Ethics and Transparency of Congress / Senators

Why nobody is talking about 4 Senators (as of now) selling their stocks right before pandemic? Obviously, we were/are so busy with the Pandemic that we forgot so called high crimes of our Senators. Regarding these senators' huge stock sale, right before pandemic hit and stock market plummeted to the levels not seen before, I don't believe in "Luck" or "Coincidence".
To be fair, there is one percent chance that it was coincidence or it pre-programmed or planned. Even if there is some chance, given that these high ranking officials and congressmen/women/Senators have so much advanced information, that all there trades (or even plans) should be made public at least 24 hours before they go into execution. Essentially, publish their stock transaction plans in advance on public register/web-site so, their citizens have access as well. 
This simple solution will ensure all transparency and enable us save expensive justice department inquiries into such matters. Not that I am hoping that anything will come out of these inquiries.. I Don't think that these people would be so stupid to leave any trace of their instructions. If they really left some traces, then they definitely don't deserve to be in Senate..
In one case, Senator gets briefing and magically Million+ worth stocks are sold out. Her husband happens to be NYSE head as well. Same senator is telling public about nothing to worry about Corona!! Too good to be true.. and when it is too good to be true, it isn't!!

I honestly, don't like this law of restricting trading on insider information.. Instead of restricting, we should allow trading.. as long as trading plan/activity is public. Ideally, at least 24 hours before they trade. or in case of significant market volatility, if someone feels compel to trade instantaneously, it should be made public within seconds, so that public can also act on it. We have seen so much of violations (and probably, million times more violations, we haven't seen) of this law, that it is essentially useless. People will figure out ways to circumvent laws. Instead of prohibiting, we should encourage everyone to trade based on whatever their resources are. Just publish their plans and actions instantaneously, so others can act if they want to.. 

Very innovative use of idle resources to combat Coronavirus Pandemic

I was pleasantly surprised and happy to read this news. in given scenario.. Indian Railways is massive transportation system in India, considering it transports more than 10 million+ passengers every day. There must be tens of thousands train coaches with sleeper beds and electricity with battery backup. Each can be converted into mobile hospital to isolate and if needed transport Corona patients from remote/rural places to hospitals with capacity to care for them. In worse, case, idle railway stations themselves can become medical facilities.
Bigger question is, where will be the medical equipment like ventilators etc will come from to equip these coaches. Nevertheless, these train coaches can be used to provide mobility and transfer of patients much more safely to better medical facilities.

On other note, it was so disheartening to read about millions of labor moving out of cities to their homes.Some better fortunate got hold of trucks etc to be go back.
 https://in.reuters.com/video/2020/03/28/migrant-workers-leave-cities-on-trucks-i?videoId=704304893&videoChannel=101

Many were not so lucky and are still stranded on roads without enough water and food. So far, we have only heard about one death of such labourer, who died walking back to his village (270 Km / 170 Miles) from Delhi.
This aspect wasn't well thought out before issuing 21 days lock down order. It had started happening before lock down order itself, and administration / government should have thought about logistics on this. In a way, we are making this problem even worse by sending and spreading this disease to vast rural areas of India, where once this is spread, it will be difficult to contain and provide help. We really can't blame anyone, as there wasn't any precedent for any such thing before. However, still, we should try to set up some kind of camp or shelter for these daily wage workers in cities where they were and provide them food and other basic necessities.

Here is the news copied, in case, Reuters link changes/stops working:

India to use some train coaches as coronavirus isolation wards

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India said on Saturday it was planning to turn some railway coaches into isolation wards for patients with coronavirus, as authorities scramble to prepare the country’s health infrastructure for an expected surge in cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the country’s 1.3 billion people this week to stay indoors for three weeks in the world’s biggest lockdown, seeking to curb the spread of the illness. India’s network of trains, the country’s lifeblood, has been idled.

One train coach has been turned into a prototype quarantine facility, state-owned Indian Railways said in a statement on Saturday.

Once they get clearance, the plan is for each of India’s railway zones to convert 10 coaches into such wards every week, the company added. Indian Railways has 16 zones, according to its website.

“Railways will offer clean, sanitised & hygienic surroundings for the patients to comfortably recover,” tweeted railways minister Piyush Goyal. He did not specify how many people could be cared for in each coach.

India has reported 918 confirmed cases, including 19 deaths.

The lockdown measures are taking a huge toll on India’s poor, including millions of migrant labourers whose jobs in cities have vanished. Many are now walking back to their villages or crowded bus stations in the hopes of finding rare transport, raising fears they will unintentionally spread the virus across India.

On Saturday, a migrant worker, who set out from New Delhi on a 270 kilometres (168 miles) walk to his hometown in Madhya Pradesh, collapsed and died, a police official said. 

India’s home ministry said in a statement on Saturday it was advising states to provide food and shelter to migrants at relief camps alongside highways.

Can Democracies stop Corona (aka Covid-19 / Chinese) Virus?

Couldn't stop myself from commenting on this news item. True, despite early warnings, any western  democratically elected governments failed to act and take preventive measures, which could have stopped this pandemic from spreading. At the same time, some governments like Singapore (I guess, democratically elected government) handled situation pretty well.
I think, best aspect (if any silver lining) of this crisis is that it exposes many so called democratically elected leaderships. In particular, it exposes our Dumb Trump's leadership among some other leaderships in Western Europe. 
Though, we can't say for sure, but there is good chance that, this crisis wouldn't have become such a large scale epidemic or pandemic, if there was Democratically Elected government in China in first place. Initial suppression and more or less murder of Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who tried raising alarm very beginning wouldn't have happened if there wasn't any fear of Autocratic regime. I heard today, that local Police and politicians were reprimanded and were forced to apologize to Doctor Li's family. But in reality, it wasn't there fault, if they wouldn't have suppressed those news and silenced Dr. Li, they would have been fired (or worse) long time back. In this case, they got away by just apologizing and may be reprimand on their service record. But, in truth that was failure of system. These folks were just scapegoat.
Nevertheless, coming back to the core topic. Time will tell, how we and rest of the other democratically elected governments perform in this time of crisis. However, best part of Democracy is that it will bring best out of the system. It will ultimately weed out bad actors and dumb Trumps.. but ultimately, it will prevail.. Already, after realizing his mistakes (though, can't admit), our President has started acting, and I am sure, that this pandemic unleashed by Chinese government (figuratively), will be over soon!

Everyone, stay safe and healthy!!

Chinese propaganda claims democracy can’t stop virus

By Trudy Rubin

Philadelphia Inquirer

China is promoting a propaganda narrative that its authoritarian system is uniquely capable of curbing the coronavirus, in contrast to the chaotic response of Europe and the United States.

Nevermind that the virus began in Wuhan and spread because Communist Party officials suppressed whistleblowers. Beijing’s new storyline stresses that its draconian lockdown of tens of millions of its people (and ability to build new 1,000-bed hospitals in 10 days) was able to control the virus, even as new cases are soaring in America.

This propaganda effort might seem unpromising, except that President Donald Trump has only just gotten serious about the pandemic, leaving the U.S. dangerously behind in containing and mitigating the virus. This gives global appeal to the Chinese argument that authoritarianism works better than democratic governance.

Hopefully, the strengths of our democracy will work — in evidence as governors, mayors, media and health experts pushed Trump to pay attention. But depending on what happens, the Chinese narrative could make global inroads and increase Beijing’s future geopolitical influence.

That narrative can be summed up by a People’s Daily article that asks “why China can pull together the imagination and courage needed to deliver a blow to the virus while the United States struggles to handle the outbreak.”

Beijing is even arguing that the disease didn’t originate in Wuhan. A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman tweeted that “it might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.” (This is more official than the suggestion of Sen. Tom Cotton, RArk., that the virus might be Chinese biowarfare. But it’s probably in part an unfortunate response to Trump’s calling the disease the “Chinese virus,” which has more of a racist tinge than his use of “Wuhan virus.” So each side is now politicizing the virus, with the Chinese hitting harder.) Of course, this Chinese narrative “is also designed to take some of the heat off Xi Jinping at home,” says the University of Pennsylvania’s Jacques deLisle, director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China.

Beijing has also just kicked out journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

You might conclude that the propaganda won’t get global traction because it’s a pretty transparent effort to airbrush Xi Jinping’s mistakes. Yet, the U.S. response to the crisis gives China’s propagandists a huge boost.

From late January through early March, Trump downplayed the coronavirus, insisting it was “totally under control.” His Jan. 31 decision to ban travelers from China was important, but he squandered its major benefit — providing time to prepare for an inevitable outbreak here. Trump rejected the early warnings of health experts and continues to insult journalists who question his endless misstatements. His false spin, echoed by Fox commentators, lulled his supporters into complacency. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll taken March 12-13 revealed that only 40% of Republicans believed the coronavirus was a real threat, compared with 76% of Democrats and 50% of independents.

So it’s not surprising that until late last week, Trump failed to mobilize the nation and push through a national emergency plan for testing, which is just starting to ramp up. Without widespread tests, or draconian Chinese-style lockdowns, it’s impossible to measure and stop the spread.

Trump also failed, until this week, to rally the military and all government agencies to help states expand medical facilities and to consult fully with governors desperate for national leadership (insulting them instead with labels like “snake”).

This has costs: The time lost — crucial to testing and containing the virus in order to avoid a national shutdown — cannot be made up.

Now, belatedly, the White House is organizing the whole of government. And listening to the experts. And taking the virus seriously, although Trump continues to spin and spout untruths.

We don’t need the Chinese to point out that this is “embarrassing” for a great democracy.

But we do need to demonstrate, for our own sakes, that their propaganda about a hapless democracy unable to cope is false. Even if that coping comes belatedly and in spite of failed White House leadership.

The message of Chinese propaganda, contrary to Beijing’s intentions, is that democracy requires new White House leadership up to the task. Trudy Rubin is a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist. © 2020, Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

COVID-19: Online School Education Tools

During these unprecedented times, Federal, State and local governments have declared emergencies to contain COVID-19 virus (a.k.a. Corona Virus) community spread further. Using emergency powers, governments have relaxed (or in legal sense "Suspended") many of the HIPAA regulations which enable our health care workers to leverage common sense technological tools to reach out to patients remotely without overwhelming our medical system. All this is worth applauded. Though, it came little late here in US, despite warning signs hovering from January itself. Our President Dumb Trump's ego prevented early action which would have prevented this pandemic to reach US. Never-mind, better late than never...
Main topic I want to address in this note is about kids education. Just like many of your kids, my kids are also at home and we as parents are trying our best to keep them engaged and keeping them busy. Keep them getting some useful education and knowledge flowing into their young minds.

Our area schools were closed since yesterday for two (possibly more now) weeks. School district's mission is to prepare teachers and staff to train them in these two weeks so they would be ready to delivery education remotely in case, this pandemic persists longer. So hope they would be ready by end of these two weeks to teach most of the kids remotely if needed.
Then, I saw this post:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/03/13/zoom-video-coronavirus-eric-yuan-schools/amp/
Our technology leaders are volunteering tools to help us with this crisis as much possible. Just like we have these rules in healthcare to protect patient privacy etc.. I am sure, many such rules must be there to protect Student Privacy etc in education sector. and Just like have suspended these rules for healthcare, why can't we suspend these rules/protocols in education and start leveraging these tools to maximize benefit to our kids and students.
I would urge, our local education district boards to consider relaxing these rules and take help of many of parent volunteers (in silicon valley many are technological savvy and won't mind volunteering) to set up these virtual class sessions for our kids during this time. I personally have offered my kid's teacher and waiting for response. However, if anyone else in bay area community wants some help, I am ready to volunteer my time to them. Please feel free to reach out to me thru this blog or email me directly at shaigarg1@yahoo.com


Here is another news clip from our local newspaper Mercury News which highlights gravity of the situation:

CONTAINING COVID-19

7 Bay Area counties lock down

Residents banned from leaving homes except for essential work, food, services

By John Woolfolk and Casey Tolan

Staff writers

In a dramatic and unprecedented move reflecting growing alarm over the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic, seven Bay Area counties Monday announced sweeping shelter-in-place restrictions effectively confining millions of residents to their homes for three weeks with exceptions for essential work, food or other needs.

The new orders by health officers in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties appear to be the most aggressive public response to the coronavirus anywhere in the U.S. so far. The directives are criminally enforceable and go well beyond Monday’s stepped-up calls for increased “social distancing” from the nation’s capital, evoking lockdowns in parts of hardhit Europe.

“In my life, there’s not even a remote precedent for this sort of thing,” said Robert Siegel, 66, a Stanford University professor of microbiology and immunology. “It’s quite unprecedented for Americans to be experiencing this.”

Tomas Aragon, health officer for the city and county of San Francisco, announces a shelter in place order by public health directors on Monday.

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Across the seven counties, many businesses will be ordered to close, and residents will be allowed to leave their homes only for “essential” reasons from 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday through April 7.

Essential reasons include getting health care, shopping for groceries and supplies, caring for family members and exercising outdoors.

“I recognize that this is unprecedented,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said Monday. “If I had thought last Friday’s announcement (to close schools) was hard, this one is exponentially harder. But we must come together to do this. We know we need to do this, and we know we need a regional approach. We all must do our part.”

And in a sign of how serious the crisis is becoming, Santa Clara County announced two additional deaths due to the coronavirus on Monday — two men, in their 50s and 80s, died at hospitals Sunday — doubling the death count in California’s hardest hit county.

Some other large urban areas have considered similar restrictions on public movements in recent days, including New York, where the National Guard was deployed to help quell an outbreak in the suburb of New Rochelle.

The latest orders go much further than the increasingly restrictive federal, state and local guidances about the virus released in recent days. Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties last week ordered schools closed. On Friday, Santa Clara County barred public and private gatherings over 100 people with restrictions in place for assemblies of 35 to 100.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last week urged a statewide ban on gatherings of more than 250 people, over the weekend urged bars and nightclubs to close, restaurants to limit service and older residents not to leave home.

Monday’s announcement came in legal orders from the health officers in the seven counties as well as Berkeley, which has an independent health office. Officials said the directives could be extended longer than three weeks or amended to end sooner, as needed.

Businesses allowed to operate during the lockdown include supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores, health care offices, child care facilities, banks, hardware stores and laundromats. Restaurants will be allowed to operate, but only for delivery and take-out service. Nonessential gatherings of any number are banned, but public transit will continue operating for essential travel as long as travelers keep 6 feet apart. Nonresidents will be able to travel to return to their homes outside the Bay Area.

In addition, governments will continue to provide health, law and order, sanitation and other essential services.

Marin County Health Officer Matt Willis said that “essential things we need will be available to us.”

“Grocery stores will remain open,” Willis said. “You can get your medicine from your pharmacy, you can still visit your doctor. We can all expect to experience some cabin fever. You can still walk your dog.”

Health officers acknowledged Monday how difficult the extraordinary measures will be for families already struggling to cope with the rapid upending of their lives, between children told to stay home from school, businesses urging employees to work from home and events canceled. But they said the dire threat of the outbreak makes a regional response necessary.

“We are in a rough place, and we are going to have difficult times ahead of us,” San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow said. “The measures we’re putting in place are temporary, but they will last longer than any of us want. This is the time to unite as a community, come to each other’s aid and dig really deep to find your best inner self and pull out all the compassion, gratitude and kindness you can.”

The guidance, they said, comes after substantial input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and best practices from health officials around the world.

Grant Colfax, the director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, said health officers from the counties conferred over the weekend and concluded that they needed to put in place the new restrictions as soon as possible.

“Every hour counts,” Colfax said. “The evidence tells us that now is the time to implement this step.”

San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said that violation of the order is “enforceable as a misdemeanor” but added “that is an absolute last resort.”

“We’re looking for voluntary compliance,” he said. “If we do get called to those situations, we’re going to try to educate the public.”

Homeless people will not be subject to the order, although officials encouraged them to seek shelter and said they would work with state officials to maximize resources available for the homeless population.

The new orders exclude three Bay Area counties — Sonoma, Napa and Solano. Representatives of those counties did not respond to questions about whether they would follow suit. They have reported some of the fewest cases, with Napa still listing no infections Monday.

Santa Cruz County, which is not part of the ninecounty Bay Area, made the decision to join the shelterin- place order Monday after nine confirmed cases.

The restrictions follow new data showing increasing local transmission of coronavirus, the health officers said. The cases confirmed in the Bay Area account for more than half of California’s total — and experts believe there are likely many others in the region that haven’t been discovered yet due to a lack of testing.

The pandemic has sickened more than 167,000 people in more than 151 countries, half of them in China, and killed more than 6,600. The Bay Area has been at the center of the viral outbreak in the state and is one of the nation’s hotspots for infections, with the first case reported Jan. 31 and a cruise ship stricken with infections departing Oakland on Monday. There are at least 335 confirmed cases statewide and nine deaths.

Of the region’s counties ordering shelter in place, by Monday Santa Clara County had 138 confirmed cases, San Mateo 42, San Francisco 40, Contra Costa 34, Alameda 18, and Marin and Santa Cruz nine each.

Also Monday, Newsom issued a new executive order to help prevent evictions during the pandemic.

The order gives local governments the authority to halt evictions for renters and homeowners, aims to slow foreclosures, and helps keep utilities running for residents affected by COVID-19.

In addition, the state Legislature passed a $1.1 billion coronavirus spending package, fulfilling an emergency request from Newsom. The money will go to efforts like opening new hospitals, cleaning schools and child care facilities, purchasing health care equipment, and housing homeless people in hotels.

Monday also marked the start of widespread school closures affecting about half of districts around the state, including Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, with many attempting to teach students online. New York City and Los Angeles — the nation’s two largest districts — also are closing.

Experts say keeping people apart is the best way to stop the virus’ deadly advance.

“If everybody was successfully quarantined for two weeks, that would put a substantial dent in the transmission of the virus,” Siegel said. “It’s valid reasoning, but we don’t know the extent to which that will work.”

Barring a turnaround in the numbers of new cases and deaths, the Bay Area and other hard-hit areas could face even stricter measures going forward, Siegel predicted.

“You can look at the trajectory of policy in other countries,” he said, “and it’s my expectation that it’s going to become more restrictive.”

Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed reporting.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith talk before a news conference Monday in San Jose announcing a shelter-in-place order.

DAI SUGANO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

President of Numbers or US Citizens?

It was absolutely shocking to see Trump's interview about Cruise ship coming from Hawaii. 23 passengers/Crew members have confirmed Corona and most others are in danger of getting it... and our POTUS is worried about optics of his numbers if he allows those passengers and crew members on shore? Really? This totally reminds of President Obama's statement about Trump that he doesn't have temperament to be President of the United States of America.
I would rather prefer that passengers stay on ship, so my numbers won't look bad!!!

But what else you would expect from Dollar Trump or I should call Number Trump? This is the real face of $ Trump!! I would say millions of thanks to our founders that they created checks and balances. I think, some of them had vision that some day reality TV personality will become President and may not be capable of running as President.

His Interview snippet should be best and free advertisement for Democratic candidate. They should simply keep on rolling it and let all the electorate decide if they want Dollar/Number Trump or someone other responsible person.