Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page
Categories
QuicksearchLinks
Blog Administration |
Monday, April 20. 2020Monday morning linksHymowitz: Alone - The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness. New York Times published false claim on America's founding. This history professor called its bluff. Amity Shlaes’ ‘Great Society:’ How Poverty Won America’s War on Poverty Colleges Must Cut Administrative Costs to Survive This Crisis Harvard Getting $9 Million in Coronavirus Aid, While Sitting on $40 Billion Endowment Lessons in Death and Life from the Diaries of Samuel Pepys Coronavirus lockdown: Lessons from Hokkaido's second wave of infections Lockdowns just extend the course of infections Coronavirus report: Massachusetts may not be ready to reopen until June Sweden Is Right - The Economy Should Be Left Open
Apocalypse Not #8 South Texas Lockdown Cuomo Praises Trump's Response to the Wuhan Coronavirus: 'Phenomenal Accomplishment' Chris Wallace CALLS OUT a Stunned Pelosi for Pushing Tourism to Chinatown in Late February Research Projects Reveal Coronavirus Has Lethality Rate in Same Ballpark as Seasonal Influenza Trump Rewrites the Book on Emergencies: For the first time in U.S. history, an administration is responding to a crisis with deregulation and decentralization. END THE SHUTDOWNS! DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN. The United Nations warns that hundreds of thousands of children worldwide may die because of governments’ overreaction to the COVID-19 virus
“Funny how all those bible clinging, gun toting deplorables are keeping this country functioning! I guess they decided not to stay in bed crying!” Driving trucks, making deliveries, stocking shelves, farming farms, building things, fixing your plumbing, etc etc People make 'mad dash' to Florida beach after reopening Maher Says Media’s ‘Panic Porn’ Coronavirus Coverage Could Create Trump Reelection Path With China’s economy on life support, it’s time to turn off the ventilator The European Union Is Dead But Does Not Yet Know It Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
Well, "Texas" is starting to open back up. Youngest is at work this AM and all that...
AM email from volunteer coordinator - not needed again this week, as the total number of patients in TMC is still under 300. Further down the coast near Corpus Christi: No formal legal change here. The state parks are to open today, but each park has some discretion, depending on staffing and safety concerns. The county's public boat ramps and piers are still closed, and short-term rentals are prohibited, to deter visitors.
The governor is allowing all retail stores to open with curbside delivery. I'm expecting a loosening in the county's local order by the end of the month, but we'll see. The local Facebook chatter still shows a sharp divide between those who think we can shut things down indefinitely and those who think that's insane. KY has been using the curbside model for many business that didn't want to close completely. It seems to have worked out ok.
I don't understand curbside delivery. If the fear is infection why would you trust a meal prepared by half a dozen people you don't see so you don't know if they are being safe/sanitary. Do you really think that long haired teen preparing and packaging your food is actually thinking about the virus? Does not going inside make the food safer?
If you embrace the whole concept of stop panicking and just get out there and if you get the virus you will probably be OK why would you wear a mask of use curbside delivery. Just get on the public transportation and go find some homeless people to hug. On the other hand if you do fear the virus and the results of catching it why would you even go near a curbside delivery? The contradiction for both belief systems is stunning. Have not heard of a single case yet that was tracked back to eating food prepared by someone else. And I actually just read an article that said you don't have to worry about food packaging or veggies/fruits when you buy something from the grocery store.
Guess you won't be buying any food at all since that has all been handled by multiple people before it ended up on the shelf? I'm still wiping down packages and being careful with take out containers but I agree in general.
It seems to me that a lot of people are confusing viruses, which are just packets of nasty DNA, with bacteria that are living organisms and actively reproduce in favorable environments.
#2.2.1.1.1
Christopher B
on
2020-04-20 13:03
(Reply)
Seriously! I doubt you ever will. Just as it is unlikely you will ever know exactly how you catch any flu. Was it the shopping cart at Walmart? That person who sneezed as you walked by? The apples you bought in the store but did not wash? Shaking hands with your neighbors.
OR do you believe you can't catch any diseases from food that has been compromised?
#2.2.1.1.2
Emu
on
2020-04-20 13:06
(Reply)
Not knowing every detail about disease transmission is not the same as having no useful information at all. A quick look at the plunging incidence of ordinary colds and flus this season shows that social-distancing cuts way back on all respiratory virus transmission. I wouldn't have gone to all this trouble just for that improvement, of course, but it's a clear side effect that suggests we're inhibiting the transmission of coronavirus as well.
In an ordinary year I pay very little attention to sanitization, because my long experience has taught me it doesn't matter. Under these new conditions, I'm convinced enough that it might matter to make an extra effort. That obviously doesn't mean I insist that everyone else do it, too. Now that we're apparently not going to crash the hospitals, I favor letting people decide on their own level of caution. You want to hang out in the grocery store, knock yourself out. I really, really want people to be able to go back to work.
#2.2.1.1.2.1
Texan99
on
2020-04-20 15:26
(Reply)
In my area, curbside delivery is a means for businesses to survive regardless of the imperative to panic. My reading of the situation is that most of my neighbours trust the restaurants about as much as they did during the Swine Flu, the sense being that the odds of contracting something would be markedly higher in grocery stores, and especially in the pharmacies where all the sick folks go. There's something to this, given that I picked up a cold in the pharmacy where I went to get my flu shot, last October.
I confess it makes me queasy to eat food prepared by unknown hands right now, especially if some of it is cool/uncooked. We eat what we cook at home. To support local restaurants, I buy gift cards, which I'll redeem later when I feel comfortable going back.
But I'd still rather order bulk goods and pick them up curbside, to avoid jostling people in the store and breathing air in a closed space that's been crowded with all kinds of people whose habits I can't know. I'm not that worried about touching the products themselves, though I do wash my hands a lot after bringing things in from outside. I do go into some stores, still, I just try to minimize it. GAGA, Baby. Let's ignore the panic porn and "Get America Going Again."
The next big investment is available at Lowes and Home Depot. The way protests are starting to spring up, demand for pitchforks should rise soon.
re The European Union Is Dead But Does Not Yet Know It
The question is, will the death be quick or slow? You know the EU bureaucracy doesn't want the good times to end. Can they and the pro-EU leadership prolong the agony or will The Virus or some other event shatter the EU the way eastern Europe came out from under the control of the Soviet Union? It will be kicking, screaming, hollering, with spittle flying everywhere and all the tricks in the playbook thrown viciously, all the way. Brexit gives you the model - here a country definitively decided with an uncontested democratic vote, and it still wasn't clean - for the Euroentrics there is no process to honor if it's not their preference.
Harvard Getting $9 Million in Coronavirus Aid, While Sitting on $40 Billion Endowment
How much of that is going to "academics" who are already bought-and-paid-for by the Chinese??? Hey! That $40 billion? It's used to turn normal, bright kids into arrogant a**hole members of the Elite class, the so-called "Best and Brightest" (who are neither, just credentialed and networkted to other credentialed a**holes) and whose first words to you upon meeting, always seems to be, "Well, I went to Hahvahd, you know!" Is that the same Harvard University that laid off all their dining hall workers, instead of preparing meals for folks who're up against it?
I guess the Chicoms figured the world wasn't watching.
Fifteen Leading Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Figures Arrested in Police Round Up https://bigleaguepolitics.com/fifteen-leading-hong-kong-pro-democracy-figures-arrested-in-police-roundup/ My thoughts exactly. Frankly I am stunned there are so many people who don’t see any problem with this power grab — or don’t see it at all. THAT is a problem.
Maybe because most of us are rational enough to realize it is a temporary situation and will be over soon enough. We had to stop transmission so we could do several things:
1) Manufacture more PPE 2) Getting testing in place 3) Figure out our coronavirus supply chain 4) Ensure the safety of HCWs so they don't get infected and make our healthcare system weaker 5) Give hospitals time to prepare for a slew of cases that weren't built for it...such as negative air pressure, screening rooms, more ICUs if possible, etc. etc. Now that we are well on our way to being prepared, we can slowly start to return to normal and deal with outbreaks as they come. Miss T? You and my wife are on the same page.
However, I would rather take my chances with The Virus than trust in either the competence or benevolence of our ruling masters. “Rational enough to realize this is a temporary situation and over soon enough”
Yeah because trusting government to cede power and protect our liberties is a totally rational view. Good luck with that plan. New York Times published false claim on America's founding. This history professor called its bluff.
And this is just one reason I despise, detest, and distrust the NYT. The European Union Is Dead But Does Not Yet Know It: Dead man walking...or crawling. What would you say the best comps are for Sweden, with its 156 deaths per million?
Norway 33 deaths per million Denmark 63 deaths per million Estonia 30 deaths per million Finland 18 deaths per million In what way is Sweden getting this right? A lot of picking and choosing data in the comments here. We will have to wait until next year to see the true picture. Will the fall out from the virus or the fallout from the response to the virus be worse? Either way it is going to be ugly.
Best comp is probably the country that used the same approach Sweden did, to keep comparisons apples to apples, since the intent was to incur a higher number of negative health outcomes sooner to get to herd immunity sooner and lessen the economic impact. None of those countries did that, I don’t think (not sure, just asking).
Are they wrong? I don’t know. How can anyone know right now? So Sweden should have done like NYC and shut everything down and keep the subways open?
NYC: 575 per million Ref: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City Sheesh Belgium 503/million
Spain 446/million Italy 399/million France 310/million UK 243/million Netherlands 219/million Switzerland 166/million (Worldometers, as of 20 April 2020) The daily graphs that Willis Eschenbach is doing here are also worth a look. |