Friday, May 15. 2020
In my neck of the woods, traffic is up, bars are re-opening as speakeasies, Home Depot is full of customers. In other words, people are fed up. Many states are "opening up," whatever that means, but people are doing it regardless. Some of it is necessity, some of it is a refusal to live in fear, and some of it is people realizing that much of this is pointless.
From my end, I am back in the office today, fishing this weekend, and getting together with friends on Sat. night. No masks - enough of that except for the supermarket which still requires them. Time's up for the extreme stuff.
What are our readers doing this weekend? Quarantining, Soft Quarantining, or doing your best to get back to normal work, recreational, and social life?
Good news, but I am waiting for NYC to reopen.
Many states are going to look foolish with their extreme measures. It has been extreme enough already.
 Coyote chases Roadrunner
Georgia officials warn of 4-foot-long invasive lizards that eat 'anything they want'
Norway to excavate first Viking ship burial mound in 100 years
Getting Distance Learning Right - Once again, Success Academy leads the way.
Climate Change Experts Explain to Insurers They Don’t Understand Risk
Are Democrats Trying To Eliminate Proof Of Who You Are To Vote?
Flynn Was Never Charged With Perjury, But Now Could Be Facing Charges…of Perjury
The New York Times Surrendered to an Outrage Mob. Journalism Will Suffer For It.
Pediatrician: Closed Schools Could Be Harming Kids' Mental Health
Is Sweden's Herd Immunity Strategy the Best We Can Do?
36,000,000: America's Disastrous COVID Unemployment Crisis Deepens
The ‘Just Stay Home’ Message Will Backfire. We need less extreme and more nuanced recommendations for navigating life during the pandemic.
Los Angeles Will “Never Be Completely Open Until We Have a Cure.”
Why shutdowns are useless
Why Do Progressives Want To Keep The Economy Shut Down?
"Science shows" - which science is that?
World Health Organization doctor says coronavirus 'may never go away'
Powerline:
The conventionally posed choice between fighting the disease and salvaging our economy is entirely wrong. The choice is not disease vs. economy. The disease is here, and there is nothing governments can do to stop it. (They can, of course, close down access to nursing homes, a mixed blessing if you are elderly.) The real choice is between the disease with a flourishing economy, and the disease with a devastated economy. The disease is a constant.
Revisiting of Sokolow v. PLO gives hope to victims’ families. The case, Sokolow v. PLO, has its roots in the bloody years of the Second Intifada – a terror wave that killed more than a thousand Israelis and dozens of Americans.
Communist China Continues to Target American Creativity
Rolling Back Iran in Iraq
Thursday, May 14. 2020
One of my favorite people to listen to, or read, is Mike Rowe. Lots of good, common sense. I've not always agreed with him, but I'm sure plenty of people don't agree with me all the time. It's all fine, as long as we understand each other's point of view. I completely understand Mike's, and respect it even when I disagree.
Mike's podcast recently told the story of the Staplehurst Train Disaster, in which Charles Dickens played a prominent (and for a long time largely invisible) role. He spun from that to a discussion on safety, and covered his conceptualization of "Safety Third" as a means of managing risk.
On my earlier post today, someone commented safety should always be most important. Here, Mike explains why that's simply not true. There are always other considerations. Read the article or listen to the podcast. Both are excellent.
The Real Killer Is COVID-Lockdown-Driven Unemployment
Experts predict 70-90,000 sucides in the US due to economic disasters, crushed dreams. Hope that is not true, but I no longer believe anything, especially from experts. Wrong about everything thus far.
Related: The Subtle Tyranny Of The ‘Expert’ Class. Some believe our intellectual betters should be able to censor the internet. They don't know nearly as much as they think they do.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock provides a good review of the debate between what Sweden has done vs the rest of the world.
There are many reasons, all legitimately different from cultural and societal considerations, why Sweden would be successful with their approach. But that doesn't mean every culture is unable to utilize variations on it to make it work for them. He swung, and missed, on that point.
The primary discussion point is "what is a life worth?"
Whether you like it or not, and I'm just stating a fact, the idea of "one life saved is worth it" simply makes no sense whatsoever. Cuomo is very, very wrong about that...anyone who thinks that way falls short understanding of life.
There is a cost, or a value, to every life. It will vary based on relationships, love, and commonality. However, productivity of each life must also be considered. Losing a farmer and his family, so a farm that feeds 10,000 people goes abandoned, is far more damaging to society than losing the same number of people in a nursing home. Losing 20 doctors treating the virus is more damaging than losing 20 people who build apps. These are just simple facts of life. It's hard to swallow, and it's not something we want to consider, but it is very true.
Nobody wants to see anyone die, and as a country we've directed resources to saving as many as we can through pharma and academic research. In addition, we've implemented social distancing, masks, and a variety of other methods to reduce or limit spread.
In the meantime, we've learned it's not as contagious or deadly as we thought. That doesn't mean it couldn't mutate and become both. But it has not been as damaging as we were originally told, and we have developed more treatments for the symptoms - which, at this point, is the best we can do.
All of this adds up to one thing. Reopening is the only option. Nobody knows enough about the virus to categorically state when we will, or how we will, be 'safe'. But 'safety' is no longer the primary issue we should be considering. Whether we like it or not, we are far past that point. Now we're talking about simple long-term survival.
I like Mish's review. What he failed to do was connect the dots. Lack of knowledge about the virus and how it operates doesn't make us less 'safe'. But preventing us from earning a living, being productive, and living our lives as we see fit, does make us less safe. And less healthy.
How much of a lemming was President Trump? Or the state governors? All of them were, to one degree or another. Thus, we were plunged into the grandest of experiments in authoritarian paternalism, whereby we plebeians — i.e., those without government jobs — are deemed incompetent to judge if it's safe to take a dip in the ocean or a walk in the woods. We can, though, crowd into a Walmart or the local supermarket.
Los Angeles Headed To Lockdown … Forever?
California Universities Cancel ‘In Person’ Classes for Fall Semester 2020
To reopen, Washington state restaurants will have to keep log of customers to aid in contact tracing
Makes zero sense
As Lockdown Grows Political, Resistance Stirs in Rural Maine
Ace:
We've been told that we need to "flatten the curve" before we can reopen the country. We were told that we don't want to overwhelm our country's healthcare system.
But I think we've done this. In fact, many hospitals that have geared up for a covid-19 rush are nearly empty and are laying off staff.
But now, suddenly, it's different. Now we're being told that we can't reopen the country until we get widespread testing. And when you ask them how much is widespread, the response is always more than we have now.
Soon it will be we can't reopen the country until everybody gets tested.
Coming up:
We can't reopen the country until there are no new cases
We can't reopen the country until we have an infallible vaccine
We can't reopen the country until Luke Skywalker and his plucky band of rebels destroy the Death Star
We can't reopen the country until Marshall Dillon marries Miss Kitty
We can't reopen the country until Jerry Lewis releases his 'The Day the Clown Cried' movie to the public.
We can't reopen the country until the return of Halley's Comet.
We can't reopen the country until Arthur returns as the rightful king of England
But ultimately it all boils down to: We can't reopen the country until Joe Biden becomes President.
Wednesday, May 13. 2020
Scott expains (podcast) why Sen. Rand Paul, MD, is the only intelligent person in the federal government.
I agree. Scott: "Do you want the f-ing government to decide when you live or die?" Scott is aware the experts are flying in the dark.
Scott's main blind spot is that he has become a wealthy guy with no need to ever work, and seems to assume that everybody has the money to live comfortably for a year or two without income. That's wrong. Good disctinctions between the childrens' table and the adult table.
Tuesday, May 12. 2020
Sorry about that, but either the bug or governments' responses to it are messing up everybody's life in the US. May I ask one question: What happened to the "two weeks to flatten the curve" that was offered?
Let's return sanity to college admissions. Coronavirus pandemic gives us an opportunity.
Rutgers University prof: Reopening the country is about killing black people
Column: Americans are too afraid of risk. What we need in this pandemic is balance
Social Distancing' is Snake Oil, Not Science
Could help flatten the curve, maybe, but lengthen the pandemic
Should Patients With Mild Cases Isolate At Home?
Jacobson: The center did not hold under prolonged and arbitrary lockdowns, as predicted. We are at the inflection point I predicted two months ago would arrive in May. Reopening the economy is the only sustainable option.
Scientists Pushing The Goal Posts Further …Vaccine Needed Before Normal Returns
Don't hold your breath for that
Americans create new economic threat with their own savings
Steven Mnuchin: Reopening needed to avert 'permanent economic damage' to the public
Some permanent damage has already happened. Seen it.
Now Chinese Hackers Are Trying to Steal Coronavirus Research
Duh
Was there an emergency shutdown of the Wuhan lab in October?
Whistleblower Chinese all died. Sheesh.
Saturday, May 9. 2020
Former Obama Official Admits She Lied About Having Evidence of Russian Collusion
It was a coup attempt, wasn't it? But why? And, as Scott asks, what is the punishment for that?
Friday, May 8. 2020
Good guy, likeable, mostly sensible and non-ideological. City Journal Podcast interview
I do not agree with him about everything, but nobody agrees with me about everything.
Wednesday, May 6. 2020
Colorado River Delta Ecosystem Blooms After Historic Water Release
MID-WEEK IN PICTURES: GIANT MURDER HORNETS EDITION
Poll: 78 Percent of College Students Want to Restrict ‘Threatening’ Ideas
New York Taxpayers Have to Wear Masks, Not Welfare Takers
Harvard Canceled Human Rights Event as Its President Met With Xi Jinping Human rights scholar says university trades free inquiry for Chinese dollars
Bill Gates Tacitly Admits Global Warming Is a Lie
Al Gore did the same thing, as did Obama - buying fancy homes on the shore near sea level.
Elvis Was King, Ike Was President, & 116,000 Americans Died In A Pandemic
Corey Johnson’s deranged slam of Samaritan’s Purse — which only helped NYC
Jesse Watters Imagines What The Media Would Sound Like If Obama Were President During Pandemic
CNN Sends Cease And Desist Letter To Trump Over ‘American Comeback’ Video Ad
Neil Ferguson, The "Scientist" Whose Crap Models Panicked the World, Forced to Resign From Government Job After Breaking His Own Social-Distancing Rules to Have Sex With His Side-Piece
It is immature to blame anybody for Acts of God, like hurricanes and diseases, but I'll go immature here to blame that guy Ferguson, and especially China for closing China to Wuhan city but letting the Wuhan people fly all over the world. Ferguson cried Fire in a crowded theater, and China seeded the world. "Accidentally on purpose?" We'll never know. Regardless, governments destroying our economies, I've decided, was an overreaction. This is not The Plague.
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.
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