Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan59 Comments

China has a debt problem:

China’s consumer loans are shrinking at an unprecedented pace after a decade of breakneck expansion, a blow to the government’s strategy of relying on spending as a growth engine amid the worst public health crisis
in a generation.

The net balance of consumer loans – made up of short-term and credit card loans from banks and online lenders – plunged by a quarter in the first two months of this year to 7.4 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion), according to data published by the People’s Bank of China. Some microlenders are staring at 20 cents on a dollar in bad loans.

China is fundamentally weak because China’s government does not have the consent of the governed – it is really as simple as that. Governments like that of China can, for a while, make things seem to work – but only seem. China is a honeycomb of bad debts, corrupt deals, crime and poverty masked by showpiece cities. Not only did China’s economy take a massive hit from the virus, it is going to keep on taking hits as foreign nations move their supply chains out of China. People are at last awake to how dangerous it is to have their supplies come out of China because of the sort of government China has. We’ll see how China weathers the storm…but it will be a very difficult time for them.

Related: Bloomberg killed a story about the corruption of China’s ruling class. One of the most astonishing things about Coronavirus is how it revealed the extent of China’s corruption of American institutions. They’re all bought, to one degree or another. Our supposed Expert Elite betters seem to have one thing in common – they’ll sell their country out for a few bucks.

Obama finally got around to endorsing Biden.

Don Surber’s plan to reopen America.

Ace rips into the New York Times over their stealth-editing of a Biden story at the behest of the Biden campaign. The story, of course, was about the sexual assault allegations launched against Biden. The bottom line is the accusation is far more credible than that made against Kavanaugh – but the MSM is determined to cover up for Ol’ Joe…because he’s a Democrat, and there’s an end on it.

Rumor mill has it that AG Barr is still rolling steadily along on the investigations with Brennan said to be a large target. We’ll see.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan37 Comments

Either the doomsayer models were wrong – or President Trump has had a great victory over the virus. The MSM will say that NY Governor Cuomo saved the day…as part of the DNC backup plan to dump Biden (which can only happen, I think, after Bernie quits…which is why he may not quit).

We’re all wondering how in heck an agent of the Chinese government – disguised as a reporter – gets admitted to the White House press briefing. Mostly because it is redundant given how slavishly the American MSM parrots Chinese propaganda. Make no mistake about it, with a wave of Xi’s hand a gigantic amount of American media company wealth could disappear. How loyal are the corporate bosses to America vs Their Money? I think you know the answer.

With Corbyn out, it is now thought that Labour will pull back from the evils Corbyn introduced – especially the ever more explicit anti-Semitism. Mark my words: they’ll try to downplay it and the British MSM will cover it up, but the anti-Semitism is a requirement to be a full-on Labourite these days. The calculation was made: there’s a huge future, electorally and financially (especially financially) in playing up to Islamists…and the price demanded is anti-Semitism. Anyone thinking that things will change with Labour – except for the worse – is whistling past the graveyard.

Don Surber points out the MSM’s kamikaze run against hydroxychloroquine. Never has TDS been more stark – simply because Trump suggested it, the MSM went all-in against it. It does look like it works – at least to some extent, and especially for people with severe cases. What I learned the last couple days if that you go on a ventilator, your outlook is pretty bleak…trust me on this, if I catch the bloody thing and I get bad and go on a ventilator, I want them to throw everything they’ve got at it. And I think that is how most people view the matter. I was pondering how Trump might have hit upon this drug – and then it hit me: we’ve got lots of people who study plagues as part of our national defense strategy. I suspect Trump just asked them, in effect, “what do we have on the shelf that might work on this?”. When they came back with the answer, “hydroxychloroquine”, he said “go for it”.

We were told our hospitals would be overwhelmed and we’d be stacking bodies like cordwood. Well, it hasn’t quite been like that – as is seen by the lack of video on the MSM showing overwhelmed hospitals and stacked up bodies. But, never one to despair, CBS looked around and found a video of a person who says she was a nurse who had to quit because there was no proper equipment at the hospital. The CBS tweet got 23 thousand retweets and 8 million views. You know how this ends, right? Of course you do: its all bullsh**. Turns out she barely works as a nurse and seems to spend a great deal of time doing some sort of modelling on Instagram. She was provided the proper equipment but, on her first day on the job, insisted she be allowed to break protocol…and when told she couldn’t, she walked out…right to her video camera to make something which was almost certain to go viral and provide massive fame to someone who clearly wants to be famous. CBS News did not check out the background of the lady…but did add dramatic music to her tearful video. Yes, the MSM is the Enemy of the People.

Day 15 of Lockdown

Mark Noonan72 Comments

Plague. Earthquakes. And, now, a comet. Whomever is opening up the seals of the apocalypse really needs to cut it out.

OTOH, if it isn’t the End, that comet might be quite the light show in the sky – no danger to Earth as its closest approach will be 72 million miles…but if high estimates prove correct, you’re going to see it very bright in the night sky with the naked eye.

The Kennedy Center – basically, a welfare program for the rich – got $25 million from the Stimulus and then canned the workers. Rep Scalise wants to rescind the grant. That’s fine, but we really aren’t getting anywhere unless the directors of the Center are flogged.

More talk of Democrats dumping Joe for Cuomo. Can’t see it as other than a disaster for the Democrats – the only alternative to Joe is Sanders. Cuomo hasn’t even entered the race…the DNC works some crooked deal to put Cuomo on the ticket and the Bernie Bros will revolt. I doubt it would happen, anyway – and not because Biden would be opposed. He likely doesn’t even know where he is most of the time: but his handlers are licking their chops at the amount of patronage they’ll be able to dispense in Biden’s name and they won’t want Cuomo to barge in and mess up the program.

New York City is being hammered while Las Vegas, so far, is getting off lightly…perhaps gambling and whoring isn’t as much an affront to God as being largely in favor of infanticide, as New Yokers – by their votes – seem to be? Just a thought.

The Great Facemask Debate goes on. As for me: from what I’ve learned, most transmission is via being in close contact with the infected for a significant period of time or literally touching the virus (on a person or surface) and then touching your face. This is why hand washing and social distancing are so important: from what I can gather, if you do the washing and distancing, your chances of catching the disease fall remarkably. But, for anyone who does have to go around people…wearing a mask seems to be an effective way of not touching your face, which would help.

China simply rebroadcast MSMers and American Democrats as part of their propaganda effort. Seriously, that’s all they did: the MSM and the Democrat Party are broadcasting Chinese Communist propaganda. I only hope they got paid for it – I don’t want to think some of my fellow Americans are stupid enough to do that for free. We woke up one fine morning to discover that a pandemic exposed how much of America China has purchased.

Related: backlash against China grows. China really screwed the pooch on this one – I’m with those who theorize that China knew what sort of problem they had back in December and made the conscious choice to ensure the whole world got the same problem.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan40 Comments

So, had my first work from home day.

Plus: when I suddenly wanted a hot dog, I went and got one. Getting up half an hour later and immediately being home after work.

Minus: Dull.

Still don’t know anyone who has caught Coronavirus – and I’ve lots of friends and family in hot zones. Also rather surprised at how relatively lightly we’ve got off in Las Vegas. It can change, of course, but we went into lockdown 9 days ago and we’re at 350 cases and 10 deaths so far. The number of Chinese and other foreigners who come through this town is very large, so I really expected us to be hammered by it. I mean, look at New York! But, also, we didn’t have our leaders and health people telling us to get out there and hug a Chinese because Orange Man Bad. That might be the difference.

There is a theory that warm weather will abate the virus – we’ll find out in about a week as we’re supposed to get up into the 80’s with dry weather.

The stimulus bill is hot garbage, for the most part and they will have to re-work it in the near future. Be that as it may, it will at least provide some help for those dislocated by the virus. Seems there’s a bi-partisan consensus that every corporation and special interest group out there should be showered with cash but regular folks just aren’t smart enough to handle it.

Some Democrat rumblings about scratching Biden and putting Cuomo on the ticket. This is not an indication of a party which likes its chances in November. I’m thinking that absent a real virus meltdown in the USA (increasingly unlikely at this point), Trump will win rather easily, and likely get the House back into the bargain. Huge amount of time until election day, but Trump has done well and the Democrats got nothing.

The biggest problem with the virus is that we don’t know what its all about – the Chinese data has to be discarded as entirely untrustworthy. Italy and Spain are terrifying, but there seems to be local reasons for how bad it is there. Other places are not bad at all. Until we know the real rate of infection and mortality, we’re rather stumbling in the dark. And this is why it is wise to socially distance…but as we get better numbers and learn what the real threat it, it will be time to start reopening the economy.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

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.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

My odd work scheduled has me off today and tomorrow; we’ll see if I really have to go in on Thursday. Probably will: even a massive shutdown will still leave a few vital things we must support. But, it’ll be as it is.

I think Democrats and the MSM are getting rather tin eared here: this is a time of national crisis, not a time of Orange Man Bad. We’re busy wondering about our jobs and getting supplies and if we’ll get sick and we want to know if we’ll have our jobs and our supplies and if we’ll get sick…that is pretty much all anyone wants to hear about right now…not DNC hit jobs. We’ll see how it plays out, but I suspect this will be a backfire of epic proportions on the Democrats.

We’re pretty well stocked here, as it turns out: did hit the grocery store yesterday and while they were mostly out of meat, I did hit upon the turkey breast…so, we’ll soon have Thanksgiving in March. We had already secured our corned beef for today, of course! What was dumb was they put out a pallet of water and some people grabbed multiple cases. Come on, people: just take one. Leave something for the next guy. When they happened to put out potatoes as I was passing by, I just grabbed a couple pounds and left the rest.

Hope you guys are all doing well!

Heck of a Year This Week Has Been, Huh?

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Here in Vegas, the Coronavirus is positively hammering the casinos – MGM and Wynn have already announced various closures and lay offs. It’ll probably get worse over the next two weeks. It is all temporary, but sucks for those affected – and I hope President Trump jumps in to help out the workers who are going to be hurt here. As locals, we don’t go to the Strip, of course, but we did head out to a locals casino tonight – I was curious about how it would be going. I did win $100, so that’s good. The place was thin crowd for a Saturday night – but, still quite a few people there. I asked one of the workers there how its going: no word about layoffs at the moment but the buffet isn’t getting a lot of business these days so their feeling is that it might shut down for a while.

In my particular work world – a slight slowdown from normal; maybe a 10% dropoff. Contingency plans are ready for us to work from home. Hope it doesn’t come to that – but the panic is pretty deep now, and no one wants to be the guy who kept things rolling and a bunch come down sick.

Our economy is fundamentally strong but this is going to be a hit, no doubt about it. But probably not as much as feared: the panic buying is stuffing retailer and supplier pockets with money…and in my particular line of work, I can assure you that “non-critical” retail stuff is still going on a brisk pace. We’ll come roaring back once this is over…and as we now have real incentive to decouple from China, the long term benefits to our country will be good.

President Trump, in my view, did just fine in his first statement – others thought otherwise, and that’s, I guess, why he did the second one…which went over much better. You could tell because the MSMers were taking pot-shots at trivia rather than hitting the President on substance. President Trump has really stood the test of time, hasn’t he? The guy gets it at the most fundamental level: that it is we, the regular folks, who do all the work and who need to be cared for, first. I’ve never actually been more confident of his re-election.

Ultimately, this is the price of both globalism and the welfare State – the tearing down of borders and the placing people in a position where they depend on government is what got this disease really cracking through the world. People have to use more sense – but I think a lot were waiting for government to take care of it…meanwhile the “come one, come all” attitude about travel around the world made sure that once the virus caught hold, there was zero chance it was going to stop. Strict border controls at all times: that is the way it has to be. And, yes,we should check foreign arrivals for disease…there is technology which can swiftly reveal if someone coming in should be more closely checked.

I hope you all are safe – and have all the toilet paper you need!