Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Jeff Buchanan]

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get past the stream of bad news regarding C-19 from the press. It seems like the better things appear to get based on the data, the more stories are published of the COVID "surge", "disaster" or "Tsunami" overwhelming schools, hospitals, first responders and fire fighters. Among stories of local FL hospitals "near" not having room for new COVID patients are bed and ICU capacity stats that belie that sort of OMG take. Same for hospitalizations, ED visits for C-19 like symptoms and % positives, the later indicating community spread but not some kind of overwhelming surge.

Overall, at the macro level, the disease burden, while quite low, is being routinely conflated with the rise in new cases - the impact of that is actually much less severe than we are being led to believe that it is. That is because we are getting much better at managing hospitalized C-19 patients through to recovery. Never mind that we are still talking about an 80-90% mild illness rate for those infected.

While CFR has inched up by 100ths of points over the last month, it remains remarkably stable and low. You won't see this when every day the local press reports X numbers of new deaths without growth rates or in the context of where they were at the start of this thing and especially after 2 months of it.

Trump deserves every bit of heat he gets for making shit up but, TBF, his takes on C-19 in the US - i.e., things are improving - aren't that far off from what a look at the data tells us about it. Like this:

COVID CASES.PNG

....... or this:

COVID CASES FL.PNG

I suspect that there is some washout of emotions given the constant drum beat of discouraging news on how the pandemic is being dealt with. I get that. You're numb. But you can't stop examining the data and making up your own mind about how your community is doing and how you might safely carry on with your own activities as well as that of your family. In my memory of bad things happening in this country, I don't think I have experienced a bad event that it's impact has been so wrongly characterized by a media that we rely on for information. A lot of that is the politicization of the pandemic and nailing Trump and how badly his administration has responded to it ..... and they have. But the states and the citizens within those states have responded by finding ways to get the resources they need to cope and by changing human behaviors. Those two charts above don't just suggest that, they scream it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Missed this yesterday. Great news for the world. What could go wrong?

China has been helping Saudi Arabia develop nukes in exchange for cutting off all funding for Uighur resistance and pressuring the gulf states into silence over that whole, y'know, concentration camp thing.

This is pretty close to the same deal Putin struck with Iran to secure their help in settling down Chechnya back in the day.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-with-chinas-help-expands-its-nuclear-program-11596575671

[iam416]

Buchahan

If it were just nailing PDJT, meh....but the Media and the Ds have been hellbent on making this a partisan issue everywhere. Only in that world can you understand the deification of Governor Cuomo and the villification of virtually ever R.

There was never any pretense from the Media or the Ds that we were "in this together." It was always a weapon to bludgeon Rs. From the jump.

[iam416]

I'd like to think that, at some point, we end up with a consensus moral clarity on China. However, I'm almost certain that won't happen. First, and foremost, the Progressives see the US as every bit as evil as any other country, including China. And, for that matter, condemning China is an imposition of evil Western ideals on Chinese culture. Second, corporations, while following the fad (ie $$$$) on BLM, are terrified of losing money on China. Third, PDJT has spent 4 years bashing China. So, the Ds aren't particularly inclined to follow suit because, you know, PDJT did it (I know his policies vacillated, but by and large, his words have not).

But, make no mistake...China is the Evil Empire, Part Deux. Well, Part X+1 where X=all other evil empires, but "Evil Empire" was first used with the Soviets, so, I'll roll with Deux.

[AlabamAlum]

Joe Biden has dementia:

https://twitter.com/yahoonews/status...656111617?s=21

[AlabamAlum]

And China is 1930’s Germany.

[iam416]

This has to be the worst possible election. Well, I take that back. Bernie is out.

But, FFS. Even McKinley wasn't this much of a figurehead candidate.

You know it's a real concern when the Media starts to wonder if debates are even needed. That's already starting a little bit and my guess is that in the next few weeks it'll be full voiced. And that's really saying something because the debates are also a chance to let PDJT be PDJT, which is an unmitigated electoral disaster.

But, I guess the name of the game right now is to run out the clock w/ minimal damage and Biden opening his maw is directly contrary to that. I take that back -- first he needs to pick a VP, then he needs to let the Media fawn over what a great choice it is, then he needs to open his maw to say a few words, THEN they need to run the clock out.

[iam416]

Meanwhile, in Oregon a screening of Kindergarten Cop is canceled after a Marxist nutjob rails against it's supposed glorification of overpolicing and the "school to prison" pipeline. In its place, they will now screen a biography about John Lewis for the second time.

But, yeah. Nothing to see here. This is normal. And healthy.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/kindergar...lice-brutality

[Dr. Strangelove]

Said this before but Joe Biden is the only one of the candidates who has actually committed to the debates. Trump has NOT. He is still "negotiating". Trying to control who the moderators are. Insisting that he wants more of them. He wants the dates moved up. There HAVE been liberal pundits speculating that maybe Biden should bail. But no one in the campaign has said that and he has literally already signed the agreements to be there. But it's actually Trump that hasn't agreed in writing to anything yet.

Those Trump interviews with Chris Wallace and Jonathan Swan show how Trump performs when he's not facing an interviewer who's completely in the tank for him. Even Rush Limbaugh said as much yesterday. He said Trump should stick to friendly interviews only from now on. So I'm sure Biden will say some stupid shit in the debates but Trump will say plenty too. And Trump is much more prone to ramble on and on

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump deserves every bit of heat he gets for making shit up but, TBF, his takes on C-19 in the US - i.e., things are improving - aren't that far off from what a look at the data tells us about it. Like this:

Without commenting on the rest this is a "broken clock is right twice a day" example. He's been saying things are improving every single day since mid-February. This morning he repeated over and over that it'll eventually go away. And claimed that children are almost completely immune.

[AlabamAlum]

Trump is a buffoon and Biden has dementia. Hell of a choice, America.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump is a buffoon and Biden has dementia. Hell of a choice, America.

JMO but there's been a noticeable decline in Trump's sharpness since 2016 as well. And I definitely don't think Biden's "sharp" either. I said at the start of the primaries that I was expecting more of a 2008-2012 version of Joe and...that's not what I got.

I'm not supporting his politics but Bernie's the same age (or older) than both these guys and has more of his wits about him.

[AlabamAlum]

Trump looks sick. Biden is one step away from fingerpainting pictures with his own feces on the nursing home walls.

it’s sad because one of them will win in November.

[AlabamAlum]

And, honestly, I don’t know what Trump was thinking. There is such a better life out there for a billionaire (or a hundred millionaire, whatever he is).