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Monday, May 4. 2020

Photo: 5th Ave, 1880s

Re Hunter Thompson and Gonzo: Decadence and Depravity in Louisville, Kentucky

Tracking the ‘Murder Hornet’: An Asian Deadly Pest Has Reached North America

Hafthor Bjornsson: Game of Thrones actor breaks 501kg deadlift record (1100 lbs)

How to wage war by Barry Strauss: On Leadership in War: Essential Lessons from Those Who Made History, by Andrew Roberts & Military Strategy: A Global History, by Jeremy Black.

Legacy news, social media giants converge in new era of censorship. Once rivals for audience share and cultural relevance, new and old media are now allied in top-down control of information.

Flynn was not the objective. He was the obstacle

Ex-Top FBI Official Admits Hillary Wasn't Indicted Because They Thought She'd Win 2016 Election

Relevant: George Carlin on disease and the immune system

Coronavirus and COVID-19 are not the same thing

COVID-19 turning out to be huge hoax perpetrated by media

A Wizard of Oz Virus: The COVID-19 Hoax

U.S. CORONAVIRUS DEATHS, PART TWO: THE ANDREW CUOMO ANGLE

Life Or Livelihood: Americans Wrestle With Impossible Choice

Wrong. It's just reality

" I say we all chip in and find a freaking traveling circus to take his children off Mystal's hands."

COVID-19 Bites Identity Politics

CDC: “We Clearly Didn’t Recognize The Full Importations That Were Happening”

Trump was ahead of them

80 Patients and Staff Members Come Down with Coronavirus at Texas Nursing Home – 39 of 39 Saved by Hydroxychloroquine Treatment

Dr. Trump said "Try it - it might help"

Trump administration's 'Operation Warp Speed' looking at 14 potential COVID-19 vaccines to fast-track

DAMNING 'Five-Eyes' Intel Report: China Suppressed, Destroyed Coronavirus Evidence, Endangered Other Countries

Chinese government isn't evil: it is amoral

Here Are The Key Findings From The Bombshell Government Dossier On China's Bat Virus Program

China Expert Peter Zeihan Says China’s Collapse on World Stage is Coming Within Three Years

We’re Destroying Britain’s Wealth – And The Health Of Millions

France to extend coronavirus health emergency, will quarantine all travelers for 14 days, health minister says

There goes our trip to Provence

Mayor de Blasio: Opening NYC 'Few Months Away, at Minimum'

There goes away our...

Oregon Governor Kate Brown Extends Lockdown to After 4th of July

Spain's Push To Extend Lockdown Sparks Political Standoff As Global Coronavirus Deaths Decline For 5th Day

Majority of 17 international intelligence agencies believe COVID-19 started as accidental release from Wuhan lab.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:16 | Comments (30) | Trackbacks (0)

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An amoral actor is evil, but lacks awareness of its own evil.

The Chinese Communists are not amoral. They are evil.

According to the code of the CCP, the morality of an act is determined by whether it advances or retards the goals of the regime: expansion, conquest and domination.

#1 Kevin in PA on 2020-05-04 07:43 (Reply)

As evil is the absence of the good, to be amoral is to be evil.

#1.1 DeGaulle on 2020-05-04 09:22 (Reply)

Sounds exactly like the democrats and their allies in the media: expansion, conquest and domination.

#1.2 B. Hammer on 2020-05-04 11:37 (Reply)

Agreed. J.R.Nyquist provided us with a good example of their evil [url] https://jrnyquist.blog/2019/09/11/the-secret-speech-of-general-chi-haotian/ [/url] Although this was several years ago, there's no reason to believe they've changed.

#1.3 Frank on 2020-05-04 14:36 (Reply)

Thompson was brilliant. He's responsible for getting me into reading books. Not the HS teacher who made me read Jude the Obscure.

#2 Jack on 2020-05-04 07:52 (Reply)

Re: Hunter S. Thompson

"What astounds me is how stupid Johnny Depp really is…this idiot paid three million dollars to fire wingnut’s ashes out of a cannon. Now I don’t care how much money you have or what you own or flaunt that money at… But spending 3 million dollars to get your drug addict buddy shot out of a cannon into orbit, makes all the rest of us look like shit on a shingle with that kind of voluptuary behavior, it cheapens even the best of what we could afford..Depp could not find a couple of poor kids to send through college, or find a dog shelter or women shelter to help ease their financial woes?"

The author of this article clearly hates Thompson. And it's funny because Thompson's crime, mixing truth and imagination, is exactly what the government wants to do in the future. In any case, Thompson's biggest crime was not submitting to the dictates of political correctness. He spent his money the way he wanted. Not on poor people! So clearly he was a monster.

Remember: People don't have the right to decide how to spend their money.

#3 Ron Liebermann on 2020-05-04 10:30 (Reply)

Hunter S Thompson

begat

Woodward and Bernstein

begat

Sam Donaldson

begat

Jim Acosta

#3.1 Christopher B on 2020-05-04 11:18 (Reply)

I don't hate Thompson, I just can't stay interested in him.

#4 Texan99 on 2020-05-04 11:24 (Reply)

Ha! My feelings also. Years ago a friend pushed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on me, I got through it, with a few laughs along the way. I also read his, I think Playboy article about the Kentucky Derby. That was enough for me. Much like Edward Abby and The Monkey Wrench Gang: entertaining book, but that was enough of Abby.

#4.1 B. Hammer on 2020-05-04 11:49 (Reply)

Same here. He did some good stuff a long time ago — “Hell’s Angels” is very good and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is a thing unto itself — but a lot of garbage in his later years.

At his best he was an excellent writer, and always unique and original.

#4.1.1 Jeff Brokaw (Link) on 2020-05-04 15:07 (Reply)

Dr. Birx is saying we should stay at home because we might catch the virus and bring it home and it will then kill grandma or grandpa and you will forever feel guilty about it. I believe she is correct. The problem with this discovery is that is indeed what has always happened. Every grandma and grandpa who died in the past from the flu died because some younger person carried the disease to them. Every grandma and grandpa who dies from the flu (or some other infectious disease) will also die because some younger person brought it to them. This in a way is kind of a revelation not so significant for Covid-19 but significant for all the millions of deaths prior. Our older more susceptible citizens would be better off avoiding all contact with the general population. Nursing homes are in fact killing fields and kids and grand kids are the grim reaper.

#5 Emu on 2020-05-04 11:43 (Reply)

Iceland has half the population but 1 more Covid death than Alaska. We need to keep in mind the size and population density of places before we conclude they did an awesome job.

#6 JiminAlaska (Link) on 2020-05-04 11:44 (Reply)

Most of what appears to be "success" in fending of Covid-19 is simply blind luck. Sooner or latter Iceland AND Alaska will have their share of Covid-19. So it is too early to brag or point fingers.

#6.1 Anon on 2020-05-04 12:42 (Reply)

No one is trying to reduce the number of deaths caused by this virus. No one even suggests this is a goal. You keep implying that people are and that it is. Why?

#6.1.1 Jack Walter on 2020-05-04 13:55 (Reply)

Not exactly true. If the health care system is not overwhelmed there will be a inevitable but minimal number of deaths. Many people who get really sick from this can be saved with good hospital care. If the hospitals do get overwhelmed the death toll will be substantially higher, from twice as high to about five times as high. So, yes! The intent is to decrease the number of deaths.

It is likely that many of those who died in nursing homes in NY City would have lived if they were moved to a hospital as soon as it was obvious they needed more than the nursing home provided for them. That they did not receive this care was a terrible mistake and I would not be surprised to see law suits against nursing homes and the city and state. The governor (mostly him because the mayor was absent) caused this problem in his attempt to keep the hospitals viable.

When this (NY City's response) is looked at more carefully it will be a terrible largely preventable tragedy not caused just by incompetence but by design.

#6.1.1.1 Anon on 2020-05-04 18:03 (Reply)

Agreed. We will have a spike in Alaska when it hits rural villages where people live in small crowded houses, and where health care requires flying. It may not happen until fall when the weather turns again, but assuming no vaccine the villages will be hit hard. (they were in 1918/1920, but they were hit late)

#6.1.2 JiminAlaska (Link) on 2020-05-04 15:53 (Reply)

Hunter Thompson was brilliantly and wickedly and perceptively funny, but his candle was burned from both ends and the middle. I only found his early stuff great and was consistently disappointed at his obvious later efforts at cashing-in.

Regarding COVID being newly minted as a MSM hoax, well this is .... an interesting take. Are the +65,000-dead-Americans-in-6-weeks now going to become known as "Hoax Actors"? That disservice to the disease, when the facts are in, is worse propaganda than the over-inflated model estimations of what it could be, if you ask me. At least there was a medically-based purpose to the latter.

Much better to be critically evaluating future societal actions based on the observed disease results than deciding to holler that we've all been duped - unless both sides have now concluded that the public should just be kept alternately in terror and rage. Certainly easier to manage from their perspective.

#7 Aggie on 2020-05-04 11:53 (Reply)

re Mayor de Blasio: Opening NYC 'Few Months Away, at Minimum'

Clearly, there are mayors and governors counting on Uncle Sam to bail them out of their revenue shortfalls.

It's going to be interesting to see how that unfolds. McConnell says no bailout for the debt run up by the states from chronic mismanagement, but what about replacing the lost revenue for cities and states locking themselves down for an extended period of time? If money is given to states to compensate them for extended shutdowns of their economy, will the states opening early feel cheated and want additional money? This looks like an opportunity for Dems and Repubs in DC to resort to the old "you scratch my back . . ." regimen and they loot all they can for their states. Or maybe the relationship between repubs and dems is so acrimonious at this point that can't happen?

We'll see.

What's going to happen to these states and municipalities if they aren't handed money to make up for the tax revenue they are losing?

The dems are going to want all they can get. The sky is the limit. How much fight is in the repubs, or are they on board with that?

#8 feeblemind on 2020-05-04 12:03 (Reply)

Bankrupt Cities And States Get The National Disaster They've Been Hoping For

QUOTE:

With no stomach for presiding over the end of the world during an election year, Washington will cave, agreeing to whatever governors demand. And so the grossest mismanagement in the history of US state and city government will be swept under the rug – or more accurately will be swept onto taxpayer balance sheets along with that of all the other sectors that are – surprise! – too big to fail.

This is a shame since one of the few things worth looking forward to in the deep recession the world was stumbling towards before the pandemic hit was the collapse of unconscionable public sector pensions, and the disgrace of the people who conned teachers, firefighters, and cops into thinking that those generous benefits were guaranteed. On the list of financial/political crimes of the modern era, theirs ranks near the top. And now they’ll go both unpublicized and unpunished.

Meanwhile, the resulting multi-trillion-dollar addition to the national debt will hasten the fiery end of the fiat currency/fractional reserve banking/unlimited-government-debt world. One can only hope that future historians will get the story right while the perps are still alive to answer for their sins.

https://www.zerohedge.com/bailout/bankrupt-cities-and-states-get-national-disaster-theyve-been-hoping

#8.1 feeblemind on 2020-05-04 17:16 (Reply)

Cloward-Piven.

https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/organizations/clowardpiven-strategy-cps/

#8.1.1 Capecodder on 2020-05-05 13:21 (Reply)

So far, about 77% of job losses are temporary layoffs (link). Also, a portion of those non-layoff unemployment numbers are people who weren't working before, but who are filing now that unemployment pays $600 more per week. As any economist will tell you, if you raise the price you are paying for something, you'll get more of it.

My take on the economy is that there's a lot of pent-up demand. If things are opened back up relatively soon, the majority of that demand will still be there, and the economic damage won't be as bad as we might fear.

The longer the closures are dragged out, the more of these losses shift into permanence. That's where the real pain is going to be felt.

Of course, there will be repeated efforts to address the economic harms of the virus and the various responses to it. But the cynic in me is pretty sure that the elites - and their stooges in Congress - will contrive means to divert any help from the genuinely injured and into the hands of the well-connected.

#9 Thos. on 2020-05-04 12:30 (Reply)

Are masks effective? If they were then we could simply open up everything as it was before and require everyone wear masks. But we don't because the doctors correctly point out that this will increase transmission rates of the disease even with masks. So the conclusion is that masks are not effective.

Next, is the six foot separation effective. Of course not, this doesn't even need explanation. Seriously does anyone really believe that being six feet from someone with a highly infectious disease will keep you from getting it?

Was the shutdown/quarantine effective? The evidence shows that it was. Even those who post here brag that their particular part of the country hasn't seen a lot of Covid-19 illness yet. The reason is obviously because the government shut everything down before it spread to these areas, hence the quarantine worked.

#10 OneGuy on 2020-05-04 12:50 (Reply)

https://unherd.com/thepost/nobel-prize-winning-scientist-the-covid-19-epidemic-was-never-exponential

If this did indeed get into the country in December like some theorized, then it's already spread about as widely as its going to and we're on the backside of this particular plague. It's exhausted the potential pool of vulnerable subjects.

And I'm no doctor - but the idea that a virus would 'wait until later' on those it couldn't infect immediately seems... bizarre.

Was the quarantine effective, or were we just locking the barn door after the horses got out? Time will tell.

#10.1 JLawson on 2020-05-04 14:53 (Reply)

"it's already spread about as widely as its going to"

Wrong! That's the point. There are probably 5000 cities in the U.S. where no one has this virus. NOT Because they are immune but simply because no one with the virus has been there yet. Without the lockdown there might be 500 cities with no virus yet. But eventually someone with the virus will drive into town and eat at a restaurant and go to a bar and pump gas and stay at a motel and THEN the virus will be in that town. It will eventually happen in every town and a small percentage of the population will die from it. The quarantine didn't stop it, it merely delayed it.

#10.1.1 OneGuy on 2020-05-04 18:09 (Reply)

The latest studies show that in NYC less than 20% of the population has antibodies while the rest of the country is far lower. That leaves between 80 and 95% of the population as an unexhausted pool of vulnerability. Herd immunity requires 60-70% of the population to have antibodies from illness or vaccination. With a vaccine months away and likely more months to actually administer to 300 million people under precautions, the death toll will end up multiples of today's number.

#10.1.2 Andrew Stanton on 2020-05-04 18:29 (Reply)

Wrong. I live in Spain, the country that has done the biggest shutdown and it was a total, unmitigated, failure, a complete joke. Zip it with your talk of how wonderful they are.

#10.2 DblTap on 2020-05-04 14:59 (Reply)

"how wonderful they are."

How wonderful WHO is?

Maybe you mean how wonderful the shutdown is. The shutdown isn't wonderful it was simply necessary because our healthcare system was not ready for tens of thousands of patients at once. The shutdown was ONLY supposed to give them time to get ready. They are, or should be. Now the shutdown is because politicians are too afraid to stop it OR because they have another agenda.

#10.2.1 OneGuy on 2020-05-04 18:12 (Reply)

"Was the shutdown/quarantine effective? The evidence shows that it was."

For prolonging the inevitable? Yes. Congrats, I guess.

#10.3 jimg on 2020-05-04 15:15 (Reply)

Exactly right. The shutdown was "For prolonging the inevitable" until the hospitals could prepare for the inevitable rush of patients needing serious care. Now we will see if the government can return to normal AND if the hospitals can handle the second wave of patients.

#11 OneGuy on 2020-05-04 18:15 (Reply)

I thought 'The Rum Diaries' was Thompson's first book. Anyone?

#12 tim ferrell on 2020-05-05 06:10 (Reply)

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Monday, May 4. 2020

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