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| Picture courtesy of our Semper Fi friend Mustang |
Paging Lord Acton!
Under what imperious conception of governance does Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer believe it is within her power to unilaterally ban garden stores from selling fruit or vegetable plants and seeds?
What business is it of Vermont or Howard County, Ind., to dictate that Walmart, Costco, or Target stop selling “non-essential” items, such as electronics or clothing? Vermont has 628 cases of coronavirus as of this writing. Is that the magic number authorizing the governor to ban people from buying seeds for their gardens?
There is no reason to close “public” parks, where Americans can maintain social distance while getting some air or space for their mental and physical well-being — or maybe see a grandchild from afar. In California, surfers, who stay far away from each other, are banned from going in the water.
Elsewhere, hikers are banned from roaming the millions of acres in national parks. Millions of lower-income and urban-dwelling Americans don’t have the luxury of backyards, and there is absolutely no reason to inhibit their movement, either. (Coronavirus Authoritarianism is Getting out of Hand)
A better way going forward--instead of local tyrants picking winners and losers and putting people under house arrest--would be to allow any business to open that can operate within health and hygiene guidelines. Restaurants could space tables further apart and clean tables and chairs with disinfectant before seating the next party.
And for heaven's sake, stop taking away people's God-given freedom to roam outside and enjoy fresh air and sunshine!
Data Does Not Support Extended Lockdowns
Scott W. Atlas, MD, former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center presents five facts to counter the hysteria and panic being fomented by the Infotainment Media Complex and craven politicians:
Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19. The recent Stanford University antibody study now estimates that the fatality rate if infected is likely 0.1 to 0.2 percent, a risk far lower than previous World Health Organization estimates that were 20 to 30 times higher and that motivated isolation policies.
Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding. Even for people ages 65 to 74, only 1.7 percent were hospitalized.
Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem.
Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.
Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.
Have a good weekend!
And for heaven's sake, stop taking away people's God-given freedom to roam outside and enjoy fresh air and sunshine!
ReplyDeleteDuring yesterday's White House Coronavirus Briefing, we learned that sunshine on nonporous surfaces kills this Ripley in less than two minutes!
Warm temperatures help as well.
We need to get outside for both our mental and physical health!
Stupidity is not confined to the United States. From the WaPo:
ReplyDeleteAbout 3,000 rose bushes in a popular park in the Japanese city of Saitama won’t bloom this year, due to an aggressive effort to discourage visitors.
At the behest of city officials, workers began lopping off tens of thousands of buds in Yono Park on Wednesday, the Japanese newspaper Mainichi reported. “It’s very painful to do but we decided to take such action after studying the situations in other municipalities,” an official from the city’s parks department said.
Yono Park is known for its annual rose festival, which typically takes place in May and features 180 varieties of roses at peak bloom. While this year’s event has already been canceled due to the coronavirus, the park remains open to the public, and city leaders worried that large crowds of flower-lovers would flock to see the impressive display of blooms.
That exact scenario played out in the city of Sakura over the weekend. Even though the city’s annual tulip festival was canceled, so many visitors showed up to see tens of thousands of tulips in bloom that local authorities mowed down all the flowers.
“It became a mass gathering so we had no choice,” Sakiho Kusano, a city tourism official, told Reuters.
Japan has been under a state of emergency since early April, and on Thursday surpassed 12,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Sheesh!
That's criminal.
DeleteAdd that hundreds of hospitals will now go bankrupt as many are essentially empty, unable to provide " elective" procedures and tests. Doctors as well will call it quits with many on the verge of financial ruin.
ReplyDeleteBunkerville,
DeleteThank you for reminding us of a very important point!
America, are you paying attention?
They don't even have sports games to distract them!
DeleteNo bread and circuses, but ice cream and netflix.
Never let a crisis go to waste ...
DeleteI say, "If the dirty stinkin' bastards won't let you BUY it, just go ahead and STEAL it.
ReplyDeleteTHAT'll fix 'em!
];^}>
When government becomes corrupt or tyrannical isn't it the RIGHT of the PEOPLE to alter or ABOLISH it?
Is ANARCHY th right answer to TYRANNY?
'Tis said not, but KNUCKLING UNDER to arbitrary idiocy on the part of petty tyrants with the mentality of a Hall Monitor is is PUSILLANIMOUS.
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
~ Patrick Henry (1736 -1799)
Brit Hume: Time To Consider Lockdown Possibly ‘A Colossal Public Policy Calamity’
ReplyDeleteDaily Wire
by Amanda Prestigiacomo
Earlier this week, Fox News’ Brit Hume suggested it’s time we consider lockdown policy as possibly being “a colossal public policy calamity.”
Speaking to Shannon Bream on Fox airwaves Tuesday night, Hume discussed the disastrous side effects of stay-at-home orders adopted by nearly every state in the union, highlighting the irreparable harm done to the folks’ livelihood and savings, and the social toll the isolation has caused, particularly for children, who are at extremely low risk for novel coronavirus.
To boot, emphasized Hume, it’s unclear how effective lockdown policies have actually been, especially when compared to other, more sustainable mitigation strategies. . . .
Patrick Henry had it right:
Delete"Give me LIBERTY or give me DEATH."
New Hampshire had it right too:
"Live FREE or DIE.
It's time for a revival of The SPIRIT of '76.
I agree. My only quibble with Hume: This already is “a colossal public policy calamity.”
DeleteEvery time I type a response, I have to erase it, thinking, that sounds seditious.
DeleteEd,
DeleteEvery time I type a response, I have to erase it, thinking, that sounds seditious.
I'm running into the same problem!
If ever there was a time when we desperately NEEDED some bold, fearless, powerfully active SEDITION, that time is NOW.
DeleteIf we can't ALTER it, we must ABOLISH it. [If you don't know that "it" means, read The Declaration of independence.]
DEATH really IS preferable to LIFE as a SLAVE to a tyrannical Socialist World Government. If you don't believe that you are a coward and a fool.
...but the lockdown policy is so humane...
Delete...and their is no tyrant so cruel as to match the humanitarian leader.
Delete...who enacts his Draconian policies for "the good of the people", the "objects" he must "treat and cure".
DeleteThey say that it takes religion to make good men do bad things? Then what is humanitarianism?
The Wuhan Virus Pandemic has Exposed the American Ruling Class
ReplyDeleteAmerican Thinker
by Steve McCann
At the culmination of a national health or societal crisis in the United States, it has become de rigueur for the media and innumerable pundits ensconced within the professional class to perform a post-mortem on how the citizenry handled the crisis and what lessons the rubes in fly-over country should have learned.
In the current pandemic, however, the top levels of professional class that populates the ruling class and runs the media and the major institutional bureaucracies has irretrievably unmasked itself.
The in the postmortems that will come, twill be found deficient.
Credulous Cowards., an immutable tenet of today’s ruling class is that if someone or an institution . . .
TIME TO CALL ... T_H_E ... P_O_I_S_O_N ... I_V_Y ... L_E_A_G_U_E ... WHAT IT IS AND HOLD IT ACCOUNTABLE..
From the same essay which Franco mentioned above:
ReplyDeleteAmericans Now Know the Ruling Class Sold the Nation Out to China
While the American public has long been suspicious of Chinese influence in America, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed for all to see the extent of this nation’s reliance on a global adversary for necessities such as medical and pharmaceutical products. And that the single-minded pursuit of wealth and power prompted the American ruling class to proclaim over the years that it was a great benefit for the United States to empower China.
China owes its faster than expected rise as a world power to the transfer of American jobs, technology, capital, and business acumen to China so that US shareholders could receive capital gains, US executives could receive incentive pay for producing consumer products at a much lower labor cost, and the nation’s elites could, using riches from Chinese investments in the US, consolidate their retention of power.
Apparently, the American ruling class could not comprehend that if US corporations produce the goods they market to Americans offshore, it is the offshore countries that benefit the most from the economic activity. If that location is an authoritarian regime bent on world domination, then they will use their newfound wealth to build up their military, exploit and suppress their citizenry, promote manufacturing dependence, and corrupt the governing classes of their potential adversaries.
And a substantial segment of the American ruling class has been corrupted by the Chinese Communists. (Investigative reporter Lee Smith has an excellent analysis of how this corruption evolved at TabletMag.com.) These sympathizers are presently defending China by unabashedly regurgitating Chinese propaganda about who was responsible for the Wuhan Virus, how it was spread and by refusing to acknowledge that the globalist philosophy of dependence on potential foreign adversaries for manufactured goods was a mistake.
The coronavirus crisis has revealed to an increasingly larger percentage of the populace the extent to which they were sold out by a now compromised ruling class
There is more.
Link.
Tucker gets him to admit it!
DeletePeter Walker, former McKinsey & Company senior partner, defends China's response to the coronavirus crisis.
https://tinyurl.com/y7vofp9e
My problem with journalists is in how little they know about the subject matter they report on, and for those who would defend these journalists by claiming that most of the big names have advanced degrees, I would ask, “in what?” The way education is set up in most industrialized nations is that secondary education is a survey over a wide range of topics. A bachelor’s degree offers some specialization, but its focus at the beginning is a broad range of topics ... things that a college educated person should know in mathematics, science, literature, and at one time history (now replaced by gender studies and the plight of the African American female social worker). Specialization takes place at the masters and doctoral levels, a very narrow band of knowledge within a restricted field of study. A journalist with a master’s degree in international relations, for example, may have very little understanding about gerontology. If one of the big names intended to prepare a new item on aging, then he or she would incur an obligation to call in experts to advise him or her ... Ah, but upon whom would they call? The new networks have lists of “pre-approved” experts who stand-by to offer their expertise ... vetted individuals who amazingly happen to share the general philosophical view of the network.
ReplyDeletePoliticians do not and cannot know everything there is to know about governing. They too rely on others for expertise. There are essentially two kinds of politicians. Those who actually do seek to understand the problem and offer what he or she believes is an acceptable solution (money is never a problem), and those who demonstrate no interest in the subject matter, happy to rely on others for the scut work, and run with the football whenever it is passed to them—taking full credit for the successes, and laying blame on others for the failures. This is absolutely true about politicians at the federal and state level.
Politicians at the county/city level are the least knowledgeable of all. Worse, they are the most insufferable of all politicians in thinking good about themselves. It never occurs to the local yokels to check with an expert because they already know everything and whatever it is that they don’t happen to know isn’t worth knowing. This is why local councils make so many bad decisions. What they are good at is accepting favors in exchange for voting in certain ways. Amazingly, Democrats control the worst-run cities and counties in the US.
There is some good news to all this: we have finally arrived at that point where the American voter is able to see, up close and personal, what a miserable job he or she has done in selecting state, county, and local officials. The dangerous morons they selected to lead them have placed them under arrest in their own homes, have shut down the parks, restricted access to the lakes, and closed businesses which fuel our entire national economy. Madam Pelosi may present us with a clear and present danger at the national level, but she has nothing whatever to do with what is going on inside the city of Denver, or Laguna Hills, or St. Louis.
That's because they are not journalists, they are stenographers. They get someone to say something to them, and then they write what that person said. The information goes from their ears to their fingers on the keyboard without ever passing through their brain.
Delete"Politicians at the county/city level are the least knowledgeable of all. Worse, they are the most insufferable of all"
ReplyDeleteWard healers.
and "journalists" with advanced degrees probably have an advanced degree in......Journalism.
I like fact #3, ""Vital population immunity..." The writer does not think we are a bunch of cattle. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis whole thing is getting to be unbelievable. I for one think it’s the agenda of the far left to scare the hell out of the people so that they won’t vote for Trump and unfortunately it’s working.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhistl Blower,
DeleteUp votes for that accurate comment.
Now he;s saying you should mainline Lysol and you're going to vote for this gibone.
DeleteWell, Duck, Trump is clearly not a man of science or medicine.
DeleteOn the other hand, he can read financial spreadsheets that leave me -- and many others, I'm sure -- flummoxed.
A few here have asked you a question that I wish you'd answer: How are you feeling these days?
Fake News: Trump Didn't Tell People to Inject Bleach or Lysol Into Their Veins to Fight Coronavirus
Deleteyeah yeah yeah, he didn't literally instruct anyone to inject disinfectant. He was just a guy casually shooting the breeze, at a podium with the press gathered around him, chatting off the cuff about vague blue-sky ideas, just thinking aloud like you might do in private in the company of your close friends, except it was in front of an audience and on television and he was in his formal capacity as a president of a major world power. That's not the point though, his office isn't relevant. He should be judged by the same standards as me as I comment semi-anonymously on an internet forum. Lower standards, actually. What a nasty question.
DeleteJez,
Deleteexcept it was in front of an audience and on television and he was in his formal capacity as a president of a major world power
For the record, I cringed when he said it -- more because I knew that the press would run with it. And they did.
Medical advice from the "experts" from not so long ago...
DeleteFrom AOW's link:
Delete"So I think the data that were presented at the press conference today were really important in terms of what kills the virus, and I believe the president was asking a question that many Americans are asking, which is, 'okay, this is what kills the virus, it's a physical agent, in this case UV light. How could that be applied to kill the virus, for example, in a human being?' We have plenty of examples in medicine where light therapy has been used for treatment of certain diseases. So, it’s a natural question that I as a doctor would have expected to hear from someone as a natural extension of the data that were presented.”
—Dr. Stephen Hahn, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration
Maybe context is important ... yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jez and Ducky, please see below. I have posted an actual transcript for those goggle-eyed partisans too incurious to pursue the truth on their own.
Delete@AoW: I'm betting Trump knew too. What do you think he's up to?
DeleteJez,
DeleteI could surmise, but I don't have confidence in my guesses.
From the NIH in 2009:
DeleteThe H1N1 “Spanish flu” outbreak of 1918–1919 was the most devastating pandemic on record, killing between 50 million and 100 million people. Should the next influenza pandemic prove equally virulent, there could be more than 300 million deaths globally. The conventional view is that little could have been done to prevent the H1N1 virus from spreading or to treat those infected; however, there is evidence to the contrary. Records from an “open-air” hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, suggest that some patients and staff were spared the worst of the outbreak. A combination of fresh air, sunlight, scrupulous standards of hygiene, and reusable face masks appears to have substantially reduced deaths among some patients and infections among medical staff. We argue that temporary hospitals should be a priority in emergency planning. Equally, other measures adopted during the 1918 pandemic merit more attention than they currently receive.
(continued below)
(continued from above)
DeleteThe treatment at Camp Brooks Hospital took place outdoors, with “a maximum of sunshine and of fresh air day and night.”37(p1747) The medical officer in charge, Major Thomas F. Harrington, had studied the history of his patients and found that the worst cases of pneumonia came from the parts of ships that were most badly ventilated. In good weather, patients were taken out of their tents and put in the open. They were kept warm in their beds at night with hot-water bottles and extra blankets and were fed every few hours throughout the course of the fever. Anyone in contact with them had to wear an improvised facemask, which comprised five layers of gauze on a wire frame covering the nose and mouth. The frame was made out of an ordinary gravy strainer, shaped to fit the face of the wearer and to prevent the gauze filter from touching the nostrils or mouth. Nurses and orderlies were instructed to keep their hands away from the outside of the masks as much as possible. A superintendent made sure the masks were replaced every two hours, were properly sterilized, and contained fresh gauze.38
Other measures to prevent infection included the wearing of gloves and gowns....
[...]
Of the camp's medical staff—15 doctors, 45 nurses and aids, 20 sanitary corps men, and 74 sailors acting as orderlies—only six nurses and two orderlies developed influenza. In five of these cases, exposure to the virus was reported to have taken place outside the camp. A few medicines were used to relieve the patients’ symptoms and aid their recovery, but these were considered less important than were regular meals, warmth, and plenty of fresh air and sunlight.37
Read the entire NIH entry HERE.
Well, not sure how well it's working. Wait until it comes time to actually vote for Biden.
ReplyDeleteThis should concern all of us...
ReplyDeleteFact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.
Some reading on that topic: Instead Of ‘Flattening The Curve,’ We Flattened Hospitals, Doctors, And The U.S. Health Care System.
In my own case, I've had my much-needed office visit with my kidney surgeon. Maybe I could afford to wait, maybe not. I won't know until I have the next scan -- in June.
After recovering from the Wuhan virus in February, I have been left slightly short of breath and with a slight but persistent dry cough. I have an oximeter (which everyone with my lung history should) and my oxygen level is mostly in the 91% to 94% range. This is of some concern and my wife wants me to call the doctor, but Scripps doctor's offices are closed, so I would have to see him at the hospital. I am not going anywhere that place. The staff there is all operating in a climate of panic and negativity, and I am not about to have them involved in treating me.
DeleteJayhawk,
DeleteThat's defined as recovery? Doesn't sound so good to me.
Jayhawk,
DeleteI am happy to hear you survived. I don't blame you for not wanting to go to a clinic. That's where the sick people are. You could catch something.
A dry cough ain't so bad. I caught one in Iraq 15 years ago and still have it.
The democrats are out to destroy our way of life and replace it with God Knows What. Nothing good that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteKid,
DeleteYes, those are the Dems' goals.
I think we all know "what."
DeleteYes, on the Sunday Talk shows the Nut Jobs are speaking things ----"What is best for the Collective".
DeleteThat statement is pure Communism.
As to what Mustang alluded to...
Back in the 1960's, we lived close to a rancher,
and their Family invited all the neighbors over for
a big bash BBQ.
The Grandmother of the Host, at the age of 101 sat there telling stories about her life through
the 1800's. She kept everyone on the edge of their seats.
Some of the young men who were going off to College,
told about being eager to experiencing College Life.
She replied: Don't go to College and become an
Educated IDIOT!
For the plonkers in the audience, here is the transcript from President Trump's press conference that has unhinged leftwing loonies screaming that he told people to drink bleach...
ReplyDeleteBill Bryan: (28:34)
DeleteFor example, increasing the temperature and humidity of potentially contaminated indoor spaces appears to reduce the stability of the virus, and extra care may be warranted for dry environments that do not have exposure to solar light. We’re also testing disinfectants readily available. We’ve tested bleach, we’ve tested isopropyl alcohol on the virus specifically in saliva or in respiratory fluids and I can tell you that bleach will kill the virus in five minutes. Isopropyl alcohol will kill the virus in 30 seconds and that’s with no manipulation, no rubbing. Just bring it on and leaving it go. You rub it and it goes away even faster. We’re also looking at other disinfectants, specifically looking at the COVID-19 virus in saliva. This is not the end of our work. As we continue to characterize this virus and integrate our findings into practical applications to mitigate exposure and transmission. I would like to thank the president, thank the vice president for their ongoing support and leadership to the department and for their work in addressing this pandemic. I would also like to thank the scientists not only in S and T and the NBAC, but to the larger scientific and R and D community. Thank you very much.
Donald Trump: (29:46)
DeleteA question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting.
So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting, right?
And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful. Steve, please.
Jez and Ducky,
DeleteA piece of advice I should not have to give to smart gentlemen such as yourselves, but here goes:
Don't believe everything you hear. Go to the source and check it out for yourself.
Transcript
The irresponsible, hysterical Infotainment Media Complex is making us all dumber and angrier, and people like you who lap it up are part of the problem.
I sought out the video immediately when I first saw the outrage on social media. My opinion is that he deliberately made appallingly inappropriate statements (a man in his position should not be free-associating ideas about disinfectent and injection, because his office implies that when he's at a podium he's saying something important, or at least considered. *I* wouldn't think aloud in front of the press at a podium. There's a time and a place, surely? What do you think Trump's job is? What does *he* think his job is?) in order to set up the daily Trump vs The Press improv theatre that he thrives on. It would be so easy for him to avoid this dynamic, he must be doing it because he perceives some advantage to it.
DeleteMeanwhile, America is operating essentially without a President, so I hope it turns out you don't need one, even in the midst of a legitimate global health crisis. All because the guy in office is more interest in presenting a daily adventure television serial all about Trump vanquishing his foes. Fantastic ratings. The best.
Just to be clear, I never complained that Trump told anyone to ingest bleach, I acknowledged in my opening sentence that he didn't say that. My complaint is that he spends so much time playing games about how much he can outrage the press and liberal Americans, for the entertainment of his base. I find it distasteful at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. I suspect he could find something useful he could be doing instead, if he were not such a terrible person.
DeleteJez,
Deletehe spends so much time playing games about how much he can outrage the press and liberal Americans, for the entertainment of his base
I think that it's about more than entertainment.
The press spend so much time with gotcha questions, and Trump is smacking them down -- a smack down which they deserve, IMO.
You don't see the pattern of goading from the President?
DeleteJez,
DeleteThe goading goes both ways.
I'll never forget how the press ridiculed Trump from the day he came diwn the escalator in June 2015. And the media have been relentless ever since -- no matter what Trump does or says.
Personally, I see Trump’s “goading” more in line with his utter contempt for journalists, all of whom have an agenda, the majority of whom intend to present Trump is the worst possible light. Trump does feed this, and as Jez indicates, he does it knowing that it solidifies his base (who elected him to push back against the DC swamp). We’ll see how powerful that base is in November. Meanwhile, with politicians such as Jeremy Corbin and his replacement Kier Starmer, and a host of communist enablers such as David Cameron, Gordon Brown, and Theresa May ... there is plenty to worry about in the UK ... at least enough to occupy Jez’ time rather than having to worry about an American president. As to the “global health crisis,” time for a reality check. COVID-19 has been less lethal to humankind than the last seasonal strain of influenza. The statistics do not justify closure of the world’s economy. If Jez thinks that dying from a virulent disease is a tragedy (noting that people die every day in massive numbers from all sorts of things), ponder for a moment the tragedies among a much larger number of people who are unable to earn an income. This is the leftist mentality, by the way. Power over the people —that’s the ticket.
DeleteSam,
DeleteUp votes for your spot-on comment.
The press is today's #1 Snark Hunter, they turn all returned DJT Snark into Boojum.
DeleteThey sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.
-Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"
;p
DeleteSam,
Delete+1 ^10
We didn't vote for, or continue to support, the President because of his eloquent language or actions. We voted for him to be a disruptor to those who would rule. By any objective standard, he has done and continues to do a wonderful job.
He doesn't owe any respect to the agitprop arm of the media or politicians who look down their collective noses at us mere plebeians and he gives them the disrespect they so richly deserve.
George Bush, on the other hand, ignored the MSM and refused to reply to attacks on him as beneath the dignity of the office of the President of the United States. As a consequence, his second term became a joke resulting in the election of mister, I One, the Hopey Changey prez.
You don't like our President, I don't care!
Most people don't realize how manipulative news coverage is, and that includes even the most benign, down-the-line reportage. In one respect it is all propaganda, the Infotainment Media Complex knows this, and they have been very successful at organizing a 24/7 greek chorus, complete with volunteer haters eager to step up and denigrate the President's every comment and action.
Delete@aow: "no matter what Trump does or says" -- you say that as though Trump has tried a bunch of different approaches; has he? Or do they continue to ridicule him because he continues to be just as ridiculous as he was the day he announced his candidacy? Actually, I share your worry that the press wouldn't necessarily stop if Trump suddenly started to behave like an adult, but this has not yet IMO been tested.
Delete@sam "COVID-19 has been less lethal to humankind than the last seasonal strain of influenza. The statistics do not justify closure of the world’s economy."
That's not how preventative action works: you don't wait for the death-toll to mount up before taking steps, the justification is the projected outcome *if no action were taken*. Since we *have* taken action, we should hope that the projected worst case scenarios have been avoided; of course I appreciate that this type of action has enormous costs. And still, the fat lady is yet to sing, there could well be more peaks (I'm sure like everyone else you've read up about the Spanish 'flu more than once since lockdown began!) as we start moving around again. It would be interesting to have trustworthy numbers from Wuhan as they go through that process.
@warren: but disruption is easy, and has he really done that much? I think I could have messed things up far worse than he has. Trump insults not just the MSM but the American people. I'm offended on your behalf.
@silverfiddle: Of course, I don't defend the media. Although, I wonder how Trump would respond to a well-functioning media? It does look like he hates being held to account. Surely part of his job entails answering searching questions without taking it as a personal affront?
I'm sorry you are so routinely insulted, and I apologise if I myself have been condescending: to some extent I am just an asshole (i'm working on it); but also it's an old defensive habit which is no longer appropriate since this forum has been a lot less hostile to me recently. I could stand to demiliterize my persona somewhat :)
DeleteI still think Trump insults your intelligence, though. In a society where intelligence is increasingly an inconvenience which can no longer be accommodated, Trump is an egregious example.
Jez,
DeleteI cannot read Trump's mind. Somehow, though, it would not be out of the question that he thought that the press would show more respect for the office of President of the United States.
In any case, we who voted for him cast our ballots with the middle finger. We voted for a disrupter, not a milquetoast, and for a non-globalist, both types which too often the GOP ran for candidate.
Jez,
DeleteYou miss my point.
I don't need you to feel sorry for me. I'm an adult with agency and free will. However, if you respond to me as an asshole don't be surprised when I respond in kind. I'm sure I can hold my own, after-all I have a lot more experience dealing with assholes on a daily basis and so does Trump. --Which happens to be my point.--
As far as people drinking bleach; I'm not responsible for people taking the Darwin Award challenge --and neither is Trump-- I and find the phenomenon mildly interesting and somewhat annoying. As far as I'm concerned, it's just the latest iteration of the Tide Pod challenge.
We have a saying in the US; If you make something idiot proof, pretty soon you'll find only idiots are using it.
@ AOW
DeleteIn my mind, the problem isn't so much the fact that the leftist press behaves disrespectfully to the Office of the President as much as it demonstrates its utter contempt for the people who elected Trump to the presidency.
The American press has, ideologically, adopted a Soviet styled pro-communist partisanship; it is one that assumes that the American people are incapable of making good decisions for themselves, their communities, and the nation ... hence, what is needed is an authoritarian progressive government that forces 330 million people to behave as they are told.
In voting for Trump, a large number of people signaled their rejection of progressivism —or at least, what the Democratic (Marxist) Party has done with it. In their role as the propaganda arm of the DNC, the press has become mean spirited; they have done as much to divide Americans as any formal DNC platform.
The list of our grievances against the American left is long and I think that those who cling to their bibles, guns, and the US Constitution (and Bill of Rights) see progressive behavior as a genuine threat to the peace and security of a free society. The people elected Trump because he was the ONLY candidate who promised to lead us out of the oppressive desert of the Obama-Clinton political legacy.
Your point is, you're already so offended by liberals that any insult inflicted by Trump fails to register? Or what I'm interpreting as an insult to your intelligence is Trump's retaliation against someone behaving like an asshole towards him?
DeleteMaybe I'm still missing it.
Jez, you're looking in as an outsider. You only see the surface manifestation of an endemic problem that can very well destroy the US as a Democratic Republican form of government and replace it with a "Progressive" totalitarian nightmare without the liberty the founders envisioned.
DeleteI doubt that we can even agree with each other on the definition of 5he terms used in the argument.
To me, you seem to be saying that Donald Trump is responsible for the reaction of the Press and the idiotic actions of people that are clearly of sub-normal intelligence.
Yet you don't seem to realize that he has been the target of organized personal and political attacks since he began to run for POTUS 4 years ago.
You don't seem to know that there is an -employment- revolving door between the MSM and the left wing political party, currently known as the "Democratic" Party. Plus, you don't know the history of that Party or its totalitarian actions going back to 1836 and the "Trail of Tears", our Civil War, the resegregation of the Federal Government and military in the early 1900s, the KKK and the Jim Crow laws of the Southern States, their fight "against" the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s.
This isn't about Trump, it's about the soul of our country.
Mustang,
DeleteIn my mind, the problem isn't so much the fact that the leftist press behaves disrespectfully to the Office of the President as much as it demonstrates its utter contempt for the people who elected Trump to the presidency.
As I think about it, I've decided that your above statement cuts to the heart of the matter.
I've had -- and continued to have -- some slings and arrows directed in my direction by lifelong GOPers (now former friends), who think I'm dumber than a stump not to have supported Jeb Bush for POTUS.
One GOPer even said to me, "Why is a person of your intelligence even considering Trump for President?" When I tried to explain in a 2.5 hours-long luncheon, all I got was sneers. Pffffft!
"you seem to be saying that Donald Trump is responsible for the reaction of the Press"
DeleteNo, but surely he's responsible for what he says to the press? And he's aware that anything he says at a podium in front of television cameras, is liable to be reported. Isn't he? What do *you* think he's responsible for?
"... and the idiotic actions of people that are clearly of sub-normal intelligence."
I do see a duty for anyone who knows they are communicating with mental subnormals to not mislead them or confuse them into dangerous behaviours. I expect we agree on that. As I see it, that extends to a (lesser) duty on anyone communicating to the general population to account for the >0 percentage of their audience who is mentally subnormal. Maybe we disagree about that.
"he has been the target of organized personal and political attacks since he began to run for POTUS 4 years ago."
I'm no American history scholar, but I've watched this happen myself. They laugh at him for being petty and vindictive, and he retaliates in petty and vindictive ways, and so it continues. Trump is an active participant in this cycle, in fact it is central to his political strategy. It allows him to dominate the news cycle, casting himself as both the victim of leftist opression and the lone rebel against it.
Despite my ignorance, from my vantage point I can tell that Trump's daily theatrics are making a mockery of America's soul. He's just a small-time crook with a large inheritence -- he doesn't care about liberty, free speech or small government any more than any other mafia associate.
@ Jez: "he doesn't care about liberty, free speech or small government any more than any other mafia associate."
DeleteYou don't know that. In fact, historical artifacts (interviews, books) show that he does care about these things and has for decades. He has always been America First.
OK, he doesn't care about small government. You are right on that one. In that instance he fits right in with the Democrat-Republican Establishment.
Delete@ Jez,
DeleteI'm afraid that if you're looking for mafia associates, you'll have to look in the Democrat Party. The Unions are wholly owned subsidiaries and cash cows of the mafia and the Democrats fully support them.
@SF: I find it a bit of a puzle to reconcile Trump's admiration for foreign dictators with his claimed commitment to liberty as an ideal; similarly his enthusiasm for libel suits IMO belies the lip-service he pays to Freedom of Speech. Acta non verba.
Delete"The Unions are wholly owned subsidiaries and cash cows of the mafia..." I wish they weren't, and I'm at a loss as to how that excuses Trump's connections.
DeleteJez, You are a bit of a naif when it comes to organized crime -aka Mafia-. There is no real estate developer in any large city that doesn't have "Mafia associates" or practically any other large business including transportation, land fill and trash collection, construction, gambling and lesser things that seem legitimate but really aren't. The Mafiosi are there to let you know they want their cut and it would be a shame if anything happened to your (whatever). I've seen it, I worked for a National company that it happened to and that company is no longer a serious concern after its stores and warehouses started burning down across the nation. You either play along with them or you and your employees pay the price. I knew two small time bookies that had "connections", they had to so they could cover large bets they couldn't cover out of their pockets. I know of a construction company with an innocuous Irish name that has connections because they are intermarried with a crime family. Even though their business is on the up and up, a percentage is paid for "insurance".
DeleteI doubt it's any different in the UK even though most of the drug and prostitution is run by foreigners now, they either pay a percentage or have turf wars.
Why do you think those grooming gangs were ignored by the powers that be?
"a bit of a naif when it comes to organized crime"
Deletethat's fine by me. I'm like John Martyn (English folk singer), I don't want to know about evil. I didn't even watch the Sopranos.
"Why do you think those grooming gangs were ignored by the powers that be?"
I'm not an authority on the subject, but I didn't get the impression that those gangs were all that well connected. My feeling is that they got away with it simply by targetting girls that they knew no-one would care about. The children they groomed didn't have any parents to look out for them, and they were "difficult": it was just too easy to believe the worst of them, that they were voluntarily choosing to get mixed up in drugs and underage sex (I daresay the girls would have claimed as much for themselves, that's the point of the grooming).
The Rotheram gang and others like it are big news, but I was more shocked by other high-profile pedophile cases where the perpetrators did seem better connected, such as the radio DJ and television personality Jimmy Savile, whose career of abuse was truly devastating. For decades, he was a fixture at the BBC (making programs aimed at children, for obvious reasons), and he was also very friendly with Lady Thatcher and her government through the '80s. The then-health secretary even gave him an honourary position at a hospital, where he had keys and free reign to abuse sick children. I don't necessarily think that Savile's high-up friends were colluding with his abuse, but they did fail to oversee his activity, and most of all he capitalised on the neglectfulness of his victims' guardians. I imagine the grooming gangs operated the same way.
I'm not aware of a link with mafia-scale organized crime, aside from the drug dealing which could have been small-time for all I know.
* down, not diwn. Damn this mini iPad.
ReplyDeleteThe larger problem is the Greek Chorus invoking the idiot's veto to erode free speech and shame people they don't like.
ReplyDelete“There is an emergency department in America in the week that will probably get a bleach ingestion because of this,” Kass said. “We know that because people are scared and vulnerable, and they’re not going to think it’s that dangerous because they can get it in their house.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-claims-controversial-comment-about-injecting-disinfectants-was-sarcastic/ar-BB137Yr7?ocid=msedgdhp
I mean, I wouldn't bet that this won't happen. Nobody's arguing against free speech. People seem to be disagreeing about what responsibilities a President should have.
DeleteHow many bleach-drinking soft heads would even know about this particular presidential discursion if the pack of press howler monkeys had not magnified it and yammered on non-stop about it?
DeletePeople wind up in ER's having drunk bleach every year anyway -- there's even a semi-underground industry that's been passing off bleach as a cure for various ailments since well before the pandemic. So it's not as though this dangerous idea doesn't have traction with some sections of the population. Unfortunately, an instinctive distrust of organisations such as the FDA would be highly consistent with the more uncritical Trump-supporter, so it's hard for responsible government mouthpieces to reach them.
DeleteIs it the responsibility of journalists to filter the President?? Are they supposed to get together and agree on what stories to avoid? Doesn't that sort of collusion run counter to the notion of an open press and free speech? He said this at a conference, remember, it's not like they wire tapped a private conversation.
At what point should Trump take responsibility for his own flapping mouth??
There is no disagreement here over the fact that DJT has a flapping mouth and he’s not the most articulate individual to serve in the White House. One should note that the first individual to use social media to his political advantage was Barack Obama; Trump simply took a politically smart idea and used it for his own purposes. For those who think that his all-too-active Twitter account is irksome, realize that it is the only venue he has available to get his message out to his base. Could he be “more gentlemanly” in his communications? Definitely ... but that’s not who Trump is.
DeleteNevertheless, your suggestion that Trump supporters are uncritical gives offense. In my view, those who align with Trump are, in fact, quite critical of some of his shenanigans, but they continue to support him because he’s the only game in town. For all his faults, I believe that Trump truly does love his country and works harder than anyone in recent years to fulfill his campaign promises. The man is no politician, which helps to explain why he’s so popular despite his several warts.
I would not expect a Brit to understand any of this. You are a people who, after centuries of living under the thumb of authoritarian government, have no hesitation doing what you’re told. There are some living here, the brainless left, who get in line with what the lying media tell them, who drink the Kool Aid (Obama Care comes to mind), but most of us (admittedly a thin line) resist the authoritarian nature of the progressive (communist) movement because it poses a clear and present danger to a free society. Leftists are every bit as lethal to human liberty as the consumption of bleach is lethal to a moron.
On that note, thanks for the information about the “semi-underground bleach industry.” I did not know about it. But as a social Darwinist, let me say that I have no sympathy for or understanding of the brainless mug who ingests bleach, with or without ammonia, as a cure for anything. If there truly is a group of people who somehow imagine that drinking bleach is a good idea, let them do so ... and in the meantime, let’s keep them away from voting machines.
"your suggestion that Trump supporters are uncritical gives offense"
DeleteI didn't make that suggestion -- I was referring specifically the most uncritical of Trump's supporters, not claiming that all of his supporters are uncritical. I count among my friends more than one critical Trump-voter, so I'm quite aware that you guys exist :)
Is contemporary Britain more authoritarian than America? is a genuinely interesting question. I think it's close; I don't know which country has the edge. You think it's clear-cut? How are you measuring it?
I don't understand those who are susceptible to bleach-drinkers either, but I'm not completely devoid of sympathy towards them, and especially not towards the children to whom they administer the bleach (one of the ailments it is sold to "cure" is childhood autism... heartbreaking). Perhaps there's some mileage in sparing them the confusing kind of messages that are bombarding them this weekend.
Mustang,
DeleteThe man is no politician, which helps to explain why he’s so popular despite his several warts.
Definitely the reason he is so popular!
@ Jez
Delete“Is contemporary Britain more authoritarian than America?”
A fair question. In many ways, yes, it is ... but as you are aware, the battle rages within American society against becoming another of the western civilizations that have already surrendered their freedom to authoritarian regimes. One key example here in America would be our rejection of federally managed health care.
Here, I would say that the question is whether we want bean counters deciding how to manage our healthcare needs. I will say that if the NHS is what results from government managed healthcare, I’ll take a pass. My mother-in-law, now deceased, was at the age of 92 placed in an NHS facility, who then, because of her age, began a systematic (and, as it was recently revealed, a widespread) program to starve her to death. You know, to get her off the roles. Thankfully, my wife moved her out of that environment, and she survived for another eighteen months ... at home, in the loving embrace of her family. One must ask, what the hell kind of a system is that? I’d offer “criminally inhumane.” Numerous examples of this exist, including the government’s refusal to allow a child flown to the USA where he might have received the care that saved his life. Worse than this, in the great scheme of things, is that because of your system, literally generations of unqualified physicians are all that remains to deal with the trauma of significant illnesses. They are not only inept they are insufferably so. Recently, my wife informed her daughters that she’d had a conversation with a local heart surgeon here in the US, and they were amazed to learn that a surgeon would even lower himself to speak to one of his patients. The really-sad story is that by now, the British people are locked into a system created by socialists a long time ago, such that most Brits today accept inhumane treatment as simply being the way it is ... and they regurgitate ad nauseam the fact that it’s all free. What good is free healthcare if it kills you?
I will say that I find encouragement in the fact that most Brits are moving back to the right. Brexit will be good, in the long term, for the British citizen, worker, farmer, small business owner. It is up to the British people to decide their own path; I am happy to see them do that no matter where it takes them.
It is true that Trump is an asshole —or to put it another way, Trump is flawed. Most humans are. I can accept an asshole as president so long as he shares my view of America the Beautiful, which includes strict adherence to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I want him to keep his oath to support and defend the Constitution. I want him to free us from the swamp which has become the Washington Beltway, rid us of political corruption by exposing dishonest and hypocrite politicians who never seem to answer for their crimes, who hold the masses to one standard, and themselves to another. What I want, what many Americans want, is a return to classic liberalism, which is far opposite to what has become American progressivism.
I will say that progressive Britain is at least consistent. I notice you heap the same load of bullshit on Johnson as you do Trump. Is it possible that you are drinking too much water bottled in France?
Jez, the press has a habit of narrowing down to the most unflattering and trivial thing--unrelated to the topic at hand-- and blowing it all out of proportion.
DeleteGranted, Donald Trump hands them ammo daily, which I have been saying since he was a candidate.
@mustang: it looks like you're measuring "authoritarianism" as "degree of divergence from free market economics." I agree that a smaller percentage of the British economy is controlled by the private sector, but I don't think that captures the whole story.
DeleteYour criticisms of the NHS are not unfounded, but consider the kind of attack that could be mounted against the American system (pre-Obama, even) using a similar style of anecdote-based argument.
Did Obama tell the press not to aire his blunders or did the press do that on their own?
ReplyDeleteBoth, IMO.
DeleteComment found on blog rounds this morning:
ReplyDeleteActually, if one looks at Mr. Trump's remarks as a "brainstorming event" it is not that silly at all: a lot of disinfectants are harmless to human body (e.g. tablets made to suck on, not swallow, for sore throat contain disinfectants); perhaps there is a disinfectant that can be used in lower airways as well, perhaps a gas, as ozone, or something else. Chlorhexidine was widely used for surgical irrigation of open body cavities; I do not know if they still use it for this purpose. "Octenisept", a German made disinfectant can be applied into an open wound, kills pretty much all viruses and bacteria, but does not harm the tissue. It may be a worthy thought for a researcher.
If somebody thinks that the President ordered him/her to inject self with Lysol, then, from a Darwinian perspective, it is better for our species if he/she actually does it.