Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump’s brother has died

[Ghengis Jon]

Trump is considering pardoning Eric Snowden. I wonder what has caused this change of opinion. Putin tell Trump he's tired of babysitting?


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN25B10Z

[Ghengis Jon]

President Weakling J Dumbass has gutted the leadership of the Voice of America (et al) and installed yet another donor into the lead position. Changing the organization from an independent worldwide provider of news to just another arm of Trump's personal disinformation machine.


https://www.npr.org/2020/08/15/90273...ar-and-outrage

[Dr. Strangelove]

With the post office suddenly blowing up into a major campaign issue, I found a couple wild facts in this article

* The USPS handles 47% of the entire world's mail
* The Post Office delivers more mail in 16 days than FedEx & UPS do in an entire year combined

Not everyone will agree with everything in that article probably but two groups that would probably be hurt most by the post office being strangled to death: small businesses and rural Americans

https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/24/if-we-let-the-us-postal-service-die-well-be-killing-small-businesses-with-it/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/us/post-office-vote-by-mail.html

[lineygoblue]

With the post office suddenly blowing up into a major campaign issue,

Its political arm-twisting. The Post Office has a large Democrat-supporting union that provides a lot of thump for Democrat candidates and so Trump is using that threat to get Dems back to the table for a Corona relief package. The relief package will happen eventually. Its politically expedient for both sides to get it done, in an election year, but there are still a lot of self-serving egos to handle first.

I'm wondering if Trump is going to get 30 seconds to mourn for his brother?

Probly not.

[CGVT]

He is morning his brother on the golf course.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Your going to see headlines this weekend and into next week about saliva tests. Think about the Atlantic article I posted a link to, of course, assuming you read it. The testing idea presented in that article is one that involves cheap, rapid, (think home pregnancy tests), high frequency testing not involving lab processing that is a PH tool intended to detect contagion and not a diagnostic tool intednded to accurate diagnose C-19 when such a diagnosis is needed, e.g., in the hospital setting. These rapid tests are not of diagnostic quality like RT-PCR - those would continue to be used in hospitals where diagnosis of C-19 has to be certain or as close as possible to it. These simpler tests augment PCR testing. NB that the current US testing strategy is almost exclusively based on RT-PCR and is inherently flawed for use as a PH tool because it takes too long to get results.

The saliva tests you will hear about this week still require lab processing - an FDA mandate - and the only advantages are no nasal or naso-pharyngeal swabs and easier collection. The samples can be pooled - that's good - but if the pooled sample is positive, that sets off the need for individual testing to ID who is positive using RT-PCR tests. Lots of system drag still present.This kind of testing is an improvement but results still depend on machine processing and delays in doing that are baked in. Just keep in mind the differences and you can stop reading here. I'm going to go on. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ........

Obviously, I'm interested in the failure of the US to control viral spread and what I'm learning appears to be at the basis of that failure - a failed testing strategy. Now, along comes this concept of high frequency antibody testing from saliva or a nasal swab for contagion and intended to augment RT-PCR, diagnostic testing, where it is required. IOW, the current strategy where you walk or drive up to a test site, wait an hour or more to get testing using the RT-PCR test kits then wait up to two weeks to get your results is in no way capable of quickly identifying outbreaks, isolating those infected and then tracing contacts.The US needs something else and there are plenty of manufactures of rapid, point of care antibody tests, some not requiring machine processing at the door step of the CDC and FDA pleading with authorities to approve their use. These are above and beyond recently FDA approved saliva or nasal swab antigen tests still required to be processed by a machine and in a lab and still taking longer than is needed to contain viral spread - the NBA will start using these this week. They are in a different setting - the bubble - and this kind of testing works well in that setting. The general public in regions where viral spread is high? No.

Here's the problem: First, the FDA won't approve these point of care tests ..... yet, but the pressure is on and coming from several quarters that have the expertise to urge the FDA to approve them. Second, they have to be produced and used at a scale 100s of times greater than what the US is doing now with RT-PCR (the gold standard) tests. Therefore, there has to be federal involvement and that would take the political will to recognize that the current testing strategy isn't working to contain the virus and to invest the money to facilitate wider spread, point of care testing that produces an indication of contagion on the spot. The link below is to a YouTube video that, if you'll sit down and listen to the 23 minutes of recording, you'll be able to understand how these rapid antibody tests work, how they are different from other tests now being used and how they would allow wide spread, high frequency testing that can lead to containment of the viral spread and a return to normalcy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKM4MIrfr4k

[iam416]

I actually agree with Liney re USPS. Good lord.

It’s a ginned up issue for reasons Liney says and, of course, on the off chance PDJT pulls off a miracle, it enables screams of STOLEN!!!!

[lineygoblue]

He is morning his brother on the golf course.

Well, that was about 45 seconds ...

---

In related news, .. some have started the hashtag #wrongtrump, wishing that the President had died instead of his brother.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hashtag-wrongtrump-trends-on-twitter-after-death-of-presidents-brother

From the article, "Dear Grim Reaper, You took the #wrongtrump," tweeted Bishop Talbert Swan, who is a pastor, radio host, and president of the Springfield, Mass., branch of the NAACP.

Wow. Sure makes me want to try out his church next Sunday ....

[Hannibal]

Well, that was about 45 seconds ...

---

In related news, .. some have started the hashtag #wrongtrump, wishing that the President had died instead of his brother.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hashtag-wrongtrump-trends-on-twitter-after-death-of-presidents-brother

From the article, "Dear Grim Reaper, You took the #wrongtrump," tweeted Bishop Talbert Swan, who is a pastor, radio host, and president of the Springfield, Mass., branch of the NAACP.

Wow. Sure makes me want to try out his church next Sunday ....

Liberals are compassionate, tolerant people, unlike those meany Conservatives.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I actually agree with Liney re USPS. Good lord.

It’s a ginned up issue for reasons Liney says and, of course, on the off chance PDJT pulls off a miracle, it enables screams of STOLEN!!!!

It's a ginned up issue because Trump wants states to backtrack and eliminate mail-in ballots. Because he lives under the misguided notion that Republicans cannot win a high turnout election, even though he himself is proof that disproves that claim. Local Republicans in a bunch of places be it Florida, Michigan, or Wisconsin have begged the White House to stop bashing voting by mail to little avail. He eventually conceded that it's okay to vote by mail in any state that has a Republican Governor; everywhere else it's FRAUD and UNFAIR

In Nevada he's literally fighting in court to stop mail-in voting and the Republican Secretary of State has pushed back saying Trump is (my words not his) full of shit.

[Ghengis Jon]

I would like to believe Liney in that its a ploy to force Dems back to the table for Covid negotiations. It would probably be an effective move if it weren't the Repubs that walked away in the first place. ("$1T and not a penny more"). Screwing over the Post Office is a post election maneuver. If Trump loses by a thin margin he'll fall back on his tried and true abuse of the legal system, filing frivolous lawsuits by the second. If he loses by a landslide, he'll convince himself that it is all the millions and millions of forged ballots that robbed him of his rightful place on the throne.

Trump knows that a majority of mail in ballots will not be cast for him. He's willing to sacrifice Republican ballots if it means invalidating far more Democratic ballots. Ethics, morals, legality, just plain playing by the rules is the antithesis of Trump. What will benefit Trump (fuck the USA) is what will dictate the action he takes. This is not news and shouldn't be surprising.

[lineygoblue]

I think the Post Office funding thing goes away the minute that a Covid relief bill is agreed to. I can't see either party gambling that no Covid relief before election day is good for either D or R. They can blame each other of course, and they are both good at that, but the voters who are supposed to get this relief will make up their minds as to whose to blame if the relief doesn't arrive before election day.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think the Post Office funding thing goes away the minute that a Covid relief bill is agreed to. I can't see either party gambling that no Covid relief before election day is good for either D or R. They can blame each other of course, and they are both good at that, but the voters who are supposed to get this relief will make up their minds as to whose to blame if the relief doesn't arrive before election day.

I think you're probably correct on the USPS thing. Nevertheless it's disturbing that it's even going on. It's just one more unjustified and largely retributive action completely consistent with Trump's actions while in office. Voters should reject that kind of presidential conduct. Of course some think its cool. I have USMC friends, marginally, who heretofore I thought were smart. I'm on a distribution list for emails. The Trump supporting stuff is stunningly nonsensical but here we are. Support among his groupies is strong.

I can sit here and spend all day reading and writing about what I read with little care for my finances. I'm largely unaffected ..... but I have a lot of people I know or who are close friends that are unemployed and struggling mightily or who are walking on eggshells worrying about job security, heath insurance, putting food on the table. It sucks.

I get the importance of the federal boost to unemployment but on the low end of the pay scale - mostly in the service sector - I'm opposed to unemployment benefits being untethered from meaningful indices to determine a logical amount of benefits. Such amounts should not be hihg enough to dissuade a person to go back to work because more money is being earned sitting at home. So, I'm with my R Senator, Rick Scott, on opposing the D's continuation of the same calculations for federal additions to state unemployment benefits.

I think the most important thing to continue is the parts of the CARES Act that deals with business loans, grants and the PPP. Firms that lack the cash in the bank to continue to stay open for another 6-8 months on non-existent or minimal revenues need federal help or they are going to fold creating the conditions for a much slower recovery when all this is behind us. The Congress needs to target small businesses however these a properly defined and when I say small businesses, its the 5 man operation that makes and sells a small part for commercial aircraft or cars or runs dry cleaning store. Lots of examples. They need help now not in 3 weeks. Moreover, they either don't qualify by size or lack the skills and the time to navigate the convoluted Small Business Loan and Bank loan process. Fix that.