Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

They should arrest Bruce Willis immediately and charge him with capital murder.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This morning's COVID news is rife with criticism of countries that appear to have adapted a "herd immunity" strategy in response to the pandemic. Of course, this put's Sweden in the crosshairs of critics. The raft of articles quoting "experts" in virology and epidemiology uniformly questioning the viability of this strategy arose when Trump's latest addition of Scott Atlas to his COVID Task Force reportedly suggested the US should pursue such a strategy. He subsequently denied he had suggested it. The newest and controversial CDC guidelines to stop testing the asymptomatic is being conflated with reports of the Trump administration pursuing a herd immunity strategy.

Widely quoted as why this is dumb is Sweden's CFR. Observers suggest that Sweden undertook a herd immunity approach but then failed to separate and protect Sweden's most vulnerable - a key step if such an approach is to be successful. Atlas has said, "“That was never a strategy advocated by me in the administration. The president does not have a strategy like that. I have never advocated that strategy.........if schools are being closed because people without symptoms are testing positive, that’s not the purpose of testing. The purpose of testing, like everything else we’re doing here, is to stop people from dying, stop people from getting a serious illness from this disease, and allowing other people who are very low risk to function.”

If Atlas is suggesting this, I'm completely on board with it. The pivot toward rapid POC surveillance testing and away from diagnostic testing that the administration appears to be taking fits perfectly with getting life back to some semblance of normal that Atlas articulates. The narrative this morning, OTH, attacks this sort of thinking without any balance for listeners to make reasonable judgements about the viability of less restrictive mitigation measures while increasing the use of rapid, POC surveillance testing when it has a purpose.

To understand this, one has to understand the CDC's testing guidelines. I really recommend you read them at the link immediately below. The first thing you'll realize, no surprise here, is that criticism of the alleged CDC guidelines "to stop testing asymptomatic individuals" fails on it's face because it isn't telling the full story. Read the link: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...-overview.html

The entire attack of the Trump administration's embrace of a herd immunity strategy is just wrong, misleading and just adds to the damage a lazy, uninformed press has already done. With the right kind of purpose defined or targeted testing on a wide scale, it is entirely possible to allow most of the US population to return to work, go to school, play sports and travel. Note that the CDC, first and foremost, still advocates for masking when social distancing cannot be maintained in any scenario where people resume some level of normalcy.

I remain stunned by the gap between the PH reality and the reality the media in all it's forms wants it to be. That a lot of this is being shaped by liberal and sometimes radical leftist thought represents a dangerous assault on America. I believe this misinformation is purposeful, abetted, if not directly undertaken by our adversaries, including the PRC, Iran and NK, with a cooperative sub-group of "goons" (Hanni's term but it works) with separate but sometimes over-lapping objectives. We've discussed here already the tools of warfare being used against us including pro-sports and the ridiculous pandering to the meme of "racial injustice"...... another inappropriate mixing of real problems with policing and racism, separate issues demanding separate solutions. Wake up

[iam416]

Sweden is an interesting case (caveat, it's all such a limited timeframe it's less than dispositive). But, they did have a higher death rate than neighboring countries -- though not particularly extreme. They went through a spike at the outset -- like, say, Italy and NY -- and cases have drastically levelled off and they are suffering almost no deaths today. Moreover, their economoy "only" shrank something like 8% vs. the 10+ % of other European countires who went full lockdown.

At the end of the day, the Swedish health minister and people in charge of the decision are HAPPY with how it turned it out. I think I posted a story on their "success" a couple weeks ago.

You'd have to willfully not report the complete story to paint Sweden as some sort of disaster. It'd have to be intentional.

[AlabamAlum]

Of course they are happy. A ruined economy will cause more deaths and heartache than Covid.

Ask the Zimbabweans.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Sweden's not a disaster. It's not a marvelous success story either. Compared with its neighbors in Scandinavia the death rate was higher AND the economy shrunk more.

2Q GDP
Finland (-4.5%)
Norway (-5.1%)
Denmark (-6.9%)
Sweden (-8.3%)

It's only when you begin comparing Sweden to much larger & denser European countries and economies that they start looking better in comparison. My argument has been that Norway is closer to being Sweden's "peer" than Germany is, whatever metric you want to use.

https://tradingeconomics.com/norway/gdp-growth

[iam416]

Norway, Denmark and FInland are all about half the Swedish population. In any event, Sweden outperformed the EU average by a lot.

The point is that Sweden is NOT A DISASTER. End of story. Because that's what we were told was going to happen. That's what is being suggested now. The FACT is that Sweden is, as you concede, fine. Not great, not terrible. Fine.

You know damn well what the Narrative was re Sweden. So, I appreciate your effort to point out Sweden isn't a "marvelous success," but that's irrelevant. The relevant point is that it wasn't a disaster. Full stop.

[iam416]

Geraghy is shooting fish in a barrell re Biden, rioters, and "Trump's America" -- https://www.nationalreview.com/the-m...ce-on-rioters/

I don't know how stupid the Media thinks we are -- I mean, I really don't. But they notion that the ceaseless "peaceful protesting" in Portland or the glory of CHOP or persistent homicides in Chicago and so many other urban centers is part of "PDJT's America" is ludicrous. These are the cities who explicitly reject federal help. These are cities who explicitly won't prosecute "peaceful protestors." These the cities that want to DEFUND the police. All of these decisions are made by the Mayors and Local Governments. All of these decisions contribute mightily to the "peaceful protests." None of these decisions have anything to do with PDJT or ANY R.

Maybe the Media is right and Americans really are THAT stupid. I dunno. But what is happening in US Cities is virtually 100% on the Ds. And I happen to think enough voters know it that it COULD be an issue.

Biden could, of course, kill the issue. All he needs to do is levy specific criticism. That's it. Call out specific "peaceful protestors." Or, even better, call out a specific Mayor for failing to handle the issue. Instead, he's going to offer wishy-washy general condemnations and call out PDJT and Republicans. Whoa boy.

[AlabamAlum]

There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah, I know what the liberal narrative on Sweden was. And you know damn well what the rightwing narrative on Sweden has been. They are an example the US should have followed. And at the same time they are saying we shouldn't try to emulate South Korea because they're too small and different to be comparable. But Sweden somehow is.

[iam416]

AA:

1. d4...f5

hello

[iam416]

I barely read any articles praising Sweden's move to "herd immunity." I read a ton and heard a ton about what a catastrophe it would be. Of course, the Media is leftwing so that's predictable. And my post was, of course, in response to Bucahan who correctly noted the Media will, once again, be starting up the "Sweden=Disaster" Narrative.

So, yeah, the Million voices shouting were way fucking off as were the Thousand voices.

[Ghengis Jon]

Perhaps our resident alt-right white supremacist will explain what this "violent left wing radical Marxist extremist goon" was doing to justify arrest.


https://twitter.com/R3volutionDaddy/...06594241699840

[AlabamAlum]

The Dutch!

It is a viable opening. And if people haven’t played against it regularly (and most haven’t in the last 50 years) or deep-dive researched it, it is very trappy with some nice tactics.

[AlabamAlum]

Same for the Bird variants with white.

[iam416]

I put to the Scotch to my Canuck relative who I play regularly. Just started, but it's been very by the book Four Knights. Things should progress rapidly in a move or two. He hasn't beaten me, yet, so it's not a bad way to try new ideas and see how I like them. I beat him with the Scandinvian last game in almost the exact way I expected to beat him with the Scandianavian (exchange version). Traded queens. Castled long. Eventually railed his queenside.