Seven Days In March

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

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I do not claim to have a crystal ball. I can create plausible enough future worlds to write about, though to be fair I’m not trying to make them correct, I’m trying to make them interesting, which is why sometimes miracles are invoked and dressed in the robes of science. Because it makes it more interesting to read about and my job is to entertain, not to forecast.

Which is good. Because on 9/11 while people on TV kept saying it had changed our world utterly, I sat there, paralyzed and horrified, but at the same time thinking it wouldn’t change much of anything.

I was more or less wrong. It plunged us into war for a long time, and it changed the American people into accepting total strangers pawing them, and being treated as potential terrorists rather than risk offending the actual terrorists. It sent us down a path where my children think it’s totally normal to obey nonsensical strangers who want to search high school students rather than the veiled woman ahead of them, who might not be a woman (well, in the Middle East this is often used) and who is declaring her allegiance to the one religion that downs planes in the modern era. (The communists more or less stopped doing it in the seventies.)

It broke something in our spirit I think and it made it possible for the enemy within to gain a foothold in the minds of indoctrinated children whom they berated on how evil and bad our country is. It made Howard Zinn the basis of most history books.  This is ostensibly because the left believes we brought the attacks on ourselves. It is ACTUALLY because they’re spineless cowards, who are afraid they’ll be the next ones killed and who want to get in good with “our future overlords” before they take over. They want to be special pets. I know because they did the same with communists, and that’s why they’re the enemy within. But they’re also too stupid to realize communists (particularly Soviet communists, i.e. Russian NATIONAL socialists wouldn’t work that way. And what they don’t understand about Islam, including that people actually believe it would fill several oceans of ink.)

Anyway, the weird thing happening to me right now, through the Chinese-virus-panic, is that I’m sitting here in slack-jawed horror thinking that everything changed, that we’ve lost our last chance at restoring our republic and Western civilization with it, that the US and the world are on the brink of a new authoritarian age.  And no one else seems to see it.

It’s not the virus. yes, I DO get trying not to overwhelm ICU in the smaller towns, and “bending the curve.” But let’s be real, okay? Half of this is the panic.  Because otherwise we’d be doing this for the flu every year. And who knows, perhaps we will in the future. Which is a terrifying thought in and of itself.

When I opened the browser to come here, there was some young twat’s article in the New Yorker being advertised “How to get one’s boomer parents to understand the danger and obey” or something like it.  I rolled my eyes so hard they almost fell out. Because the young twat’s parents (you did well, as grandmother said you might now wipe your hands to the wall, since that saves tp anyway) if boomers are not in the highest danger group, and also because I suspect the young twat would call anyone over forty a boomer. And again, those are not in the highest danger. The danger is SPECIFICALLY to those 80 and over, and my parents aren’t boomers. They remember World War II.

And I remember the cold war.  And I remember, partly because America’s left allowed the rest of the world to suffer Soviet imperialism rather than say boo, because oh, no, the bad men might nuke us, the revolution and counter revolution that were our daily bread in the seventies in Portugal.

I doubt the young twat’s parents (Maybe the young idiot should start a band:Fine Young Twats.) remember the things I do, but they probably understand something the precious idiot doesn’t: Where money comes from.  They are probably looking — as the rest of us who are literate and don’t take our opinions from snap chat — at the numbers and the actual danger and then looking at our stopped economy, our plunging stock market and thinking that there’s a lot of ruin in a country, and we’re going to find exactly how much.

You see, part of the problem is that we’ve lived so well so long. There is a generation coming up that has completely divorced the concept of work and creation from the concept of money.  No, it doesn’t help that their idiot teachers and the leftist politicians my parents age or close to it, for that matter, also do not know where money comes from. Wanting to believe in communism, because they think their mediocre selves will be in charge, forces them to stop believing in reality and the harshest reality of all of is “where money comes from and what it does.”

It is, in fact, a derivative of the natural law that every creature, animal or plant, everything that’s alive must earn its living: its right to continue being alive. In biology textbooks you often found how some creature or other “earns its living.” I don’t know if you still do.

Humans have separated themselves from raw nature, in this as in so many things, through the use of symbols — money — and trade. But money in the end is still a symbol — a container, may be a better word — for what we do to make a living, and to acquire the things we need to acquire.

The left doesn’t understand this, and thinks it can print an unlimited amount of money.

They’re not wrong, at that. They can. it’s just they can’t create value with it. This stimulus bill that passed to get us over the complete stoppage of the American economy did not create money. Instead it reached into all our money, all our value, from our houses and possessions, to our stock shares, to our furniture, our clothes, everything we own, and took a portion of it.

Now this is sometimes necessary. And it is arguably necessary now, if you argue the stoppage was necessary. (It wasn’t. Precautions were. Stopping wasn’t.) Because there are entire industries that just came to a close, not just at the behest of the Federal government — airlines — but at the behest of stupid, power-mad fash-boots governors — I’m looking at you Jared Polis and your entire ilk. And I can’t believe my eyes. I didn’t know anyone that ignorant of economics could be as old as you are. My cat understands work and value better than your lot  — who are flexing their authoritarian muscles by forbidding EVERYTHING and putting their own citizens under house arrest.

Because the press has scared people so much, it is unlikely these blights on the political landscape will get thrown out of office, much less what they deserve which is to be walked naked and tied to the tail of a donkey through their capitals, while being pelted with refuse by the populace.

While they satisfy their inner fantasies of power and glory (I bet Jared Polis is posing like Evita right now) they are destroying the hospitality industry which is still a great part of Colorado’s economy. For saner ways to go about this look to Texas.

It is necessary to help those industries, but was it necessary to let Nancy Pelosi write the bill, which destroys small businesses and creates yet more pain?  Have we learned nothing from letting Malig-Nancy pass bills so we can find what’s in them?

Trump went along with it. Remember he’s not actually a Libertarian. He’s a New York Businessman. And the GOP went along with it.

This brings us to Enemies-domestic: the left is flexing everything that remains of its power to convince the population that they’re all going to die and that only government can save them.

It might work long enough to elect their spokes-zombie, Joe Biden, D-mentia, to the presidency.  That’s what they’re counting on. Because once they get it, we will never, ever, ever vote our way out. Shooting our way out is the only thing we can hope for.

And we must count on Trump to turn the corner on that.  I’m not sure about it. They’re trying to pass the second stimulus bill to repair what the first undid. (As always, government pretending to fix what it broke. The quarantine broke things, and now the stimulus bill broke more things…. Pardon me I’m going to be ill.) But the second won’t pass, because Malig-Nancy and the House Wreckers will not want the mess repaired. They want us to go down in flames, so socialism looks good.

Enemies, domestic.

Look, there is a possibility, a bare possibility that we come through this okay.  The mess Obama left behind, Trump could only get us out of one of two ways: grow past the debt, or inflate past the debt.

The first one was working, but now the enemies-domestic have thrown it in the pot, and all that remains is the painful second.  Thank heavens we used the last of our savings getting the kids through college. (She says bitterly.) The smart money now is to spend it all and borrow as much as you can. It’s how inflation works.

But unlike the panicky spokes-twat for the know-nothings, I remember the seventies.  Ladies and gentlemen, this one is going to hurt like a MOTHER.

And one way or another, my kids will be entering the workforce this year.  What a time to enter it.  And my husband and I will be trying to repair the ruinous state of our domestic economy now with far less energy and into the same type of economy that faced us when we first entered the workforce.

Hurray for Hollywood, and the press, and the educational establishment, and the “learned economists” who think money grows on trees, and the politicians who are fossilized excrement of the Soviet Snake. Three cheers and a hat trick! I’m so impressed I could puke.

Work, my friends. Work as hard as you can. Build under, build over, build around.

And let’s hope G-d in His infinite sense of humor still looks after Fools, Drunkards and the United States of America.  And that as grandma assured me, He can write straight on humanity’s crooked lines.

This last week and the events thereof will be playing themselves out for the rest of my life, even if I — which is unlikely — should live to see a 100.

And we’re going to need all the luck, all the work, all the desperate struggle we can muster so that our children and grandchildren don’t live in one of many competing national socialism(s).

Socialism kills, fast or slow. National or international it’s just a matter of speed and directness.

Let’s keep it from our shores yet once more.

 

 

337 thoughts on “Seven Days In March”

  2. I’m sort of optimistic because I think Americans are generally not as obedient as politicians think we are and more willing to get violent than they like. I don’t think governors can count on National Guard troops to be the kind of private army some of them want. Pretty soon they’re going to conduct business under the table and politicians don’t want to miss out on that sweet, sweet tax money.

    1. As someone pointed out, the National Guard is the usual coordinators in times of emergency. I suspect they’ll strongly stick with that mandate rather than get into the private army business.

      1. Yep – our Glorious Governer Gavin here in the Sheltering In Place Peoples Bear Flag Republic has been randomly speaking about whatever his advisors have been feeding his empty but well coiffed head, so his recent topic has been “I can declare Martial Law, you know. I’m the Governor. Of California. The Governor of a State can do that. And I’m the Governor.”

        What benefits that would actually yield in the current situation is not immediately obvious nor explained. Speculation is allowing hospitals to be seized by the State. Which is one of those Underpants Gnomes plans that is missing a step.

        2. I’m very glad that thus far, Gov. Abbott has said, “We’re a big state. Each town has different problems and needs. Here are some basic smart things, the rest is up to you and your situation.” So we’re mostly open for business up here, with a few modifications per the CDC and so on.

          1. Well, that changed quickly. Schools electronic until April 3, then we’ll see, no more than 10 people, and so on. SIGH.

              1. A politico ordered it. Of course it is. Bernie madoff and ponzi combined screwed over fewer people than any politico or bureaucrat.

            3. Oregon:

              1) Limited to 10 people
              2) Schools out until 4/28.

              Local school district (don’t have kids in system now myself, across street both teacher & has kids in k-8), per neighbor, is trying to coordinate electronic learning. Problem. A good percentage of students in this district does not have computers, of any shape or form, let alone internet. Lets just say that this district has a high percentage of poorer demographics, including rural, where internet is not cheaply obtained, and is limiting (although Xfinity has dropped limits, not that we come close even with a gamer). Then there are the homeless families, which because of services locations tends to distribute them to this district. Let me put it this way: When son was in school, our family was the exception regarding child having access to a computer & internet; even if heavily supervised. (Note. Area has 4 districts between three towns, extending into urban growth boundaries. Don’t know about the other two districts. Two of them will have the rural area issues too.)

                1. Haven’t talked to younger sister. (The one with the panic post). They do have computers, & do have internet, for all that they are relatively rural … (just some very extremely rich estates in their enclave, so access strung, & everyone gets access. They are in the “not poor” category, but not one of the estates.) Their youngest is a graduating HS 19 year old senor. I don’t know how this is unfolding for him. All his sports have concluded (Football/Basketball) so there is that. Do not know how it affects college in the fall.

                2. That would be one way to rid ourselves of the commie teachers.

                  Paul L. Quandt

                  1. Which is why college professors are quaking in their boots about having to broadcast the propaganda outside the classroom.

                    https://campusreform.org/?ID=14563

                    “Professors across the country are taking to social media to express their concern over being forced to deliver their course lectures online amid the coronavirus outbreak, sharing with each other tips on how to limit the number of people who are able to see what they’re teaching students, and criticizing “right wing sites” and even Campus Reform, specifically.”

                    2. “Wait till they figure out that parents can overhear what they’re lecturing when the kids are home…..
                      Sings: Let the sunshine in….”

                      Exactly my thoughts. Only I didn’t pick the song …

                      Part of our son’s inoculation, before he headed off to college classes, was to insure that he knew it took money to buy things. It took money for him to go to college for everything required (or it ain’t just tuition). That money didn’t grow on trees. Exactly where it was coming from, him & us. What it was taking to have it. What it would cost to have parental student loans. Why we felt that was outrageous. Also, we didn’t touch retirement funds. We paid ourselves first. Delayed retirement (age 55 to 60, so, to be clear, a real hardship … go ahead roll your eyes, just don’t let them pop out).

                      Now I’d like to say that we had a lot of foresight on what the colleges were doing. Back in the late ’70s, when we were in school, it was happening, but we were a bit inoculated ourselves, paying our own way, and our program was a tad more conservative. Second time around, for me was a lot more blatant even in degree classes. But kind of ignored all that. It wasn’t that we weren’t aware as we were sending son off to school late ’00s, it’s just we’d already thoroughly inoculated him well before he hit grade school.

                      You see he is an only child. A hard to get only child. We might have spoiled him a little bit … we’d been known to state, when someone mentioned what a well behaved child he is “He’s a bit spoiled, we’re working on rotten, but haven’t gotten there yet.” 🙂 The money wake up call came about when there was something he wanted, that we didn’t want him to have. General conversation went “No,” “Because I said so. No,” “I don’t have the money with me …” which his response was “but you can use your card that you always do …” You know the “invisible” money. I think he was 3 or 4. We started teaching him about money.

                    3. well…. our retirement will be 65 if ever because we didn’t count on grad school for one and two and a half degrees for the other.
                      And they have loans. we had enough for one kid. So…
                      BUT no parents plus loans. Not one. And no plus loans. It’s going to take us a year to dig out from the hit and not be broke. I’m considering teaching fiction writing on wizant to get over the hump, at least if the writing doesn’t come online soon.
                      I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. They’re SUPPOSED to both graduate this year. Please, if you pray, pray they do. I love my sons madly, but we need to concentrate on making our finances whole and getting writing going.
                      Also I’d like to have grandkids in this lifetime.

                    4. “they have loans. we had enough for one kid. So… BUT no parents plus loans. Not one. And no plus loans.

                      We got son through without loans. By the skin of our teeth. Let’s just say that the non-401(k)/IRA/ROTH funds were wiped out; plus every penny kid had saved/earned. The last 4 terms might have been, maybe, saved up the term before … I listened to 5 years of “He needs some loans. Some skin in the game, that he knows he has to pay back …” To be clear. Kid worked between sessions. Kid had scholarships, at least the first two years, plus smaller rewards, his first 3 3/4 years, so he did contribute. But, because we had loans, to pay back for schooling, but dad thought kid should have a small amount … My response. “Fine! Find one that won’t bankrupt us from the get go. That the kid can get. The kind we had in the late ’70s.” No payments, no accumulated interest, while in school, and for 6 months after graduation, at a low interest rate. Examples: Mine was $28/month for ten years. His was $19/quarter for 10 years. I didn’t have any loans for the classes I went back for the second career degrees … didn’t even try. I never followed up to see if any research had been done. I knew the answer. We got son through without loans.

                      Wouldn’t have happened if son had chosen a different route.There was a private school option that would have gotten him a degree AND his pilot license. Even with a 50% scholarship, and college savings program (which ’08 was decimated) there would have been loans.

                    5. Sarah, I’m 2 years older than you. I can’t collect full SS until 68. You might want to check on your number.

                    7. Full retirement for SS for me is also 68. Doesn’t mean I didn’t exit the work force at 59, 4 months before 59 1/2; when we can pull from IRA or Roth without penalty. (Yes. I know. There is a way. Without doing that either.)

                      Retirement is an individual definition. Not dependent on full SS earning ability.

                    10. I’d like Betsy DeVos to issue some “guidance” that lectures by government paid teachers count as “public records that must be preserved…..

                    11. This is an admission that they’re proselytizing and in class, unable to defend their propagandizing against challenge.
                      –

            1. Comrade Murphy has done pretty much the same thing in New Jersey, while promising that “more DRACONIAN” steps are coming. Because he thinks being draconian is a good thing.

              I fully expect that if the Democrats win the presidency, they will use this as a template to declare a national “gun” emergency in order to effectively end Second Amendment right to bear arms. The power grabs being made by Democrats, and their demands for essentially dictatorial power, should frighten everyone who doesn’t want to become a serf subject to the diktats of Marxist overlords.

              This fear and panic is being stoked as a coordinated effort by Democrats and media; it is no accident that Senator Booker makes a pronouncement that gets wide coverage on MSM that “this will be as bad or WORSE than the Great Depression”. They don’t want people to be calm or rational. They intend to try to stampede their way to victory in November so they can impose their long desired “fundamental transformation of America”.

              1. Funny how the leftists scream RAAAACISSST!!! OPPRESSOR!!! when draconian measures are applied to criminals, but are perfectly fine with applying them to the innocent.

        3. I believe that subsequent to a declaration of martial law only music written or arranged by John Philip Sousa is permitted for public performance.

          –

        4. I know — my youngest brother lives in San Jose. He was working from home even before the Sheltering In Place order came down. He says they’re not enforcing it really strictly, and if I were to need something critical, he’d work something out.

          Here in Indiana, the Mayor of Carmel has put the whole town on lockdown. Only essential medical trips or grocery shopping, or going to work at a job that provides essential services. Even the California mandate allowed people to get to the laundromat if they needed to do laundry. OTOH, Carmel is a rich town, so the mayor probably assumes that Of Course everyone has their own laundry facilities in house.

          If Pothole Joe were to put such a strict order out here in Indianapolis, we’d be in an unpleasant fix within a week or so, since this house not only doesn’t have a washer and drier, it doesn’t even have any good place to put them. Worst case, I could hand-wash the essentials in the kitchen sink and dry them on the rack, or find a long enough rope to set up a clothesline on the two poles that have never been used.

          And part of our food stockpile is in our storage unit. If I hear any rumor of a lockdown so tight we can’t even do laundry or retrieve essential items from our storage unit, I’m going to make a laundry run and then grab the tubs at the storage unit and stuff them in our van so we’ll have them on the driveway, not two miles north of us.

          2. My girlfriend is concerned about the Carmel situation. Her mother lives in Westfield and is supposed to have surgery in Carmel in about ten days, and she’s worried if she’ll be allowed to go support her mom.

              1. Read what he said. It’s more “She won’t be able to be there with her mom” than “it’s an elective surgery.”
                I’m potentially in the same situation and the fact they won’t allow my husband in drives me nuts.
                I have a friend whose wife is in ICU. He’s not even allowed to visit.

                1. We’ve gone up to “public Mass is canceled” in this diocese, though with things to do for the commuted obligation.

            2. Up here in semi-rural north-central Minnesota, my wife has been undergoing treatment for cancer. At today’s infusion session, the nurse told me that in future, I’ll be allowed to bring her in for appointments, and when she’s checked in I get to leave. When her sessions are done, I get a phone call, and can pick her up at the front door.

              Meanwhile, I (and a couple hundred associates) are working normal hours at a local hardware chain. No full-timer (not me!) will be allowed any vacation time until the beginning of June, or the internal remodel is done, whichever comes first.

        5. Actually Trump could nationalize any state’s national guard and make them stand down. He could activate them and send the out of the country entirely. He’s not showing much nerve right now so I’m not sure he’s dependable. Still, a governor won’t get by with it if Trump doesn’t let him.

          1. Trump is not a dictator, and all your wishing won’t make him one. If he goes too far, too fast, there’s enough Republican squishes to get to 67. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the veto proof margins spending bills have gone through with. 67 votes to override a veto, 67 votes to remove. Coinkydink? I don’t theenk so, Billy,

            And if he’s removed, the military would be faced with disobeying an illegal order if it didn’t help remove him.

            Sit down.

        6. When the LA Mayor is saying he’s going to have otherwise idle city workers “driving around” to check on whether people are staying indoors, I predict two things:

          1. They won’t be sent to South Central or Compton. They probably won’t be sent to Hollywood to stop the servants from showing up. No, they’ll be sent to middle class pale neighborhoods to harass people they think won’t shoot back.

          2. They’ll use it as an excuse to confiscate guns in those neighborhoods, whether someone shoots back or not. And sooner or later, someone will shoot first at the unprovoking Stasi.

          1. In San Jose the police held a press conference talking about “moving from education to enforcement” aimed at businesses cutting too close to the line of what’s essential. The SJPD chief listed businesses that they found trying to stay open that did not satisfy their only vaguely defined “essential”criteria – some obviously bad like bars and one pool hall (“With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for POOL!!”, some hair salons, and also – gasp – a gun shop.

            Nothing yet about harassing individuals or setting up “Papers Pliss!” checkpoints.

            2. I confess to having been wondering about Comic Book shops — they best not try telling the clientele that Friday’s new releases are not essential.

              Anybody know whether “Medical” Marijuana Dispensaries are essential?

              How about those shops vending negligees, “exotic” lingerie and “marital aids”? If we stay on lock-down for very long those might be the only thing that saves the nation Western Civilization. (Okay, Amazon will deliver us!)
              –

    2. They have their echo chamber: their sycophants and “masses” cheering their every demented thought, and some undefined mass of “Deplorables” who are not-of-the-body.

      The TV, the radio, the newspapers, Facebook, Google, Twitter… everyone in their world agrees with them, and will (probably) slavishly obey their orders.

      The Deplorables… not so much.

      1. I can’t find it right now, and my copy is currently in a crate on its way across the Pacific, but in Atlas Shrugged there’s a point where either the president or Mooch is complaining about how everything needs to stop for a while so they can catch up.

        I kinda feel like this is the general level of understanding on the left these days…

          2. It comes once a quarter when the men with guns put them to the heads of their serfs and take it out of the till.

            At least the mafia was quasi effective

        2. BTW, I noticed Atlas Shrugged among the “classic” literature being offered free from Audible …
          –

  4. The left doesn’t understand this, and thinks it can print an unlimited amount of money.

    They’re not wrong, at that. They can. it’s just they can’t create value with it.

    –
    Or, as I put it:

    Governments can only print money, they can’t make it worth anything. They can make it worth nothing.

  6. A big part of the problem is that our news media acts like an unelected, unaccountable branch of government. A bigger part is that we let them.

    1. Note that Google and Facebook are, for all intents and purposes, part of the media now.

      People who never bought a newspaper in their life – probably half the population by now – rely on them for “news.”

      And despite what some people claim, Google is *not* your friend…

        2. Experimental internet gas.

          Experimental. Internet. Gas.

          EXPERIMENTAL! INTERNET! GAS!

          1. Give me half the budget, a competent artist and letterer, and only half a dozen #1 covers rather than the thirty or so they seem to throw out, I can create original characters that will outsell this comic, both the first issue and a twelve issue run.

          2. Waaaay too much for me. Had my grubby/sweaty paws around Spiderman Vol1 #1 as a kid until the cover was wearing away. Same for Fantastic 4, Hulk and most of the others. OMG, what a total hoot to listen to this character to talk about “transforming” the cultural association of the names “Safespace” and “Snowflake.” Pulease.

                1. Absolutely no shame or self-respect. He also wrote for The Steven Cobert Show, so any problems with doing anything for money have long since been removed and cauterized with fire.

              2. If a creator came to me and said “Experimental internet gas,” I’d laugh and say, “Yeah, but seriously.” And if they were serious, I’d fire them on the spot.

                1. When your first three pitches sound like badly done Netflix scripts, it’s time for you to get a ticket to the world. Especially after warning you about the first two.

              3. Owned by Disney. What did you expect? The richest, most progressive company out there. Walt is spinning in his grave so fast he could generate enough electricity to supply to world for 100 years.

                    1. I call those Victim Privilege Points. ‘Intersectionalism’ is all about keeping score by adding them up.

                2. As Foxfier said, they were doing these kinds of stunts well before Disney bought them.

          3. Your last two steps are functionally equivalent to this:

            Expelling Intestinal Gas (at ever-increasing volumes, in both senses of the word “volume”).

      1. One of his COBs also had a whole bit on the trend of millennial writers angry or sad about how their elders are just too stupid or unconcerned to flee to their panic rooms. “Why are they this way?”

        My answer was “Because we have actual BALLS.” We know what a safe space is for – bombs, not pronouns.

  9. It isn’t so bad.

    If anyone here had supported my mayoral campaign, I could have opened a whole system of concentration camps to deal with this public health crisis with an executive order. Lock up all the pot smokers, Canadian bioweapons experts, and Democrat political activists, who are known to be a higher risk as vectors.

    I’m actually joking this time. Taking advantage of panic and distressed mental conditions to win people over to my side doesn’t really count as winning the argument.

    Also, I’d be a bad choice for mayor, and wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.

    1. The last sentence is why you’d get my vote! Besides, there are plenty of leftist mayors doing these things as we write and they ARE enjoying it.

    2. I found out a lot of towns have gone to a system where there’s an elected “mayor”, but it’s largely a ceremonial post. Power is vested with a “city manager”, who is elected by the city council. So it’s a self-perpetuating power structure not directly accountable to the voters; first they’d have to know what was going on, and then they’d have to vote out enough council members simultaneously, and then persuade them to give up part of the power nobody gave them in the first place… fat chance of that.

      1. That was the form of government that ran Cincinnati from the late 1920’s until fairly recently, a result of a major reform effort to oust the Republican machine. Under that system, the mayor was essentially just first-among-equals on the council, and the council hired the city manager.

              1. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

                No. But seems like city managers tend to decide the grass is greener somewhere else.

                Don’t get the local rag (newspaper) anymore, so don’t pay attention as much. I start paying attention when they start discussing incorporating properties like ours. Last time they tried that was late ’90s when we all were forced to hook up to the Sewers they were putting in. Had to hook up by Federal Order environmental order, but couldn’t hook up without agreeing to incorporate into city. They got sued, class action. By the time they got around to our street it was settled & city got their hands slapped, hard, again. What’s scary is, based on history (been associated with area since ’63), is they are due for such shenanigans again.

          2. Well heaven forbid that the people actually have a real say in government and that voters have any actual real power.

  10. There’s a divide I’m seeing here in town. Older folks and native-born who are wondering what the panic’s about and shrugging. “Yes, we need to take some precautions for now, but it will pass.” And the younger people and those close to the immigrant community who are talking about anarchy and people kicking in doors to take their food and forcing my poor little hair-cut lady to close “because she’s spreading the disease!”

    Build under, build around, pray if you are so inclined, and don’t let the mind-virus win.

  11. Don’t worry, we’re all saved now because some celebrities sang “Imagine”.

      2. It’s worse that you can, well, “imagine.” Apparently, not only is it a bunch of celebrities singing John Lennon, it’s a bunch of celebrities singing John Lennon out of tune.

        It’s hard to figure out what they were thinking. Is anyone right now taking solace “imagin[ing] there’s no Heaven”? How about “no countries”–and no borders to close to try to limit the spread of the disease? I mean, my understanding is that none of these people have ever let the lyrics of the song penetrate their brains, hence why many celebrities seem to think its a general feel-good anthem for whatever occasion requires a non-religious hymn, but it’s even less appropriate in this case than most.

        Full disclosure: I have not seen the video myself. Nothing short of a threat to the lives of my family would get me to press the play button.

        1. I have ducked this one. $HOUSEMATE did start the video and stopped it very quickly upon discovering just exactly what it was.

          Now, if someone did a bit, “Everybody Was Kung-Flu Fighting…” (and did it well)…

          1. THAT is what I want to see, Orvan.

            Two actually. One an inspiring version, showing silly bits of people cleaning or washing their hands and such. The other one totally silly, showing kung-fu fighters with Clorox wipes instead of swords or something. (That one has Remy written all over it.)

        2. penetrate their brains

          Assumes facts not in evidence. [VBEG]

          Not viewing videos has made my life a little bit less stressful. Thanks for the heads-up in case I somehow got tempted to violate my policy.

        3. I gather the inspiration is a video of an Italian trumpeter serenading the community with it.

          While the thought of prosecution as public nuisance occurs I am inclined to acknowledge that the tune is not innately obnoxious, it is only the lyrics that approach deadly levels of toxic stupidity.

          It is rumored that Lennon, later in life, repented his Leftish ways and became a Reagan supporter. If he is still in Purgatory I am convinced he is being forced to listen to those words and repent his destructive past.
          –

          1. Lennon was a supporter of the IRA. To quote Mark Steyn, “while he got rich peddling pap to the masses, he never fell for it himself.”

          2. Former Navy coworker was sharing a video of the Spanish with folks “serenading their neighbors on balconies” and lamenting how we don’t do that here.

            Husband and I pointed out that’s because we use to do that. In the 80s. With boomboxes. It’s frowned on.

            1. I saw an article about some “hottie” in Spain playing piano – including “Imagine” in his sets. I remember apartment living and if anyone ’round here starts providing background music for the neighborhood … well, I’m not saying I have a Sharps lever-action breach-loader, barrel length thirty-four inches converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred-and-ten-grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred-forty-grain paper patch bullet, fitted with double-set triggers, and a Vernier sight, marked up to twelve-hundred yards.

              But I know what do with one if I have to endure anybody inflicting their music on me.
              –

              1. .45-110-540. Righteous! I only have the wimpy .45-70-500 until I get some more shop time…

              2. *I* would like to have such a Sharps. Though I’d make do with a Ballard #5 Pacific if necessary.

        4. So both literally AND figuratively tone deaf at the same time. In Blues Brothers terms, they have both country AND western 🙂

        5. The people attached to the Myth Lennon, perpetually singing “-imagine-” always convenientl forget that in real life, after he grew up some more he openly rejected and ridiculed everything in that song.

    5. Noted, w/o additional comment:
      Larry the Cable Guy rips ‘clueless’ Hollywood for viral coronavirus videos
      Actor and comedian Larry the Cable Guy criticized Hollywood celebrities on Twitter for posting about the coronavirus crisis while not giving attention to the homeless epidemic ravaging their own backyards in California.

      “Here’s a message from people with a lot of possessions that can take a year off of work and not flinch telling everyone outa work to imagine a world with no possessions while people are living in the street a half mile away from ‘em,” Larry the Cable Guy, whose real name is Daniel Whitney, tweeted Thursday, along with a video of Hollywood celebrities singing John Lennon’s hit “Imagine” to encourage solidarity during the pandemic.

      [SNIP]

      Later, the actor clarified that he harbors no ill will toward any of the celebrities in the video but believes it was in “bad taste.”

      “Marx would be proud of that song,” he said. “And I’m not imagining no heaven. Jesus gives hope. Government can’t give people a heart change or hope.”

      There are over 22,000 documented cases of the coronavirus in the United States to go along with 282 deaths.

      At least 151,000 people live in the streets in California, according to government figures, and the state’s homeless population increased by 16.4% from 2018 to 2019. It estimated that 53% of all homeless people in the U.S. live in California.

      State officials have warned that the homeless population in California is particularly vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus and estimated that 60,000 homeless people will fall ill.
      –

  12. Pingback: Let’s see… | retiredmustang

  14. much less what they deserve which is to be walked naked and tied to the tail of a donkey through their capitals, while being pelted with refuse by the populace.

    Let’s make that a really long rope. It would be wrong if the donkey was hit by a mis-aimed bit of overripe produce.

    1. You know the rope should be tied around their neck. If they fall down the donkey will drag them for awile, then they will not mind the produce.

      1. Only the sort with four legs, I hope; the ones with two legs are all commies.

        Paul L. Quandt

        1. Point. But the sort with four legs are very nice. When I was a kid, it was my reward for being good to give a carrot to the olive-oil man’s donkey. he wore a hat.

  15. “Trump went along with it.”

    Of course he did — I doubt any president of my lifetime (from Eisenhower to now — Reagan being the sole possible exception) could have held off. The lone “comforting” thought is that Hillary isn’t in that office to take advantage of act in this crisis.

    Which is sort of preferring the Sweet Meteor of Death over Cthulhu.
    –

  16. Will be back with more sarcasm later, but this bit of music seems to represent my serious opinion.

  17. A) As a medical professional told me, a “death toll” number is meaningless for any practical purpose unless you know how many were infected, and what they already had wrong with them before catching the bug. Old people in delicate health are carried off by -anything- including simple constipation.

    B) No one is testing unless the patient presents at a hospital with Symptoms, capital S.

    C) Therefore we know -nothing- about the virulence of this bug based on currently available information.

    D) I happen to know, by the grape vine, of a couple who were on one of those cruise ships that were quarantined. They tested positive, they’re both over 60, they didn’t get super-duper sick. They’re home now, still positive, still not sick.

    At this point, I trust my local grape-vine more than the CDC and the Canadian government. Therefore I tentatively conclude I’m probably not going to get hellishly sick and die of this thing. Yay. So I can relax a bit, relieved of the Sword of Damocles dangling over my head. I can survive a bout of flu.

    E) In two weeks or so, IF the above is in fact the case and Wuhan Flu is not 2020’s answer to the Spanish Flu, everyone will come out of hibernation and carry on.

    I think Western Civilization can survive a two-week reduction in activity and some hoarding.

    F) Closing everything and flattening the serious-case curve is important IF you care about this above-mentioned old people in delicate health.In a free nation, we value ALL lives so we band together to protect the infirm. If a person is still drawing breath, they count. Therefore I’m happy to participate in rational containment measures to the best of my ability.

    By contrast in a socialist nation, only PRODUCTIVE lives are valued, and even then only in aggregate. It doesn’t matter to the system if a bunch of Boomers buy the farm, and in some circles that might be viewed as a feature, not a bug. Reduced number of “non-performing assets” on the cost side of the ledger.

  19. The worldwide response to this virus is like someone chugging straight concentrated bleach to get rid of a stomach bug. The hysteria will hurt and destroy way more than a worse than usual flu season would have. Half the people I talk to are convinced that they live in The Stand now or something, and that without martial law 3/4ths of the world will drop dead instantly. The stupid lemmings are actively calling for longer and harsher shutdowns, and anyone who tries to reason with them just gets screeched and howled at. In my perma-blue state, I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to pull this every year from now. After all, tens of thousands dead from disease is both a scary clickbait headline and a regular yearly occurrence. I’m just alternating between being angry and just wishing I could press X on this whole stupid broken game.

    1. This was an actual comment I saw on a message board today:

      “Heck, Corona may be catalyst to some of that in the months ahead. Vaccine isn’t coming for 18 months: where do you think everyone’s headspace will be self-quarantined at home, unemployed, moneyless, starving, terrified…people in the street looting while millions are dying in hospitals fighting over not enough ventilators?”

      1. It is worth reminding these idiots that in a revolution, both sides have walls to put people up against.

        1. The 18 month thing I’ve seen a few places, mostly from lefties. Not sure the original source. But if they think we’re going to live like hermits for 18 months unless things get SIGNIFICANTLY worse, they’re nuts.

          1. The 18 month thing seems to be based on the idea (possibly from a modeling paper that the somewhat-right-wing-but-very-freaked-out-about-virus person who linked it claimed was guiding UK and US policy) that we will see six-day exponential doubling and shortly enter disaster territory whenever we let up on restrictions — worse the more successful we were up to that point! — unless and until they’ve had time to test and distribute a vaccine.

            1. It’s the assumption that only a tested and vetted vaccine will save us from the Kung Flu. Warm weather, not giving the Xi Pooh Flu fresh vectors, effective treatments for when people DO get it, and the like will not be invented first, say those who think magic will happen and food will keep appearing for a year and a half.

              I suspect some of us will start working on plasma transfer systems (a very, very primitive sort of vaccination) long before then.

              1. I must reluctantly admit the possibility that if you start from a healthcare system that is pretty much already overloaded and throw this on top of it, you may in fact be up the proverbial creek because several of those will be very difficult to achieve.

                But if you’re expecting to lose as many people regardless of when you let up, then you’re not winning anything even apart from the costs of the restrictions. You might buy a few months more of life for a few people, and that is worthwhile, but maybe more people become vulnerable who might have survived if you’d let it burn out sooner. The worst-case scenarios they’re proposing don’t even warrant the “solution.”

                Some stuff, doubtless, is largely wanting to be seen to be doing something in order to deflect blame. Hence a lot of the cancellations… and canceling the convening of very large crowds might be worthwhile, despite the costs, but… everything?

              2. And a basic misunderstanding about how viral infections actually work: If you get infected and (like 99% who get it) don’t die, you recover. Some of the previously infected and now recovered might have lung tissue damage if they had it really bad, but once persons immune system gets the upper hand, it kills all the virus. Tada, no more virus in your system to infect anyone. You are now safe to kiss.

                Thus the 2 week, or 3 week for panicky locations, quarantine period – long enough to get it and get over it, or not have got it, all while isolated form other who are uninfected. So once the period is over, you have no one left to get it from.

                There is no coronavirus reservoir or viral jack-in-the-box that allows coronavirus shedding to suddenly pop up later and reinfect people (coronavirus in this is unlike something like the herpes simplex virus, which actually does hide away and wait – herpes encysts and hangs out shielded from your immune system in nerve tissue).

                That said, the issue would be if a population, say, the homeless, were exempted from a lockdown and maintained an actively spreading set of actively infected people from whom newly emerging uninflected quarantinees could be newly infected. That make the whole shelter-in-place pseudo quarantine a farce.

                Did I mention that the SF Bay Area 6-county public health shelter-in-place order specifically exempts the homeless?

                1. One of the reported really strange things about C-19 (to me) is- it fools the immune system into forgetting about it, so you can get it again. I’ve read that in several places.

                  I’ve not ever heard nor read about any other virus that does that. One of the reasons some (many?) people think it was created in a lab…..

                  1. No.
                    What they’re mistaking for that is the normal body response to a new virus — at least MY normal response — it keeps coming back weaker and weaker, until it stops or you don’t feel the symptoms. And it becomes part of your DNA accounting for “junk DNA”

                  2. There is no way that they’ve had TIME to identify that– but it sounds like a headline media thing from last fall about the flu “maybe” causing what they described as temporary amnesia for your immune system. Big argument on if it was just basic impacted immune system.

                  3. Not really unique, as Influenza does that every year.

                    So how it works is the actual coronavirus has various protein “keys” on the outer shell that fit into “locks” on your cells, and the key fools your cell into bringing it inside the cells protective outer membrane. Once inside the virus goes wild like a coed in Florida during Spring Break basically killing off the cell’s natural function and hijacking your cells resources to make more copies of coronavirus until the cell wall bursts and lets them all loose to go find another lock that their key fits.

                    Normal seasonal common cold is a coronavirus, and that’s how it works too – every time the virus mutates it gets a different key, and if the key fits it takes offs there are no defenses against that shaped key. ANd after you get sick and survive, your immune system is on the lookout for that key shape, dogpiling cells that feature it with defense cells to kill them.

                    So what you are reading about as woohoobiowarfare is really just What Normal Coronavirus Does.

        2. Rest assured that when (not if) the eighteen months prediction proves wildly wrong a) the people putting that number forward will NOT be held to account and b) somehow, some way, it will be shown that Trump was at fault, trying to panic the nation so he could seize power, nationalize the economy and put African-Americans, Latinx, Asians, and Muslims in concentration camps.
          –

    2. Honestly? this is the technocracy (Well they think they are) worldwide, trying to regain power. They were on the verge of being unseated.
      They don’t care if we’re all destroyed, so long as they rule the ruins.
      Remember Malig-Nancy gloating that this was the end of western civilization.
      That evil witch. Death is too good for her.

  20. Hollywood?

    a friend in l.a. posted a pic on FB of the 405 at rush hour…. EMPTY

    between this and AB5, hollywood just suicided.

    1. It already moved most of the production jobs to Vancouver anyway.

      Haven’t seen – is Vancouver on lockdown too?

      2. not as many production (or postproduction) jobs have moved to Vancouver as people seem to think.

  21. The pone thing that gives me hope is my observation that from time to time when Trump ‘goes along’ with something the Left is vociferously demanding it is because he is well aware that it isn’t going to work, and fully expects top be coming back and saying, “Ok, we tried it your way. The way you were SURE would have everything coming up roses. It didn’t work. So now we’re going to drop it MY way.”

    1. >> “The PONE thing that gives me hope”
      >> “fully expects TOP be coming back”
      >> “now we’re going to DROP it”

      Did you sleep with autocorrupt’s wife or something? Do you owe it money?

      I’m kind of amazed it let you have “vociferously,” to be honest.

    2. If you need to demonstrate there are cockroaches running about, sometimes you have to turn the lights off.

      The corruption of MSM China apologists is now visible, the exploitative impulse of Democrats is exposed (Washington Examiner: Democrats try to slip environmental schemes into coronavirus legislation) and the lying dog-faced pony soldiers of the prior administration are caught in flagrant delicto (Washington Examiner: Fox News contributor [Katie Pavlich] invokes Benghazi to slam Susan Rice for Trump attack over coronavirus).

      And NRO claims “Lindsey Graham, Mark Meadows Pushing Trump to Oppose Cash Payouts for Coronavirus Relief: Report”.
      –

    3. Per the White House brag email I somehow ended up on the list for, Trump is taking this as an excuse to just utterly gut a lot of really stupid regulations/rules/etc– making it so they have to be justified, not that removing them has to be justified.

      Usually, I’d strongly object to that on prudence, but there’s an awful lot that are frankly maliciously designed.

  22. I’m worried much about the same thing you are. There was an article in the Corner this morning about a county in North Carolina that’s “barring all non-residents…and requiring all residents entering and leaving to get permits.” That worries me, but what worries me more are the comments that say, “Yeah, that sounds about right, no reason to be going on vacation now, why shouldn’t the county restrict itself to residents and people with a permit proving they’re on essential business.” I’m afraid that we’re unlearning liberty, and that those in power might find an excuse to keep these “emergency measures” in place indefinitely–and that a certain percent of the population might go along with it.

    1. oh, i’m expecting it to start some lawsuits shortly unless they actually declare martial law

    2. Dare county. One way in and out to the mainland. One or two destinations past the County that if you have a reason for going you can transit Dare to get there. This can actually be done when the county isn’t transversed to get somewhere else, or with a limited number such as Dare has. For Wayne County NY where I am- between Onondaga and Monroe counties. Two state routes E-W going the whole way across. A few ports on the lake where people keep their boats. Dare is basically a long barrier island.

  23. Don’t have a TV. (Family and friends keep me updated as much as I need to be.) Amazing how easy it is to ignore the panic when it is not being drummed into my head every minute. I am, incidentally, in the high risk for death group if I do catch this virus.

    1. I’m actively avoiding TV. Three-four adrenaline dumps per day from various and sundry is just not good for me. Plus I have real work to do, which includes trying to find a way to avoid using Google-related products when Day Job re-starts in an on-line edition.

          2. Yeah, I’d rather support straight up greed than someone claiming they are in business only to make the world a “better “place

            2. Meh. I didn’t believe it then. It shouldn’t have to be said, so their saying it abraded all credibility.
              –

  24. Well…it’s not GOOD, but not bad for me, either.

    Currently on work furlough, but I will get paid for this week. My last paycheck until this is all over will be a full paycheck, and I can use my PTO to pay for my health care through the company until it runs out. Because I live in the People’s Republic of California, I can apply for unemployment immediately (i.e. next Monday) once I get my pay stubs organized. This gives me a chance to do some more novel revisions, set up a website, maybe even a LLC or such, get the first novel in the pipeline…and do things around the house and get stuff done here.

    I’m hoping that in retrospect that this is just an overreaction and things come back to normal ASAP. If not, I’m going to be volunteering to help run anybody that will turn the current incumbents out.

    1. Well, some additional news from work-
      *At my current PTO levels, I have about ten pay periods (five months) before I have to start paying for my insurance.
      *My insurance is about $110 every two weeks past that.

      Still…once everything is in place, Solist At Large gets published, I get a website going for the books, and I worry about everything else afterwards.

  25. In Chicago-land, it’s looking like our illustrious leader/mayor will announce a general quarantine around 5:00 CDT. I can’t even begin to outline how laughable this is. Whole parts of the central city compelled to stay indoors for 14 day? REALLY? We can’t even get people to stop shooting one another, let alone play nice and stay indoors. And our universally reviled (with only minimal cause) CPD, will be charged with enforcing curfew-quarantine. Oh, that will go over well. BTW officers were issued hand sanitizer Wednesday, after lots of finer-pointing and complaining. This morning, it turns out the stuff is out of date. So Chicago is not exactly well thought of by the people supposed to protect us. How stupid is that?

    But really, I came here to make a different point before I got carried away. That is: A HUGE portion of Chicago business revenue derives from food and alcohol services. The trickle down is scary. My local small but fancy store told me this morning that they were discontinuing most or all products from 3rd party outside vendors, e.g a local bakery that supplements their existing product line. The reason being that they expect to be closed and need to start building a fund to re-start the business. INSANITY – we are going to put people out of business up and all down the chain. Chicago has no manufacturing. We create nothing. We are finance, entertainment/food, healthcare and government. You gut the food service world and there will be perdition to pay

    V glad I bought an extra bottle of scotch. Thanks for giving me a space to rant. Promise to calm down …

    1. Figured I rather not leave bad/false info: OMG — Common sense in Chicago. No lockdown, just extended school closings to April 21.

      1. I’m envisioning a bunch of Mafia type guys showing up for a chat which started with: “are you attached to your knees? Do you want it to REMAIN that way?”

  26. I’ve said this before, this is the Dem/left/media October surprise, just six months too early.
    So they must prolong the pain and suffering in hopes that the after effects linger on to influence the coming election.
    May happen, and if it does this will all end up with that cartridge box that keeps being bandied about.
    I hope and pray not. We have a strong leader, so far better than had this come under either an Obama or HRC presidency, or Biden Lord save and protect us. And we have the full faith and power of the American free market just so long as we do not strangle ourselves with red tape and quarantines.
    It’s going to be a very interesting spring and summer without a doubt.

  27. The younger gens have been fed years and years of Hollywood *-apocalypse stories where rioting in the streets followed by civilization collapse and people wearing colanders on their face are a very quick and inevitable progression, so naturally “OMG if we don’t all do what the .gov says I have to find a colander!” is the response of a bunch of them.

    Of course those who were alive during the Cold War knew from everything coming out of Hollywood that we were all inevitably going to die in a nuclear holocaust, especially if that cowboy Reagan wasn’t controlled. Not one Hollywood flick portrayed what actually happened, with the Berlin Wall being dismantled for souvenirs and the empire of the inevitable arrow USSR falling without a shot.

    So basically, the younger gens have mostly not been slapped in the face with Hollywood being totally spectacularly totally absolutely wrong on basic underlying assumptions like the older ones have.

    That combined with all the points Sarah covered means of course the mush headed youngins are panicking about forcing conformity and compliance, and trying to impose team projects on the entire society so they can coast on someone else’s coat-tails like they did in the safe space that was college.

    1. Yep. I wrote a piece this AM for Saturday (at my blog) about the mess that the stories of the past ten-twenty years have led to.

      We’ve got to change the story. However we can, we’ve got to replace that story set.

      1. Look at the shift to “dark” stories and themes as a signal of “sophistication”. Just in Star Trek they went from The Next Generation – very optimistic (set aside the socialist utopian backstory) with social issues being solvable and technology being a positive factor in getting to solutions, then look at Deep Space 9 – much darker, not getting the issue resolved by the end of 43 minutes. And SF TV and movies in general went almost completely to dark stories and premises.

        That’s why The Orville stands out these days – it’s optimistic TV SciFi, clearly in the mold of ST:TNG. ANd it’s way, way better than the dark-premise (and darkly lit – enough with the lens flare already) ST Discovery.

        Apocalyptic stuff like the Mad Max movies, all the zombie flicks and TV shows, Blade Runner, the Alien movies, and so on – all have been pushing out anything with any optimistic viewpoint and replacing it with dystopian horrible futures that nobody would want to live in – all the way across Science Fiction.

        That’s all these youngins have ever seen.

        1. The Orville is also off the air. Gonna Hulu, they say.

          Wallabies don’t Hulu. We ain’t got the waists for it.
          –

    2. Hollywood can’t take all the blame here, much as it would be nice. The right has been crowing about Civil War 2 for decades, and how every single step was going to be what set it off.

      (Also why scum like Northam don’t believe there is any threat. “Always Bluff” isn’t an effective strategy.)

      1. Like Sarah did, you’re mistaking “crowing” with “recognizing where things are going”.

        I do agree with the “Always Bluff”. Of course, the Bundy Ranch standoff was a primo example where the bluff was actually real, and the Feds backed away because they saw how many “minutemen” were trying to show up for “Lexington and Concord 2.0”.

        The party in the Northwest was over too quick and the leaders didn’t stay concentrated enough to present a serious threat on their own.

    3. Mike, the USSR did indeed fall, but I cannot state it was “without a shot.” True, there wasn’t a hot war, but too msny folks in our military died, even if we only count those that died in the unavoidable training accidents incurred in those necessary maneuvers to keep folks competent in the waging of those hot wars. Then toss in those dead in proxy wars. We made out better than we could or should have, and the butcher’s bill was light, but it was still a bill, and paid.

      1. I never said the Cold War was bloodless, and there were lots of shots fired between actual Soviets and Actual Americans in deniable places between 1945 and 1990, some connecting, and I think there was a T-72 round into the side of a building in Moscow when the coup failed, but my point is that of all the stories and novels and Hollywood entertainment, nobody had any other assumption than “The Soviets will never go away, at least not without a fight, and a fight will kill us all.”

        Even Dr. Pournelle had the CoDo with the Soviets extended to the stars.

        The actual fall of the evil empire, the fulfillment’s of Reagan’s radical change in objective from containment and coexistence to “We win, they lose,” all with in geopolitical terms basically a whimper when even the most optimistic expected some level of bang, was the defining moment for me when I realized that the “experts” and sages that set the premise behind all the entertainment I consumed were all, in the end, nowhere near being right.

        Lots of people bled and died to get there, but in the end We won, They lost,and there was not any blood shed at the Fulda Gap to make that happen.

        1. Mike, I kinda/sorta/semi suspected your “without a shot” verbiage was poetic licence. I simply wanted to remind everyone that even in “peacetime” training, people get hurt, and sometimes die. The more this training accurately replicates real-world conditions, the more dangerous it is, and the higher the butcher’s bill will be. Each branch of the military works around large crude heavy metal machinery designed to kill people, and will snuff you out like an ant I you if you lose your focus for one single second. I was in the Corps at what might have been the height of the Cold War, (78-86), but I had a platoon of Guardian Angels working overtime as my personal bodyguard, and I never got so much as shot at by the Red Team. I’m a Lucky Man. But I could easily name two dozen men that died, like the chopper crew in a CH-53E that lost a tail rotor and went down in the North Sea. Sure, it wasn’t a “combat death” but I imagine those guys felt as equally dead as if they’d swallowed an SA-7. Deaths in training are like a tax America pays annually. I suspect we agree on most things, and need waste no more time belaboring the issue. I just wanted to remind people there isn’t such a thing as a bloodless war.

  29. I’m a bit discouraged this afternoon; the Daughter Unit and I are basically OK with working at home, or one-one-one with her clients, but after running errands out and about … hopes deflated, considerably. We went to get some stuff at Home Depot – the joint was jumping, a lot of people there getting lumber, doors, tools, stuff. OK then – perhaps things are looking up, or people using their down time to do small construction projects in the home, like I am doing. And then to the nice HEB on Bulverde … and bummer. The BBQ restaurant area closed for the duration, not even any BBQ take-out. The in-house bakery closed down. No rotisseried chicken, the fresh vegetables pretty much picked over. The deli counter shelves about half-emptied out. No eggs, milk and creamer low, baking supplies nearly gone… cleaning supplies the same, and the paper goods shelves entirely cleared. it was dispiriting to see. I had been hoping that almost a week of this, people would have calmed the heck down.
    The only departments that looked fully stocked or close to it were the beer and wine aisle, the health food, and the coffee. If those empty out, and aren’t re-stocked, we are so screwed…

  30. I’m sure that people who are wiser than I have thought about this, but because I just thought of it, a quick question about the government “stimulus”: how bad is it going to be if we inject a bunch of “free” money into a system that’s already experiencing shortages?

    2. 1. A good bit of that money os going to be used paying down debt: mortgages, credit cards, medical bills and the like. At least, one hopes so!

      2. By the time that second tranch arrives in May it is likely that production will have re-commenced and the pipeline will be able t supply the demand.

      How credible those theories are takes more experienced judgement than mine. While I am not sanguine I don’t think the amounts are likely to be significant (after all, with the US national debt running up to about $24 Trillion this disbursement represents little more than a 1% increase in the cumulative debt (calculated assuming $1200 disbursed to 200 million Americans — the payments are phased out at $75K annual taxable income and capped for anyone reporting more than $100k per year.)

      So, yeah, we’re buggered but this is merely another minor drop in that bucket.
      –

      1. Those who do not spend their check buying black market TP will either buy guns and booze, or waste it.

    3. That “free” money is *MY* money, that they took from me under threat of arrest and forfeiture.

      1. The history challenged, or recent college grads (but I repeat myself) might look to Spain as it became flush with precious metals in the 16th century. The proper way to grow an economy is by producing more goods and services most commonly done by growth in population and/or productivity. The Spanish had immense amounts of silver dropped in their laps courtesy of the New World. The result was a greatly increased amount of money chasing the same amount of goods. Result: massive inflation as 3x the money chased the same amount of goods produced.
        For those desiring a second historical example. Read about Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to
        Mecca from West Africa in 1324. He gave away as gifts tons of gold to the various rulers and rulees whose kingdoms he traversed. Result: He ruined their economies. It took decades to recover from his “generosity.”
        So now, some politicians want to give away boodles of moolah to folks in a less productive economy, with fewer goods and services on the market. You need not be a Kreskin to divine the result.
        I am not hard-hearted. I once made my living bartending. I would have been unable to cope with a prolonged period of unemployment then. Texas Gov. Abbott just mandated the closure of bars, restaurants, and gymnasiums. What are bartenders and servers to do? What are the owners of these small businesses to do? Most Food & Beverage operators have nothing like the resources to survive even a one month, let alone multi-month business interruptions. (Don’t ask me how I know.)
        The problem is made greater when you consider other folks. What about musicians the perform in clubs? They couldn’t make it a week without playing.
        Politicians will yammer for solutions. More opportunity for graft. But that’s another rant.

        1. To your point about food service workers. I live in Illinois, where our “illustrious” Governor this afternoon announced a shelter-in-place order, this on top of earlier orders closing bars and restaurants. If you look at our economy, the state produces very little in the way of tangible goods. Taxation, regulation, and a higher cost of labor have driven most of our manufacturing elsewhere. Even some service industries — the Amazon delivery center in Wisconsin — have visibly relocated to the other side of the state line. But I digress … Point being that a huge chunk of the productive population — especially in metro Chicago — works in bars, restaurants, and food service. Most all of these individuals are now unemployed. For how long is that sustainable? What happens when they can’t pay their rent, or can’t buy groceries? Lots of these earners live from paycheck to paycheck. Of course things like unemployment will mitigate that. But I’d like to see and hear some thought about the down-stream effects … And of course, nothing from the talking heads beyond the panic du jour. We are behaving as if there are no consequences.

          Apologies, this is not especially detailed or insightful. It’s just that my blood pressure hasn’t gone down yet.

          1. I’m waiting for either Oregon or Washington, to close down state line crossings. Fairly easy to do in Portland/Vancouver … just block the bridges. The deal is, there is a LOT of cross employment traffic between the two. I am sure there are some that are “essential” services.

        2. Remember that gold rushes and other supplies of money have often also led to economic booms. Money is useful as a lubricant to trade. MUCH easier than finding someone who has what you want and also wants goods that you have. (Sometimes this is even just making a lot of SMALL coins, so that people can make change.)

          Inflation results in times — well, like ours — where the money supply is sufficient lubricant for the trade occurring.

          Remember this when world-building, and determine what the economy is before you describe what gold does to it.

          1. As long as you remember that gold is not actually good for much of anything. You can’t eat it or build with it. You can wear it, but it won’t keep you warm or dry. It can make you a target for robbery and fraud. The price of gold is usually far, far higher than its value, mainly due to the fact that the monkey brain is fascinated by shiny things.

            Food has value. Tools and weapons have value. Machines, building materials, houses, furniture, clothing and vehicles have value. The only value of gold is what somebody is willing to trade you for it, based on the illusion that gold is valuable. I’m not sure whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate that the illusion is so widespread.

            1. Gold is useful in electronics, especially microchips.

              Handy in dental work, too, although we keep reading we’re on the brink of regrowing tooth enamel.
              –

          2. (sigh) Imagine one of those “casino nights,” of the type often thrown by charities of various types, where each attendee is given X amount of funny money to gamble with, money to be used at an auction at the end of the night to bid on various (donated) prizes. Now imagine that casino night where each attendee is given 10X the amount of funny money to begin the night. Do you expect the prizes at the end of the night to be auctioned for the same amount? My only point was that an increased money supply chasing a decreased amount of goods and services will inevitably cause inflation, and cited two clear and easy to understand historical examples. Any high school history text will tell you about the economic woes in 16th century Spain and the countries in N. Africa a)iddle East I mentioned. Google is Yer Friend. 🙂

            1. And I pointed out that your examples do not exhaust the possibilities.

              As if the economy were as fixed as the prizes!

              Google is YOUR friend.

  31. I’m frankly getting rather pissed off at the city people at this point. I read yesterday how people from the big Australian cities are driving out of the cities and raiding the smaller outskirts shops, which are already depleted – apparently some stores have hired bouncers to keep out raiders. The grocery stores protest that there is no problem with supplies, but have also limited grocery delivery to the aged, vulnerable, removed online order and pickup options, and though they have an hour in the EARLY MORNING where it’s supposed to be ‘restricted to seniors and people with disability’ there’s either little on the shelves anyway, or it gets bought out in short order.

    I don’t drive still. I have to go out with the babies if I have to go out to buy anything, which limits the amount I can bring back, as well as limiting me to small items. There’s the possibility as well of interstate quarantining and lockdown, which Tasmania has already done. It does NOT help that they’re saying this might be life for the next six months and school shutdowns is a matter of when, not if.

    Effing hells. This is NOT the goddamned zombie apocalypse, and now we know what the people WILL do if such a thing happens.

      1. I know; the government here is apparently expecting ‘waves’ of people getting infected or something and it’s the ‘six months’ thing that I think is getting people panicked and all. They’re not supplying for a month (the maximum that anyone would really self-quarantine) and there are people supposedly hoarding to resell in black market sales and online.

        The absolute sodwits. I’m okay for NOW because we have as a general thing ‘stock food for at least a month and a half’ but I can’t even do my ‘need to replenish that supply because it’s down to half.’

        Argh. So much argh at the utter stupidity of it all.

          1. Yes, they say it is on the Chinese data.

            ‘Course, I don’t trust the Chinese data in either direction: the true numbers are at least an order of magnitude worse, and the only countries with lethality nearly as bad are places like Iran and Italy.

            1. And no one should. And Iran and Italy have close ties with China. Also honest to fucking hell, we’re neither Chinese nor Italians, and even my co-religionaires have not now nor will they ever LICK shrines. Pawing them is often bad enough.

              2. I don’;t trust the models or the modelers either. We are supposed to trusted computer models when the same cadre of alarmists keeps claiming that the earth is going to burn to a cinder and therefore there is a climate emergency that requires everyone to surrender all of the freedom and submit to totalitarian rule? They are simply now substituting coronavirus for climate because “never let a crisis go to waste.”

            1. I can very much see China deliberately providing false date because they know it will be used by leftists here to spread alarm and chaos.

              1. China’s reported deaths-per-population numbers, though, don’t even seem to support the “ten times worse than the flu” thing.

                Granted, that’s with draconian restrictions, but it’s also without vaccines or anything….

        1. *huffs a laugh* Thanks for that.

          Might keep the eldest boyo from school just because we have one of the little ones at higher risk of catching the damn bug, due to weaker immune system and one of the meds she takes making it weaker to this stupid thing. There are other worries, which I wouldn’t have if they still delivered groceries and the panicky herd weren’t so stupid.

          1. On a more serious note, this is going to break the back of many Accepted Wisdoms.

            Like the utter impossibility of office jobs working from home. Or how the TSA is now allowing 16oz bottles of hand sanitizer on flights (you seen all the planes falling out of the sky, right).

            1. Oh, yes. As my friend Bill Reader told me in our morning call (well, he’s … remote teaching. Kind of. Sort of. Whatevs) “They do realize that genii doesn’t go back in the bottle, right?” Hell a lot of companies will notice that they’re paying for not just buildings but utilities without the remotest necessity.
              Mind you, I think at most 1/3 of Americans CAN work from home. BUT that number alone will revolutionize the world.
              As will tele-medicine, which has been possible and should have been encouraged for a decade, except for AMA’s opposition. Look, five minutes with the doctor in the office? Or — once it’s established I exist — sending him/her a comprehensive message and then having him/her order tests, and perhaps a tele-conference later?
              Unless you’re going in for something that requires hands-on like a broken bone — and they can send recommendations to your local nurse or PA for that — there is absolutely NO reason a doctor needs to be RIGHT THERE. This could be a boon to rural areas, etc. And it’s been stopped for no good reason.

              1. Michael Crichton was an MD with a minor in Computer Science. Back in the early ’70s he wrote a book about doctoring over video hookups, which was going to let patients see specialists they couldn’t otherwise get to, and keep doctors’ virtual waiting rooms full.

                The AMA opposed the very idea with a spitting fury, and still does. I’m still somewhat surprised they finally let go of bleeding and poultices…

                1. It saves the insurers a lot of money and they are going to drag the AMA kicking and screaming in to going along with it. Yet another thing that no the Democrats national health nightmare would likely put a stop to because 1) government will simply ration care rather than try to make things more efficient and 2) “insurer’s are eeeeevillll”

              2. I suspect there will be issues of privacy, because we all know how vigorously committed to protecting our personal information the government and the internet companies are.
                –

              3. When youngest girl was maybe two weeks out of the NICU, she got a Nasty Drippy GREEN runny nose.

                At about 6pm on a Saturday night.

                I called the nurse line (insurance company service, no charge– brilliant, really, saves them mad money and makes their customers happy) and the lady says basically yeah, that sounds like an infection. You can either take her into a doctor when they open, or try one of the walk-in ERs– but they look like they’re really fully right now– or if you’re willing, we can do a phone or video chat doctor visit. It’ll cost ten dollars, though, and he might say there’s just not enough information you need a physical exam.”

                Long story cut shorter, I was picking up the infection-fighting meds before I would’ve managed to get into the walk in ER’s waiting room, and that’s including setting up the account for it.

              4. My semiannual general checkup office visits have a lot of stuff that doesn’t need the doctor (vitals, fingerstick for A1C testing), but there’s always a stethoscope session; normally to check out my substandard heart. OTOH, I suspect pocket-portable equipment (like the Holter heart monitor) set up by a tech or possibly even a DIY hookup could replace the stethoscope. Perhaps a vest with conductive pads in the right place? AED units already do rough ecg checks.

                For lungs, I wonder if a smartphone has a good enough microphone.

                Yeah, it’d take work, but for even somewhat beyond warm-body inspection, telemedicine would be viable.

                1. Sadly having MS means that most of my appointments and tests need to be the in-person type. Fortunately I have a superb neurologist and my other doctors are outstanding as well.

                  1. Understood. Have a different set of reasons, but yeah.

                    My retina checks (6-8 months) entail 2 hours of work, maybe 15 minutes with the doctor. Nice to know that the repaired torn retina is behaving. Myopia has some interesting risks associated with it.

                    Cardiac stuff is yearly. Last year the echo cardiogram was at the hospital, but the clinic complex might now have the equipment with an expansion. The heart specialist does a full-boat ECG for his annual checkup.

                    2. That too. 🙂 The elongated eyeball makes the retina more prone to tearing. I had other issues, but an old tear surfaced when the doc was in there.

                2. Hmmmm … imagine a booth, like the classic telephone booth, in pharmacies, perhaps. A technician helps you into an appropriately sized jacket and then closes you into the booth where it can listen to your pulse, heart, lungs, prick a finger and process a blood sample as readily as a blood glucose meter and scan you for whatever reason.

                  After five minutes in the booth you exit and pick up your prescriptions, if any, and go on your way. Only in special cases would anything further be needed.

                  Heck, add in a helmet and get your brainwaves reviewed.

                  After use a cleansing gas is flushed through, readying the Doctor Booth for the next patient.

                  Or, you know, make the exterior shell look like a 1950s blue British police box , announcing its readiness for the next patient by proclaiming, “The Docktor Will See you Now.”
                  –

                  1. As a first step, The First Doctor booth could be used as an interface to a human pro. A lot could be analyzed on the spot, making it easier and faster.

                    As a very basic example of using standard medical equipment for other uses, my CPAP machine records the parameters and what it’s doing for me each moment as I sleep. I”ve been reading this data since I had the machine (early 2016), and have a good baseline of what to expect. One anomaly shows up; “clear airway apnea” that’s due to my heart issues. Normally runs 3-15 per hour, for years.

                    When I was really sick, the number for that issue dropped to zero or one or two events for a few days. The night the fever broke, and for a few days after that, the number came out to 30-40 per hour. (At the baseline, regular doc and cardiologist say it’s OK, and it doesn’t bother my sleep.) Last night, for the first time in 10 days, I had normal levels of that anomaly. Using a standard CPAP machine to track progress of a respiratory disease, pretty handy. (And no, this is a model that does not phone anybody. The data is mine, I say. All mine!)

      3. Around here, there’s a lot of eye rolling, but people are taking the imposition with a sense of humor.
        For now.
        Resentment is starting to bubble up.

        It’s kind of amazing how clean the store shelves have been getting wiped. At least the toilet paper, sugar, and flour aren’t perishable, but I’m at a loss as to what’s being done with all that milk.

        There is some unfocused panicking going on, though.
        I’ve seen looks of desperation, and I get the sense of watching cattle mill about before the thunderclap.
        (As far as I can tell, the empty shelves are freaking out people a lot more than rumors of an impending plague.)

    2. I’ve read reports that the same sort of raiding is happening in the vicinity of some American cities, too.

  32. “at the behest of stupid, power-mad fash-boots governors”

    Still working on reading the entire post. This just in from sister in Washington State:

    “Hey we’ve heard from a reliagle source that trump is going to institute a full on Italian style lockdown on Sunday. After the National Guard is put in place. (Someone with family in homeland security). We just did our panic shopping at Costco.”

    President Trump instituting a full on Italian style lock down? Nationally? Oh, good lord. Hasn’t she been watching the updates (VS the MSN outlet summaries)? President Trump has been explicit. Lock downs are NOT being instituted by the Federal Government, not in locals, not nationally, not ever. That is the job of Governors, if it occurs. What is needed in hot spots isn’t needed in non-hot-spots. What is needed in downtown NY isn’t what is needed in upstate NY. That doesn’t even count Montana VS Wyoming VS NY State or Seattle VS Okanogan County (NE corner of WA state). Oregon, Washington, & Colorado, governors have jumped the shark panicked. It is like a little bit, everyone said, “okay that makes sense.” Now they are pushing hard enough almost to see where some people will push back just because they can VS being reasonable.

    No. I am not going out and panic purchasing. Besides what we might need we already have (did not hoard purchase, it just takes us awhile to go through a case of Costco TP). My mom mentioned flour that she is short on if she has to bake bread. My response. “Uh, you’ve gone keto. You aren’t eating wheat flour based bread, the flour version that is out.” Keto flour alternatives, even Costco had that, when the shelves had been stripped of the other.

    1. In the meantime NYC mayor DeBlabbio apparently had a press conference where (summarized) he was busy freaking out that the entire country wasn’t being retooled to protect NYC.

      Arrogant sods.

      1. I’m an epidemiologist with extensive expertise with Blacklight, and in my expert professional academic bureaucratic opinion it is past time we nuked Manhattan Island.

          1. No. I Like wolves … from a distance.. Would not inflict NYC politicians on predators of the 4 legged kind. The politicians are poisonous.

      2. I know. I keep hearing Reporters asking the same dang question of President Trump “NYC mayor”, “NY Governor”, “says you need to issue federal orders to lock down the nation. Are you going to ever do that?”

        President Trump: “No.”

        President Trump: “Orders will not be issued regarding individual states or locals.”

        Close the national borders – yes. Recommend not traveling – Yes. Stop traveling – No.

        Heck not even the National Parks nor National Forests have been shut down (beyond seasonal limitations). County & State Parks, yes. National Park Facilities (read specific buildings) have been, but in general no.

        1. Yeah, such a heavy restriction that the National Park admittance fees have been waived. We’re in no shape to go to Crater Lake, so we’ll pass.

          I saw that the state fish hatcheries are now closed to the public. We try to go yearly, and I think I *once* got within 10 feet of a staffer.

      3. “Arrogant sods.”

        I think calling DeBlasio “sod” is giving him credit for greater depth than he has demonstrated. Turf, maybe, but sod has root-mat and integrty.
        –

    2. I suggest advising the sister to ignore Russian bots. Especially those operated by the DNC.
      –

    3. About a week and a half ago the Tucson Festival of Books canceled, because a lot of the authors said they weren’t going to attend, in the intervening period we’ve had TUSD, UofA, and Pima Community College cancel in person classes, the City of Tucson close down all bars, gyms, restaurants, etc. the Governor of Arizona call for all classes to be shut down and no gatherings of more than 50 people, today the Pima County Board of Supervisors jumped on the panic bandwagon and implemented similar restrictions.

      When the TFOB canceled I told our Group Sales director that things were going to get worse before they got better, and I meant the panic not the virus. Unfortunatly I was more correct than I believed I would be, and I think there’s still room for more panic.

  33. If the results of the hydroxchloroquine tests in France hold up even a little then this thing blows over very quickly. The test was very small but the results were good and coupled with an antibiotic startling. Evidently there are Chinese results also but I put little faith in them though it seems to be doctors not the state publishing. It was shown to be effective in SARS 1.0 and against Coronavirus generally.

    it costs about a buck a pill has been around since WWII and is used all over Asia/Africa to prevent Malaria — I took it years ago when I was going to some pestilential places. Sanofi has already begun to deliver sufficient doses for 300,000 people. Teva distributes it here though the Iranians probably won’t take it cause Teva is well you know.

    The precedents set with the current hair-on-fire bugaloo are alarming but the anger likely against China will take care of much of that by eliminating a primary source of funding.

    Noli Timere

    1. There ARE side effects…. but if this virus is half as lethal as they say it is probably worth it.

      1. Don’t despair. if this works the economy will be fine. I suppose we’ll get helicopter money and a dose of inflation but better to spend a trillion on ourselves than blowing up rocks in Afghanistan or trying to civilize the desert tribes.

        I live in the very heart of wine mom country and I can tell you that DiBolshevik is not well regarded there and the cops, who are after all just working class guys from Queens, aren’t likely to go hunting their friends and relatives for him. They hate him like poison. Cuomo seems to have put on his big boy pants on.

        diBolshevik is mayor because Bloomberg left no successor and smashed the machine that might have selected one. he owes his office to a set of property developers whom he has rewarded with city owned property at below market value. the city going into extended lockdown is bad for business.

        If it doesn’t work then in about two weeks it will crack and go back to normal anyway. That’s what people do. I think that’s where Trump’s 15 day thing came from since that’s about the limit for people. A Woman in Berlin is a great book describing life during the bombing and under the Russians in 45. Life goes on

        this nonsense about August comes from Imperial College in London. I used to build models like that for a living and you can get that answer. Of course you can get any answer you want by choosing which iteration you release.

        None of the data we have so far support anything like that.

        Noli Timere

          1. Eventually yes. Probably faster than you think possible. As you say the politicians are the weak point but this is still a capitalist country and Americans are still Americans. Working at home gets old quickly (I’m a banker not a writer so your view may differ.). We are social creatures who like to truck and barter.

            One great advantage of corrupt politicians is that they are responsive to the money and the money doesn’t want to stay frozen. Some of our politicians are ideological yes but that’s because the money behind them is ideological and the money takes the money first. Ideology don’t spend. Davos man is very brittle.

            I think the jobs will come back as will many others. The factor cost differential for manufacturing in China is essentially gone, it certainly doesn’t cover the lower productivity and management overhead necessary to keep it there. A lax regulatory environment does give a cost benefit but that’s likely buried by the anger that will come out on the back of all this. The issue has been the investment cost. A little congressional anger will go,a long way toward moving some back here and more to countries that don’t have the burden of a xenophobic, totalitarian utterly untrustworthy state. India, Philippines. These are democracies and democracies have to answer to their people.

            Changing the topic a little, I get a great kick out of people bashing NYC on this and similar sites. I’m a Brooklyn boy myself and I would remind you that Trump is just a working class guy from Queens whose father did well. Most of the people who give us a bad name come from where youse guys do. We don’t want them so the least youse could do is take em back. Bloomberg and DiBlasio grew up in Massachusetts for G-d’s sake.

            What is it you used to say Sarah: In the long run we win.

            1. In the long run. But I’d like it to be in my life time.
              … I like NYC. I hate its political class. Same with CO.
              Massachusetts, OTOH, I have COUSINS there. From the crazy side of the family. (Yes, I’m the sane one.)
              Husband and I mostly work from home, but I didn’t realize how much I NEEDED our lunches out (once a week, usually) and our trips to zoos and museums (also once a week.)
              I’m getting cabin fever, and since this is a difficult time for our family (nothing bad yet, but a lot of potential bad things) it’s not helping with stress and auto-immune and related weight gain, which in turn makes auto-immune worse, etc.

              2. “I’m getting cabin fever …”

                Sorry to hear that. Me, if I increased Social Distancing an additional iota I’d be a recluse.
                –

                2. We can’t see *any* of our neighbors, unless we go outside and look south, which side of the house has no windows. Even then, he’s almost never there, and if he was, we wouldn’t know until he starts up the tractor or the bobcat. (He *likes* it that way; most homes around our property are occupied either during deer hunting season, or during summer vacation, he spends most of the winter here, working with heavy machinery during most of the rest of the year.) Once the trees leaf in, we can’t even see him.

          2. I know I’ll be eager to eat at a restaurant again after weeks of nothing but my own cooking.

          3. Just remember that most of these models are created by the same academia that despises not only Trump but everyone who isn’t a full-fledged Marxist and thus have vested interest in fomenting panic and fear. They are doing so with malice aforethought, and they are doing it in coordination with Democrats (thus Sen. Booker proclaiming that things will be as bad or worse than the Great Depression). They hate the people they want to rule and don’t care how many get hurt or die, all they care about is power. They are O’Brien and the Inner Party from 1984.

            1. Up to a point. His chair at Imperial is backed by the Saudis and all the usual suspects are involved.

              What he did was take the Current Case Fatality Rate and an aggressive spread model and multiply them together. he has it at 50% infection. Where he got that no one knows. Then have it repeat every 3 months. This is the problem since if the spread is that great then the CFR cannot be that high or we would already have piles,of dead in the street. I’m pretty sure it’s just bad science. if it keeps coming back in waves and if the death rate remains high then I suppose you could get these numbers. After all, if the entire US gets it and 1% die that’s 3.5 MM dead. trouble is that none of the data we have get you there. That said, I didn’t need any data to get that just a couple of random assumptions.

              All the dem governors are running around with this number because science.

              The Financial Times handily put the data on a log scale so you avoid those world is ending hockey sticks. Unless something really stupid happens tour looking at 100-300 K cases in the US. Per capita less than 1%. death estimates off by 2 orders of magnitude.

              If the treatment works then this becomes nothing. in the meantime China has managed a huge own goal as can be witnessed by their absolutely frantic efforts to shift the blame and bury the evidence. You’d have to have gone to Columbia Journalism School to believe such twaddle.

              PS. Teva just donated 6 million tabs by March 31 and 10 MM with a month and Bayer has donated millions too. not to speak of the guys who managed to produce the really complicated valve that makes a ventilator work on a 3D printer. Evidently the rest is fairly simple. This is why free enterprise works. Teva and Bayer are doing what’s right and what’s right is good for business because free people cooperate.

              Sorry for the euphoria I’m usually quite the pessimist but I can feel this lifting. Not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning.

              1. Thank you. I thought there had to be something wrong with the model but that clarifies where it’s going wrong immensely.

                1. Which I think proves my point. It is such a blatant, obvious flaw with the model, that the people pushing it have to be doing it with mal-intent.

          4. Yes, restaurants will reopen. Too few millennials and hardly any whatevers know how to cook.
            –

            1. My son works swing shift. By the time they have “lunch” break, anything under the new rules, are closed. There are only microwaves in the lunch room. Last time I was at Costco I was looking for variety for microwaveable items that he could take for at least a snack for break. This is one section that was clean out. Another section was anything pre made, just throw into oven. Luckily we are well stocked. I did get some apples and other items that if prepared he can use. But gezzzz. I also have started making our dinners that result in leftovers, that he then takes the next night.

              I mean I get it. I can cook. Just don’t like the prep. Heck would rather clean up. As it is I get to do both. Except I don’t do bacon & eggs nor grill. Those are hubby’s & son’s territories … hmmm looking like grilling season … I gladly clean up.

              1. Beloved Spouse & I used to do extensive Chinese cooking: one pot to clean, short cooking time, healthy amount of vegetables stretching scant amounts of meat. Ginger & Garlic to aid digestive process, ample fiber as well.

                Knees no longer last the prep time for either of us.
                😦
                –

        2. I don’t think you can fully blame Bloomberg for the offerings of the NY Democrats — he changed parties because Giuliani had no successor and there was no way Bloomberg would have gotten the Dem nomination. And frankly, nobody in line to succeed Billy deClown seems an improvement or even half as good.

          NY is a failed city, kept afloat by miracles which cannot be relied upon to recur.
          –

  34. If I remember the side effects it will use up some of the 100 rolls of TP that people have stockpiled.

    1. I suspect that if possible the anti-malaria drugs will be limited to those in hospitals because I just don’t see the FDA allowing people to take it home and take on their own….because government drones are like that.

      1. Any doctor can prescribe it and now they have cover for off use liability. In most countries it’s over the counter but I suspect you won’t get anyone to ship it here now. It’s actually really common. Bayer just donated a couple million of the chloroquine tabs to the government and Teva makes the other as does Sanofi.

        What they’re saying is where’s there’s Wuhan Flu there’s no malaria and where there’s malaria there’s no Wuhan flu. Bit of an overstatement but there you go.

    2. Wait until bills come due, and then they’ll be in the customer service lines at Wal-Mart and Target trying to return it for credit…

  35. [i ]…downs planes in the modern era. (The communists more or less stopped doing it in the seventies.)[/i ] 1 September 1983 is the last one I know of.

      1. Kadaffi. Which means totalitarian thug with socialist/Islamic overtones as convenient. Not an actual communist shoot down if I understood your point correctly.

        I just remembered the Cuban commies shooting down 2 unarmed private rescue aircraft in 1996. So that would be my current final answer.

        The MH17 shoot down was by Russian nationalist thugs/mercs, not communists.

            1. TSA doesn’t check people for “Are you likely to shoot an airplane from the ground.” THAT was a response to “Are you likely to highjack a plane and take it into a building, or to Cuba, or whatever” Which the commies did in the seventies — Cuba — and Islam in the oughts — building.

        2. And after we got rid of Saddam., Kadaffi was behaving and playing ball. And then Hillary and Obama went in and got rid of him because….well for Hillary it was because she wanted to enrich herself and her friends, and for Obama it was because he thinks the Jihadists are the good guys.

          1. It was an Italian bank job. Kadaffi and his cronies had some huge sum in Italian banks, and a war meant that the the Italian gov’t could seize those assets

      2. Sorry Sarah, I’m being dense tonight (Tonight? Shaddaup!) I hadn’t realized you were asking about what event I was talking about. As kenashimame pointed out it was the KAL007 shootdown.

        That one stands out to me as I happened to be in the Electronic Security Command Alert Center that morning and saw the whole ugly truth.

  36. Dear “We should do this like the PRC”, ambitious Executive Orderers, and “Hit it harder with bigger government” cheerleaders,

    Per your wishes, the public health emergency will be addressed by quarantining extreme risk vectors in special facilities. These extreme risk vectors are drug addicts and Democratic Party activists such as AntiFa, Students for Warren, and Occupy. The facilities include the necessary crematoriums and chemical showers for delousing.

    /sarcasm

  37. They want communism? Well, they’ve made a big step in that direction; they’ve got stores with no food on the shelves!

      1. Missing the whole issue that this is capitalism under stress, versus being standard operating procedures under socialism.

  38. I would note that the decision that confining criminals makes the government liable for their health, and that the decision to sentence does not include infection with a disease that would be certain with continued confinement has a context.

    a) prisons are known in other countries to have disease issues, and one could argue that sentence to imprisonment implicitly includes ‘and they will get sick and die in a bad enough epidemic’ b) there is also the public health impact on the non criminal public from freeing the criminals to break quarantine c) vigilante killings are always an alternative to reporting criminal acts to the criminal justice system; in a bad enough public health situation, they might be preferable.

    Do you nanny state idiots realize the public health cases against your criminals, your mentally ill homeless, your aliens, and your reprehensible activists as proven over and over in your mass protests?

  39. It plunged us into war for a long time, and it changed the American people into accepting total strangers pawing them, and being treated as potential terrorists rather than risk offending the actual terrorists.

    That was just a natural extension of the treatment of folks who happen to be young enough to be enrolled in school, although toned down somewhat. They’d be lynched if they went with prosecuting the victim instead of the attacker like England, although some idiots keep trying to push us that way.

  40. Those planning to home school and utilise Audible’s books, be advised: many are now now Free. That’s Right! FREE, F-R-Double-E (NO! The long way!) F-R-E-E Free!) (Broadway joke)

    From my inbox:

    As all of us around the world confront this difficult new period, we recognize the importance—and the challenge—of staying relaxed and entertained, especially for kids at home who are missing the stimulation of the classroom. From the beginning, Audible has served as an antidote to loneliness and even isolation, as a way to hear words that inspire and transport and for many – words that teach and entertain in deeply intimate ways.

    With all of us experiencing varying degrees of social distancing and school closures, we have created something that we hope makes our customers’ lives a little easier. At stories.audible.com, you will find hundreds of our titles available completely free. The collection has been handpicked by our editors and is a mix of stories to entertain, engage, and inform young people, ages 0–18.

    These stories offer a screen-free option that we hope may help break up the day for families with students home from school.

    There are selections for our listeners in English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese and Italian.

    To access the free titles, just visit stories.audible.com from any web browser.

    The experience is completely free – no log-ins, credit cards, or passwords required. Just click, stream and listen.

    We wish you and your loved ones good health, and we hope that listening to a good story will offer some respite during these unsettling times.

    All of us at Audible
    –

    2. WAIT!!! There’s More!

      Not from Audible; it’s even better! Hillsdale College writes:

      Dear [Wallaby],
      In this time of uncertainty and disruption, we at Hillsdale College aim to find ways to continue doing what we love—teaching the best things to all who wish to learn.

      Because one of the best things to know is the story of our nation, we have organized a special three-week study session of our newest online course, “The Great American Story: A Land of Hope.” Taught by historian Wilfred M. McClay, this course examines the story of America as a land of hope, founded on high principles. And like all of Hillsdale’s online courses, it is offered free of charge.

      Those who enroll in this special study session will receive a syllabus that organizes the course into twelve lessons over three weeks, as well as regular communications to foster discussion on the key themes of the course.

      This free special study session begins on Monday. To enroll, click on the link below.

      https://www.hillsdale.edu/ushistory

      Warmest regards,

      Larry P. Arnn
      President, Hillsdale College
      Pursuing Truth and Defending Liberty Since 1844

  41. We’re early in the crisis, so hysteria reigns. Just remember that the same people freaking out now were the same people who were so sure that we were on the brink of WW3 a couple of months back.

  42. What killed a lot of organizations and small to medium businesses around the country was the insurance agencies refusing to insure those that remained open.

  43. Things have been to good for too long. Reminds me of the adage:
    Bad times breed strong men. Strong men breed good times. Good times breed weak men. Weak men breed bad times.

  44. I like Trump, a lot. And his non-republican policies. But, I wondered when he would disappoint us. He did disappoint me with his milquetoast response to the coup. The baddies are going to get away scot free. He disappointed me with the spy programs support (FISSA, Patriot Act). And now he is disappointing me with the Coronavirus response such as the hideously ludicrous $1000 give away.
    Oh well.

    1. “milquetoast response to the coup. The baddies are going to get away scot free.”

      Timing? I’m thinking during his second term the reports would be magically done, and responses result in jail time. No need for bargaining. I mean his inaction, action, has gotten Biden Jr investigations happening. If nothing else with baby-daddy-gate he can’t be effective for a dad substitute, not like President Trump’s children. Biden himself, well comes to that, we’re suddenly going to find out he’s not competent to assist with his own defense because of here-to-undiscovered micro strokes. With the former, the virus might have broken the timing & people will get away with it. At that point, release the report into history. New names for “Mudd”. As in someone is pulling a “Comey”, or someone is the new “Hillary”, or … list away.

      “spy programs support (FISSA, PatrioAct)”

      Got nothing. Maybe when the reports hit & it is proven how destructive it is that something will be done. It is a matter of timing.

      “Coronavirus response such as the hideously ludicrous $1000 give away.”

      Again. Got nothing.

    2. I’ll say the same thing to you that I said to William Underwood elsewhere: Trump is not a dictator, and when spending bills pass with veto-proof majorities, it’s a reminder that he CAN be removed, because the vote requirements are the same for impeachment removal.

      1. I suspect such things as draining of the the swamp, and locking up Hillary, Comey, et al, will take place after the election, when he has more “flexibility” to not coin a phrase, but borrow one from his immediate predecessor.

  45. Pingback: SO… Seven Days In March…. – The usa report
  46. Pingback: Does This Mark the Start of a New Authoritarian Age? | 357 Magnum

  47. Got this in an e-mail from Sprint:

    “We’re also increasing support for the 1Million Project Foundation. This organization provides high school students with free access to reliable internet services and mobile devices to allow them to reach their full potential. We are doubling these student’s data allotment from 10GB to 20GB each month for the next 3 months.”

    http://www.1millionproject.org/

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