Well, I’m officially work from home, now. Got all the stuff I need; so, one less thing to worry about.
The Democrats, in my view, really messed up on the stimulus…not that the GOP plan is all that great, but trying to lard up the program with abortion and green new deal stuff was an act of political idiocy I don’t think we’ve ever seen in human history. But, they did it – and I think it is because they are in a closed-loop: they simply don’t get much information which isn’t a mere variation on Orange Man Bad.
A recent poll showed Trump’s overall support rising and especially giving him high marks on handling the virus and the economy – it was the sort of poll number that would make him invincible if it holds to November. But the odd thing I saw in it was that Trump’s support among GOPers and Independents on the virus was about the same (around 60%) while his support among Democrats was sub 30%. Theoretically, everyone is getting the same sort of news, right? Well, I guess not: Democrats are clearly getting a set of information which is widely at odds with what GOPers and Independents are getting…and I think this is largely a function of GOPers and Independents tuning out the MSM while Democrats still follow every word of it. If you only watched CNN and MSNBC, you would believe that we’re days away from bodies piled up in the streets and 30% unemployment for a decade.
Now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if, in the event, we don’t have bodies piled up in the streets and the economy makes a brisk recovery through the Summer. How will our Democrats square that with what they watch on the news? If it finally does penetrate, then Trump may win in an epic landslide.
Be that as it may, no one can really predict what is going to happen in November – though that hasn’t stopped our Experts from proclaiming that Trump is doomed. The situation is entirely fluid and while Trump is getting good poll numbers, now, a major change for the worse in a week or two would likely knock him down. Until it all happens, we won’t know what will happen. But I’m suspecting as bad as the virus might get, it won’t be a catastrophe and, also, as bad a hit as the economy is taking, it won’t take us long to get back out of it. And with Biden – who looks like he’s aged ten years the past month – leading the Democrat charge, I’m liking our chances in November.
Parishoners bought their ill priest a respirator. Priest found out someone else needed it and gave it up. The priest has now died. No greater love…
The Dow rose 2,112 points and so we’re back in Obama’s economy again – we’ll be in Trump’s if it drops tomorrow, for those keeping score at home.
The virus is not a flu – and you should familiarize yourself with the symptoms. Still, after all we’ve learned, the prime markers seem to be fever and a very bad cough. But it can also start with other symptoms and you can actually start to feel better before getting very much worse. Stout hearts, though: most people who get it survive and most who die have underlying conditions. If you have underlying health conditions, I really do suggest you barricade yourself at home and ride this out.
Trump wants to re-open the economy as fast as possible and in general I agree: we can’t stay locked down for a very long time. I think it should be a phased re-opening. As we get better numbers on how many are infected and what the real mortality rate is, we’ll be able to assess the actual danger and start letting up on the restrictions. Overall, oldsters should probably be the last to come out – and everyone who is work from home had probably better stay there for at least a couple months.
Blogs For Victory 
Theoretically, everyone is getting the same sort of news, right? Well, I guess not: Democrats are clearly getting a set of information which is widely at odds with what GOPers and Independents are getting
No, it’s the same information, just received through a different filter.
I guess: our Nevada governor – a Democrat – just banned the use of those malaria drugs for Coronavirus patients…because Orange Man Bad; I really can’t think of any other reason for the governor to take a step he simply has no business taking.
Apparently, scaring people by estimating 1-2 million US deaths isn’t working. So they’ve started to up the numbers to 2-4 million. And, of course, these predicted deaths do not in any way account for social distancing or lock downs or anything else. Apparently, we have to take the most extreme steps, but even if we do we will all die.
I think Trump knows a lot more than he is sharing now. Like the anti-viral cocktails are working great and we’ll be fully ramped up on tests, ventilators and masks in a couple weeks. Boy, it’s going to be interesting when it turns out US deaths are in the hundreds, not even thousands and the fear mongers will refuse to walk it back.
Also, My Pillow guy is making masks now. Those I will buy.
764 dead Americans today by the virus. If this were 2009 and the swine flu, Obama had yet to even take the podium and address the country. Obama didn’t bother to do that until just over 1,000 Americans died and millions were effected.
Also, 55,000 Americans effected as of today, a number of which has yet to reach the minimum of 115,000 Americans effected by now according to our National Health Institute, yet the Democrats and the Media still want our country completely shut down.
I am going to work today as I have every day during this stupid f***king “crisis. It’s complete bullshit.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
And take a look at the numbers again in the link – as of today 304,861 active cases worldwide, and of those 291,593 are in MILD condition. Meaning they have a runny nose and cough. Considering those numbers, ask yourself, does it make sense that we have shut the world down????
Cluster please be careful. A day later we have 85,000 cases and 1300 deaths. 384,000 cases world wide. By next week we will have over 10,000 deaths. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s math. If you go to work please wash your hands often.
Casper, what’s your point? Go buy some postcards and orchids and stop hoping for something bad enough to get rid of Trump
My point is I want people to stay safe. Not everything is about Trump.
Yes, Casper, you are a true humanitarian—who just posts hysterical hyperbole along with the same advice we have been hearing for two or three months now. You say “not everything is about Trump”. Try to remember that.
“March 26 (Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic could kill more than 81,000 people in the United States in the next four months “
In other words, approximately the same number of deaths attributed to influenza in the 2017-18 flu season. You all remember that, right? The closing of businesses and schools, the shutdown of much of the economy, the shell-shocked people roaming store aisles like zombies frozen by their fear and paranoia, the media hysteria……….
Oh, wait……
Never mind…..
I am tired of living in a country with Democrats. They are afraid of everything, are never happy, can spot racism from a mile away, and defer to the advice of “experts” on everything because they have zero common sense. They are not fun people to be around.
Tell me how this makes sense:
Police used rattan canes to beat people into compliance as India awoke Wednesday to the first full day inside the world’s most extensive coronavirus lockdown, due to last until mid-April.
You know what the numbers are in India?? 562 total cases, 10 people dead in a country of over 1 billion people. Seems rational right?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html
Shouldn’t the breaking news today be:
NANCY PELOSI DELAYS AMERICAN AID TO ADVANCE HER POLITICAL AGENDA
From Kurt Schlicter:
Someday, an expert is going to write the definitive book on the modern American media. That expert will be a proctologist.
It might just be a symptom of cluelessness, but I am pretty upbeat about this whole thing. For one thing, I think the seriousness of the disease itself is exaggerated. I know, for those it has hit the hardest that sounds like a harsh thing to say, but we have to look at the majority of those who have it or have had it. When so many who have been diagnosed as having it didn’t even know they had it, it says something about the severity of the disease in many cases.
I’m not saying it isn’t scary. When I was in my 50s I had pneumonia and for the first time in my life I had a personal realization of how people could die from a disease—and I wasn’t even sick enough to be hospitalized. The prospect of going through that again, only worse, is pretty terrifying. But there are so many things that can kill us, which we live with day in and day out, I think we need to put this in the category of “dangerous so be very careful”. On that list is something I do every day, often for hours at a time and at high speeds—-driving a motor vehicle. Yesterday I drove nearly 400 miles, most at 80 MPH, pulling a trailer. What you do when you are exposing yourself to serious injury or death is decide to do it as safely as possible, stay focused and maintain situational awareness, and basically just to be smart about what you are doing.
So—I am firmly in the danger range, regarding my age. I am healthy with no underlying conditions, and I am being prudent. That is, doing what I can to keep my immune system charged up, avoiding people (my lifestyle as an agri-American means I don’t spend a lot of time around people anyway) and striving to maintain the line between prudent and paranoid.
Having said that, I am finding lots of things to be cheerful about. One is the self-immolation of the Democrat Party. It is fascinating to watch the utterly tone-deaf blundering of the party’s leadership in both houses of Congress, and the nervous twitching of the few rational Dems who are unwillingly caught in the political slipstream of their insanity. It’s amusing to ponder the dilemmas of those who have to live with the daily realization that they are risking their political careers with their party if they stray from the party line but risking their political careers as members of Congress by basically writing their future opponents’ campaign strategies—–being too stupid to understand the realities of the Trump phone call, tying up the House in foolish efforts to undermine the 2016 election leading to immobilizing the Senate when it should have been addressing the virus threat coming out of China, etc. Then there is the total disregard for the American people as the party leaders callously held them hostage to radical political agendas, trying to pack a rescue package with pork.
It’s also fun to watch Hollywood scrambling to appear relevant. Kathy Griffith is posting a picture of herself in what is probably a hospital ER cubicle, wearing a hospital mask (not a ventilator mask) and claiming she (1) has the corona virus, (2) is in a hospital isolation ICU for corona virus patients, (3) has a hitherto unknown form of the virus that causes “unbearable pain”, (4) is in a ward with other CV patients even though she admits she has not even been tested for the virus, and (5) it’s Trump’s fault she can’t be tested. She doesn’t explain why the hospital put her in this isolation ward wearing her own clothes and not a hospital gown, without even testing to see if she has the virus. Of course people who are terribly sick feel like taking and posting selfies, and of course her (unnamed) hospital not only allows cell phone use but lets seriously ill patients use them in isolation areas.
Madonna is so desperate she is posting photos or a video of herself nude in her bathtub, with rose petals floating around, babbling some nonsense that is supposed to make her seem, somehow, less vapid and irrelevant. (Loved the tacky black roots in her “blond” hair) Movie “stars” are virtue signaling by posting pictures of themselves not wearing makeup. Hey, no sacrifice is too great if it will halt the spread of COVID19. It’s a scrabbling race to the bottom. I think Griffith is ahead because she covers so many more points than the others, though it would have been a good idea to toss a sheet over those corduroy pants she was wearing.
Speaking of self-immolation—what about the Agenda Media and its death spiral into making even the average American lemming aware of its corruption, dishonesty and total lack of integrity? Watching Trump eviscerate them on national TV is like watching Roger Federer return serves from a high school JV tennis player. Good times.
There will be an actual death count from this virus and its corollary impact on our society, but there will also be a lot of virtual graves dug for the people trying to use it to attack Trump or make themselves look like decent human beings—both efforts failing miserably—as well as for many Dems in Congress.
It’s disturbing when reading or talking about things like COVID-19 when statistics or unusual or isolated occurrences are used in an attempt to persuade the conversation. For example, when talking to a family member is seems more worried about this virus than I am, he used Italy as an example of what we should expect or worse. Now I don’t know how this will ultimately play out but the examples given were a faulty premise from which to base the direction of this virus on the rest of the world.
In regards to Italy;
Italy has the 2nd highest percentage of their population over the age of 65 IN THE WORLD. Japan is number one. It is the aged who appear to be at a higher risk with this particular virus.
Italy has a rather high percentage of smokers for their population compared to many other countries (China is worse), many who are in the 65 & over age range.
It is said that over 90% of those who’ve already died in relation to COVID-19 already had serious underlying medical problems.
Italy has a close relationship with China. Italy currently imports a significant number of items from China including leather goods, electronics, vaccines, & other items.
Italy has only recently been on lockdown. Previously they allowed unrestricted travel, well after the COVID-19 situation was known.
Much of Italy is a tourist destination with large crowds of people gathering in tight locations. And given that their lockdown was only instituted recently this will likely play a large roll in the percent of the population who might acquire the disease.
Italy has quite a few “Open Market” areas for fresh foods where the food is not protected from airborne viruses and bacteria. They have large markets that sell fresh fruits, meats, cheeses, seafood, as well as other items.
Italy’s health care system has been problematic treating this disease, turning away many who have mild symptoms so they can concentrate on the “more serious cases”. In some cases, the health care workers are overwhelmed and their ability to deal with their shortages has been a struggle: i.e. – slow government response.
I’m sure there are other associated reasons why Italy stands way out on the statistical chart, not mentioned here. That is not to say we should look at Italy and consider what they’ve done or didn’t do, the timing and other things in relation to the big picture, but I’m not fond of using them as an example of projecting the likelihood of how this virus will play out.
Also, there is the use of statistics to over or under emphasis the thing being discussed. For example, this morning’s new paper talked about the county seeing a 40% increase in the number of cases in just 1 week. It was obvious the intent was to produce a heightened sense concern and urgency, even to the level of instilling fear. While 40% seems to be a dramatic increase, when looking at that number from a different perspective, it does not give rise to the level of alarm the article was trying to garner. With an initial low number of cases, any additional cases will give the perception of a high statistical increase. If 10 people were known to have the disease last week, and 4 more people tested positive this week, then that’s a 40% increase. If 400 had the disease last week and 4 more people tested positive this week then the percent of increase is only .01%. The number of people who tested positive this week is the same in both cases but the percent in increase is dramatically different. This kind of number manipulation is common in politics and media, but should be called out. While technically correct, it is in my opinion highly and intentionally deceiving.
From a link I posted earlier: https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/03/19/its-no-coincidence-that-italy-and-iran-have-been-so-hard-hit-by-the-wuhan-virus/
The last 20 years have been dismal for the Italian economy, leaving the country with the second highest debt burden in the EU, second only to Greece. According to Forbes’ Marco Annunziata, “living standards in Italy today are roughly the same as they were in 2000, because economic growth has been stagnant.
So, believing that BRI was the answer to Italy’s economic woes, Prime Minister Conte hopped on board. Raleigh reports:
As part of the deal, Italy opened an array of sectors to Chinese investment, from infrastructure to transportation, including letting Chinese state-owned companies hold a stake in four major Italian ports. The deal gave communist China a foothold in the heart of Europe, but Conte downplayed it as “no big deal at all.”
Lombardy and Tuscany are the two regions that saw the most Chinese investment. Nearly a year later, the first Wuhan coronavirus infection case in Italy was reported in the Lombardy region on Feb. 21. Today, Italy is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak outside China, and Lombardy is the hardest-hit region in the country. As of March 14, Italy reported 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths. Now the entire country is in lockdown until at least April 3. Its economy is expected to contract 7.5 percent in the first quarter, opposite what Conte had hoped.
Another article, which I can’t find right now, pointed out that the Chinese investments in Italy included large numbers of Chinese workers brought into Italy as well as a lot of travel between Italy and China for executives.
I have, for many years, feared a biological attack on this nation. It would be the cheapest and easiest way to destroy us, and if the goal is not just to destroy the United States or Western Civilization but to bring about the conditions necessary for the return of the 12th Imam and the subsequent domination of the world by Islam then also mass slaughter of people all over the world including other Muslims then it would be terribly effective. Merely having a dozen or so martyrs infect themselves with a deadly and highly contagious disease at the same time and then going to major airports and flying on several flights which link to international flights until so obviously sick they die or are incarcerated would be terrifyingly easy to do. And we are seeing how a relatively benign (relative to weaponized smallpox, for example) virus has been spread in this way, though evidently not with malice or according to a plan.
And we are, as a nation, pathetically unprepared to deal with anything like this. We have not had a way to test our preparedness, to test the resilience of the American people, to test our responsiveness, to evaluate our existing agencies and administrations to see where our weaknesses and vulnerabilities lie. The only way to do this would be to have a long term national fire drill, and of course there has been no way to be able to implement anything that drastic.
Then the United States got hit with something we did not create, something that affects us in the same way a biological attack would but on a far less lethal scale, and suddenly we have been presented with a perfect venue for having that fire drill. A high school fire drill tells the administration which students don’t take it seriously and just hide in the basement, where they would die in a real fire, which students get it and follow the rules, which exits are really just choke points and which provide adequate egress and so on.
I feel like I am watching a national fire drill, and think that there are dozens of people watching every element of the national response to this virus and the efforts made to contain it, taking notes to be used to work out the bugs and create workable plans if needed in a more dangerous situation. So if there IS a little exaggeration here or there, a little overstatement of danger or vulnerability, I am fine with that, because I see it not just as a response to CV but as a test of the ability of this nation to survive a more focused and dangerous attack so we can be better prepared to deal with it. (If it is also used to lure Leftists into taking off their masks and exposing the reality of their agendas, that is just icing on the cake.)
Today’s “IRRESPONSIBLE” headline on Drudge:
SHOCK CLAIM: AMERICAN DEATHS WILL TOP 80,000 IN NEXT 4 MONTHS
The math on this requires 700 Americans dying everyday starting today. I don’t see it happening but the fear and panic has already been put out there. This is pure propaganda.
Cluster, last week you posted this:
Here is a headline on Drudge that we all need to keep an eye on and monitor next week:
NIH: UP TO 70,000 CASES NEXT WEEK
Drudge is certainly on the CV Sky Is Falling bandwagon. I don’t read Drudge any more, so I don’t know if there is a rational discussion of the fact that this would represent more reporting of existing cases than new cases, due to more testing. Or that so many of these cases would be asymptomatic or mild.
And I have been tracking that. The NIH posted that last Friday and at the time there were 38,000 infected Americans so by now, our number of infected people should be at 108,000 minimum just in this country and we currently stand at …. 80,000. Stay tuned for tomorrow. And if there aren’t a minimum of 28,000 new cases then our NIH is peddling drama
I sent the following text to my family this morning. My numbers come from the CDC
By this time in April 2010, 60.8 million Americans were infected with the swine flu, 12,469 Americans had died and over 274,000 Americans were hospitalized yet no one was quarantined, no business shut down, the media barely mentioned it, and Obama said it was nothing to worry about. Just a little morning perspective.
The CDC are reporting different numbers … only 68,000+ effected
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html