The World is Not Ending – by Doctor TANSTAAFL

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

 

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Image by André Santana from Pixabay

The World is Not Ending – by Doctor TANSTAAFL

When word came of a new deadly virus from China, our grown children asked what we thought.  We said, “Wash your hands, and don’t pick your nose”.  They claimed that was our answer to everything medical, along with ”take ibuprofen and walk it off”.  Why were we so convinced the world wasn’t ending?

New viruses come along fairly frequently.  Most of them never get noticed.  Some of them cause human diseases.  Most of them cause something indistinguishable from a cold. Occasionally, there is one that causes more severe problems.  Then comes a familiar pattern.  The worst cases hit the medical system first making all cases of the illness appear severe and with a high mortality rate.   Patients show up really sick and dying and we don’t know what’s wrong.  They don’t fit any of our familiar disease patterns.  We start thinking a bad pandemic is going to hit, and everyone will die.  Then we start recognizing the not-so-sick patients with the disease.  As people hear about it, they come to the doctors earlier.  We then realize that there is a whole host of people that have it, but aren’t sick enough to come see the doctors.  Then, it’s just one of many viruses to worry about.  We’ve seen this pattern before…

Remember West Nile Virus?  Initially very sick people presented to the medical systems. What if a large number of people caught this new threat and became this sick?  Before we knew it people were very upset, we got calls from people saying they had found a dead bird and could we test it for West Nile Virus.  One mother called saying she had seen a dead crow and the kids were near it what should she do.  As it turned out West Nile Virus was widely disseminated with many asymptomatic cases and most symptomatic patients had a mild cold and a headache.  In the end the probability of serious or fatal disease from West Nile Virus turned out to be low and today it has not changed how we live our lives.

Some people did get very sick and some people do die of West Nile Virus as well as other viruses.  Each death is a loss, a tragedy to the families involved.  We understand.   Our jobs are to keep it from happening whenever possible.   We know there are always those who are more at risk, every year, from viruses.  Older people, people with compromised immune systems, anyone with lung disease.  And always, the very unlucky.

Where are we now with this Corona virus? Initially, only severe life-threatening cases presented to the medical system. We did not know how high the mortality rate was and how easily the virus spread. What if a large number of people caught this new threat and became deathly sick? Over the past few months we have learned that the virus is widely disseminated, there are many more asymptomatic cases and people with very mild symptoms then people who get deathly ill and that certain populations are greater at risk than other populations.

Now that we know the novel corona virus is widely disseminated and has a generally lower mortality rate in most populations but a higher mortality rate in some populations, isolation and contract tracing amounts to closing the barn door once the horses have left. Putting a high tech alarm system on the barn and reinforcing it with high carbon steel will not get the horse problem resolved. We should be planning to deal with the now wild and free horses not hoping they return to the barn. It would be nice if we had a medicine to cure the virus or a safe vaccine to prevent the virus from spreading.  We don’t, and achieving a medical cure or a safe and effective vaccine in record time is a Hail Mary, good for the end of college football games but not a useful overall game plan. Protecting our vulnerable population, those in nursing homes and care centers and those with altered immune systems, should be our strategy at this point. If a virus is widely disseminated, having the general population self-isolate from each other will not protect our vulnerable population and may in fact prevent natural herd immunity.  Healthy children playing and learning together are at minimal to no risk as the number of severely ill children with this new corona virus is extremely low.  Passing the virus among normal healthy children and obtaining some degree of immunity offers some immunity for the herd.  Passing the virus to low risk adults would likewise be a low risk proposition and would further add immunity to the herd. Unfortunately low risk adults have a higher risk of severe illness then children but still very low and certainly lower than the risk of increased psychologic stress and illness and deferred medical treatment and care for the general population. Once again the goal should be to try and decrease the vulnerable populations’ exposure to the virus. If we knew in February what we know now we could have placed our entire nursing home and care center populations in private isolation wards with round the clock nursing for a fraction of the price we have paid to keep everyone at home waiting for the virus to go away.

Where do we go from here?

Initially, our kids asked how long we thought the lockdown would last.  We were surprised the lockdown for two weeks occurred at all, but given the uncertainty and the dire projections, two weeks at least made some medical sense until the smoke cleared.  After two weeks the lockdown became less and less about good medicine and more and more about something else. At this point, after not weeks but months of lockdown, I cannot even venture a guess when it will end as this lockdown has less to do with medicine and more to do with politics. I know what should be done from a medical point of view.  Open up!  Not in phases and color codes, but return to normal and put our assets into protecting our vulnerable population.  No masks, no forced testing, no forced tracking of our population. And in the following months to years, figure out what went wrong. Why did we stick to our initial battle plan after the fog of war lifted and our real world information did not agree with initial models, projections and strategies?  Refusing to adapt and ignoring data that contradicts models is counterproductive.

I know what I fear will happen. There will be fundamental change in our freedoms, liberties and way of life in the name of keeping people safe from the multitude of viruses that will come down the pike.  We will ultimately risk life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the illusion of safety.  I really hope I’m wrong!

 

*Sincere apologies to Dr. TANSTAAFL for not only misplacing this post but also posting so late today.  All I can offer as an apology is that I slept way too late after spending the day yesterday ripping up carpet. Which like everything else done by the previous owners was done …. in a difficult way, which means I need to go scrape the floor now before we put down wood tomorrow. Also I need to buy putty because — seriously — who cuts the hole for the light plates way too small and then CAULKS the plate to the wall. I broke one before I realized what they had done. (And they VOTE. Let’s remember that.)
What I can promise in the future is that as soon as this round is done, I’ll go on an AGGRESSIVE writing schedule, because whatever other construction projects this or future houses need, I want to pay someone else to do it. Now I’m nearer 60 than 50, I’m way too old for this sh*t. – SAH*

 

 

341 thoughts on “The World is Not Ending – by Doctor TANSTAAFL”

  2. Refusing to adapt and ignoring data that contradicts models is counterproductive.

    Sorry, but doctrine says otherwise. You clearly are just a science denier who needs to be silenced for the Good of Thepeople.

      1. I don’t think they are producing any produce. Following the Bloomberg Doctrine of planting … Seed! Water! Food!

        1. Since it can not fail, all the lack of produce is obviously the result of wreckers and hoarders.

            1. Kulaks were the people preventing the ambulance coming in to take away the shot men.

  3. I’m way nearer to 60 than I am to 50 too. But then I’m 61, so I have an excuse. 😉

          1. Sixty-seven — not only a prime but the nineteenth prime, so a prime prime.

            Although seventy-two, being a product of two-cubed times three squared is pretty cool and one I’d look forward to if it weren’t that it means enduring another presidential election.
            –

            1. Same here. Felt like I was 92 working in the sun, but the 92 was the temp reading. Yikes. Not sure if we’re going to have one of those rollercoaster years; really cold, then hot. The zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes would *love* some decent temperatures, though. I don’t want to tend a greenery garden…

              1. Eugene was high mid-80s today, with cloud covering. Would call it “muggy”, but those who actually have humidity would disagree. Didn’t have to take 2 or 3 cool showers despite lack of central air conditioning (did have the two window units going in the 20 x 40 room over the garage). Tomorrow? Supposed to be 73 …

    2. Baby!

      I’m 63 … 64 this fall.

      Hubby is 68, 69 next winter. Mom is 85 … With hubby, I don’t get to complain when 65 gets here because he’ll be pointing out he’s facing 70 …

      (Yep. Late to the party. But hey why not?)

      1. Geez, we’re a bunch of old farts. 😀
        65 last month. My mom says she cannot possibly be old enough to have a kid my age.

            3. What you mean we?

              I was all set to complain about the erasure of teen and pre-teen regular posters, but then got lost searching for an excuse to pretend I have an example of such that I’m confident.

              Okay, I have the sense of humor of a seven or eight year old, but I’m been posting here a little too long to credibly claim to be one. Unless I’m am actually a script, and that was the point that the script associated with this identity was rewritten from scratch.

          3. Well, when people are one-upping each other over how old they are the young can’t really compete in that game.

              1. And “I’m in the middle-est!” is hard to argue for…. Clearly, the only remaining alternative for competition is to present increasingly silly arguments for why one’s age is the coolest number.

                Squares, cubes, and primes have some obvious mathematical advantages; biblical and/or literary significance is great; aesthetic appeal is appropriate (and assonant); and I’m sure I’ve left out several possibilities.

          4. Quiet? Yes, and not wanting to use the phone to blog. (Was at FoolsCon. Was fun.) I’m closer to 50 than to 40, but some days I feel like I’m 18 and others like I’m 88.

    3. 61, but only on the outside.

      How the HELL can I be 61? It don’t seem real, I tells ya!

    1. Lost my cousin to the bastard Cancer day before yesterday, one day before his 59th birthday.
      Saw the Bilbo one a few minutes ago, and Vera early this morning.

    2. Good actor. 88 is a good run, esp. if you’re also dealing with Parkinson’s.

        1. You were worried before official approval; that makes you a sinophobic racist.

          Now you aren’t worried, against the official guidelines. I think that cashes out as racist as well, but I’m not sure. Either way: know your place peasant.

          1. I play D&D with orcs. That makes me racist (because orcs are stand ins for blacks dontyakno).

            I’m white. That makes me racist.

            I listen to country music. That makes me racist.

            I listen to heavy metal. That makes me racist.

            At this point, it’s easier to list what doesn’t make me racist. Which, of course, is nothing, because racist just means “disagrees with leftists”.

            3. I disagree with leftists and therefore, though I am right now fairly dark tan, and 23 and me credits me with a broad swath of Congo (far more than a swipe of the brush), and am in fact an immigrant from a Latin country, whom the State department considers Latin, I am whiter than any Scandinavian.
              Anti-Marxism. Is there ANYTHING it can’t do?

              2. Just think, you can bottle and sell anti-Marxism as a “whitening” product and make a fortune! (Although I can’t read the languages on the signs in H-mart, it was pretty clear what was being advertised. And it wasn’t tanning lotion)

            4. Putting milk in your coffee is rasiss. Because milk. Probably (?) because iconoclastic channers (They gave us free bleeding and Meninism). Making the okay sign like our astronauts is rassis too, but NOT because you’re signing F.U. to most of South America. Why? Um… Channers?

              When you go through life not knowing WHY something is anathema, just that it is, something is very wrong.

              The simplest fix is to acknowledge that racism isn’t a sin. It’s a taboo for USAns. (So go gently. See also Chesterton’s gate). And the one variety of racism that is actual bigotry will make you stupider than your native brain power and educational attainments would otherwise allow.

              But a sin? A fundamental offense against the Godhead, and human decency? Baloney.

              O’er weening pride is a sin. Fixing it by race doesn’t make it better or worse.
              Wrath is a sin. (Ditto)
              Hatred (of a person) is a sin (Do you perceive the pattern?)

              We’ve been gaslit. Because when any rando SJW can be pure and holy viz Racism, when their spite, and entitlement, and abuse is unchecked… You’ve been played.

              Just don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

              1. I’m not convinced that there is a baby, or ever was. Just a bucket of dirty water.

              3. Putting milk in your coffee is rasiss. Because milk.

                Especially if it is Land O’ Lakes milk* . . .

                *Unless it’s from a carton *not* featuring the American Indian aboriginal indigenous native American woman on the label.

                1. Removing that maiden, an image crafted by a artist of American Native ancestry, was an act of cultural elimination, an effort to erase from our History the many contributions of those who were here first. It is cultural genocide.
                  –

                    1. I’ve recently claimed that during the Civil War, Lincoln was waging cultural genocide against blacks. 😀

                      So, the only thing missing is that I’m not really on Twitter.

                    2. As someone clever commented, “Same old story. They kept the land and removed the Indian.’

        2. Dr. Falsie is now inserting foot in his inability to relinquish the spotlight. If we ever get something Ringo serious (hey, wasn’t zombies THIS time), no one is going to pay any attention to those who should be giving out the right advice.

          1. On the other hand; if they screwed up something this small would you trust them to not make perfectly wrong decisions for something big?

            2. Puffed up scut, isn’t he? Complaining that people don’t recognize him as a credible authority because he was wrong. Just another false prophet. He should be thanking his lucky stars we aren’t allowed to treat him as the Bible says we should.

              1. No, we don’t recognize him as a credible authority because he lied.

                Credible authorities can be wrong without damaging their credibility. In fact, in admitting they were and highlighting those who weren’t, they can gain credibility.

                2. Well… His track record of being wrong, and being wrong in the same way (AIDs, earlier SARs) is also a clue. AIDs ought to have killed Old Dr. Death’s career. But no.

                  That should have woken us up to the sham that is the Left/Right political conflict as the “deep state” quietly beavered away. 20/20 hindsight, eh. I can understand why the younger generations get so ticked off at us.

                  1. And in support of your point, I’ll just point out that he was appointed by Reagan in 1983.

              2. The punishment (death) for false prophets wasn’t for being wrong, it was for falsely passing themselves off as representing God. Being wrong was just the way you could tell, because God would know the future, and so any messages He gave to His real prophets would be guaranteed to come to pass. Just as it’s a crime to falsely impersonate a police officer, it was a capital crime to falsely impersonate a representative of God.

            3. Add the FDA un-certifying HCQ for WuFlu based on a pulled for being so effing bad study, and I can assure you they ain’t anywhere that close to the credibility train. They’re getting days behind.
              I’m sure the approved med’s $1000 a dose cost was considered over the fact it seems to work even less than HCQ especially when HCQ is used correctly (i.e. with at the least Zinc), but orangemanbad!

            4. Actually, Fauci took a plane. His suitcase, with what remained of his credibility, made its own way to Istanbul where it sits forgotten in a pile of other lost luggage.

              He never noticed that it was gone.

        3. One of my contacts (via the Diner) is in Bangladesh, and he was posting about it back in late November, so I’ve been watching this train wreck in slow-motion for more than six months.

              1. I know of two situations where I might have had glancing acquaintance with it before the news got out. . . .

            3. Apparently, retesting sewage samples in Italy shows evidence of the virus there as early as September. (I think I saw a report on those findings yesterday.)

              1. o.O

                I’m not surprised by the results, but I am somewhat disconcerted by the information that there are at least ten-month-old sewage samples being kept around.

        4. Myself as well. I predicted some kind of two week lockdown mid-February and told friends to be ready for four “just in case”.

          We were told Monday it’s going to be months before we go back to the office. Then again, with the office on the border of Downtown and Midtown Atlanta, I’m happy working from home. On end of day calibration days after we go back to the office, I will insist on calibrating from home once sunset if prior to 6pm.

          1. Sis and Bro-in-law are down around Fayetteville. He works somewhere near Hartsfield airport
            Bet their glad they moved further away

  7. I have relatively recently listened to the audiobook version of The Next Pandemic, which was interesting in the current nonsense. One memorable bit was that on one trip to an ebola outbreak, there was almost no PPE to be had – and one of the more active doctors seemed to get by unscathed with what appeared nothing more than being very conscientious about hand-washing. It was likely more, but that stuck out.

    1. During one of the ebola outbreaks in Africa, I saw a news story about a woman over there who was taking care of her sick family members using trash bags as protective wear.

      She didn’t catch it.

      1. I remember her! I think she was a former nursing student who dropped it due to expense. I kept looking for a send-her-to-school fund that never materialized. But. Seems like she’s got a touch, anyway.

    2. Wash hands. Be meticulous about avoiding splashes, direct contact, and secondary contacts (flies are a big problem.) Any kind of barrier works to some degree, including reused bread loaf bags, plastic wrap of all kinds. And effective quarantine!

        1. but, but, but …. Sexual Freedom from the Oppressive Patriarchy!

          If you’ll excuse me, I must go bleach my fingers.

      1. Considering what they serve there, a talking bovine bringing up Milliways takes my brain to a rather unpleasant place…

  9. At this point I am able to come to no other conclusion than the lockdowns were the left finally finding a way to punish us for electing Trump, nothing more and nothing less.

    1. Absolutely. Because the people hurt the worst are those who ran or worked in small businesses, or with moderate levels of investments. Most hospitals are going to declare massive losses in revenue this year due to the number of people originally turned away, and those now too afraid to go back, or too distrustful to go back. But we saved most of them from being inundated with people lying in gurneys in the hallways! Just cost us most of the economy.

    2. My theory is in the US, at least in the Dem state, that it was a chance for the Dem governors to play CYA with no downside – if things got really bad, anything short of full lockdown would cause them to be blamed for not being strong enough, and at the same time all damage would accrue to DJT because orangemanbad and captive media and all that.

      The problem is, as with every Dem project, they never had any inkling of an exit plan. The marketing people ran away shouting “two weeks to flatten the curve” but the pols never had any slightest clue how they were going to un-lock things, let alone when.

      So one major reason it has taken this long is a couple months is how long politicians advisors consultants take to think up a plan. But they were holding the entire population hostage while they came up with said plan.

      I think as a result they have massively underestimated the anger that is building, and I hope their shock come November reverberates for decades.

  10. Intending absolutely no offense to Doctor TANSTAAFL, may I respectfully ask their medical expertise? GP, virologist, surgeon, epidemiologist, etc.?

    Seriously, I’ve been thinking pretty much the same thing as they are, but I know I’m not an expert in any way, shape, or form. I also realize that some highly credentialed and honored folks are full of what comes out of the south end of a north bound horse, so please don’t think I’m in any way attacking the good doctor.

    1. Hmm. An optimist is someone who gives all so called experts the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. A pessimist is someone who considers all experts to be damn liars until they prove themselves otherwise.

      1. And a Crank (that’s me!) is someone who looks for instances of ‘experts’ announcing positions that run counter to their known prejudices.

        As when Lawrence Tribe (Professor of Constitutional Lew at Harvard, and longtime Gun Control advocate) came out flat-footed and stated that the Second Amendment was clearly written to protect an individual citizen’s right to own guns.

        It doesn’t happen often, especially from the Progressive Left, but it is worth noting when it does.

        1. Back in the early Eighties when I took the Evidence & Argument course at the local university it was taught that arguments against interest were among the most highly valued evidence.
          –

      2. Hmmm…

        See, I’ve always said:

        Optimist – glass is half full
        Fake Pessimist – glass is half empty
        Real Pessimist – the glass is poison

        So I guess the real pessimist in your setup is “the truthful experts are wrong too”.

    2. Always happy to answer that. I actually wrote that with my husband. He is Family Practice, I am Pediatrics. Between us we have 60+ years of experience. We have decades of primary care experience, and now he is working in a large (HUGE!) urban emergency room (or was till COVID, when they stopped giving him hours because there are no patients) and I work in a specialty hospital emergency room.
      I would say what we have is tons of “boots on the ground” expertise. Which is a completely different view than the ivory towers.

      1. Thank you very much for your kind response. And for being a voice of calm in a panicked world.

        I give great weight to practical experience over theoretical musings

        As Galileo supposedly said, “And yet it moves”.

      2. There are almost no patients going to a big-city emergency room.

        1.4 million health care workers have been laid off due to lack of work.

        Hospitals are losing money hand over fist.

        In the middle of a ‘deadly pandemic’.

        One of those statements is totally inconsistent with the rest. I wonder which one it is?
        ———————————
        Why do so many idiots believe that the way to solve our problems is to go on voting for the same shitheads that caused them?

      2. I know that using a new name requires approval even if you use the same e-mail as before, because you had to approve me when I pretended to be Chiron a while back. So you can’t get around it that way. Beyond that, I’ve got nothing.

  11. 1-I’m trying to look at the bright side of things. Got a lot of chores done, did quite a bit of cleaning and tossing, saved money in my savings account, getting ready to start up my own book publishing website. Saw a lot more of my family, learned who my friends were, that kind of thing.
    2-This is just the same thing that we saw in the 2016 election writ large. The “experts” were convinced that Hillary! had it in the bag, Trump was running just to raise his profile for future reality TV shows, Obama had shown the way to something better…

    …and Trump won. And, for the last four years, they’ve had to reconcile the fact that (a)Trump won and (b)all the right people didn’t want him to win with (c) anybody that voted for Trump was wrong and needed to be punished.

    I kept telling my friends that were in shock that “this is a time for you to stop, check your assumptions, and start from scratch. Trump won the White House, so, why?”

    And, they tried everything but asking why? to themselves and seriously.

    I think Trump-short of massive, start the boogaloo fraud-is going to win the election in November. Might be a bit tighter, but he’s going to win. And, everyone has been programmed to “riot in the streets if you don’t get your way!” for anything in the big cities. Any suppression of the riots will be pitched as “racist” or “fascist.”

    The bright spot? The Jonathan Pie episode when Trump wins is going to be epic.
    3-I am seeing a deeply uncomfortable, deeply fascist mindset in the Left.

    (Introduce sarcasm tag here-yes, I know the Left is the home of the Socialist/Fascist/Communist trinity, but even more than usual.)

    “The View” had John Legend on doing a song called “I Can’t Breathe” (won’t link so there won’t be clicks) that listening to had a very uncomfortable feeling of hearing the Horst-Wessel-Lied in English. That George Martin was a martyr and we had to fight to secure his memory.

    George Martin’s death is a tragedy, but sadly how the sausage is made in urban law enforcement right now. His toxicology report indicated that he was on illegal drugs at the time, and people on drugs can go anywhere. Dad has at least two horror stories of guys on PCP doing things like still fighting after having bones broken, after being shot, after using pain-based compliance holds. And, he was being arrested for an actual crime-perhaps too hard, perhaps needing disciplinary action,

    Rayshard Brooks’ death was a tragedy. However, he wasn’t an angel, he was only out of jail because of COVID-19 fears, he had a series of long term problems, and he did everything he shouldn’t have done short of actually shooting an officer with a gun to result in lethal force being used. The officers should have been riding a desk until the investigation is complete, not “sentance first, then trial” Wonderland legal theory.

    And, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a lot of “Blue Flu” incidents coming up in the big cities that have had the most problems. Almost all the big cities are Democrat-run, and the only reason POAs support Democrat candidates in their cities is that they provide them with labor, health care, and pension protections (Republicans in the cities are very bad about this kind of thing). That the current city leadership is more than willing to toss them under the bus shouldn’t be a surprise, and the end result shouldn’t be a surprise, either.

    The World is changing. Always does. Got to keep your eyes open, watch for problems, and stay aware.

    1. > Horst-Wessel-Lied

      You know, I said almost two years ago that the agitators on the left were trying to create their own Horst Wessel, but when it happened it slid right by me amidst the other craziness.

      Floyd is their Horst Wessel.

      – TRX (not paying full attention to recent developments)

    2. Any suppression of the riots will be pitched as “racist” or “fascist.”

      As I put it in a reply I type up but didn’t make to a reply to me yesterday:

      “What is the alternative?

      Accept we’re still in that awkward stage, but will probably come out of it as soon as a Dem is in the White House now that the SCUS has given them the tools to ignore the first amendment on religion.

      At that point they go after churches and either we get the American Franco or the USSA.”

      I don’t want Franco or Mao. However, if the leftists insist we have Mao then I’m damn sure going to do everything in my power stuff Franco down their throats.

      Almost all the big cities are Democrat-run, and the only reason POAs support Democrat candidates in their cities is that they provide them with labor, health care, and pension protections

      Health care and pensions are worthless in prison, especially on death row. Right now we have a DA in Fulton County working on the “bad action by cop” = “felony” basis. There is nothing the city can offer that will offset that.

      1. No, nothing that they can offer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the POAs and FOAs (Fire Officer’s Associations) don’t have quite a few cases of “blue flu” any time soon.

      2. Sundance at CTH thinks that the Fulton County DA is setting up his successor for a lose-lose proposition. Considering that the same DA charged two cops with “use of deadly force” by using a taser a couple of weeks ago, not claiming that Brooks’ use of the same *wasn’t* (note: the DA’s spin is that it wasn’t because the perp missed), there’s holes in the case big enough to make any conviction be either highly unlikely or prone to start the Boog. Then, if the new DA (current DA is in a runoff for the primary; he’s under investigation for diverting $400K in charitable funds to his pocket, and he has enough #METOO cases against him to make it mildly unlikely to make his re-election beyond the margin of fraud) drops the case, it’d be another round of riots. Again.

        FWIW, I haven’t run across any analyses that indicate the police did anything wrong in R. Brooks’ case. Defending yourself against an attack is well within the bounds of legality, except in Woke-fairyland.

        The blue-flu in Atlanta was enlightening. Not only did the ATL police walk, but the surrounding jurisdictions declined to send backup support, because they also expected any violent encounter with woke-privileged people to result in felony charges against their LEOs.

        So far, Klamath Falls has been lucky/prepared. The people west of us (Medford/Ashland) thought that business owners bringing arms (and friends with arms) to a “protest” (Protip: when the protesters show up after dark, it’s not a protest.) was Just Not The Thing, but it should be noted that any subsequent protests (heard of one) were small, and daytime, and decidedly not a riot.

        2. Considering that the same DA charged two cops with “use of deadly force” by using a taser a couple of weeks ago, not claiming that Brooks’ use of the same *wasn’t* (note: the DA’s spin is that it wasn’t because the perp missed)

          –
          “He missed. I didn’t.” is a perfectly valid defense. Don’t care if it is a Taser VS Gun, Bow/Arrow VS Gun, or Knife/Sword VS Gun; or ???

          2. And note dude tased the other responding officer on scene, who gained head trauma and concussion therefrom – tell me again how, in an era when thanks to the neverending wars with IEDs, concussion has become known as a very, very serious injury bucket with complications up to death, a dude assaulting and concussing one cop and then trying the same thing on another is not self-defense-worthy.

            There are rules these days, which are debatable, about shooting someone who is running away and thus resisting arrest – but turning to attempt further assault with deadly potential while happening to be running kinda makes those inapplicable.

        3. I have watched several versions of that video. I was in the military. I stood armed watches, and participated in hundreds of armed-response drills. The only issue I see is that one of the cops FAILED to shoot!

          If I had been in that situation, on duty, my standing orders would REQUIRE me to shoot. I would be court-martialed for NOT shooting. If I failed to effectively neutralize the threat, I would receive lesser discipline.

          That cop did exactly what he was supposed to do. Throwing him under the bus to appease the mob is a travesty.
          ———————————
          The Democrats are willing to burn America to the ground, so long as they wind up squatting on top of the ashes.

        1. If you are referring to the helicopter rides, Franco did similar. If you are referring to him stepping down before death, the Left via a Spanish magistrate and the UK entertaining extradition made sure no strongman will step down voluntarily for at least 50 years.

    3. And what good are bennies if you are sent to death row for doing your job? The police unions need to wake up.

      1. The problem is, once again, that while they like Republicans in State and Federal government (mostly), POAs have seen Republican city governments “cut waste” by “reforming” the civil service system. Usually by breaking Police and Fire unions, cutting Police and Fire salaries, putting Police and Fire in with other City employees and assuming a 40-45 year work history before their pensions.

        Police and Fire work is very physically demanding in bad ways, kind of like the NFL. The usual lifespan of a uniformed police officers in most big urban areas is 20 to 25 years, then they move into a desk job or into a second career. There’s a lot of burn-out and a lot of post-work medical that happens, and most non-Police/Fire civil pensions and medical don’t cover a lot of that.

        The job takes a massive toll on the body-lots of lifting things in bad ways because they have to be lifted now, dealing with goombas that won’t surrender quietly, the emotional trauma of being there at the worse day of somebody’s life 95% of the time, going into places that are NOT the best for your lung health…

        (And, a lot of cops know that the bargains they have with the E!Democrats and Public Unions is a Faustian one. Retired Oakland PD and Fire got their pensions cut because the City of Oakland screwed up how the money was to go into the pension system. Retirees took the case to court, judge said that the City screwed up, but the retirees still had to have their pensions cut. And, the City Police and Fire Pension Board? One retired cop and four appointees-appointed by the Mayor or the City Council. In a town that really doesn’t like the cops these days.

        (Go look at some of the things Mayor Libby Schaaf has been up to the last few weeks. This is nothing new.)

        I know Dad has talked with quite a few Republican law-makers in California, and they don’t quite get it…or know how to explain it their constituency.

        1. Well, then they deserve the fate Faust faced.

          And since they will take us with them in the process, I shant shed a tear for them.

      2. So THAT’S what the riots are all about. Everyone’s pissed that Game of Thrones will never be finished!

        2. Yeah, I hit Dystopia Fatigue early in the second season and just quit watching.

          1. There’s a part of me that suspects that they’ll be much more likely to be finished if he dies and the publisher hires a ghostwriter to finish the series from his non-existent notes. And that’s okay with me. Books 1-3 were brilliant, 4 was more or less okay, and 5 left me wondering why I had ever cared about any of these people in the first place.

            1. I’m not sure I concur on 1-3 but they were readable enough. In Book 5 he’d clearly fallen prey to Phillip Jose Farmer Syndrome and given up any effort to craft a novel, opting instead to simply meander through his tale, wandering about util he had sufficient pages for his publisher to bind and flog them.

              I generally found any ten pages entertaining enough but the cumulative effect of his “story-telling” was just depressing. If he keeps to the seven-book plan the next book will be nightmarish, taking all characters into the depths in order to build for the final volume.
              –

            2. I stopped reading when I saw the new book in the library and said — Meh, nothing happened in the last one.

              1. When I purchased the last couple of that series, I’d skip to the end of the book to see if he finished the series.

                I finally stopped purchasing that series.

      3. I had a different George Martin in mind–the looooooooooong piano chord at the end of Sgt. Pepper’s “A Day in the Life”. 🙂

        I was meh about GRRM after reading the Tuf Voyaging mashup, so I never got to experience GoT. I think I was the lucky one.

    5. Trump won the White House, so, why?

      –
      I suspect that a significant factor is that a lot of ordinary Americans wanted to give the Washington ruling elites a great big Finger. Our Finger is rude, and bombastic, and inflammatory, he gets in their faces and up their noses and he laughs when they screech about how Offended! they are. And we laugh at them too.

      What would really make me laugh is to see Trump win by a landslide in November, AFTER they crank their fraud and cheating up to 11. And THEN go after the Democrats, and Republicans too, find an honest prosecutor somewhere to dissect the systemic fraud, spread it out in every gory detail and HAMMER it home until nobody can deny it. Broadcast the Allan Bender deposition and go after the billion-dollar bribery circle-jerk of ‘think tanks’ and matryoshka-doll shell corporations, the multi-million-dollar ‘advances’ for books nobody will ever read, the outrageous fees paid for speeches nobody wants to hear.

      We have the worst politicians money can buy; time to put them in jail where they belong!
      ———————————
      My grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

      1. My only fear is that the power structure that has been created this way would do anything to survive somehow and it would be messy.

        That is not a point against it. Just that it won’t be pretty or anything-but necessary.

  12. Where I am, east side of Orlando (Orange County Florida), our County Mayor has written an EO making it “Illegal” go be in a public place without wearing a mask starting tonight at midnight. The Mayor is a Democrat, of course.

    1. The cailleach in Salem has done the same thing, threatening consequences for no masks beginning Wednesday, but one cannot be arrested or fined.

      PÓG MO THOIN

      1. My new rule is wait 3 weeks… that’s how long I can go between shopping trips. Then see if they are enforcing rules. For example, it’s been awhile since I visited Walmart (one way aisles and mask policy, plus their queuing). Last night’s visited showed no enforcement of any of the above. The store wasn’t crowded, and I don’t know when they start queuing, but the other two ought to have been and weren’t. And the employees that ought to wear masks at the stores (store policy requiring masks for employees) are often wearing them “creatively” at all stores. It seems like enforcement is strictest at the beginning of periods of additional rules.

        While I lean towards non-compliance, I’m not looking for a fight. So, those places that are enforcing, I’m currently shopping elsewhere.

        1. Heh. Now, it may be more American Irish. But it is still a good one to use.

          &

          Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.

        1. Oregon. Tzarina Kate Brown the Despicable.

          OTOH, she decided not to include the flyover counties beyond NW Oregon. She may be a despot, but she’s not as stupid as some governors are (looking south and wondering just how well California’s edict is going over in Modoc, Siskiyou and other rural counties). No way such could be enforced around here. (I’m seeing Home Depot employees getting creative on mask wearing, and weekday customers tend not to mask up, at least in the building supplies section I’ve been in.)

          $SPOUSE and I have decided to forgo the pleasures of visiting California for the foreseeable future, such as until the Dems are eliminated from the state government or the heat death of the universe. Whichever comes first. We’ve been to Lava Beds and walked Cap’n Jack’s Stronghold and no longer have close family connections with anybody in Cali. Tulelake Internment camp isn’t set up for inmates, mercifully…

          1. I am in the fallout zone from PDX (semi Rural S. Clackamas County). I know quite a few people who Will Not Comply.

            I’m going to drag my inhaler everywhere with me.

    2. I have revised my response to any Karen denouncing me for not wearing a mask ‘because it’s the law’.
      ———————————
      That is a lie!

      [Give Karen time to make incoherent noises]

      I don’t know whether you are lying, or just repeating somebody else’s lies, but what difference does it make? That is a DECREE by the governor, and it is unconstitutional. This country is not ruled by decree, and there is no Enabling Act. Don’t know what an Enabling Act is? Go search for it. Enabling Act, 1933. Maybe if you look it up yourself you will PAY ATTENTION, and become less stupid.

    4. I’m on the other side of Orlando (Polk County) and I”m seeing about 30% mask wearing. It did occur to me to wonder what the Orlando television news stations are showing on the Vermillion Virus that might be making your county mayor frantic, but I’ve not watched television in twenty years, not going to plug mine in now to find out.

  13. Quick field report after 10 days in the mountains North of Denver … Returned to Chicago where quarantine, masks and fear remain “religious.” Was marvelous to have the break and somewhat of a shock to return to fear and a relentless news-cycle-of propaganda. Prayer continues to be wonderful. I can recommend it, for those so inclined, highly.

  14. Field report from Wisconsin…majority not wearing masks, significant minority wearing them. Shops may or may not require it (hair salon picked at random will want me masked). Restaurants open, most paying at least lip service to “social distancing,” but some willing to accommodate groups. Can’t confirm yet, but it looks like the farther you get from Milwaukee/Madison area the looser things get. However, all or nearly all local/regional festivals and fairs canceled.

  15. Iowa passed a law to rein in the ambulance chasers:
    https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LGE/88/Attachments/SF2338.html

    The Dems here are screaming like their throat is cut, but it’s pretty weak-sauce.

    The only thing I can find, besides the usual idea that suing for insane damages is a wonderful tool, is that this is the state guidance on masks:
    Members of the public and employees should consider the use of cloth face coverings
    (when practical) if staying at least 6 feet away from others is not possible.

    So under the new law, you CANNOT be sued if you have a sign that says “please keep 6ft apart or wear a mask if practical.” And even if you don’t, you can’t be sued for damages beyond the cost of your medical care.

    1. Just came back from the grocery store.

      My check-out lady had her mask hanging around her neck, none of the shoppers were masked, and the ladies at the ticket booth who were wearing masks had some custom fitted ones that were probably a pain to put back on if they took off.

  16. Of course it all political. Fauci is Deep State personified and if Trump ever turns his evil eye on him or that mission creeped CDC they are toast. And with politics comes cronyism and we are perhaps having that nasty critter show its face here in Texas in the form of contact tracing. Our governor has issued a $200 million plus contract to a company with no history in the subject. No one knows quite on what authority or from whence comes the funding but….
    Contact tracing is very useful to trace contacts of persons infected with STDs. In its day CDC was very artful in doing so. But I have a problem seeing any use in infectious respiratory disease. Can’t see asking “….did you get the name and address of the guy who sneezed on you in the HEB parking lot a week ago Wednesday….”. leading to a cost efficient outcome. But there is money to be made in them there hills (Austin is in the Texas Hill Country).

    1. “But if we give all your phone location data to shady Federal contractors and they use it to build a giant privatized database that we can use without a warrant, that’s totally OK.

      Also, it would not be a good idea to ask about other shady contractors sequencing the DNA from those nasal swabs, and what they’re doing with that information…”

      Sarah talked about high-trust and low-trust societies. In a high-trust society, we would have to prove that they’re misusing that information. Now, it’s up to them to prove they’re not.

      And most of them can’t even be bothered to deny it.

    2. I never could figure out how I caught “the weird flu” in March. Judging by timing (and following the 3-5 day assumption), I caught it on shopping day March 10, and had a full-blown case 3/14. “Random person at the grocery store” ain’t going to do much for contact tracing. FWIW, unless we’re on solo trips to town, we usually leave our cell phones off (very slightly brighter than an old-school flip phone, but running an uncommon OS to boot), so the eStasi would have a hard time for that.

      1. Forgot to add in that post that the contact tracing contract is to run for 2 1/4 years. Says something about how eager the new crop of petty dictators are to relinquish their new and undreamed of power. And in that category I include our governor who ran as a conservative and has ruled as a democrat/progressive

  17. Here’s what I’ve been doing since this stupidity started: nothing different. Except I can’t spend time or money at places that have closed, either partially, temporarily, or permanently. From the start I figured the virus escaped from the lab in Wuhan in October or even September (and I now suspect maybe in August), so considering all the travel that takes place at the end of the year, that virus has been worldwide for months before we even heard about it. And guess what? We didn’t notice it!

    So now we’re hearing about how the number of cases keeps climbing and climbing — because that’s how counting works — and the big threat is “asymptomatic spreaders.” And I can’t help wondering why people are so scared of a bug that most people don’t even know they have if they get it.

    I guess we’re all supposed to wail in misery all day, every day, until either there’s a cure for all diseases or a Dem gets into the White House. Because then, and only then, will their cherished national nightmare be over.

    So to me, nothing makes sense anymore. I’m supposed to wear a face covering that does nothing except make it hard to breathe (and see, because of my glasses). This won’t protect me against GETTING a virus that is not particularly dangerous to me, and it won’t protect other people either, because I’M NOT SICK! It’s all Stupidity Theater!

    I can’t stand this anymore.

    1. And I can’t help wondering why people are so scared of a bug that most people don’t even know they have if they get it.

      Because they haven’t been told that most folks who get it are never even mildly sick.

      They’ve been told that spreading-without-symptoms exists, and that the disease kills grandma.

      That’s why lying by selective facts is so evil…..

      1. The failure to distinguish clearly between whether asymptomatic means “never even mildly sick” or “not measurably feverish/hacking up a lung” is also less than helpful.

            1. Doesn’t say– but I know the antibody results in the US got a LOT of folks who couldn’t remember having so much as a cold, to the point that folks declared the tests had to be inaccurate because gosh not enough people died.

                1. I actually signed up for the “Test Iowa” survey group, and by the time they’d allow someone without symptoms to go in, simply didn’t feel it was worth it.

                  1. I haven’t been sick since the crud in January, but I’d still like to know if I come in positive for antibodies. On the other hand, I am not sure what the probability is compared to false positives, at this point.

                    1. I mentioned in other places- right now, and for a little bit longer, if you donate blood through the Red Cross, they’re testing your blood for antibodies to covid, and will give you the results. My blood donation appointment is tomorrow at 1345.

                    2. You know, I’d seen that and wondered if they would actually tell you — though it makes sense that they would if they’re trying to recruit for more antibody donations.

                      I am personally ineligible at the moment due to circulating for two, but it’s good to know about.

                    4. Gave the blood. According to the paperwork the Red Cross gave me results in 7-10 days. Whatever is being talked about then- I’ll mention it, even though it might be off topic.

                    5. Given the general demeanor of discussions here, how would any one know if a comment is off topic?

                      Did you perhaps mean to say “even though it might be [on] topic”?
                      –

                3. My doctor was trying to convince me to get the antibody test, but a) not sure if Medicare would pay for it, b) I really don’t care to have my tissues in somebody’s database any more than they already are, and c) the reliability of the test was spotty the last time I looked (false positive and false negatives in non-trivial amounts).

                  FWIW, the March “weird flu” got me to get a flu test; came out negative for Influenza A and B, so judging by symptoms at the time, I figure it was a mild case of Chinese coronavirus. $SPOUSE had the same symptoms, and looking at the timing, I gave it to her. Not what sharing was supposed to mean in the wedding vows. 🙂

      2. The whole family got sick, one after the other, last week. Flu symptoms. Sore throat, cough, headache, fever.

        We were advised by school that son would need a CCPlague clearance to return. Yes, I was tempted. Son was giving me puppy dog eyes.

        You have to get tested while ill. (Which, honestly, is the indicator of how not worrying this is to me.)

        So we commute to the hospital and get the tests done. Get the answer texted to us three days later, it’s negative. As aggravating as it was to go and do it, at least Jaenelle got to go walk as much as she liked, and got some sunshine. So there’s that.

        1. You have to get tested while ill. (Which, honestly, is the indicator of how not worrying this is to me.)

          *long, slow blink*

          And I though that the Spanish Flu’s “put the sick guys in with everybody who is injured” policy in the militaries couldn’t be topped.

          1. Several weeks (here in Danville IL) I talked with a nurse in my Clinic about testing and yes to get tested you have to be sick to be tested.

            Idiots.

          2. I’m pretty sure “put the sick folks IN THE NURSING HOMES” is going to be a winner for a while. At least, I really hope so, because I don’t want to see worse….

              1. I saw a headline today in which Andy Cuomo denounced the nursing home issue as “politics.”

                So I reckon insisting an office-holder be accountable for the effects f their policies is political.
                Well, they have tried to hold Trump accountable for his predecessor’s decisions (children in cages) so I guess it makes sense. We’ll have to wait until Andy is succeeded in office to learn who’s responsible for those nursing home deaths.
                –

          3. https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/what-you-need-to-know-about-coronavirus-covid-19#testing%20%20

            How to get tested
            If you have cold or flu like symptoms, such as a cough, fever, sore throat, shortness of breath or runny nose, even if these are mild, you should get tested for COVID-19 as soon as possible. People with mild symptoms can still spread the virus. To help stop the resurgence and spread of COVID-19, anyone with symptoms of a respiratory infection should get tested.
            You can:
            attend a free COVID-19 respiratory clinic
            contact your doctor and they will arrange the test, this may attract a fee
            COVID-19 respiratory clinics are dedicated health centres located around the country, focusing on testing people with symptoms of respiratory infection.

            This was vague so I rang the hospital and was given the clarification that yes, it’s ‘better’ we head in while ill.

      3. Yeah, the whole selective facts thing is awful. I have friends who have become fearful and hiding out. I made a joke to one of my neighbors that the virus wasn’t hangout out outside like the mist in Shaymalan’s movies. His response? “Well, it sure seems like that. You just don’t know!” as he put his mask back on while sitting on his stoop, with us standing more than 6 ft away.

        And everybody seems to think that if they do get WuFlu they will definitely die. It’s crazy. And, yes, malicious, I think. Designed to keep people under the thumb of so-called experts and their Dem overlords.

        1. “But the end result, the true genius of the plan, was the fear. Fear became the ultimate tool of this government…” — V

          And they didn’t even have to create a scary bioengineered doomsday plague to achieve it. Just a minor variant of the common cold, unleashed by accident and then spread around the world on purpose by our enemies. Rather than admit the cause, they are determined to punish the innocent. Rather than admit their mistakes, they will viciously attack those who point them out, and perpetrate them forever.

  18. whatever other construction projects this or future houses need, I want to pay someone else to do it. Now I’m nearer 60 than 50, I’m way too old for this sh*t.

    –
    Can I relate. I’m not particularly fond of painting rooms. OTOH I can do it VS handle a hammer. (What can I say. I can fish & hunt, but stuff around the house, eh …) We’ve painted entire inside the house, *4 times, now, well most the house the 4th time. I do not want to start & finish the big room above the garage. I just don’t..

    * Every time I’ve been between jobs, painting interior & job search was my “job”.

    2. The pumphouse was supposed to be the last roof I’d install. Now that I’m doing a garden shed (the lightfingered crews are around and the plastic shed would open at a fierce look) I have yet another roof. OTOH, I’ll talk to the roofing people and get a quote on materials for lockseam metal roofing. *Much* easier to install than shingles, and with a shed roof*, not much in the way of flashing needs to be done.

      The nice thing about a garden shed; doesn’t much matter what the interior looks like. CDX plywood FTW!

      (*) Single plane, no ridge.

      1. Varnished CDX ply can look like knotty pine if you sand off the grade marks. We built and lived in some structures with 1/4″ CDX sheathing, single wall, framing on the outside. They looked and worked great in Hawaii at sea level, and were very economical.

  19. Here in Philadelphia, it seems like there are more people wearing masks while outside. I think that is due to Wolf’s “masks required in public places” order the other day. A friend in the state assembly believes that’s a retaliatory move because a bipartisan bill to strip some of the gov’s emergency powers passed both the house and senate and now Wolf is doling out paybacks.

    But, there are still a good number of people going maskless and every restaurant that has been able to create outside seating is full. The little patio bar below us at the base of the hill, next to the river is hopping. We are regulars as is another friend of ours. The mobile beer garden, Parks on Tap, opened up last weekend for the first time and we were there half an hour later. We will be going back this weekend.

    My takeaway is that Wolf and Kenny (mayor of Philly) are losing this battle. Kenny is trying to get us all to worry about systemic racism and he’s busy removing statues. We’re doing our part to make masks a cute little habit of the past.

  20. Riffing off David Burge…

    1. Identify a genuine problem
    2. Exaggerate or otherwise distort it
    3. Propose politically advantageous ‘solutions’ that don’t actually address either the real problem or the distorted version.
    4. Demand your solution be respected while dismissing any critics as malicious idiots.

  21. who cuts the hole for the light plates way too small and then CAULKS the plate to the wall. I broke one before I realized what they had done. (And they VOTE. Let’s remember that.)

    –
    They not only vote, they vote RELIGIOUSLY and are unbearably Proud To Exercise Their Civic Duty!

    1. Every religion has its members who loudly and obnoxiously partake of it. Why should the American civic religion be any different?

    2. They tend to put on their “I Voted” stickers upside down, being easier for them to read themselves.

  22. OT:
    Sarah, you’ve mentioned email issues. Earlier this week, I suggested that Moe Lane send you his new book for the promo. His blog indicates that he has. Any chance that I should ping him to resend?

  24. Something I found out just the other day: About 15 years ago researchers analyzed one of the coronaviruses that causes the common cold, OC43, to determine when it jumped into humans. The answer was around 1890. It turns out that 1890 was a really bad flu year, with estimates of 1 million people dead. That would be the equivalent of around 5 million today. Seroarcheologists think that the 1890 flu was an H3 strain, but seroarcheology relies on looking at what antibodies are present in people who lived through the epidemic that aren’t present in later (or, if possible, earlier) populations. If OC43 caused the 1890 flu and then evolved into a mild cold, pretty much everyone in later generations would have the antibodies, which would lead to seroarcheologists dismissing the virus as a possible candidate. Considering how long ago the epidemic was there probably weren’t many samples from before 1890, so it would be hard to say whether or not OC43 was infecting people before the flu epidemic.

    While there isn’t enough evidence to say for sure that OC43 caused a “flu” pandemic and turned into a cold, there certainly isn’t much evidence to say that it didn’t.

    “If we knew in February what we know now we could have placed our entire nursing home and care center populations in private isolation wards with round the clock nursing…”

    That’s pretty much what I was saying in March when lockdownitis broke out among the governors, and it was based on what I knew in February. I have zero medical training, but I’m pretty good at logical thinking and I’ve developed an allergy to bullshit. This was a no-brainer. I really don’t see any excuse for our medical establishment to support lockdowns of the entire population rather than a focused defense on the vulnerable.

  25. Since I can no longer share this with my dear father, and I know there are plenty of you jokers here who will get it… Internet humour mined by the Daughter Product.

    Knock knock.
    Who’s there?
    Interrupting static co-efficient of friction.
    Interrupting static co-efficient of friction, wh—
    Muuuuuuuuuuuu-!!!!

    1. Mu to you too!

      When motorcycles began using telescopic forks, the early adopters found out about “stiction.”

      If the seals were tight enough not to leak, the fork moved in little jerks. If you loosened to seals until it moved freely, it drooled oil.

      As in many things, the fix was years of stepwise refinement.

      Like I was talking about a few weeks ago, making a pencil is easy. Making a nib pen isn’t that hard. Making a ball-point pen that works might take an entire human lifetime; there was more than one devil in the apparently-simple device’s details.

        1. More likely these are the CHAZ/CHOP guys who thought they could brow-beat Cartel– Useful Idiot remains, plus anybody who fought back. If it was locals there would be missing person reports by now, though. Still too many residual guns for Mexico style tactics.

          The Cartels are racist as ****, and ramping up to chopping people up and dumping them in bags without getting caught is a pretty sharp climb.

          Possible that it’s some of the biker gang guys that were supposedly heading up to Seattle, though.

          1. “… ramping up to chopping people up and dumping them in bags without getting caught is a pretty sharp climb.”

            Meh. Cartel fear of police? What police?
            –

            1. If it’s actual criminal biker gangs?
              They don’t do defiance, they do challenge. Same as the cartels, just not based in a country where you can own the police and entire regions have fewer legal weapons than an American gun nut.

                1. No idea if it’s true, but on one of his recent streams Razorfist mentioned that they were planning to go up there and do the deed on July 4th.

                  He also thinks that if the Hell’s Angels do show up – even if it’s just 3 of them – the CHAZ thugs are such cowards that they’ll run without a shot being fired. For the sake of avoiding collateral damage, I hope he’s right.

                  1. July 4th has a good chance of being a self-fulfilling prophecy– usually lots of bikers, and it’s not like these idiots would know the different gang signs. (My limit is that I know the Banditos.)

                2. If they were planning on utter destruction, yes. I can’t think of the last time that happened, the closest I can remember is the …. stuff … that ended with the blow-up at the “discussion” in a Twin Peaks, and I think that war is over.
                  The reason they don’t is because of stuff like the massive smiting that resulted from the Waco shoot-out.

                  However, they usually don’t do something like that in public, much less via twitter; the only thing I’ve seen was a claimed hope that they would. Which could be a dodge, too, but that’s getting really elaborate.

                  I’m not entirely sure I believe that it was really the bikers formally doing the confrontation, even. Frankly, if they’re smart, local law enforcement would only get involved if someone innocent got involved, if it really happened.

                  1. >> “Frankly, if they’re smart, local law enforcement would only get involved if someone innocent got involved, if it really happened.”

                    Antifa’s officially been declared a terrorist organization, yes? If the Powers That Be in Seattle order the police to defend them – which sadly wouldn’t surprise me at this point – I’m pretty sure that qualifies as literal, constitutionally-defined treason.

                    1. The official side would be an international terror organization– and preventing people from violating laws against murder or torture isn’t considered aiding, even if they ARE really horrible people. We don’t have an outlaw category.

                    2. Yeah, it could only be treason if the police were ordered to protect them while they commit terrorist acts. It’s against the law to attack them if they’re not currently committing a crime.

                    3. They’ve seized – and are currently still holding – several city blocks of U.S. territory. I’m pretty sure that counts as both a crime and a terrorist act.

                    4. Still can’t commit crimes against them.

                      There are some actions which aren’t crimes because they are in the middle of a crime, but still can’t.

                    5. According to Andy Ngo (see linked NY Post article elsewhere this page) those six city blocks hold 30,000 residents, something those of us eschewing urban life tend to overlook.
                      –

                    6. It cannot be assumed that all in CHAZ, nor even a majority of those in there, are Antifa activists. In fact, it is early certain that may of them are what is known ii the trade as useful idiots. Therefore, officials protecting them from violence in the midst of a peaceful negotiation, would not constitute treason.

                      It doesn’t even have to be true so long as the government officials so ordering police to prevent rioting can reasonably claim plausible deniability.

                      The MSM has previously proven its usefulness in establishing and maintaining such framing.
                      –

                    7. Useful idiocy is not defense against a charge of treason.

                      It’s the people who live there who are the innocents that are the big problem.

                    8. No, RES, I would consider most of those ‘activists’ to be USELESS idiots… 😛

    3. Two people in the hospital, shooting was at 10th and pine, the police station is on 12th and pine. “Barriers” were recently taken down, it’s peaceful “enough” during the day, there are known problems at night, “it is under investigation.”

    5. For those wondering, apparently both of the dead are CHAZians, and some of their “comrades” are pissed that the emergency services they violently preventing from getting in didn’t manage to save the guys’ lives.

      No, I’m not sure how that works.

      1. If they claim to be exempt from the city’s laws, they are also exempt from city services. If the power goes out, the sewers back up, or the water main breaks, they had better be prepared to pay a private contractor to fix it. They want an ambulance, they have to rent one, and pay the paramedics. You could almost conclude that they failed to think things through…
        ———————————
        Be careful what you wish for — you might get it!

        1. Doesn’t work that way.

          Good thing, ‘cus J Random Predator would just get his victims to declare they’re exempt from laws.

            1. Aren’t they supposed to be the ones in favor of ‘open borders’? It’s almost like they’re hypocrites or something! 😛

            2. I wish we could not give the Cartels the benefit of the law….

              Hm. Maybe that’s why the Cartel activity; they’re trying to establish a place where the law won’t touch them, similar to supporting La Raza.

              1. The commies think they will win, and have things go along with their revolutionary plan. It’d be a little surprising if the cartels /haven’t/ internalized some of the same ideas of how society works. The cartels would have some reason to want to move in, on the assumption that this is an early stage of the failure of US rule.

                What I do not know is how much institutional knowledge the drug traffickers have of the experience in South and Central America provided by the communist terrorists the Soviets were funding. On the other hand, China has their fingerprints all over some of the BLM adjacent stuff, was providing chemical precursors to South America, and then there is the Iran matter. I think sixty might be a little bit old to run a criminal organization with the area government hunting you, but China or Iran’s government could have kept their experts alive, and used them to train a younger cohort.

                Dunno.

                1. I had a response, but it got hung up on my realizing I don’t think there’s a gap between the revolutionary forces and the cartel type thugs– but it’s via them both being random thugs. Not claimed philosophy.

                  1. Anti-Fa are commies. Cartels are crooks, as seem to be a lot of BLM.

                    I’m pretty sure the cartels don’t have many alive and active now who were active during the cold war, and knew what was going on.

                    I kind doubt that the Chinese and Iranians interested in South American events then understood enough to really inform Chinese and Iranian stirring of the pot via South America today. We can strongly suspect that the Chinese and Iranians today are stirring the pot, both directly here, and via points south. Points north might simply be raving paranoia, and completeness, on my part.

                    1. Crook is too kind a term, it acts like material profit with a minimum of brutality is the goal; thug, with a focus on the behavior of the thuggee cult that inspired the name, is much more accurate. They do some really, really stupid stuff that is counter-productive if profit is the goal.

                      The similarity of breakdown is what largely inspired the comparison– the leadership of all three are my folks’ age. Roughly, Boomers. El Chapo of recent news popularity was a 50s baby. That’s the heads.

                      The ground pounders are teens to mid 20s.

                      The middle management are aged out ground pounders, and tend to be brutal to make up for not being as physically able as the young thugs.

                      Middle management– old guys are my age– probably don’t even remember the Challenger explosion.

                      And of COURSE our enemies are stirring the pot; terrorists, terror states and cartels all use drug money (or anything else that’s illegal, slavery is very popular) as a major source of funding. Anything that makes it easier for them, or harder on us, is going to get some spare change at the least.

                  2. Ah. I’ve figured out my error.

                    I meant ‘some of the same ideas about how society works’ as being more along the lines of a more extreme degree of the same sort of internalized leftism that we have to work to root out of ourselves.

                    Like how if I had never done any research, I would probably write story about a revolutionary power transition with the same orientation to symbols and stage management that the left thinks in terms of.

                    South and Central America may have less information readily available about the underpinnings of conservative philosophy, and thus might bias towards left? That is a vague impression, but I really dunno.

                    Anyway, I don’t think the cartels are communist. I do think they are shaped by their cultural background, and I don’t know what that implies. I also doubt that they are intellectually inclined enough to be working on figuring out what the truth is when you ignore the communist lies.

                    I think supposing that cartels and BLM want to carve out their own bandit kingdom gives BLM too much credit for forethought.

                    Cartel goals may have to be considered in terms of crowdsourcing. If a bandit kingdom is a lunatic goal, cartel figures who pursue it wind up dead. If it is viable, figures who pursue it wind up successful. Cartels do stuff that makes a profit and doesn’t make it more likely for the government to be able to kill them, and beyond that will try things, and some will work.

                    I definitely do not have sense to figure out any useful new insights right now.

                    1. I think supposing that cartels and BLM want to carve out their own bandit kingdom gives BLM too much credit for forethought.

                      I don’t think the Cartels get that philosophical about it, either.
                      Just impulse=> route. As with four legged predators, can be pretty impressive in a tactical sense…..

                      Lefty politics are useful, so they’ll use that if it’s available.

                      I definitely do not have sense to figure out any useful new insights right now.

                      Ditto.

          1. The mayor of Seattle can propose but it will be up to the (demoralized and alienated) police of Seattle to dispose. I perceive two potential risks here, 1) the police, especially under the restrictions imposed by the civil governance, are unable to dislodge those rascals and 2) the police readily dismantle this CHOP house, proving that all the squalor, extortion, trashing of public & private property, and terrorizing of the thirty thousand residents of that area was totally unnecessary.

            Not that it matters much – either way I am sure they will blame Trump.
            –

            1. Not that I want it to last all Summer and Autumn, but I’d LOVE to see firefighters douse those dip[loma-less dolts] in FRIGID weather.

            1. I really liked “Wokadishu” myself. 😛

              And while I doubt the battle itself would have been epic – Antifa would have just surrendered or run – the memes would have been. Such a lost opportunity.

              1. I liked Soymalia, Tofudishu, and… Chicago. But then, I am mean and the memes have had me laughing so much that I’ve stopped listening to Sargon, Styx and Paul Joseph Watson and eating/drinking at the same time. 2020, where we meme the everliving crap at the limpwristed attempts at establishing an insurrection, which only even happened because they were aided and abetted by the harangue of Karens that are the Democrats in charge of their cities.

                1. >> “and… Chicago.”

                  I’d almost forgotten that one! Yeah, that definitely got a chuckle out of me.

  27. Has anybody else noticed the increase in talk by the MSM about the Boogaloo. Saying that the People talking about the Boogaloo WANT it and are working to START it. They are saying Boogaloo people are going to DC to cause trouble and start the Boog.
    So all of us who have talked of the Boogaloo are now in databases. I know I already was in plenty.
    Keep your heads the Propagandists are now after the Boogaloo.

    1. You were already in a bunch of databases. Assume the spooks already know everything about you they want to know; it is freeing.

  28. Dr, one of the things we’re hearing (SM Stirling is pushing this line REALLY hard on Fecesbook) now is that “Yeah, you may not die of WuHan Flu, but it will damage every possible body part so you’ll be in misery and pain until it breaks down something else and kills you! REEEEEEEE!”

    He’s got what look like cherry picked studies that supposedly “prove” this is happening. Any thoughts on this?

    1. *raises hand*
      Not a doctor, but I noticed that every time I went looking for more information on a specific claim of how it was supposed to damage the body– started with Shadowdancer mentioning claims it causes male sterility– the results I got indicated it’s stuff from any infection of a similar type.
      So pneumonia causes long term lung damage; this causes long term lung damage. Not false, but sometimes offered in a misleading way.

      1. So anyone who supports illegal immigration, or who does not support tightening the regulation of immigration, is participating in a criminal conspiracy to kill us all? 😛

      2. Yeah, but he’s said that it makes pneumonia damage look like a cold. In other words, “Yeah, this does an order of magnitude worse, so lockdown forever.”

        1. The only thing even close to that which I’ve heard of is this:
          https://spinstrangenesscharm.wordpress.com/2020/05/11/covid19-update-may-11-2020-hydroxychloroquine-bummer-breakthrough-in-understanding-of-the-severe-disease/

          Which is the “cytokine storm” thing folks have heard about– looking at what it looks like down low. Which is also not unique to the kung flu, I’ll post a pop article from before everything got stamped with COVID-19 after this. Hopefully one of the two doctors or one of the others here will be able to tell if it’s one of the Ponder Stibbons style ‘wrong in every detail’ things. 😀

        2. https://web.archive.org/web/20200411060759/https://www.uab.edu/reporter/know-more/publications/item/8909-here-s-a-playbook-for-stopping-deadly-cytokine-storm-syndrome

          Archive link because I suddenly got paranoid.

          Sample quote:
          Cron’s research has shown that cytokine storm syndrome is much more common than previously thought — as is the number of people at risk. Scientists seeking the cause of cytokine storm syndrome have focused their attention on the perforin pathway, the series of proteins that work together to deliver perforin. Perforin is a key weapon of the immune system’s cytotoxic T-cells and natural killer cells. They use it to punch holes in the walls of infected, cancerous or otherwise undesirable cells. Then they use these perforin channels to pour in toxic granzyme B, which induces the cells to self-destruct. Mutations in the genes responsible for “any one of the 10-plus proteins that get perforin to do what it does” are linked to a higher risk of cytokine storm syndrome, Cron said.

          Some 10% to 15% of the population may carry these mutations, according to Cron’s calculations. Unlike infants, who tend to have two bad copies of one of the 10+ perforin-associated genes, these people have one mutated copy and one normal copy. “Generally, that’s enough to produce all the killing you need,” Cron said. “But if you get the wrong organism or the wrong inflammatory state it may push you over the edge.”

    2. Me, not Dr. TANSTAAFL, but remember I have a ton of friends who are doctors and ALSO that I’ve a little more experience with respiratory illness than most.
      It’s bullshit. It’s a possibility with any really bad respiratory illness. I think it’s what pushed my thyroid out of whack, for instance. And yeah, it can damage your kidneys and heart. ALL OF THEM CAN.
      However an illness with 80% asymptomatic infections? BULLSHIT.

    3. Any severe illness, requiring ventilatory support can cause lung damage, and other organ problems. That’s not specific to COVID by any stretch of the imagination.
      What is specific to COVID is that the front line physicians aren’t getting a lot of information. Usually, we get lots of specific clinical information, regarding presentation and/or treatment options. It’s almost like no one wants to say anything because it will be viewed through a political lens. So we get very little concrete information which can lead to a lot of speculation.

      1. It is the essence of socialized and/or politicized health care. Doctors are strangled by idiotic regulations, imposed by politicians and bureaucrats that know nothing about medicine.

        It’s not much better when doctors’ treatment options are constrained by insurance companies.

        Doctors should never be told how to do their jobs by ignorant fools.
        ———————————
        When the government gets involved in health care, you wind up with doctors filling out paperwork and paper-shufflers playing doctor.

      2. Gee, almost as though some woke members of the medical establishment aka AMA, and the government (CDC/FDA/etc) want you fumbling your way into fatal mistakes…. and all of you will have to learn them for yourselves.

        1. The AMA has been woke ever since they switched horses in midstream and agreed to accommodate Social Security

  29. So, there’s a lot of outrage at the opinion that Trump gave at the Tulsa rally that people who burn the flag of the United States of America should face jail up to a year. While I think he meant people who desecrate it (and I kinda disagree because it’s ruled as part of 1A, but I understand the rationale behind his opinion and would never burn a nation’s flag unless I was declaring war upon them, as it is emblematic of the nation itself) I found out that there was a case of a man being arrested and charged with hate crimes, as well as other charges, for tearing down a pride flag from a church and burning it.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/21/us/iowa-man-burns-lgbt-flag-church-trnd/index.html

    1. Now, frankly, CNN only reports that he was charged with arson, not hate crimes, but the BBC does. It also reports that the guy in question also threatened to burn another building down.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50861259

      If he had been charged only with property crimes, (theft, trespass, destruction of property, and such, since the flag was not his) that would have been fine, though the maximum charge for arson is uncalled for as he did not burn down a building (for burning a flag, not the church) but my problem is that burning the flag was constituted as a hate crime. Which, to me, does two things:

      -Violate his 1A rights (he burned the flag because he felt the Church should not support homosexuality)

      -Create the legal precedent that burning or desecration of certain symbols -in this case the gay pride flag- is illegal (a hate crime) and essentially elevates the pride flag as an inviolate symbol, over and above the American flag.

      Which erodes the 1A.

      My thought on this is, this opens a case for anyone who wants to put through the courts that the burning of the American flag should be put on the same level as burning the pride flag (a hate crime). A vulnerability. I said on Twitter that this should be settled in court because the ruling that the burning of the pride flag constitutes a hate crime makes way for Trump’s opinion on the matter, which is shared by many, to legally be made into law, and I think that both cases should be brought to SCOTUS, and the imbalancing factor (the pride flag ruling) be decided upon and hopefully tossed out as unconstitutional. (Essentially reiterating the previous ruling that flag burning is considered freedom of speech.)

      1. (That’s pretty much the one person who actually understood what I was getting at.)

        I reason that if burning the flag of the nation is considered protected expression of speech, then burning ANY flag, or similar desecration of any other symbol should be equally protected, and not be considered hate speech, or crime. If one flag is given protection then all other symbols must be similarly protected. (Mind, I think ‘hate crimes’ are unconstitutional, and should not exist as a definition that ‘exacerbates’ the crime.)

        Most the responses I got either jumped that the guy committed a hate crime thus deserved the jail time, while most of the rest generally ignored the actual point and just dismissed the whole problem with ‘he shouldn’t steal other people’s property’ or ‘arson is a crime, mmmkay?’ when he SHOULD be charged with the crimes relating to property, which is a separate matter from ‘hate crime’.

        After letting it sit for a day (and getting more idiot responses) I decided to throw the question/discussion to the more erudite and decidedly more intelligent folks here. What do you think?

        (Apologies to Sarah for the OT.)

        1. I am against hate crime laws as well, for the same reasons the article you linked states.

          Honestly if the First applies to burning a US flag, then it should apply to the burning of a Pride flag or a MAGA hat (as political symbols). The burning of political or religious symbols as a form of speech is not a crime (hate or otherwise.)

          From my understanding however, this does not mean that the person who does this can’t be charged with related crimes, such as theft, trespass, etc in the case of the guy who burned the pride flag; assault, theft, willful destruction of property in the hypothetical case of the MAGA hat. The only reason these separate charges would be faced is because the items are someone else’s property (and in the example of the MAGA hat, usually worn by the owner), and if the person burning those items owned them, s/he would not face those charges in the demonstration.

          (Am I correct in this understanding?)

          1. You’re dead on; “hate” would come in (absent such laws) with stuff like incitement and premeditation.

            So “I am such a hate-filled SOB that they very sight of a red hat/rainbow flag/ the national flag drove me to violence” would be something that lowered your culpability….

            1. There was a “video” of some black person beating up on a white man in a Macey Store.

              The Narrator claimed that the white man called the black man a *n*gger* and that’s why the black man beat up the white man.

              The Narrator also claimed that being called that so inflamed the black man that it was “just instinct” to attack the black man.

              Of course the beating up was also filmed by the Macey’s security cameras and Macey is saying that the violence was unprovoked.

              But it’s extremely sad that somebody apparently believes that an insulting name excuses beating up another human being.

              Sadly, I suspect that some “whites” would buy into the excuse.

              Now who are the “hateful” people?

                1. Been a thing for at least 20 years. Colin Flaherty has thoroughly documented it in multiple books…… which is why he’s been banned from YouTube, Fecesbook, and intermittently from Amazon and Twitter.

                  And our betters in Conservative Inc. have pooh-poohed it all the way.

              2. “The Narrator also claimed that being called that so inflamed the black man that it was “just instinct” to attack …”

                So the narrator’s argument is that Blacks are so animalistic that they are incapable of exercising higher order processes and restraining their impulses?

                Some defense.
                –

                1. Apparently, the Narrator (the apparent brother of the attacker) doesn’t realize how you or I could see his statement. 😡

            2. I saw something related to the new terrorist attack in London, where the terrorist is described as having a record of ‘racially aggravated assault’. If racism was a motivator using it as a description of the crime should be okay as long as it doesn’t additionally weight down the charges in severity (ergo, descriptive only, for record keeping to see if there is a series of similar motivations in the crimes.) I dunno, just a loose thought I have and I am tired, sleepy.

          2. The “logic” underlying Hate Crime statutes is that such crimes do not merely affect the direct victims but also affect a given class of potential victims. For example, lynching a black man or burning a synagogue constitute efforts to terrorize the class of Blacks and the class of Jews.

            It ought be obvious, however, that the addition of violation of Hate Crime laws to a major crime does nothing to increase the severity of the sentence, which is already maxed-out at life in prison or execution. It is only for relatively trivial crimes that Hate Crime statutes offer enhanced sentences.

            I wonder what would be the consequence of using Hate Crime statutes against such as that punk in New York recently caught viciously shoving the 92-yer-old woman. Surely such acts constitute Hate Crimes as their effect is to make ALL elderly more fearful about being out and around?
            –

              1. I am reminded of the incitement over (then) Governor Bush’s failure to charge the murderers of James Byrd with a hate crime in his dragging death.

                They’d already received the death sentence — what greater punishment did the complainants wish, chaining the murderers and dragging them?
                –

        2. If they OWN it, they ought to be free to to whatever with it, though it be distasteful.
          If they do NOT own it, that is arson – and they should be charged with that crime.

    2. I, too, disagree with Trump’s proposal. Room & Board at the nation’s expense for five months (I doubt any would serve a full term) is better than such [people] deserve. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, I do not deem desecrating our nation’s flag “Free Speech” — I view it as repudiation of America and all she represents (including Free Speech) and consider the proper punishment to be that accorded (the fictional) Philip Nolan* … although I suppose it cruel and unusual punishment for our naval forces to be compelled to impose such a sentence.

      *I am so old I can remember when “The Man Without a Country” was taught in school.
      –

      1. You and me bo th (I m’78). Bet you have sworn an oath if allegiance to Old Glory more times than you could remember, something I’d never do for any of those other items discussed including a MAGA hat thou I will vote for the guy

      2. So revoke their citizenship and offer them a choice of a one way plane ticket to any country the want —- or a one way helicopter ride which they’ll be getting off of at 500 feet.

  31. Oh, for the love of everything.

    Hey Sarah, did you know that you’re black?

    1. Well, she can’t be, same way that she’s not a woman.
      Holds unapproved thoughts, does stuff that the old, white men of the Left say she isn’t allowed to, so she’s not any of those groups.

    2. So, basically, the super genius cannot fail master plan is backfiring, and there is tapdancing to paper stuff over.

      1. Well, look on the bright side – you’ve been upgraded to a black mormon male (with a great rack)! You’re moving up in their world! 😛

      2. You DO realize you have just challenged them to be even stupider… 😀
        ———————————
        “I have never known the truth or Delenn to speak only when it is appropriate.”

    4. I confess that I initially read the phrase “We have to have conversations around ‘colorism,’” as “We have to have conversations around ‘colonism,’” and still think it makes more sense that way.
      –

    5. Ohhhh, AOC never met some of the Hispano families of northern New Mexico. The ones who ran La Raza-types out of the area in the 1960s-70s for being, um, well, [checks rules on language] let us say “recent immigrants of questionable ethnicity.” She has no idea the buzz-saw she’d walk into with that language among those folks. *reaches for anchovie-flavored popcorn*

        1. I don’t know how it is among the law abiding– for starters, the “tells” are a bit less obvious that shoot-on-sight– but black, latino and asian gangs hate each other even more than they hate other flavors of the same sub-group. They’ll also shoot J. Random Civilian who happens to fit the demographic of one of the other groups, even if he’s law abiding as can be.

        1. Technically, aren’t most Latinos the southern equivalent of the Metis?

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