Wheels and tires

On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 19:31:26 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On 3/29/2020 11:55 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/28/2020 5:36 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:59:10 -0500, AMuzi
wrote:
On 3/26/2020 3:23 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 09:23:43 +0700, John B
wrote:

As for "hair on fire"... hardly :-)

"Hair on fire" is Fox Newsspeak for anyone saying they don't think
Trump is the Greatest President in Human history, especially
criticism based on what Trump actually says instead of what he and
his supporters pretend he said. Covfefe! It was a perfect call!
And you should believe Vladimir over American intelligence
professionals, he only has our best interests at heart.


I take no position as it's very early in this thing. Too early for
an afternoon of tea and medals, too early to hang the inept.

But I did note the hue and cry about 'fascism' when we were the
first country to restrict travel from China in January.

The concerns about fascism predated COVID-19 by several years.


But the Chinese virus is actually real.

I thought it was an Italian virus now.

It's an American virus at this point. Time to move on.

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 8:48:00 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 4/1/2020 10:35 AM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 11:55:29 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10:29:35 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10:14:17 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 6:57:39 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 12:45:43 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 9:15:13 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/28/2020 6:15 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
snip

In January, our President stopped inbound travel from China
before any other nation did so. Why didn't Congress act?
Because they were rabidly engaged with their failed witch hunt.

The legislative branch does not run the CDC, NIH, FEMA and all the agencies that provide emergency response. Congress does not manage strategic reserves. It can't nationalize industries. It can't restrict travel without passing new laws. So, in the face of impending disaster, the executive branch has a lot to do -- much of it logistical. The same is true on a state level. The governors are running the show through executive orders, and the legislatures are providing funding and a legal frame work for delivering economic assistance.

This administration did a less than stellar job with messaging and logistics and continues to do a poor job with logistics.

Omniscience is denied humans. Compare anything Commie Bill
DiBlasio said this week with his early March comments about
going to dinner in Chinatown and encouraging others to do
so. Even Yogi Berra knew that 'it's hard to make
predictions, especially about the future."

Shame on him, but constantly pointing to other idiots doesn't make it better.


The police powers of Governors are much stronger than
anything the President can do. They acted much later,
rightly or wrongly, and not all in the same way. Which are
correct and which have erred? We'll know in a few years but
not this afternoon.

Yes and no. Governors are not equipped to respond to national disasters. That's why we have federal agencies that help with a coordinated response. Governors cannot restrict national and international travel. They cannot coordinate the nation's supply of respirators or move Navy hospital ships on to the coasts. They can activate national guards and take other measures (like all the shelter in place orders), but they cant' make vaccines or do all the things the NIH and CDC can, and they can't federalize industries, assuming anyone can.


As I asked Mr McNamara, what would you have him do? Given
limited knowledge and the time scale, he did what most agree
was as much as could be done.

Not lie and spend all his time in front of the camera either deflecting or praising himself. We needed FDR and we got John Lovitz doing Tommy Flanagan. Pull the team together, secure supply chains, mobilize the CDC, NIH, get a solid talking head -- Mike Esper would have been a good choice. Be serious and act the part, which is something he can't do -- so he should out source it and not extemporize in front of the camera about Chloroquine or mean correspondents asking bad questions. A good chief of staff would have managed this.

-- Jay Beattie.

I suggest you read the ****ing Constitution rather than piling your garbage upon this site. The States are responsible for everything inside of their borders and that includes keeping emergency stores for any conceivable disaster.

Cite? Is this another truth told you by the voices in your head? What if California were attacked by illegals? States can't enforce immigration laws. What if the Reds attacked -- would it be the California air force -- the Flying Bears -- that responded?

I suggest you take your medication -- and then read about 12 feet of statues comprising the USC. And then twenty feet of CFRs. Also read the admission statement for the State of California and the Constitution. Then you might have some sense of the allocation of responsibility between state and federal government in the event of a national disaster. Get a tiny sample of all of that he https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...avirus/608083/

All states have disaster plans. Some states have more stores than others, but states generally can and do rely on the feds to provide a coordinated response to a national disaster and disaster relief. Having 50 states with 50 expiring stores of disaster medicines and medical equipment makes no sense. Read this: https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/readiness/00...i nal_508.pdf

-- Jay Beattie.

CITE??? You can't even count to TEN? "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

Tell us where the Federal Government is relegated the requirement to prepare for medical emergencies in states?

Uh, start he https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...109publ417.pdf

Who knew that there were like these state/federal compacts and laws and all that kind of stuff? It's so complicated!

Like I was saying:

SEC. 2811. COORDINATION OF PREPAREDNESS FOR AND RESPONSE
TO ALL-HAZARDS PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES.
* * * *
‘‘(5) LOGISTICS.�In coordination with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the General
Services Administration, and other public and private entities,
provide logistical support for medical and public health aspects
of Federal responses to public health emergencies.

This is where the SNS came from. This is how states manage national emergencies -- mostly through the federal government. It's top down leadership (or buffoonery) in times of national disaster.

-- Jay Beattie.

Jay, you forever surprise me by quoting laws you obviously didn't read. That was meant for the Federal Government to coordinate within itself to BACK UP a state and not to replace it as your communist mind works.

"‘‘IMPROVING STATE AND LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH SECURITY.’’; (2) by striking subsections (a) through (i) and inserting the following: ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.�To enhance the security of the United States with respect to public health emergencies, the Secretary shall award cooperative agreements to eligible entities to enable such entities to conduct the activities described in subsection (d). ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES..�To be eligible to receive an award under subsection (a), an entity shall� ‘‘(1)(A) be a State;"


The 2007 statute seemed[1] in conflict with the 10th
Amendment and was repealed, replace with the less draconian
2008 law.

[1] No lawsuit but all 50 Governors protested. All of them,
both parties, and Congress thought better of it.

The revisions to the state are now at 42 USC:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/t...pter-II/part-B

I thought the SNS came from PL 109 417 but it actually originated in an earlier statute and got moved around. It was recodified by PL 109 417 and then moved to the section cited above. Most of this stuff works via agreement with the states, so there is no 10th Amendment issue. There are endless state-federal agreements out there, and states rely on the federal government to fulfill its end of the bargain.

Here's some history of the Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandem...eparedness_Act
I looks like it expired and got reauthorized and amended rather than being repealed after objections by governors, but who knows -- I haven't looked at USCAN or the legislative history.

There is, by the way, an interstate compact as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerge...stance_Compact

-- Jay Beattie.

On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0700, John B
wrote:

The Economic Policy Institute (which is a privately funded
'think-tank') estimates that some 14 million jobs could be lost by
summer 2020.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...sses-by-summer
By states: California - Projected job loss:1,609,975 Washington -
317,721 Ohio - 505,380 Illinois - 551,061 and so on. -- cheers,

I think those are likely underestimates by 50% or more. Not only
millions of jobs but hundreds of thousands of businesses will go up in
smoke. Mine might be one of them. Millions of people face eviction or
foreclosure as they can't pay the rent or mortgage.

The right-wing delusional alternative appears to be to pretend it's not
a problem, do nothing, try to keep the economy purring along in the face
of a couple of million US deaths and tens of milions of deaths worlwide.
I guess that's an option, except the economy still collapses and
probably much harder since the wealthy will throw everyone else under
the bus to protect themselves.

Manufacturing has largely collapsed. The hospitality industry has
collapsed. Oil has collapsed. The housing market will collapse.
Unfortunately the virus doesn't give a ****. Every human is
susceptible, it seems that none are immune, and our best hope is to
delay as many people from getting it as long as we can.

And to surive more or less intact we bite the bullet. We replace
incomes of people whose jobs have gone away so they can pay their rents
and mortgages and have health insurance. Those of us who get to keep
our jobs and benefits- like myself and my wife so far- practice
gratitude rather than seeing it as people getting "something for
nothing." We replace at least some of the revenue businesses have lost
so they can pay their overhead and keep some of their employees on the
payroll. Massive debt? Yep. Avoiding wholesale economic collapse
might be expensive.

And why the hell hasn't Donald Trump offered his hotels to be used as
temporary hospitals, unlike some others? *That* would be leadership.
Although knowing the Trump Organization they'd probably charge the US
government full rate...

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 10:48:53 AM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0700, John B
wrote:

The Economic Policy Institute (which is a privately funded
'think-tank') estimates that some 14 million jobs could be lost by
summer 2020.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...sses-by-summer
By states: California - Projected job loss:1,609,975 Washington -
317,721 Ohio - 505,380 Illinois - 551,061 and so on. -- cheers,

I think those are likely underestimates by 50% or more. Not only
millions of jobs but hundreds of thousands of businesses will go up in
smoke. Mine might be one of them. Millions of people face eviction or
foreclosure as they can't pay the rent or mortgage.

The right-wing delusional alternative appears to be to pretend it's not
a problem, do nothing, try to keep the economy purring along in the face
of a couple of million US deaths and tens of milions of deaths worlwide.
I guess that's an option, except the economy still collapses and
probably much harder since the wealthy will throw everyone else under
the bus to protect themselves.

Manufacturing has largely collapsed. The hospitality industry has
collapsed. Oil has collapsed. The housing market will collapse.
Unfortunately the virus doesn't give a ****. Every human is
susceptible, it seems that none are immune, and our best hope is to
delay as many people from getting it as long as we can.

And to surive more or less intact we bite the bullet. We replace
incomes of people whose jobs have gone away so they can pay their rents
and mortgages and have health insurance. Those of us who get to keep
our jobs and benefits- like myself and my wife so far- practice
gratitude rather than seeing it as people getting "something for
nothing." We replace at least some of the revenue businesses have lost
so they can pay their overhead and keep some of their employees on the
payroll. Massive debt? Yep. Avoiding wholesale economic collapse
might be expensive.

And why the hell hasn't Donald Trump offered his hotels to be used as
temporary hospitals, unlike some others? *That* would be leadership.
Although knowing the Trump Organization they'd probably charge the US
government full rate...

I went through the numbers and came up with an estimate of 33,000 or so people that could possibly die from the effects of civid-19. At the moment we have lost less than 15% of that and in another couple of weeks warmer weather will come on and people that aren't fighting 100 other health problems will be more resistant.

It is FAR more of a problem to lose your job than to be threatened with a relatively minor disease don't you think?

Remember that the larger part of the yearly 38,000 lives have been lost to the seasonal flu at this same time. Are you panicked because of the seasonal flu?

People under 60 comprise less than 3% of the covid-19 deaths and the average age of death from covid-9 is 80 years old. In the US the average age of death from all other reasons is also 80 years old. (actually using the group that is dying it would be 79 years old because women who usually live longer are underrepresented.)

What I'm saying is that the REAL threat isn't to the lives of American but to the economy. There is no reason to be running around in circles crying that the sky is falling.

You, as an individual, have a much higher chance of dying in an auto accident.

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 11:53:15 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 10:48:53 AM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0700, John B
wrote:

The Economic Policy Institute (which is a privately funded
'think-tank') estimates that some 14 million jobs could be lost by
summer 2020.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...sses-by-summer
By states: California - Projected job loss:1,609,975 Washington -
317,721 Ohio - 505,380 Illinois - 551,061 and so on. -- cheers,

I think those are likely underestimates by 50% or more. Not only
millions of jobs but hundreds of thousands of businesses will go up in
smoke. Mine might be one of them. Millions of people face eviction or
foreclosure as they can't pay the rent or mortgage.

The right-wing delusional alternative appears to be to pretend it's not
a problem, do nothing, try to keep the economy purring along in the face
of a couple of million US deaths and tens of milions of deaths worlwide..
I guess that's an option, except the economy still collapses and
probably much harder since the wealthy will throw everyone else under
the bus to protect themselves.

Manufacturing has largely collapsed. The hospitality industry has
collapsed. Oil has collapsed. The housing market will collapse.
Unfortunately the virus doesn't give a ****. Every human is
susceptible, it seems that none are immune, and our best hope is to
delay as many people from getting it as long as we can.

And to surive more or less intact we bite the bullet. We replace
incomes of people whose jobs have gone away so they can pay their rents
and mortgages and have health insurance. Those of us who get to keep
our jobs and benefits- like myself and my wife so far- practice
gratitude rather than seeing it as people getting "something for
nothing." We replace at least some of the revenue businesses have lost
so they can pay their overhead and keep some of their employees on the
payroll. Massive debt? Yep. Avoiding wholesale economic collapse
might be expensive.

And why the hell hasn't Donald Trump offered his hotels to be used as
temporary hospitals, unlike some others? *That* would be leadership.
Although knowing the Trump Organization they'd probably charge the US
government full rate...

I went through the numbers and came up with an estimate of 33,000 or so people that could possibly die from the effects of civid-19. At the moment we have lost less than 15% of that and in another couple of weeks warmer weather will come on and people that aren't fighting 100 other health problems will be more resistant.

It is FAR more of a problem to lose your job than to be threatened with a relatively minor disease don't you think?

No, not if you're infecting people who will die, or your customers are infecting people who will die. Do you not understand the reason why certain businesses have been closed?



Remember that the larger part of the yearly 38,000 lives have been lost to the seasonal flu at this same time. Are you panicked because of the seasonal flu?

People under 60 comprise less than 3% of the covid-19 deaths and the average age of death from covid-9 is 80 years old. In the US the average age of death from all other reasons is also 80 years old. (actually using the group that is dying it would be 79 years old because women who usually live longer are underrepresented.)

What I'm saying is that the REAL threat isn't to the lives of American but to the economy. There is no reason to be running around in circles crying that the sky is falling.

You, as an individual, have a much higher chance of dying in an auto accident.

Despite all of the statistics that we now have a fairly tight hold on, we see resolute panic in people like Jay who I would really expect a great deal more of. Perhaps his health isn't all he says it is?

Or as Winston Churchill said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

WTF? Winston Churchill? A fifth grader knows that was FDR. His first inaugural address.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 4/1/2020 12:48 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0700, John B
wrote:

The Economic Policy Institute (which is a privately funded
'think-tank') estimates that some 14 million jobs could be lost by
summer 2020.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...sses-by-summer
By states: California - Projected job loss:1,609,975 Washington -
317,721 Ohio - 505,380 Illinois - 551,061 and so on. -- cheers,

I think those are likely underestimates by 50% or more. Not only
millions of jobs but hundreds of thousands of businesses will go up in
smoke. Mine might be one of them. Millions of people face eviction or
foreclosure as they can't pay the rent or mortgage.

The right-wing delusional alternative appears to be to pretend it's not
a problem, do nothing, try to keep the economy purring along in the face
of a couple of million US deaths and tens of milions of deaths worlwide.
I guess that's an option, except the economy still collapses and
probably much harder since the wealthy will throw everyone else under
the bus to protect themselves.

Manufacturing has largely collapsed. The hospitality industry has
collapsed. Oil has collapsed. The housing market will collapse.
Unfortunately the virus doesn't give a ****. Every human is
susceptible, it seems that none are immune, and our best hope is to
delay as many people from getting it as long as we can.

And to surive more or less intact we bite the bullet. We replace
incomes of people whose jobs have gone away so they can pay their rents
and mortgages and have health insurance. Those of us who get to keep
our jobs and benefits- like myself and my wife so far- practice
gratitude rather than seeing it as people getting "something for
nothing." We replace at least some of the revenue businesses have lost
so they can pay their overhead and keep some of their employees on the
payroll. Massive debt? Yep. Avoiding wholesale economic collapse
might be expensive.

And why the hell hasn't Donald Trump offered his hotels to be used as
temporary hospitals, unlike some others? *That* would be leadership.
Although knowing the Trump Organization they'd probably charge the US
government full rate...


Both parties pigged out for their lobbyist pals on this
spending spree and the President signed the damned thing.

UK ordered a series of businesses closed and the Exchequer
will cover those payrolls, based on prior payroll reports.
You go, Boris!

Of our $2 trillion pigfest, about 15% goes to employees in
$1200 checks. With roughly 20% unemployed, the same equal
amount goes to them as to people (I know several) making
overtime and bonuses right now. Could anything be more
ridiculous? Of course! Now both parties are talking another
$2 trillion in 'infrastructure' (English term: pork).

The Chinese virus is a problem. Fear is a weapon (employed
well by most of the press and various politicians). Neither
stops the corrupt class from draining the treasury for their
pals, all while claiming to 'help the little guy', who is
crewed both ways as always.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 4/1/2020 4:50 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/1/2020 4:57 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 4/1/2020 2:41 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 1:30:33 PM UTC-4, Tim
McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 19:31:26 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/29/2020 11:55 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/28/2020 5:36 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:59:10 -0500, AMuzi

wrote:
On 3/26/2020 3:23 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 09:23:43 +0700, John B
wrote:

As for "hair on fire"... hardly :-)

"Hair on fire" is Fox Newsspeak for anyone saying
they don't think
Trump is the Greatest President in Human history,
especially
criticism based on what Trump actually says instead
of what he and
his supporters pretend he said. Covfefe! It was
a perfect call!
And you should believe Vladimir over American
intelligence
professionals, he only has our best interests at
heart.


I take no position as it's very early in this thing.
Too early for
an afternoon of tea and medals, too early to hang
the inept.

But I did note the hue and cry about 'fascism' when
we were the
first country to restrict travel from China in January.

The concerns about fascism predated COVID-19 by
several years.


But the Chinese virus is actually real.

I thought it was an Italian virus now.

It's an American virus at this point. Time to move on.

I agree, but I'd go further. It's a worldwide virus now.
There is no point in
trying to tie it to a particular country.

It is, indeed, time to move on.


Time to move on. Right. Reminds one of Joseph Stalin,
"Death solves problems. No man, no problem."

Doctor Li Wenliang, unfortunately died in custody after
first reporting the Chinese Wuhan virus. Police regret the
incident in a rare public statement.

Reporters Fang Bin and a bit better known Chen Qiushi
reported on the Chinese Wuhan Virus. Conveniently missing.

This week Dr Ai Fen another doctor who wrote about the
Chinese Wuhan virus on social media has gone missing.

There are others of course but you get the idea.

Meanwhile in my paper today is an interesting chart
labeled 'Confirmed Cases Per Country" and credited to
'Johns Hopkins CSSE' (behind a paywall and I could not
find a chart link) For Italy, the arc is a bit less steep
at the last week or so. ROK has dramatically shallower
increase after 10 March. USA, Spain and UK show the
familiar arc, like annual influenza charts we all know.
What catches the eye, however statistically improbable, is
that China reports the usual arc until 15 February after
which it's a straight horizontal line through end-March.

So you're probably right. Sorta like Tibet, eh? Nothing to
see here, Winnie The Pooh says 'move along now'.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/112985...-toll-of-2500/


https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/8...mains-each-day


https://www.newsweek.com/wuhan-covid...uggest-1494914


Can you specify the benefits of referring to this as "the
Chinese virus" instead of the more common names used by
medical professions - COVID-19, C19, novel corona virus, etc?

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?


What do you call Marburg virus now?
How about Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever?
(asking for a friend)

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 12:10:40 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 11:53:15 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 10:48:53 AM UTC-7, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0700, John B
wrote:

The Economic Policy Institute (which is a privately funded
'think-tank') estimates that some 14 million jobs could be lost by
summer 2020.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...sses-by-summer
By states: California - Projected job loss:1,609,975 Washington -
317,721 Ohio - 505,380 Illinois - 551,061 and so on. -- cheers,

I think those are likely underestimates by 50% or more. Not only
millions of jobs but hundreds of thousands of businesses will go up in
smoke. Mine might be one of them. Millions of people face eviction or
foreclosure as they can't pay the rent or mortgage.

The right-wing delusional alternative appears to be to pretend it's not
a problem, do nothing, try to keep the economy purring along in the face
of a couple of million US deaths and tens of milions of deaths worlwide.
I guess that's an option, except the economy still collapses and
probably much harder since the wealthy will throw everyone else under
the bus to protect themselves.

Manufacturing has largely collapsed. The hospitality industry has
collapsed. Oil has collapsed. The housing market will collapse.
Unfortunately the virus doesn't give a ****. Every human is
susceptible, it seems that none are immune, and our best hope is to
delay as many people from getting it as long as we can.

And to surive more or less intact we bite the bullet. We replace
incomes of people whose jobs have gone away so they can pay their rents
and mortgages and have health insurance. Those of us who get to keep
our jobs and benefits- like myself and my wife so far- practice
gratitude rather than seeing it as people getting "something for
nothing." We replace at least some of the revenue businesses have lost
so they can pay their overhead and keep some of their employees on the
payroll. Massive debt? Yep. Avoiding wholesale economic collapse
might be expensive.

And why the hell hasn't Donald Trump offered his hotels to be used as
temporary hospitals, unlike some others? *That* would be leadership.
Although knowing the Trump Organization they'd probably charge the US
government full rate...

I went through the numbers and came up with an estimate of 33,000 or so people that could possibly die from the effects of civid-19. At the moment we have lost less than 15% of that and in another couple of weeks warmer weather will come on and people that aren't fighting 100 other health problems will be more resistant.

It is FAR more of a problem to lose your job than to be threatened with a relatively minor disease don't you think?

No, not if you're infecting people who will die, or your customers are infecting people who will die. Do you not understand the reason why certain businesses have been closed?



Remember that the larger part of the yearly 38,000 lives have been lost to the seasonal flu at this same time. Are you panicked because of the seasonal flu?

People under 60 comprise less than 3% of the covid-19 deaths and the average age of death from covid-9 is 80 years old. In the US the average age of death from all other reasons is also 80 years old. (actually using the group that is dying it would be 79 years old because women who usually live longer are underrepresented.)

What I'm saying is that the REAL threat isn't to the lives of American but to the economy. There is no reason to be running around in circles crying that the sky is falling.

You, as an individual, have a much higher chance of dying in an auto accident.

Despite all of the statistics that we now have a fairly tight hold on, we see resolute panic in people like Jay who I would really expect a great deal more of. Perhaps his health isn't all he says it is?

Or as Winston Churchill said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

WTF? Winston Churchill? A fifth grader knows that was FDR. His first inaugural address.

-- Jay Beattie.

Even a fifth grader knows that it was stolen from Francis Bacon and that it was also uttered in a public speech by Winston Churchill as well. Though lord knows why he would ever do that since he was a much better orator than FDR could ever hope to be.

On Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:39:17 -0400, Radey Shouman
wrote:

AMuzi writes:

On 4/1/2020 2:41 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 1:30:33 PM UTC-4, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 19:31:26 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/29/2020 11:55 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 3/28/2020 5:36 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:59:10 -0500, AMuzi
wrote:
On 3/26/2020 3:23 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 09:23:43 +0700, John B
wrote:

As for "hair on fire"... hardly :-)

"Hair on fire" is Fox Newsspeak for anyone saying they don't think
Trump is the Greatest President in Human history, especially
criticism based on what Trump actually says instead of what he and
his supporters pretend he said. Covfefe! It was a perfect call!
And you should believe Vladimir over American intelligence
professionals, he only has our best interests at heart.


I take no position as it's very early in this thing. Too early for
an afternoon of tea and medals, too early to hang the inept.

But I did note the hue and cry about 'fascism' when we were the
first country to restrict travel from China in January.

The concerns about fascism predated COVID-19 by several years.


But the Chinese virus is actually real.

I thought it was an Italian virus now.

It's an American virus at this point. Time to move on.

I agree, but I'd go further. It's a worldwide virus now. There is no point in
trying to tie it to a particular country.

It is, indeed, time to move on.


Time to move on. Right. Reminds one of Joseph Stalin, "Death solves
problems. No man, no problem."

Doctor Li Wenliang, unfortunately died in custody after first
reporting the Chinese Wuhan virus. Police regret the incident in a
rare public statement.

Reporters Fang Bin and a bit better known Chen Qiushi reported on the
Chinese Wuhan Virus. Conveniently missing.

This week Dr Ai Fen another doctor who wrote about the Chinese Wuhan
virus on social media has gone missing.

There are others of course but you get the idea.

Meanwhile in my paper today is an interesting chart labeled 'Confirmed
Cases Per Country" and credited to 'Johns Hopkins CSSE' (behind a
paywall and I could not find a chart link) For Italy, the arc is a bit
less steep at the last week or so. ROK has dramatically shallower
increase after 10 March. USA, Spain and UK show the familiar arc, like
annual influenza charts we all know. What catches the eye, however
statistically improbable, is that China reports the usual arc until 15
February after which it's a straight horizontal line through
end-March.

So you're probably right. Sorta like Tibet, eh? Nothing to see here,
Winnie The Pooh says 'move along now'.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/112985...-toll-of-2500/

https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/8...mains-each-day

https://www.newsweek.com/wuhan-covid...uggest-1494914

Reuters reports that a Chinese county is under lockdown for coronavirus:

BEIJING, April 1 (Reuters) - A county in central China's Henan province
said on Wednesday it had virtually banned all outbound movement of
people, following several cases of coronavirus infection in the area.

No one can travel out of Jia county without proper authorisation, the
county, which has a population of about 600,000, said in a post on its
social media account. Additionally, residents are not allowed to leave
their homes for work unless they have clearance to do so.

https://news.trust.org/item/20200401151444-l11ny/

Looks like that horizontal trajectory is coming unglued.

They call it "lock down" and so far
as of Mar 26, 2020 the following countries were reported to
"have implemented full or partial lockdowns"
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...onavirus-cases

South Africa, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Colombia
India, The UK, Australia, China, Jordan
Argentina, Israel, Belgium, France
Spain, Italy, Kuwait, Ireland, Norway
Denmark, El Salvador, Indonesia, Germany
Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland
Lebanon, Russia, Greece.
--
cheers,

John B.

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 12:22:09 PM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 4/1/2020 12:48 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 08:00:19 +0700, John B
wrote:

The Economic Policy Institute (which is a privately funded
'think-tank') estimates that some 14 million jobs could be lost by
summer 2020.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...sses-by-summer
By states: California - Projected job loss:1,609,975 Washington -
317,721 Ohio - 505,380 Illinois - 551,061 and so on. -- cheers,

I think those are likely underestimates by 50% or more. Not only
millions of jobs but hundreds of thousands of businesses will go up in
smoke. Mine might be one of them. Millions of people face eviction or
foreclosure as they can't pay the rent or mortgage.

The right-wing delusional alternative appears to be to pretend it's not
a problem, do nothing, try to keep the economy purring along in the face
of a couple of million US deaths and tens of milions of deaths worlwide.
I guess that's an option, except the economy still collapses and
probably much harder since the wealthy will throw everyone else under
the bus to protect themselves.

Manufacturing has largely collapsed. The hospitality industry has
collapsed. Oil has collapsed. The housing market will collapse.
Unfortunately the virus doesn't give a ****. Every human is
susceptible, it seems that none are immune, and our best hope is to
delay as many people from getting it as long as we can.

And to surive more or less intact we bite the bullet. We replace
incomes of people whose jobs have gone away so they can pay their rents
and mortgages and have health insurance. Those of us who get to keep
our jobs and benefits- like myself and my wife so far- practice
gratitude rather than seeing it as people getting "something for
nothing." We replace at least some of the revenue businesses have lost
so they can pay their overhead and keep some of their employees on the
payroll. Massive debt? Yep. Avoiding wholesale economic collapse
might be expensive.

And why the hell hasn't Donald Trump offered his hotels to be used as
temporary hospitals, unlike some others? *That* would be leadership.
Although knowing the Trump Organization they'd probably charge the US
government full rate...


Both parties pigged out for their lobbyist pals on this
spending spree and the President signed the damned thing.

UK ordered a series of businesses closed and the Exchequer
will cover those payrolls, based on prior payroll reports.
You go, Boris!

Of our $2 trillion pigfest, about 15% goes to employees in
$1200 checks. With roughly 20% unemployed, the same equal
amount goes to them as to people (I know several) making
overtime and bonuses right now. Could anything be more
ridiculous? Of course! Now both parties are talking another
$2 trillion in 'infrastructure' (English term: pork).

The Chinese virus is a problem. Fear is a weapon (employed
well by most of the press and various politicians). Neither
stops the corrupt class from draining the treasury for their
pals, all while claiming to 'help the little guy', who is
crewed both ways as always.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

The idea is that half of that went to the people who need it to pay their bills. It is their tax money being returned to them. It is part of an expanded national debt but if it pulls us out of this looming recession it would be worth it.