Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Outstanding reporting

[Dr. Strangelove]

Outstanding reporting

Seconded

[Jeff Buchanan]

.....One lesson of the pandemic is that a hands off approach results in chaos. To allow life saving equipment to go to the highest bidder rather than where its needed most is both reprehensible and inexcusable. Another badge of dishonor for for failing to lead.

Here's the thing, Jon. Your conclusions in your post above is, IMO, demonstrative of a hatred of Trump (all of us here know this about you and, that's fine) that biases what I have come to know of you as very rational.

The trump administration's approach was a federalist one in the strictest definition of that. Defer to the governors on how each state would deal with the SARS-COV-2 pandemic within their states - as widely varying as the impact was. I do think, retrospectively, that at the federal level resources (PPE, testing processes and materials, etc.) could have been better pre-positioned and then distributed. But the ventilator scare was just that ... turns out that as a means of treatment and the numbers required were substantially different from what modeling predicted. So, yeah, talent's comment about that is spot on.

IMO, the administration's primary problem was the messaging of how things were being handled. Clearly, within the Trump administration, there were differences in how the pandemic should be dealt with and what kinds of things needed to be said as it unfolded. In a crisis, you don't want to see that but .....politics. Trump is no FDR or Churchill.

Contrast that to Desantis in FL and Cuomo in NY. Critical leadership was in evidence and messaging was unambiguous. So, in the end, from a national level, while the visuals were bad, Trumps messaging was bad (and Trump is to blame for that as he is shitty in front of a camera and reporters), as things went along, I think we will see, in retrospect, when all of this is over, that the federal government acted reasonably well if not stunted to some degree by a lack of preparedness with respect to resource pre-positioning (and ventilators were not a problem, testing materials were) and allocation.

As far as the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and Congresses' fiscal policy is concerned, the response has been good compared to what's going down in the rest of the world - we can quibble about various aspects of that but the approach has been very good even if in practice and on the ground there have been problems, most of which get predictably sorted out in time .... but never enough time for the media to complain about something. To assess this, let me ask this, who's economy is going to recover more quickly? Will it be China's or America's? Hint. Warren Buffet has already pronounced, "don't bet against America." I'm going with his take.

[iam416]

[Dr. Strangelove]

[iam416]

[THE_WIZARD_]

Flatten the curve!!! No...slow the spread!! No...don't open up...you are killing people!!

Moving the goalpost is EFZ what this is...and why? Hmmm...can't for the life of me come up with an answer...it trumps all logic.

What was once supposedly a health care capacity issue has become something completely different. Social distancing...shutdowns...stay at home orders...haven't saved a fucking single life...nor has it helped heathcare facility space. The models have been horribly wrong...yet why has no one been held accountable for that? Now fucktard Fauci says the models were not meant to be accurate...but were worst case scenarios...jesus h fucking Christ who the fuck is taking anything these dumbfucks are saying now seriously...please tell me.

[Ghengis Jon]

No Jeff, I do not hate Trump. I hate Russian puppets and traitors that are in a position to harm this nation. Trump just happens to fill the bill. It's his actions or lack of actions that I hate - Trump personally being an incompetent, anti-American grifter is simply a side note.

My biggest irritant of this COVID pandemic was the lack of federal coordination to assist the states. The federalist policy of letting the states handle their individual situations is one I support, but not the hands off, you're on your own position the feds took. Look what happened trying to obtain various medical equipment - shortages (real and manufactured), bidding wars, inadequate knockoffs, and unnecessary delays. The feds could have stepped in early and prevented that nonsense by prioritizing which states receive the majority of supplies in which time frames instead of allowing highest bid to determine where medical supplies were to be destined. Sure, there are people who make the nonsensical argument that no one died or was affected because this. And I'll wager not a single one of them are in the medical community or work at a hospital subjected to the onslaught.

This is not a partisan issue, despite very partisan people being responsible for inaction. We as tax payers rightfully expect leadership in times of crisis and yes, we were (are) woefully shortchanged. This goes back to your pair of questions up thread. Will we learn anything? Yeah, a coordinated, prioritized set of federal assistance actions will help mitigate the expense and timing of critically needed supplies. Will it change anything in the future? Depends upon the leadership - will they help or will they only spectate?

And speaking of handouts, WTF is up with excessive helicopter money? As Wiz previously pointed out, the overhead in small biz far exceeds payroll needs. Payroll protection was the right thing to do but not giving away more than what would have been earned in a non-pandemic environment. Particularly those that have a salary comfortably into 6 figures. All that "beyond whole" cash could have been routed to small biz for overhead. Maybe even providing some cornholer in Nebraska the opportunity to achieve the lofty distinction of "5th best wings in Nebraska".

My dislike for not my president Trump has nothing to do with the shortcomings of the federal response. Trump is simply the orange raccoon face of the feds. He signed up for the position, he can quit his f**king sniveling.

[iam416]

I personally don't think we're in a materially different position with pristine federal response. I personally think the cake was fucking baked when it hit NYC. And, make no mistake, the NYC metro area IS the epicenter. It's not Florida or Georgia or California. I think what's happening in NYC was written. And, for that matter, I think what we (both as American and human) are going to ultimately experience is pretty much unavoidable. The cases are going to happen. The deaths are going to happen. The numbers are the fucking numbers.

We've done a good job of creating hosptial capacity. We did a good job of making sure we didn't have people that were refused treatment. We're in a good position to deal with the numbers.

So, when I hear complaints about the federal or state or local response, my ultimate response is -- so what? it wouldn't have made a difference. It's like being a Western Carolina fan and complaining about the playcalling against Alabama. Sure, there were some spots that weren't good or could have been better, but you were going to lose by 50 no matter what the fuck you did. Maybe with better playcallling it's 59-10 instead of 56-3. Nonmaterial.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Just over 20 million people lost their jobs in April, per today's ADP report. Which is actually a little better than estimates, believe it or not

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/06/adp-private-payrolls-april-2020-drop-by-record-20point2-million.html

[iam416]

Just print some more money. Everything will be fine.

[iam416]

CBS News stages testing lines in M for a report: https://www.projectveritas.com/news/...ing-site-line/

Yeah, no narrative here.

[iam416]

I can't believe I'm just seeing this.

"The pandemic is that the President has no intercourse whatsoever with the rest of the world." -- Joe Biden on MSNBC interview from 5 days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltP1UHSp9kU

[lineygoblue]

There are no words ..

[Dr. Strangelove]

CBS News stages testing lines in M for a report: https://www.projectveritas.com/news/...ing-site-line/

Yeah, no narrative here.

The article makes it sound like some people at the hospital staged the line, not CBS. CBS issued a full-throated denial and the hospital never responded.

Unfortunately what they did fits right into O'Keefe's own narrative that the vast majority of COVID deaths are being faked.