We 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.
Let's not take advantage of the self-employed tradesmen and workers: electricians, carpenters, pavers, landscape people, roofers, delivery restaurants, plumbers, painters, fitness trainers, hairdressers, etc. etc. during hard times.
Right now, they are desperate for work and offering bids which are almost 50% of what they would have done 6 months ago. So my feeling is this is the time to get a lot of jobs off your checklist in affordable and prompt ways, but don't be a schnorrer. They are all under-bidding eachother just to stay busy and to keep their helpers working. A minor profit is better than nothing.
These people have families to feed, and times are tough. If you can, put these people to work and don't give them a hard time about it. Do it for America.
Maggie's HQ Easter Report: Went out early to do some outdoor chores after a morning run. Repairing and painting birdhouses, planting some herbs, shed-cleaning, shrub pruning. Almost stepped on (photo) a Robin's egg in the grass. Sheesh, like a perfect Easter Egg. Then I saw a baby Cottontail bunny hopping away. That is called an Easter Blessing.
Then, in respect for my father-in-law (quarantining sort-of, here) we streamed Cardinal Dolan's Easter mass at St. Patrick's. What a fine fellow he is.
New Yorkers are not easily cowed. We are not ones to be contained. We live here because we are extremely social and curious creatures. We tolerate cramped apartments because they are merely places to shower and sleep. The city is the draw, the prize, the home.
Now we see what New York is like without her people. The Statue of Liberty welcomes no one. Times Square and Grand Central Station, places and names that serve as national expressions of overcrowded chaos, host lonely commuters. Part of Central Park is now, incredibly, a field hospital — as is the Javits Center and the US Open tennis complex. Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Oculus, the winged symbol of our rebirth after 9/11, sits hollow and tomblike.
Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could've saved more lives. Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US public at large.
Dr. Fauci is a slippery one, a CYA guy like most people in government
COVID's graph in NY is beginning to resemble a particularly bad flu season, a dangerous flu season (although COVID is not a flu virus - Corona viruses are best known to be the viruses of the common cold): Look At How Ridiculously Wrong All The COVID-19 Models Were.
As Scott Adams says every day, models are not information. Models are for persuasion. He knows, because he once had a job making them.
Did the shutdowns help prevent mass catastrophe? We will never really know. I suspect that it did help hospitals manage their flow of difficult cases, which was the purpose. They seem to be managing fairly well. Stress is their job.
I wish he would just stick to his knitting instead of riding all of his socio-cultural hobby horses. I'd like to give the guy the benefit of doubt, but sheesh. It's Holy Week. Can we focus on Christ instead of talking about the weather?
... journalists during White House briefings fixate on two agendas.
One is to goad the president into saying something sloppy, by repeatedly suggesting that in reacting to the virus, he was in error, that he is cruel and heartless, or that he is dangerous. That gotcha obsession explains why the media can call Trump a xenophobe and racist for issuing a travel ban against China—contrary to the earlier advice of WHO, the Centers for Disease Control, the media, and the entire Democratic Party hierarchy—then silently support it. It explains why they then use doctored Chinese data and propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party to convince Americans that China—a nation that lied about the origins, spread, and nature of the virus—is admirably doing a better job in containing the virus than is their own country. Even the media cannot keep straight their own anti-Trump gymnastics.
“My role with respect to public safety is something I take very seriously. The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety. They are the ones that are entrusted with expansive freedoms – they’re free to exercise their rights to work, to worship, and to play – or to even stay at home, or to conduct social distancing. … My responsibility is to respect the rights of people, and the people who elected me.”
Just hope you test positive. The more people who test positive, the better for the country. If elederly, overweight, or have other issues, if you test negative you might chose to remain in jail for a while.
Still, I think we'll be surprised by how many people have the covid antibodies already. If you even had a stuffy nose in the past 3 months, you might have the covid antibodies. If you don;t know what they are, read up on them.
The animal body has unbelievable abilities. What is an antibody? Read and learn some basic biology.
So. when trump was called a "racist" in january for cutting off travel. When the WaPo called his actions "unprecedented"....when he declared a Public Health Emergency to release funds so others/states could react to the virus....ALL IN JANUARY - JANUARY - JANUARY........that was "sitting on his hands" and "making no preparations" for two months???
I agree with him. We need to get business back in business, with reasonable precautions of course. Since this virus will be circulating for years, the political challenge is when. The first patient who dies after opening up will be Trump's fault. Meanwhile, lives are being destroyed.
Now approved by the FDA, but already in use in other countries. The sooner we can get it everywhere here, the better. It might take a week or two. Obviously, if you have recovered from a confirmed case, you are good to go.
Despite the careful caveats in the article, what a positive test basically tells you is that you have been exposed to covid and have immunity to it. That means you have no to minimal risk, and are no risk to anybody else.
What is the purpose of all of these virus recommendations? The masks, the distancing, the stay-at-home, the hospital and nursing home rules?
The purpose is to lower the curve. Not to reduce cases of those made very ill, but to flatten the burden to make medical care more manageable over time: longer, but less intense at the moment.
This particular covid is sneaky - almost always mild-to-nothing, but sometimes lethal for the frail or unlucky. The unlucky part is what makes it scarey. There is no effective protection, in my view, because viruses go viral. Their RNA is their reason for existing.
Who is bored at home? Not possible. Snuggle with a spouse partner. Clean a damn closet. Turn off the f-ing TV. Do a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. Throw out stuff you never use. Do 300 pushups each day and 100 body-weight squats. Cook something good. Do a Great Courses series. Go for an hour run. Clean the garage. Prune the shrubs. Make some money by working at home if you can.
"Trump ruined our economy and all for naught!" "Trump and his capitalism put millions out of work for nothing! If you haven't already heard this from the "mainstream media" (AKA "fake news"), you soon will...
All of the experts, including Dr. Fauci - are bullshitting (pardon my annoyance). Not this guy, because he admits what is unknown. What is known is that this virus can be lethal and it can be completely harmless, and anything inbetween. We know who are most likely to become seriously ill, but what is completely unknown is how often it creates serious illness. Via Powerline, which says:
This video is part of Peter Robinson’s Uncommon Knowledge series. His guest is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who is an economist as well as a member of Stanford’s medical school faculty. Dr. Bhattacharya has become somewhat famous as a result of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he argued that the danger of COVID-19 is probably being overestimated. The conversation is intelligent; Peter is a good interviewer, and Bhattacharya is an excellent teacher. It is a fair, balanced appraisal. I recommend it.
We do not know the virus death rates. I'll say it again.
We do not know death rates because we do not know infection rates in the US. We would have to do a mass involuntary screening of people on the street to know that. That will not happen. The only numbers we have is positive tests (on people already symptomatic and seeking tests) and deaths.
We do know death numbers (not accurately, because if you had terminal cancer but a corona pneumonia was the final thing, you're a corona death).
One easy piece of information might be interesting, though: number of deaths in, say, Boston for the week beginning April 4 in 2019, and the numbers for the same week in 2020.
A sort-of unusual lady from Northampton, MA - a ghetto of lefties and LGBT culture - reports honestly on her pain (h/t SDA). Losing friends over political disagreements is disgusting:
Another hitherto unknown skill that the media believes it possesses is logistics. “Why hasn’t Trump commanded a million ventilators to appear?!” the reporters demand. It’s pretty easy to see where they might have gotten the idea that the moment one articulates a desire to possess something that it magically appears. Capitalism has pretty much made that a reality. If you want something, you can go to a store and get it 24/7, or you can go on Amazon and it’ll be at your Manhattan apartment in 48 hours. Since they have never built anything or transported anything or distributed anything, only benefited from the labor of the unhip people who do those things, it’s only natural that the delayed adolescents who make up our media class imagine that material goods can be simply wished into being. After all, for all practical purposes during normal times, because of the efforts of Americans they look down upon, material goods pretty much can be simply wished into being. But prosperity takes work, not that the media would know.
Not too long ago, I shared my views on Covid-19 and the lockdown. I still stand by my (often misunderstood) position and I feel that after this is over, I'll still stand as having a well-developed viewpoint. Meanwhile, as we sit in the midst of all this, I am now officially 3 weeks working-from-home. The Covid numbers have continued to rise, the deaths have risen as well, and the newsmedia has...ratcheted up the fear factor as high as possible. Even my sister, down in Florida (where even she admits nothing is happening of any note) is freaking out and running scared.
Well, today I chatted by phone with her and shared with her something I'll share with all of you. I am Covid-19 positive. I found out yesterday.
Let me share some of my own personal thoughts and some of my doctors' comments.
First, I was told "this is a high-powered flu". By 3 different doctors who checked me or spoke with me. Second, "No, there's nothing we can do unless you have respiratory distress, so please monitor yourself carefully." Yup. I do that anyway. Third, there were no lines at the station where I got checked. Called first, drove up, got out, they checked me in a field tent, sent me to another field tent, and did the swab (annoying, but not horrible...a Q-Tip WAY UP into your sinuses). Doesn't hurt. You do sneeze a little.
I am in good general health. I work out regularly, good BP, good pulse rate, not an ox by any standard, but I'll keep up with most people my age, and probably surpass them (55+, in case you're wondering).
My first hints of the virus were on Tuesday 3/24. A little coughing, lots of mucous, etc. Not a dry cough. By Thursday, Mrs. Bulldog was saying "You're coughing too much, I don't want people on our walks to think you have it, so stay home." Fine...I stopped taking walks. I had started having headaches (sinus) anyway. The headaches got worse. By Friday, my head was pounding, the cough was persistent, and it was dry. No fever. No rash. 3 days of (sorry) diarrhea began.
Over the weekend, the headaches intensified, the coughing got worse. I was more or less stuck on the couch watching movies, in a very annoyed frame of mind. By Sunday, it was suggested I get tested.
So we arranged it, and yesterday at 3pm the results were back. Positive.
Of course, by now the headache is starting to fade. It's still there, but Tylenol keeps it reduced. The coughing is still there, but laying down helps it stop (don't lay down too much...no need to promote pneumonia). I've been sleeping 10 hours a night. The really weird things, and there are 2 of them, are the general haziness of frame of mind - I can't concentrate very long - and what I'd call "fever dreams without the fever." I don't know how to describe these, but I have the strangest dreams all night. Then I wake up in the morning very dehydrated and have to drink a pint or two of water.
My doctor voiced concern over the number of cases, but also pointed out that "it's just a flu that is worse for at-risk people, you're not at risk. Just stay vigilant, take care of yourself and you should be fine."
So if this were the normal world - I'd take 2-3 weeks off from work, and get better. Instead, I've had 3 weeks off, and based on current protocol I will have AT LEAST (if my symptoms play out normally) 3 more weeks off (because my office says 2 weeks after cessation).
For what it's worth - most people in the US, after 6 weeks off from work, will be broke. If it goes longer, who knows. At this point, the "cure" is worse than the disease. Trump is right to consider opening some counties as soon as possible - like any other pandemic, this has areas of concentration. We can limit exposure to those regions, and keep the rest of the nation working well.
Stay healthy. Stay vigilant. I do believe there is much more, politically, to play out. At this point I no longer believe it's mainly a health crisis (if it ever was). It's a political one.
ps - I had to inform my HR Department - just a public safety thing. Naturally, I got a call back today...all pre-arranged, and about exactly what I supposed. They were trying to determine if I could have caught it anywhere else but at the office. "AVOID LAWSUITS AT ANY COST" must be their view. Can't blame them, I suppose. Not that it would stop me if I was litigious. Thing is, nobody can EVER prove where they got it from. I commute, via train, every day. I went to the bank. I was playing poker one night with 50 people at a bar the week before being sent home (won $650 and the tournament WITH A ROYAL FLUSH - not a joke, totally telling the truth, I have pictures...it's the poker players' Hole-in-One). So I could have gotten it anywhere...and I admitted that. Because it doesn't matter where I got it from. I KNEW I was going to get it. That was the point of my original article. If you believe you can avoid it, you're fooling yourself. I DO NOT believe social distancing works. But don't worry - they politicians and other liars will convince you it's working.
And they can scale it easily. Pitt is one of the great American medical centers. If they say it, they mean it. Quite remarkable speed, but most people in urban and suburban areas have been exposed now anyway, naturally vaccinated.
Someone ought to tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the coronavirus outbreak, because her laser focus on pushing her political agenda suggests she’s unaware of it.
Why Winning the War In Afghanistan Meant Losing to the Taliban. The Taliban will seek to run Afghanistan in line with their values and. America will have to stand back and watch.
Maggie's HQ Easter Report: Went out early to do some outdoor chores after a morning run. Repairing and painting birdhouses, planting some herbs, shed-cleaning, shrub pruning. Almost stepped on (photo) a Robin's egg in the grass. Sheesh, like a perfect Easter Egg. Then I saw a baby Cottontail bunny hopping away. That is called an Easter Blessing. 
A general question: Why don't Beijing or Shanghai have a virus problem? I've seen no answer. Was travel completely blocked? 
The Plague Has Been Quietly Killing Yellowstone Cougars for a Decade.
Corona beer suspends production