Coronavirus General Discussion

[jalanlong]

Yes the Democrats as a party hold a lot of responsiblity for the rise of Trump. They went too far and it elicited a reaction from the right that produced the election of Trump. He isn't the solution though....he is gasoline on the fire.

Maybe democrats have turned over a new leaf in 2020 and produced less of a similar reaction that led to Mr Tromp being voted in.

Common sense economic shutdowns in liberal states, common sense mandated mask wearing in liberal states, peaceful protesting where liberal mayors/governors refused Herr Trumps offer to have the national guard murder peaceful protesters.

Yes, I’m sure Democrats have turned off less middle and right-leaning voters this election cycle.

Biden 2020!!!

Do you think it's healthy that both political parties have pushed to the extreme...do you think it's representative of most americans? If a moderate could get through the primary process I think they would win in a landslide.

I think we may be at a point now where the old adage is true that if you stay in the middle of the road you will get run over. Our Governor here in Texas is a prime example. With Covid he started out following his Republican party, focused on the economy and had few restrictions. Then as Covid cases started to spike he could not stand the heat from the media and Left so he tried to find some sort of compromise of shutting down certain businesses to a certain degree. The result is that his approval rating plummeted. The Right felt that he betrayed his small government party platform and the Left said it was too little, too late. So now nobody is happy with him. If he would have picked a side and stuck to it, then at least that side would be happy.

On the one hand I agree with you. People view politics like sports now. It is my team vs your team. My team is always right and virtuous and the other team is always evil, cheating etc. That allows people to not have to really ever critically think about issues and just go with whatever their team tells them is the right thing to do. Which is how you end up where we are now. My prime example is Bush who did some things (ie prescription drugs for seniors) that Democrats should have loved. But it made no difference because he was on the other team and therefore he was bad. My Republican parents are the same way. If Obama does it then it is bad but if Bush did the exact same thing it is good. Just depends on the uniform you are wearing. I dont know how you get out of that now because everyone has wrapped up their identity in their team and they are not going to let that go easily.

On the other hand, from a philosophical standpoint, if you believe in something strongly, is it right to compromise? For example, I am a Libertarian at heart. So if you take an issue that I firmly believe the government has no business being involved in, let's say running a lottery. How should I compromise on that? Should I be ok with them running it only on occasion? If I feel that the government has no place running a gambling operation and the other side feels they should in order to raise funds outside of normal taxation, how do we reach the middle of the road on that?

I had a history professor in college many years ago who said that we have a lot of people in this country with a lot of very different values and perspectives and he was just not sure how you unify those people into a common vision.

[Cortopassi]

I had a history professor in college many years ago who said that we have a lot of people in this country with a lot of very different values and perspectives and he was just not sure how you unify those people into a common vision.

Only thing that seems to temporarily unite everyone is a war or terrorist event. Sucks.

I am not a South Park watcher, but I watched the "Pandemic Special" a few days ago. It is so politically incorrect from both sides, it was awesome. It hit every aspect of the craziness of the past months. If you have access somehow, I recommend it highly.

[doodle]

Christie has now been in hospital for five days. I think it's a bit disingenuous to paint this as the sniffles. It's a weird virus.

[Tortoise]

Christie has now been in hospital for five days. I think it's a bit disingenuous to paint this as the sniffles. It's a weird virus.

Christie is a high-level politician with a preexisting respiratory condition (asthma), so presumably he and his doctors are playing it very safe and keeping him in the hospital for several days for close observation just in case there's a sudden change.

I don't see any firm evidence in articles such as this one that suggests Christie's condition has deteriorated beyond the "mild symptoms" he publicly reported when he checked himself into the hospital.

I say "the sniffles" for comedic effect, but actually the common cold is not a laughing matter. It sucks. I get a bad cold about once every year or two, and it makes me feel like absolute shit for a few days. I get a fever, aches, and sinus headaches. I use an entire box of Kleenex for all the snot coming out of my nose. I sometimes develop a nasty cough that makes me sound like a dying lung cancer patient. I feel out of breath just by walking up a small flight of stairs. And if I talk to anyone on the phone, they tell me I sound horrible and ask me if I'm okay. It takes a week or two for my voice to sound completely normal again. So the common cold is a nasty thing.

To clarify, I'm not saying Covid-1984 is just the sniffles for everyone. Just the vast majority of people. That's why I confidently predicted that "one of them might even get the sniffles" when Trump, Christie, and several other people caught the virus. According to the Covid-1984 statistics we have now, that's just a plain fact.

Once in a while, someone reacts badly to Covid-1984 and gets pneumonia instead of just the sniffles. But guess what: That's also true of the common cold! Recall the last sentence of the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article on the common cold: "Occasionally, those with other health problems may develop pneumonia."

We'll see what happens with Christie, but I stand by my point: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. From my vantage point, Covid-1984 looks a lot like a new variant of the common cold.

[Cortopassi]

Some stuff is almost comical...

--------------------

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said on Thursday that he had been avoiding the White House since midsummer because of concerns that officials there were not taking proper precautions to guard against the spread of coronavirus.

“My impression was that their approach to how to handle this was different from mine and what I insisted that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” Mr. McConnell told reporters in Hebron, Ky. on Thursday.

He said he had not visited the White House since Aug. 6, when he met with President Trump to discuss the status of negotiations over additional stimulus legislation.

[I Shrugged]

Some stuff is almost comical...

--------------------

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said on Thursday that he had been avoiding the White House since midsummer because of concerns that officials there were not taking proper precautions to guard against the spread of coronavirus.

“My impression was that their approach to how to handle this was different from mine and what I insisted that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” Mr. McConnell told reporters in Hebron, Ky. on Thursday.

He said he had not visited the White House since Aug. 6, when he met with President Trump to discuss the status of negotiations over additional stimulus legislation.

This is how I think the US should operate. If you don't like the risk you see, avoid it. If you are okay with the risk, then take it. Let's move on with life.

[WiseOne]

Under the heading of "what's good for the goose is good for the gander":

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/us/new-y ... index.html

But according to DeBlasio, apparently not.

"NYPD will not tolerate people doing harm to others. No tolerance to assaults, damage to property, to setting fires. Anything like that is unacceptable," he said.
He warned that those violating rules on mass gatherings could be fined up to $15,000 a day. The fines for not wearing face coverings or maintaining social distancing can be $1,000 a day, he said.
"We want to be respectful but I want to be very clear, when the NYPD issues an instruction ... people must follow the instruction," he said.

And no this quote was not from the Babylon Bee!

[vnatale]

I had a history professor in college many years ago who said that we have a lot of people in this country with a lot of very different values and perspectives and he was just not sure how you unify those people into a common vision.

Only thing that seems to temporarily unite everyone is a war or terrorist event. Sucks.

I am not a South Park watcher, but I watched the "Pandemic Special" a few days ago. It is so politically incorrect from both sides, it was awesome. It hit every aspect of the craziness of the past months. If you have access somehow, I recommend it highly.

I do not think the Iraq War (which may be the greatest ever United States foreign policy blunder by far) united anyone. It provided more ammunition for Bush and his Republican cohorts to continue to use fear for their own purposes. Not to the benefit of the United States or Iraq.

Vinny

[vnatale]

Capture.JPG (24.33 KiB) Viewed 3653 times

[dualstow]

...
I am not a South Park watcher, but I watched the "Pandemic Special" a few days ago. It is so politically incorrect from both sides, it was awesome. It hit every aspect of the craziness of the past months. If you have access somehow, I recommend it highly.

https://southpark.cc.com/

[Cortopassi]

I had a history professor in college many years ago who said that we have a lot of people in this country with a lot of very different values and perspectives and he was just not sure how you unify those people into a common vision.

Only thing that seems to temporarily unite everyone is a war or terrorist event. Sucks.

I am not a South Park watcher, but I watched the "Pandemic Special" a few days ago. It is so politically incorrect from both sides, it was awesome. It hit every aspect of the craziness of the past months. If you have access somehow, I recommend it highly.

I do not think the Iraq War (which may be the greatest ever United States foreign policy blunder by far) united anyone. It provided more ammunition for Bush and his Republican cohorts to continue to use fear for their own purposes. Not to the benefit of the United States or Iraq.

Vinny

I did have "temporarily" The unity does not last forever. And the half life of unity seems to go down every time.

Jesus, how much news can we possibly have over the past few weeks? It is overwhelming. RBG died THREE weeks ago. It seems like last year.

[vnatale]

I had a history professor in college many years ago who said that we have a lot of people in this country with a lot of very different values and perspectives and he was just not sure how you unify those people into a common vision.

Only thing that seems to temporarily unite everyone is a war or terrorist event. Sucks.

I am not a South Park watcher, but I watched the "Pandemic Special" a few days ago. It is so politically incorrect from both sides, it was awesome. It hit every aspect of the craziness of the past months. If you have access somehow, I recommend it highly.

I do not think the Iraq War (which may be the greatest ever United States foreign policy blunder by far) united anyone. It provided more ammunition for Bush and his Republican cohorts to continue to use fear for their own purposes. Not to the benefit of the United States or Iraq.

Vinny

I did have "temporarily" The unity does not last forever. And the half life of unity seems to go down every time.

Jesus, how much news can we possibly have over the past few weeks? It is overwhelming. RBG died THREE weeks ago. It seems like last year.

The Iraq War was a pure "elective" war with massive protests against it PRIOR in both our country and the world that there was not even ANY semblance of a temporary unity. Those against were not united for it.

Vinny

[pp4me]

Early this week, three of the world’s top epidemiologists published the Great Barrington Declaration, a short treatise that advocates a controversial approach to managing the coronavirus pandemic. Professors Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University, and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University argue that societies across the globe should reopen immediately and completely.

Instead of observing measures designed to slow the spread of the virus, the young and healthy should resume normal activity in order to incur herd immunity and thereby protect those vulnerable to severe illness. The authors urge the adoption of this strategy, which they call “Focused Protection,” in light of increasing evidence that “current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. . . Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.”

As of this writing, the Declaration has been signed by 3,089 other medical and public health scientists, 4,532 medical practitioners, and around 70,000 members of the general public.

The Great Barrington Declaration

I believe I saw some of those authors on Laura Ingraham the other day.

This seems to be turning into a consensus opinion but as long as "the science" equals "what Dr. Fauci says" I expect the lockdown states to stay locked down. Just glad I live in Florida.

[Cortopassi]

Little victories...

Target and a local grocery store have removed all the one way decals on the aisles.

[Tortoise]

They’re still in my local grocery store, too, but they’re so scuffed and faded that you can barely read what’s printed on them anymore.

Works for me.

[vnatale]

Little victories...

Target and a local grocery store have removed all the one way decals on the aisles.

When I went to Stop & Shop on Wednesday the one way arrows were more prominent than they had ever been.

Vinny

[WiseOne]

Awesome. Thank you for the link, pug!

I signed it as a medical scientist.

[vnatale]

Early this week, three of the world’s top epidemiologists published the Great Barrington Declaration, a short treatise that advocates a controversial approach to managing the coronavirus pandemic. Professors Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University, and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University argue that societies across the globe should reopen immediately and completely.

Instead of observing measures designed to slow the spread of the virus, the young and healthy should resume normal activity in order to incur herd immunity and thereby protect those vulnerable to severe illness. The authors urge the adoption of this strategy, which they call “Focused Protection,” in light of increasing evidence that “current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. . . Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.”

As of this writing, the Declaration has been signed by 3,089 other medical and public health scientists, 4,532 medical practitioners, and around 70,000 members of the general public.

The Great Barrington Declaration

Just went there. Saw that it was published by the same place as the article I put here last week regarding totalitarianism. Same place whose investing newsletters I received for many, many, many years (still have all of them). Plus, whose specialized booklets I purchases (and, of course, still have). I see that they are still publishing some of the same booklets (presumably updated from when I bought them long ago).

https://www.aier.org/store/


https://www.aier.org/product/how-to-invest-in-gold/

"Edited by Emmanuel Sessegnon

“In the midst of this bureaucratic nightmare, Harwood founded the American Institute for Economic Research to fight back and reassert economic truth. Founded on the principles of civil liberty and free markets, AIER has strongly advocated for economic freedom across the board. Harwood protested the federal government’s efforts at central planning so strongly that they attempted to censor him multiple times. The government failed, and Harwood’s brilliant economic critiques continued.” ~Emmanuel Sessegnon

Though the gold standard was abandoned in the 1970s, gold continues to be a good strategy for most investors. It is an enduring form of money without peer. Above all, it has served as a store of value during financial crises when conventional financial assets have plummeted in value.

“How to Invest in Gold” provides an orientation-based on essential but not exhaustive knowledge about the gold industry and its history. It is a practical guide to owning and investing in gold; a commodity with tremendous value."


Just bought the Kindle version at Amazon for $5.00.

Vinny

[barrett]

Little victories...

Target and a local grocery store have removed all the one way decals on the aisles.

I have been quietly removing bits of tape from the gym floor that are supposed to show people where to stand or not to stand. Kinda like Tim Robbins digging that tunnel behind the Rita Hayworth poster in Shawshank Redemption... only different.

On the negative side, I was out on the Appalachian Trail in the NW corner of CT yesterday and about 70% of the other hikers were wearing face coverings. WTF?

[Tortoise]

This just keeps getting better and better. Check out the new Cooties-19 dance!

[Cortopassi]

This just keeps getting better and better. Check out the new Cooties-19 dance!

I would like you, yes you, Tortoise, to research this and please tell me this was a one off "covid" joke dance that they decided to do, as a joke, among other normal dances.

If you can find proof that the entire dance was all ass to ass like this, then I will have no words, but this has to be a single, let's do something stupid, dance.

[boglerdude]

The White House event to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination — a gathering that appears to have spread the coronavirus

Has the NYT always been BS? Or did the Internet destroy their ability to pay for quality writing and editing, so all we get is clickbait and trolling

[boglerdude]

Yes, but why

[vnatale]

Yes, but why

Would that not be that is the way they get the most readers and, therefore, the most advertiser $$$$$?

We ALL know that $$$$$$$$$$ make the world go round.

I assume the shift must have happened when the internet was heavily causing the demise of newspapers and this was something they chose to do to survive.

However, they had had definitely not yet made this change in the runup to the Iraq War as they were one of its prime cheerleaders, negligently printing all of Judith Miller's fallacious articles.

Vinny

[Cortopassi]

This was an interesting animated cases graphic:

http://dangoodspeed.com/covid/total-cases-since-june