Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Cook political only does this once a month I think but they've adjusted their electoral map to give Biden a (likely) 279 electoral votes. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and the Nebraska 2nd district are now "Lean Democrat" instead of toss-ups. The only four states they are considering toss-ups are Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. Texas is still "Lean Republican"

https://cookpolitical.com/analysis/national/national-politics/new-july-2020-electoral-college-ratings

[*JD*]

Trump doesn't have zero principles. When he follows his instincts instead of listening to his bleeding heart daughter and bum son-in-law for advice, you see what those principles are.

The 3 Rs? Racism, Rape and Russia?

[Hannibal]

I honestly don't have an opinion on what the better option is but probably in September we are going to have to make a decision to either continue bailing out the airlines or let tens of thousands be laid off on or right after October 1st. If we were talking around 10% of each airline's workforce then as sad as it is, you might let it happen. If we're talking closer to a 1/3 of the industry (or even higher for a few) then it's a much more difficult decision, IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/08/coro...el-demand.html

Remember when the purpose of social distancing was to make sure that the ICUs weren't overrun instead of to quarantine the virus into extinction or live in a bubble until there's a vaccine?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Unfortunately for the airline industry "I can't live life in a bubble" doesn't perfectly align with "I think spending the next 5 hours breathing the same air as 100 perfect strangers seems like a good idea"

[Hannibal]

We can't make people fly if they don't want to, but waiting another 1-2 years (at least) for a vaccine before the airlines become profitable seems like a disastrous idea. I'm all for airport and passenger mask requirements if that's what it takes to make people feel safe enough to get the economy going again.

[*JD*]

Being safe is more important than feeling safe. A lot of people have (mistakenly) felt safe enough to get our numbers bumped up again.

[Whitley]

Trump doesn't have zero principles. When he follows his instincts instead of listening to his bleeding heart daughter and bum son-in-law for advice, you see what those principles are.

Trump principles are whatever can enrich him and his family must be good.

[Jeff Buchanan]

We can't make people fly if they don't want to, but waiting another 1-2 years (at least) for a vaccine before the airlines become profitable seems like a disastrous idea. I'm all for airport and passenger mask requirements if that's what it takes to make people feel safe enough to get the economy going again.

We appear to be very close to taking wide spread steps, potentially nationally, that will crater the economy if FL's, Texas' and Arizona's new case #s and how the press is reporting these reflects the flavor of political pressures both global and national. Such steps, should officials be stupid enough to undertake them, are clearly not based on appropriate conclusions being drawn from the data.

Look, COVID is a fact of life ...... it's like risk is a fact of life. A lot of people are living in fear of this thing, it is immobilizing them. They expect the risk of catching it and getting seriously ill to be made zero. Some of these folks talk to officials who are going to make decisions on keeping their local economies chugging along or to shut everything down again and strangle them. They place their selfish concerns for self preservation above the costs to people they should start caring about who are going to be out of work. If you are at risk, there are multiple ways to protect yourself that do not involve you demanding the government to close everything down to protect your ass. Take some fucking responsibility.

Make no mistake, the travel and leisure industry and I include restaurants in this group, will see multiple failures if they are forced to close again or for those that are still closed forced to stay closed. Those who work in this industry, most service industries for that matter becasue there is so much interconnection, may be on the bottom rungs of the income ladder but those that work in this sector of the economy are the lifeblood of local economies that feature these service industries broadly defined. S. FL, for example will tank.

There are outspoken opponents of closings that are also in the ear of county and city officials who, with a stroke of a pen can ruin them. There argument is that we can do this ..... together ..... with masks. So, that's a positive and it seems they are being heard but, IMO, not well enough...... masks aren't the be-all-end-all is the response I'm hearing. After all, people have to take them off when they eat. This is beyond stupid. Masks work and they work well in almost every setting that hey are mandated.

At this point, the US is not likely to get rate of infection trajectories pointing downward again by non-pharmaceutical means. If they do, it will be purely due to some as yet recognized aspect of SARS-CoV-2.It has to be managed as best as possible. I think that is possible yet we're not hearing anyone talking about that and I am angry about it. If there isn't a shift to that more reasonable approach and an abandonment of trying to reduce the risk of this thing to zero, we're fucked.

[Ghengis Jon]

Words cannot express my disgust for the CDC right now. They examined the situation and produced guidelines for school reopenings. Nothing unreasonable - masks, distancing, backup plans, scheduling. When America’s Shitstain© throws a hissy fit because the recommendations don't fit his fantasy reality, the CDC agrees to re-issue guidelines that ignore the science and pander to the president's whims. WTF?

Why in God's name does the CDC want to jettison all current and future credibility? You might as well fire all the staff and researchers, Craig's List the labs and equipment and simply attach the CDC to Trump's twitter account. What. The. Fuck. The CDC is supposed to provide a platform of facts, not be a mouthpiece for a narcissist's hallucinations.

Where's the frickin spine? "You asked for guidelines, you got them. Do with them as you please. Feel free to publicly disregard them but be prepared to reap the consequences."


https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/polit...ing/index.html

[lineygoblue]

Hang in there, Jon. When Kamala Harris is running the country, I'm sure the CDC will see things her way. Hopefully, she'll be right.

[Dr. Strangelove]

May need to keep an eye on Texas. They've reported 20,000 cases in the past two days and today reported 98 deaths, their alltime high by a longshot. But it's also possible some of that is still delayed reporting from the long holiday weekend. Have heard anecdotal stories about testing results starting to take a long time again.

[Whitley]

May need to keep an eye on Texas. They've reported 20,000 cases in the past two days and today reported 98 deaths, their alltime high by a longshot. But it's also possible some of that is still delayed reporting from the long holiday weekend. Have heard anecdotal stories about testing results starting to take a long time again.

Yep, Michigan had 610 cases today the most since May 20th.

[lineygoblue]

I know my old-fartedness will be showing here, but if they'd shut down the crowded bar scene, the case numbers would go down.

Does Gretch have the courage to do that? Will she have to ask Nessy for permission first?

[Hannibal]

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[iam416]

LOL.

I tell ya, if these debates happen they have the potential to be some of the most nonsensical television of all-time, or at least since A.L.F. was canceled.

Yeah, that's right Strangelove -- fuck that dumbass alien show.