relaxed in the northern part of the state, and manufacturing has also been allowed to resume on a limited basis.

Here's more from the Detroit Free Press:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday extended her stay-at-home order past its scheduled May 28 expiration to June 12, adding that public venues such as theaters, gyms and casinos would remain closed.

She said while coronavirus cases and deaths are clearly declining, "we are not out of the woods yet."

"If we’re going to lower the chance of a second wave and continue to protect our neighbors and loved ones from the spread of this virus, we must continue to do our part by staying safer at home," she said in a statement first reported by the Free Press.

Whitmer's announcement comes a day after she made several changes to further relax a sweeping stay-at-home order that has been in place since March, allowing social gatherings of 10 people or less immediately and telling retail businesses that sell goods they can reopen to customers for appointment-only shopping Tuesday.

That change also allows for nonemergency dental and doctor services to resume next Friday and Whitmer said Thursday that she would continue to relax the order as warranted by the data. She had previously allowed some retail businesses, such as garden stores and bicycle repair shops to reopen, and at 12:01 a.m. Friday, bars, restaurants and other businesses and offices on the Upper Peninsula and in northern Michigan around Traverse City, could open to customers, provided they limited their customers, made sure people stayed 6 feet apart and required masks.

Manufacturing and construction have resumed as well, under strict regulations. But many parts of Whitmer's rules — which have been challenged in court and led to protests at the state Capitol — continue to disrupt the lives of Michiganders.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/india-reports-startling-jump-cases-lockdown-eases-russa-suffers-record-covid-19-deaths

>>9285868

Both @ 6:59? Am I reading this right? Great decode btw anon.

Here they come: 17-year cicadas to emerge in 3 states this spring, summer

This year’s emergence is classified as Brood IX and the largest quantity of the insects is expected across parts of northwestern North Carolina, southwestern Virginia and southeastern West Virginia.

Despite the cold weather, some residents in North Carolina commented on the website, CicadaMania, that they began to hear some cicadas during the week of May 11-17.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/17-year-cicadas-to-emerge-this-spring-summer/740722

This will be biblical or coinkidink? 2020 and 2024. Fits together like a puzzle piece.

The 2020 Periodical Cicada Emergence

Periodical cicadas are unique in that all (or nearly all) members of the population emerge in one year and then are absent in the intervening years.

17-year periodical cicada Brood IX will emerge in 2020. 13-year periodical cicada Brood XIX will emerge in 2024, but significant numbers appear to be emerging this year, 4 years early.

Brood IX has not been thoroughly mapped, and the phenomenon of early emergences in 13-year cicadas is not well understood. Citizen Scientists can help us understand these phenomena by reporting periodical cicada emergences.

Brood IX is of interest, because even though our existing maps of it are fragmentary, it appears to exemplify the puzzle-piece nature of periodical cicada broods.

http://magicicada.org/magicicada/

Whitmer’s dam problem.

Michigan authorities failed to secure inspection report on dam before its collapse | Just The News

wners of the Edenville Dam in central Michigan — a structure that catastrophically failed this week amid torrential downpours, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents — were not required under state law to submit regular safety inspection reports to state regulators.

The state, meanwhile, failed to secure an external safety report on the dam in March. While officials asked the dam's owners, Boyce Hydro, when the government could expect delivery of the overdue inspection report, a state government spokesman admitted he had no information regarding any response to the inquiry.

A "fact sheet" on the Michigan government website states that dam safety inspection programs generally do not fall under the purview of state officials. "Regular operational inspections are typically conducted by the owner or the operator of a dam," the document states. "These inspections should involve visual inspection of the dam, along with the recording of data obtained from staff gauges or other instrumentation on-site."

The Edenville Dam has been cited for structural and safety noncompliance in recent years. Reached via email on Friday and asked if the dam's owners were allowed to conduct their own safety investigations on the structure, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy spokesman Nick Assendelft said: "You’d have to check with Boyce to see what their regular operational inspections schedule was."

Asked how often Boyce conducted inspections, Assendelft said: "Boyce would be able to tell you this."

Pressed on whether or not dam owners in the state have to provide the results of their self-conducted inspections to regulators, Assendelft said: "They and other dam operators do not have to provide those to the state."

The spokesman said that state regulators were "expecting a report in March by an outside inspection firm hired by Boyce, but we have not received that report."

Asked if officials had followed up with Boyce to secure the report, Assendelft said: "[W]e have verbally inquired about when we can expect to receive the report, but I don’t know offhand what Boyce has told us."

Boyce did not immediately return a phone call, including a voicemail message, on Friday afternoon.

Dam had federal license revoked two years ago

The dam, which collapsed on Tuesday evening, has been plagued by problems for several years. In 2018, its license to operate as a hydroelectric facility was revoked by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission after nearly fifteen years of warnings from that agency over safety and compliance issues at the site.

Boyce reportedly did not meet benchmarks set by the federal agency regarding the dam's spillway capacity and its ability to withstand a "Probable Maximum Flood" scenario. Boyce also allegedly failed to inform FERC of the dam's instability; the owners also supposedly undertook dam repairs not authorized by the commission.

Following that revocation, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy assumed regulatory authority of the dam. Assendelft told the Wall Street Journal this week that the state had inspected the dam in 2018, "and found it structurally sound, but had concerns about its spillway capacity," according to the paper.

Following the dam's failure, Boyce pointed a finger at the Michigan attorney general's office, claiming in a statement to media that authorities had threatened to sue the company if they did not raise levels in the dam's reservoir out of concern for downstream mussel populations.

The attorney general's office later called it "categorically false" that "court-ordered lake level requirements" were responsible for the dam's collapse.

https://justthenews.com/government/local/failed-michigan-dam-owners-were-not-required-submit-safety-inspection-reports

>>9286236

Dam owner states they were waiting on a permit from state so this falls back on the witch running the place. Just another Democrat failure.

"Boyce Hydro had argued to FERC that it had ongoing litigation with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality over gaining permits to construct more spillway capacity."

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/05/20/edenville-dam-power-license-revoked-failure-reinforce-structure/5226539002/

>>9286339

It's already done. 11:11 is the time. Search Prayer Warrior on twatter's group or just do it then. It is a spiritual battle.

>>9286357

Many of MI dams have been neglected over the years from what I have read.

Trump will no doubt help them out because of the people, but we'll see where this goes.

>>9286409

Must be in your browser settings.