Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

From my Economist Expresso News Feed this AM:

China’s government criticised America’s perusal of a “conspiracy theory”: that the coronavirus responsible for covid-19 emerged from a research institute in the city of Wuhan. President Joe Biden has given intelligence agencies another 90 days to investigate the “lab-leak” hypothesis, after a previous report proved inconclusive. A statement on the website of China’s American embassy recommends instead investigating “secretive bases and biological laboratories all over the world”.

Deflect and avoid the blow. Fuck the PRC. Fuck Xi in particular. It is he and his cronies that won't fess up to the massive disruption his scientists and researchers in Wuhan caused.

I'm not ready to praise DJT who correctly labeled the virus the Wuhan or China virus. IMO, he avoided the reality that was probably disclosed to him when he traveled to Virginia to the super-secret briefing rooms where intelligence officials evaluate the potential that the virus was a bio-attack launched by China. Remember that? It wasn't a bio-attack but it was most certainly a massive screw up that got covered up. Spooks knew that and knew it unequivocally. Trump surely had the goods on Xi but failed to press ahead with it and hold Xi accountable. There was a lot of posturing about the WHO and later about their crappy investigation but that's it.

The scientific community isn't free of blame and it is only recently that scientist involved in gain of function experiments within it broke their collective omerta' not to criticize colleagues and started blowing the whistle. Since the press picked up on this, it became a PR situation for the Biden administration that, I have no doubt, were in possession of the same kind of incriminating intell that Trump had against China and Xi. So, is this about Trump v. Biden? Not IMO. It's about a massive failure of presidential leadership in both cases to hammer home what actually went down in Wuhan. Both of those fuckers knew. Politics and politeness interfered with the truth.

[AlabamAlum]

CG,

I think the salient point are the media tactics. Sure, things are dynamic and change. But there was a sort of religious absolutism to espousing the approved line before that is not in play now. Before, you could not question or offer differing opinions on things (like the origins of the virus). To do so was heresy, racism, and conspiracy theory moronics. You could get banned from social media -or in some cases fired from your job- for failing to march lockstep with the approved line. Now, we’re saying, “To say the origin of the virus was a Chinese lab is very reasonable” as they shadow-edit articles to allow for that opinion and unban topics of conversation. Conditions on the border demanded exposure and demagoguery. Now? We just tell the media they aren’t allowed and they shrug and say “okay”.

I find the obvious pendulum swing dangerous.

Trump was a dangerous child, but I don’t see how anyone can honestly argue that the media doesn’t treat things like the virus, the border crisis, the economy, and our position on the world stage with China and Russia completely different under Biden than they did with Trump.

There definitely seems to be a “Cult of Biden” culture developing.

[Da Geezer]

Whatever, I'm not going to relitigate all this shit again. It's all been addressed and answered. Acting like none of this has been explained yet is simply untrue.

And one more time, Trump's performance in urban Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee IMPROVED over 2016. The SUBURBS around those cities in 2020, places where Republicans either have control or are near co-equal in power. are where he lost ground. If fraud made him lose, it had to have been happening in the burbs as much as these supposed "dumps" in the big cities.

And not only that, but Trump's margin over Biden in a bunch of rural PA counties was down from 2016 as well.

DSL, you have been known to make good arguments for the Left. This is not one of them. You make a syllogism which you claim results, "therefore the fraud must have been in the suburbs". That is untrue. There could still be massive fraud in the cities on election day which would reduce Trump's margins within cities. Remember, Trump had created a real economy in which blacks and browns had achieved the lowest unemployment rate in history. The numbers actually show "suburban women" to be the category in which Trump dropped most noticeably.

What do you think about the syllogism:
Obama received 70 million votes for Pres.
Trump received 75 million votes for Pres.
therefore Trump is more popular than Obama.

That is using your logic. THERE ARE A VAST ARRAY OF OTHER FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE 2020 ELECTION BESIDES THE ACTUAL VOTE. We all should recognize that the sending out of ballots to the voters in many states, and the sending out of no-cause applications for absentee ballots in all states vastly increased the number of votes cast. Dems should recognize that procedures like ballot harvesting and paying $ 50.00 for blank ballots (in MN) promote fraud.

I've told my story here about how much more efficient the Dems were in contacting me to make sure I was registered to vote when I moved to a different township. Two times they contacted me personally. All I ever got from the Rs was about 150 robocalls of Trump saying something (don't know what, I hung up). Republicans want government to leave them alone. Democrats vote to eat. That is why Dems have cheated in elections all my lifetime.

[iam416]

So, is this about Trump v. Biden? Not IMO. It's about a massive failure of presidential leadership in both cases to hammer home what actually went down in Wuhan. Both of those fuckers knew. Politics and politeness interfered with the truth.

WTF? Look, Buchanan, I have zero interest or need to praise DJT. He (and more accurately, Senator Cotton), happened to at least be not conclusively wrong on this one. But, I'm puzzled by exactly how DJT or Chairman Joe could force Xi to do anything and, for that matter, how DJT could do that when The Media and The Left were so brazenly dismissing the theory as not only against scientific CONSENSUS but also as RACIST.

You really don't need to straddle the line on this one. The fact is PDJT tried to at least say the Lab Leak was POSSIBLE. You saw how that was received. You don't need to give him credit, but I find it stunning that you'd blame him. I mean, I watched Maggie Halbermann blame DJT for the failure of the Media to take the Lab Leak theory seriously because PDJT pushed the theory and he wasn't credible -- that's an honest to god argument made by a member The Media. Surely you're not so daft.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I've told my story here about how much more efficient the Dems were in contacting me to make sure I was registered to vote when I moved to a different township. Two times they contacted me personally. All I ever got from the Rs was about 150 robocalls of Trump saying something (don't know what, I hung up). Republicans want government to leave them alone. Democrats vote to eat. That is why Dems have cheated in elections all my lifetime.

So by your own admission your local Dems were more efficient and better organized at turning out voters than the Republicans who just bombarded you with recordings of Trump's voice. Maybe that's why.....nah we cheated, plain and simple, only possible explanation

[Dr. Strangelove]

These weekly unemployment claims reports have been painting a more positive picture than the April unemployment report did. Next Friday will be the May report.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/27/week...ss-claims.html

[iam416]

Eventually the incentives will be toward employment. That's probably a relatively temporary concern. The jobs are there.

Inflation is still the thing I'm watching and will certainly watch June.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I think inflation is real and happening, possibly more significantly than in decades, but it's hard to get a strong handle on just how much. One, we're dealing with a lot of supply chain issues at the same time and a portion of the price increases could be due to that. Two, any figure that compares current prices to what they were a year ago is next to worthless. Prices were extremely depressed (for most things, not all) at this point in 2020. Comparing the present to 2019 makes more sense. The avg national price of gasoline, for instance, is up more than a $1 from this point in 2020. But it's up only about $0.20 more than this day in 2019.

Also, I realize the Fed is playing a role in this but 10-year bond yields have been relatively steady and staying in a fairly modest range of 1.55% to 1.75% for the past 3 months. A big single-day jump or single-week jump in yields could be a bad sign.

[Kapture1]

wasn't going to sell my house, but I changed my tune on that pretty quickly. Dumping 35k in and selling it. after loans paid I will have 100k in my acct. Pay for 2 years of rent in full, and will only have utilities and car payment. Banking over 50k a year. Hope is in two years lumber will have come back to earth.

Buddy trying to buy a house, lost 4 recently being outbid. Last one there was 14 offers in 3 days, he missed that one, being second in line to a dude dropping 100k cash.

Prices are sky high, I might miss out on 5% overtop, and have to rent for two years, but I didn't have 100k in the bank buying this house, I will with my next.

[Hannibal]

There's a strong case to be made that we have already seen inflation that has, fortunately for now, channeled itself into bitcoin, real estate, and the stock market.

[iam416]

Kevin Williamson saying what I've been saying, more or less, for awhile -- the Ds are trying to solve economic problems that don't exist. https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/...onomic-crisis/

I remain concerned about inflation, but I feel very confident that unemployment will continue to drop, that GDP growth will be huge for another quarter or two and that, in general, the economy will be absolutely fine, robust and what we would expect. PROVIDED THAT we don't fuck it up.

[UMStan White]

"That is why Dems have cheated in elections all my lifetime."

Hey moron you lost. Get over it. Stick your head up your ass for the next four years!

[Jeff Buchanan]

Talent, either I didn't communicate it properly or you misread my intent. I won't place blame on one over the other sitting president for failing to act on what was and continues to be actionable intell. That was my point, i.e. it was a massive failure of presidential leadership across two administrations. I'm no fan of the media and, yes, they played a part, probably a big part, in preventing Trump from taking strong action.

As to your question what could he have done? Brinksmanship and I'm surprised Trump didn't try it despite the media's role in tying his hands (that he should have done what was necessary was a part of his narcissistic character but that's another story). You sail two battle groups - that's two aircraft carriers, a dozen surface combatants and several nuclear armed subs into the Taiwan Straight. Simultaneously, you put your strategic bombers located in Japan and Korea on alert status along with sending prepare for battle orders to US Forces Japan (a shit-ton of combat power).

Look, I can make a case that the Wuhan lab "accident" was a purposeful act by the PRC. I can also make one that it wasn't. Doesn't matter. Posturing didn't do jack-shit to get the commies off their lie. Whatever the origin of SARS2, it came from China. The outcome was devastating and deadly mostly to people of western nations and the global economy within it. There were expert virologists that knew what the outcome was going to be in terms of death in January, 2020. America is going to sit on that? You send a message to Xi that America considers what happened in Wuhan a strategic challenge and a national security threat to US and global security.

Am I advocating for a nuclear exchange? Fuck no. It's brinksmanship. It works. Ask JFK.

[Mike]

I posted this yesterday.

On that note, I saw this in my morning news feed. An op-ed by a former high school track star in Connecticut that lost 4 previously held state titles to transgender runners.

Interestingly, it was originally published May 22 but updated yesterday with the editor's note: "This column has been updated to reflect USA TODAY’s standards and style guidelines. We regret that hurtful language was used." I'd love to know what "hurtful language" was taken out.

And now I have my answer.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/usa-today-removes-hurtful-language-from-female-athletes-op-ed-on-sports-fairness/

“USA Today edited an op-ed after its publication and without consulting its author after determining that the author’s use of the word “male,” which she used to describe the transgender athletes she was forced to compete against in high school track, was “hurtful.””

[AlabamAlum]

Yeah, Mike, we’ve lost our fucking minds.