George W. Bush was a terrible president who lied us into a catastrophic war, allowed an iconic American city to drown on his watch, and then presided over the worst economic free-fall since the Great Depression, which was set in motion largely by the deregulatory zeal of the Republican Party. But Bush was fortunate in his timing, which is why he was a two-term president.
I never understood why Americans reelected Bush since it was known at the time of the 2004 election that the Iraq WMD thing was a big fat lie. A stubborn and unforgivable reluctance on the part of our fellow citizens to change horsemen mid-apocalypse, I suppose. But there we were.
And here we are. The Dow is down about 2000 points right now. By the time I hit the “publish” button, it might rebound, but that doesn’t seem likely. I don’t know. Trump sure as hell doesn’t know. The only thing Trump knows how to do is promote himself and re-brand things that other people built.
President Obama shored up the last economy wrecked by Republican stupidity and set it on the path to steady growth. Trump spray-painted it gold and slapped his tacky-ass label on it. Now it’s his, and it looks like Trump might not be as lucky in his timing as Bush II was.
Because he’s an idiot, Chris Cillizza wrote a piece of analysis asking if the coronavirus is “Trump’s Katrina.” No, dumb motherfucker: Puerto Rico was Trump’s Katrina. This is Trump’s Orange Plague coming home to roost on Orange Monday on Wall Street.
We’ve got months to go until the election, and a lot can change. Maybe the markets will have completely recovered and the virus will have dissipated by then, causing less death and havoc than we seem to be on the brink of today. I hope so. But I sure wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. But it always sucks to be neither.
Open thread!
Major Major Major Major
Comforting
Eural Joiner
Hey! Just got an email at work (also sent to parents) that a student in our school cluster is undergoing testing for the coronavirus here in the Midlands of South Carolina. Probably inevitable but still kinda weird to see it in black and white on your desktop :O
Jeffro
Amen!
The MF was already hanging by a thread…here’s hoping COVID-19, and this tremendous slide, help many more Americans to see the light: this guy is a complete moron, with no interest in anything but himself.
Martin
So, how is our ‘industry-led response’ going?
Another Scott
(via LOLGOP)
DougJ is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.
Cheers,
Scott.
Turgidson
It will be cold comfort indeed if this situation keeps spiraling out of control and nails the coffin shut on Hair Furor’s reelection chances. But at least there will be that thinnest sliver of a silver lining. But fuck, so many people are going to suffer (in many ways) and die. FUCK.
Hey America, can we please not elect demented dipshit Republican thugs and morons for a while? Pretty fucking please?
hells littlest angel
It’s wrong to hope that a stock market crash or a virulent epidemic will hurt Trump. That’s why I’m sticking with wishing him — and Pence — dead.
Punchy
You can fix that with a color monitor.
joel hanes
@Turgidson:
It will be a bit more cold comfort if the orange one contracts the virus himself and spends weeks on a ventilator before meeting the guy who talks LIKE THIS.
Redshift
You would think that, but to this day we hear talk about “intelligence failures,” as if the intelligence community screwed up and led poor little Georgie astray, rather than that Bush and Cheney demanded intelligence to support what they’d already decided.
MJS
The cake is baking, and it’s just about done. Joe winning in Michigan and then in Florida will contrast nicely with Trump’s continued losing. Even if Americans have short memories, the commercials are going in the can now. So a semi-recovering stock market, and lessening pandemic won’t help much if at all. And we may have the added bonus of Trump’s financial records sometime in the summer.
jl
Even GW Bush would be miles better than Trump on handling a pandemic. Woooah… ! Think about that one for a moment.
“I’m not a disease man… heh heh. So…. I’ll let my disease man tell ya all about it. We got good disease people on the case, yessir.”
Feathers
I keep having the feeling that there was a “Bin Laden determined to strike in US” moment and a decision was made that the outbreak wouldn’t be so bad and could be blamed on the Dems.
gvg
There have been a few of us who kept pointing out that Trumps policies hadn’t yet killed as many people as Bush’s wars. This is when we get shown that stubborn stupidity does kill.
It is a group stupidity though. A whole bunch of “republican” is my tribe types all decided to protect their own stupidities for the last few decades and it built up to electing a mean fool.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major: Never seen The Stand. I currently have The Mist (movie) from the library.
geg6
Re-posting from the thread below:
In good news, all of the campus directors have been meeting most of the day in a Zoom meeting with all the other PSU campuses and the President and Provost. We’re on spring break this week and it is probable that students will be told not to come back. Haven’t heard of any cases around the Pittsburgh area yet, but out in the eastern part of the state, such as Delaware and Philly, it’s been popping up pretty regularly. They are trying to figure out how to make all the classes online (not that difficult since they do so many online classes in normal circumstances) and how to get all the rest of us access to work from home. I will love that, despite the reasons for it.
Just for an idea of the magnitude, that’s about 100,000 students and about 20,000 employees across 24 campuses all over the Commonwealth. Just at my little campus with only about 700 students, we have students from over 30 states (a large number from California) and 14 foreign countries. Our main campus has over 50,000 students from every single state in the Union and almost every country around the world.
Betty
Well said, as usual. Tragic that this is what it will take to ensure he goes away.
JPL
@Eural Joiner: All of Fulton Cty GA schools will close tomorrow for additional cleaning. One school official tested positive. Must of been pretty high up since the entire district is closing.
bluehill
Well the White House held a meeting with the heads of Wall Street, so that will help?
More seriously, if Trump would create a task force with some people that were credible, it would go a long way to reassuring the market. Someone like Scott Gottlieb who was his FDA commissioner would be much better than any of the people outside of Tony Fauci. Or just let Fauci do his job and have everyone follow his lead.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Major Major Major Major: King is right; 84% of those infected CONVID-19 only show mild symptoms, it’s only a dangerous to people with pre-existing conditions. That’s my problem, I get it and most likely I am sick only a few days, the problem is my parents are at high risk and I might accidentally expose them.
BGinCHI
Serious question: How does Karl Rove not get more blame for evolving the GOP into an information-free, reality-doubting, press-hating party?
He’s the one who started the “We create our own reality” stuff just before the Iraq invasion, and was instrumental in ginning up culture war flak before FB & twitter.
Lapassionara
Someone in the maladministration actually said “the fundamentals of the economy are sound” this morning, proving that Republicans learned nothing from the 2008 crash.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: Let’s all vote 3rd party in November, so we feel pure about our votes! Is Jill running again? /S
mrmoshpotato
@Martin: Those free markets are solving everything!
Avalune
@geg6: We’re up to our 5th case in the county we live in just north of Philly. Rumor mill says we might just shut down next week for spring break but so far it’s still just rumor mill.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Jimmy Carter said at the time 15% of the population will vote for a sitting president during a time of war, and that 15% squeeked Bush threw.
BGinCHI
@geg6: Not much action around Chicago yet. No campus closings, and very little CPS output.
I’m guessing we’ll feel it in a couple weeks if it’s coming. We’ve had warnings to consider prepping for online instruction, but all through email and D2L, a lot of which we already do, of course.
I’m thinking we’re close enough to the end of semester that we’ll get through it, even if not gracefully.
Another Scott
It was just a matter of time… :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
The last three Republican presidents:
– Bush I: recession
– Bush II: Iraq War and Great Recession
– trumpov: Hurricane Maria, utterly destroying the budget with tax cuts, COVID-19 bungling, and now another huge market crash.
Contrast with long steady periods of growth, shared prosperity, and calm cool normalcy under Clinton and Obama.
American voters, you’ve got to work on lengthening those memories of yours, sheesh…
Martin
Princeton University moving classes to online only after spring break (next week). No cases there, so this is the first purely preventative closure I’ve seen.
Sierra College moving all classes online effective immediately due to a case there. First public college/university in CA to do so. My guess is Los Rios district will follow soon since their overlapping K-12 district is already closed.
jonas
How soon until we elect another Republican president from the corporate world promising to “run government like a business”? Let’s see how that’s worked out for us over the past century or so, shall we? 1929 — Hoover oversees collapse that triggers the Great Depression. 2008 — George W. Bush oversees second-worst economic crisis in US history. 2020 — Donald J. Trump oversees a simultaneous global health and financial crisis, all while tweeting that All is Well!! like Kevin Bacon in the parade in Animal House.
mrmoshpotato
@jl: Isn’t it great to want W back? (And I fucking hated the moron and his bloodthirsty admin)
Jeffro
@mrmoshpotato: LOL
I know, right?
I know the Bernie-or-busters and 3rd party wunderkids are incorrigible and loud, but there are so relatively few of them, and thank goodness.
On a positive note, this explains both the surge in Dem energy and in support for ol’ Unifying Joe. Any vote left un-cast, or cast for anyone but the Dem nominee, is a vote for trumpov, full stop.
Roger Moore
Because too many people didn’t care. They still thought we were doing OK in Iraq, or at least we were fighting them there so we didn’t have to fight them here, or whatever the latest lie was. I’m still pissed as hell that FTFNYT knew about Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program and refused to publish it before the election because they didn’t want to be “political”. This is the same company that is advertising itself today with a tag line about how knowing something and refusing to publish it is a political act.
Kent
Yes, in the real world. But it ain’t gonna be that way when this virus gets a foothold in Fox News Trump Hellscapes like the Villages in Florida or Sun City in Arizona or other old GOP retirement meccas like Hilton Head. Based on data out of China and Europe those sorts of places could be facing 10%+ mortality rates.
This shit is going to get real as hell for Trump’s prime demographic of older obsese wheezing geezers on their mobility scooters.
mrmoshpotato
@bluehill:
Will you be here all week? Should we try the veal? ?
catclub
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: without having seen The Stand, I am guessing that a coronavirus that kills 2% of its victims, and those mostly elderly, is not as bad as the end of civilization.
But that is small comfort if it is 20 times as bad as a normal flu season. Martin’s post last night was great in explaining why delaying the spread, after it is impossible to contain and shut down, is so important. — Don’t fill all the hospital beds at once.
Duane
@Jeffro: So many people didn’t care who Trumpov hurt because it wasn’t them, and the economy was good for them. Reality is about to set in on them, good and hard.
Roger Moore
@bluehill:
That’s really the key. The existing taskforce has credible people on it, but Trump made it clear they’re supposed to take a back seat to the political hacks. As long as he continues with that attitude, it doesn’t matter what experts he appoints.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: I see you too have the liberal superpower of remembering the past. (h/t bluegal and driftglass)
patroclus
Slow panic is building in Chicago. All the stores are out of hand sanitizer and masks and toilet paper and soap will be next. Just riding the El once reflects many people wearing masks. People are holding their kids out of schools already. Mere coughing gets people mad and yelling at each other. I suspect it is similar elsewhere. Not many cases reported as yet, and no real official action by anyone in authority, but we’re already seeing panic build. It’s gotten way worse in just the past few days.
The markets are tanking; the bond market is now officially dead (why trade when returns are zero?). The constant lies from D.C. aren’t helping. Things have deteriorated rapidly.
Baud
@Another Scott: Ha!
To you and DougJ.
Betty Cracker
@Kent: My absolute angel of a mother-in-law (age 80) and our auntie (pushing 80) live in a retirement community not far from The Villages (we’re one county over). I am scared shitless for them.
catclub
@Jeffro: I thought I had bookmarked this, but it was easy to find
every-unified-republican-government-ever-has-led-to-a-financial-crash
Martin
@bluehill: Won’t help. There’s really nothing they can do other than to tell Trump to get off his ass and put meaningful actions in place. Does anyone expect the CEO of American Airlines to tell people to not fly? That’s not how this works.
But we need someone like Fauci to take the lead on this and guide us through a mitigation strategy – shift all schools to online. Work from home. Find way to minimize contact on mass transit. Put all of our energy into shoring up hospitals, production of medical supplies as if this were a time of war.
That said, Fauci himself said over a million tests have been sent out – but where are they? No states are reporting they have enough tests to add up to a million. Did they all go to the military and VA? I mean, I’m okay with that, but don’t go on TV and act as though those tests were sent to the general public. So, Fauci himself doesn’t have a ton of credibility right now.
lee
My city in North Texas (Frisco) just announced a ‘presumed’ case. Has not been test but was on business in CA.
jonas
Per the FTFNYT: Trump getting briefings from advisers on possible fiscal stimulus plans. Oh, great. Of course our budget is nicely balanced due to Trump’s excellent fiscal stewardship so this won’t be a problem at all. Second, you just know whatever he proposes is going to be a gawdawful grabbag of handouts to various grifters (all white men, of course) paid for with cuts to SS and Medicaid. Can’t wait!
Repatriated
@Feathers:
More like the Iraq invasion: Only the best-case scenario has a positive outcome (then, military; now, political), so plan for only the best-case and hope the failures can be swept under the rug until after the election.
lee
@Betty Cracker: My dad lives in a ‘Senior Living’ apartment complex. Same thing. If it gets in that complex, there will be a lot of deaths.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
My conclusion is that there is a crucial group of swing voters who drive our current politics. They’re smart enough to recognize that Democrats are better on the economy, but racist enough to want to vote for the Republican when they’re feeling economically safe.
Served
The Red Line in Chicago was eerily uncrowded this morning. I’m not sure if it is due to more people working from home, or a combination of Monday and people having a little too much fun in the warm weather yesterday and running a little behind schedule.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
The 2016 election was decided by 78000 voters in 3 states. Can’t fill Michigan Stadium with 78000 people.
Same with 2016. Didn’t vote for Hillary? You might as well have voted for the Soviet shitpile mobster conman.
joel hanes
@Jeffro:
Contrast with long steady periods of growth, shared prosperity, and calm cool normalcy under Clinton and Obama.
Best Onion article ever:
https://politics.theonion.com/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-prosperi-1819565882
Kent
What are those sorts of places going to do when the “staff” stop showing up. They aren’t exactly self-sustaining. My own parents (mid-80s) are poised to sell their house and move into a much much smaller over 55 independent living community here in the Portland metro. They have been waiting for a unit they really like to open up (on the right side of the complex with the right views and such). And it occurs to me that it is perhaps a good thing they haven’t pulled the trigger yet. And that a unit they like might become available sooner than later.
BGinCHI
@patroclus: You must have more panic in your ‘hood than I do. I’m waiting for signs, but so far, not much. Senn playground was full of kids yesterday, and shopping doesn’t seem too different.
Rode the bus today, and the driver was the only one with a mask on.
Immanentize
@Martin: Rice Univ. had one confirmed case — a PhD student that had been travelling and was immediately quarantined when first symptoms appeared. They closed this week — a week before their Spring break week — so that professors can prepare on-line materials for the rest of the semester if needed (which I am sure they will decide is needed). Students can go home or stay in the dorms this week.
Research labs and PhD research can continue but with added social distancing and cleaning protocols (I really hadn’t thought much about that issue…)
It seems that Higher Ed. is acting rationally, instead of like the national administration and its clown car response.
catclub
@mrmoshpotato: Economists are making good suggestions for how to apply government spending to make people stay healthier – basically, pay people to stay home in various ways, and pay for testing.
Figuring out exactly how to do that would take expertise in government. A problem.
Another problem is the GOP and government spending. All they know to do is lower taxes on corporations and the rich – which are not helpful for this case.
Actually, those of us with memories know there was a cash stimulus program ( too little too late) in the spring of 2008 – so they actually knew there was a recession under way. That means the Democratically controlled house voted for that.
Also in the memory file, why the hell did gas prices spike up in the summer of 2008? The recession – worldwide – was pretty much underway by then.
BGinCHI
@Betty Cracker: “angel of a mother-in-law”
Mine is more like “angle of a mother-in-law.”
Immanentize
@Kent: My Mom, who turns 90 this October — Woot! — is in her own apartment in a transitional facility. She could cook, etc., but everyone is on some kind of meal plan which is community dining. I wonder if they could start delivering meals to folks?
Mallard Filmore
Looking at all the comments here, “its here, its there, its everywhere!” Has the USA given up on containment? No tests for the healthy, and precious few for the sick. We have no clue who is a carrier, the status of all the international visitors, or even who has full blown infections.
Locking the very sick into critical care wards is not containing the spread.
Kent
@mrmoshpotato: The last two “winnable” elections that Democrats lost were in 2000 and 2016. In both instances there were:
Neither of those two things are likely to happen this year. At least I hope not. But if there are any media folks out there (besides Bernie Bots) who want to claim there is no difference between Trump and the Dems they need to be taken out and shot. The Bernie Bots probably need to be shot too, but if they are good Trotskyites then the “revolution” should take care of it on its own.
Another Scott
Taking the present raw COVID-19 numbers on the Johns Hopkins map:
3,995 deaths / 113,579 total confirmed cases = 3.52%
I hope people wake up to how serious this is. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@catclub: 2% is the result if we don’t break the hospitals. Betty’s fears are very valid. If this hits The Villages, just fucking wall them off World War Z style. Florida doesn’t have remotely enough hospital beds to treat them. That kind of systemic failure of health care infrastructure could shoot that rate well above 2%.
I don’t think that’ll be widespread – I think it’ll be hotspots like we saw in Washington. But that’s small comfort if it’s your relative. ¼ of that nursing home died, and they didn’t have a shortage of beds – it simply moved faster than they could respond. And they only had 150 residents. The Villages is 51,000. Laguna Woods here in SoCal is 16,000. I don’t know the lengths we go for them – do we start medivacing them to Arizona and Georgia? I doubt that helps much other than to spread this faster.
Given there is jack shit being done to protect those communities, we’re staring down a really ugly gun. Someone is going to have to make those decisions, and I’m really glad it’s not me.
If we were serious about containment, we’d hard quarantine those large retirement communities now before there are any cases. Don’t let anyone in for services without screening. Drastically reduce guest access. They’re comfortable, keep them that way.
Eolirin
@jonas: It has to pass the House, so that’s not going to fly.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
Academics are supposed to be good at changing their opinions based on the evidence. Of course they’re also supposed to be liberal, which means they’re more inclined to distrust the administration.
Leto
@Eural Joiner: Hello fellow midlander!
Kent
Due to the utter abandonment of leadership at the National level, states and localities are figuring it out for themselves. Here in Washington the UW virology lab is running 24/7 and cannibalizing equipment from microbiology labs all over campus to ramp up testing capacity. They were up to 1,000 tests per day as of last week and were hoping to increase their capacity to 4,000 per day by this week.
Every institution in this part of the country is taking steps to deal with this issue through containment. They just aren’t getting any direction or help from the Trump Administration.
Immanentize
Hmmm, It seems the Covid Carrier at CPAC touched a lot of folks. Including Mulvaney. Who I recall went to CPAC and called the virus a hoax. Maybe that was why you were packed off to Ireland so fast, MICK?
Also, can we start calling it “Conservo-virus” like they called it Legionnaire’s Disease?
Leto
@geg6: Our county alone, Montgomery County, has 5 cases with one being in critical condition. I knew it was going to be around the Philly area first, but it’s spreading towards us (Avalune and I) rather quickly.
Edit: I see Ava got to the response way before I did. I was outside enjoying the 70F day with the pup. Gotta get it while I can.
catclub
I always included “yet” in this assessment.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore:
They might want to talk to some of their reporters who save “the good stuff” for their next book.
joel hanes
@Mallard Filmore:
Has the USA given up on containment?
The Donald decided that the accurate data require to do public health measures would make him look bad politically, and so forbade the feds from making it possible to create that data. They have since further removed the number of tests conducted from the publicly accessible data, for the same reason.
In short, tens or hundreds of thousands of people will die because Donald J. Trump thinks he can gaslight a wildly-infectious pandemic with significant mortality.
catclub
@Eolirin: If it passes the House, it will also pass muster with Nancy Pelosi, so that is some insurance. Trump is actually a terrible negotiator when the two parties are equal, so Pelosi will be in charge of what is in it.
The risk is Trump takes his ball and goes home, if he does not benefit. Sabotaging government is the GOP goto move. Usually when they are out of power.
Martin
@Immanentize: Thanks, I hadn’t seen Rice’s announcement. They aren’t part of my network.
Yeah, we’re trying to keep research going, in part because we’re part of the lab test infrastructure. We have the best facilities in the state for microscopy. We run a hospital and countless clinics. We’re part of the response.
Universities have really unique challenges. Shut down gatherings of 100 or more? Well, that’s half of our classes, all of our student cafeterias. Hell, I’ve had a 100 students in my lobby after a particularly egregious fuck-up. How do you quarantine students when they live three per 150 square feet and share bathrooms for a dorm of 100? They don’t have kitchens. And we don’t have a ton of resources to provide care. Student health is more equipped for alcohol poisoning and physical injuries than infectious disease – we have to send them to our hospital for that stuff.
So, part of rapid response regarding instruction is to wall off the part where we’re most vulnerable so that we can protect the rest of the institution which absolutely must keep running. That’s why I think we should move instruction online today – we’re just inviting it in by waiting, and we can’t really afford that. We have the added challenge on on-campus housing for faculty, so they all live in close proximity to each other and regularly share services. They all shop at the same stores. Their kids all go to the same schools.
mrmoshpotato
@Repatriated: We’ll be greeted as liberators?
joel hanes
@Immanentize:
It seems the Covid Carrier at CPAC touched a lot of folks.
Priest at a DC Catholic church has just tested positive. He celebrated Mass and touched about five hundred parishoners, all of whom are now supposed to self-isolate.
IMHO, there are maybe 100 undetected cases for every “confirmed” case using the difficult-to-get CDC test.
Fair Economist
@JPL:
Greater Atlanta has a doozy of an outbreak. As of yesterday, they had 5 wild cases in three counties (IIRC), all unrelated. Fulton Cty schools could bet Trump’s fat ass that they have a number of additional cases. They’re probably trying to find excuses for extending the closure further.
Mallard Filmore
@Kent:
You are lucky to live in that area. Your government cannot address the way international and domestic travelers scatter throughout the country. I do not see a Chinese style solution getting any consideration here.
mrmoshpotato
@Served: What stretch of the Red Line?
Eolirin
@Kent: Big private sector companies are getting involved now too. Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks just set up a fund in conjuction with King County and some foundations to address the needs of the community, things like rent assistance, extra resources for the medically fragile, food assistance etc. The tech sector, more broadly, has committed to paying their hourly contract workers, the janitors,cafeteria staff, etc, what they would’ve been making even if they’re not needed because they’re having everyone work from home.
And the Gates Foundation is working on home test kits and data tracking for people using them.
This is all stuff that government should be handling, so it’s a bit of a problem that it’s being handled this way, but people are stepping up all over the place.
Leto
@Martin: So the Chinese kids who were forced into online classes all banded together, rated the app 1-star, and had it force pulled off their store. :P
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major: But Donald Trump is an amalgam of Randal Flagg and Trashcan Man. // (maybe…)
Martin
@Mallard Filmore:
The feds never started on containment. Containment requires a few things:
None of those are in place. We’re screening all produce that enters through federal ports of entry for fruit flies, but we’re not screening passengers from places like Italy or South Korea. So, we have containment measure for our crops, but not our population.
I’d say we have a mitigation strategy but we don’t have that either, but that’ll be easier to pull off. But the feds need to take action on that as well, and so far they aren’t willing to.
Basically we have a bunch of disjointed voluntary efforts that may help slow things down a little bit, but which will provide zero containment, and has no strategic value to protecting the health care system.
These are collective action problems. They require people NOT act out of self-interest. If hospitals need masks, send them your masks and take the risk of getting sick so that you can protect people at greater risk. There’s none of that. That’s why Italy is in so much trouble right now.
Gravenstone
@joel hanes: Trump having to go on respiratory support would absolute shatter what is left of his psyche. Whether he survived physically or not, he’s be a gibbering mass of flesh when they removed the intubation.
Fair Economist
@Martin:
This has already come up in Lombardy, which is well past capacity (in spite of having more capacity than us). Between the fragile state of elderly people needing breathing assistance and the huge infection control issues, you can’t move these patients.
mrmoshpotato
@Kent: Memes in 2000? You sure about that?
Psst….Florida fuckery.
Aleta
@Lapassionara: Maybe they learned that some people make a lot of money on crashes (and btw stock market swings). And some even get bailed out, debts reduced?
patrick Il
⁶ This reminds me of the old joke about the definition mixed emotions – – watching your mother- in-law drive your new cadillac off of a cliff. (Apologies to nice mother-in- laws everywhere). I want to see the coronavirus be the downfall of Trump — I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.
Fair Economist
@Mallard Filmore:
We have cases in 33 states, major outbreaks in multiple metros, and probably about 10,000 infected people at this point. We are way, way, way past any possible containment. It’s mitigation from here on out, with local eradication *perhaps* being possible months down the road.
The tools for containment (testing, quarantine) are still useful in this mitigation situation. But it’s not going to be contained by them.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Mick: I’m sick.
Everyone else: You’re just hoax sick. Snap out of it!
Aleta
Good idea: drive-up testing
(From Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. They’re treating one newly positive-tested patient, who came to their ER March 5 (the only positive result in VT right now).
Lacuna Synecdoche
I’m pretty sure that letting a competent doctor recognized for his skill in dealing with pathogen outbreaks do his job is something that is beyond Donald Trump’s capabilties.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I work for the federal government in DC where the outbreak is spreading. We all have telework agreements and capability. But… they’re not going to let us go to temporary full time telework because that would mean Trump admitting we have a real problem and we can’t have that. So, we all get to keep going in to the office and spreading it around. All to protect a narcissist’s fragile ego.
Another Scott
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
It looks like there’s a lot of agency flexibility, if I’m reading these OPM FAQs (13 page .pdf) correctly.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
Well, whatever the 2000 equivalent of “memes” were. I give you Eric Alterman in the Nation on October 2000:
Bush or Gore: Does it Matter?
Note, those were not Alterman’s views. He was characterizing a common view on the left at the time. Which were similar to those expressed by the Bernie faithful in 2016.
Avalune
Totally unrelated but every time I see the name of this post I keep imagining a group of mostly deaf bears shouting at each other. Wud you say? I SAID X. WHAT? X. WHAT? X. Y? NO X. X.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Another Scott: None of that has been communicated to us by the leadership of my Agency.
Served
@mrmoshpotato: Addison -> Loop. It is usually close to packed by Fullerton, but still plenty of space all the way downtown.
mrmoshpotato
@Kent: I see. I wouldn’t call them meme-equivalent, but they’re definitely an earlier version of Upchuck Todd’s “Both sides are equally bad” bullshit.
Brachiator
All nations’ economies are affected, and this is not just financial games. The markets, oddly enough, don’t really matter in a way. They just reflect what is happening, and what investors think might happen next. But economies may slow down and take time to recover.
There was a BBC news story about South African fishermen who previously sold 95% of their lobster and abalone to China. That industry has cratered and there is no domestic market for abalone. No one could have predicted this, or can say how or when this piece of the South African economy will recover.
Locally, in Anaheim, a place called The White House was going to host a 4 day food industry gathering. The restaurant owner had laid in a ton of food, only to see the event canceled. His friend, a local talk radio host, asked callers to go eat there, and get a free glass of champagne. The owner also helps big time with feeding the homeless, so gets local support. Still, this was a financial hit.
These individual situations will accumulate and hit world economies, and may get worse for a while.
OTOH, pollution seems to be decreasing in China.
mrmoshpotato
@Served: Weird. Guess a lot of people were told to work from home.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
What you’re describing are memes in the original sense defined by Richard Dawkins: an idea that propagates through the population. “Memes” in the modern sense of image macros actually did exist in 2000- the well-known “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” was going wild on the internet about the same time as the 2000 election- but I don’t think they were as popular yet as they are now.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
“M O O N spells “moon.”
Sublime33
As bad a president that George W. Bush was, he actually did a decent job after the 2008 financial meltdown. He essentially got the hell out of the way and let Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson run the show. It’s one hell of a low bar but it is leagues ahead of the current grandstander in the White House.
barbequebob
@Redshift: `Exactly true. It irks me that every time I hear this it perpetuates this myth that the failure was on the part of the Intelligence Community, rather than Bush and Cheney’s insistence that they cook the books to suit their desires.
Heywood J.
Chris Cillizza is Trump’s Katrina. What a useless sack of shit he is. Most of the people who get paid that much to be that worthless work on Wall Street. The rest work at CNN and Fox.
And Dubya looks like Stephen Hawking compared to Kim Don Un.
It really is a shame that we can’t just have all of the virus casualties be CPAC participants.