Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

This suggestion is as woke as it gets. Why do this? We're in the midst of a global effort to protect IP rights not give them up. The development of mRNA vaccine in particular is a technological marvel that will rival inventions like the printing press and the automobile assembly line in terms of their impact on civilization. This technology is going to have far reaching impacts on the advancement of medical advances in cancer and chronic condition care going forward. The companies that developed them should reap therewards for doing this. You take that incentive away, as hard as it is for liberals to understand this basic concept, strips incentives for risk taking and the innovations that produces.

There are plenty of good ways to get the world's population vaccinated. This isn't one of them.

Capitalism and entrepreneurship and targeted grants from the Government. That's what won. China operated like, well, a socialist country and basically created nothing.

[lineygoblue]

And how many times did China say that "the situation is contained" and for everyone else to stop worrying?

They are not known for their honesty.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Fuck the Chinese ...... did anyone watch 60 minutes tonight? One of the stories was on Taiwan's dominance of the chip industry. Reportedly, China has attempted to create their own chip industry and failed to produce anything worth a shit in comparison to what Taiwan's TCMC - a global giant in the chip industry - has produced. They are years ahead of their closest competitor, Intel. Noted that it is remarkable that Intel has lagged well behind TCMC and the CEO of TCMC remarked that the US's path forward has to include incentivizing students to pursue advanced degrees - home grown PhD engineers - to catch up to Taiwan. Here, the Biden administration can do that public - private thing that produced mRNA vaccines to grow the US chip industry ..... and absolute necessity going forward if America is to reassert itself on the global scene. This after BO's disastrous FPs that were characterized by French style liberalism and all that entails and then 4y of a failed Trump effort to reverse those policies.

Of particular note when TCMC's CEO was asked if he feared an invasion by China, he said nope, XI cannot afford a war in Asia that would disrupt Xi's overall goals of growing the Chinese socialized economy and place in global financial markets. He did not mention that ultimately, like every other communist enterprise, socialized economies will fail under their own weight of systemic inefficiencies and lack of capital that condition produces. US politicians should be making hay in talking up how the US efforts to develop COVID vaccines in a public-private endeavor outstripped the PRC's similar efforts that produced the shit vaccines China (and Russia) are trying to peddle as diplomatic currency. Like I said, fuck them.

[iam416]

It was a mostly private endeavor re COVID. I like to point out that the US funds a lot of basic research and that's a nice contributing factor to the US's general dominance in global innovation.

However, wrt COVID, there wasn't much public about it with the except of the federal grants to Moderna to assist with production. Now, the market was obviously there and the US (and others) pre-ordering hundreds of millions of doses is quite the incentivization. But, honestly, wrt COVID, the best thing the US did was reduce standard regulatory bullshit to almost nothing. And that was actually a huge deal -- obvious as it may have been.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Another interesting report on the 60 Minutes segment last night was one that involved the "Wolverines." No, not those Wolverines. This was a group of scientists and MD researchers that understood with some clarity what SARS2 infections meant for the US. They were named after a 70s movie where teenage ninja-types, named the Wolverines, saved the world. I'd never heard of this group but they were instrumental in unfucking what the CDC fucked up in the early days of the introduction of SARS2 to the US. I did know of the testing debacle that the CDC was responsible for and I did understand that if this had been done correctly, there's a good chance SARS2 would not have precipitated the damage it has. Of course, it's hind-sight but credit given when due. Here's a clip. What the Wolverines did was too late actually but its a neat story. The link to the story is below.

Dr. Carter Mecher: 300,000 dead is, is a rough approximation based on the Diamond Princess.

John Dickerson: Who should be the one with their hand on the bell saying, 'We gotta move, this is bigger than we thought?

Dr. Carter Mecher: CDC.

John Dickerson: And they weren't ringing the bell.

Dr. Carter Mecher: We didn't hear them ringing the bell.

The CDC wasn't just slow to respond. It bungled the most important tool required in the fight: testing for the virus. UC-San Francisco biochemist Joe DeRisi decided to build his own testing lab to help California.

Michael Lewis: And he said, the Centers for Disease Control doesn't know what it's doing. We can't control the virus unless we know where it is. We can't know where it is unless we test. So we're gonna do the tests.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-lewis-premonition-60-minutes-2021-05-02/

[lineygoblue]

I think there's been some discussion here within the past week or so about the vaccines developed in America, and sharing/distributing them in other countries.

The Bern feels its "morally objectionable" for companies like J&J, Moderna and Phizer to safeguard their formulas for their vaccines. He believes they ought to share their information with countries all over the globe.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2021/05/02/us-trade-talks-covid-vaccine-distribution/115948024/

So these companies need to turn over their formulas so that countries can produce these vaccines under conditions the originators have no control over.

That's like telling me the recipe for Jack Daniels, and expecting me to make it as well as Jack Daniels does.

[Da Geezer]

It was a mostly private endeavor re COVID. I like to point out that the US funds a lot of basic research and that's a nice contributing factor to the US's general dominance in global innovation.

However, wrt COVID, there wasn't much public about it with the except of the federal grants to Moderna to assist with production. Now, the market was obviously there and the US (and others) pre-ordering hundreds of millions of doses is quite the incentivization. But, honestly, wrt COVID, the best thing the US did was reduce standard regulatory bullshit to almost nothing. And that was actually a huge deal -- obvious as it may have been.

True.

It makes you wonder what other "innovations" are being held up due to governmental red tape.

In regards to the semiconductor shortage and Taiwan Semiconductor"s dominance, I wonder if Intel has been hampered by the government in any way other than the inept educational system the US is saddled with. When I was a kid, there were always rumors that GM or Ford had developed a carburetor that gave 70mpg, but that Mobil or Exxon had purchased the patents.

Going back to a pet peeve of mine, I can't see how adding payments of salaries to bureaucrats should be added to GNP or GDP. At least there should be offsets for the harm their edicts do to the economy. But wrt COVID, I believe the government did a good job taking care of the COMMONS, that is, those goods and services that are a proper function of government. Both the Trump Warp Speed production of the vaccine and the Biden rollout of shots-in-arms have been excellent, and the US media should be bragging about both. The US still CAN DO. China CAN'T.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This Florida bill ostensibly makes it illegal to deplatform politicians from social media, forbids "shadow-banning", etc. etc. but carves out an exemption for any platform owned by a company that also owns and operates a theme park...lol, gee I wonder what specific company, very powerful in Florida, that exemption might be aimed at?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/1/22413934/florida-bill-restrict-social-media-politicians-twitter-facebook-disney-trump

[iam416]

That's not a particularly good bill for a lot of reasons. Fortunately, it's just in Florida and is pretty obviously unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, we have actual legislation in Congress that stands more than puncher's chance of passing and is, IMO, a disaster waiting to happen.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Desantis has rescinded all his pandemic related emergency orders. This puts county governments on notice that none of the shit they put into affect over the last year, including restrictions on school openings, are legal any longer. All the parks and play-grounds that I continue to recently see closed and empty, city pools, etc. will reopen for the summer. Businesses, however, can still mandate things like masks to enter - I'm fine with that.

RE businesses, what's going to happen is that businesses that require you to mask to enter aren't going to have customers. This is especially true of restaurants and bars.

TBH, there's some residual risk here of increasing what has become a low level of circulating virus in FL (hovering right at 5% or below state-wide average). However, on balance, IMO, that risk is acceptable when balanced against the benefit of restoring normal socialization, mobility and requiring schools to go back to normal operations.

The FL MSM will be all over this if there is the slightest up-tick in case numbers (an unreliable metric but still ....). I'll be keeping my eye on more meaningful metrics and especially regional metrics. Palm Beach Co., S FL's most northern county, for example, has had a sustained % positive rate below 4%. That county also has a higher than average for the state vaccination rate, a large concentration of retirees and with demand for the vaccines (now everyone is eligible) continuing to run higher than the state average.

Worth keeping an eye on. If nothing happens in the next month that the press can shit on Desantis for, the CDC, again, will look like morons for their overly cautious approach that utterly fails to balance risk in an increasingly vaccinated US population with benefits of return to normalcy. Overly cautious state's governors will also take a hit with their citizens saying, look at FL you idiots.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Related to my post above but more on a national PH level, "experts" are beginning to appear on nationally syndicated news spouting that the US won't achieve herd immunity in the short term and probably won't ever reach that level ...... but, and this has been blatantly obvious for about two months now with vaccines widely available, that won't matter because, these "experts" say, COVID will be a manageable disease. They go on to say, people wont be getting ill and dying from SARS2/COVID any more than they get Ill and die from seasonal flu.

Consistent with the rule that allows for HHS to declare a PHE, the need for it gets reviewed every 90d. It was just renewed a month ago and is up for review again end of June. That's when HHS will let it expire instead of fessing up and admitting it should be cancelled now. Follow FL you fools.

[lineygoblue]

No dancing in DC.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mayor-no-dancing-dc

[Dr. Strangelove]

No dancing in DC.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mayor-no-dancing-dc

Someone needs a visit from Kevin Bacon!!

[Mike]

No dancing in DC.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mayor-no-dancing-dc

I’m glad they got that handled. Up next: violent crime! Lol. Totally kidding!

[lineygoblue]

But rioting, looting and "peaceful demonstrations" are allowable.