Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
I’ve been trying to post a wide-variety of news items on the Weekend Open Thread so that everyone can find something of interest. But still, we are in a pandemic, and every day there is something new to consider regarding COVID-19, and how it’s impacting our daily lives, as well as the country and world at large. However, in spite of that, please feel free to post any news items that you think might also be of interest to readers.
First news item
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, (Coronavirus Edition):
In an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman stressed the need for a control group to determine if social distancing measures are the tool that have kept American deaths below the early, catastrophic estimates. Generously for the United States — and unfortunately for the people of her neon city — she offered that Las Vegas be that control group, allowing a return to normal to see if an intensified outbreak would occur:
Goodman: We have to open up. We have to go back. Our bus drivers, our room cleaners, our restaurants —
Cooper: But hasn’t it been because of social distancing that the numbers have been what they are.
Goodman: How do you know until we have a control group? We offered to be a control group. Anybody who knows anything about statistic knows that for instance you have a vaccine, you give a real vaccine —
Cooper: You’re offering for the citizens of Las Vegas to be a control group to see if your theory on social distancing —
Goodman: I did offer, it was turned down.
The mayor also proposed a “Hunger Game” recovery for Las Vegas:
“Assume everybody is a carrier,” the mayor told MSNBC’s Katy Tur on Tuesday. “And then you start from an even slate. And tell the people what to do. And let the businesses open and competition will destroy that business if, in fact, they become evident that they have disease, they’re closed down. It’s that simple.”
Second news item
Joe Biden faces new evidence supporting accuser’s claims of sexual harassment and assault:
A new piece of evidence has emerged buttressing the credibility of Tara Reade’s claim that she told her mother about allegations of sexual harassment and assault related to her former boss, then-Sen. Joe Biden…Reade has claimed to various media outlets, including The Intercept, that she told her mother, a close friend, and her brother about both the harassment and, to varying degrees of detail, the assault at the time. Her brother, Collin Moulton, and her friend, who has asked to remain anonymous, both confirmed that they heard about the allegations from Reade at the time.
…
In interviews with The Intercept, Reade also mentioned that her mother had made a phone call to “Larry King Live” on CNN, during which she made reference to her daughter’s experience on Capitol Hill…
On August 11, 1993, King aired a program titled, “Washington: The Cruelest City on Earth?” Toward the end of the program, he introduces a caller dialing in from San Luis Obispo, California. Congressional records list August 1993 as Reade’s last month of employment with Biden’s Senate office, and, according to property records, Reade’s mother, Jeanette Altimus, was living in San Luis Obispo County…
Transcript and recording at the link.
Third news item
Why, I have no idea how that could have happened!:
Michigan Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer has handed over control of the state’s new contact-tracing operation to one of her own campaign vendors and one of the left’s biggest technology firms. The move has sparked concern that she is using the coronavirus to strengthen the Democratic Party’s data operation, potentially at the expense of public health.
The Whitmer administration announced Monday that it had awarded a contract for contact tracing in the state to Every Action VAN, an arm of the Democratic data behemoth NGP VAN. The liberal firm works with all of the major Democratic campaign committees and hundreds of labor unions across the country, according to its website, and will “help organize remote phone banking and track information and contacts” for Michigan, a state press release said.
Whitmer has since rescinded the contract. Further, she denies any responsbility for what happened:
“The department thought that that vendor was the best one for some reason. I don’t know what that reason was, but I do know that the Department of Health and Human Services does not have a political bone in their theoretical body,” Whitmer said during a Wednesday press conference. “When it was brought to my attention, I told them to cancel it.”
Fourth news item
Oops! Democrat overseeing $500B virus fund, didn’t disclose 2019 stock sales:
Miami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, the lone House Democrat on the committee set up to oversee $500 billion in taxpayer money being used for coronavirus-related payouts to large businesses, violated federal law when she failed to disclose stock sales while serving in Congress.
Shalala told the Miami Herald on Monday she sold a variety of stocks throughout 2019 to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest after she was elected to Congress in November 2018. But the transactions were not publicly reported as required by the STOCK Act, a 2012 law that prohibits members of Congress and their employees from using private information gleaned from their official positions for personal benefit and requires them to report stock sales and purchases within 45 days.
Shalala’s office said the congresswoman and her financial adviser made a mistake.
Fifth news item
“It’s clear the Chinese Communist Party engaged in the worst cover-up in human history that has led to a pandemic, costing more than 100,000 lives so far, sickening millions, and devastating the global economy,” McCaul told the Washington Examiner. “The CCP must be held accountable for the role they played for the spread of this virus and the damage it has since caused around the world.”
Sixth news item
What it’s like to deliver the bad news:
As part of my work as an emergency medicine resident, I began a rotation in the second week of March as the physician charged with telling patients about their lab results. That once meant calling people to let them know about positive urine cultures or incidental findings on imaging…In the span of two weeks, I’d called more than 60 patients. By the end of March that represented almost 10% of the Covid-19 patients in Washington, D.C., where I work. I’ve met these patients in a starkly different way than I would have during face-to-face encounters in the emergency department…Each time I called someone who was having trouble making ends meet, or finding safe shelter, or desperate for answers I didn’t have, I wanted to find a way to help. Sadly, the resources to do that are few and far between. As I pleaded with one social worker about obtaining resources for a low-income Covid-19 patient, she told me, “We don’t have these resources on a good day.”
Seventh news item
In what could amount to a stunning about-face for the Pentagon, congressional sources have confirmed to NPR that top Navy leaders have recommended that Capt. Brett Crozier be put back in command of the coronavirus-plagued aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
“This afternoon, Secretary Esper received a verbal update from the acting Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations on the Navy’s preliminary inquiry into the COVID-19 outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt,” writes Jonathan Hoffman in a statement emailed from the Pentagon.
“After the Secretary receives a written copy of the completed inquiry, he intends to thoroughly review the report and will meet again with Navy leadership to discuss next steps. He remains focused on and committed to restoring the full health of the crew and getting the ship at sea again soon.”
The AP quotes Hoffman as saying before that meeting that Esper “is generally inclined to support Navy leadership in their decision” regarding Crozier.
Eighth news item
President Trump arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon, when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television.
He has been up in the White House master bedroom as early as 5 a.m. watching Fox News, then CNN, with a dollop of MSNBC thrown in for rage viewing. He makes calls with the TV on in the background, his routine since he first arrived at the White House.
But now there are differences.
The president sees few allies no matter which channel he clicks. He is angry even with Fox, an old security blanket, for not portraying him as he would like to be seen. And he makes time to watch Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s briefings from New York, closely monitoring for a sporadic compliment or snipe.
Confined to the White House, the president is isolated from the supporters, visitors, travel and golf that once entertained him, according to more than a dozen administration officials and close advisers who spoke about Mr. Trump’s strange new life.
Have a good weekend. Where I live, the parks are opening up this weekend, but trails will remain closed. Also, some beaches will also be opened up as well. The governor is still urging residents to practice social distancing measures, and some parks and beaches will be requiring masks.
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Good morning.
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:39 amI tend to credit Ms Reade’s account of Biden’s conduct. As I believe Broderick’s rape account against Clinton.
It will not make any difference to how I vote. Biden would never win my vote, just as the Orange Raccoon will never be someone for whom I could vote. For many of the same reasons, interestingly enough.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:18 amRecommended – observations from a hospital worker:
Frink
@Prof_John_Frink
(1/16)
Friends,
Sorry it’s been a while since I last posted. I haven’t had a lot to add to the generally excellent conversation taking place among those I follow.
I do, however, have to get my observations regarding #COVID19 off my chest.
__
Read it all
https://twitter.com/Prof_John_Frink/status/1253757777496780800?s=20
harkin (8f4a6f) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:40 am__ _
Another link containing the tweet thread:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1253757777496780800.html
“ Far from the war-zone-esque imagery I had seen from abroad, and increasingly, within the United States, what we experienced was unprecedented, eerie quiet. Not only did the surge, perpetually two weeks away, never come, but even the normal emergencies
(9/16) were mysteriously absent. The absence of traumas was maybe understandable since everyone was stuck at home. But where were the heart attacks? Where were the strokes?
Tragically, we learned where they were some time later. They were at home. They didn’t come in either
(9/16) because they thought we were too busy on the “front lines” to care for them, or because they thought the risk of catching the virus in the hospital was a greater threat to their health than their relentless crushing chest pain or the sudden inability to move half their
(10/16) body. By the time they did come in the damage was often irreversible.
And now the traumas have shown up, with a vengeance. We’re seeing broken bones as people go stir crazy and engage in ill-advised home improvement projects on their roofs. Assaults are up, too. Worst
harkin (8f4a6f) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:47 am(11/16) of all are the injuries born of despair, such as the guys who have been drinking non-stop since they got laid off, who eventually fall and hurt themselves. Our observed death toll from self-inflicted gunshot wounds alone eclipses that of #COVID19.”
_
Every CoViD-19 commercial is the same.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:49 amAmerica should start aggressively enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act:
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/5/the-scab-the-wound-beneath?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:11 am6. America should also start aggressively enforcing 100+ years of antitrust law. Too many corporations are in the pockets of politicians for that to be a realistic goal, but one can always hope…
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:22 am“ Our observed death toll from self-inflicted gunshot wounds alone eclipses that of #COVID19.””
– harkin, quoting a Twitter thread
Is this person claiming that more than 50,000 Americans have killed themselves via self-inflicted gunshot wound over the past six-to-seven weeks?
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:24 amTrump fans eclipse Three Stooges fans, but only in numbers, not in honesty or intelligence.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:30 amUh oh.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:32 amI think he means in his hospital. He said it only had a “handful” of COVID cases.
DRJ (15874d) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:34 amAnd would you look at this!
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:34 amGroove is in
The HeartTeh MaskDig
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:35 amThe chills that you send down my back
Keep me wonderin’ what else is in your sack
Of tricks… you got me strugglin’ for each breath
I didn’t ask for my mother
No, I didn’t ask for my mother
My grave, they will deeply dig
Fried chicken, no gravy, my supper dish
My dyin’ wish
I wouldn’t ask for my mother
No, I wouldn’t ask for my mother
Groove is in teh mask, Groove is in teh mask
Groove is in teh mask, Groove is in teh mask
Gryph @ 5, you hacked into SNL’s cold open?
urbanleftbehind (e5b33c) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:37 am14. I wish it was satire. It’s true. I noticed it days ago, but I didn’t have the wherewithal to put it all into one video.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:38 amHmm. Here’s another gem.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:52 am16,
Reading your link, I agree: people certainly can be very foolish.
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:04 amTrump threatens to block aid for U.S. Postal Service if it does not raise prices for Amazon
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to block federal aid for the U.S. Postal Service unless it raises shipping rates for online companies like Amazon.com, prompting criticism that the move would hurt consumers relying more than usual on packages during the coronavirus outbreak.
………
“The Postal Service is a joke. Because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “The Post Office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times.”
……
Trump made the remarks at a ceremony to sign a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill designed to help small businesses and hospitals and assist in testing for the virus, which has killed more than 50,000 Americans.
The Postal Service has said that it may not be able to continue service past September without help. The U.S. Congress has authorized the Treasury Department to lend it up to $10 billion as part of an earlier $2.3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
………
“If they don’t do it, I’m not signing anything and … I’m not authorizing you to do anything,” Trump said.
Later on Friday, the president said that he wanted the post office to be updated but wanted to make sure it would survive.
“I will never let our Post Office fail,” he tweeted. “The people that work there are great, and we’re going to keep them happy, healthy, and well!”
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:06 am>>>>>>>>
https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/25/protesters-descend-on-wisconsin-capitol-to-send-a-message-were-done-staying-home/
Food for thought.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:08 amI think he means in his hospital. He said it only had a “handful” of COVID cases.
He probably doesn’t know anyone who voted for Nixon, either.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:11 amThat makes way more sense, DRJ.
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:18 am17. Just a damn shame you and I don’t agree on what “foolish” means in this day and age.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:19 amAs for Mayor Goodman, we do have a control group: It’s called “The Diamond Princess.” In fact, it’s a sufficiently large control group to adjust for age.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:22 amYou gotta admit, though, that was one good, and good-fitting, mask.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:23 amhttps://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/04/coronavirus-in-five-states-3.php
Real world data with real world results… or not. Living based on computer projections is no way to go through life son.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:30 amGryph,
The article described a driver who drove with their mask on while alone in the car, and because they had it on for so long, they didn’t get enough oxygen and passed out. As a result, they crashed their car. Their foolishness endangered other drivers and any nearby pedestrians. This is wholly on them.
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:49 amCoronavirus? Ain’t nobody got time for dat!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:50 am26. I think it’s foolish to wear a mask as a symbol of one’s fear of the unknown, considering that the more we discover about CoViD-19, the less dangerous it seems. That’s where you and I disagree.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:55 amYou mean it’s not on the governor’s who told them they must wear their mask out in public? Or on Birx and Fauci for their recommendations? People have to make judgment calls and be responsible for their own actions? Who would’ve thought that was possible.
Now do it again in regards to President Trump.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:58 am“The Postal Service is a joke. Because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “The Post Office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times.”
So, another fundamental, hidden tax increase on American consumers to go with the idiot tariffs that the economic moron T-rump has imposed by LYING diktat.
Swell…
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:59 amAnd Dana, I apologize for the obnoxiousness of my post, but the reasoning behind it is clear that you blame the President for people doing stupid things, but in other instances hold the people who did the stupid thing rightly accountable.
BTW, the more that comes out of the fish tank cleaner couple’s relationship and their background expertise, the more suspicious it seems.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:00 amDid New Jersey’s governor say that drivers had to wear a masks while driving *alone* in their cars?
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:02 amHe said you must wear them while out in public, so it’s up to interpretation. Did Trump say drink fish tank cleaner?
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:06 amI’ll happily admit that the governor of New Jersey is an idiot if it will get NJRob to admit that Donald Trump is an idiot.
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:07 amI’m game Leviticus. Donald Trump can certainly say stupid things and act like an idiot. I don’t know him well enough to personally call him one though. I think the questioning about light and household chemicals was meant not meant to be serious, but was certainly dumb.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:09 amAnd I think Murphy has totalitarian tendencies and loves the power and control we have granted him. That doesn’t make him a dictator and I don’t know him personally so I cannot call him a megalomaniac, but it feels like he could be one.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:10 amThanks. People are responsible for their own actions. However they can be unduly influenced by people, especially by people in positions of immense power, like POTUS . I’ve always maintained that POTUS has the biggest platform in the world, and so what he says matters, for better or worse. However, although people may be influenced by his suggestions, ultimately the responsibility for their decisions rests with them. But I do believe that POTUS can bear a moral responsibility in some cases.
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:13 amBack to that aquarium cleaner soda pop cocktail drinking fellow… https://pjmedia.com/trending/who-was-gary-lenius-the-guy-who-allegedly-drank-aquarium-cleaner-because-he-thought-trump-said-it-cured-the-virus/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:18 amMurphy doesn’t think much of the Bill of Rights.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:20 amSo that makes one potential case of sexual misconduct against Biden (not counting other incidences of creepy touchy-feely) and 25 women alleging sexual misconduct against Trump. One standard, applied to all, and it’s why this Biden thing won’t go anywhere.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:21 amFoxNews is reporting that Japanese media is reporting that Kim Jong Un is in a vegetative state. If true, it would be karma that the person who put Otto Warmbier in a vegetative state would face the same sticky end.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:23 amMurphy made it clear that the Bill of Rights doesn’t matter to him. His desires supersede the rights of American citizens.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:28 am40. Of course. And, as I noted, I can’t vote for either apparent candidate. They both reek.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:39 am@30-
Actually, Trump doesn’t go far enough. I favor privatizing the USPS. There is no reason a letter sent from Miami to Nome should cost the same as a letter to Jacksonville. I hoped when the Republicans controlled Congress they would have done something to change the USPS cost structure-the pre-funding of retirement is something no other agency is required to do. In fiscal 2019, for example, 83% of the $8.8 billion the agency lost came from payments into its retiree pension fund and retiree health benefits fund. Even the Democratic House passed a bill to eliminate the requirement 2-1, but it languishes in Senate.
That said, the even the whole enterprise should be turned over to the private sector. Most European postal systems, along with Japan and New Zealand. With email and automatic payments through banks, the USPS should disappear. A private operator(s) would make the hard choices necessary to harmonize the workforce with incoming revenues. Congress never will.
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:39 amNJRob-
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:42 amAs you live in NJ, you certainly can obtain standing by violating one of his orders. Since they apparently are unconstitutional, you should have no problem winning in court.
His desires supersede the rights of American citizens.
No, Rob. He’s following the LAW in your state. A set of laws we’ve shown have been fully adjudicated and found well within the constitution.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:44 amFunny how the Trumpalistas switched so quickly from downtalking the virus to b*tching about models.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:44 amWanted to say most European postal systems, as well as the others are either fully or partially privatized.
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:46 am44. Agreed and advocated since the 70s. The USPS is an expensive anachronism.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:47 amAgreed, Rags. It’ll be a protest vote by me, considering that both parties are so dysfunctional that they would nominate Sh*tStain on the right and Decrepit on the left as their respective standard-bearers.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:49 amMoeLarryCurly just wants to screw with Jeff Bezos. That is all. Did he go through with the same, exact
demandpublicity stunt hemadeabout packages from China two years ago? Well, did he?Right now, with people locked up and depending on both BOTH! the Post Office and Amazon more than ever, this is what he does? Disgusting, orange sewer-slug!
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:03 amNew scientific tests show that most of 14 antibody tests checked are useless, with false positive rates up to 16%, and most around 5%.
Here you can see the false positive data. Each dark blue dot on this graph is a false positive – the antibody tests identified COVID-19 antibodies in blood samples from blood donors taken before the outbreak of the virus.
A false positive rate any higher than about 1% makes a test completely useless in detecting a disease with low prevalence.
The FDA should have done tests like this before allowing these tests on the market; most would not have been approved based on these results.
Antibody tests that suggest crazy things about the virus are only evidence that the test is garbage.
Remember: not a SINGLE antibody test you read about was independently checked by the FDA to see whether it performed properly before being put on the market. Yet another example of gross malfeasance and incompetence by Trump & Co.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:08 am
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:08 ammade*pulled*FoxNews is reporting that Japanese media is reporting that Kim Jong Un is in a vegetative state
Turnip?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:24 amIt wouldn’t surprise me if the accusation against Biden is true. He’s clearly a creep.
OTOH, the Larry King sounds more consistent with some other kind of dispute with one of Biden’s staff.
Why:
First, there is no mention of sexual harassment. In fact, there is not even any suggestion that illegality is involved (Reade’s mother doesn’t mention the possibility of going to the police, only to the press). It’s described as “a story to tell” not “a crime to report”.
Second, Reade’s mother says “she could not get through with her problem at all.” Senators do not have a boss you can complain to. What possible outcome could one hope for by complaining to the senator’s staff about misconduct by the senator (their mutual boss)? They can’t sanction or rebuke him. You would have to go to the authorities (or the press).
Third, her mother claims she didn’t go public “out of respect for him”, which doesn’t sound much like a reaction to a sexual assault. It would make sense if somebody else working for Biden had given her trouble, though, that she might not want to cause a political headache (if she did truly respect the senator).
So I don’t really see that there’s much support for Reade’s specific accusation against Biden here.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:30 amThat was some bad indentation
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:43 amSo that makes one potential case of sexual misconduct against Biden (not counting other incidences of creepy touchy-feely). . .
Wouldn’t the Nevada legislator upon whom Biden allegedly forced a kiss be technically a second case of sexual midconduct?
JVW (54fd0b) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:48 amU.S. Navy
@USNavy
Today is #NationalFindARainbowDay! Rainbow A reminder to find something good in every day — especially during times like these. #InThisTogether #COVID19 #rainbows
What’s your rainbow? Share your “something good” below.
__
Chinese military has to be literally quaking right now.
harkin (8f4a6f) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:48 am_
“Immunity passports” in the context of COVID-19
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:52 am…..
WHO continues to review the evidence on antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of these studies show that people who have recovered from infection have antibodies to the virus. However, some of these people have very low levels of neutralizing antibodies in their blood,4 suggesting that cellular immunity may also be critical for recovery. As of 24 April 2020, no study has evaluated whether the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 confers immunity to subsequent infection by this virus in humans.
……..
We’d be better off if we had this billionaire for president. It’s worth a full read, but here’s on paragraph:
It would be so easy for a president to lay out that standard instead of say it’s the states’ problem or whine about being a shipping clerk.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:53 am52. That is a matter of degree. If all these tests are indeed failures, for all of them to fail in the same direction is itself useful data. If nothing else, it is further evidence that the infection rates were always far higher, and the fatality rates always far lower than we were led to believe.
32. “Wear your mask at all times when out in public” is a pretty unambiguous diktat. I don’t wear one and I won’t, but you seem to think that kind of absolutist thinking is foolish as well. I disagree. And here we are.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:54 amNervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, and Taking Senate With Him
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:04 pmPresident Trump’s erratic handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the worsening economy and a cascade of ominous public and private polling have Republicans increasingly nervous that they are at risk of losing the presidency and the Senate if Mr. Trump does not put the nation on a radically improved course.
……
The surveys also showed Republican senators in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and Maine trailing or locked in a dead heat with potential Democratic rivals — in part because their fate is linked to Mr. Trump’s job performance. If incumbents in those states lose, and Republicans pick up only the Senate seat in Alabama, Democrats would take control of the chamber should Mr. Biden win the presidency.
…….
Republicans were taken aback this past week by the results of a 17-state survey commissioned by the Republican National Committee. It found the president struggling in the Electoral College battlegrounds and likely to lose without signs of an economic rebound this fall, according to a party strategist outside the R.N.C. who is familiar with the poll’s results.
……..
Most of the incumbent House Democrats facing competitive races enjoy a vast financial advantage over Republican challengers, who are struggling to garner attention as the virus overwhelms news coverage.
…..
Republican senators facing difficult races were not only all outraised by Democrats, they were also overwhelmed.
In Maine, for example, Senator Susan Collins brought in $2.4 million while her little-known rival, the House speaker Sara Gideon, raised more than $7 million. Even more concerning to Republicans is the lesser-known Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Republican officials are especially irritated at Mr. Tillis because he has little small-dollar support and raised only $2.1 million, which was more than doubled by his Democratic opponent.
>>>>>
41.FoxNews is reporting that Japanese media is reporting that Kim Jong Un is in a vegetative state.
Did he try the hydroxychloroquine or just go with bleach on the rocks with a Mr. Clean chaser?!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:06 pm@18. And conservatives cheer; the clique of privatization imbeciles–the Gingrich twits and their ilk– have been trying to put the USPS out of business for years. Benjamin Franklin would be rolling over in his grave.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:13 pm65. Personally speaking, I’d be happy for the USPS to go back to being a cabinet-level department. It never has been private, nor will it ever be. What’s changed since the early 1970s is that it has had to compete with private entities such as UPS and FedEx.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:20 pm@44. I hoped when the Republicans controlled Congress they would have done something to change the USPS cost structure-the pre-funding of retirement is something no other agency is required to do.
Newtie and his blowfish– and the minions who follow[ed] in his brain dead, right wing, nut bag twitiotics are the very dunderheads who kept it in place to slowly strangle it. It has always been their wedgie- their test case. The point is to provide a service, not be a profit center. If it was, Wyoming would have only four post offices. Privatizing government services is stupidity on steroids– aka, Reaganomics.
_________
@49. Ignorance is bliss. Stay happy.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:31 pmDo you folks get Amazon packages via anything but Amazon direct deliveries any more? In the last year it has shifted to 100% Amazon’s own trucks. Here we have the Amazon Prime Air hub at CVG, and something like 30 distribution centers, with 5M more square feet of sort/hub/distribution under construction.
Wasn’t there quite a bit of research done after the last Amazon/USPS tantrum he threw? Most of the ones I see show that the package delivery is actually doing quite well, it’s the actual mail parcel part that is doing horribly.
Should they jack up the rates on shipping, which is profitably, to support the daily mail service that isn’t? I guess the question is what’s the mailpiece price for both end customers and bulk mail where they’re not loosing their shirts.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:34 pmprofitable not profitably
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:35 pmAlmost every “government service” can and has been done better by private means.
About 70% of all fire services in the US are volunteer departments.
Do you figure the folks out in Wyoming (can you FIND Wyoming?) can’t get stuff via FedEx, UPS, or just Amazon itself?
Stupid is bliss; keep that vacant grin!
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:41 pmThis is simultaneously maddening and pathetic. What frustrates me most, however, is how he wastes precious time of other people that we are all depending on to get a fix for coronavirus. They don’t have time to for this. And it appears to be both physically and mentally exhausting to his captives:
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:47 pmI’d say that 85-95% of the mail I get is junk…that I then have to dispose of. I haven’t had anything in months that was not a duplicate of something I get on-line, except a paper check from SS.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:48 pm@66. FedEx and the USPS contract w/each other to move parcels as is. And of course both are subject to any changes in fuel costs. Only idiots believe everything is ’email’ these days and can replace the USPS. In Britain, the Royal Mail delivered our mail twice a day 9 AM and 4 PM., – but not on Saturdays or Sundays. America’s postal system is a triumph- a wonder to see in operation trough pretty much all conditions, natural or man-made. Businesses get adjustable rates, mail order firms flourish and citizens can mail a love letter, their phone bill, a birthday or condolence card for pennies and it arrives in a few days across the continent– or a gift to a soldier on station– or a parcel of food to a homebound Covid-19 relative for just a few dollars. It is a wonderful system that knits big cities and small town together. They serve America just as the coughing sailors aboard the TR do– and each time I go to the PO I thank them for their service.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:52 pm@72-
RipMurdock (2c04e3) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:56 pmThankfully the trash chute where I live is opposite the mailboxes.
@72. That’s capitalism; the sale of your name to mailing lists– and the postal service generates $ carrying that junk to the junkie. [The worst junk mail comes from the political parties at election day as is.] Tell the businesses you deal with- banks, insurance firm, phone companies- even the political party you are registered with, etc., to cease selling your name/address and the junk mail will subside.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:58 pmAnd each time you walk out, the employees say, “There goes that Limey-loving sucker who thinks we work here…!!! BWAAAAAhahahah!”
When I was in high school, I worked nights at the PO. The amount of mail destroyed every night was a marvel to behold.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 12:58 pm@70. Ignorance is bliss; stay happy.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:02 pm75. That loud wooooshing sound was the point flying unmolested over your empty noggin.
Again.
Some more.
Another time.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:03 pm@76. Which is why you don’t work there any more; did you spit into Big Macs when you flipped burgers at MickeyDees, too? Ignorance is truly bliss– do you want fries with that?! Stay happy.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:05 pmStupid is bliss; keep that vacant grin!
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:07 pm73. I’d say the danger of replacing the USPS came more from FedEx and UPS than ever came from TCP/IP. But competition from private industries was a large reason that the USPS went from cabinet-level department to quasi-governmental private corporation. And it did nothing to enhance USPS’s ability to hang.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:15 pm@ Col. Klink,
I want to add this to the Tara Reade situation. First, it was 1993. Way, way before anyone dreamed of MeToo, and still five years before the Clinton-Lewinsky saga broke. Women were still dealt with stigmas and disbelief when reporting crimes of this nature. How much when against a prominent and powerful figure in Washington? Further, it’s perfectly understandable to me that the woman on the phone was hesitant is disclosing details, and not mentioning Biden by name, nor the nature of the incident. What unchartered territory it must have been, how would it sound to hear an accusation against a very powerful man who might retaliate, might drag her daughter through the mud, or any number exertions of power. By that time, Biden had already been a fixture in American politics for 20 years. And it should be noted that Tara Reade confirmed that it was indeed her mother’s voice on the phone. Further, Reade told a Politico reporter last month that her mother had called Larry King’s show and referenced a “prominent senator” when on-air. That is the same wording the woman used in clip from 1993 unearthed this month.
With that, I have no idea where this will lead with regard to Biden and his campaign. But I can emphatacially say that the right gave up all moral high ground in November 2016. Why would I expect Democrats to hold to a higher standard?
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:26 pm@81. There has always been a niche for ‘private messenger services’ competing w/t postal system, but the right wing zealots- the nutbag freaks from the Reagan era- targeted many elements of government to infect with the privatization virus– just peruse the list of the contracts let to the likes of firm such as =drum roll= Halliburton– or the ol’ Blackwater crowd [private armies and electrocuting soldiers in poorly contructed showers constructed by privatized firm is a gem.] Or privatized prisons, etc., etc., etc. The list is endless evil. Deregulation; privatization; bailouts: Reaganomics. These wackos even tried to wholly privatize NASA; that push generated the Challenger disaster. [They’ll embrace Musk until he has bad day– an he will have one; then they’ll blame the space agency.] The glaring holes in the ‘national safety net’ are easy to see these days.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:29 pmThe list is endless evil.
Well, and endless lies.
There was a move to ALLOW FedEX and UPS to compete with your hallowed USPS. It resulted in a strict prohibition against any private mail carrier.
Halliburton and a couple of foreign outfits are the ONLY organizations…including our own military…who CAN do some jobs globally. Capitalism is AMAZING.
You are such a lying, anti-American git, I seriously wonder what keeps you here. Planes still leave here every day, and the drive to Canada is very pretty!
Hie thither.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:48 pm@84. Halliburton and a couple of foreign outfits are the ONLY organizations…including our own military…who CAN do some jobs globally.
You do keep proving ignorance is bliss; what a jolly ol’bean you are, wot?!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:53 pmBut I can emphatacially say that the right gave up all moral high ground in November 2016.
Because of what was said? Or what was done? How do the Rs and Ds stack up against each other re: what they’ve done since that election?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 1:55 pmYou do keep proving ignorance is bliss; what a jolly ol’bean you are, wot?!
I obviously know what I’m talking about…and it hits you like explaining internal combustion to my Golden.
For example, Halliburton has logistical capacities that are unrivaled by any organization anywhere, with maybe two competitors. I know this, and you don’t. Like so much else.
You understand the Howard Zinn version of ANTI-American history, and the Red Book of Maoist econ…very, very poorly, at that.
You actually believe the myth about Europeans purposely introducing Small Pox into Indian tribes.
Your ignorance on a host of subjects is appalling, and your compulsion to show it here is just sad.
Stupid is bliss; keep that vacant grin!
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:06 pmLas Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman in sum: “Life’s a crapshoot so take the gamble; come to Vegas.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:07 pm@87. I obviously know what I’m talking about…
In Oz.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:08 pmBecause of what was said? Or what was done?
Yes. Embrace the power of AND.
How do the Rs and Ds stack up against each other re: what they’ve done since that election?
Stacking dung-wise? Both are AMAZINGLY adept at stacking that.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:09 pmPoor DC DSM. I pity da’ fooo.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:11 pmKaopectate, Pierre. Use it.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:19 pmWhite House faces internal debate over ‘liability shield’ for firms seeking protection from coronavirus lawsuits
RipMurdock (f5f8af) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:23 pmWhite House officials are hotly debating whether and how to propose a “liability shield” that would prevent businesses from being sued by customers who contract the coronavirus, according to four people aware of the internal planning effort, as the administration seeks to encourage businesses to reopen without fear of being hit by lawsuits.
……
Trump and his chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, have publicly said the administration is working on the measure. The idea has met fierce resistance from congressional Democrats and workers’ groups, who warn it could allow employers to escape consequences for unsafe practices, complicating its likelihood of passage. Congressional Democrats are unlikely to approve the liability shield as part of the next round of negotiations.
>>>>>>>
I like these 2 combatants at intermittent times for very different reasons, but this is 80s Iran v. Iraq to me right now.
urbanleftbehind (e5b33c) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:27 pmI don’t know what that reason was, but I do know that the Department of Health and Human Services does not have a political bone in their theoretical body,
Let’s look at campaign contributions, shall we?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:30 pm@94. And Rummy played gin with both sides. 😉
“Shah! Shah! Ayatollah so!” – Robin Williams
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:31 pmDana, my gut tells me that something happened, and he’s got a history of being kind of touchy in a creepy way. Even things that would have been viewed as “innocent” then, are far from it in reality, not just now, but people in power have/had a different view, and many are just richards.
I definitely think reporting has become exceptionally more likely to occur today than in 93, and 93 was as much better than 80 again, and we still have a long way to go.
It would be awesome if this would get Biden to back out, and Bernie would go away, and Amy Klobachar and Mayor Pete would team up. If I’m going with a fantasy, then Trump is bounced out on his mentally deranged butt with the 25th amendment, and team R picks a sane person, which would probably save the Senate too.
Neither one of scenarios are likely to happen though. I think we’re more likely to survive 4 years uncle Joe vs 4 more of Donald Trump, and it isn’t that close. It also gives team R an opportunity to decide how to reset for 2024.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:33 pmThe president sees few allies no matter which channel he clicks.
“Declare victory, and get out.”
–Senator George Aiken, 1966
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:33 pmOff-open-topic:
WHO says no evidence shows that having coronavirus prevents a second infection
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/us/who-immunity-antibodies-covid-19/index.html
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:37 pmNot sure if the 3 %ers he got ink for is synonymous with Oath Keepers, but if so, they’ve become middlebrow relative to PBs, Groypers and avowed white supremacists:
http://sports.yahoo.com/new-patriots-kicker-explains-tattoo-says-hes-not-in-a-farright-militia-group-204239823.html
urbanleftbehind (e5b33c) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:38 pmWe’d be better off if we had this billionaire for president
I am in violent agreement here, Paul. His only problem is that he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, Although the current guy selects for them.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:48 pmDo you folks get Amazon packages via anything but Amazon direct deliveries any more?
Yes, lots. USPS and UPS mostly. I’m thinking those trucks are only in places they offer same-day delivery. Not out here in the sticks.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:52 pmIn other news today, The Trump admin continues to show how hard they’re working for the troops. If you don’t plan, respond late, and stupidly, these are the things that happen.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:54 pm@68. Have not used nor plan to patronized Amazon.
Ever.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:56 pm@99-
RipMurdock (f5f8af) — 4/25/2020 @ 2:59 pmSee #66
Correction-
RipMurdock (f5f8af) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:00 pm#60
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-lockdowns-were-the-black-swan-11587765416
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:10 pm104. When (not IF, but WHEN) USPS goes teets-up, you may not have any choice left, old man. 😉
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:19 pmIn all my reading about the Feds taking PPE supplies from hospitals, etc, there doesn’t seem to be any overarching plan to this. Has anyone found something that would indicate an ordered plan?
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:25 pm109. An ordered plan? From FedGov? Who are you trying to kid, Dana? They’re doing it for the same reason they do virtually everything: Because they can!
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:26 pmFrom our friends at the AIER…
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:27 pmNo Gryph, I get that, but what I’m asking is, is there an ordered plan (for example: taking a percentage of orders and the number would vary according to whether it was a VA or private hospital…).
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:29 pm112. My default suspicion is always NO. Until someone explains to me otherwise. In my 30+ years of political awareness, it’s virtually always proven to be a safe bet.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:31 pmGryphs first rule of politics:
Private citizens should never give bureaucrats the benefit of the doubt.
Gryph’s second rule of politics:
Private citizens are easily bought, and ergo give bureaucrats the benefit of the doubt far too often.
There are more, but I won’t bore you.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:32 pmWith the latest reports of plummeting death rates from all causes, this crisis is over. The pandemic of doom erupted as a panic of pols and is now a comedy of Mash-minded med admins and stooges, covering their ifs ands and butts with ever more morbid and distorted statistics.
The crisis now will hit the politicians and political Doctor Faucis who gullibly accepted and trumpeted what statistician William Briggs calls “the most colossal and costly blown forecast of all time.”
Oh, YEAH. There’s a lede that screams “objective” and “reasoned”.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:39 pm@68. Have not used nor plan to patronized Amazon. Ever.
Which demonstrates the beauty of market economics, the ONLY model consistent with people being free to chose.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:43 pmUnsurprising:
Dana (0feb77) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:43 pm115. And an article in its entirety that I believe to be true.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:47 pm117. Dana, since this CoViD-19 panic has started, I can’t help but wonder how many people spread seasonal flu at polling places every other November. It’s a fair question, and one I don’t have an answer for, but I am betting whatever that answer is, it would provide some badly needed prospective.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:49 pm119. *Perspective. Blech.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:50 pmThe daily death toll since stay at home orders have been implemented have plateaued to about 2k a day, as NYC Metro has declined, increased deaths in other areas have made up for any of the shortfall.
So, stay at home orders have flattened the curve, and hey, less people are dying in car accidents. CV-19 deaths will surpass the worst year of the opioid crisis in 2 weeks.
But hey, it’s over. Not sure how over is defined in this case. I’d assume that would mean, like not having thousands of people a dying, but kewl.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:52 pm118. Your beliefs are totally documented. Anyone here could write your posts.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:56 pmSome, but what’s your point? CV-19 isn’t the flu, so it doesn’t really matter if you find it interesting. That’s called a strawman.
How many people get shot with a bb gun every year vs, you know, an actual firearm?
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 3:57 pm123. CV-19 is proving to be as deadly as Seasonal Flu. That’s not my opinion; it’s a fact. Whether you wish to give that credit to social distancing or not, I have a feeling that’s going to be acknowledged in the end. And your cynicism doesn’t address my question: How many people spread flu during an election? Given how many people die of the flu on a yearly basis with virtually no panic at all, I’d say it’s a fair question under our current circumstances as well.
121. Thousands of people die every day of all sorts of different causes. And given the way the books are being cooked all over the nation to make CV-19 numbers appear as large as possible, I would hope for a little more anti-government anti-bureaucrat cynicism from this group that has displayed it so ably in the past.
122. And anyone could also write yours, Raggy. It doesn’t take wit and wisdom to be as rude and domineering as you are, either.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:02 pm@109. Meetings and planning… check out the wikibiologicalwarfare piece:
‘In 2010 at The Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Their Destruction in Geneva the sanitary epidemiological reconnaissance was suggested as well-tested means for enhancing the monitoring of infections and parasitic agents, for the practical implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005). ‘The aim was to prevent and minimize the consequences of natural outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases as well as the threat of alleged use of biological weapons against BTWC States Parties.’ – etc., etc.
There is likely a template ‘the powers that be’ have/are/or will attempt to overlay from this venue in battling this bug– but they certainly aren’t going to publicize it as a resource to avoid extrapolation becoming unfounded speculation [a la Fox News] and stir panic.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:04 pmTrump defenders have said that whatever Trump did before he became president is irrelevant — and even that running for president was his way of “atoning” for past “excesses.”
They have ridiculed questions of character (when Trump is the subject) as old-fashioned, naive, puritanical, or something that only losers and haters would care about.
They have dismissed Trump’s glaring character defects — routine dishonesty, selfishness, gross self-absorption, petty vindictiveness, total lack of empathy, etc. — as merely “personality” or “style,” i.e. the superficial aesthetic concerns of prissy elitists.
They have said that only “policy” is important, and have even redefined “character” to mean “I like this or that policy he’s promoting at the moment.”
Many people who used to preach that “character matters” or stress the importance of personal virtue have changed their tune rather strikingly, because their old tune is discordant with defending Trump at every turn and trashing his critics.
When Trump bragged that could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters, his fans weren’t bothered by his cynical arrogance or even offended by the obvious insult to their moral judgment. Instead, many of them answered with vows of devotion, e.g. “There’s nothing he could do that would make me stop supporting him!”
Radegunda (39c35f) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:05 pmAnd anyone could also write yours, Raggy. It doesn’t take wit and wisdom to be as rude and domineering as you are, either.
If you don’t want me calling you Moana, you’ll use my moniker.
Also, what you stated was a lie. But I think it’s cute you think I’m “domineering”.
Heh…!!!
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:13 pm“And given the way the books are being cooked all over the nation to make CV-19 numbers appear as large as possible”
This isn’t true, in fact it’s the opposite.
Davethulhu (c83b37) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:42 pmI don’t know what that reason was, but I do know that the Department of Health and Human Services does not have a political bone in their theoretical body,
She’s not only dishonest, she’s illiterate too. Pence would chew her up and spit her out. Too bad.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:42 pmhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/wisconsin-saw-no-coronavirus-infection-rate-spike-after-april-7-election-study-says
Dana,
For your consumption.
NJRob (8303a1) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:43 pmPlease, show your work.
In NYC the mortality rate is currently 0.14%…OF THE ENTIRE POPULATION, not of the infected, but of the total population of the city. What do you think the mortality rate is of the seasonal flu, just of the infected, not of the entire population, why don’t you look it up, I’ll wait.
So if it was a fact, a 7 month flu season in New York would be more than or equal to the 12k CV-19 deaths, right?
Oddly enough, no, it’s less than half, actually less than half of half, actually almost half of that half of half.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 4:57 pmFrom the source, ahem…
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:04 pmYes Klink. And the point of living is that you cannot prevent all infections. It didn’t cause an explosion like those anti-voting people feared.
Life must go on.
NJRob (8303a1) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:08 pmMost states that aren’t massive population hubs have very low occurrences and should not be engaging in draconian shutdowns depriving citizens of their constitutional rights.
NJRob (8303a1) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:09 pmAnd the point of living is that you cannot prevent all infections.
Huh…??? This IS news! I would have asserted ALLLLLLLlllll kinds of things were “the point of living” upstream of that one!
It didn’t cause an explosion like those anti-voting people feared.
Now, see, you won’t find anybody using “explosion” anywhere. You don’t want to start that whole gaslighting cycle again, right?
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:14 pmBecause it can’t happen there, like in Sioux Falls South Dakota, or in Chambers county Alabama, or Upson County Georgia, or the vicinity of Albany Georgia. Just because it’s not impacted a tiny area doesn’t mean it won’t, and doesn’t mean it can’t, and probably hasn’t happened specifically because of the the stay at home order.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:15 pmMost states that aren’t massive population hubs have very low occurrences and should not be engaging in draconian shutdowns depriving citizens of their constitutional rights.
So innit good that they are not. Huh?
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:15 pmKlink, are you seriously claiming that fear is a viable public policy and that we should be under the thumb of the state because of what might happen?
NJRob (8303a1) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:27 pmAnd the Smithfield plant proved what BS this draconian lockdown really is. An essential business that would’ve been open no matter what. High infection rate, low death rate.
NJRob (8303a1) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:30 pmIf klink was a hardcore, far-left Democrat, what would he be doing differently?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:32 pmAm I the only one who sees the Post Office/Amazon blackmail as Ukraine/Biden all over again? I didn’t think that I’m the only who knows that Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, is also the owner of The Washington Post, a more serious political enemy of MoeLarryCurly than Joe Biden.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:32 pmIf Trump was a foreign asset sent to hinder the fight against the coronavirus, and to have more Americans as well as the economy die, what would he be doing differently? h/t Colonel Haiku
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:35 pmIf 98 to 99% of the cases are minor in nature (and many of those infected don’t even know it) why does a continued economic shutdown seem a rational solution?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:37 pmAn essential business that would’ve been open no matter what.
Now, see, that’s confusing. If it’s essential, why is it closed…no matter what?
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:37 pmSkip to 13:40 mark, pretty interesting take from Dr. David Katz…
https://youtu.be/PLylsT1Pr3M
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:42 pmI don’t know, maybe its the 1 or 2 percent?
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:45 pm146. I know Math is hard, Klink, but if it’s 1 or 2 percent focused mainly on nursing homes, hospitals, and businesses with large numbers of third-world foreign nationals (like meatpacking plants), maybe we can concentrate on those hotspots without s**ting all over everyone else.
140. Not much, if anything.
138. I can’t speak for him, but that is sure what it sounds like, innit?
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:50 pmFirst, not true, the nursing homes and care facilities actually account for only 25%, but why quibble, you are always so informed by reality.
Second, even assuming your weren’t lying about the first, you put no value on their lives? Why do we let nursing homes exist, it’s only the old and sick that go there, so we should just let them die instead. Well, if your old, you may go to a nursing home sometime, so we shouldn’t extend the effort to even keeping them alive long enough to get to the home. Please, Gryph, at what age should we start culling the old? Let us know.
But that was assuming your first fact was correct…which it wasn’t.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:56 pmAlso, do you understand how a viral hotspot becomes a hotspot?
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:58 pm…maybe we can concentrate on those hotspots without s**ting all over everyone else.
You tell whoever is s**ting all over you to just stop that, right NOW. Tell them I said.
You’ll perhaps note that Smithfield shut down of their own volition.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 5:58 pmBreaking-
White House weighing plan to replace Azar
For those of you concerned about the length of my article quotes, the above represents 18.5% of the total words in the article.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:11 pmAlmost, but even fire departments aren’t private; they’re public entities, for the most part. Prisons and police departments have functioned worse as private enterprises.
Paul Montagu (489173) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:17 pmThere’s still a role for the USPS, perhaps less of a role, but still a role.
@141
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:19 pmThere is certainly more direct evidence of Trump’s Amazon/USPS shakedown than there ever was of Biden/Ukraine. There is no “there there” regarding B/U.
Why do some American universities continue to support the Chinese Communist Party?
Right now the nation and globe are battling against a deadly viral pandemic that originated in China. Long before this war started, however, another was underway in America: the Chinese government’s infiltration of American college campuses.
More than 100 Confucius Institutes have been opened at American universities since the program’s founding in 2004. These academic centers are funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, in exchange for a platform on American campuses to trumpet Communist propaganda under the guise of goodwill academic exchanges.
Despite widespread concerns in academia and Congress about this Chinese subterfuge, the vast majority of Confucius Institutes remain open on campus. Their continued operation shows that the federal government has few options to compel colleges to protect academic freedom. Moral persuasion – and public shaming – must take on a bigger role.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/coronavirus-isnt-the-only-chinese-infiltration-menacing-the-u-s-college-campuses-are-the-target/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:23 pmAlmost, but even fire departments aren’t private; they’re public entities, for the most part. Prisons and police departments have functioned worse as private enterprises.
If you look, you’ll find that about 70% of fire services in the US are volunteer departments.
The prison systems are a mixed bag. I can’t think of a government system I’d care to be in. According to people I’ve known who’ve been in the Texas system, they preferred the private pens.
Police departments are unique, and pretty much have to be governmental.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:24 pmVolunteer fire departments are funded by local government and by donations. It is certified, dispatched, etc. by State and Local governments.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:29 pmIf you want a good example, look at state road departments vs. private contractors.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:30 pmVolunteer fire departments are funded by local government and by donations. It is certified, dispatched, etc. by State and Local governments.
So? So are private ambulances certified and dispatched by government entities.
As are prisons certified, and sometimes staffed by govt. employees.
Any public road is inspected by the respective state, regardless of who does the work.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:38 pmTop Pentagon leaders split on next steps for fired captain who warned of coronavirus
For those of you concerned about the length of my article quotes, the above represents 23.2% of the total words in the article.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:40 pmShortage of Volunteer Firefighters Threatens Fire Departments’ Existence
Without enough volunteers to respond to emergencies, some fire departments are cutting services or even shutting down. Most are changing the way they recruit.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:48 pmSeveral big cities are bleeding police officers without replacements, too.
Being a first responder is not first on everyone’s list.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 6:54 pmIt seems Trump is being pro-active about one thing at least
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/494663-trump-campaign-pans-coronavirus-panel-as-third-witch-hunt-in-three-years
Kishnevi (82cec7) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:01 pmI didn’t say it lightly, Kevin, because Gates is a Democrat. But he’s from my neck of the woods and I get where he and his family came from, which is generally moderate.
Paul Montagu (489173) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:04 pmThe mayor also proposed a “Hunger Game” recovery for Las Vegas
As opposed to a Hunger Game at home. If any place in the US is more dependent on the tourist industry than Las Vegas, it’s not obvious. Maui? If they open everything, and no one comes, they can go back home and huddle up. I expect some GREAT deals on rooms and food in Vegas in the near future though.
Las Vegas without the “industry” is a lot like Needles.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:12 pmIt’s been a good weekend, despite the sheets of rain.
Paul Montagu (489173) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:13 pmI’m on episode 8 of Bosch, season 6, and it’s as good as ever, one of my favorite series. I’ve got a fever and I can’t let go…
I also took the plunge and got Disney Plus, and I’m on the 4th episode of The Mandalorian, which is decent. Mrs. Montagu likes Baby Yoda and I like the “I have spoken” guy.
I didn’t say it lightly, Kevin, because Gates is a Democrat.
For it to work, he’d have to run as an independent, like Perot. As I’ve said before, a business partner of mine met with Gates on the afternoon of 9/11/01, and described him as brilliant and focused. That’s the kind of person I want running the country at a time like this.
And I wouldn’t expect him to be packing the courts with whackjobs or pursue innumerate policies.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:16 pmI’m on episode 8 of Bosch, season 6, and it’s as good as ever, one of my favorite series. I’ve got a fever and I can’t let go
I’m on the long wait now for Season 7. Having read all the Connelley books, I notice the changes (notably Irvin’s entire character and J Edgar’s continuing presence), but it’s OK. It still captures the L.A. noir flavor or the books.
I wonder how it would work placed back 20 years and in B&W, but that’s probably not a good marketing direction.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:22 pmPlease, Gryph, at what age should we start culling the old? Let us know.
Hard to say, but culling the young is no answer either.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:24 pmSilencing unpopular speech is not “protecting academic freedom”. In fact it’s the opposite.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:24 pmSilencing unpopular speech is not “protecting academic freedom”. In fact it’s the opposite.
One man’s “unpopular speech” is another man’s Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:29 pmUm, no.
Paul Montagu (c3cc3a) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:35 pmhttps://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b13f75f-d4eb-4a3d-82d4-ed0b3ea6e137_843x443.jpeg
148. Where did I say anything about “culling the old,” a$$hole? What I said and what I meant was, if the hotspots center around nursing homes and dense concentrations of third-world foreign nationals, that is where we should concentrate our efforts in protecting people instead of nuking the entire economy on the basis of what we’re not sure about. I might entertain your so-called “arguments” if you can make them without getting personal because I’d rather not see the largest economic turd dropped on America since…ever.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:37 pmHard to say, but culling the young is no answer either.
Yah, boy, we’re all talking about doing that!
Not…
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:37 pm“America’s college administrators will sell us the platforms which we will modify to include the trap doors that will open when we hang them.”
—- Xi Jinping
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:38 pmAnd both are protected by law.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:38 pm171. That graph is grotesquely misleading. It’s deaths per millions of confirmed cases. That does not take into account the large majority of infections that remain asymptomatic. When we do start testing more, we’ll see the number of confirmed cases increase and the percentage of deaths decrease even as the “experts” encourage yet more panic.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:40 pmGorsh, Gryph, Klink’s arguments are certainly effective against you.
“So-called” or not.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:40 pm177. If by “effective” you mean they get under my skin, yeah. I kind of have a thing about personal attacks. If by “effective” you mean he’s done anything other than going from annoying me to pi$$ing me off? Not so much.
Gryph (08c844) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:41 pmI kind of have a thing about personal attacks.
Yes. You like them.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:43 pmYes, Ragw, but they’re not private enterprises. They’re government-funded fire districts, financed by taxpayers. A couple of friends of mine are volunteers. They’re well aware that their employers are not private, for-profit enterprises.
Paul Montagu (489173) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:48 pm.
You said…
By the way, all the meatpacking plant deaths combined don’t hit a hundred, the US death toll is nearly 55,000. So try to explain your thought process again. Other than the racism and ridiculousness.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:51 pm>>>One man’s “unpopular speech” is another man’s Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
And both are protected by law.
Certainly not true in China, and maybe not even true in the US. Anyone who is lobbying for China needs to register with the State Department, and being a source of Communist Party propaganda seems pretty close to that.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:52 pmRemarkable that some people think that the right way to express our disdain for China’s Communist leaders is by following their example…
Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:52 pmWe’ve noticed, it’s your go to response.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:54 pmSilencing unpopular speech is not “protecting academic freedom”. In fact it’s the opposite.
Silencing unpopular speech on the right is “protecting the university/marginalized students/campus safety” or “clamping down on hate speech” (take your pick). Silencing unpopular speech on the left is fascism.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:55 pmHard to say, but culling the young is no answer either.
The point being that we are in the process of driving a life-long wedge between the young and the old, making a mild generation gap into something ugly. “OK, Boomer!” will seem so polite soon enough.
The first demagogue who promises to free the young of their servitude to the old, in the form of SS/Medicare payroll taxes, will get quite a following. When the next “Dole Commission” recommends increasing the tax burden and delaying benefits, The S will hit the fan.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 7:59 pmThey’re government-funded fire districts, financed by taxpayers. A couple of friends of mine are volunteers. They’re well aware that their employers are not private, for-profit enterprises.
And nobody said they were “for profit”.
My local volunteer department derives support from contributions. They also charge fees in some cases. ALL of it comes from taxpayers, one way or another.
Before meandering off down this goat trail, the point was that mail could and should be delivered by another means than the monopoly USPS.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:08 pmAnyone who is lobbying for China needs to register with the State Department, and being a source of Communist Party propaganda seems pretty close to that.
You’re doing that hair-on-fire thing again. What with your generational strife bullroar and all, too.
Calm yourself.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:12 pmRagspierre wrote:
If the Postal Service raises its rates for Amazon, or the federal government has to bail out the Postal Service, are not those things both ‘tax increases’?
At least if the USPS increases its parcel rates to the point where it can support itself, the ‘hidden tax increase’ falls on Amazon customers, not the public in general.
The Dana in Kentucky (a2adc1) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:14 pmYes. If they are breaking the law, why hasn’t the Trump administration done something about it in 3+ years?
I confess, I had never heard of any “Confucius Institute” until it became Col. Haiku’s latest bogeyman. If they are supposed to be some massive propaganda network, they don’t seem very effective at it judging by the complete lack of any discernable messaging.
RT, on the other hand, is very visible and openly engaged in anti-American propaganda on Putin’s behalf, 24×7.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:15 pmAt least if the USPS increases its parcel rates to the point where it can support itself, the ‘hidden tax increase’ falls on Amazon customers, not the public in general.
You figure Amazon’s are the only parcels the postal monopoly handles?
I guess you haven’t read all the other comments here.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:18 pmMr Murdock wrote:
Perhaps I’d have more sympathy for the USPS — and my younger daughter worked as a mailman for a year out of the Versailles Post Office — if they’d actually deliver mail to our house.
Oops, sorry, no; the local Post Office would be happy to deliver mail to a rural box on a state highway on the other side of the railroad tracks, where I couldn’t even mount a box because the grade drops off steeply and into railroad ballast stone, but not to my house. We have to maintain a P O Box address.
The Dana in Kentucky (a2adc1) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:20 pmFire-Fighting for Profit
Fire-fighting services don’t need to be provided by government. For-profit is better, and Scottsdale, Arizona, industry leader Rural/Metro Corporation proves the point. Mayor Herbert R. Drinkwater doesn’t need prodding to lavish praise on Scottsdale’s second largest nationally headquartered company. “I’m a great believer that the private sector can normally do things a little better than the public sector—and for less money,” says Drinkwater. “Our fire service does a superb job,” he continues matter-of-factly. “The citizens of Scottsdale love it. I get compliments all the time on Rural/Metro’s performance.”
………
The subscription process is voluntary. Rural/ Metro contracts with home and property owners in subscription areas, who pay annual fees for fire protection and emergency medical service, level of service is based on population density and geography.
Rural/Metro is the first-responder agency in these locales. A non-subscriber must pay a fairly high hourly rate per fire-fighting unit if it is necessary for Rural/Metro to respond to a fire at that person’s residence or property. (The adequate protection of members’ properties requires response to all fires and medical emergencies in a subscription area.)
Also:
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:22 pmFire Protection Privatization: A Cost-Effective Approach to Public Safety
Again, as far as the finances go, package delivery appears to actually pay for itself, it’s the daily delivery of mail pieces that is problematic. They lose about a buck per mail piece.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:24 pmMany people don’t realize it, but any kind of insurance on real property and some personalty is heavily determined by the kind of fire service you have.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:26 pmRagspierre wrote:
Please note that I said “if the USPS increases its parcel rates,” not “if the USPS increases its rates to Amazon.”
In areas where USPS has the Amazon delivery contract, USPS workers are out seven days a week delivering Amazon parcels. Yeah, some of the mailmen make a lot of overtime pay, and some of them really like that, but parcel senders should pay for the service.
If the USPS is not charging enough to cover delivery expenses, then the government is, in effect, subsidizing Jeff Bezos and other parcel senders.
The Dana in Kentucky (a2adc1) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:26 pmAt least if the USPS increases its parcel rates to the point where it can support itself, the ‘hidden tax increase’ falls on Amazon customers, not the public in general.
THAT is what you said.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:30 pmThe Development of Municipal Fire Departments in the United States
In 1852 not one city in the United States paid its firemen; they were all volunteers. By 1880 most of the cities with more than 10,000 people—and many with fewer—had municipally paid fire departments, as did most cities in Europe. But until 1866 the fire department serving the city of London was neither volunteer nor municipally paid; it was privately owned and operated by the city’s fire insurance underwriters.
This article is an inquiry into the reasons for government provision of a specific economic service—that of extinguishing fires—in the United States. It is, therefore, an inquiry into the reasons why fire companies or departments have rarely been, in the United States, privately owned and operated for profit.1 The purpose of the inquiry is to explain how and why this service came to be provided by government and to offer a general model to explain government provision of any particular good or service in a basically private enterprise economy.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:30 pm………
Fire-fighting services were provided privately—by the insurance companies—in the city of London for some time, but this was never the case in the United States. Because fire insurance companies benefit from efficient fire-fighting, they appear to be logical private institutions for providing this service. The reasons for the eventual establishment of a municipal fire department in London, and for the absence of fire companies or departments owned and operated by fire insurance companies in the United States, are therefore relevant to the inquiry into the reasons for the establishment of municipally paid fire departments in this country.
……
Look up the economic law of substitution.
ANY shipper of parcels will find another means to their ends if the postal monopoly forces them.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:33 pmMr Murdock noted the private fire-fighting response in Scottsdale. In Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, a tony home rule community that is a suburb to Philadelphia, township officials closed an entire volunteer fire station because one of the members made an application to join the Proud Boys.
The personal beliefs of the volunteer caused the township to ask for his resignation from the fire company. He submitted his resignation, but his friends at the fire company supported him and refused to accept it. And thus, the entire fire company has been dismissed. A deputy police chief investigated the fireman in question, and found no evidence that he had done anything wrong.
The Dana in Kentucky (a2adc1) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:36 pmWhich has nothing to do with this discussion.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:39 pmCalm yourself.
Why is this troll permitted to bash every post he sees with nothing but bile and spit?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:45 pmWealthy’s use of private firefighters ignites debate in wildfire country
As wildfires burn from Maine to Michigan, and California slowly recovers from last year’s devastating — and costly — wildfire season, a debate has ignited over the use of private firefighting teams deployed by insurance companies and used to protect homes belonging largely to the wealthy.
The insurance companies offering this additional service are often for policyholders with properties valued at more than $1 million — and for homeowners with these insurance plans, having this extra protection can be the difference between their home surviving the fire and burning to the ground.
…….
Chubb’s “Wildfire Defense Services” are available for properties in wildfire-prone areas in 18 states. The company automatically sends its own “professional firefighters” to help protect homes before, during and after wildfires.
Like a growing number of insurance companies offering similar services, Chubb’s firefighters can trim trees and move combustible material away from a home, spray it with gel or water and cover vents to prevent hot embers from getting inside a home.
Global insurer AIG pioneered the idea in 2005, offering wildfire mitigation and protection from active wildfires as an optional service to the elite policyholders in their Private Client Group. Policies can run from “several thousand dollars to several tens-of-thousands,” depending on location and home value, said AIG’s Stephen Poux, the Group’s Global Head of Risk Management and Loss Prevention. Members of the Group are affluent policyholders including 42 percent of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans, said Poux.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:51 pm…….
“Our specific goal is to work with policyholder structures,” (David Torgerson, the President of Wildfire Defense Systems) said. “We’re only allowed to access the properties that we’re given permission to access by policyholders,” he said, meaning that unlike publicly funded fire agencies, WDS makes determinations about which homes in a neighborhood it will defend from fire.
………
Why is this troll permitted to bash every post he sees with nothing but bile and spit?
See? You just get all worked up when anyone disagrees with you.
I’m saying for your own good…calm down. I’m going to bed. You need some rest, too.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/25/2020 @ 8:56 pmWhatever ….
Is this the time for President MoeLarryCurly to be f***ing with deliveries to people locked up in their homes, by any legitimate carrier, from any legitimate retailer?
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:01 pmhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/24/strokes-coronavirus-young-patients/
There is no blood-brain barrier in the mucosa of the upper third of the sinus cavity. These strokes should not be a total surprise. It has been known for what?, a month?, longer?, that loss of smell is one of the symptoms of the infection.
nk (1d9030) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:22 pmWhile we are talking about the “efficiency” of private mail rather than the post office: UPS, today, shipped my package (by road) almost directly past my house in order to send it almost 2 hrs away to transfer it to the US postal service for delivery. There is a major post office hub less than 20 minutes away from me (where my packages sent directly through USPS go directly to), so I know it is not the post office being ridiculous here. Which means that tomorrow or Monday I’m going to see it BACK TRACK 100+ miles to get to me some time next week. I am in a suburb of a major population center. DHL once made me take an afternoon off work in order to get a package because my choices were to drive at minimum 45 minute there and another 45 minutes back to pick up my package from their hub between 12:00 and 4:00 or be home to receive it between 2:00 and 4:00, even though I had marked the “drop off, no signature needed” spot on the delivery form. The post office drops my packages on my porch or, if I needed to go get one, it would take 10 minutes at my local post office. Going to private mail would not serve the consumer well in my experience.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/25/2020 @ 9:56 pmOh, and apparently they sent my other package, ordered from the same place at the same time and apparently originating at the same warehouse on the same day and shipped at the same time, according to the tracking data, also through UPS, directly to my local main distribution center and NOT to the one 100 miles away. Which means that they had a truck going directly here at that time from that place and they put my other package on a different truck. Do I know why my order was sent in several packages? Nope, but there is probably some reasonable explanation about cost/volume. Do I know why one was sent 100 miles away and one was sent to my local center? Nope, but I can be pretty sure it’s not because UPS, the private mail service, is being efficient.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:09 pmJust finished the season. I’ve read a lot of Connelly’s books, Kevin, but not all, but I appreciate their keeping to the spirit of his writing, and it helps that he’s an executive producer. It’s a gem. I thought they were done after Season 4, so for me it’s gravy from here on out, but they could go on and on, even have Maddie Bosch take equal billing.
Paul Montagu (924321) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:12 pm59. Dave (1bb933) — 4/25/2020 @ 11:08 am
That article said one [1] of the 14 chosen gave false positives 0% of the time Two others were at about 1%, which you say is still usable.
But they also gave false negatives about 10% of the time.
New York’s State’s independently developed test that showed more than 20% of people who shopped at supermarkets had anti-coronovirus antibodies probably is much the same as the 3 good ones.
Why? To slow things down? Everyone knew, pretty soon, they were of unknown reliability. They weren’t being used to make decisions, pretty much. Chicago used an antibody test them as step 1 in screening because it gave fast results.
They were being field tested in effect.
The only thing that should have been doe differently, is that the government tests of the tests should have been done faster.
Pulse oximeters are maybe suggesting crazy things about the virus.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/coronavirus-testing-pneumonia.html
Now he argues they are still getting rid of the carbon dioxide, and with that people can function even at 50% oxygen saturaton, possibly breathing more.
But isn’t it also possible that covid-19 does something that throws off these oxygen readings? It causes more clots. But maybe he’s right.
Sammy Finkelman (329d95) — 4/25/2020 @ 10:15 pmWashington post’s ruth marcus who wrote a book about bret kavenaugh’s accuser christine blasé-ford who marcus found completely believable said she found tara read’s accusation against groper joe biden unbelievable. When she was asked what part of the larry king video she found unbelievable she said she hung up the phone!
asset (0968ec) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:30 amyou elitists who called for the deaths of millions better come up with a better scam. you people must be so disappointed more Americans didn’t die.you people.
mg (8cbc69) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:56 amI’m saying for your own good…calm down. I’m going to bed. You need some rest, too.
GFY
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:43 am@212 Are you making sense to yourself? Because I’m pretty sure that no one on this board (and almost no one anywhere else, barring really crazy people) wants millions of people to die in order to win a casual political argument on the internet or even a political argument IRL. People who run computer models of hurricanes or disease vectors or even climate predictions aren’t trying to kill people, they are trying to save them. They may be wrong or their models might be off, but generally they genuinely are trying to get accurate information in order to save people. Do you understand that people who disagree with you, and even people who make a mistake or are flat out wrong are not actually evil?
Nic (896fdf) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:27 amyou people will return to the russian hoax in one, two, three. I bet you people cashed the Trump check.
mg (8cbc69) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:36 amNah, I’m not a hooker who needs to be kept quiet, so Trump isn’t sending me a check. But I hear that Nancy Pelosi wrote a bill that would cause the IRS to direct deposit some money into my checking account. I don’t personally think that people I disagree with are evil, so I don’t feel the need to invest it all in a long spoon. How about you? Planning to use your money to buy a long spoon?
Nic (896fdf) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:14 amNah, I’m not a hooker who needs to be kept quiet, so Trump isn’t sending me a check. But I hear that Nancy Pelosi wrote a bill that would cause the IRS to direct deposit some money into my checking account.
Sometimes we agree so much, Mr. Nic, that it scares me.
nk (1d9030) — 4/26/2020 @ 4:03 amAs for privatizing essential government functions ….
It is a well-known fact that only half of the horse-sh!t in Texas actually comes from horses. The other half comes from Ron Paul and his fellow loony-toons.
nk (1d9030) — 4/26/2020 @ 6:01 amnk, name all “essential government functions” that you think exist. Why are they “essential”?
At what level of government should they exist? Should they exist above that level?
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 6:48 amThere’s no reason to return to it unless there’s evidence that Trump people and Putin people are conspiring to help Trump win this year. Maybe Trump learned his lesson this time around.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/26/2020 @ 7:36 amIt was established that Putin was engaged in a “sweeping and systematic” effort to help Trump win, there was evidence of ten incidences of obstruction of justice by Trump, and there was evidence that Putin people and Trump people conspired to help Trump (but insufficient to conclude with confidence). Pelosi decided that obstruction was not impeachable but Trump’s mischief with Ukraine was.
And yet the Dems push for it…
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/24/28_million_mail-in_ballots_went_missing_in_last_four_elections_143033.html
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 8:35 amWow, it’s almost like some of the people who requested absentee ballots, or had them mailed to them automatically under state law, decided for whatever reason not to fill them out and return them.
Diabolical!
Dave (1bb933) — 4/26/2020 @ 8:40 amhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWOHtmdT7E
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 8:43 amBetween 2012 and 2018, 28.3 million mail-in ballots remain unaccounted for, according to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission. The missing ballots amount to nearly one in five of all absentee ballots and ballots mailed to voters residing in states that do elections exclusively by mail.
States and local authorities simply have no idea what happened to these ballots since they were mailed – and the figure of 28 million missing ballots is likely even higher because some areas in the country, notably Chicago, did not respond to the federal agency’s survey questions. This figure does not include ballots that were spoiled, undeliverable, or came back for any reason.
Although there is no evidence that the millions of missing ballots were used fraudulently, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which compiled the public data provided from the Election Assistance Commission, says that the sheer volume of them raises serious doubts about election security.
OK. Good. Raise doubts. Fine. Be skeptical. Sure. But so what, on this evidence?
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 8:46 amhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8255763/Thousands-Californians-flock-open-beaches-despite-Gov-Newsoms-pleas-stay-home.html
Fresh air, sun, saltwater. Imprison the subjects for daring to ignore the law from the crown.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 8:51 amRob, you ol’ gaslighter, you.
Here’s what you left out…
California recorded its deadliest day yet, with 115 fatalities in the 24 hours from Wednesday to Thursday
As of Thursday there were more than 40,000 confirmed cases in the state; the death toll stands at 1,597
Californians locked down for weeks during the pandemic came back to beaches as the weather warmed
Gov. Newsom on Friday pleaded for social distancing during the continued heat wave expected this weekend
So, NOT “orders” at all, but a plea. It’s almost like you can’t deal honestly with the facts.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:05 amOld: If Trump had warned us in January, we could have had tests and contact-tracing in place when the pandemic hit us in March!
New: Trump’s plan to open back up won’t work because we don’t have enough testing to make contact-tracing work. These things take time — 2 months isn’t long enough!
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:06 amOld: If Trump had warned us in January, we could have had tests and contact-tracing in place when the pandemic hit us in March!
New: Trump’s plan to open back up won’t work because we don’t have enough testing to make contact-tracing work. These things take time — 2 months isn’t long enough!
Please provide links for support of both propositions.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:09 amTypical troll move.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:11 amAw. I’d hoped a little rest would improve your nasty, reptilian disposition.
I asked a nice, civil question. Apparently one you can’t answer; hence the attack.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:13 amKevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:06 am
If Trump had taken steps to prepare in January, we (best case) would have been able to stifle the virus before it spread (medium case) had it under enough control to obviaye the economic shutdown (worst case) cut down the number of deaths.
Instead we still don’t have enough tests, and probably won’t, to anything safely for the foreseeable future, per Drs Birx and Fauci.
Kishnevi (4490a8) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:18 amRudeness is very Trump-like.
DRJ (15874d) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:30 amYeah, blame it all on POTUS. It certainly can’t be any fault of a complacent, incompetent, slow-to-act federal bureaucracy.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:32 amLaugh a little with SNL’s Dr Anthony Fauci.
DRJ (15874d) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:32 amWhy not blame Trump for tests? He blamed Obama.
DRJ (15874d) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:34 amNo. Stop or I moderate you. I know what he said. I read everything. I am addressing you. Stop it.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:35 amConfucius Institute day: Colonel in shower playing with tool not necessarily plumber.
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:39 amWhoops.
Maybe a Freudian slip – every day is Confucius Institute Day when Haiku’s on the thread.
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:40 amI asked a nice, civil question. Apparently one you can’t answer; hence the attack.
The “troll move” I alluded to, is hoop-creating. Anything someone posts, a troll asks them for backup, then complains about the backup and asks for more and more. It was old back on CompuServe.
I do apologize, however, for a three-letter comment I made late last night. I try to maintain more civility than that. I apologize to Patterico, too, for that.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:41 am@233 part of his job is to be the leader of the bureaucracy and push them to accomplish more then they would if left to their own devices. Another part of his job is to reform and improve it.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:45 amOn March 25, 2020, The Onion predicted Trump’s disinfectant comments:
DRJ (15874d) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:45 am@227 that’s a false contrast.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:46 amDRJ, the more I think about it the more it seems likely that he just has no first hand experience of what disinfectants actually are.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:49 amhttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-prisons-testing-in/in-four-u-s-state-prisons-nearly-3300-inmates-test-positive-for-coronavirus-96-without-symptoms-idUSKCN2270RX
Anyone explain how to stop a virus that acts like a vaccine most of the time and can kill 1% otherwise?
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:50 amLeviticus, I answered your remarks up thread. Trying to determine if it was to your satisfaction and if you’re going to respond as you said you would.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:51 amCNN Politics
@CNNPolitics
Speaker Pelosi on Trump’s China travel restriction: “Tens of thousands of people were still allowed in from China. It wasn’t as it is described as this great moment. … If you’re going to shut the door because you have an evaluation of an epidemic, then shut the door” #CNNSOTU
_ _
The Partyman
@PartymanRandy
·
Watch Jake Tapper bravely sit there and nod as Pelosi suggests we should have stranded thousands of US citizens in China.
__ _
You’d think the news media would’ve learned by now that if they just reported the news instead of being an arm of the DNC, that most Americans still might be listening to them.
harkin (8f4a6f) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:53 am_
133, 134… COVID-19…. these states lightly touched by the virus should be open for biz, armchair amateur epidemiologists be damned.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:54 amJ. L. Hamilton
@absinthol
·
CNN removed the August 11th, 1993 Larry King Episode from Google Play, the episode featuring a call from Tara Reade’s mother. CNN is actively colluding with the Biden campaign to cover up evidence of Biden’s sexual assault.
__ _
lol
harkin (8f4a6f) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:55 am_
@227 that’s a false contrast.
Why? Just today, I’ve read that re-opening is so chancy because there are not enough good tests for contact-tracing, yet somehow Trump is supposed to have produced them in March to allow contact-tracing instead of lock-down if he hadn’t been such a dick.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:56 amWhat I said was “I will call Murphy an idiot if you call Trump an idiot.” You refused to call Trump an idiot, looking past a mountain of evidence for the proposition. You tried to hedge, transparently.
My offer still stands.
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:56 amLast one was for NJRob
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:56 amI figured you’d do that in bad faith Leviticus. I answered in a reasonable manner, but you’d rather I just insult someone I don’t interact with.
In more important news…
https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/04/26/1993-cnn-show-featuring-tara-reades-mom-gone-missing-google-play/
Must be a glitch. Maybe the server was damaged after it was wiped with a cloth.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 9:59 amPut some ice on that!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:01 amAnyone explain how to stop a virus that acts like a vaccine most of the time and can kill 1% otherwise?
You stop it in China. Having failed to do that, it’s much harder. And it’s not actually “like a vaccine” in non-symptomatic cases. It’s trying to jump to a more receptive host.
“Time … is on my side … yes it is.”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:01 amI’d rather you admit the obvious, but it’s hard for folks of a certain disposition to admit the Emperor has no clothes.
Leviticus (f5589b) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:01 amTime123,
Maybe. I doubt he cleans things. He probably calls someone to clean. But he is said to be a germophobe so presumably he knows about hand-cleaners, soap, etc. Does he drink them, too?
DRJ (15874d) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:03 amDoes he drink them, too?
No, he is (just barely) to smart for that.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:04 am*too
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:05 amI keep reading that Americans are gaining weight as one result of the lockdown. I’ve lost 15 lbs. since it went into effect in Caliunicornia.
One thing I have noticed is that the local Krispy Kreme drive-thru that didn’t ever seem to be busy when I drove by is now slammed, morning or night.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:13 amAnyone else been losing weight?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:13 am#227 — There’s no contradiction. If Trump, with the first intel in January, had seen the problem as something more than an inconvenience to himself and an attack on his own reelection chances, we would be in a better situation now.
A month ago — in late March — there were Trump defenders ridiculing the “experts” who warned that “thousands” would die. They thought those dastardly “experts” were just trying to scare us all into submission and to hurt Donald Trump.
For some weeks now, we’ve had 2,000 people dying every day with lock-downs in effect and a lot of voluntary social distancing and face masks. But Trump defenders keep insisting that they were always right and Trump was always right, and the numbers are fake, and the real problem is people trying to hurt Trump for no reason at all.
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:17 amNo, he is (just barely) too smart for that.
FIFY, smarty pants!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:23 amI imagine that everyone complying with quarantine guidelines are experiencing, to one degree or another, some depression, even if momentarilly. I have personally seen two different, general results, of depression; weight gain from eating in a need to fill a perceived void, and weight loss from self-neglect due to a sense of helplessness.
People are so different. But then, maybe you are either just a pig, or you have no money and are simply starving. YMMV.
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:29 amIt appears the current objective is to prevent infections altogether, at least in the minds of long lockdown fans/proponents.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:34 amMaybe because Trump’s public statements indicated that he didn’t see anything needing serious action, and he said it would soon disappear like magic. And because other people have reported their concern that he wasn’t taking it seriously. And because even now, Fauci & Birx are obviously aware that Trump’s insatiable ego doesn’t permit full candor.
Trump is the one who said “I alone can fix it.” He said he really understands science and medicine. He says he’s got a great brain. He said his authority as “absolute,” and that his subordinates will do whatever he tells them. His defenders say he has “sharp instincts” and that he’s a great “problem solver.”
So why are we never supposed to hold him accountable for anything that doesn’t go right under his watch?
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:37 ameveryone…
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:38 amareis[sigh, I blame it on being suckered by the plurality of “guidelines”}The “troll move” I alluded to, is hoop-creating. Anything someone posts, a troll asks them for backup, then complains about the backup and asks for more and more. It was old back on CompuServe.
And, as applied to me, was an unwarranted personal attack. You know it. The one time you’ve substantiated something I challenged you on, I acknowledged it and gave you full marks.
Now our host may certainly moderate my comments as he thinks justified.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:39 amColonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:34 am
I agree, colonel. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, shouldn’t we be economizing?
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:41 amWhen I go to work I take enough food with me for the day.
Now I work next to my fridge.
I’m up a couple lbs.
Good on you for the discipline.
Time123 (80b471) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:42 amI have, but it’s been intentional. I’ve been on keto since Ash Wednesday. Lost the winter gains, now deciding to lose some more and get back into a leaner shape since I can’t put on muscle mass at the gym.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:42 ameveryone…are is[sigh, I blame it on being suckered by the plurality of “guidelines”}
Are you sure it isn’t low blood sugar?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:43 amAre you sure it isn’t low blood, sugar?
The Power of Punctuation!!!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:45 amI thought about this.
He’s over 70. I doubt he’s done laundry, cleaned a kitchen, or bathroom in the last 30 years. Maybe when he was younger, like 30-40 years old or when he was in college. But he was born rich. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a clearing service back than.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he wasn’t aware the hand sanitizer was mostly rubbing alcohol. Disinfectant might just sound like another chemical to him. No visceral reaction like you or I might have about using it internally.
Time123 (80b471) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:46 am279… my wife says I haven’t been this thin at any point in the 21st century.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:47 amYour arguments and declarations are most tiresome and unhelpful to fruitful discussion. I echo our host in that you cease this. I, for one, support the course of moderation.
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:49 amColonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:45 am
LOL! Man, are you fast.
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:51 amPro tip: Pay attention to the conversation between DRJ and Time123 for an example of fruitful discourse.
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:54 amWhen I go to work I take enough food with me for the day.
Now I work next to my fridge.
I’m up a couple lbs.
LOL… this is the Darkside of Telecommuting
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 10:57 amWhat does your wife think o your weight loss?
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:01 amWhoah! The Colonel answered my question (at 274) before I even asked it! Dude!
felipe (023cc9) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:03 amIt’s always pretty funny that we’re expected to think the checks voted by Congress and coming out of the money we the taxpayers put into the Treasury are a personal gift from Donald Trump — but we’re not supposed to think he’s at all to blame for any failure in the executive branch.
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:05 amWe Stand Behind the President.
If you laugh it him, it’s because you’ve swallowed the MSM narrative that always distorts his words.
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:15 amThe haters have been out to destroy our President from day one. Real Patriots know the truth!
Well played Colonel and felipe.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:37 amI will give you $10 if you go to Google Play and successfully watch another episode of Larry King Live. Tell me which one. $20 if you can post a screen recording of you watching the episode.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:43 amThe U.S. will need social distancing through the summer
Birx is walking a fine line between supporting scientifically valid policies and sucking up to the White House, especially with the rumors that she is on a short list to replace HHS Secretary Azar.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:46 amI will give you $10 if you go to Google Play and successfully watch another episode of Larry King Live. Tell me which one. $20 if you can post a screen recording of you watching the episode.
Is this meant to prove that there are no episodes of LKL available or that it remains as unwatchable as ever?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:50 amFauci gets his wish …..
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:53 amRob, It’s only more important to the Trump-sniffers like you who look past the 25 women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct and say “ah hah!” about a single incidence involving Biden.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/26/2020 @ 11:58 amBill Clinton opened the door in ’92, when the American people decided it was okay to have a philanderer and serial sexual abuser for a president. Trump blew that door wide open in 2016.
Your constant insults are tiresome. You and a couple of others on here use the exact same language and respond the exact same when when your straw men are challenged. It’s really damaged the site here and I’m guessing you think it’s tolerated because you constantly insult Trump as well as insulting people who comment here.
It’s to be determined how long that remains to be the case.
NJRob (4d595c) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:02 pmWithout Trump at the coronavirus briefings, America would get more information from the experts
That may be, but the briefings will certainly be less interesting and fun to watch. Like a auto accident, it’s a tragedy but you can’t pull your eyes away.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:06 pmYour constant insults are tiresome. You and a couple of others on here use the exact same language and respond the exact same when when your straw men are challenged.
Let’s see some examples, since you say they’re “constant” and use the “exact same language”.
Show us a straw man you’ve challenged, too.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:07 pmNew post up about Trump and his press conferences…
Dana (0feb77) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:10 pmWhat was the claim? That it was removed from Google Play, a place that it was never available from. So a claim that CNN was covering it up by removing it from Google Play is patently silly.
Gaslighting that this other thing, unrelated to the thing being referenced, is true/false is…SQUIRREL.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:12 pmMichigan lawmaker denies wearing Confederate flag mask, calls it history, then apologizes
…… State Sen. Dale Zorn (R) wore the mask to the Republican-controlled state chambers on Friday to vote on measures related to the novel coronavirus, including a bill that would repeal Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency powers as conservatives increasingly criticize her stay-at-home order.
………
“ I’m sorry for my choice of pattern on the face mask I wore yesterday on the Senate floor,” Zorn tweeted Saturday. “I did not intend to offend anyone; however, I realize that I did, and for that I am sorry. Those who know me best know that I do not support the things this pattern represents.”
“My actions were an error in judgment for which there are no excuses and I will learn from this episode,” he added.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:19 pm………
Saturday’s apology didn’t mention why Zorn initially denied wearing a mask with the Confederate flag pattern, when a WLNS reporter asked about it after Friday’s session.
……….
And Zorn said that even if the mask was a Confederate pattern, the flag is a part of “our national history.”
………
Asked what the flag stands for, Zorn said it stood for the Confederacy.
……..
The IMHE (funded by Bill Gates) notes that we currently have 53,000 US deaths and predicts 67,000 US total by 6/1/2020, before flatlining (no pun intended) thereafter to August 2020, when it’s over:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/betting_odds/2020_president/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:21 pmMarine Corps Bans Public Display of Confederate Flag
The commandant of the Marine Corps has banned the public display of the Confederate battle flag, a symbol that he said had the “power to inflame” division.
“I am mindful that many people believe that flag to be a symbol of heritage and regional pride,” Gen. David H. Berger said in a letter dated Monday and addressed to his fellow Marines. “But I am also mindful of the feelings of pain and rejection of those who inherited the cultural memory and present effects of the scourge of slavery in our country.”
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:25 pm……
He ended his letter by asking Marines to focus on the symbols that unite them: the eagle, globe and anchor.
……..
Yes. It was a funny joke but they are not on Google Play. They are listed but you can’t play them. Prove me wrong.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:26 pmIs the IHME being funded by Bill Gates supposed to mean something?
That’s because the projections only go to June 1st, it also has a range of 48k-122k by June 1st. I think the low estimate might be off, since it’s 54,600 as of now.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:31 pmIn Wisconsin, Virus Creates New Front in Long-Simmering Partisan Wars
Wisconsin had barely finished its fight over whether to hold an election in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic before America’s foremost battleground state began another political brawl over the pandemic itself.
……..
Republicans, in need of a show of force after badly losing a State Supreme Court contest this month, have sued Mr. Evers to block the extension, discussed removing his public health secretary and, in recent days, amplified protesters’ calls to reopen the state while covertly helping to coordinate the Madison rally and other satellite gatherings across the state.
….
“ This seems to have become a proxy war for the state Republican Party and it does have a zombie Tea Party feel to it,” said Charlie Sykes, a longtime conservative talk radio host in Milwaukee who left the airwaves at the end of 2016 and has since turned against Trump-era Republicans. “This will energize them to think that they’re back on the offensive. They didn’t miss a beat from losing that Supreme Court election and this all seems about mobilizing and firing up the base.”
……..
Vicki McKenna, a conservative talk radio host who has promoted the rallies on her program, said she hoped they inspired county sheriffs and local public health departments to defy the governor’s coronavirus orders.
…….
While deep anger is growing on the right, there is some evidence that the Republican stance on the coronavirus is repelling voters Mr. Trump will need to carry the state in November.
……..
And Democrats’ private polling in Wisconsin conducted after the election but before the protests began found 72 percent of Wisconsinites approved of how Mr. Evers has handled the coronavirus response. The same poll found Mr. Trump’s coronavirus job approval in the state was 51 percent.
……
Brian Westrate, the treasurer of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, posted to a private Facebook group for organizers and some attendees of the Madison rally, asking people not to bring emblems of causes other than resisting the stay-at-home order.
“Ok folks, I implore you, please leave Confederate flags and/or AR15s, AK47s, or any other long guns at home,” Mr. Westrate wrote. “I well understand that the Confederacy was more about states rights than slavery. But that does not change the truth of how we should try to control the optics during the event.”
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:33 pm…….
297… yes, can’t play ’em. Looks like that Jazz Shaw fellow updated his post, too.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:45 pmThe betting odds, as of today, still show Trump favored over Slow Joe 50-44, but the MSM/Democrats/Chinese Communist allies have already constructed the House committee apparatus for Shampeachment III: This Time We Really Mean It and fully intend to continue pushing murder charges against Trump and attempts at transferring ChiCom/WHO Wuhancoronavirus guilt onto Trump throughout this Summer and Fall, so we’ll see how that impacts the odds.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 12:59 pmThat was revealing, Rob, a tell, that the site is “damaged” because people “constantly insult Trump”, as if there were no good reasons for doing so.
Paul Montagu (8e8a24) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:01 pmAnd to be accurate, I haven’t insulted people here, not for a long time, except you because you make lots of accusations of “bad faith” while being the baddest faith commenter here.
It’s Sunday.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:05 pmIt’s a mystery why some people are so aggrieved when other people “insult Trump” on a small blog that Trump will never read and that most of his loyalists would avoid like the plague.
I have to wonder if it’s because the “insults” are generally statements of easily observable facts, and acknowledging them is uncomfortable for anyone who promoted Trump as a towering genius and heroic savior who made an unprecedented sacrifice of self to save America because no one else could do it.
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:22 pm@301-
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:28 pmAre you sure? That’s the complete opposite of the various polls used by 538, which have Biden leading Trump 54-44, give or take. What is your source?
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/betting_odds/2020_president/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:32 pmThe betting odds, as of today, still show Trump favored over Slow Joe 50-44…..
The RCP polling average (actual voters, not gamblers) is 48-42 Biden. It would be pretty amazing if an incumbent President whose approval is underwater by nearly 8 points wins re-election, especially someone who really has no record to run (anymore). Trump can only win fear-mongering and out right lying.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:47 pmHow about where they have every battleground state with Trump losing, not by a little.
He needs to keep WI, MI, PA, FL, NC, OH, and he’s behind in all of them.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/26/2020 @ 1:56 pmLaughing at those who are taking part of my remarks out of context to misconstrue them. It’s clear that you think insulting Trump is perfectly fine here and gives you free reign to insult others.
You’ll get away with it till you insult the wrong people.
NJRob (703fca) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:02 pmWho are these “wrong people”?
If displaying the words of Trump are insulting, I’d suggest he gets better words. He says he has all of the best ones.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (305827) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:06 pmI never understood why McConnell made that idiotic statement about allowing states to go bankrupt. If states need to slash services and increase taxes to deal with the unexpected costs of COVID-19, voters will blame the negative impact of state bankruptcy on Trump and the Republicans, as the Administration has done squat to support the states. Governors have far higher approval ratings than Trump, so it is more likely the November election will a referendum on “let them eat cake” Trump.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:07 pmWhile you’re laughing, Rob…
Your constant insults are tiresome. You and a couple of others on here use the exact same language and respond the exact same when when your straw men are challenged.
Let’s see some examples, since you say they’re “constant” and use the “exact same language”.
Show us a straw man you’ve challenged, too.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:19 pmI do not read Jazz Shaw posts. I made an exception for this one and all he is retracting is that CNN had nothing to do with it. He seems not to have processed the fact that NO Larry King episodes were ever available on Google Play, making the whole theory crap.
Patterico (115b1f) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:23 pmLOL, same.
CNN has the LKL recording on their own website, in a story linked from the main page.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/politics/tara-reade-mom-larry-king/index.html
The segment from 1993 starts at about 4:10.
Dave (1bb933) — 4/26/2020 @ 2:57 pmhttps://www.axios.com/coronavirus-lasting-changes-3b24d031-9acf-4ba2-9028-671e02fbdf5f.html
Just reporting…not endorsing.
Interesting points, however.
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:11 pm13 hours of Trump: The president fills briefings with attacks and boasts, but little empathy
President Trump strode to the lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday and, for just over an hour, attacked his rivals, dismissing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a “sleepy guy in a basement of a house” and lambasting the media as “fake news” and “lamestream.”
He showered praise on himself and his team, repeatedly touting the “great job” they were doing as he spoke of the “tremendous progress” being made toward a vaccine and how “phenomenally” the nation was faring in terms of mortality.
What he did not do was offer any sympathy for the 2,081 Americans who were reported dead from the coronavirus on that day alone — among more than 54,000 Americans who have perished since the pandemic began.
……
The (disinfectant and UV light) remarks set off a government-wide scramble and led to Trump telling aides Friday he would skip briefings this weekend. White House officials say privately they are considering scaling back the events entirely.
“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” Trump complained in a tweet Saturday. “They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”
…..
Trump has attacked someone in 113 out of 346 questions he has answered — or a third of his responses. He has offered false or misleading information in nearly 25 percent of his remarks. And he has played videos praising himself and his administration’s efforts three times, including one that was widely derided as campaign propaganda produced by White House aides at taxpayer expense.
……
Last Sunday — as the death toll in the United States climbed past 40,000 and more than 22 million Americans were unemployed — a CNN reporter sparked Trump’s ire when he noted the grim milestones and asked, “Is this really the time for self-congratulations?”
“What I’m doing is I’m standing up for the men and women that have done such an incredible job,” Trump responded. He added that he was “also sticking up for doctors and nurses and military doctors and nurses,” before eventually angrily dismissing the question as “fake news.”
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:21 pm……..
Very funny, though a certain President without a sense of humor may not think so.
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:27 pmI think that quoting Trump is perfectly fine. I think that pointing to his lies and self-contradictions is perfectly fine. And to his nuttiness and self-centered peevishness and callous narcissism, etc.
It’s a safe bet that Trump will never see what I say. So why is it so grievously offensive that I would mention the glaring defects of mind and character that so many other people have noticed, and spoken of on much bigger platforms?
When did it become wrong to criticize the president when the president’s behavior so richly merits criticism?
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:38 pmIt really does baffle me that anyone would fret so much about “insults” to the most bloated ego on the public stage — a colossal braggart who’s quick to lob cruel or juvenile insults at anyone who ever so slightly disturbs his bizarre sense of superiority and faultlessness.
There are few public figures who do more to deserve insults.
Radegunda (0a00f2) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:45 pm@217 There are some areas of significant overlap. 😛
In all fairness, though, I like to believe that people of good will generally have some areas of overlap in their beliefs, even if their methods intended to achieve results may be different.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/26/2020 @ 3:49 pm@318-
RipMurdock (25d26f) — 4/26/2020 @ 4:02 pmI don’t think NJRob would like the video at @317 either.
He seems not to have processed the fact that NO Larry King episodes were ever available on Google Play
To be fair, who would actually watch an old Larry King episode without $20 on the line?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 4:15 pmIt’s clear that you think insulting Trump is perfectly fine here
Hopefully there’s no knock on the door at 4AM.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 4/26/2020 @ 4:16 pm@317. Plenty kudos, Mr. Murdock. Impressive. Most impressive.
nk (1d9030) — 4/26/2020 @ 6:16 pmYour problem is that you’re confusing criticism–mostly legitimate criticism–of Trump as “insults”.
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/26/2020 @ 7:57 pmIf I disagree with the “wrong people”, I trust they’ll understand that disagreement ≠ insult. You should try some of that understanding.
How many times does Trump “say stupid things and act like an idiot” before one concludes Trump actually is an idiot? How about when he writes an idiot tweet about journalists and their Nobel prizes?
Paul Montagu (b3f51b) — 4/27/2020 @ 1:12 amI wonder how the several lawsuits against news orgs Duh Donald had time to bring at the same time as the CV19 crisis was being shanked are going?
Ragspierre (d9bec9) — 4/27/2020 @ 5:56 am326. I think Trump mixed up Nobel Prizes with Pulitzer prizes.
Pulitzer is just too long a word for him to remember.
Can’t people manage without a secret Trump decoder ring?
Nobel Prize (if applied to something that exists only in the United States) = Pulitzer Prize
Also, I don’t think enough time has elapsed for anyone to win a Pulitzer prize for their Russia/Trump reporting.
Sammy Finkelman (d530d0) — 4/27/2020 @ 9:04 am